Get the Scissors, I Didn’t Hear You…at Knitting

Knitting! The group was back at it and doing well.

Lois was back and worked on her purple shawl

Lois had a bad cold last time so we were happy to see her looking well.

Ethel had an idea for a group gift

Tricia and quilt top with crazy-pieced blocks

Tricia finished an amazing quilt top with crazy-pieced blocks and cosmic-themed fabrics. The colors and patterns she chose look fabulous together. Meanwhile, Trish knitted more of the afghan.

Tricia and afghan

Ethel’s watch with beaded band

The unfortunate thing about Ethel’s beautiful watch was that after she matched up the lovely copper bezel with the pretty, intricately beaded band, and put it all together so artfully, the watch stopped working, although it appeared to have a new battery. She could take back the non-working watch but…sigh…all that work would have to be redone.

Knitting seems to go with reading, and Ethel brought her recently finished book to share, but none of the rest of us wanted to commit to reading right now. It was a rather non-committal evening, all in all, and some of us were nodding in our chairs.

Ethel’s recent read

Doll sweater, almost finished

I am almost finished with my doll sweater, although I hit some serious snags. The directions called for adding a second ball of yarn at the neck edge. The idea was to do this: knit the one shoulder, then stop at the neck edge which was bound up in waste yarn, then knit the other shoulder starting with the new ball of yarn. So I had this one ball of yarn that I had laboriously wound on the nostepinde, and I could see the two yarn ends right there, like in this drawing.

sketch of my one yarn ball

[Oh BTW this sketch is my take on Day 6 of the Zero to Hero post-fest. It is supposed to be along the directive of “publish a post that has a new element.” I have Penultimate for iPad, a fun little app where I can create drawings and sketches and upload them as part of my photo library!]

So I figured I’d just use one ball and knit using the two ends instead of starting the separate new ball like the directions said. Bad idea: the both ends quickly got super tangled up and I was holding a disaster in my lap. Like going to sleep with bubble gum in your mouth and waking up with a wad of gum in your hair. You end up with no choice but to get the scissors.

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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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The Last Little Knitting of May

Wednesday Night Knitting met for the last May meeting of the year. I can barely believe summer is almost here!

Ethel with her Navajo woven rug

Ethel brought her Navajo woven rug to show us. She took a class once upon a time and learned this art, and she even made the wooden loom that she used for weaving.

Her next project is going to be this hat.

cable hat pattern

This is a project to match a scarf she made a long time back, and our LYS, Yarnworks, was miraculously stocked with more of that same yarn.

winding the yarn with her nostepinde

She loves the orange stripey yarn, and if it hadn’t already been earmarked for a matching hat/scarf set, she considered it for a new Alan Dart project, the kitties in the May issue of Simply Knitting.

May Simply Knitting

We compared the May and April issues of this magazine, mainly to see the eyebrows of the cover model, whether they were as black and pointy in both cover photos.

April issue

Here is the same cover model, in an April pattern called Park Life

another jumper pattern, same model

The eyebrows don’t look as dark and straight in the two inner photos. Maybe they were enhanced for the cover photos, what do you think? I always had very black eyebrows and as a child, wanted to crawl under the table when people (especially boys) asked if I was wearing “eye makeup.”

Silk Garden sock

Here’s a pic of what I’ve been up to, one half of the pair of April alternative socks on ravelry’s Sock-it-to-me 2013 club.

another view of the sock

I was going to go ahead and start of the May sock, since there’s only 2 days left in May, but I know if I don’t make the mate for this one, will I ever?

Lois and Ethel hatching a feather-and-fan plot

Lois has a feather-and-fan project in mind, and is trying to get the math straight for it. You know how a stitch pattern will say something like “12 stitches, plus…” or “a multiple of…”

What’s your next project?

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Luscious Weaving, Winding, and of Course! Knitting

Wednesday Night Knitting did not meet as usual last night, because I wanted to check out the monthly meeting of Gainesville Handweavers Guild. I’ve often seen notes pinned up at Yarnworks shop advertising the guild’s activities, but I’d never considered myself specialized enough to belong to a guild. Now that I am possessed of a spinning wheel, though, perhaps? They assured me that you don’t have to be a weaver to be part of the handweaver’s guild. Some knit, spin, weave, sew, quilt, and all sorts of fibery delicious things. I thought I’d give it a little go and see if I had a chance of fitting in. What a fabulous group of fiber fans with a wonderful January guest speaker and topic!

Diane Click of Merritt Island, who has served as a guild president, weaving instructor, and bridal couturier, addressed the group with a bombshell (in my opinion) topic: she wove the fabric for, and made her daughter’s wedding dress. I say bombshell because the idea of someone doing such a thing is just–wow! The first thing you think of is—how?

Diane Click and the breathtakingly gorgeous gown. (Sorry, my phone camera just doesn’t do either subject justice at all!)
First she showed us samples she made, from combinations of silk, rayon, cotton, and tencel fibers, and many variations of huck patterns: cameo, diamond shapes, many others, resulting in lustrous, drapey, gleaming white-on-white fabrics. She said she worked on a 12-shaft loom, which made fabric about 40 inches wide. She finally decided on a combination of tencel threads in both warp and weft.

