Major Knitter

I Went to a Trunk Show and I Bought...

Last night my LYS Westport Yarns brought Susan Gibbs to town for a trunk show of her Juniper Moon Farms fibers.  It was great fun.  Susan has a great deal of energy and passion for her sheep and wool - and as a side bonus, she tells the best little stories about life with a fiber artist.  I think we can all relate.

Susan brought her Juniper Moon Farms books filled with lovely patterns.  Of course, no trunk show would be complete without myriad delightful samples from her books for everyone to try on and touch and feel.  I didn't take any pictures last night (shame on me), but you can read Susan's blog post from her first trunk show earlier this month to get a feel of the night.

Well, you know I couldn't very well walk out empty-handed from such an event, don't you?  I bought ten skeins of her wonderfully woolly Juniper Moon Willa (kinda sounds like Wilma, don't you think?).  I knew I wanted to make a jacket out this marine blue fiber - and immediately found a pattern on Ravelry - Aidez - that should be perfect for me.  I might follow Estella's lead, though, and change the cable pattern on the back of the sweater like she did.  I'm not sure that the trellis look is right for me.

Thanks Susan and everyone at Juniper Moon Farms for your wonderful trunk show.  Of course, now that I've visited your JMP blog, I'm thinking that one of the Farm Stays might be something to dream about.  It sounds like great fun...

Sampler Baby Blanket - Check

We finished getting our emergency preparedness checklist finished yesterday and then we just sat around waiting for Hurricane Irene.  She's scheduled to start showing her face in an hour or so - with rain and thunderstorms - and then the really ugly stuff is supposed to hit Westport, CT between 10:00 p.m. tonight and last through 12:00 noon tomorrow.  That's 14 hours of frightening storms.  We're prepared physically, and I sure hope we're prepared mentally, too.  I'm still hoping it will blow off course, but as of yesterday the eye of the storm is poised to pass pretty much right over us.

So instead of worrying about the storm, I finished the crocheted edge of my Sampler Baby Blanket.  This is the year long class I took with Lynn Wilson at my LYS.  

I really love this blanket with its 30 different stitch samples.  

I still need to block it one last time to relax the crochet sts, but I'm so pleased with this finished blanket.

I'm going to put it away for a future heirloom gift for someone very special.

You can make this wonderful blanket, too.  The Sampler Blanket pattern is now available at Knitting Central.  Thanks Lynn for helping me cross the finish line with this lovely pattern.  Special shout out to Danni who patiently sat with me most of this week to teach me, and teach me again, how to crochet the strips together and do the crochet edging.  

Now I feel like I'm prepared and have something accomplished.  I'm planning on finishing a pair of socks and work on seaming and edging the red Sampler Blanket during the storm.  I may have a slew of finished objects when Irene is all said and done.  Wish us luck - and everyone in Irene's path.

I Believe! I Believe!

Apparently, you can teach an old dog new tricks.  Earlier last week you learned that I aspire to make Anne Hanson's Honey Baby shawl as my challenge knitting for 2011-2012.  Something I learned at Knitting Central is that you should always read your pattern before you undertake any knitting project.  It's sort of like a roadmap.  You should look it over so you know where you're going.  So I did this with Honey Baby.  I printed it out and tried to read it.  I was slightly overwhelmed by all the lacy goodness.  So rather than focus on the pages and pages of YOs, K2Togs and PSSOs, I read the one prose paragraph and had an "aha moment"

Anne very clearly tells us the answer to the question we've all been asking.  How exactly should we block our projects?

Soak shawl in lukewarm water with a small amount of wool soap added for approximately 60 minutes or until fiber is completely saturated. Rinse and squeeze out excess moisture by rolling the piece in a towel. Stretch slightly (keep some of the fabric density) and pin piece to the finished measurements on page 1. Allow to air dry completely before unpinning.

Well, I'll be.  There it is -- as clear as day.  I must confess, I've never been much of a blocker.  I don't knit much lace (which I do block), and I knit sweaters in the round, if at all.  But I thought Anne's directions were as clear and specific as could be, so I followed them to a T.

Here are three strips of my Sampler Blanket soaking in the sink with a bit too much wool soap.  Note to self - less time use a little bit less soap.

I may have forgotten to roll my strips in a towel.  Oops!  I placed the blocking wires along the lengths of each strip and blocked them uniformly.  I was quite pleased with how they turned out.  Now I just hope they'll "air dry completely before unpinning"... which by the way, has to be before tomorrow's 9:30 a.m. class.  

Thanks Anne!  You're a lifesaver.  I haven't even actually committed to the Honey Baby (except for purchasing the yarn and the pattern) and already, I've learned a great deal.  This is going to be a very positive relationship.  Just think of the things I'll learn when I actually start knitting on Honey Baby.

Picturesque Palette

For Christmas I asked BF for something I really, really wanted:  Knit Picks Palette.  The ENTIRE Palette.  So imagine my surprise when I found a huge black garbage bag underneath the Christmas tree with a pretty bow on it.  

Yesterday, I decided to clear some shelf space in the Knit Nook and display the entire palette.

It starts with the pinks and purples...

moves to the earth tones from orange, browns to yellows and golds...

and finishes with the lovely greens and blues.

My Knit Nook is truly the happiest place on earth.  Now to decide what to make.  I envision many happy Christmas ornaments and lots of fair isle projects.  I can hardly wait.  In the meantime, they will make me smile every time I see the array of colors.

January's Sampler Class

My monthly knitting class for the sampler afghan at Westport Yarns was this week.  It was nice to see old friends again and make progress on my year-long project.  This time, since I didn't work ahead, I'm actually exactly where I'm supposed to be for February's class.  

