moonfrog

Where do you like to indulge in your craft? Is your favourite arm chair your little knitting cubby area, or do you prefer to ‘knit in public’? Do you like to crochet in the great outdoors, perhaps, or knit in the bath, or at the pub?

While I most often knit in my rocker/recliner while the old man watches TV, I’ve been known to knit in lots of other places. Tonight I finally made it to my LYS’s  Sip-n-Knit night after a long absence. It was a pleasant time with several talented knitters. I need to make it a priority to go every week; I’ve missed it. The two in the photo are Harry, former president of our weaving guild and soon to be manager of the LYS, and Connie, my dear travel companion who is talented in all areas of fiber arts.

I used to  knit in bars while the man’s band played, but the lighting really makes mistakes inevitable. A favorite place to knit is in the car while traveling. I even have a headlamp so I can keep knitting when it gets dark. I knit on the porch some in the summer. I knit while camping and working music festivals. I enjoy knitting with my mom either at her house or mine.

The only time I knit in bed is when I’m staying in a hotel. There are few places I won’t knit, although I try to be polite when socializing is expected. Some people find it rude, so I keep that in mind. I don’t knit and walk — that would just be too hard.

So there you have it.  I wonder where I’ll find myself knitting this summer?

To learn more about this event, visit Eskimimi Knits. knitcroblo5

I love the excitement that surrounds learning new things. That was my favorite part of teaching school, the thrill of someone else experiencing something new. And I love variety. That doesn’t mean I don’t like the tried-and-true, but sometimes I can find myself flitting from one new thing to another. So what does this have to do with today’s topic?

Is there a skill related to your hobby that you hope to learn one day? maybe you’re a crocheter who’d also like to knit? Maybe you’d like to learn to knit continental, knit backwards, try cables or attempt stranded colourwork.

Well, over the past few years, I’ve tried a lot of techniques. I’ve taken classes, watched internet videos, read books — lots of books! — and soaked up as much knitting knowledge as I could hold. What this comes down to is that I “know” a lot or can teach myself what I lack, but I really need practice to become proficient. I’m using “proficient” here very loosely. We have a saying in my family: Good enough for who it’s for!

My learning of techniques almost always includes at least a swatch, sometimes a small project, occasionally a larger project. Once I learn something, though, I’m off to find something new.  What I need now is to choose some projects that challenge my barely-learned skills, that give me the practice I need.

One thing that should help me is being a participant in the  intswemodo2010 (International Sweater-a-Month Dodecathon group on Ravelry.  I don’t have any hope of making 12 sweaters this year, but a few would give me a lot of practice. So far, I have one almost finished, one started and one frogged. It’s not looking good, but I’ll keep truckin’ along. One of my choices needs to be a stranded colorwork project. The one I’m starting has a big cable. I also need to make one that is in pieces, maybe with a zipper!  I made Hey, Teach last year and know for sure that I need practice putting in sleeves.

So this is my goal — more practice with just about everything. That’s in between all my spinning and weaving goals, of course!

To learn more about this event, visit Eskimimi Knits. knitcroblo4

Day 3 of Knit and Crochet Blog Week and I’m hanging in there — and enjoying it! Here’s the topic of the day:

Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way.

Knitting is no longer something we do alone at home. The internet, knitting conferences, local stitch-n-bitches, all bring knitting out where everyone can enjoy it. And the people to admire! Like Cat Bordhi’s curiousity, Jared Flood’s photography, Franklin Habit’s humor — the list is huge!

But I want to mention someone who has inspired me and who makes me think, “I want to be like her,” and it’s totally possible. She’s one of the first bloggers I met, not long after I started knitting seriously. Her tastes and interests are so similar to mine, and she pursues them vigorously.

Her name is Rebecca, like mine, and her blog is called Socks for Mum. Over the last few years, she has worked hard to become an accomplished photographer. She challenges herself with new techniques and stimulating patterns.

She shares cool things like the Knit Buddy app, that I put on my iTouch and use for all my projects now. I learned to knit socks from the toe up from Rebecca’s My First Toe Ups KAL a few years ago.

I don’t know Rebecca in person, and I only leave an occasional comment on her blog, but she has added a good measure of enjoyment to my knitting life — and I guess it is time she knew!

Setting an example is not the main means of influencing another, it is the only means. –Albert Einstein

To learn more about this event, visit Eskimimi Knits.
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My next post for Knitting and Crochet Blog Week 2010 follows this topic:

Blog about a pattern or project which you aspire to. Whether it happens to be because the skills needed are ones which you have not yet acquired, or just because it seems like a huge undertaking of time and dedication, most people feel they still have something to aspire to in their craft. If you don’t feel like you have any left of the mountain of learning yet to climb, say so!

There are so many wonderful patterns I’d love to do, but one rather small project that is on my “someday” list is special to me. It’s the Swedish Fish Socks pattern by Spilly Jane Knits.  The reason these are special?  Well, my heritage is mostly Swedish, along with the Welsh contribution on the other side. I share an affinity for that heritage with my Dad. One of my favorite memories was of him talking like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets. He also ate lots of sweets — one favorite being Swedish fish, which was a good gift idea through the years. Unfortunately, I share his love of sweets, too, but have been working on minimizing my sweet consumption lately.

I plan to make these socks someday, but colorwork and socks! That’s a lot in a pattern for me. Even though I’ve made several pairs of socks, they still stress me out. I worry about the heel the whole time I make the cuff, then I worry about the length of the foot and making the toe. I’ve always said that worrying is my favorite hobby, and socks really bring it out for me. I just need to jump in and do it!  Not right now — but maybe before the year is over. Maybe they could be my first knit of 2011?

