Quick Post for a Photo

I just wanted to post this photo of my sister in law and 3 of the "little cousins" wearing their Animal hats.

O! My! Bob! I like having Fridays Off!

 

 Hello:

It is still Spider Season in the Pacific Northwest.  This one is the size of a quarter, I am not kidding.  It's in the front yard, though, and not near where I walk.

I did not have school today.  We had a faculty work day, and since I am classified personnel, not certified, I did not have to go.  Instead, I KNIT!  what a great day.

I got up early because I wanted to finish another animal hat.  The Doc is down in Tucson, AZ visiting Himes this weekend, and I sent down 4 animal hats for the little cousins who live there.  I started the last of these 4 hats on Wednesday, and although I stayed up late last night trying to finish it, I just got too tired.  So, I finished it early this morning.  Here are the 4 hats:

A gray cat, a gray bunny, a panda and a dog.  These amazingly cute hats are from the book, Animal Hats, 15 Patterns to Knit and Show Off by Vanessa Mooncie. I showed you the cat and bunny last month when I first made them.

I made another cat hat, a Ginger Cat, for Addie's First Birthday (the party was last Saturday).

She has a real ginger cat at her house, and I thought she might want to play cats some days.

Then, on Sunday, I got a great idea to knit 2 more hats for the little cousins in Tucson.  Because I was using worsted weight yarn and size 9 (5.5m) needles, I was able to finish the 2 extra hats in time for the Doc to bring all 4 with him on the plane today.

First I made the panda.

One of the things I don't like about the book is that all the hats are knit flat.  This makes sense for the cat hat as the white face is intarsia, but the rest of the hats are just hats with animal parts attached.  So I knit the panda hat in the round, made the black parts and attached them.  The eyes are supposed to be safety eyes, but I made them by crocheting circles with a magic loop beginning.  Way cheaper since I have so much yarn, and even more safe than the "safety eyes" for young children.

Then, on Wednesday, I started the Dog hat.  I finished the hat part on Thursday afternoon, and started knitting the Dog parts that evening:  2 ears and an eye patch.  The ears took a bit of time.  I knit them double knit rather than making 2 pieces and sewing them together.  Honestly, It would probably be faster to just knit the 4 pieces of inner and outer ear, then sew them. but I really like making ears with double knitting instead.  I also knit the eye patch, but made it bigger than the pattern called for, because I thought that patch was too small.  I crocheted these eyes, too, then went to bed.

In the morning I sewed everything on, then knit the nose.  I knit 4 noses before I liked the way it looked.  I ended up knitting a double knit nose as well, just to make it more 3-dimensional.

Ok, the eyes look a bit off, actually the ears are a bit off, too, but it's finished.

Then, I got to go to Crossroads for Fiber Friday!  I was joined at the round table under the skylight in the center by CathieC and JulieMustKnit.

CathieC brought her Exit 0 Shawl, by Laura Aylor.

Julie brought a new cowl, the Carmella Cowl by Elizabeth Smith.

Julie tried to blame me for this project... she spun some tale about driving to Tolt in Carnation for more navy yarn for The Detroit Achievement Academy mittens, and seeing some Misti Alpaca Yarn, and knowing that she needed to get in a project for the HPKCHC by the 10th to win a pixel badge, she had to buy the yarn and pattern.... and this was all my fault.  Well, I can't tell you how soft that yarn is.  I thought CathieC was going to run off with the cowl, that is, if I didn't.

So, blame away.

I drove the Doc to the airport, then spent the late afternoon and evening with my cats, knitting and listening to podcasts.  Other than missing the Doc (he will have a GREAT time with Himes at the U of A vs USC football game tomorrow), all is right with the world.  And I still have the weekend ahead of me.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the world with animal hats

New Eastside Stitcher

Hello:

Tonight, on the way home from the regular meet up of Eastside Stitchers at Crossroads in Bellevue, Tara1682 and I were talking about how much we look forward to these meet ups.  Even though we are both busy with work, and tired at the end of the day, it is so relaxing to sit at the round tables and knit with friends. 

We had a fun group tonight.  First, it was the adorable Addie's first birthday (and a special Happy Birthday to Redbird1 who shares this date).

