Eastside Stitchers: Wed Meet up One Day Late

Hello:  It's been raining or drizzling since yesterday.  This is a good thing.  It's still too foggy and cloudy to see if there is improvement in the snow pack on the Cascades, but I can only think that when the clouds open up a bit, I will see much more white.  The lack of rain was a topic at the regular meet up of Eastside Stitchers at Crossroads in Bellevue last night. 

I had worked until 5:00 administering this big international exam at one of our local high schools.  So I arrived after 6 pm.  I could have gone straight to knitting from the school and grabbed dinner at Crossroads, one of the perks of meeting there, but I needed to check the cats and let them out. 

When I got to the group, the big round table was almost full.  One of the things I like about our group is that some people come every week, and others drop in. There was a new Eastside Stitcher.  I don't believe she is on Ravelry yet, but ...  muahahahaha (evil laugh)  ... I'm sure we will get her hooked soon.

The problem with waiting to post my report the next morning after a meet up is that there is a good chance that I will mix up the projects.  Let's see how bad my memory is.

Cam704 has almost finished another lovely cabled scarf.  This is the ... 6th?... she has made for a local women's shelter.  Is it long enough?  not quite.  We talked about how even when the pattern is fun, six of the same thing can get old.

JulieMustKnit was working on a sock.

She has been using up the yarn left over from the beautiful Katharine Pullover she finished before Christmas.  Here is the sleeve detail from the sweater:

I think this is the 6th sock Julie has made from the left over yarn.

Pam2 is working on her first pair of socks.  She has made it to the heel flap. 

I am always happy to see new sock knitters in the group.  Everyone must join me in my obsession with socks.

Our newest member, Yen, brought a lovely sweater.

Wajio brought her Shur'tugal Socks.  She has turned both heels and is working down the gussets now. 

I am sure she is happy to be on the homestretch.

Alphabetadel was beginning a sleeve for one of the baby sets she is knitting.  She had just the very beginning on her needles, so she pulled out the matching sleeve she has finished so we could see where she is headed.

Tara1682 is knitting an Aviatrix hat.  This is the official hat of the Eastside Stitchers.

Wireknitter brought her finished Entrelac Hat for show and tell.  The variegated yarn works beautifully with the technique.

She brought a pair of lace mitts she is knitting, Hemerocallis Mitts. 

These will be knit with two parts.  There is a simple under mitt, and then a different color lace mitt that is worn on top. 

Anerenbe brought her version of the Follow Your Arrow Mystery KAL Shawl by Isolde Teague.

BlueBerryMary is working on the same Mystery Shawl KAL.

I am not making the Follow Your Arrow Shawl.  It is really fun to watch all of the different versions that are being knit in our group alone.  This is such an interesting KAL because of the two options with each new clue.  I can't wait to see all of the finished shawls next to each other so we can compare and contrast what each choice changed.

DomesticShorthair brought a couple of projects but I got a photo of this hat.

Before she left, she had added in a contrasting faux colorwork yarn for the crown.  It added such a pretty touch.

Chockelet also brought a bunch of WIP's to share.  She is working on the Follow Your Arrow Scarf, too.  But that is not what she actually worked on last night.  She is knitting...

DRUM ROLL...

a Linen Stitch Scarf!

So many people came and went over the evening that we filled a big round table and two more of the little square ones added onto one end. 

I'm off to take my car in for an oil change.  I'm bringing knitting, of course.  I never mind waiting, if I have knitting.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on a rainy day.

Wed. night Knitting (more tomorrow)

I'm so tired after the Wed night meet up for Eastside stitchers.  I will try to get up a post tomorrow morning.

Sorry

After Midnight

Hello:

It's after midnight, and the weather has turned cold and rainy.  I hope that it is snowing in the mountains.  I worked all day today.  I trained for this International Test Proctor job for 6 hours.  I was able to knit a bit during the training.  I worked on the second of the 2014 Sampler Mystery KAL blanket square patterns.  I just realized that I don't have a photo of the square.

The squares are supposed to be about 6 inches each.  I doubled the first square, and, although I dropped down a needle size, I got a 15 in. square.