Diane had worked as a bridal couturier, so she already had lots of knowledge at her fingertips for sewing the dress. But she did learn a lot from Susan Khalje’s Bridal Couture book that she used as a reference. I was surprised to learn from her presentation that a wedding gown is anchored at the waist by a wide grosgrain ribbon just the measurement of the bride’s middle, sewn on the inside, and this supports the weight of the large, heavy skirt and train. Look at the modest design of the dress; so elegant. It’s hard to find a wedding gown these days that’s not backless, strapless, or open in the front practically down to the bride’s navel! The iphoto does little justice to the blissful tactile pleasure of the soft patterned fabric, or its luster as the diamond threads are caught by the light.

Diane also made bags for the bridal party, which were the subject of an article in a 2001 issue of Handwoven.

After Diane Click’s presentation, the guild had refreshments and a business meeting, and several members showed some of their recent weaving projects. Truly fabulous! They are conducting 4 workshops February 16, and members can choose from these savory projects: basket weaving, a quilt top, transparency weaving, and a knitted, beaded bracelet.

Meanwhile, I haven’t been totally idle. I joined a sock-a-month knit-along with the Sock-it-to-me 2013 group on ravelry, and I’ve made my very first sock! The group furnished a beginner pattern and it’s knitted in a worsted-weight yarn on normal (size 6 US) double-pointed needles.

Beginner Sock

My DH has not been idle either; he spotted a fallen tree branch in the yard and made it into a nostepinde on the lathe! No kidding! This tree debris would have otherwise gone into the trash or burned; now it’s a nifty little tool for winding yarn into a ball that pulls out from the middle!

spalted oak nostepinde (with evil cat shadow)

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Doable Needlework at WNK

Wednesday Night Knitting brought Lois and Ethel over, and Lois brought homemade oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies! We looked at a few new books and mags. Quick Knits is a brand new offshoot from Fons & Porter’s Love of Knitting. I saw it advertised online, but had trouble finding it. I considered buying the single issue from the website, but they wanted to charge me $3.99 shipping for a $6.99 single issue. Huh? I did finally find a copy of it at Books A Million, and we agreed that it looks like it’s got some doable potential projects.

Ethel worked on some crocheted alligator stitch.

row #1 of alligator stitch

3 rows of alligator stitch

Perhaps she will make a hat like one in the book she brought, What to Knit When You’re Expecting. Some recent Facebook posts have cryptically suggested that some members of our group may be lining up baby knitting projects in the near future……….

Lois finished her ruffle scarf, and started in on another.

Lois with current ruffle scarf

Ruffle scarves go pretty fast, with only 5 to 8 stitches per row. This picture was taken just a short while after she cast on. I was so in love with the one she made last week, I had to make one too. I’ve had the Rozetti Marina ruffle yarn for awhile, and it’s in wintry colors, so I reasoned, “the time is now!”

my ruffle scarf in progress

This cute trend is turning up everywhere. I’m going to make a white one soon. It’s on my bucket list.

Meanwhile, I made it over to Michael’s, purveyors of that new Red Heart Boutique Magical yarn that the Winter Love of Knitting KAL cowl was made from, so I could test it out. I made another cowl from the pattern, in the colorway Wizard (green, gray, lavender, fuchsia).

boutique magical cowl #2

You may recall that my first Knit Along cowl was made with a different yarn.

Knit Along cowl #1 with Universal Jewels yarn

I love the Boutique Magical: it has a soft feel to it and a variety of textures and colors. It was not so easy to use straight from the skein, however. I pulled out an end to start on, and the skein vomited yarn all over me. It took me several days of patient wrapping around my nostepinde to get it ready to use.

Here I am wrapping yarn with Mom while she worked on art quilting

I finished the beret from Sock Yarn Studios. Finally!

Poppy Beret

I feel that I should do another one, to be fair, since I believe I really veered off from the directions and got more width than length. Sigh. We all agreed that we don’t love skinny, underfed, fussy sock-and-lace weight yarns. But I signed up for the Craftsy Mystery Knit Along that starts February 1st, and guess what arrived in the mail for that mystery project?

800 meters of Schoppel Laceball 100 for Craftsy KAL

Next Wednesday night I plan to check out the January meeting of Gainesville Handweavers Guild, so let me know if you’d like to come with me!

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Knitting, winding, and spinning!

At Wednesday Night Knitting, we continued where we’d left off last week, except for — I got a spinning wheel in the meantime!

Lois worked on her ruffle scarf

Ethel wound the grape malabrigo sock yarn on the nostepinde

She did bring a brand new crochet magazine to show.

I did a little spinning

As you may imagine, spinning has opened up a new world of fiber management for me! New reading, new You-Tube video watching, practicing. I stocked up on some woolly stuff from ebay and from my stash (mostly small bits I’d bought for drop-spindling).

fiber management

Practiced a bit with this bag of unknown fiber I bought 2 years ago at the Florida Fiber In.

