Getting Ready & a Knitting Tip

At last August has arrived. I don't mean to wish away the summer but I look forward to the knitting vacation at the end of August ! I will have a solid week to just sit and knit and think of nothing else with a couple of my knitting friends. How grand is that? I always try and plan to have enough yarn to last. Stuck in the north woods with out enough yarn is a frightening thing to me. I am preparing and packing early for this journey. I plan to have simple car knitting after all I have 6 days to knit there, (I do however like a nap here and there). Plus the 7 days at the lodge. First the "Earth Stripe Wrap" from Rowan #42 by Kaffe Fassett. It requires 10 different colors of "Kid Silk Haze".

Now to keep all these shades separate. HINT!!! Put each color in a small zip bag, write on the front the color number, the shade the pattern calls for and any other information about this particular color. The symbol if there is a chart or what ever. Now snip a SMALL corner on the bottom of the bag off. Place the yarn in the bag with the end you are going to knit from through the slit. Close the bag tight. Now when it is time to change color, nothing is twisted and you know exactly which shade you are working with. This will make things easy for this project and I find it essential if you are going to knit Fair Isle.

This is the first project I plan to take. Will I complete it? I am going to list several more that I am packing and you all can make a guess at just what I will finish. After I finish posting each day what I am planning to knit on my travels. THERE IS A CONTEST HERE FOLKS. On September 20 in the comments section tell me what you think I finished on my journey. I have a nice "knitterly" gift for the person with the best guess. I return September 10 but have company coming and just won't have time to read your entries until then.

Still catching up

When I realized it had been a month since I posted I decided to do a bit of catching up for all of you. In addition to having the wonderful opportunity of having my grandchildren visit. Each gets their own week. We celebrated Miss Lillie's 4th birthday. Such joy to watch her having a grand time. I had the afternoon at the park to enjoy my family and the weather was just glorious. You could not ask for a better day. I was blessed to be able to sit and knit on a big project I am trying my best to get finished. Pictures tomorrow I hope.

More updates!

I have now filled all of you in on part of what I have been up to. Here is a bit more. On Sunday we had a family birthday party of Miss Lillie who is now 4. As you can see she had a fine time. I call this "How blessed I am to have these grandchildren" To live close enough to be part of their lives fills me with pure joy. The park was beautiful, the weather divine and it was a perfect day!

WAY TOOOOO LONG!!!!

I can't quite believe how long it has been since I did any blogging. Shame on me. It just seems I don't have enough time in the day. Knitting well there has been some progress. I taught a class at Spirit Works Knitting in Rochester, NY just after the last posting. I did the Paula Mitten part 1. With that behind me, I had to get busy and work on directions and charts for part 2 which took place last Saturday. I can not even begin to tell you how welcome I felt in the shop and with all that were involved. Pam was a dear to work with and I look forward to further classes for her. I also have had the summer grandchildren weeks. First with Lillie who is 4 and now with Louis who is 11. Big difference I can tell you. So here to catch all of you up on what goes on are a few pictures. Of the students last Saturday (there were 2 classes) and the color way one of them used for her mitten. It was exciting to see how different all the mittens looked as each student was free to choose their own colors. Now next up at a time to be announced we will do some Bohus mittens.

Yesterday???

It seems like yesterday when last I posted. My how time does fly. I have been busy knitting and doing a bit of sewing. Nothing all that exciting about the sewing. The knitting is in preparation for a class on Saturday in Rochester, NY. I will be teaching the Sami mitten at Spirit Works Knitting Store. I have previously posted the first mitten I knit after taking Susanna Hansson's wonderful class and reading the Piecework magazine. I felt this mitten to be a bit larger than I wanted for myself. Therefore I dropped the needle size and went to finer yarn and began again. This all worked out just fine. Here in lies what takes me so long. In order to teach a class I must write out directions, not just the little scribbles I use for myself. Then there are the charts as well. If there are two sizes of mittens it means two charts. I find it hard to believe how long it takes to get what is in ? I am teaching this mitten in two classes a month apart. Hey it is summer and there are so many things to do. This will give all of those participating plenty of time to get the pattern on the hand finished. Then we will move on to cuffs and thumbs. This is why the mitten shown is missing both of those parts.

I can't blog without showing you what a talented husband I have. He does the garden thing when I am knitting. I went outside a little while ago and snapped a few pictures for you to see. I kept thinking each day I would do this and then the rain arrived to beat the petals off all the flowers. This is only a portion of the yard he has done so beautifully. I do not garden but love the flowers.

What have I been doing?

I have been on the road again. A visit to the Grandchildren. But always knitting. I worked on a Wallaby sweater for Miss Llillie. I love the yarn. Classic Worsted LP from Universal Yarns. in a color called "baby shades" This is such a great pattern for travel knitting for me. I have made so many of these that it is mindless at this point. In child size not large to tote around either.



Now I am working on the dullest project in a very long time. I have no idea what the final plan for dish cloths might be, however I have a request from the best grandson in the world for 20 before the end of the school year. I am sure any ideas any of you might have for a clever presentation would be greatly appreciated. I am sure there are some wonderful ideas out in knitting land.

MITTENS

I have at last found a few minutes in which to fill everyone in on what is going on in my knitting life. Last week I had the great pleasure to present a program on mittens to the Rochester, NY knitting guild. What a warm welcome I received. How nice to be able to share my great passion of knitting with all the members. Their interest was wonderful to see. I will from time to time show some of the mittens we talked about here. First I would like you to see some of my collection of mittens knit by others. In Minneapolis, MN there are a group of women from Latvia who knit these delightful mini-mittens. Hard to imagine doing these tiny little things. Thanks to Lizabeth Upitis I have a nice little collection I would like to share with all of you. Enjoy!

I am working on a pattern and workshop guide for the Paula mitten and preparing to teach a class on this mitten. If that were not enough I am also working on a lesson plan on the "Wonderful Wallaby " sweater by Carol Anderson. Over the years I have made many of these and done classes as well. I have a few things I do differently when knitting this most practical of sweaters. Soon but don't expect it over night. I will have a little pamphlet to go with your wallaby pattern. This has been a request from students and daughter alike. Now I am knitting a wallaby for Miss Lillie and doing the notes.

You can always be sure when I don't blog I am knitting on something or other. I can not remember a day I did not knit. It is my passion and sanity.

Have a great weekend and I am off next week to get a grandchildren fix.