STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!

Hello:

hahahahahahahahahhahaha, we had our Steeking Class last night at the Eastside Knitters Guild regular June meeting at Crossroads Community Room, taught by the awesome and talented VanesaPolo.  I took all these photos (when I was not crocheting then cutting my own knitting!), and when I got home, I saw that the photos are pretty much just people's knitting, not actually the people who attended the class.  Oh, well, I guess this blog is about knitting anyway, right?

Here is one photo I took before the class began:

We filled the table space, and even had to put some chairs along the wall for late comers.

The instructions were clear, and VanesaPolo moved around the room helping anyone with a question.

So, instead of Who attended, here is some of the knitting that was cut.

The main things I learned were, crochet down into the middle of the column that will be cut, and up into the middle of the next column catching one leg of each stitch.  Make sure that your crocheted stitches (you are slip stitching) are tight.  And crochet a few stitches along the bottom of the piece then up the column, then along the top of the piece. 

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a steeks.

 

Eastside Knitters Guild and Venus

Hello:

I woke up to a sunrise at 6:30 this morning.  Those of you who live in lower latitudes don't really understand how much the times of sunrises and sunsets vary over the year for those of us who live "up North."  Or at least, I didn't really understand it when I lived in Southern California and Texas.  I love the late rising Winter sun because I get to see awesome sunrises in the Winter without waking up early, when I can see the sun, that is.  We are having a few days of no clouds, or very little clouds, and so the sunrise was glorious, and since we have rounded the longest night of the Winter Solstice, the sun is rising earlier and earlier.  Rather than an 8 am sunrise, it is a 6:30 am sunrise.  I am not kidding, that is the difference already.

The Venus part... find the Crescent Moon in the photo (waxing crescent to be precise), and look up and to the right just a bit on the right side of the bit of cloud.  See it?  That is Venus.  Hard to photograph with my little digital Olympus camera from Costco, but it is there.

I've been working two jobs this week, a sub job up in Northgate (about 30 - 45 min drive) and my regular tutoring job at Bellevue College.  The sub job is in the afternoon-evenings, not getting out until 6 every night.  That means I am driving home through Seattle traffic back to the Eastside of Lake Washington.  This didn't keep me from attending the February meeting of the Eastside Knitters Guild, although I was a bit late.

The program featured Kathy Batzelle of Alpacas at Morning Star Ranch.  She had a presentation on raising alpacas, and then on what she is doing with the fiber.  I had just seen the presentation about Imperial Ranch and their sheep/wool on Saturday at Tolt Yarn and Wool.  This is a much much smaller operation, but again, it is somehow so heartwarming to see local fiber in action.  One of the fun things Kathy showed us was what she is doing with her fiber.  She does a lot of felting into shawls and scarves.  She does so spinning, but most of her work is with felting, and dying, and the product is beautiful.

She is passionate about the animals, and the alpaca fiber.  She brought this rug knitted with giant bulky cords of the worst part of the fiber, the "thirds," and I couldn't believe how light it was.  Alpaca fiber is hollow, which makes it super warm yet super light.

The meeting was almost full.  The Guild is has a sign up sheet for members to volunteer in the Guild Booth at Vogue Knitting Live Seattle/Bellevue in March 14 - 16.  Guild members who work a shift will have free entrance to the Market for that day.  We are also taking donations to Raffle Baskets.  We will raffle these off to any people who give us their email contact information in the booth.  You don't have to be present to win. The prizes can be picked up at the March Guild meeting.  We are also taking members' knitted items (to be returned) to be put on display in the booth.  We would like to show off our skills, and also the charities we support (Operation Holiday Stocking, Purple Hats, etc.) 

If you are interested in working a shift, donating yarn/books/knitting tools, or lending a display item, please contact me on Ravelry.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet under a planet

News About Skacel

Hello!

Last night I attended the October meeting of the Eastside Knitters Guild.  I have a lot of notes from the meeting, and I was writing furiously, so I hope I didn't get anything down wrong. If I did, I will be sure to correct and update this post.

