Eastside Stitchers Quiet Night

GwenS's cat, Sunny

Hello:
A thoroughly enjoyable evening at Crossroads with the Eastside Stitchers.  After the crazy crowded group we had last week, we had a smaller and much quieter group.  Well, I guess quiet is relative. 

CathieC and I started the evening at a... SQUARE TABLE.  Ouch. What is it with these people sitting at the round tables?

We were soon joined by Wajio.  Then people moved, and we grabbed our usual large round table in the corner near Half-Price Books and Starbucks.

CathieC was working on her Racing Raindrops scarf by Churchmouse Yarns & Teas.  She is firmly into the decrease part of this beautiful beaded scarf. 

Unfortunately, after knitting a bit, she discovered two dropped stitches on the end.  These are so hard to pick up correctly.  We had the usual discussion, "should she rip to before the hole formed when the stitches were picked up?"  CathieC decided to knit on.  Then, the next row, she knit a bead into the wrong place.  That was it!  She ripped back.

Wajio brought someone else's knitting.

She bought a sweater at a thrift shop.  It is lamb's wool and angora. At first Wajio hoped to take it apart and repurpose the yarn.  But, as she started to pull it apart, she realized that the yarn had been cut.  She is now sewing up the button holes cut into the sweater.  Then, she will felt it in her washing machine, and make slippers from the felt.

JulieMustKnit brought two past projects for Show and Tell.  I didn't take photos of either, and I am so sorry.  They both came out beautifully.  I did get a photo of her newest project, Antarktis, by KalioKnits. 

She is using such beautiful yarn.  She won it from a give away on the WeWillTellYouAllOfOurSecrets blog by Caitlyn Ffrench.  The yarn is dyed with natural ingredients, and the ball band is a beautiful piece of work as well.

CrunchyNumbers brought a new project, also, Hermione's Everyday Socks knit in Huckleberry Knits Red Rock.

This pattern is just about perfect for the yarn.  Or the yarn is perfect for the pattern, or they are perfect for each other.

Colleen brought a scarf she is knitting using a ribbon yarn.  Both of the photos I took were blurry, but this was the best of the two:

She is doing a nice job with a difficult material.

Amigirl joined us for the last hour or so and brought...

her Sprucey Lucy socks.  There are two finished heels.  I watched Amigirl try them on, and they fit beautifully.  How long/tall will the legs be?  We shall see.

We discussed windstorms, losing power and the big storm of 2006.   This brought on a discussion of bridges,  (I drove across the I90 floating during the storm and  my car was hit by water sloshing over the side of the bridge) including the Tacoma Narrows Bridge.  At some point, as many of our discussions do, the talk turned to sock heels.

It's all about the knitting.

Peace,
f1bercat shaping the planet from the safety of home.

Working Girl

Hello:
Crazy week because I have a substitute job for 2 math classes every morning Mon - Thurs (please let the guy make it back Thursday night because I want to go knit Fri morning!).

Monday, I went to work (ha ha ha ha), and the kids were great.  There are 5 in the pre-calc class and only 3 in the Alg II class, and they are pretty on the ball, so I sat at a big table with them and knit while I waited for them to ask for help. 

Tuesday (yesterday), as I was getting ready to leave, the phone rang.  The science teacher had called in sick; could I stay 3 more classes?  I packed a quick lunch, I had made a big pot of Cheater Vegetarian Chili on Monday (more about that later if I have time before work today), so I put some in a plastic bowl, grabbed a plum and a Balance bar, my travel mug with some tea bags, and headed out. 

I knit through the math classes, ate cold chili (I had not noticed there was no microwave), then headed to the science room.  The kids were GREAT!  this was an 8th grade class of 10. The teacher had not planned on being out, so had not left a formal lesson plan.   She called me before the class and gave me a bunch of possible things to do.  The school works on block schedules, so I had to fill 3 hours of Science.  We did a little experiment about air pressure and volume.  We read aloud an article about jobs in "Green Chemistry,"  we planned for individual experiments, we did review worksheets, we read silently from the textbook about the hole in the Ozone layer, and for the last 10 minutes, we played Science hangman.  I went first.

_ _ _ _ _ _

The first student guessed, "O." 
I put up the O. 

O _ _ _ _ _

The second student guessed, "X."
I put up the X.

OX_ _ _ _
The students all rolled their eyes, and the next student guessed, "Oxygen."
ha ha ha ha I was a failure, but they all loved it.

Again, I was able to knit a bit while they read, and so on.  I started what was to be a hat for my nephew, A.  He lives in Arizona, but goes to school in Omaha, so can use knitwear.  His favorite color is red.  I thought I would do another version of the Turn a Square by Jared Flood.

