Fibers to Knit or Otherwise Manipulate

Attention, fiber-holics! This time, the post begins with a paper craft.

Ethel’s origami jumping frog

Ethel searched around to find the perfect paper to make an origami jumping frog.

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Then she worked on a hat.

Ethel and hat

Rachel and scarf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rachel joined us and worked on a scarf for one of her twins.

Jogless Jenny sweater and rib-knit skull cap

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finished (almost, still need to apply snaps at the shoulder) the doll’s sweater and hat from Simply Stylish.

For Zero to Hero 18, I added a new format I’ve never used before, the slide show!

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Knit/Crochet on the 8th Day

Today is the ninth of January and suddenly I feel like everything’s changed.

One harbinger of change is the Zero to Hero program I’ve signed into: it’s a month-long series of blog posts by our esteemed platform, WordPress, that’s supposed to help us evolve from a pitiful, nowhere blog to a fantastic one.

I’ve made a few changes; you may have noticed some differences in appearance. But I think the hugest development is that I’ve branched out in my observance of other peoples’ blogs. One notable new category in my Reader is “Art.” Art (in the WP Reader anyway) is Amour, in my mind now! Oh, gosh, I LOVE scrolling through and seeing what bloggers have posted. And they don’t seem to care if they have few comments or much feedback. It’s a treasure trove of fun things to look at and be inspired by. Also, more and more Knitting and Spinning blogs are springing up in the Reader!

Last night we knitted after a holiday hiatus.

Ethel made a girl’s dress

Ethel finished her grandson’s vest

Ethel’s poncho’s matching hat with flower

ceramic yarn bowl Ethel got as a gift

Ethel’s clip-on crocheted flower hair ornaments

hair ornaments: the clip sides

I was working on a doll sweater from Simply Stylish

Trish worked on her blanket

Newbie Robin learns the art of crochet from a friendly teacher

Our shoes were notable. Guess whose shoes I forgot to photograph? We wish everyone warm footsies!

crocs

leopard clogs

tasseled sherpa-lined clogs

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A Knitting New Year

It was just me who showed up for Wednesday Night Knitting on the first day of the year, and I was already here.

there’s a cat head intruding in my knitting

Despite demands from the feline population, I finished my shawl and it’s all ready for mailing.

finished Bamboozle Cable Capelet, blocked

Luckily, I finished with just this much leftover yarn:

amount left of 615 yards

I also finished a doll hat and coat, another awesome pattern from Easy How-to Techniques for Simply Stylish 18″ Dolls by Andra Knight-Bowman.

3-Needle Nettie from Simply Stylish

This selection was lesson 3, The Practical and Simple 3-Needle Bind-off. I ran out of maroon yarn just as I finished the second I-cord hat tie. I had to make the boots out of black yarn, just as well.

knitted boot

The maroon yarn was from a batch of acrylic yarn remnants given to me; what a perfect way to use up odds and ends! Knitted doll clothes are cool.

I see other bloggers posting summaries of the things they’ve done all year, but I don’t want to go that route. I already feel keenly that I don’t measure up if I look at it in list form. But I feel pretty secure in the haze of having had a good time. Soon the holiday trappings will be back in their boxes.

I really should get started knitting for Christmas earlier in the year!

how lovely are thy branches

thank you, Miss Rhetus, for the beautiful flowers on Christmas Day

Time to call it a day, Grayzie

colorful and calorific treats

So what new knitting will I do in 2014? A sweater? Fair Isle? Lace? Socks that actually feel good on my feet? Hmmm.

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A Penny for Your Hats at Knitting

Sigh. What to knit? What to knit? As the Muppets sang, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Who will put a penny in the old man’s hat?

Some of us worked on hats. Ethel finished the fall-colored alpaca hat to match a scarf she made last year for a relative in the frozen north. Lois worked on 2 different hats. The pink one will have a wired brim. The green one will also have a brim, maybe wired.

Ethel’s alpaca cabled

Lois’ brimmed hat in seed stitch

Lois’ other brimmed hat

Hopefully my next hat, from 2012 Simply Knitting

We welcomed a newbie to Wednesday Night Knitting. Amber is working on a kidlet short-sleeved sweater with a yoke that has a diamond pattern, from a Sirdar leaflet.

newbie Amber and Sirdar sweater

Ethel made an Alan Dart troll from the Simply Knitting September Christmas issue.

Special Christmas issue of Simply Knit

Ethel with Alan Dart troll, slightly modified

She changed the look of the troll somewhat by reducing the size of its head and arms, and changing its nose and losing the beard. She still wants it to have a beard, but not such a bulky one.

I finished the pleated skirt for an 18-inch doll. Here is Texas Girl modeling it and the purse I finished last week.

knitted doll clothes

Ethel found a new book with Nicky Epstein doll knit patterns.

Doll patterns

Last week some of us attended the opening of a new art gallery in town.

Gallery opening

Trendy new gallery on 6th Street

The director of Gallery Protocol is actually Amber’s very close personal friend and husband. We enjoyed the phantasmagorical works on display, the “Fermenter” studios in back, the friendly young patrons with their enthusiasm for the arts and expression of all sorts.