The first things we talked about at the meeting were the many charities the guild is knitting for.  One of the interesting things that I learned, is that the members who work for Microsoft keep track of their hours of charity knitting, because Microsoft will match the hours with money for that charity, just as they match cash donations.  Isn't that generous?

The guild is busy with many many charities, but one that we discussed a lot was making scarves for the Special Olympics.  Last year, every participant in the Special Olympics received a Red and Blue scarf.  There were  1000 made just for Washington.  There was a special appeal for scarves for Alaska, so when we had finished our Washington quota, the guild got  busy and made scarves to send up to Alaska.  This year, however, instead of having all of the states use the same color scheme, each state is choosing it's own scarf colors.

The colors for Washington (which needs 1000 scarves) are
 Red Heart Soft    Really Red #9925, and Light Grey Heather #9440.

The colors for Alaska (which needs 750 scarves) are
Caron one-pound:
Midnight blue #456 and Sunflower  #549

There are no patterns you need to follow, just use both colors in your scarf.  They should be 6 in. wide and between 54 - 60 in long including fringe.

If you make a scarf, you can mail it (or drive it over if you are local) to:
Special Olympics Washington
Attn: Scarf Project
1809 75h Avenue, Suite 1509
Seattle, WA 98101

Contact:  Ginger Cutler-Campbell

After we had finished the business portion, we had a presentation by Karin Skacel (pronounced CAR -in ske - SELL), President of Skacel Collection, Inc.  They are a local company, with their facility just south of Seattle.  They are the sole North American distributors of my favorite knitting needles, Addi Turbos, as well as a bunch of really cool yarns.  All of this, and, they are a family company.  Local and family owned.

Anyway, Karin talked to us about their newest venture, a retail store coupled with a bakery that specializes in Gluten Free baked goods.  She wanted the "crafting community center,"  her daughter dreamed of running her own bakery, they are putting them together in "Makers' Mercantile."  They will have over 6000 sq ft of space.  There will be the bakery, a large space with a counter at the back and lots of room for tables, chairs, couches, etc. where people can sit and craft while enjoying the goodies.  Remember, Karin told us, "Gluten free does not mean calorie free."  She brought us some of her daughter's cookies to sample, peanut butter (honestly - to die for), and chocolate chip (equally yummy).  The food part will include espresso, local sodas, and teas.  There will also be plenty of room for classes.  Karin sees the store as way more than yarn and needles.  Of course there will be yarn and needles.  It is Skacel, after all.  But they will offer a variety of other crafting projects. 

One of Karin's big dreams is for the classroom space.  She wants to offer lots of classes and gave us a sampling of the projects they will be starting with.  The most amazing ones to me were the felting.  This is not fulling, as when you knit/crochet something and throw it in the washer to "full."  This is full on artistic needle felting. 

front of felted blanket

back of felted blanket

Check out the felted scarf:

It was amazingly light and soft.  The roving used to make it was cashmere.

Karin also talked about this hooking craft.  It's not the same as the latch hooking that was so popular in the 1970s.  She showed us some sample purse projects.

One of the things I liked about the projects is that they will be offered in a variety of price points, so you can do them relatively cheaply, or luxuriously. 

As for yarns, they will only sell their own brands.  There are many yarn shops in the Seattle area.  And these shops do a great job selling all kinds of yarn from Cascade to specialty local dyers.  They don't want to replicate that but rather compliment our local offerings with their own.  Makes great sense to me.

In addition to all of the cool crafting and felting classes, they will hold regular skill building classes for knitting and crochet, as well as offer classes with visiting instructors/designers such as Franklin Habit. 

Then the best part of the evening started.  Karin had brought a special set of Addi Needles size 15 filled with .....

Swarovsky Crystals.

I kid you not.  She raffled them off.  I did not win.


However, she also brought goody bags for all the Guild members who attended, so I did score one of those:

Not only did I get a new reusable bag, but inside there was a catalog with free patterns, a ball of their XXL Treking sock yarn, and a pattern for a project bag to be knit with the yarn.  Awesome goodies!

