Friday, March 30, 2007

Eye Candy Friday


Yes, your eyes do not deceive you. That is a glass pig on a penny. I bought several of these "Critters" at the Art of Fire studio. We are friends with Foster and Theda and visit the studio as often as we can. I think Theda said these critters are made by a man from Germany.


This one is some kind of wierd platypus-type critter with a little black cap. I apologize for the poor quality photos. My cheap camera just won't focus on things this small.

I call this one "skeeter" because of it's long probiscus. I think I bought seven and each one came in a tiny little foil box about 3/4" x 3/4".

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

The Harlot Represents

I've been following the story of the Yarn Harlot and her quest to "represent". To show the muggles (non-knitters) just how many knitters there are and how serious they are about their knitting. She got tired to speaking in cramped bookstores and tiny reception halls because the muggles who organize her book tours constantly underestimate the number of attendees. It was her hope to fill the 775 seat auditorium at The Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC. She did.

Wow, I wish I could have been there! It must have really been something. And it's about time that knitting gets some good publicity. When I knit in public (often) I don't think I really make people think about their concept of a knitter because I'm almost 50 and probably fall into the grandmotherly stereotype. People need to see young knitters and male knitters to really understand that it isn't just something that Granny does while rocking on the porch. They need to see modern, well designed and constructed items in really nice yarns that didn't come from Walmart.

I can't have the impact of the Yarn Harlot but I make it my business to knit in public when ever and where ever I can. Every person who asks me about what I'm doing gets a detailed explanation of the process and the project as well as encouragement to visit the local yarn shop and check out the inventory of wool, silk, cashmere, alpaca, etc. I encourage people to ask Susan about lessons. I tell them that she taught me and look at what I'm doing now. If they haven't wandered off, I tell them about Social Knitting on Friday nights and about the wonderful friends I've made through knitting and the charity knitting we've done.

If I could get just one person interested enough to visit the shop and sign up for lessons, I would feel... what would I feel? Joyful, fulfilled, elated? I know I would be very happy to have another knitting friend and to know that I helped to introduce someone to a marvelous new lifestyle.

Monday, March 26, 2007

Charity Knitting and Baseball


I took a little time off from knitting the Lacy Cabled Scoop to knit a couple squares for an afghan we're making to be raffled off for charity. I asked the Star Wars gang to pose with the squares and Artoo Potatoo agreed to put aside his differences with Darth Tater and Spud Trooper long enough for this photo. The mayham resumed as soon as the flash died.

The afghan will be made of orange, black and cream squares knit in various stitch patterns and pieced together. It'll be raffled off at a Hagerstown Suns game (their colors are black and orange) on Father's Day (I think). Kraemer Yarns generously donated the yarn for the project.

Susan, from Y2Knit, is organizing the project and the Social Knitters are doing the squares. It's a really team project. We'll be having a few Stitch & Pitch events at the games this season. I love to knit at the ball game. What a great way to spend a summer evening. Here's a pic of me knitting the Icarus Shawl from Interweave Knits Summer 2006 at the game last year.



Opening night is only two weeks away!

Friday, March 16, 2007

Eye Candy Friday


Nubbin, my middle cat, is black except for her white bikini (her lower belly and where breasts would be if she had them are white). She had always had a few white whiskers only on the left side of her nose until recently when a kinky white whisker popped out on the right side. It comes out, heads down in an elegant but tight curve and then flips at the end. The only reason I can think of for the kinkiness is that maybe it was ingrown and had a hard time getting out. Who knows, maybe it's growing through her head from the other side! Whatever, she's a strange little cat and nothing would surprise me.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Knitting and Ripping


I've knit a few rows and ripped a few rows but I think I'm making a little headway. I knit a while last night then found a mistake and had to rip out about 6 rows. I'm thinking about putting in a lifeline. Those of you familiar with lace knitting will know what I mean. For those who aren't, a lifeline is a thin thread put through all the stitches on a particular row when you're sure what you have knitted is correct. The purpose is to be able to rip back to the lifeline if necessary and not have to worry about dropping any stitches. I use crochet cotton and a darning needle and go through all the stitches on my needles and let the ends hang loose. I may do this if I keep making stupid mistakes.

Friday, March 02, 2007

KUI (Knitting Under the Influence)


Here's the first photo of my progress on the sweater. The color is actually a bit darker. As you can see, I'm not breaking any speed records but I am enjoying it very much. It's quite a change from all the socks I've been making lately. I'm doing the cables without a cable needle for the first time and it's going great (knock on wood).

Most of what you see was knitted in the car on Wednesday. We went to Annapolis to see the Smothers Brothers at the Rams Head Tavern and I knitted on the way down, for a little while in the car while we took a break from sight-seeing, and at the Tavern in the bar while we waited for our dinner reservation. I had 2 Copperhead lagers while I was working my way through the C&LR chart for the first time. I'm not sure whether that was the reason why I had to rip it out later or whether I just wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing. Whatever, I was one stitch off and didn't notice it until I started the second repeat.

It's a long way around that XL sweater body (253 stitches) but I'm more of a process knitter than a results knitter, thank goodness. I hope to work on it a lot more tonight at our local community college basketball game and over the weekend.

I hope you are all able to get started real soon. I know you'll love it!

Cross-posted to the Lacy Cable Scoop Knit-Along.