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.

Ice Cream, Tri'Coterie, and Knitting

Hello:

Eastside Stitchers met at Crossroads tonight for some ... healthy... ice cream treats, and yummy yarn.

We had a nice size group, partly because we are just awesome, but partly because we had some guests.  Maylin, of the gorgeous Tri'Coterie Designs (including the beautiful wingspan) and beautiful yarns was in town for a Cat Bordhi retreat.  Maylin and our own Hrvdmnky attended the retreat, and then local members of the Tri'Coterie Group on Ravelry stopped by our knitting group to say hi to Maylin, and get a chance to see some of the yarn up close.  Hrvdmnky often knits with Tri'Coterie Yarns, and designs for the label.

GwenS finished the Aviatrix (except for weaving in) she is making for a friend's baby shower this weekend.  The color is really purple, the yarn is Debbie Bliss Cashmerino.  What a luxurious hat.

Hrvdmnky was almost finished with a new sock, "Grape Sock."

Skeinherder has finished (all but weaving in) her Footsies.

She also brought her finished Rasta Bag.  She still needs to put in the lining, she brought 2 choices, but the knitting is finished.  Another Malabrigo March project finished.

Colleen is making great progress through her donated stash of fun fur with this very pretty pink fur scarf.

I asked Colleen how her baby sweater is going.  She closed her eyes, and just shook her head, no.  I dropped the topic.

Chockelet brought a new incarnation of her attempt at a Charlotte's Web Shawl.  You might remember that she did a spectacular frog last week of her first attempt because the yarns were just not doing it for her.   This one is with two colors of Madelinetosh Tosh Marino Light, French Grey and Pop Rocks (guess which yarn in the photo is which), and a skein of Sweet Georgia Tough Love Sock in Boheme.

She also brought a new shawl, Sundry, also being knit in Madelinetosh Tosh Marino Light (is it Mad May? I think so).  The colors for this shawl are not pink, but rather Red (Tart), and Gray (Tern).

WireKnitter  brought a beautiful sweater, Pebble, by Laura Aylor, in "Logwood," also a Madelinetosh yarn, this one Tosh Pashmina.

I don't know how well you can see the stitches in this photo, but the "wrong side" or inside of the sweater is really beautiful.  WireKnitter thinks the sweater will be reversible, and I agree.

Our Celebrated Guest, Maylin, was working on a mobius cowl (what else would you  be inspired to make at a Cat Bordhi retreat?) in her own gorgeous yarn.  The colors are Iron Throne and Frost.

Congratulations are due to Hrvdmnky who announced that she is expecting GIRLS!  I expect to see quite a bit of pink around the tables at Crossroads soon.

I won't say who was eating the ice cream.  Just that they used the excuse of needing calcium.

We missed all our members who couldn't make it tonight, and hope to see you next week.  Remember, we need to discuss the North Sound LYS Tour.  And we missed our East Coast member.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with some ice cream envy.