Quiet Night for Eastside Stitchers

Hello:

We had a gloriously cool day today, a bit of rain, clouds until mid-afternoon, and cool cool cool temperatures again.  My kind of summer day.

One thing or another led to a quiet evening at Crossroads.    The mall itself was rather quiet, perhaps everyone was outside enjoying the gorgeous evening.  When Colleen and I left, at about 8:45 pm, it was still so light out that I didn't need to turn on my headlights (of course I did anyway, I am a safe driver).

It was quiet at our stitching table, as well.  We spend a lot of time talking about sleeping, or lack thereof.  But, mostly, we stitched.  This makes for a pretty quick post.

Colleen brought her pink practice sweater.  She is working on the bands.  It is really coming along well.

Wajio was working on something secret.

LauraFranH brought a Potato Chip Scarf.

CathieC brought a Potato Chip Scarf.  Wait, didn't I just type that?  It was deja vu all over again.

The thing is, of course, that Potato Chip Scarves are pretty nice social knitting.  I need to start one.  I have decided that I just can't bring anything complicated.  I mean, my Garden Path socks from Tour de Sock are NOT complicated.  But, every time I bring them, I spend the next day tinking EVERY row I knit at Crossroads.  I save time by not bringing them to work on.   Tonight I worked on the Harry Potter Gryffindor Scarf from the first book.

WireKnitter  was knitting another beautiful shawl.  Sorry, I didn't get the name, but I took a close up of her work (well as nice of a close up my little camera can handle ).  The "wrong" side of the fabric is as pretty as the "right" side.

The two moms-to-be who made it to Crossroads (someone was napping... not mentioning names, you know who you are...) were working on sweaters for their expected babies.

Vanesapolo is knitting a LadyLike Cardigan. 

And Hrvdmnky was working on a Mira Sweater (#2 for this pattern).

Next week we will meet on Wednesday, as usual, but then on Thursday, we will meet at the Mariners Game for the annual Stitch n Pitch.  Hope to see you there.  Not sure what I will be working on, something not too complicated, I hope.  I will try to post what I plan to bring here so if you see my project, please stop by and say hi.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with not enough sleep (back to my penultimate row...)

Vanesa Vanesa Vanesa is back!

Hello:

It's so nice that I have helpers when I am trying to hook an afghan square.

The Friday Fiber sub-group from Eastside Stitchers met for some morning stitching at Crossroads.  The weather has gotten quite lovely again, and since we are past the Spring Equinox and getting close to the Summer Solstice, the sun rises very early now, and we had great light through the skylight at the center of the Mall.

I arrived first.  I have started a part-time job as a tutor at Bellevue College, and though I really don't want to work on Fridays (Hello!  I have knitting on Friday mornings), I agreed to meet one of my ESL (English as a Second Language) students for an hour.  Since I knew that I had to leave early, I wanted to get to stitching as early as possible to make up for it.

I am sure I have said this many times, but Crossroads is not much of a mall.  It is really a giant food court with lots of tables, a stage that is often used by local schools for performances, and a few stores (thank goodness a Jo-Ann's, a Starbucks, and a Half-Price Books).  You can take a table for 4 - 6 hours and not feel like you need to eat and move on.  Because of this, there are lots of crafting groups who use the space. 

Today, while I waited for stitch buddies to join me, I saw a man tatting,

and a small group of women stitching a knit/crochet squares afghan to a quilt fabric backing for a friend who is sick.

The Eastside Stitchers soon began arriving.

Skeinherder brought her There and Back Again socks . She has finished the first sock, and was working on the toe of the 2nd.

Later in the morning, she progressed to some very soft fingerless gloves, Ghislaine Gloves  by Sara Varty.

Mary brought an almost finished baby dress.  She had a bit of seaming to do, and lots and lots of weaving in.

WireKnitter is a few inches further on her beautiful Pebble sweater by Laura Aylor.

This started a discussion of what types of projects are good to bring to Crossroads, and what happens when a project gets so big that it is no longer easily portable.  You want to keep working on it, as you are getting closer to the end, but when it is tough to fit in a project bag, or just too heavy to lug around, you tend to leave it home and work on other things.

CathyC arrived with her Potato Chip scarf.  She has made some real progress.  Again, this is an easy pattern, but it does require counting.  That can be a problem when you are chatting and laughing with your friends.

And then,

VanesaPolo arrived!  She has been gone for the last few weeks on vacation in Spain.  It was so much fun to have her back. 

She brought some show and tell,

and her Potato Chip Scarf #2.

