Freeform Fun

I don't care if I was the teacher, this was a great class. We had so much fun. Everyone caught on quickly and were willing to push their comfort zones. Look at the table of yarns we had to work with. Most brought lots of leftovers and we dumped them all on the table to share.
Jet produced her scrumble quickly and did not follow a single direction from my little pattern. Yea, Jet! She's just been waiting to do this and embraced the technique immediately. We did some serious yarn swapping at the end.
This is a view of some of the other students and a clearer view of Jet's scrumble.
Dawn knit this piece and loved it. I'm talking stroking it and jumping up and down. Dawn is delightfully strange.
Rachel's swatch was very different from the pattern I gave them. Rachel has never been afraid to risk with her knitting. I think she may have inherited that attitude, along with a lot of yarn and needles, from her grandmother.
This is Cynthia's piece. We had to threaten her to get her to stop thinking so much and just knit. She also shared her new kiddie afghan with the adorable cupcakes she had knit to sew onto it.

This is Jean's piece and it is all risk. She added the solid green piece after discovering she didn't like the business of too many patterned yarns together.


Leslie' s piece below is headed toward a great evening bag. The yarn choice is very nice on this.

I didn't get a picture of Hannah's piece but it was very nice. Hannah taught us all a new technique by mistakenly using a slip knot on the needle before picking up stitches to knit in a different direction. I started to "correct" her when I was struck with how this could help with getting the stitches all the way to the end of the piece when adding a border. Lots of new techniques are discovered by a mistake. Don't worry about your mistakes; embrace them. They teach you far more than your lucky guesses ever will.

Charlotte Knitting Guild Awards Night

My pictures are pretty lame, but the pieces were wonderful.
My vest on the front is nice, but Cristi's entrelac vest at the back was stupendous. Stunning colors and technically fine.
Harriet's vest on the back of the chair is such an interesting pattern; she has knitted three of them. The two toned sweater was knit by Rachel from the top down. She took that class from me and I am very proud of her work. This picture doesn't do justice to Jane G.'s bed jacket done in a vintage 40's style and very fine yarn. Everyone loved it.
These are our new nametags. Rachel discovered them and they work great. They are small pieces of white board with little stands that hold them up. Dry erase marker is easy and reusable.
Of course, some people began to add comments beside their name. This group is hard to control.
This category was too broad and will be changed some for next year. It contained everything from an embellished sweater to tiny, delicate booties. All of the pieces were cute.
The Home Dec category only had a few entries, but they were neat. The dish cloths had great patterns.
Winter Accessories abounded. I thought the shadow knit keyboard scarf was cool.
Scarves were in the Winter Accessory category and they were lovely.
These are some of the shawls. The one on the front was very much evening wear IMHO. Lace and lace edged shawls were popular.
The bag category was wonderful. Lots of color and interesting techniques.
This category was for people who had been knitting less than a year. Can you believe Dave is in this group and has already made a luscious pair of socks?
We had socks out the wazoo. Not unexpected; every meeting has two-thirds of the attendees knitting a pair. They are our favorite portable project.
Stunning amount of color and technique. Some were designed by their knitter; some had unexpected combinations of yarn. All were great.

We learned much from our first effort at a show. Next year we will advertise the categories much earlier so folks can hold on to some pieces long enough to enter them. Even with a fairly short notice, we had over 60 entries. I was blown away by the enthusiasm and support.

After the judging was complete, the good people of Universal Yarn in Concord gave us a yarn tasting. Jean Lux even gave us a Sponge Bob paper plate to hold our yarn samples. She had prepared 20 gram balls of several yarns and even gave full skeins of the newer yarns. Hal who owns the company came and talked a bit about the manufactoring end of the business and the many decisions that go into creating a new yarn.

This was one of our best guild meetings. If you live in the Charlotte area, you really should come to a meeting and see what we are about.

Campaign Office for Hillary Opens

Well, I misread the email and thought Hillary was coming to this. Dumb! But I'm glad I went to it. I put together about 100 yard signs and did some people watching that was interesting.
Many of the volunteers are young, like Nathan and Chris. They are so enthusiastic. There were a good number of us older types there. The age group in the middle didn't come until after 5. I guess they were working--something I used to do.
Kate met me there and we snagged buttons and stickers and yarn signs. We also talked to the interns to find out what kind of office supplies they need. When we realized that the only people speaking at this were some local politicians, we headed to Roosters for beer and wine and to talk fiber things. The bartender seemed very amused by us.

Wine Tasting Party

Once each month the staff from The Sewing Bird get together to catch up, eat a little, and talk knitting and sewing. This month my friend Shelley joined us to do a wine tasting. She's phenomenal and we had a blast. This is a superior way to have an easy party. Check out Shelley's website. The wine is wonderful; I drank more than enough to make that evaluation.
Toby and Marilyn worked hard at the swishing it through your mouth.

Beth and Anne are serious about their wines and contributed lots to the discussions.
This is Diane who tries hard to keep us straight and often succeeds. Patsy provided her home and lots of cheese and dark chocolate to assist our palates. Patsy has recently joined the staff at Charlotte Yarn so look for her there on Monday and Thursday. She's the funniest person I know. And one of the nicest.
After the tasting, talk turned to needlework stuff. These are some bags that Patsy has recently made and we loved them. Diane K. gave them a good look.

This is such an amazing group of women. Everyone is very talented in some way and talk often turns to creative ideas. No matter what your dilemma, someone always has a great solution.

