Wednesday Night Knitting Resumes

As the beautiful fall foliage begins to show and the temperatures dip low (in other parts of the country, not Florida) we begin to feel more excitement about knitting woollens.

I just came back from a trip “up north.” My aunt (age 82) has a knitted afghan made by her mom, my grandmother, and she still uses it every day. I do so wish that I had saved some of the things Grandma knitted for me.

Meanwhile, I worked on the shawl.

Still (Picot-Edge) Crazy (Shawl) after all these …

Lois worked on a gorgeous feather-and-fan pattern scarf.

Lois with feather-and-fan

Ethel worked on an elephant hat.

elephant hat

The elephant hat is going to be part of a Halloween costume, but of course it can be worn as a hat when winter comes to Florida. The wool-blend yarn, held double in spots and with ears flap fronts and backs sewn together, this will really be a thick and heavy hat to wear.

Ethel experimented with a swatch of Interlocking Crochet.

a new crochet venture

This swatch could be a very nice trivet. Potholder? Maybe, but there’s a lot of open space between the yarn colors, which could be a hand-burning hazard! I love the texture of this interlocking crochet. Those afghans on the front cover of the book look sumptuous!

Ethel brought some patterns for our perusal, for some white shawls we’ve been invited to make.

shawl possibility

Shawl anyone?

Bob & Ethel’s entrelac purse

Bob was so happy to be reunited with Ethel’s yarn purse, he was purring his little heart out. Sigh.

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Hysterical Trivia at Knitting

Knitting went ahead as usual Wednesday night even though thunder was rolling around in the heavens. I love the August sky in Florida. Mostly it is brilliant blue with puffy canyons of clouds building up all through the day.

blue skies at dusk

Ethel, thoroughly involved in hedgehog production, started a new one.

new silvery hedgehog in progress

She also brought along some books that have been inspiring her latest ideas for projects. The animal hats in this book are done with large stitches and look fun!

these hats are exceptionally cool!

Yes, we Manga!

Ethel’s been getting her drawing fix with this book from Joann’s.
I am still working on the thing from before, the scarf that matches the purse. I am rather more fashion-conscious than I like to admit. This past summer, I bought a pair of shoes that fit me so well I never wanted to take them off. So they feel a little bit grubby from wearing all the time, tromping through puddles, dust, sand, getting sunburned and all. And they are white. Now that we’re on the other side of Labor Day, the Fashion Police’s mandate to never wear white after Labor Day is whispering in my ear. But truly, does it matter in Florida? It is 2013. We aren’t feeling the crisp fall breezes. It’s still Hurricane Season just like it has been since June and will continue to be until November. It was 95 degrees yesterday. Everyone is on the edge of our seats waiting to see what will happen with Congress. I’m impressed that some of them actually dragged their carcasses back to work before their vacation was over to talk about the serious things going on in the world. In that light, wondering what color shoes to wear after Labor Day in steamy Florida seems hysterically trivial!

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Passing the Time at an August Wednesday Night Knitting

Awesome ending to a great day: Wednesday Night Knitting.

You know I didn’t do much knitting in the past week, because I was traveling. I brought the paraphernalia to work on the Laera Shawl, but that was a big mistake: I’m supposed to cast on 361 stitches, and that just isn’t going to happen in a plane or a car.

But Ethel and Lois were busy! Look what they did! First, Ethel’s bead weaving.

Ethel’s earrings

Next, Ethel’s mouser (from an Alan Dart pattern).

knitted cat & crocheted mouse

Lois crocheted a purse for a great-granddaughter.

Lois

I travelled to Texas for a little vacation, and made a trip into Texas history!

hotel lobby

We stayed at the Drury Riverwalk hotel in the old Alamo Bank Building, built in 1929 – 1930. If you’d be interested in reading some fascinating descriptions of the building, check this national parks document. I couldn’t take my eyes off these fabulous Art Deco-inspired paintings in the lobby that say Trust Brings the Nation Together and Thrift Drives the Nation.