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Knitting, Natterly

At Wednesday Night Knitting we knitted and nattered about current fibery happenings. I’ve been busy and not wanting to drive at night, so I’ve missed the last two monthly meetings of the Gainesville Handweavers’ Guild. In September, the program was all about Ginger Clark’s (of local Ewephoric Fibers) recent Patagonia Cashmere experiences. I was reading the latest issue of Spin-off, and happened to see this gorgeous ad for Golding spinning paraphernalia featuring Ginger Clark! She’s nationwide!

Ginger Clark ad in Fall 2013 Spin-off

2013 Fall issue

I also missed October’s meeting. One of the guild members filled me in on that session, which was presented by local PhD student Carlee Forbes, about Woven Raffia in the Kongo, part of a current exhibition at the Harn Museum, called Kongo Across the Waters. This project was a collaboration between the Harn Museum and the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Belgium. Luckily the exhibit will still be up at the Harn for a while, and the Guild plans another African textiles presentation at January’s meeting, The History of Indigo in Africa.

Meanwhile, we worked on our projects: Ethel on her hat, vest, and a new blue knitted project.

Ethel’s new blue bamboo and silk project

Auracania vest for a boy

more of Ethel’s hat

I finished a doll’s purse.

Trisha and the beautiful afghan of many colors

Trisha worked on her afghan some more. Isn’t it looking grand? She told us she had to frog and redo the whole row she did last week because she got a color out of sync. Daylight savings time had us nodding and yawning.

Bob’s dreaming of wooly times

Grayzie’s shutting out the nattering

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Feather and Fan and Other Fun Stitching

Wednesday Night Knitting came home to roost with Ethel and Lois on board and Bob back home from All Cats, where he’d been an inpatient for several days last week. Ethel was still suffering a little from jet lag, after her trip to

Cali-
For-
Nia

But she was very productive: she worked on a grandson vest.

vest

And she’s been working on a crocheted shawl.

Ethel did all this on the shawl at one sitting

I put my picot-edge shawl on hold while Ethel was gone because I knew I had screwed up but I couldn’t figure out how or why. She looked it over and put me back on track.

shawl re-energized

Lois perfected the fan and feather stitch, looking forward to perhaps a baby afghan.

Lois’ feather and fan

Anyway, she wants to get away from hat making for the time being, although her hat making is truly legendary! Or rather, it would be legendary if folks knew the number of hats she’s made that found their way to chemo patients who’ve lost their hair.

I made a poncho for an 18-inch doll, from lesson #2 in the Simply Stylish manual.

Simply Stylish doll poncho from sock yarn

Next project: pleated skirt and messenger bag.

We looked at some new possibilities.

2 new knitting books

I bought another Debbie Stoller Stitch ‘n Bitch book because I really enjoyed her first book, and I could relate to the way she explained things.

Downton Abbey Knits: featuring drool-worthy designs a la 1920’s

American Girl catalog for the end of 2013: delectable doll clothes and accessories

Ethel brought the American Girl catalog for our viewing pleasure. Lots of doll eye candy!

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Raised on Promises? and of course, Knitting

My door was open for Wednesday Night Knitting, but no one came over. It was the historic 9th day of the Government Shutdown. Yesterday was also my anniversary and our cat Bob had to go into the hospital because we’ve been unsuccessful at stabilizing his blood sugar :(.

We celebrated all these events last night by getting take-out from Zaxby’s and sitting in front of the TV watching World War Z. And, for me of course, knitting.

finished this soccer outfit in worsted-weight scrap yarn

I love working on a project that is finished SOON! This is something I’ve been planning to work on and just got around to.

bought this pattern book in May…

Having completed the first project in the booklet Easy How-to Techniques for Simply Stylish 18″ Dolls, I am motivated to plow on through the entire 7 projects given. Each outfit begins with a technique to learn, so each begins with a lesson. At first glance, I was stumped by some of the written instructions, but as I mulled over the language, the techniques slowly began to dawn on me and I was able to move ahead to the next step. My next project in the sequence will be a button-up poncho (which I’ve already started), skirt and messenger bag in sock-weight yarn.

soccer outfit modeled by Texas Girl

Now I need to go to Nancy Zieman’s website, Nancy’s Notions, to get some doll tennis shoes!

Another newsworthy tid-bit I learned from endlessly watching the news regarding the US Government’s three-ring circus-like festivities, is that an American Girl store is coming to Orlando. Oh, wow! Not just “a shopping experience”, but a destination. A shopping destination. If I take in these words slowly, it begins to sound like…shopping…destitute…nation. What does American Girl mean to you? Well, on the web site you can purchase the doll of the year 2013 with 3 outfits and associated books for $211, or with her favorite dress and one book for $110. Does a little girl who is gifted with one of these expensive dolls know that American Girl is the cream of the crop in the 18″ doll universe? Would she deign to play with the Target 18″ doll (cost: about $30 with outfit) or the Texas Girl I bought (on sale for $10 at H-E-B)? I don’t think she knows there’s a vast difference: she would happily play with any and all of the dolls, but her parents and grandparents know. Oh yes, this is The American Way, the free enterprise system that gives us a splendid market share of everything from dolls to health care.

Happy birthday next week to Tom Petty, born here in Gainesville, USA. We’re thinking about ya, here in our balconies overlooking 441, with the cars rolling by like waves crashing on the beach. We were raised on promises, like a government for the people by the people. And the right to vote those bums out of office, who don’t represent us.

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