Thanks so much to the Skacel Collection for the great program, and especially to Karin Skacel for coming out to talk to the group.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,

f1bercat
shaping the planet with new sock yarn!

Lily's Socks

Hello!

I'm posting quickly before running out to attend the monthly meeting of the Eastside Knitters Guild. This is not my regular S n B group that meets on Wednesdays.  This is an actual Knitting Guild and it is a member of the Knitting Guild Association.  I have posted about this group before, but not for a while because I have not been able to attend a meeting since the beginning of the summer.  Since they only meet once a month, on the 4th Monday, if I am not at home that day... well, I have been gone quite a bit.

They not only participate in some great knitting charities, like making scarves for the Special Olympics, but they have speakers at the meetings.  Tonight's speaker is from the Skacel Company. This company is based in the area, is the distributor of Addi Knitting Needles,  and will be opening a retail store soon.  I will report back here.

On the needles

This is just a quick photo of my purple Bubbly Socks.  Once again, the pattern is by VeryBusyMonkey, and I am getting a 3fer out of these.  The color for October for SolidSocks Group is Purple, VeryBusyMonkey is one of the featured designers for Sock Knitters Anonymous (SKA),  and these are the 2nd of 3 pairs of socks I am making for my History of Magic OWL in Harry Potter Knitting/Crochet House Cup (HPKCHC) Group.  They are for Lily Potter, who excelled in Potions Class.  The bubbles and the purple color both reminded me of Harry's mom.

I started these before I left to go down to California to help out at my brother's house, but didn't make much progress.  I love the pattern, I love the yarn.  For some reason, I keep twisting the cables the wrong way.  Finally, I just gave in.  If they are twisted wrong, well they will just stay that way.  I think that I will make my next pair of cabled socks 1-at-a-time, though.  It is just too hard to fix cable errors by dropping down, and too time consuming to tink 2 pairs when only one has the error.

I brought these socks to Arizona last weekend, and worked almost monogamously on them.  I was able to knit both heels, finish the gussets, and begin working down the feet.  I was getting a bit worried that I wouldn't finish them by October 31, the deadline for SolidSocks, because they are tough to work on if it is at all dark.  Now I know I will be finished by this weekend at the latest.

I still have a special hat that I am knitting for my son, Pookie, for Halloween, and my daughter, Moogie, asked if I would sew her a costume.  I need to get cracking on those.

Maybe tomorrow.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,

f1bercat
Shaping the planet with purple socks.

Eastside Knitters Guild Travel to Portugal...

Hollyhocks

The Eastside Knitters Guild met tonight for their usual last Monday of the month meeting at Crossroads Mall in Bellevue.

The meeting started off with all kinds of announcements.

The Evergreen State Fair will take place in Monroe, Washington, from August 23 - September 3.  There will be many types of fair exhibitions and competitions including knitting, crochet and lace.  You can fill out the entrance forms on line.  Don't quote me on this, but there was talk at the EKG meeting that there will be "knitting demonstrations"  as a "Sit and Knit" on Sunday, August 26th.  If you volunteer for 4 hours, you can get free parking and admission for that day.  I couldn't find anything to support this on the website, but it is definitely worth a call.

The EKG is ramping up their stocking knitting for Operation Holiday Stockings.  They knit small holiday stockings to be filled with toiletries and goodies for our troops overseas.  This year they are committed to knit 1200 stockings, but hope to make it to 3000.

The Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival will take place September 22 & 23 at the Clackams County Fairgrounds in Canby Oregon.

The National Button Society will hold it's National Convention in Portland, Oregon from August 4 - 11.  This is a bit of a late notice, but if you can get there, it should be really cool.

Northwest Bead Society is holding the 24th Annual Bead Bazaar at the Lynnwood Convention Center, in Lynnwood, WA on September 29th and 30th.  Admission is $6 and it is good for both days.

 A bit of exciting news is that Skacel is opening a retail yarn shop in October, relatively near to its current wholesale headquarters in Kent.  There will also be a gluten free bakery on the site.  Yum.