I have made this simple and sharp looking hat twice now, once for Pookie:

And then a five-sided Turn a Pentagon  version for my nephew in Milwaukee, J:

but, in the rush to get out the door, I grabbed only the started hat.  It was at the ribbing stage, so no contrasting yarn.  I just kept going with the red.  So this will be some other hat, my own design, and if it is too "feminine" for A, I will knit him another one later.  I want to give at least one hat to charity a month, so this might be the charity hat.  Or, I have a niece in New Jersey, who has not had the joy of a hat from me, yet.


No photos of it, though, since I am having to adjust to not having a lot of sunlight for photographing.  I am really going to have to set up a light box/studio if I am gone during the daylight.  (I've been saying that for about a year.)

BABIES!
The other big thing this week, even better than Knitting at Work, was that on Monday, I got to visit all three four babies.  No, VanesaPolo had not delivered yet, but she is getting close, and I visited with her, so I'm counting four.

Ellyol and I met up on Sunday so she could drop off some baby gifts and I was the deliveryperson.  I didn't take photos of the gifts, so I will link to Ellyol's project page so you can see how cute they are. 

I stopped at Hrvdmnky and got to hold my namesake, Caroline, (ha ha I know she isn't named for me, but I can pretend...)

while Hrvdmnky started a load of wash.  Elena slept nearby.

Then!  I headed to GwenS's house to visit Addie.

She was fresh from having her daddy change her diaper, and I got to hold her, too.  Such a sweet armful.  We had a wonderful visit.

Then, I stopped by VanesaPolo's house.  No photos there, though I got to see Emma's room and her gorgeous knitwear.  Here's hoping Emma makes her appearance soon.

Heigh Ho!  Heigh Ho!  and all that bother.  Thank goodness tonight is Eastside Stitchers meet up at Crossroads.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet from babyland.

Eyelet Lace Square

Hello:

I have been making a bunch of the beautiful Eyelet Lace Square designed by Chris Simon.

I am making 15 " versions for the Quidditch "Explore the Positions" game for HPKCHC.  I'm making these in the school colors of our local high school because I plan to donate a lap-ghan to their fundraising auction in the spring.

We are having a running blanket square swap in the HPKCHC group on Ravelry.  Every month, I make a square for my "target" for that month.  I like to make this square because I like the square, but also because I have it memorized.  For the swap, we can make either 12 " or 8 " squares.

I like to use the Gryffindor colors.  First, of course, because it is the Harry Potter .... Club.  But, secondly, because they look really good.

So this month, I knew the swap partner wanted the smaller sized square.  But, as I was making the square, I couldn't remember if it was supposed to be 8 in. or 10 in.  For some reason, I decided it was 10 in.  Not sure why.

I made this square:

Then, I decided to reread the PM with the information on it, and of course, I needed to make an 8 in. square.

So I made this square:

Not sure what I will do with the 10 in. square.  But I do like the look.  I will probably donate it to the Gryffies' Babies Squares.  This is a thread where you can donate a square for an afghan that is being put together for a House member who is expecting.


Peace,
f1berfat
shaping the planet with lace.

Fiber Friday out of the rain

Hello:
It's really nice to get out of the house on a gray morning and head out to Crossroads to meet friends for knitting.

CathieC beat me to the mall.  She was working on her Racing Raindrops shawl.  She has made some nice progress and is well on her way in the decrease section.  She left for yoga before I got my camera out.

CodyJunk brought a beautiful cowl, Sugarplum by Kate Gagnon Osborn  It has a lace bottom and a garter stitch top.  We had a chance to help her decide if she was finished or not.

Winterpromise31 brought her finished Twisted Trellis Hat for Show and Tell.You can really see the pattern through the variegated yarn.

She has started a baby blanket.  The lace edge is quite lovely, but not so open that it would be a problem for a baby's fingers.

Constance49 is also working on a Racing Raindrops scarf.  She is using a striping yarn with a long repeat.  It looks very different from CathieC's.

JulieMustKnit has finished her lovely Union Square Cowl, buttons and all.  She did not bring it in for show and tell (sob), but I stalked her Ravelry page, and she has some lovely photos of it there.  She did  bring a baby sweater that she has almost finished.  Quick knitter.

All in all, a wonderful time out of the rain.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet while dry.

Art

Hello:

No sun today.

Last weekend my daughter, Moogie, the one who is at NYU, called.  She was at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  "Did you find it?"  I asked. "Not yet, but I'm looking."