During class I finished the green swatch with the eyelet border and snowflake motif.  Lynn told us that there were several options for a motif for this swatch.  She encouraged us to be creative on our own.  So for the red swatch, I decided to use my seed stitch heart motif from a baby blanket I created many years ago.

I'm very pleased with the way this one turned out.  In fact, I think I even like it better than the original snowflake motif.

But the real joy in this week's class is discovering how much I like taking a year-long class.  It's perfect for my sense of commitment.  It keeps my attention every month for a few days or a week.  Then I can set it down until the next class and not feel guilty.  I can turn to other Bright Shiny Objects and knit away with reckless abandon.  Then when I turn the page to the next month, I can pick up this old friend and start the journey again.  It's nice in one's forties to discover the simple truths about oneself.

Getting Ahead of Myself

These sampler blankets are a lot like potato chips.  Bet you can't knit just one swatch and not knit more and more.

• The center green strip is the actual homework to date (plus one extra swatch to finish the strip.
• The right red strip is the repeat of the actual homework - this time in red.
• The left red strip is the first strip I made in 2008 - when I first bought the Baby Cashmerino and pattern
• On top of the red strip is a start of two more swatches stalled until the class catches up to that point.
• The green swatch on the right is the start of the 2nd strip to catch up to the red on the far right - and get terribly ahead of myself.

There you have it.  This blanket is truly addictive.  How can you stop at six swatches when you have 24 more to go?  Knit, knit, knit.  

Seeing Double, Doublevision

It's not enough to get the homework done, but apparently I have to do it twice!  Since I am simultaneously knitting up two sampler blankets for the class, I moved from the green to the red blanket and repeated the first strip of swatches.

For blanket number #2, I switched the stockinette panel with the Dot Stitch panel

Then I quickly moved on to the Lattice Lace Stitch panel.

Not wanting to quit while I was on a roll, I moved to the Diagonal Rib.

And I called it a day with the completion of the 4th swatch - the Bramble Stitch swatch.

OK - I learned that I'm a three-swatch-a-day-limit kinda gal.  Four swatches was just a bit too much for my decrepit aging body.

Of course, I was prompted along by my favorite nighttime entertainment.  BF and I watched four episodes last night.  I just love this series.  We used to watch the NCIS marathon on USA Network, but the episodes were jumbled and since we never watched the series live, there were many story lines we had a hard time following since they were presented out of order.  But this has been resolved since I purchased the entire series as a birthday gift for BF this year and we now watch them sequentially, trying our best to pace ourselves.  How about you?  Are you an NCIS junkie?  Who's your favorite character?

Did I Mention I LOVE Doing Homework?

Yesterday I was on a roll after my Sampler Baby Blanket Class at Westport Yarns.  We were supposed to finish two swatches - Bramble Stitch and Knotted Cable Stitch.  I hunkered down and knit away until both were finished last night.  Yeah!

Here's the Bramble Stitch swatch which I liked knitting more than I expected.

The Knotted Cable Stitch swatch was completed just minutes before I called it a night last night.  So there you have it.  The day of the class, and I managed to finish the homework for next month.  Now I'll focus on the extra credit.  I'm such an over-achiever!

On other news, Rachael has the most delightful post and video of her ukelele night with Amy Singer.  You'll remember that I took a class with Amy at Sock Summit and she showed us her handcrafted ukelele during the class.  Of course, Rachael was the first knitting blog I ever found, and when I wrote to her and queried about the difficulty of blogging, she wrote a wonderfully helpful email which got me blogging in 2004.  Of course, the next logical step connecting this story is that I really need to learn how to play the ukelele.  Rachael was once again very helpful.  When I asked her about it, she edited her post to offer great advice about how to get started with your very own ukelele.  Needless to say, guess who put a ukelele on the top of her Christmas wishlist?  (Coincidentally, BF put earplugs on the top of his list)

Sampler Baby Blanket Class

Today was our second class for the Sampler Baby Blanket at Westport Yarns.  I had worked ahead (what a surprise) so I got to work on the Bramble Stitch today.  I learned it as the Trinity Stitch which is a better mnemonic device for me since it's worked in repeats of three sts.

Here's a picture of our instructor -  Lynn Wilson's store sample.  This is the Bramble Stitch section.  It's a very pretty stitch, if not a bit fiddly.  After a few mishaps, I finally got the swing of things.

Next on tap is the Knotted Cable stitch.

This is pretty straight forward.  I should be caught up in no time.

Of course, since I'm always looking to stay one step ahead, I might even venture on to the Pebble Stitch so I can finish this entire sampler strip before next month's class.  

Now you know what the homework is for this month.  You'll keep me honest, won't you?  I'd better go get working right away.

I've Got Class

At least I signed up for a class every first Tuesday morning of the month at my LYS Westport Yarns.  I'm taking Lynn Wilson's Knitted Sampler Blanket class.  

If you've been reading my blog for a long time, you might remember that I started this blanket a few years ago inspired by my friend Joanne's four different beautiful blankets.  Here's my start (and stop) in June 2008.

Since Lynn was offering the class during the daytime, I decided to take the plunge and knit a new blanket and also work on the long lost forgotten blanket.  I'm already revitalized.  I think this will be a great way to stay on focus and finish.  We actually took a pledge in class:

I, (state your name), do hereby promise:
to provide moral support and encouragement to my fellow classmates;
to happily rip whenever necessary;
to cry, whine, and/or grumble only when absolutely necessary;
to relax, enjoy myself, and knit this blanket with love;
and most importantly... to finish this project before September 30, 2011.

Now THAT's a pledge I can live by.

Here's the new blanket I'm starting as a future gift using Zara in a lovely shade of green apple.

And I think the original red sampler blanket is going to be so thrilled to be coming out of retirement.  And just think - I'm on track to have two finished blankets by the end of the class.