Crazy Cabled Finish

Hello:
Early on these sunny mornings, there is a slight mist over the lake.  It fades the green of the hills on the east side of the lake and the Cascades.  I love how everything looks slightly blurred.

Today was the last day of May, so I had to turn in all my classes for the month for the HPKCHC.  I had only turned in one class, though I had already finished 2 more.  But, I am in a group in my house, Gryffindor, that is trying to maximize our points, so I wanted to turn in more than 3 classes.  So, on Thursday, I started a hat.  I decided to crochet it, since that is a much faster craft for me.  I used the Lassig pattern by Claire Cronkleton.  This was the free crochet pattern at Serial Knitters on the 2014 North Puget Sound LYS Crawl.

The hat is slouchy, and looked textured to me and I thought it would be quick.  It calls for Tosh Merino, but I decided to use up some Malabrigo that I had left over from the Donnie hat I made last year.
It wasn't until I was finished with the top,

and half way down the sides that I realized that what I thought was texture was a cable.  So clever!

I dropped down 2 hook sizes since I tend to hook loosely, and the hat is pretty tight.  I might frog it and remake it.

I did make a second version of the hat on Friday.  I figured how to start the cables at the beginning. 

I had to monkey around with the increases quite a bit.  I decided to hook a bigger hat so it would be really slouchy.

This hat actually fits pretty well.  I'm going to donate it to Knots of Love in memory of one of the Gryffindors who died of cancer this year.

Then, I took the way these cables are made, and I hooked an afghan square.

Three projects in 3 days.  Super crazy.
Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with crocheted cables.

Two Cats and a Surprise

Hello!

This weekend I attended two classes taught by Cat Bordhi, of the legendary Sweet Tomato Heels and Mobius Cast on fame.


The classes were held through my LYS, Serial Knitters.  The Sweet Tomato Heels class was on Saturday.  It was FULL.

My Eastside Stitchers buddy, GwenS, came, too, and I got a chance to meet her Malabrigo Junkies buddy, k2togkate.  Students sported the most beautiful knitwear.  Bionickristie wore her Different Lines by
Veera Välimäki.

The class was fast and fun and informative.  Cat is a very thorough teacher.  She gives lots of visual examples with great memory tricks.

BTW (by the way) the part of a stair that hangs over the corner of the tread and riser is called the "nosing."

She broke our group into small groups sessions, then walked around the room checking everyone's work, repeatedly, one by one, to be sure everyone understood what was going on.

She has great videos of how to do her heel on her website.

In addition to the heel, we also learned how to start a toe up sock with a Turkish Cast on. 

And began socks with Star Toes.  Expect more on this in later blogs, as I have started a pair for my brother.

The class on Sunday was on Mobius Knitting, and especially, on Designing Mobius knits.  The mobius structure is really interesting for designing, because there is no inside and outside, there is only one continuous side.  Anything you design should take this into account, and so all patterns must not have one obvious right or wrong side.  We talked about playing around with textures and patterns.  This is one of the fun things about Cat's own designs.  She likes to take an idea,

then keep stretching it, playing with it,

seeing what it can do, what else she can make.

Even so, during the class, one of the students, Claire, discovered something NEW about mobius knitting.  Yes, you read it here first!  Like many great discoveries, it started with a mistake, or not really a mistake but with trying something slightly different for one purpose, and getting a completely different result.  Serendipity.  This is about all I can say about what happened, except that Cat got really excited, and called in Jeny Staimen, of Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bind Off.

Since Jeny lives close by, she came down to examine the Surprise, and stayed to give us a demonstration of her Metamorph cowl. 

It was really fun to be where knitting history was being made.  Expect more about this Surprise in the future, hopefully, patterns, etc. maybe even a book.

Stay safe and well,
Yours,

f1bercat
shaping the future with..... shhhhhhhhh!  a secret surprise

O, in case you haven't figured it out, I am the 2nd cat. 

Be Jealous of Me

Hello!

I am about to take my 2nd ever knitting class.......  with Cat Bordhi!  This morning I am off to Serial Knitters, my LYS, for a class on Sweet Tomato Heels.  I have finished my "homework," a 36 stitch tube 2 inches long in a light color sport weight yarn.  I will try to post tonight about the class and Cat (as I will call her once we are fast friends), that is if I have energy after 6 hours of knitting class.  My only other class I've taken was 1 hour and it wasn't even knitting, it was about publishing patterns.

Also, the Doc is dying to see the new James Bond movie, and wants to go tonight, but I will try try try to post.  Tomorrow, I am taking Cat's Mobius class, as well. So expect another excited post tomorrow.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,

f1bercat
shaping the planet with my new best knitting bud, Cat Bordhi

Puget Sound LYS Tour Day 4 Final Day!

Yes, I did it.  I visited 21 LYS (local yarn shops) in 4 days and completed the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour or as my husband, the Doc, likes to call it, "the pub crawl thing."

Every 7 shops, participants received a stitch marker, and at the 21st one, we got an extra marker (the last one) with the Tour logo, and a shawl pin.

Stop 1  Serial Knitters, Kirkland WA

Yes, we stopped in at Serial Knitters, our most LYS, again.  We had a new person with us today, Tara, and since neither she, nor Ellyol had been able to visit Serial Knitter during the crawl, we decided to give them a visit.  Ellyol was particularly happy to stop by because Allifer had made up the featured crochet pattern with the featured yarn from Serial Knitter, a pair of lace fingerless mitts, and finished them in the car on the crawl yesterday, and well, they were so cute and so fast and the price was so reasonable that Ellyol wanted to make a pair, also.

While we were there, MiriamK came in with her daughter who had WON!  one of the daily drawings.  It was so exciting.
















