Halloween Eve at Knitting

Ethel started it off with a giant purple shamrock.

Oxalis regnellii

The cats were acting up, especially Pauly and Grayzie, who were making such pests of themselves I had to shut them away. Is there strange magic in the air?

Halloween has lasted for weeks, it seems, but I just now found the first magazine of Christmas Knitting projects that looked irresistible to me.

Special Christmas issue of Simply Knit

This has a separate booklet of awesome little projects that are perfect decorations and stocking-stuffers. The Alan Dart attraction in this is a unicorn with a little gnome at its side. Adorable! And the apparel! How does a girl’s A-line shift dress with an intarsia fox face sound to you? A lacy sweater dress in a vertical leafy chain pattern and the waistline panel in the same pattern, but horizontal. My words aren’t adequate but the photos are fabulous. We sighed at the lovely, warm knitted items that would certainly cause us Floridians to sweat our way through the holidays.

I finished my picot-edge shawl, the one that sort-of matches the purse that was a gift from my son and his fashion-astute wife. I think I might have included some light silver or gray in it, but it is what it is! The outer row turned out to be a worsted-weight 100% merino yarn, while the other stripes are from Berocco Captiva metallic (the gold and lavender), Berocco Fuji (the purple), and Maggi Knits Irish Linen MK (the orange).

Fall colors shawl and purse

Ethel’s finished white shawl

Ethel finished the white shawl, and it is beautiful and soft. Someone is going to love throwing that over her shoulders in a chilly room.

Lois started on her version of the shawl, making the neck a little wider than Ethel’s. You have to realize theirs is a very intuitive take on a pattern; practically improvising in process. They are good at just getting busy and ending up with a beautiful finished article as if by magic!

Lois’s version of the shawl

By the way, Lois is back on a hat again. I was tickled, thinking about the old song lyrics “OH, the cat came back, he couldn’t stay away, he was sitting on the porch on the very next day…” but with Lois, it’s “the HAT came back…”

Lois with new hat of sea-foam green yarn

I love the color of that light green yarn!

Trish with afghan

Trisha joined us and told some funny stories about her dad and his crocheted hats. He started crocheting when his old hat fell apart and he needed a new one but was too cheap wanted to make one that was more economical than the ones he saw in the store. And once he made the hat for himself, he made hats for EVERYONE else! They are trying to get him to face up to his hat-making addiction and move on to afghans or something, but he seems good with the hat thing right now.

Ethel and alpaca hat for DIL

Ethel worked on a hat, too, to match a scarf she’d made for her DIL last year. She brought along her entrelac purse for BOB, who was thrilled. He’s recovering from his pancreatitis but having to take lots of medicine, which has resulted in my DH having a number of new fang-holes in his thumbs. Sigh. The cat came back.

wool-worshiping Bob

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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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Knitting Patriotic and other projects

After a short vacay, Wednesday Night Knitting resumed last night and we knit ourselves back in our groooves. Yeah!

Ethel brought her fancy new Nikon camera –maybe she will also take up blogging? Or perhaps photography as an art form in itself? The possibilities are endless.

She also brought the finished bag.

Ethel and Entrelac knit bag

How gorgeous it turned out, felted Noro with its I-cord strap and silky fabric lining!

She showed us her new afghan from knitted cotton squares.

Ethel’s afghan WIP

Now is the perfect time to get some patriotic crafting plans underway, with Independence Day soon. And Flag Day even sooner. Flag Day always slips by unheralded, then I redouble my efforts so as to have something red, white, and blue for July 4 (in my mind, anyway–in reality, I’m a patriotic holiday deadbeat slacker; I really just like to hang around like a beached whale or go to someone else’s party).

Ethel said knitting the individual squares, with double-pointed-needles, is already getting to be a drag…but she does get through one right quick! And she is experimenting with the self-striping sugar and cream, to see if the stripe pattern will work out ok, rather than change colors from separate balls to have complete control over where the stripes in each square begin and end.

a granny square, not exactly; it’s knit

As you can see from the pic, this project has Vanna White’s name all over it. We’ve been watching her show on TV a lot lately –it’s College Week on Wheel of Fortune—and DH is really impressed at how Vanna White turns over those letters so purposefully when the students guess a correct letter. As an engineer, he knows that modern technology can provide for the letters to just turn themselves over, but not as magnificently as Vanna White can get the job done. Vanna White, Knitter, Designer, Television Star, Diva!

Lois worked on more beautiful hats.

Lois with blue velvet ribbon-trimmed hat

Satin ribbon-trimmed hat

Lois has been knitting in another club at the Atrium, making lots of hats for people who’ve been going through chemotherapy.

bebe sweater in progress

I thought I was ready to start assembling the parts to the baby sweater for #18 grandchild, but alas, I discovered I’d knitted two left fronts. Grrr. Am I ever not going to be a knitting idiot? Never mind, a few rip-its and re-do’s and it was fixed. I bought this as a kit; it included buttons, yarn and a pattern for a wrap sweater in 3 baby sizes; I think it was this Cotton Kisses; a very soft, slubby Plymouth yarn with a silky strand.

Woke up this morning and the girl cats were at each other’s throats.

Pauly

Stella

They were hissing, biting each other in the neck, wind-milling, and whipping around the house growling like a train whistle.

DH: “Stella, shame on you! That’s your sister Pauly. Even if she is evil and a harlot…”

To get the full effect, go to Itunes and listen to Sharrie Williams singing “Jealousy, it is a bad disease…”

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Cats that Know when their Knitting Group is Coming

The cats know when it’s Knitting Night. Bob went to the foyer and sat on the rug facing the front door in anticipation. Pauly began pacing the floor, tail switching. I looked out the window and saw Ethel’s and Tina’s cars being parked out front in the cul-de-sac. I thought of my old Humanities professor, who was a big fan of Rupert Sheldrake and his works about collective consciousness, including Dogs that Know when their Owners are Coming Home.

Ethel had gone shopping at Tuesday Morning, and bought the cats some toys: a ball with sparkly lights inside, a yellow pompom with feathers, and two multi-colored fur ferrets that rattle and shake.

Grayzie in a frenzy

Bob in predator ecstasy

Surreptitious Stella

Welcome back to Tina and Lois!

Tina and Lois

Tina was working on a sunflower wash cloth and Lois was working on a hat in a bulky white yarn. Tina was sad to report that she went looking for her roving, which she’d kept in the purple shopping bag we all got at the Florida Fiber In last September, and thought that she might have thrown it away. Not so! It was on my shelf, parked there months back, for safe keeping/further study at some future date/in case anyone needed felting templates or roving. Glad to be part of the happy reunion! Deb worked on more soft beautiful blanket.

Deb

Ethel made wonderful progress on the Entrelac purse body and began working on the strap.

Next step will be felting

While we’re on the subject of felting, Ethel brought a great book with gorgeous images: Alterknits Felt

Ethel’s Felting book

. She brought along another good book; Knitter’s Bible Knitted Bags

Bag Book

You don’t see pics of me with anything new, do you? But I promise, I will start on something of consequence some day! A sweater? Socks? Get started now on Christmas presents?

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