The Etiquette of Knitting in Meetings

I recently got asked to be on the board for a historic preservation committee (hmm... maybe it's because I'm turning 50 this year and am in need of a little Preservation myself....)  Meetings practically give me hives--I can't stand them, so it's really hard to say yes, even though it's a good cause.

It brought to mind the idea that I could attend a meeting and KNIT (especially a Knit In Your Sleep project) and it wouldn't be so bad.

Google brings up a lot of blog opinions about whether it's okay to knit in a meeting.  The best conversation I've seen is one dated 2005 by Wendy Knits.

The consensus seems to be:

In Church:  No, unless it's very informal and it would be okay with your pastor
Other Church Functions:  Sure, why not.
Work Meetings:  No, unless you've cleared it with your boss
Homeowner Association Meetings:  Yes
Volunteer Meetings:  Yes
Classes:  Depends on the class and the professor

The rule of thumb is:  If it distracts YOU or OTHERS or would appear impolite, keep it in your bag. 

Learning to Knit Instructions & Resources.

Ah, ha!  I knew if I looked long enough, I'd find good knitting instructions on the internet.  Lion Brand Yarn has a good site at this link.  They have written instructions & videos. 

We're trying to plan a knitting class, so I'll just keep adding to this blog entry with more knitting resource information as it's located.

Lion Brand also has a very neat beginner hat & scarf set in Wool-Ease Thick & Quick.  (Note that you'll need to register with Lion to get the pattern).

This hat or scarf would be a great first project.

Happy Knitting & get some sleep!

Another generation gets infected...

 
My niece Jodi got infected with the yarn bug--often it takes a specific yarn or project to infect a knitter--in her case, she decided she wanted to learn how to knit SOCKS, and use our new flying saucer yarn.   But you don't start out knitting socks, so she learned on this.  It's a combination of some light teal TLC Amore acrylic boucle yarn, and a dark aqua mohair acrylic.  She knit both strands on size 10 Kollage square single point needles, 30 stitches per row.  She knit until it was about 36 inches long.  I cast it off and sewed it into a mobius for her, but I think she's ready to do it herself.  She did a beautiful job.  On to learning how to purl, and then socks!

I'm working on a scarf made with Schaefer hand painted Elaine yarn in the Julia Child colorway.  It's a wool boucle that varies in size from very wide to very thin.  Garter stitch, using the #10 Kollage needles causes it to have a wonderful fan pattern due only to the change in yarn size.  I'll post a picture soon.  Here's a picture of the yarn, though.

Happy knitting &  get some sleep!

Changing Horses in Mid-stream

I started an Einstein coat (see an example here) from Sally Melville's book The Knit Stitch, using Bernat Soft Boucle on size 10 Addi Turbo 24" needles. 

Knitting in my sleep--quickly as it happens with Addi Turbo needles, I knit past the size where I needed to stop, measure, and add button holes.  Coulda woulda shoulda.

Since it's REALLY cold out right now, I had the Bright Idea to cast off what I had and give it to Mom for a nice warm shawl.  And it is really light and warm--100%acrylic, so it's very light and is machine washable.  She loves it--every time I stop by she has it draped over her shoulders.  Einstein can wait.

Cast on 75 stitches, then knit every row, making sure to just slip the first stitch of each row onto your needle instead of knitting.  When it's as long as you want it, cast off.  Mom's turned out about 80 inches long, about 24 inches wide.  I'll try and get a picture of it posted too.  Mom probably won't let me post a picture of her wearing it, though.  She's never aspired to be a knitwear model on the internet.

Depending on what size you'd like, it will take 2-3 skeins.

Happy knitting & get some sleep!~

Mexiko Worsted Scarf..

Just started this scarf yesterday--because I wanted to see how this yarn patterned out.  It's knit in garter stitch on Size 10 straight Kollage Square needles, 30 stitches per row.  The yarn is Big Mexiko superwash wool, worsted weight, color #7966.  I can see why they call it "Mexiko"--it knits out to a pattern you might see on a poncho in a Tijuana market.  How neat!  These are 85m per 50 gram ball, so two balls should be enough for a scarf.    You'll notice that the stitch tension is very even--that's not my expertise, it's the Kollage needles.  They really are good about making stitch tension even.
You can find Big Mexiko yarn and Kollage needles in my ebay store Gotta Notion.

Happy Knitting & get some sleep!

Hometown Pride Pom Pom Scarf



 Thought I'd try two of the Pomp-a-Doodle colors together--this is Creston Panther colors, along with 2 skeins of Lion Brand Vanna's Glamour in Ruby Red & Onyx.

The 2 pom pom yarns were a bit difficult to knit together since they kept tangling up with each other, but it was a fairly quick knit.  These were on size 35 needles, 8 stitches per row.  The additional stitch in each row shortened the scarf by about a foot, so it's 7 inches wide by 36 inches long. 

If I were to make it again, I'd probably do 7 stitches, so that it's 4 feet long.  Not bad, though.  The pompoms have a good coefficient of friction (i.e, the short scarf is probably not going to blow off, but it may come loose if you lean over).   Hmm...it looks better as a mobius scarf...

Whew, only one more assigned pomp-a-doodle, and then I can move on to another yarn....actually, it's not too bad to work with, and really is soft and warm.

Happy knitting & get some sleep!

When Cats Attack...Yarn Projects

 









I started a new test project the other night--wanted to try 3 strands of fingering weight alpaca on size 10 needles to see how they draped, with an easy lace pattern I found in a book. 

I cast on, knitted a few rows---messed up--frogged--tried again--messed up, then gave up for the night.  Thought I'd frog it again & start fresh the next day.

The cats had other ideas...Pinkie & Otie really like the taste of alpaca, having sampled the Alpaca Love Dusk on my previous projects.  I had my yarn bag hanging on my chair and sometime in the night, they got into my yarn.  It was spread all over the kitchen floor when found the next morning.  But they both have "practiced" innocent looks....

Happy Knitting & get some sleep!

Pomp-A-Doodle Experiment #3

 
 Here's the third Pomp-a-doodle scarf, with substitution of the NY Yarn Pom Pom above for the cream felting/lavender banana silk yarns.  I took this picture in the afternoon so it's a little "pinker" looking than the other scarves. 

The main effect of the darker yarn was to add a background rather than a contrast.  This polyamide yarn made the scarf drape more softly, compared to the cream felting yarn.  Below is a closeup of all 3 scarves, showing the differences...

 cream felting
 yarn  -->

lavender banana
<--silk






NY Pom Pom
<---







Happy Knitting & get some sleep!