Since this is for a baby that is due in May, I am going to make two big squares for each of the first 4 patterns, and then one more square and sew them together for a 3 x 3 square blanket that will be about 45 in x 45 in without a border.

I finished one square of the second pattern, and cast on another square in that pattern.  That is what I knit today.  I should have been able to make more progress, but I wanted to take notes... Darn that Working!  I wasn't able to get a photo of the finished pattern 2 square, but will take one tomorrow morning before I leave for work if possible.

Right now I have the first row, and I will try to get that sewn together.  I need to sew together the red and black squares that I have finished for my Godson's afghan, too.  I have learned that sewing as you go is the best way to finish an afghan quickly.

I also wanted to post photos of the finished Mermaid costume:

The tail is pretty long, so it is hard to squish it all into one photo.

Here is the tail:

the sea shell bikini top:

and a close up of the sea star headband:

You can just see the sparkles in the aqua Caron Simply Soft Party yarn.  The tail was made with that yarn and Caron Simply Soft Paints in Spring Brook held together and a size N crochet hook.  The Sea Shell top is also Caron Simply Soft.  It is something old from my stash so I'm not sure of the exact color, but it looked sort of coral so I used it.

I hope to post a photo of my Great Niece wearing the outfit (after she is born... of course).

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a mermaids tail

Tutor Madness

Hello:

I've been tutoring my number 1 son every night.  This makes it so tough to post!  I had to get in a quick post before bed, though it's already after midnight.

On Friday, I made it to Crossroads for Fiber Friday, but forgot my camera, and tried to take photos with my phone... but they were horrible.

On Saturday, I went to the Country Living Expo in Stanwood with Wajio.  We took a fleece processing class, then a class on how to make your own yogurt.  Then Wajio took Pie Crusts and Barbecue, while I took a class on spinning.  It was an exhausting day, but so much fun.  I haven't tried to make yogurt yet, but I got the ingredients, so I will report here when I have tried it.  I did come home and spun for about 2 hours while the Doc and I watched the last Harry Potter movie.

On Sunday, I  made it to Sunday Knitting at Panera's in Redmond.  I remembered my camera, but the photos are pretty bad.

Puzan was knitting a hat!

She is using sock yarn, and I believe it is the Sock Head Hat.

JitteryKnitter is making a beautiful cowl.

VanesaPolo and Skeinherder were working on their Mystery Shawls

Wajio brought her Shur'tugal Socks.

BlueWolfWalking is also working on a cowl.

I think part way through the morning, Puzan stopped working on the hat and brought out a cowl.  She just can't stay away from them!

It is almost the end of the month, and that means that I am frantically finishing my "classes" for Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC).  This term, I am trying to increase the bonuses for yardage by making more than one thing for each class. 

For instance, the prompt for Astronomy is the planet Jupiter.  You can make something to represent the giant red storm that is on the planet.  A year ago, I would have made one afghan square.  This month, I have made 4 squares all "inspired" by this prompt.

They are:  16 Circles Square (expanded to 36 circles) for an Andy Warhol representation of the storm

 Squaring the Big Circle

 Frostbloom

 And Lemony Lime Citrus Square

These are for an afghan for my Godson who is graduating from college in May.  He loves red and black. 

This is helping me to make good progress on the afghan, but it is way more work than just making 2 squares a month.  I also made two of the squares in the Green and Gold of Notre Dame for the College Afghan I am making for the Doc. 

The Frostbloom:

Lemony Lime Citrus Square:

I don't have a deadline for this afghan, so I can take it a bit easier.  These squares will be turned in to Herbology class.  The prompt there is to plan a garden.  I can explain how the squares are the beginning of an afghan that will grow.  Actually I will turn in 2 more squares for that class that will represent 2 more afghans.  I am growing 4 afghans this year!

And so you can see how insane I am.

This post got much longer than I had planned, but I'm gad that I took the time to bring some of my projects up to date.  I also want to thank everyone who voted for me at the Eastside Knitters Guild meeting tonight.  I am the new Vice President. 

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with squares

Crack Dealer

Hello:

Today was another day in paradise.  It was clear, and crisp but not too cold.  For us, we have had a relatively dry winter.  Since I could see the Cascades so well today, I was noticing that there isn't much snow on them.