Emma joined us at the round table, too and she and I had a lot of fun playing Peek-a-boo.
Emma's mom, VanesaPolo was starting a new design.

Not a lot to show right now, just the very beginning.

Wajio is working on another set of mittens for The Detroit Achievement Academy.

I tried to check out her project pages to see how many she has finished so far, but she is horrible at updating, and has only 1 mitten project posted.  Well, I can say that she has made a ton.

CathieC has changed her yarn choice for her Exit 0 Shawl.  She originally thought she would use these three colors of Malabrigo

But she decided that the coral was too much and now her shawl looks like this:

JulieMustKnit is working on the same shawl.She has gotten a bit farther, but then she had some airplane knitting time last week.

Jennifer is working on her very first knitting project, but I didn't get a photo tonight.  I thought I'd let her finish her row... then forgot to go back for the picture.

JitteryKnitter was knitting a Boob.

The Seattle Knitters Guild has taken this up as a charity.  They will be used as prosthetic breasts by mastectomy survivors.  The charity is called Knitted Knockers.  I kid you not.

Puzan started a pair of knitters, and was trying the magic loop method, but she wasn't sure how much she liked it.  She also brought her latest cowl to work on.

GwenS brought an Antler Hat in ... Malabrigo.  (It is Stockpile month, after all.)

Tara1682 is knitting Green Linen Stitch Scarf #2.  I'm not sure which number Linen Stitch Scarf this is.  All of them have been beautiful.

And finally, meet our newest member, nightorchid.  She is a "new" knitter, and yet she brought this beautiful cabled hat.

The pattern is 3AM Cable Hat by SmarieK.  I hope she had fun.  She fit right in and joined in our conversation. 

That's all for tonight.
Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a new knitting neighbor.

Fresh Fair Isle with Mary Jane Mucklestone

Hello:

Today, I attended the Nordic Knitting Conference 2014 at the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard (a neighborhood in Seattle).

In an earlier post, I showed the yarn that I bought for the class I was taking with Mary Jane Mucklestone called Fresh Fair Isle.

Liven up your Fair Isle knitting by exploring fresh new colorways. Color is the big fun – yet a big fear for many. This course will introduce the basics of color theory and how you can use its principals to guide your color choices. We will learn about the use of color over the years in traditional Fair Isle Knitting, and move beyond, developing our own new color schemes. Knitting a simple stranded wristlet will quickly illustrate these concepts. A classroom situation is the best possible learning experience; we will learn as much studying the color choices of our classmates as from our own selections. An exciting day of color experiments await you!

 The class was only 3 hours, so it was very quick.  As Mary Jane said, color theory is usually taught as a year long class in art/design school, so this covered just the basics.  Her main mantra was to experiment, experiment, experiment.  Also, she said to never rip out your work.  Save what you don't like or what doesn't work so you have a reminder of what you did wrong.  Also, sometimes a color combination that you think doesn't work, will become more appealing to you after a few years wait.

The class was sold out, and every chair was taken.

She gave a great explanation of what makes Fair Isle different from other stranded colorwork, the "Rules" of Fair Isle.  She talked about and demonstrated how to hold your yarn, but also stressed that there is no "Correct" way. 

We brought a 48 stitch bit of ribbing, and then worked on a chevron motif to put some of what we were learning into practice.

First we divided our colors into darks and lights.

We chose two darks and two lights, paired them up and got to knitting.

At the end of the class we looked at each others' work and discussed what worked and what didn't.

In the end, I was not happy with my choices, or my pairing, I will bind off and save the sample.

But I really felt like I learned a lot, and can't wait to start another stranded project.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with X's and O's

The one where I confess to being Rude

Hello:

Today I  monitored my school's "Work Completion Zone" after school.  Students  are assigned to Work Completion Zone (WCZ) if they don't complete their homework on time.  We take homework seriously, and all students are expected to complete all assignments.

Anyway, once the students are signed in, they sit pretty quietly and do the work.  If they finish early, they may leave.  I usually knit or crochet during this hour if no one needs help with an assignment.  Today, one of the students who is frequently assigned to WCZ asked what I was knitting.  After patiently explaining that I was actually Crocheting, I explained that it was a newborn hat to be donated to a local hospital.  This boy then said, "Can you make me a hat?"

