Wednesday Night Knitting

Hello:

It was a relatively quiet night at Crossroads tonight for the regular Eastside Stitchers meet up.  I remember when a big turn out was 6 people.  Now, if we have 6 knitters show up, it is a quiet night.  We were missing some of our regulars because of illness, but the knitters who made it, had a wonderful time.

KelleyR is working on the sleeves of her Flax sweater by TinCanKnits. She is knitting the sleeves 2-at-a-time, so they seem to be growing slowly, but they are actually moving along nicely.

Pamela2708 has started a cowl using mini-mochi yarn (I'm pretty sure).  The stripes really look cool.

JitteryKnitter has started a shawl. I believe this is supposed to be a stash buster pattern, and she is using "green" to go with the Seattle Knitters Guild's blue/green KAL that is in progress.

Hrvdmnky has finished 2 hats.  One is for a young friend, and the other is for her American Girls doll. 

And she has cast on the next hat.

WireKnitter is knitting a gradient shawl.

She also brought some machine embroidery for show & tell.

Puzan has started a 2 color (green and light green...) cowl.  I'm not sure this is 2 colors.

Wajio is working on the ribbing of a hat for the fire survivors in the Methow Valley.

BlueBerryMary is knitting a lace and cabled hat.  She was struggling a bit with this pattern last week, and finally ripped it all out to start over.  Now you can see the design.

She brought 2 elf hats and 2 Santa hats for Show & Tell. 

Crunchy Numbers is back!  She brought a cabled sock, Cadence by verybusymonkey. 

Right before I left, DomesticShorthair arrived.  She is working on the cabled border of her Catskills Cardi by Sheila Toy Stromberg.

I left a bit early tonight, as I was super tired.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on Knit Night.

Surprise Fiber Friday

Hello:
We cut the hedge that lines our backyard (ok, we had the hedge cut by professionals), and now you can see the lake much better.  This is what it looks like at about 6:30 am.  I live in paradise a really rainy place that you don't want to move to.

So, on Wednesday, I didn't make it to the regular meet up of the Eastside Stitchers because I was teaching a mini-class in Crochet for Knitters at the Seattle Knitters Guild.  All day my students had been asking, "are we having a quiz tomorrow?"  I kept saying, "no, we have quizzes on Friday."  Thursday morning, when I got to school, the teacher I work with first  period had a quiz ready.  "Uh, Carol, we don't have school tomorrow."  I really need to pay better attention to the District Calendar. But, YIPPEE!!  I got to go to Fiber Friday!

BlueBerryMary was crocheting moccasins.  Super idea for a Christmas gift.

CathieC brrought the scarf she is knitting for the Scoreboard KAL. For this KAL, you choose your favorite football team, and then knit a representation of the score for each of their games this season.  Cathie has chosen to follow her old high school, Penn Hills.  The red represents her team, the gold the opponent each week, and she is knitting a white stripe to separate each game.  Cathie is not actually using the pattern for the KAL, but is using a different pattern with a reversible cable and all I can say is it is looking really cool.

Wajio is starting a hat for the Methow Valley Fire Survivors.

SpinningLizzy was wearing her Endless Circles Vest by Julie Farmer.

She brought her Tropfen scarf to work on.

Constance also brought a hat for the Methow Valley Fire Survivors.  She is using the Be Seen pattern donated by StevenBe to this charity effort.

After knitting with the Fiber Friday group, I went home and hung out with Moogie.  She studied for the GRE while I knit.  Then Moogie made dinner.  She is still working her way through Ottolenghi, the Cookbook, so we had Seared Pistachio and Citrus Crusted Tuna with Peas and Carrots cooked with Star Anise and Cinnamon. 

What an amazing day.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in paradise.

BAM

Hello:

Last weekend Moogie and I went to the Bellevue Arts Museum.  The museum features crafts instead of fine arts, and the three exhibits there right now all have a fiber content. 

Counter-Couture: Fashioning Identity in the American Counterculture "celebrates clothing and styles from the 1960s and 1970s.

The exhibit featured crocheted clothing, embroidery, knitted items, and dying. 

Some were beautiful and some were just hilarious.

Moogie wants me to make her a bikini like the one above.
and a dress like the one below.  They are both crocheted.  I probably could make something similar.  I especially love the dress.

The next exhibit was Nathan Vincent: Let's Play War

The artist, Nathan Vincent made toy army men about half the size of real people, then covered them with crochet.  They were positioned in one room.  I spent some time looking at the crochet fabric to see what types of stitches he used.  For instance, the helmets were single crochet, and the jackets looked like half-double crochet.  The soft fabric of the crochet on the traditionally masculine surfaces of the army men is supposed to "disrupt gender roles." 