This brings up my recent knitting project. Recent . . . as in, I’ve been working on my Nordic Sock Sweater since June of 2008. Maybe I can finish it by the time it is two years old. Right now, I’m held up in one of those “worries”.  It looks to me that the overlap for the buttons is too wide when I match up the sleeve seams. I was really pushing this one, but am once again stalled on it.  There’s about two inches of each side that overlap — I’m thinking that using larger buttons will make that okay.  If not, I’m thinking of frogging it and weaving a blanket with the yarn.

I really like this sweater pattern (Drops Design 107-3) but I didn’t realize that garter stitch sucks up so much yarn. Combine that with a huge sweater using sock yarn, and it is a daunting task. I’m actually quite pleased at the progress I’ve  made — if I can just get past my worries and finish it!

Photo of Swedish Fish Socks copyrighted by SpillyJane. Used by Permission

To learn more about this event, visit Eskimimi Knits. knitcroblog2

This week has been declared Knit and Crochet Blog week.  And I have the crazy notion that I’d like to try this out. Maybe it will get me back on a weekly schedule of blogging.  And here we go!  The topic of the week is:

How and when did you begin knitting/crocheting? was it a skill passed down through generations of your family, or something you learned from Knitting For Dummies? What or who made you pick up the needles/hook for the first time? Was it the celebrity knitting ‘trend’ or your great aunt Hilda?

 It’s hard to remember the 60s –  because I was so young! — but sometime in that decade my mother taught me how to knit and crochet. I was probably around eight years old.  I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember the tears and fits when she taught me to sew in a zipper, so I’m sure the lessons were short and painful. I really had a low tolerance for frustration, so I’m surprised I learned to knit and crochet at all.

I suppose that frustration level was what lead me to take up crochet as my preferred craft. It is just so much simpler! My mother made afghans and sweaters and dabbled in other crafts, so I had a great example for all kinds of craftiness.

My great grandmother made beautiful multicolored doilies, and when my sister and I admired them, she made each of us one. See how bright they were! (She also told Mom to leave me with her for a summer and she’d have me married off in no time!  I was seventeen at the time and shocked at the notion.) I still have an old-fashioned fondness for doilies.

I crocheted when the mood hit, but don’t have any of my projects to show for it. When my grandmother died several years ago, I did find an old ripple afghan that I’d made from a kit in high school. I also took a “creative stitchery” class in high school, it was an easy “A” kind of class in my junior or senior year, when my boyfriend was more important than schoolwork.  I learned to do broomstick crochet and hairpin lace in that class; we picked our own projects and pretty much taught ourselves.  I made a baby blanket in each technique and gave them to my boyfriend’s cousin who had a baby two days before graduation. Ah, the memories!

To learn more about this event, visit Eskimimi Knits.   Tag:  knitcroblo1

On a side note:  I really, really want to know what this bush is so I can plant some in my yard. Anyone? Big dog included for scale.

Time flies at warp speed nowadays, a week can go by and I don’t even realize it. I’ve been knitting some, but it’s all the same old projects.  My Baktus scarf, which I started in September, reached the halfway point and was racing along, halfway to the end point, when something went terribly wrong. The second half did not match the first half.  So ribbit, ribbit!  Back to halfway done. I completed one eight-row repeat and set it aside to be my travel knitting again. Not quite a time-out, but pretty darn close!

I’m thinking of doing a mild over-dye when this is done since it is so eye-searing bright. I know, dyeing over Wollmeise is crazy talk, but you can see it is even hard to photograph it is so bright. Of course, this is a photo using my computer camera while I was out of town — and the scarf was much larger and closer to finished than it is now.

And where was I? Well, last week, I spent a four-day weekend at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Santa Clara, but it wasn’t Stitches West, which I skipped this year. I attended  CNCH which is a weaver’s guild conference.  (Okay, I’ll look it up.)  Conference of Northern California Handweavers.   Pretty clear, eh?

I took three half-day classes and really enjoyed them all. The first one was called Warp Fast by Daryl Lancaster. She showed us how to warp with a warping paddle, which was great. Then she showed us two ways to warp a sectional beam. That was awesome!  The last step in learning to use my “new” loom that I got probably two years ago, was to figure out what to do about the sectional back beam. I had no clue whatsoever. Daryl’s presentation gave me just the information I needed.  In the photo here, she is talking about the AVL warping wheel which is barely visible on the slideshow screen.  It winds the warp and tensions it while a section at a time is wound onto the beam. So, that is what I spent my CNCH market budget on this year. I’m excited to use it, but will have to wait for a while until things settle down around here.

My other two classes were for spinning — one on mixing colors and the other on making fat yarn. Both were taught by Judith McKenzie. I learned a lot more about spinning, especially that I don’t really spin like most people. Fortunately, I sat next to a very friendly woman who spins exactly like I do. We commiserated and practiced spinning “properly” with some lapses into our old ways.

Connie and I roomed together again, other members of our weaving guild across the hall, even though we asked for adjoining rooms. She had some great classes, too. Here’s a Celtic pattern she started on her Inklette loom. It’s amazing what can be done on these small looms.

There was a fashion show Friday evening and it was spectacular. The garments ranged from everyday chic to wild and crazy. The highlight was Tien Chui’s wedding ensemble. It was even more spectacular in person. The photo to the left is Sandra of our guild modeling one of her woven jackets. She makes gorgeous garments out of her woven fabrics.

Saturday evening we had a banquet with Syne Mitchell of Weavezine giving an awesome presentation about weaving and the internet. She was hilarious and her stories were fantastic. (Please excuse the blurry, far away picture.) On Sunday we drove home in a heavy rain, but it didn’t really dampen our spirits. It was a great get-away.

I’ll try to catch up on the other projects I’ve been working on in my next post.