Ugh.  I hate that question even when it is asked by friends.  So I looked right at him and said, "I could, but I won't."

Another student said, "Wow, that was rude."

I responded, "Yarn is expensive.  My time is valuable.  What is rude is to ask someone you barely know to knit you a hat."

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with charity hats.

First October Meet Up

Hello:

If it's Addie, it must be Wednesday, and the regular meet-up of the Eastside Stitchers at Crossroads in Bellevue.

GwenS brought her Exit O shawl by Laura Aylor.

She is using 3 colors of Tosh Merino Light.  GwenS also brought the beginning of an Antler Hat by TinCanKnits.  This one is in Malabrigo and is part of October Stockpile with the Malabrigo Junkies.

JulieMustKnit brought her Exit O shawl, too, but I didn't get a photo of it because I was too busy taking photos of her Finished Objects that she brought for Show and Tell.

She brought some mittens and hats for the Detroit Achievement Academy.

Julie also brought her finished Ferns hat by Alana Dakos.

The yarn is Misti Alpaca Tonos Worsted, and feels absolutely wonderful.

Wajio also brought a charity mitten to knit, but her show and tell item was so fascinating, that I forgot to take a photo.  She spent the weekend at the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival where she took a knitting class in knitting gloves from the top down.

This little glove is the sample she knit in the class.  The technique is absolutely fascinating, ReadNitDream and I spent a lot of time listening to just how these were knit...with a double-knit technique and flat... but not sewn together.  Really cool.

Chockelet made it tonight after a long absence.  She brought a beautiful Magic Three-Yarn Scarf and Wrap in lovely gray and violet.

CathieC is also doing the Exit 0 Shawl.  There is a Knit-A-Long thread for this shawl in Eastside Stitchers because so many of us are knitting it.

ReadNitDream brought a Knit Capelet by Mary Jane Protus to work on.

But, she was wearing a beautiful shawl that covered her February Fitted Pullover by Amy Herzog.  I'm pretty sure the shawl was Passing Through Shawl by Debbie Stone.

Just before I left, DomesticShorthair arrived.  I love that members feel like they can drop in and knit even if they haven't been able to come for a while.  The relaxed and welcoming atmosphere of our group is really great.  It helps that some of us are GREAT at remembering names.

Domesticshorthair was knitting a Fast Forward scarf by Natalie Servant.  The beautiful green yarn is by Blue Moon Fiber Arts.

September was a busy but productive month.  October started with gorgeous weather (once the clouds burned off).  It should be a terrific Fall.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with knitting buddies.

If you buy yarn for a class, does it count as stash?

Hello:

This Sunday I will be attending the Nordic Knitting Conference in Ballard, WA.  I have wanted to go to this conference forever, but it is only held every 2 years, and the last time, I was down in So. California helping out at my brother's house.  The time before that, I didn't have any knitting friends, so was hesitant to go by myself... yes I know, kind of pathetic.

I am taking a class on choosing colors for fair isle knitting by Mary Jane Mucklestone called Fresh Fair Isle.  Here is the class description:

Liven up your Fair Isle knitting by exploring fresh new colorways. Color is the big fun – yet a big fear for many. This course will introduce the basics of color theory and how you can use its principals to guide your color choices. We will learn about the use of color over the years in traditional Fair Isle Knitting, and move beyond, developing our own new color schemes. Knitting a simple stranded wristlet will quickly illustrate these concepts. A classroom situation is the best possible learning experience; we will learn as much studying the color choices of our classmates as from our own selections. An exciting day of color experiments await you!

 We have to bring 3 - 8 (or more) colors of fingering weight shetland wool yarn, graph paper and color pencils.  I have fingering weight yarn... but not shetland wool fingering weight.  I ran down to The Knittery, in Renton, and had a really hard time stopping at 8 different colors.  They have a wonderful shelf full of Jamieson's Shetland Spindrift.  Not only do they have lots of colors on the shelves, but they have all the colors Jamieson's makes on a color card so you can see the yarns and pick other colors if you need to.  It was especially tough to choose colors since I am not sure what I will make, so I tried to get a variety.

The homework is to knit 1 inch of ribbing for the stranded colorwork wristlet.  I can't wait.

Definitely more on this later!

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with new yarn that somehow was not added to my stash...

Lemon