We sat out on the curb at the hotel, waiting for our tour bus to arrive (it never did; hours later we got a call to say they couldn’t make it, could we reschedule for the next day? No; we have other plans, you losers.) My impetuous relative took off into the unknown city, and we followed behind him in trepidation. He walked straight into a welcoming USO, which had just opened its doors for the day’s business.

mosaic sign in the lobby of San Antonio USO

While the kids played video games and got snacks, the parents put together a Plan B. Soon we were off on our own tour. Included was The Alamo, circa 1716.

remembering the Alamo

Fascinating history, but I was, of course, most interested in the textiles.

leather and hide accessories; the Alamo

wood and leather items, woven strap; The Alamo

Alamo actors and their handiwork

[caption id="attachment_2008" align="aligncenter" width="500"] pioneer bedroom with boots, woven bed blanket from 1800’s; Witte Museum

 

The textile items in the last frame were photographed at the Witte Museum.

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We Shine On at WNK

At Wednesday Night Knitting we had a couple of different projects going on. I worked on the So Simple Silk Garden Sock of the Month (the Month of March, that is; I’m a wee bit behind schedule…), free ravelry pattern in the Sock it to Me 2013 forum. It’s in a green Noro Silk Garden Sock yarn, which seems like a good idea, but are my feet going to like tramping around wearing expensive, scratchy wool? We’ll see. Ethel showed us the shrug she finished from Debbie Stoller’s Stitch N Bitch Crochet

Shrug

here’s where she added a gusset

Although she altered it to get better fit, she still wasn’t completely happy with it, but Lois and I thought it looks marvelous!

Lois worked on a new hat with a blue and white pattern.

Lois with blue and white hat

Ethel, meanwhile, had done more work on the Van Dyke stitch sweater.

Van Dyke Stitch sweater

Ahh, that beautiful Shine from Knit Picks!

Meanwhile, we talked about the side effects of our recently-prescribed meds

us and our meds

and hotels in general, how some can be downright hard on one’s delicate constitution! DH and I stayed at a nice one in Orlando last week where he had to give a presentation. I took pics of some of the beautiful carpets I saw!

The ordinary person can buy a beautiful wool rug with a Jacobean floral pattern at Target, of all places. What are the advantages of buying a wool carpet rather than synthetic or cotton? I looked into this at Campaign For Wool and I like the advertising claims!

I’m looking forward to a Fiber Blending Class to be held at our LYS Yarnworks June 1. If you’d like to attend, you must register by phone or at the store and pay in advance, but refunds are available under certain conditions!

carpet at Orlando Hilton Embassy Hotel

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May Day! May Day Knitting!

Fleurs por moi? sniff, sniff.

Ethel showed up for Wednesday Night Knitting with May Day flowers, how beautiful! Grayzie immediately assumed the responsibility, which he does not take lightly, of knocking over the vase. It was finally lodged in a place of relative safety on the counter, and all the cats and humans settled back in flower appreciation mode!

We shared what we’ve been working on.

Ethel’s Shrug

Lois’ Fingerless Gloves

Ethel has been crocheting a lot lately. This shrug is her own design, perhaps inspired by lots of recent Pinterest and magazine surfing? Lois took up her partially-knitted gloves and felt that now was a fine time to finish working on them. They are knitted of a soft red and maroon striping sock yarn, with a single-crocheted edging next to the fingers.

I don’t have to tell you what I’ve been working on, do I? The boucle Ghetto=mohair wrap, still. DH has been heard lately, sweetly prompting me, “Why don’t you lay that thing aside for a while and do something quick and fun?” I think even he is tired of seeing the same old thing on my lap.

my possible future project

Rhetus gave me some hats she’d bought on ebay for us to look at. She really is a Wednesday Night Knitter at heart, but has yet to physically come to a meeting. The first step is to join us in spirit, which she has done! Here are some of the lovelies she shared with us.

Italian beret

homemade beret with llamas

made in China

We celebrated with a little cookie decadence. Happy May Day Knitting to you!

clockwise from upper left: Belgian chocolate 2-bite brownies (me), triple-chocolate cupcake (Lois), and raspberry-filled cookies (Ethel)

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4KCBWDAY7 Go From Here

Day 7 means we’ve come full circle in Eskimimi’s Blog Week Challenge. I’ve had lots of fun reading your posts, laughing, commiserating, being inspired.
My take on today’s prompt, what does the future year hold for you and your craft? is pretty mundane compared to what some of you have in mind.

1) Finish the “Sock it to me 2013” sock-a-month club on ravelry [I’m only 2 months behind so far].

2) Learn spinning.