After all of the announcements, there was a presentation.  Tonight, guild member Carol Buckmiller demonstrated and taught Portuguese Knitting.  The stitches are the same as regular knitting, but the method is quite different from both Continental and English methods of tension and holding the yarn.

The presentation was very interesting.  And by the end of the evening, I was knitting and more importantly, purling, using the Portuguese method.

The method uses a hook and pin attached to the knitters left shoulder.  The yarn is held to the right of the knitter, and in the right hand, usually wrapped around one finger (we used our middle fingers), then run up to the hook, and back down to the knitting in the left hand.  The yarn tension should be fairly tight, so you can pluck the taut yarn.

This method is supposedly more ergonomic and faster than the throwing methods since you hold your hands in a neutral position, and there is less hand movement.  Purling, especially, is supposed to be easier and faster.

Carol showed us a beautiful 2 color stranded  hat she made during a class she took in using this method in colorwork.  She has gotten so much faster at purling since she started with this method, that she now does purled garter stitch instead of knitted when a pattern calls for it.

As with any new method, it felt quite awkward at first, but I could see the possibilities with purling, especially.  I have to say that the knit stitch seemed awkward, and caused me to move my right hand a lot, and now my wrist is a bit achy.  Well, maybe I should use this method occasionally just to keep my muscles moving.

Where in the World is f1bercat?

I only knit for 4 miles today.  When I got to the Y, the parking lot was really empty, but when I got inside all of the recumbent bikes were in use!  That has never happened to me before.  Then, as I was knitting, I realized that I was off in one of the seed stitch panels of my Better than French Vanilla Socks, and I might be able to knit while riding that exercise bike, and fix small errors, but I can not fix seed stitch while pedaling.  Anyway, when I got home and really looked at the sock, I realized that I had somehow picked up an extra stitch.  Luckily for me, it was the first stitch of the section.  So, when I dropped that stitch, my seed stitch was fine.

But, I had to stop riding at 4 miles, because, it is just too boring to ride and not knit.

Those 4 miles put me at 385.93 miles knitted.

This is near Drain, Oregon.


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Here I am on the big map.


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Last night I picked up my son, Himes, from the airport.  He is home after 3 weeks in France.  His plane was more than 3 hours late and didn't arrive until almost 1 am.  I am so tired.

And so, on that tired, whiney note, I will say goodnight.

Stay safe and well.
Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet the Portuguese way.

Eastside Knitters Guild Attacked by Knitted Monsters

Rebecca Danger 2012.05.21

Eastside Knitters Guild

Rebecca Danger of the DangerCrafts shop on Etsy and the wonderful Big Book of Knitted Monsters visited The Eastside Knitters Guild tonight at Crossroads Mall.  She brought lots of fun samples of her monster patterns, books, and kits.

Rebecca started out designing, sewing and selling artisan purses and bags, and only switched to knitting patterns relatively recently.  The most amazing thing about her  is how self taught she is.  She is just so creative and ready to take changes and try things.  If she wants a pattern to do something and doesn't now how, she just makes it up.  I love how whimsical and endearing her "monsters" are.





In addition to finding the monster, dinosaur, and other patterns in her books, you can buy patterns individually at her Etsy Store.



WIP's  

I have finished the 3rd clue on the Mock (mystery sock) for Sock Knitters Anonymous and my "summer" colored sock for SolidSocks for May.  This clue started with the heel turn and included the gussets.



I just love this color.  I am using Cascade Heritage Sock in Turquoise.

The heels were pretty standard, but the gusset has a twisted rib, continuing the twisted rib pattern that made up the legs.  I really love the look.  The 4th and last clue will be released tomorrow morning.  I can't wait.

I also finished the third Spa Washcloth from my Liz Marino Gift Knits Club.  These are so much fun to knit and such a great gift idea.  I have decided to make them for my 3 sisters and 4 sisters in law for Christmas gifts.