This might be a problem in the summer.  We depend on the snow melt for so much.  We get our power (hydro-electric dams), our drinking water (of course!), our agriculture, and our streams for the salmon from the winter snow melt.  If we don't have enough snow, we might have to conserve this summer.

But, enough about that.  We had a lovely day today.  Tonight I went to my neighbor friend, Lylamae's house to knit after tutoring.  She did not have a Ravelry account, until tonight.  She has been knitting for years, so has many patterns, but lately, I have been finding her free patterns on Ravelry and printing them out for her.  She finished the last project and wanted to make a hat but didn't have any hat patterns and was feeling uninspired.  So, I did it.  I helped her join Ravelry.

I explained how to search the Patterns.  We looked at hat patterns for about 1 hour together.  When I left, she was still at the computer, looking at hats and saying stuff like, "ooooo! look at this one, this one is really fun," and so on.

Addicted to Ravelry.  I felt like a crack dealer.  I fully expect to find her sitting at her computer next Thursday, still looking at patterns.

I have been working on a Mermaid Tail.  This will be for one of my HPKCHC classes, the Care of Magical Creatures Class where we are studying Kappas, which are Japanese water spirits.  One of the prompts is to craft something in the colors of the Kappas (yellow, blue and/or green).  You can also represent the Kappa's scales.

Well, this mermaid tail is just perfect for this class prompt.  My nephew and his bride are expecting a baby girl in May, and my niece-in-law sent me a photo of a baby in a mermaid tail and asked, "Um... Auntie, can you make something like this?"

I have finished the tail and the shell top, but only have photos of the tail so far.  I am also making a starfish headband.

It is just so cute!  The pattern is Set of 3 Mermaid patterns by Crochet by Jennifer.  You use a size N crochet hook, I had to buy one as I didn't have such a large hook, and hold two strands of worsted weight yarn together.  I used Caron Simply Soft Party in Sparkly Teal, and Caron Simply Soft Paints in Spring Brook.  For the shell top, I grabbed some pink/taupe colored yarn from my stash that just happened to be Simply Soft, too! 

It's a really well written pattern.  I love how the tail fins look.

That's not a very good photo, but the fins look really cool.

I haven't gotten called to substitute all week, but I have tutored every day.  I hope I don't get called in tomorrow.  I would love to make it to Fiber Friday.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a mermaid tail.

Eastside Stitchers Late Post

Hello:

Sorry I didn't get the Eastside Stitchers Wednesday Meet up post up last night.  When I got home, my Number 1 Son wanted some Math Tutoring, and after that, I was just too tired to post.

But, here it is:

Wajio has made significant progress on her Shur'tugal Socks.  She has knit the heel flap:

Short row heels are nice and uncomplicated, but it is so fun to knit a heel flap that has some extension of the pattern on it.

JulieMustKnit is also working on socks.  She has finished her heel and is closing the gusset.

What a cute project bag!

Tara1682, fresh off her triumphant Chinese New Year Performance, is working on an Aviatrix hat.

GwenS, we miss you so much, we are now channeling you and knitting your projects!

BlueBerryMary brought two scarves. 

We had a nice Ravelry tutorial, now that the Crossroads Branch of the King County Library System has finished its remodel and has its wireless up again.  JitteryKnitter took some pictures of Mary's scarves, and Mary added the first projects to her project page.  We also got her started in her very own blog and linked her blog to Ravelry.  OOOO the pressure to post is now on, and we will be looking to see what Mary blogs about.  ha ha ha between Ravelry and blogging, how will she find time to knit?

Speaking of Jitteryknitter, she brought a finished cowl Trust Me, by Louise Zass- Bangham.  It is a really cool mitred square pattern. 

She also brought the shawl she is working on, it looks like a bit of a pile of yarn here, but the color choices are lovely.

Guess what Puzan was working on?

Ha ha ha ha!  Tricked you!  It's a hat, not a cowl.  She is using sock yarn (EEEEEK!)

Colleen came right at the end, but as I left a bit early, I wasn't able to see what she had brought.  I hope I don't have to work on Friday so I can make the Fiber Friday Group. 

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with yarny friends