3) Maybe make toys: dolls, animals, amiguri, trucks, and definitely doll clothes. And a Ninja Turtle sweater. And stick with small projects: big endless endeavors make me crazy.

from Yarnworks’ spring sale yesterday

I took my granddaughter to a yarn yard sale at the LYS yesterday. I don’t know what I was thinking: I wanted to show her what Nana loved to do, get her to feel the ambiance of the yarn store environment, see if she had any yarn-loving tendencies…
Of all the balls and skeins arranged on the sale tables, most of them marked 75 cents to 3 dollars, I told her she could pick out something she especially liked, and that I’d see about making her something out of it. So she picked out a pink and black art yarn studded with pearls and pink stones that looked like little bubbble-gum rocks, for $12.50 [Mango Moon Chakra handspun in Black Fuschia]. By george, I think she’s got it.

in Noro

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4KCBWDAY5 Woolly Haiku

Woolly Origins

Discarded wool revealeth

Breezy layers soil untripped

By soft paws

[Today’s Knit/Crochet Blog Week prompt is to post something different!]

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4KCBWDAY4 Color My Knitting World

Today’s blogging prompt turned out to be quite a concept: compare your favorite colors of yarn to the colors of projects you’ve actually worked on, and to the colors of yarn you have in your stash. A diabolical question to ask!

Cut to the chase.

1) Favorite color of yarn: green.

Even though Emerald Green is Pantone’s color of 2013, I still find it hard to get a beautiful green yarn. Green isn’t just on the shelf anywhere. When I tried to make this “Go Green” felted tote, I looked high and low for 2 shades of green in 100% wool, and I finally had to settle for these because there was none else to be found.

“Go Green” bag, unfelted

2) Colors of projects I’ve actually worked on in the past year:

Ghetto Mohair

white ruffle scarf

International Sock of Doom

house socks in Ella Rae Amity Print

Beginner Sock

Poppy Beret

my ruffle scarf in progress

800 meters of Schoppel Laceball 100

mosaic swatch in brown, gold and cream

Woolen Tirua scarf

cowl

My little Baby Jacquards jumper, in progress

my er…not sure yet what it is…

Shawl

Seed stitch slouch

My slouch #4 in progress

Celebrity Slouch

Celebrity Slouch

I get by with a little help from my friends!

Baby blanket and what was left of Color A

Baby wrap sweater

scarf from Plymouth Flower yarn

Maybe there’s a little correlation there, but hey—most of the things I make go to other people, whose favorite colors are not green!

3) The colors that are in my stash? Oooooohh, I do not want to go there. But since Eskimimi asked, here it is.

part of yarn stash

other part of stash

To be fair, some lack of correlation can be accounted for because a sizable part of the stash was given to me. I didn’t ask for it but I didn’t turn it down either! One knitter’s trash-in-stash wasn’t exactly my treasure, but it’ll do. Since last year, I’ve definitely made my stash more workable by cataloging it into a database so I know at a glance which yarn could fit in a potential project.

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4KCBWDAY3 Venn Friends

A Venn comic describing my knitting environment

Our task, as part of the 4th Annual Knit Crochet Blog Week, was to offer an infographic that shows something related to your chosen craft. This shows me plugging away among the intersecting bubbles of positive and negative aspects of knitting. I am more likely to continue working on a project if the positive aspects grow larger or at least don’t diminish. Ahh, I will keep working with more negativity, but I won’t be as happy about it…

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3KCBWDAY6 I have a skill set?

Today’s topic for Eskimimi Makes 3rd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week is Improving Your Skill Set. I know it’s late in the week for some to look into this, but I encourage you to check out a few posts from other bloggers who have entered each day’s topic by posting. All you have to do is type 3KCBWDAY6 (for today’s entries) into your search engine and click on the posts that come up. Yesterday’s topic was “Something Different,” which encourages the blogger to post in a new and challenging way that they’ve never tried before. I found some very cool and creative posts. I even went so far as to nominate Dinkyflower to be the winner. If you care to vote for your favorite, here’s Eskimimi’s form for Day 5.

Today’s topic is about reflecting upon your skill set. Mine is very small, I’m afraid.
1) Knit, purl
2) Single, double and triple crochet
3) Felting
4) Quilting
5) Sewing
6) Drawing
7) Blogging

However, with these seven skills, I can sure spend a lot of time working on projects.

What I would like to explore: sock making,

Go for it!

lace pattern knitting, apparel sewing, wardrobe designing and construction, layettes, Fair Isle knitting, spinning, art quilting,
gift making.

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