Right after I bound off, I cast on another spa washcloth with some of the organic yarn I bought on the 2012 Puget Sound Yarn Tour.  3 down, 18 to go.










Where in the World is f1bercat?

When I left off my bike tour, I was at 183.63 miles and on the side of the road in Oregon.  I managed to knit another 5.1 miles and made it to Knit Divas!  188.73 miles knitted so far.


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To tell the truth, I am not sure this LYS is still in business.  They have a website, and a Ravelry Group, but it all looks a bit inactive.  The economy is so tough.  I am glad I participated in the 2012 Puget Sound LYS Tour.  It is so important to support our small businesses, especially our local ones.  I hope that Knit Divas is still alive.  It is such a great name for a shop.

Here is my progress so far:


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And here is where I am on the big map:


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I still have a way to go.

Stay safe and well.

Yours,
f1bercat
shaping the planet one spa washcloth at a time

one of Rebecca Danger's Monsters

Back On The Bike!

2012.04.23

Eastside Knitters Guild

The EKG met for our regular monthly meeting tonight at Crossroads Mall, in Bellevue, WA.

Tonight, we had the knitwear designer, Andrea Rangel, of Andrea Rangel Knits as a speaker.  She had a slide show, and brought many samples of her very different designs.  She does do socks, and scarves, and hats, BUT, not the usual.  And, she designs clothes, and clothes that you might not think of knitting.  For instance, she brought 2 pairs of knit pants, and a pair of shorts.

It was really interesting listening to her talk about how she gets her ideas and inspiration, then her process of developing the pattern.  She was very generous with her information, citing the computer programs she uses, and blogs/webpages that she has found useful. 

This is one of the things that I have seen again and again in the fiber world, this generosity of spirit.  You might have figured out that I am a children's writer.  In the writing world, you hear stories of people being very tight with their ideas, and expertise, always worried that someone might get the jump on them.  This is not at all true in Children's publishing.  Children's book writers and illustrators are extremely helpful and generous.  It is a group that shares information, helps each other, and is genuinely happy for the success of others.  I am so happy to see this same generosity in the knit/crochet community.  People are so happy to help others get started. 

I didn't take any photos, and I'm sorry for that.  Her work is beautiful.  Please take the time to visit her site and see her designs.
 

Where in the World is f1bercat?

Woot!  I made it to the Y today for the first time in 2 weeks.  I wasn't 100% by any means, in fact I only knit/rode the bike for 20 minutes. But, it is a beginning.  I had hoped to do about 30 minutes, but at 12 minutes my head started to pound, and it was all I could do to stay knitting for 20.  And I only knit 3.62 miles, but I did it.

So where did that get me on my trip south to California?  HOORAY!  I have crossed the border into Oregon!


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I am on my way to visiting my first Oregon LYS (Local Yarn Store), but did not quite reach it.  I should be back in yarn tomorrow.

This is what my trip looks like so far:


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And here is where I am on the big map:


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I plan to take it super slowly and carefully on the bike this week.  I do NOT want to have a relapse of this flu.  But, it is good to be getting some exercise.

What was I knitting?  The Fish Hat Dead or Alive by Thelma Eberts that I am making as a wedding gift for my nephew, A, who is getting married this summer.  I am still on the "lips" which is the very beginning of the hat, so it was super easy knitting in the round.