I brought an afghan square for the First Anniversary Afghan I am making for my nephew and his bride. This is Waldo's Puzzle by Chris Simon.  Great clear pattern with some round photos included in the pdf to help out.

Tomorrow, Skeinherder and I will be hitting 10 stores in one day on the South Sound LYS Crawl.  You can expect photos of pastries and alpaca, since one of the shops is near a great bakery, and another is an alpaca farm!

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a puzzle.

Eastside Stitchers Crowd Around 1 Table

Hello:

Eastside Stitchers met as usual at Crossroads tonight for some stitching fun.  One of the things I like about how our group is developing, is that we are really using our Ravelry Group for communication.  For instance, Anerenbe was feeling under the weather, so she left a message in a thread for tonight saying that she would not make it to Crossroads.  This gives us a heads up as to how many tables we will need, but also, keeps those of us who tend to (s)mother a bit relief from worry when regular members don't show.

We were missing a few more people because of either illness or vacations, so we decided to stay tight around one big round table, and got a bit ... full, but never too full to have stitching space.

MsWiz was knitting a Sock Monkey Hat.  She cast on the nose using Judy's Magic Cast On for the first time.  Thank goodness I had brought my Cast On Bind Off book by Leslie Ann Bestor.  And thank goodness for Wireknitter who helped with the first round.

CathieC has made huge progress on her potato chip scarf.  During the evening she dropped, and picked up, a stitch.  Isn't it great to learn how to FIX your knitting?

Colleen was knitting a fun fur scarf.  The yarn was donated from MsWiz's stash.

GwenS was knitting on, then finished the body of, a beautiful Seamless Yoked Baby Sweater in Malabrigo, of course.

Wireknitter was knitting a G'day Boomerang by Susan Ashcroft in some Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock in Heavyweight.  It is nice to find deep stash that is so beautiful.

Chockelet has made fine progress on a Charlotte's Web Shawl by Maie Landra. 

Skeinherder was knitting Footies by Quirky Bird Knits.  She is using Malabrigo, of course, in Zarzamora colorway.  She used the same yarn in her Donnie's Hat.  She will be in Malabrigo from head to toe.

Tara1682 has made more progress on her beautiful Cobble by Kitman Figueroa.  She was unsure that the tonal qualities of the yarn would allow the pattern to show clearly, but I think you can see, even in this mediocre photo, that the yarn looks beautiful in this pattern.

And, finally, Hrvdmnky was knitting a ribbed scarf, of her own design, in some beautiful turquoise, well mostly turquoise, by Cephalopod Yarns.

We talked about gambling, tipping, ice cream, and yarn crawls, especially the South Sound LYS Crawl, and the North Sound LYS Crawl, which will both be coming up in May.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with stitching Buddies

West Coast Eastside Stitchers Miss East Coast Eastside Stitcher

 

 

Hello:
We went from what looked like a pretty nice day, to big rain and wind, then by the time the Eastside Stitchers met at Crossroads Mall tonight, back to a pretty nice evening.

We had a nice group, but we were missing our buddy, Redbird1, who is now our East Coast member.   CathyC was there, but left before I could take a photo of her Potato Chip Scarf.

Wajio was trying to work on what she learned in her Vogue Knitting Live, Seattle Bellevue class on Lace Knitting with Beads. 

Colleen was making good progress on a scarf for the YMCA Charity sale.

Hrvdmnky was knitting her beautiful socks made with the wild pink and black yarn dyed by her friend,  Tri'Coterie.

Anerenbe is almost finished with her Yvaine shawl. 

Skeinherder brought her There and Back Again Socks, by Dawn Hansen. These are being knit in Malabrigo Sock. 

She also brought her Donnie's Hat, also in a Malabrigo Yarn.

VanesaPolo also brought a variety of projects.  She has finished her new hat.  This is the one in the Yak Yarn.

We got to see her new fingerless mitts (also her own design).

she brought a Potato Chip Scarf she is knitting for her mother out of some blingy yarn.

VanesaPolo also brought things from the classes she took at Vogue Knitting Live.  She took classes in sewing zippers in your knitting, as well as seaming.

zipper front

zipper back

Look, it opens:

Tara1682 was not working on the beautiful Cloisters Wrap she is knitting for her Grandmother.  Instead, she was working on her Cobble by Kitman Figueroa.

WireKnitter was knitting a V-neck sweater.  It has a set in sleeve, that is knit in.

Before the night ended, Hrvdmnky had finished her socks:

ok, back to my Sock Madness knitting.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with prolific knit buddies.

can you see the wind?