"It" is a painting by the great Spanish artist Diego Velasquez.  Velasquez was the court painter to the Spanish King Phillip IV in the mid 1600's.  He's the guy who painted family portraits and captured "everyday" family and court scenes of the Spanish court.  He painted portraits of the "little people" that the king collected (I know, weird and sad).  At one point he went on an art buying trip to Italy for the king, and while he was there, he wanted to get some portrait business for himself.  He painted a portrait of his slave, Juan de Pareja, and had de Pareja take it around to wealthy people to show how great a portrait painter Velasquez was.  He got a commission to paint the Pope. That painting, the one of Juan de Pareja, is the "it" that Moogie was looking for.

A while ago, I decided to do a series of poems about art.  This portrait is one of the art pieces I chose.  I did a bunch of research on the artist and  the subject.  I reread (having read it when I was a child) the Newberry Award winning book, I, Juan de Pareja, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino.  And then I spent about a month writing and rewriting a poem.

As Velasquez's slave, de Pareja helped in the art studio.  He was educated, so knew how to read and write, and in the studio learned all the pieces of how to paint, building the frames, stretching the canvases, making the pigments, mixing the colors, making and taking care of the brushes..  He traveled with Velasquez.  They became friends. de Pareja began to paint.  But, that was illegal, for a slave to paint.  So, Velasquez freed both de Pareja and his wife.  Paintings by de Pareja can be found in museums in Europe including the Museum de Prado in Madrid, Spain.

The poem I wrote won the grand prize for poetry at the Whidbey Island Writer's Retreat, and was published in Cricket Magazine.  I had never seen the portrait.  I knew it was at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, but, I had never had a chance to find it.  For some reason, the one time I had been to New York as an adult, we went to the Guggenheim instead.

A few minutes after the phone call, I received a text from Moogie.

She had found it.  I started to cry.  I texted her that I was crying.  She texted back, "I'm crying, too."

To Juan de Pareja on the painting by Diego Velasquez
by C. A. Losi

I painted you all in brown, unadorned
but for simple collar edged in lace, worn

over brown wool as plain and tough
as the slave you once were.  Your rough

brown hand, comfortable with book,
hammer and brush, rests unaccustomedly still.  You look

straight from the canvas through brown eyes,
steady as your heart, strong as our friendship, and wise.

And, since art is truth, I painted your brown
hair curling round your head like a halo, or a crown.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with great art.

New Members = 2 Tables

Hello:

What's that brightness?  Why, the sun, of course.  Another gorgeous day in the Pacific Northwest, today, and what was even better, Eastside Stitchers met at Crossroads in Bellevue.  We had two new to me people join us for stitching fun.  I am just going to say that I had to take the photos of everyone's projects out of order, and well, a lot of people brought new projects, so if I mess up who was doing what, tell me and I will fix it.

That being said, who was there and what were they stitching?

Wajio was learning how to kiss a fish... or knit a fish lips kiss heel. 

Chockelet has made huge progress on her crocheted afghan.  Yes, crochet is faster than knitting.  But, Chockelet, while not new to crochet, has not crocheted in years.  And yet, she is already so fast!

AspenD was working on some gorgeous black lace.

VanesaPolo is almost to the hip increases in her Serra Cardigan by Laura Aylor.

Skeinherder was busy knitting in Malabrigo for Stockpile 2013.  Tonight's project was a Footie slipper (I hope I got the right pattern.)

BlueBerryMary, another crocheter tonight, brought a finished lace shawl for Show and Tell, and a lace shawl in the same pattern that she is currently working on.

It is amazing to me how different the two shawls look. 

Wireknitter is back from her vacation with a beautiful new shawl she is test-knitting.  It's So I Gather by Susan Ashcroft.  It's a bit tough to see the texture caused by the gathering in the pattern in this photo, but it is a very unusual and striking pattern.

She also brought her finished Cameo for Show and Tell.  The lace edging is the perfect finish.

MustHaveSun has started a new Drops Cardigan.  She is using Eskimo Yarn from Yarn Studio.

MsWiz brought her red sweater.  She spent most of her time staring at the pattern.  I should have taken a photo of the pattern. Ha ha ha ha.

One of our new members, CrunchyNumbers, brought the back of a cable cardigan by Amy Herzog.  It is the Kittiwake Cardigan.  She is using Wool-Ease yarn in a lovely soft gray.

The cables in this piece are very interesting.  Not at all your typical cables.  We had a fun discussion about knitting cables with and without cable needles, the pros and cons.

Another newer member joined us at Crossroads tonight, JitteryKnitter.  She brought a beautiful vest by Elizabeth Zimmerman, the Rib Warmer.   She is knitting this as part of a KAL with the Seattle Knitting Guild.

Skeinherder and VanesaPolo were a bit late.  Why?  They were visiting our newest Eastside Stitcher, Addie!  born yesterday, October 8. Welcome, Addie, and bring your mom and grandma to Crossroads for some knitting.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet from Crossroads.