Eastside Knitting Guild Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Life
Last night, as I was getting in bed at about 11 pm, my little cat, Selena, asked to go outside, as usual.  This has been happening for about 2 years, now.  She goes out just as I get into bed, and, her usual pattern is: just as I am falling asleep, she scratches to come back in.  Whether it takes me 5 minutes or 1 hour to fall asleep, she manages to time her Come Back In scratches perfectly.  Except, lately she has changed her routine to, just as I fall asleep, she scratches on the french door (we have a back deck that runs the length of our house) , I get up and open said french door, and she backs away and runs.  GOTCHA!  I will get back in bed, then as I am falling asleep again, she scratches on the door again.  Now why don't I just leave her out?  Well, we sometimes get coyotes and racoons in our yard, and I don't like her to be out all night...  Anyway, last night I had had it with this game, and the first time she knocked, I opened the door and stepped outside to grab her and just BRING HER IN, and omg, I stepped into a spiderweb, right across my face.  Now, we live in the pacific northwest, and we don't have many bugs, but we have tons, I mean tons of spiders.  Especially in the fall.  Tons of big spiders building webs all around the eaves of our house.  And I walked into one at about 1 am.  So, I'm wiping and dancing around outside on our deck in my nightgown at 1 am, brushing my hair over and over again and shaking my arms and brushing all over making sure that there is no spider on me.  Of course, this time Selena calmly walks into the house...  I get back in bed, and have a horrible time falling asleep because I am sure all night that there is a huge spider in the bed.  Wisely, I never tell the Doc any of this.

EKG
Monday night was the monthly meeting of the Eastside Knitters' Guild.  They hold their meetings at the community room in Crossroads Mall, which is super close to where I live.  Meetings are 6:30 - 8:30 pm the 4th Monday of every month.  What a nice group!  We started with a few updates, then they had a "speaker."  I guess they sometimes have technique teachers, etc., but this was a Feldenkrais therapist.  Her name is Irene, and she went over some easy exercises to relax and reteach ways of using muscles during knitting to relieve or prevent stress and strains.  The gist of it was to use variation and attention to how you are moving.  One of the questions we had was how to relieve tension.  Her suggestion was to deliberately knit with EXTRA tension, then relax back to your usual tension.  This will eventually teach you how to knit with less tension all the time.  I didn't find the wrist exercises very helpful, but the turning ones actually felt good to me.  She had us turn and look right, then work at turning using our shoulders, coming forward and back, also arching or rounding the back as we turned, holding in the stomach muscles, etc, just trying to really FEEL what muscles in addition to your neck are being used when you turn.  By the end, I was turning more fluidly and quite a bit farther.  One of the funny things about the presentation was that every so often Irene would have to ask us to put down our knitting.  Ha!  well, that's what we do.

This group is seriously into charity knitting.  Some of the projects they discussed were:

Project Linus.  This group provides blankets to kids in hospitals, shelters, etc.  Anyone in need of comfort.  The Eastside knitters knit and crochet (many of the members are also in Eastside Crochet Guild) as well as put together felt blankets and donate them.

Operation Holiday Stockings:  This group makes, stuffs, and sends holiday stockings to US service men and women overseas.  You can donate stockings (they have a pattern on the website) or money, or goodies to be stuffed!  Here is a photo of some of the stockings made by the Eastside Knitters' Guild this year:

That is Renee, displaying her stockings!  They deliberately try to use many colors so all soldiers can enjoy a stocking, even if they don't celebrate Christmas.

The 3rd charity the group is participating in right now is the Special Olympics.  The group is busy knitting and crocheting scarves in red white and blue to be given to every participant in the event.

After the updates, and the therapy!, we went around the room and had a show and tell of projects.  Of course, many of the members showed the stockings, blankets or scarves they were knitting, but in addition to all this wonderful charity knitting, there were other fun projects as well.  One member made a darling baby sweater, and another had a book of knitted animals to share.  Amigurumi.  I am so sorry that I didn't make a note of the book's title.  But the patterns make animals that are a few inches high.  This member (I didn't get her name...) was using super bulky yarn and big needles, and getting these really cute LARGE stuffed animals.  So clever!  I might try that myself.  The one she was making almost looked like a pillow pet.

I definitely will go back next month.  If you live on the Eastside (for those of you in the Seattle area, you know that means the east side of Lake Washington), you should check it out, too.

KNITTING KNOTES:

I have finished my Hermione socks!

They are on the blockers, and I should be able to mail them out tomorrow.  I want to include the blurb from the pattern about the Hermione Granger inspiration, and some care instructions.  I know she will love them.

