Eastside Stitchers, Thank Goodness

Hello!
After a tiring day of substitute teaching, Thank Goodness for Eastside Stitchers. 

I got to Crossroads right about 5 pm and was joined by CathieC.  She hasn't been to any of our meet ups in FOREVER, but she has been knitting, and she has made wonderful progress on her MacArthur Park Poncho. 

We had just started chatting when Pam2 arrived.  So good to see her.  January knitting seems to bring people out of the woodwork.  She was working on a sock.  Perhaps if she keeps up the sock knitting, Skeinherder and I will drag her into some competitions...

Wireknitter brought a beautiful colorwork cowl she is test knitting.  The pattern is Hashtag Snowflake by Susan Ashcroft.

Wireknitter brought another project, but as it is the Follow Your Arrow Mystery Shawl KAL by Ysolde Teague, I can't show any spoiler photos.

VanesaPolo took a break from the Lovely Baby Emma to sit and knit with us for a bit.  She is also knitting the Follow your Arrow Mystery Shawl by Ysolde Teague, so I can only show her yarn choice.

So the January grays did not just bring us Pam and Vanesa, but... Colleen!  yes, Colleen had broken her foot and was immobile for about two months.  However, she made the trek to Crossroads tonight with a bag of yarn goodies to share.  I snagged some pretty red and yellow.... There might be a Gryffindor Scarf in my future.  Anyway, Colleen was knitting a very pretty scarf, hers will be for charity.

O, shoot, she told me the name of the pattern, and I forgot to write it down.

Then, one more person came in out of the January gray night, Amigirl!  I bet you can't guess what she brought to knit.  Here is a hint, it's green.

The Sprucey Lucy Socks!  by Wendy D. Johnson. 

She has made progress, honest.  ha ha ha,  we had this wonderful discussion about how you need at least one project that is real social knitting.  These socks are just a bit too ... much for knitting at Crossroads, and often Amigirl has to frog every stitch she completed.  Not tonight, however.  I believe Amigirl got two good rows in tonight.  Rows that won't need to be frogged.

I think we will see more of Amigirl and Pam2 in the next few weeks.  I certainly hope so.  And, welcome back, Colleen.  We have missed you.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with old-new knitting friends.

2013 Advent Calendar Scarf, Day 8

Hello:

The above photo is of the trees on my street as seen through my frosted windshield.  Our weather continues to be weirdly cold with no clouds (also weird).  I think the high today was in the 20s (F), and the low somewhere in the teens.  Brrrrr.

I was able to meet up with the Eastside Stitchers who get together on Sunday mornings at Panera in Redmond.  I don't usually post about the Sunday meet ups, because I'm usually too lazy to post on the weekends regularly, but since I missed the last two Fridays and the last Wednesday meet ups, I thought I would take some photos.  However, I am going to post all of that AFTER I do my progress report on the 2013 Advent Calendar Scarf.

Day 8 pattern had only one "different" stitch.  The pattern was an easy combination of left and right leaning decreases, knits, purls, and YO's.  It is one long repeat of 34 rows.  I was able to knit on the scarf at Panera.  We had a discussion of how hard I was working to stay on target, and the value/stress of these self-imposed deadlines.  I had a very busy day today, and I was worried that I would fall behind.  I did finish today's pattern, but I need to try to get ahead tomorrow just in case I get called in to substitute teach somewhere next week.

 This is what the pattern for Day 8 looks like:

 The "different" stitch is at the top of the pattern.  It is a double decrease.  It is not a centered decrease, but rather, the right stitch is on top of the other two stitches.  Here is the tutorial.

^  sl1 k2tog psso
You will be taking the 3 Knit stitches and decreasing them to 1 stitch.

Insert the right needle into the first stitch as if to knit,

and slip that stitch to the right needle.

knit the next 2 stitches together.

Insert the left needle into the slipped stitch,

lift that slipped stitch and pass it over the stitch you just knit.

Here is what my scarf looks like now.  I have pinned it out a bit on some blocking mats so you can see what it will look like when it is blocked.

ha ha ha, you can see how little yarn I have left in the first skein.  I need to cake up the next skein to be ready for tomorrow.

But, first I will show you what projects people brought to Eastside Stitchers Sunday meet up at Panera.


CathieC brought her MacArthur Park Poncho.

Skeinherder brought the Roseum wrap. She bought the yarn and pattern at Tolt Yarn and Wool.  However, Skeinherder worked on the mini-sock ornaments she is making for Christmas presents.

JitteryKnitter brought a hat in beautiful MadelineTosh.  She was just about to close the top.

Puzan brought a cowl in Christmas colors.

Our newest Eastside Stitcher, stephzuel123, was also working on a hat.  It is a beautiful with all of the cables.

Wajio brought her SOCKS.  Look!  she is almost to the ribbing.

After a stressful week, a morning of social knitting is just the thing to help me relax.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the world on a Sunday.
Look!  JitteryKnitter finished her hat before I had to leave to tutor a student.

Power Outage Postpones Post

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Well, last night 4 of us die hard Eastside Stitchers showed up at Crossroads for a bit of fiber fun before the Thanksgiving craziness started.  While were were stitching, I got a text from one of my neighbors asking me how long the power had been out.  WHAT?  I texted the Doc, and he said we still had power.  When I got home, after Crossroads closed at 9, I saw that our power was still on, but the rest of our street was OUT!  ha ha ha ha  The power grid in our neighborhood is so weird.  Although we still had power, our cable was out, so no internet.  Then, about 11:00 pm, our power went out, too.  It was back on when I woke up, and the clocks were all behind about 2 hours.  So, I assume it came back on at about 2 am.  Anyway, who actually showed up to knit on Wednesday, and what were they knitting?

CathieC brought her MacArthur Park Poncho.  She has finished swatching and has started the actual poncho.

Skeinherder brought her stocking ornaments (here is a slightly blurry photo)

Skeinherder also brought her newest project, a lovely cowl  (sorry, I forget the name).  She bought the pattern and yarn at Tolt Yarn and Wool last Sunday, and cast on immediately... all 400 provisional crocheted stitches!

Wireknitter brought an Entrelac Cap she was knitting in a beautiful variegated yarn.

She also brought her beautiful Windward.  Wireknitter decided to add a bit of a border to lessen the stockinette rolling, and has some ends to weave in.  Stitch Night is a perfect place for weaving in.  All the chat keeps your mind off how boring it is.

I brought the last two rows of my newest afghan, the one I am making for my OWL in HPKCHC.  I didn't take photos of my own work, but as I hope to have it all finished tomorrow, I will try to post some photos of the whole thing then.

Hope all of you had a wonderful day today.  We ate too much, then went to the movies (at Crossroads, of course!) to see Catching Fire.  It was even better than The Hunger Games.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with two kinds of pie.