Simple Stitches, Crazy Stitches, Fun Knitting

Yay Knitting! We met and got up-to-date on projects.
Tricia worked on the teal scarf/shawl.

Tricia and teal scarf/shawl

Lois with an orange cable hat

Ethel got some new pink all-cotton thick-and-thin slubby yarn

purse body: garter-stitch sari ribbon

I’ve been working on another purse using the pattern on the front of this Quick Knits mag: it’s garter-stitch Louisa Harding Sari Ribbon.

 

 

 

 

 

The leather handles are from http://www.cindysbuttoncompany.com; I got them from Four Purls‘ vendor booth at the 2012 Florida Fiber Inn.

 

This other project I started is the Tokyo Scarf designed by Emre Koc featured in 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders, in Feza Alp yarn.

Tokyo Scarf in Alp

Ethel’s linen stitch cloth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ethel was experimenting with linen stitch to duplicate some wash cloths we saw on Pinterest. I liked the subtle blending of the purple color band with the burnt-orange, but she liked the greater contrast of the blue band.

Ethel’s linen-stitch cloth with blue contrasting color band

Rainbow Loom

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we brought out the Hands Free Rainbow Loom with Organizer Kit.

 

 

 

 

Ethel made a rubber-band ring on the loom in about 5 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

Ethel’s rainbow-loom ring

Great fun!

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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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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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Equilibrium in Knitting

Trending on my Facebook Feed: Everyone saying what they’re thankful for each and every day of November. Some really getting down to the minute details of their lives. Some giving the impression that they’ve already told all the important things so they’re really stretching now for something to post.

I’m thankful for Wednesday Night Knitting, and knitting in general. Lately if I’ve gotten really busy or stressed-out or tired, nothing gets me back into equilibrium like knitting. If I have an easy, soothing project like stockinette or garter stitch on the needles, and just do a long row for the time being, all seems right with the world. If I get into something that’s over my head, there are people who can HELP ME! without judging. Lately I’ve been attending some online meetings, and often there’s been downtime or computer glitch time that silently, unbeknownst to other attendees, becomes knitting time for me.

go gators ruffle scarf

Ethel and Christmas gnome (troll?)

Lois and orange hat

Lois and neutral color hat

Lois got to the point of decrease on both these hats. I think the white one will have a pompon at the top. Lois finishes these so fast we only get to see them in a brief moment in time before they’re shipped off to their new owners!

an exercise in ball winding for Ethel

Sometimes you feel a great accomplishment in just winding up a ball of yarn on the old nostepinde. Not the most fascinating job, but it needs to be done. Go for it!

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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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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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Little Furry Beasts!

Ethel finished her wee beastie, the hedgehog, much to the delight of the cats at Wednesday Night Knitting.

hedgehog

“Sigh….for me? Just what I’ve always wanted!”

Pauly: “I’zll tear him from limb to limb–oh wait, him doesn’t has any limbs…”

Ethel and pom-pom scarf

She has also been working on this bountiful, colorful pom-pom scarf. She has done it in crochet, and showed us how EASY it is! I said, “Cluster of grapes!” and Lois said, “Carmen Miranda!” In a beautiful Michael’s pom-pom yarn (Color: Desert Sunset!)

Ethel and Lois worked out the kinks of seamlessly adding a different color yarn to Lois’ latest hat project.

adding a new strand with no ill effects!

Meanwhile, I continued working on the shawl in the same colors as my purse.

pattern from Love of Knitting

href=”https://wednesdayknitting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/img_0515.jpg”> something I can handle…[/caption]

getting our Mankell fix

Ethel and I have been on a Henning Mankell fix lately. Great, so that’s TWO obsessions; yarn and Swedish detective stories!

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Crazier than the average day, with Knitting

Wednesday was a little crazy. Make that a big crazy. I had the twins, and it was their first night of the stay, so they were running around a lot. But it was all fun.Ethel showed us some great new cheap needles she’d bought at Tuesday Morning. Yes, I did finally finish my socks. But I couldn’t show them to my fellow knitters because they were in the dirty clothes. Here’s a pic. I am on ravelry.com as jenyjenny, too, making socks with Sock-it-to-me 2013 forum.

Noro socks done

Ethel and size 8’s

Ethel continued working on her hat from last week.

Lois came by and we didn’t do too much except catch up with what’s been going on in our hectic summers. Lois said she has been sort of tapering off with knitting for now. I also feel that knitting is not the #1 thing right now, since it’s sweltering outside.

I did manage to make another right-angle weave beaded bracelet in anticipation of football season.

right angle weave gator bracelet

Ethel and hat

DH had a few guys over and they were out in the shop woodworking and talking about, you know….wood. It’s amazing how often wood comes up in a conversation, and how many people we know who would like to learn woodworking if they only had a chance.

Here is the picture of Lois’s bowl from a prior post. I captioned it beech, but I’m not so sure, maybe she said aspen? The bowl was made by her relatives, a couple who got into woodturning together, and used the wood from a tree in their front yard to make the bowl. Marvelous to get a gift of a hand-turned bowl! Some day I will make a bowl on the lathe.  But maybe for the time being I need to do a couple more nostepinder for practice.

end of day tired

We broke it up early, and by the end of the day we were all tired! What have you been up to this         summer?

Lois with beech wood bowl

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A Beautiful Crafting Night in the Neighborhood

July is  busy month! But we took some time out Wednesday Night to do some knitting!

Ethel was busy making right-angle weave beaded bracelets.

Ethel’s beaded bracelets

Meanwhile, she went to work on a hat that she’s had on her agenda for a while.

Ethel & hat

It’s a bit difficult to be thinking of fall and winter accessories for the relatives “up Nawth” when it’s been at least 90 degrees here in the swamp day after day.  But that’s our lifestyle! Now I am almost finished with the Silk Garden socks  (the alternate project for March, on ravelry‘s Sock It To Me 2013 forum). What a slacker I am! There must be an entry in the DSM 5 describing my personality as it pertains to knitting…

Noro Silk Garden socks

However, I guess I’m not the only one who is a bit behind on the sock-making arena: here it is already July 10th and no one on Sock-It-To-Me has put up a sock pattern for July yet. In fact, no one has heard from the forum moderators for a month, one post says.

Some of the forum posts indicate that the knitters, left to their own devices, it seems, are planning to use the time to catch up. I believe I’ll need more than a month to catch up. Plus, I got stung on the right elbow by a wasp night before last. It doesn’t stop me from knitting, but it’s another excuse that looks serious.

DH did not use my Knitting Time as an excuse to slack off, he was out in the shop with a bud, doing some woodturning and pondering work on a new Craftsman-style dining room trestle table. Here is buddy Adam with his turned project–pretty good for a beginner! After DH attended the AAW Symposium and saw the convention center dominated by gray- and bald-heads, and watched the youth participants take to the lathes like ducks to water, he is committed to sharing this craft with younger generations.

another friendly neighborhood woodturner

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