Today I had to take my car in to get the oil changed and the tires rotated.  Somehow they didn't notice (nor did I) that the right headlight was out.  I'm kinda mad.  Oh well.  Got to fix that ASAP.  But, anyway, at the dealership, yes I have to take my car in to the dealership to get the oil changed, for some reason JiffyLube won't change the oil on hybrids, I was able to knit knit knit on the Mystery Sweater!

Before the oil change

and after:

No kidding, I knit about 15 rows.  I am on the stockinette stitch part, and it's pretty boring, but very fast.  I will be at the armpits in no time.

Not having any socks on my needles, I am just Itching to cast some on, but I am resisting the urge.  I want to wait for November 1 so I can cast on projects for both the SKA group and Solid Socks group challenges.  I have to dig out James's Aran Afghan, and alternate the Mystery Sweater with the afghan when I am bored.  That should help with the single project syndrome.

C. A. Losi

Knitting Groups Monday, October 24, 2011

Today I am going to a monthly meeting of the Eastside Knitters' Guild tonight.  Here is their post in the "Sheepless in Seattle" Group in Ravelry: 

The Eastside Knitters Guild meets monthly in Bellevue, WA. Fun people, awesome knitters, and lots of activities, including great opportunities to hook up with charitable orgs. There's a small membership fee to sign on, but you can come as a guest to check it out.
Details are at: http://www.eskg.org/

I have been wanting to find some type of group to join, something that meets once a week, bi weekly, or monthly.  Just somewhere to go on a regular basis to hang out with fellow knitters.  This group meets at a Mall right near my house, so it is really perfect, location-wise, anyway.  I will try to get a sense of what they are all about.

If you can't tell from my posts, and the books I have for sale here, I am a children's writer.  When I was writing more regularly, I belonged to a writers' critique group which met every other week.  It was very helpful in keeping me motivated to write regularly.  Also, you can find out what is happening in the writing world, publishing news, etc.  And the support is wonderful.  Writing is a lonely business.

I am hoping that this Eastside Knitters' Guild will serve the same purpose.  I don't really need motivation.  Goodness knows I have to force myself OFF the needles rather than on them.  But, still it is really motivating to see other people's projects.  IRL.  (in real life).  Ravelry serves the same basic purpose.  It is  community of knitters, cheering each other on.  I have joined 3 different sock groups.  Why?  Why?  I just love scrolling through everyone's entries for the various competitions.  Yarns, patterns, techniques, etc.  So much fun!

Anyway, I will report back on how the meeting goes.  Keep your fingers crossed.

PROGRESS

I am almost to the toes of the Hermione socks!  I am very excited by my progress.  Yesterday, my husband, Doc, and I drove Samantha back to Portland State University.  She was home for the weekend because she was miserable with Mononucleosis.  Doc drove, so I was able to knit the entire 3 hour drive there.  Unfortunately, it was too dark to really knit on the way back, but still, I need 2 more iterations of the 4 row pattern and I will be at the toes!  I should finish tonight or tomorrow.  That would be my 3rd SKA entry on time!

Here is what the socks look like now:

This is a front view, and a side view.

I also finished the bottom pattern band on the Mystery Sweater I am knitting for the Sharing Our Gifts Group:

I double checked the gauge, and it is still 4 st/in.  So the width should be good for size Medium.  Here is an attempt at a close-up of the pattern.  It is very difficult to see pattern in dark colored knits.

You can kind of see a row of arrows running around the bottom.  Now comes the boring part though.  I will now knit about 50 rows of st st.  KKKKKKKKK  forever.  At least it should go fast.

It is interesting how the flash turned the black yarn green...

While I was down in Portland, I got my daughter, Samantha, to model the Glass Slippers Socks I made for her.  She told me she likes to wear them with boots, pulled up over her pants, so people can see the socks:

I also took time this morning to photograph and enter some yarn that had been just lying in a bag into my Ravelry Stash database.  I am hoping to become more organized this way.  So I can know when I really need to buy yarn.  It is so tempting to buy buy buy.  I vow I will knit with what I've got for a while at least...  I need to knit down a bit of all my goodies to justify more yarn purchases!

C. A. Losi