Stop 2 Acorn Street Shop, Seattle WA

After Serial Knitters, we headed over the 520 Floating Bridge (which is now a toll bridge ugh!)







to the University District or U District of Seattle and Acorn Street Shop.

By now the weather had gone gloomy, which is very normal here in May, and it was cold and drizzling.  But, we are used to it, so we just pressed on.  This was a really delightful shop.  Again, like most shops, it was a small space, but they had a very nice selection.

They had a huge wall of Cascade which will come in handy when I learn colorwork.

The thing I liked the most was their sock yarn (of course!).  They carry Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock yarn.  I actually didn't know that you could buy this yarn in a store, I thought you had to get it online.  It is so wonderful to be able to see the colors in person.

Also, they had another brand of sock yarn that was new to me:  Merino Mia. by Prism Yarn.  The colors were just gorgeous.



This yarn shop is very close and I don't have to drive over the 520 and pay the toll, I can head to the 90 bridge instead, adding maybe 10 minutes to the drive, and saving some money which I will of course spend on yarn.!

We made a quick stop back at Tea Cozy Yarns in Ballard so GwenS could pick up her prize from the Friday Drawing, then headed to the Bainbridge Island Ferry and our last Tour stop.

Stop 3 Churchmouse Yarn & Teas, Bainbridge Island  WA

The ferry ride was gray and foggy, but it was Tara's very first time on one of our state ferries.

What did we do during the ferry ride?  Knit and crochet, of course. 

At every shop today, I said to my group, "Yellow Sock Yarn, Yellow Sock Yarn, do not let me buy anything BUT Yellow Sock Yarn."

Churchmouse Yarns is actually a pretty famous tourist stop, and there is a reason for that.  It is a wonderful shop.  It is packed with yarn, cross stitch thread, patterns, etc, everything you need, attractively arranged, with cozy chairs, a table to work at, great windows for natural light, and very helpful friendly knowledgeable staff.

Their featured patterns, cowls for both knit and crochet, used Rowan Kidsilk Haze in a reasonable price (with a 10% LYS Tour discount all the shops had), and was just beautiful.


I broke.

I had to have it.

I bought 2 skeins, a solid in a soft maroon, and a matching stripe in maroon and grey.  I also bought a gorgeous ball of a delicate light lavender merino lace weight yarn.  I hope to use it for my 2012 Advent Calendar scarf.

At this last stop, Allifer, GwenS, and I finished the 21 shops.  So the great staff rang a bell for us, gave us our stitch markers and shawl pin,







And then, gave us each a glass of champagne, to celebrate.

Cheers!  to Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.  Cheers!  Allifer, GwenS, Ellyol, and Tara.  Cheers! Chockelet.  Cheers!  to all of the people who visited at least 1 shop in our gorgeous Puget Sound area these last 4 days, and Cheers!  to the 21 stores who hosted us.  It was a wonderful experience.  I can't wait to go back and spend more time at your lovely stores.

Time to cast on some new projects.

Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
Shaping the planet a whole bunch of new projects at a time

Churchmouse Yarn and Teas, Tea Room

2012 Puget Sound LYS Crawl Day 1

2012.05.18 Black Bart Iris

I have been participating in the 21 shops in 4 days madness called the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour.

Day 1
Yesterday, I got home at about 9 pm and seriously, I was exhausted.  We only hit 4 stores.  But I was dead.

Well, I went to 5 stores because I snuck off to Serial Knitters in Kirkland Washington by myself first, right when it opened.

It's a wonderful shop, although it seems small, it has a terrific selection.








They are currently having an Abstract Fiber Trunk Show, and wow those yarns are yummy.

What's best about it is, this is my most "local" of LYS's and it is really great to be able to see the yarn in real life.  And touch it!



Allifer came over at about 2:30 pm and we headed across Lake Washington to meet up with GwenS.

Our first stop was So Much Yarn  in Seattle's Belltown neighborhood, near the Pike Place Market.

I am writing this with the help of GwenS who took great notes.  (I was the driver).  So Much Yarn is upstairs and the space is small, but they have it packed with some wonderful yarns.  At every shop I asked the owners if they had anything that was unique to their shop.  Not every shop had an answer to that, but So Much Yarn did.  They carry a line of alpaca sock yarns from a local farm.  The yarns are all undyed, in the natural colors of the alpacas, some are blended, and they are named for each alpaca.  I had to buy a skein, knowing that I would be able to use it during the Solid Socks Challenge for Brown next year. They had a great mix of yarns at various prices, so you could find something really special, and still afford it.

Our second stop was The Knittery in Renton.

This is a well lit, open space, with a large selection of general workhorse yarns.

Our third stop was the Yarn Stash in Burien.


One of the fun things about the tour is that every shop has 2 featured patterns, and the yarn (the pattern can use 1 or 2 skeins) for the pattern on sale for 10% off.  Most of the patterns have been specially created for the Tour.  The pattern at the Yarn Stash this year is a pair of fingerless mitts, and is really nice.  It can be done with color work, or using texture instead of the 2nd color.  It was one of our favorite patterns.


The final stop for yesterday, was Seattle Yarn in West Seattle.



This shop was a delightful surprise.  It was much larger than expected, and had a really nice selection of both brands and prices.

A few of the stores had this sign in the window, Seattle Yarn did, and it was important to us because we had Allifer and Ellyol with us, both primarily crocheters (as well as me).




They had a huge button selection.

Gwen was particularly happy with their selection of Malabrigo and Madelinetosh.








I will try to get photos of today's excursion up tomorrow, etc.  But we are going to hit the northern most shops on the Tour, and it will be an absolutely crazy day.  I hope I have enough energy to blog.

Good night.  Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet one growing yarn stash at a time!