Show and Tell

What's some of the items on (and recently off) the needles at knitting group this week?



Sweaters






















From Loop-d-Loop
The Corkscrew Scarf



A poncho





Felted bags




























A summer tank top from Spring '07 Knit Simple



A shawl



And socks--somebody is always knitting socks!

Post Traumatic Lace Disorder

Lace and I have an uneasy relationship.

This all started during the Summer of Lace. Ambitious me, who'd only made



lace swatches and couple of lace scarves, decided to take on the Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls.

It's said that knitters should just plunge into projects they feel are too hard for them. Sound advice. If knitters didn't do this, we'd have zillions of knitters who only made garter stitch scarves for their entire lives.

I started Kimono Shawl unable (and refusing) to read charts on Lantern Moon needles. Two big mistakes. I kept breaking the needles and kept getting lost in the word instructions. It was so frustrating that I finally crossed the line where knitting wasn't fun anymore. I wisely cast off and threw the large Kimono swatch into a drawer.



Since then, I've been happy knitting socks, hats and scarves with interesting stitch patterns--but, no lace. Until Victorian Lace Today came out. Each and every shawl in that book is meant to be mine!

Oh, but ----- I don't do lace.

Well, guess who's doing lace. And reading charts.

I'm not tackling Melon or Alpine -- yet. Being that I suffer from PTLD (Post Traumatic Lace Disorder), I needed something that would instruct, be somewhat easy and produce a beautiful and useful item.

Forest Canopy Shawl fits the bill. Yarn being used is Claudia Hand Painted fingering-weight in the Argyle Sock colorway. Stunning yarn! But hard to describe the colors--brown, black, purple, blue all blending into each other.



The shawl so far looks like a pile of blecccch:



Mistakes have been made and mistakes have been figured out and fixed and fudged. But, there's gonna be a lace shawl around here before too long!

And then there'll be more.

Knitters, Knitters Everywhere!

Yesterday, I posted some of the photos from the Represent Sock-In at Strawberry Fields. Here are some more from the day's events.

There was the knitter who made it all happen who is also a blogger, author and photographer:


Many knitters were knitting socks:


But there were hat knitters:




A knitter who wore a hat made from her first handspun yarn:


A Knitting Diva who's too sexy for her dishrag.


There were sweater knitters


and bag knitters


and scarf knitters


and lace knitters, too.


Some knitters went shopping at School Products


Many of the knitters took the FIT tour of the knitting machines:


A few of the UWS Knitters met up (Ellie, DeDe, Pat, Elaine)


and joined 700 other knitters!

Strawberry Fields

"REPRESENT", Stephanie ordered us to do and represent we did:



The book and author:


A couple of Knitting Divas (Stephanie and Mason-Dixon Kay):


The sock-in:


A sign of the times from woolybuns












Knitters and their creations:

Debbie, showing us her Charlotte's Web:


DeDe wore her fair isle skirt


Elaine and her Aran sweater


Three knitters wearing their colorful koigu scarves


Two knitters--two clapotis


One Guido the Purl Man with his Charlie Brown hat



The Yarn Harlot wondering if she's too sexy for the bench


It was quite a day! Over the next couple of days, I'll be posting more photos of both the sock-in at Strawberry Fields and the book launch at FIT.

Spring

"Every year, back comes Spring with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants." Dorothy Parker


Time for lilies


street musicians


beach walking wearing the clapotis


knitting al fresco


(All photos thanks to DH.)

My Inner Preppie

I don't wear loafers, I've never worn ribbon belts and khakis. A circle pin has never been put on any blue blazers. The last plaid skirt I wore was my Catholic school uniform. Fair Isle sweaters don't excite me. I've never tied a sweater around my shoulders. In 1962, I wore a pair of Madras Bermuda shorts because my mother made me. I have neither seersucker nor corduroy in my closet.

However, under this non-preppie exterior lurks the preppiest of preppies. Pink and green-- I love, adore and am mad for the ultimate prep color cliche--pink and green. Not to wear--but to surround myself with.






My wardrobe consists of black, navy, black, dark maroon, black, gray, black, dark purple, black. More often than not, my yarn choices reflect those same colors:


But, looky look who just entered the stash:

Isn't that the most gorgeous of preppie pink and greeness? It's the specially dyed for Knit Happens Lorna's Laces. I just swoon whenever I look at this yarn.

And good news--no yarn diets were harmed in the acquiring of this yarn! A trade was made with Ms. Orange herself Phyl. Sundara's lovely Bird of Paradise yarn for this pink and green goodness.

Yeah, I remember the Daffodils and Tree Buds and Baby Chicks and Jelly Beans. I still think that Bird of Paradise is a cheerful, happy yarn--but it's not exactly me. BOP is now in a home where all the orange will truly be appreciated.

I don't know what my 430 yarns of preppie-ness is calling out to be--socks? a little shawl? I'm not changing my style--just putting a small bit of prep in it. However, if you ever see me wearing cords embroidered with little ducks--please do me a huge favor and haul me off to a preppie intervention.