Ewephoric Fibers roving

I met some folks from Ewephoric Fibers at that fiber convention, and hope to meet up with them again at a local guild meeting.

How in the world does one decide which wheel? There are so many. I did some research. I wanted lots of options, so I chose one that came with a regular-size, a jumbo-size, and a fast flyer. I wanted one that was somewhat portable. I wanted one that was made in America (I compromised on that, the Lendrum is made in Canada.) I would have been happy to get a Babe, but my DH, the woodworker, favored wood construction over PVC pipe construction, so let’s just say his opinion greatly influenced my ultimate choice. I joined some new groups on Ravelry, including Lendrum Love. I learned more about sheep, goats, rabbits, and other wool/fur-bearing varmints, and discovered that the Patron of the Campaign for Wool is none other than HRH The Prince of Wales. Wow!

Hey Grayzie, have you ever been carded?

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It’s a New Dawn! at Wednesday Night Knitting

Looks wintry around here, but actually it’s 77 degrees F

January dawns so full of hope. For WNK knitting group, we are looking at a new year of potential, lots of fun projects and happy times ahead. We missed out on Distaff Day, a traditional “back-to-work” day for practitioners of the needle arts, following the Twelfth Night of Christmas. Maybe next year!

Tricia wrapped yarn using her nostepinde.

 

Trish worked on the beautiful white and multicolored afghan, and says she’s bound to finish it no matter what! She’s not going to let another year go by! Meanwhile, DH was out in the shop making more nostepinder for other knitters in our group.

That Li’l Ol’ Nostepinde maker

Ethel’s doll and ball gown

Ethel brought her recent labor of love, a ball gown for an 18-inch doll. She also hand-beaded the gown’s jeweled bodice, and plans to bejewel a matching pair of shoes. In the meantime, she kept working on the beautiful Boutique Magical cowl, the subject of Love of Knitting’s Winter Knit-Along.

Ethel’s Magical Cowl, in progress

Lois and new hat

Lois came wearing a new hat she’d made. She liked it so much she decided to keep it for herself. The crown was done in seed stitch. She worked on a ruffle-knit scarf on dpns in a beautiful multicolor yarn.

Lois and ruffle scarf

Ethel showing 2 balls wound on the nostepinde, or rather, a ball and a cake

Bob was thrilled to snog Ethel’s purse once again

Deb working on a baby hat in “Crimson Tide” colors

Even though she resides deep in Gator country, Deb doesn’t want the new grandbaby to grow up without having a proper Alabama connection. We love the gators, but they sucked in the Sugar Bowl. Sucked. Alabama is just the most-nearly-perfect football machine we’ve got here in SEC territory, so I won’t really begrudge Debbie that little unspoken hint of “nyah-nyah”-ing at the close of a rocking college football season.

my Poppy beret

Finally, here is my WIP, the Poppy Beret from Sock Yarn Studio. You cannot see the pattern very well because I used a variegated yarn, Red Rocks by Universal, rather than a single color like the one in the book. I seem to be getting nowhere fast and I long for a big bulky yarn and a simple pattern. Ethel, too, lamented the extra time and energy needed to work with sock yarn and lace-weights.

Ethel winding malabrigo grape sock yarn on the nostepinde with Evil Pauly

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A couple of Nostepinder

sigh, another week gone by without Knitting Group. Only because I was traveling and enjoying the holidays, and when I got back I was toast.

But I haven’t been completely un-knit. No sir, I’ve been a little busy at fiber-analyzing.

Playing with my new nostepinde

DH made me a couple of nostepinder for a fun gift. Thank you, Knitting Daily Blog, for the heads up on this nifty tool that a woodworker can turn on a lathe. With this ornate little pin, you can wind unruly yarn into a neat, tidy ball that pulls out from the middle, like the skeins you buy at Joann’s and Michael’s are supposed to do.

Winding, winding–there’s an art to it!

Dh’s 2nd try

These two are made out of cherry wood, sanded with 600 grit paper, and finished with tung oil; very silky and smooth.

I also wandered around Four Purls in Winter Haven the day after Christmas, right when a bad storm was blowing over. It’s a wonderful shop. Friendly knitters, hanging around knitting, engaging you in conversation, complimenting you on your choices. some of the art yarns in there were just unspeakably gorgeous. Shuddering, recalling their shiny, glow-y strands! I got some great advice about spinning wheels: quite a few spinners love the Schacht Ladybug. I will keep watching You Tube to see what EVERYONE in the whole world of spinning thinks about this that and th’other wheels. Please feel free to give a comment about your wheel or your hope-to-be wheel.

Purls’ Plunder

I tried to work on some mosaic knitting from Love of Knitting.

mosaic swatch in brown, gold and cream

Finally settled down to work on a hat from Sock Yarn Studio, an October giveaway from Peacefully Knitting. I thought at first all the lovely projects were a bit beyond my capabilities, but here I go!

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