I found it frustrating that we couldn't touch the figures.  Ok, I know that if everyone touched the fabric, it would wear out.  But the thing about fiber art, well, fiber in general, is that you want to touch it.  The exhibit was supposed to make me think about how kids "play war."  I was fascinated by the construction, and wanted to see how the crochet was done.  Also, did he use acrylic?  It looked like acrylic, but I thought that wool would have been easier on the hands.

The third exhibit was In the Realm of Nature: Bob Stocksdale & Kay Sekimachi. 

Bob Stocksdale does wood working, and these few bowls that I photographed do not capture the beauty of his work.  Kay Sekimachi mostly showed weavings.  She had woven bowls and baskets, some beautiful wall hangings, and some jewellery. My favorite pieces were these bowls made of leaves that were somehow glued together into the bowl shape.  They were amazingly delicate.  If you follow the link above, you can see a photo of the leaf bowls.

All three exhibits were unique and interesting, and I love that the museum was filled with fiber art.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with fiber art.

Yarn Church

Hello:

What an amazingly beautiful Fall day.  The air is crisp and clear, and the trees are beginning to turn their Fall colors.  Panera's in Redmond was very busy, I think there must have been some hiking clubs stopping in for breakfast before enjoying the chance to hike the Cascades before it is too wet and cold.  The group room was empty, though, and we were able to snag it for our Sunday, Yarn Church, Eastside Stitchers meet up.

KelleyR has finished the body of her raglan sweater that she brought to the Knitting Retreat.  She has begun work on the sleeves.

Wajio is starting a new Rib-A-Roni hat by Jane Tanner. This is becoming her go-to hat pattern.

GwenS has started a new cowl.  She had quite a bit of the ribbing finished by the time we left.

BlueBerryMary is working on the flap of her convertible mittens.  She has straightened out the cable twists, and they are looking beautiful.

Mary also brought some alpaca fiber she picked up yesterday at the Issaquah Salmon Days Festival for show and tell.

VanesaPolo brought three of the "Be Seen Hat" by Steven Be that the Eastside Knitters Guild is making for the Fire Quilts for the Knit and Stitch Fire Survivors of Okanogan County‏ effort.  I know that name is a mouthful.  Basically, this is an effort to provide the people effected by the massive fires in Washington State with quilts and warm winter hats.  Steven Be has donated a pattern, and the group is looking for yarn donations.  From what I understand, they are hoping to gather 1000 quilts and hats to give out.  Members of our Guild are stepping up to this challenge to make 1 - 4 hats by the end of October.  BlueBerryMary has also finished 3 hats already!

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet on a gorgeous Fall morning.

Wednesday Knitting

Hello:

Did you see the blood moon during the lunar eclipse?  This is what the moon looked like as it rose above the horizon at about 7:30 Pacific Daylight Time.  The moon was already fully eclipsed, and looked very orangey/red.  I kept running outside about every 10 minutes to watch the moon reveal itself. 

There was no eclipse tonight, just a great group of knitters at Crossroads.

Someone ws starting something new, I think it was Wajio.

Wireknitter brought a pair of finished fingerless mitts,

and her beautiful gradient shawl for Show and tell.

Tara1682 brought her lace shawl.

KelleyR has almost finished the body of her tweed sweater.

BlueBerryMary brought one finished hat, and finished the 2nd during our meet up. These are for Stitch N Knit outreach 2015 for Fire Survivors of Washington.

GwenS continues to make good progress on her OWL sweater.

DomesticShorthair has made good progress on her top.

Chockelet brought her shawl from the LYS tour.

ReadKnitDream is beginning something beautiful.
 Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with lots of knitting friends.

Say, Cheese!

ESSFall2015: Sunday

Hello:

This is the post about the last day of our Eastside Stitchers Fall 2015 Knitting Retreat. 

Again we got up early to make the most of our weekend of knitting.  We were able to finish many projects.

We started many more and will bring them home as WIP's.

If you want to check out the projects that were started, worked on, or finished during the retreat, look for our tag, ESSFALL2015, on Ravelry.

A special thank you to Redbird1 who was unable to make it from the East Coast Chapter of the Eastside Stitchers.  She sent the most delicious chocolates.  You were with us in spirit!

And a special hurrah to JulieMustKnit who flew all the way from the South East Coast Chapter of the Eastside Stitchers (North Carolina) to be a part of the Retreat.  We are sooo happy that you could make it.

What did we do after we left Lake Cle Elum?  We went shopping for yarn, of course,

 at Tolt Yarn and Wool, which is our Eastside Destination Yarn Shop.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet from a knitting retreat.