Santa, Take Note, at Knitting!

Discovery: It is December 4th and our Christmas knitting is in the coulda, shoulda, woulda state of being. Except for Ethel, she’s been very, very good this year, so Santa, take note!

Ethel got some holiday knitting done; check it out!

Ethel’s gnomes

Ethel’s knitted Christmas bauble

I managed to wind my skein of felted wool yarn into a ball…I have started a few things but it just doesn’t feel right, so I am back to a ball…Any suggestions on what to make with it?

the fruit of my labors so far

Ethel showed off some beaded Christmas earrings she made from a kit she got at Avalon Bead Shop.

bead kit from Gifts of Avalon

crystal Christmas tree earrings

Amber worked on the Sirdar sweater again, and it’s looking beautiful.

working on the sweater

I finished the woolly owl hat I started a few weeks ago.

finished intarsia owl hat from last year’s Simply Knitting

Ethel’s new project: a poncho

Ethel worked on a poncho for a grandchild, in James C. Brett Marble Chunky, a blue and green self-striping machine washable yarn. And she’s already lined up a new project, a knitted billed hat.

Ethel’s next project

a present for me

Following a wonderful week of Thanksgiving partying with well-loved folks I don't get to see very often, I've been feasting my eyes on the new, reissued Alice Starmore book Tudor Roses. Visions of sugarplums are dancing in my head…

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Knitting, Nesting, and WIP’s

We’re pulling for Lisa, whose baby needs to move out of the breech position by next week already! Yoga, lecturing the baby in utero, what’s next? Meanwhile, Lisa worked on the WIP (work in progress) Intarsia rabbit ear hat and almost has it finished. Tip: don’t say the word Intarsia around her for the next little while….

Lisa and the pink hat

Tiffany worked some more on the WIP Hunter’s Stitch afghan, which is progressing nicely.

Hunter's Stitch block

Deborah had a box of project props for WIP’s including a sock loom, that funny wooden thing with all the nails sticking out of it.

Deb and her sock loom

Deb and the ribbed brim of a chemo hat for her relative

We had some good nosh, with mango salsa, quinoa chips and Lisa and Tiffany’s Creamy Chocolate Fondue with cubed pound cake, strawberries and bananas.

Sweet and Savory, Mmm

Ethel’s Works in Progress included a sock out of very fine yarn

Ethel's sock on double pointed needles

Ethel's own design: girl's skirt in stockinette

and then she finished up the skirt she designed and knitted for her granddaughter in stockinette.  It features a waistband casing and increases toward the hemline, making it flare out in a twirly fashion.

Close-up of Ethel's flared skirt

Finished my hat, thanks to Ethel’s calm encouragement, and now I’m working on a matching sweater, also with Ethel’s help and insight.  I need that because  1) I’m new to knitting and 2) some of the instructions that come from Internet sites are confusing and illogical. The Umbilical Cord Hat pattern, designed by Jennifer L. Jones, is from Debbie Stoller’s Stitch ‘N Bitch and was quite easy once I got the hang of transferring the stitches from the circular needle to 4 double pointed needles without them all sliding off. On page 87 Stoller writes that the I-cord was invented by Elizabeth Zimmerman and is short for “idiot cord”–ha, ha! Thanks, Wikipedia,  for the info on Ms Zimmerman–I have Ethel’s book by her on the sofa end table, Knitting without Tears and I look in it a lot; it feeds my obsession but doesn’t add to my knitting wisdom much, I’m still an outsider.

Hat in Louisa Harding

So excited to have received an email from BurdaStyle notifying me that I had won a prize for commenting on a guest columnist’s blog entry! [This is old news to some of you and I apologize for bringing it up again ]. Check out the FiberPlay giveaway It includes 2 knitting books by Laura Zukaite, a Lithuanian-born sweater designer, and some ArtYarns –can’t wait to see!
Not much info was given about the yarn, but I stole a peek at their website and discovered that one of ArtYarns’ distributors is none other than our local fiber boutique, Yarnworks! I didn’t realize Yarnworks was so prominently on the map of knitting places to be; it’s also in the back of Debbie Stoller’s Stitch & Bitch, one of only about 40 shops in the entire country she lists under Resources. When I visited the store, someone told me that the last Saturday in April they’re having their annual outside fabulous bargain sale,            so you might want to wander by and see what they have to offer.

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