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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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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The Project Low-down

Last night was our 4th meeting and we sisters were going strong!

Tiff making progress with her dishcloth

Oh, sorry for the sorry picture from my camera!

This was Tiffany’s first knitting project.

Does anyone actually use these to wash dishes, after you spent

agonizing time selecting the yarn, pattern, and slaving over its

completion? It should be displayed in a glass case!

Beth and Lisa

Beth is also a novice knitter; she is working on a — a scarf? I forgot, anyway, she got quite a few more rows in past what you see in the pic before she left.

Lisa is not a novice but is extremely knowledgeable about knitting. On Wednesday nights, she comes to share her expertise with us while her 5 kids are home doing homework!

Lois with fair-isle hat

Lois is not a novice at knitting.  After a lifetime of the English method, Lois learned –at this meeting–the Continental method from Ethel. Ethel has no doubt that Lois will soon become proficient at Continental knitting as well as English!

Fair-isle hat, closer

Tricia and scarf

Tricia is making progress on the knit scarf in beautiful shades of purple.

Tricia is a novice, who learned to knit at the beginning of all this.

We chose Wednesday because her husband has a video game playing gig that night of the week.

Good for us! Trish is mastering the knit stitch and has many ideas for future projects!

Maybe we can get some pics of her quilts….

Ethel and felted clogs

Ethel is the ring-leader and teacher of the group! She’s showing her recent project, felted clogs! After knitting, washing and felting, she had to wear them around wet (in beastly cold weather as it turned out) so they would mold to the shape and size of her feet. Which they did, beautifully! We saw a clog someone had put on display at the local yarn shop that didn’t look nearly as perfect as these. They are magnificent!

Sweater

Ethel’s new project is a sweater to match the ruffled scarf that she made last week. Gorgeous!

Between all of us (mostly Ethel!) we have a wealth of books and

flyers with projects from the easy to the sublime to the

ridiculous to pick from. Ethel will suggest what is feasible to the

skill levels of each.

I borrowed her Elizabeth Zimmerman book and got a nice dose

of conversation about knitting history; a plus for me because I like to look at the “big picture” when I get into something. I started knitting when I was little, but haven’t re-tried in about 45 years! Then, with Ethel’s help, I found that what I was doing was not knitting or purling at all! What was I doing?

Deb, looking for projects

start of a crocheted blanket

Here’s the crocheted blanket I’ve been working on and have about 1/3 of the way finished.

Yes, I’ve started a knitting project too but I’ve ripped it out over 50 TIMES! I guess it is counting that’s the main prob for me. I couldn’t get the hang of making change when I tried to get a job at McDonald’s as a kid, either.  Next post, maybe I’ll have some knitties to show!

Tiffany finished her project!

Wow, Tiffany finished her project in class! It looks good, too!

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