Fair Isle Cotton Socks/Happy Easter

After completing the test sock for my design using Cotton Fine, I wore them, washed them in machine on hand wash cycle, hung to dry, and then wore again for a full day before photographing. Don't "E-e-e-w-w-w-w!" You can't smell from a picture.
The shrinkage was tiny. I'm thinking to not have any negative ease in the next pair. The jog which I didn't try to remedy is noticeable, but since it is on the side of the foot, I don't care. I don't like the heel flap after the gusset pickup. I will use the side stitches of the heel flap as selvedges in the next design. Washing did improve the look of the pickup stitches from the original. They are tighter.
The star toe not only looks good, but it feels good. Candace Eisner-Strick told me a year ago that she uses this more and more. It is speedier than the Kitchenered toe and I am all about speed.
I am planning several patterns using this yarn. Stay tuned.

DGS#2 visited for Easter dinner and a personal egg hunt. He is the most joyous child I've ever known, and I think this picture captures that.
He is also a serious independent young man. Each plastic egg was scrutinized and opened before proceeding to find another.
DH's mom also was here. She got a bit chilled watching the egg hunt, so I loaned her my Malabrigo Clapotis. I almost didn't get it back. I think a Malabrigo shawl must be in her future.

Vertical is always best

I started knitting (50 st cast on) at the brownish stripe at the right side of back and knitted until the back was able to reach from shoulder bone to shoulder bone with a tiny bit of stretch. The bottom border is 7 sts of seed st; the basic pattern is k3 rows, p 1 row. I alternated using two skeins of Iro in order to avoid larger areas of dark patches.

I determined how wide to make the shoulders by trying it on. Then I decreased about 2 inches at one time followed by decreasing one st every 2 rows 4 times in order to make the neckline. I just kept trying it on to make sure it fit.
I ended each front with 8 rows of seed stitch to mock the bottom border.
My adaptation to accommodate the "girls" was to add 4 stitches to the length of the front. This was the only way I could think of to create the effect of a short row in sideways knitting.

I used most of 4 skeins of Iro. I knit the body on a size 11 which kept the fabric from being too firm and then switched to a size 10 for the 8 rows of seed st in front. I sewed the shoulders using mattress st. I left the neck as it was. The chain selvedge I knit there was sufficient finishing. I did crochet crab st around the armholes, mostly to prevent them from stretching.

It was quick and I do like it. I will block it and stretch it just a bit lengthwise.

New Sock Pattern

I have finished the Herbal Socks and finally written the pattern. It is downloadable at my site. The St. John's Wort pattern stitch looks very nice with handpaints that have very small repeats. One new wrinkle I tried with this pattern was to knit my gusset sts in a twisted rib. This firmed the gusset nicely and I plan to use this again.


I really like this Opal Rainforest sock yarn. The thicker stripes combined with the tweedy effect is rich looking. I'm never disappointed in Opal yarn.

Enjoy the pattern and please email me if you have any problems with it.

Public Art????; New Projects

This redefines Fiber Art. I was sent this by a friend on a list I read. It captured my imagination. I wonder if the Charlotte Knitting Guild could use this to jump start a publicity campaign. Just a thought.


Noro Iro. I'm designing a sideways vest using this yarn. This is one part of a single skein which I knit in various st patterns to determine what I wanted to use. I chose the Knit 3 rows, Purl 1 row pattern to get a vertical stripe and a vertical texture. I added a border of seed st at the bottom. Because the color repeats tend to segregate the dark colors and the bright colors, I am using two balls at a time. This is a better look for me. I'm also forcing the colors I want near my face and trying to keep some darker ones under the armhole. Any slimming trick I can try!!! I'll post progress picture later.



hhobama sold me the yarn above to make a Sidna Farley Ribwarmer. The back will be the solid Malabrigo worsted named Geranium; sides and front are in the Kureyon. She promises mixing the yarns will receive rave reviews. I'm pleased that the Kureyon contains a few colors I never wear; nice to get a bit outside my rut.

The original EZ ribwarmer pattern and Sidna's are a bit too boxy for me, so my challenge is to figure a way to add some curves. More when I am underway.

Bargain Knitting Books; Stretch response

Check out this website from the Yarnmarket. It is their Bargain page for slightly damaged books. Both of the books below are under $10 and are the last two books I would ever be without.


Montse Stanley was a Spanish architect living in London. This has wonderful line drawings that make techniques easy to see. It is organized well and is easy to use. The section on cast ons and bind offs is worth the price, but there is so much more.
Maggie Righetti was not only a great knitter, but she could write. You will love reading this book because it is humorous as well as practical. My favorite Maggie Righetti chapter is "Buttonholes Are Bastards."

There are plenty of other books and some nice yarns for very good prices. Enjoy.

As to the stretch factor of the Fair Isle socks I am making in Cotton Fine---I'll let you know. I wore the finished sock all day yesterday and it didn't stretch out at all. After I launder, I'll advise.

Fair Isle Sock swatching

Last year at the Colorado Knitting Camp, Candace Eisner-Strick taught a lovely three day workshop on fair isle techniques. It was wonderful. Candace is a tremendous teacher with the ability to allow students to go separate routes from what she planned for class. Why do I love that in a teacher? Well, if you know me, . . .

The owner/manager of Brown Sheep Yarns was one of the students and Peggy is a phemon. She even brought yarn to share--All colors of the NatureSpun sport weight and all colors of Cotton Fine, the baby brother of Cotton Fleece which I love. The Westerners and Mid-westerners just lapped up all the wool we had and knitted away. Over in the corner sat the lone Southerner just a knittin' that cotton, and praising it's characteristics. At the end of the workshop, Peggy gave me all of the Cotton Fleece she had brought---over 50 skeins, each in a different color. I'm still speechless.

The campers will be taking a bus trip from Ft. Collins to the Brown Sheep Factory this year, and I wanted to show my appreciation to Peggy. I am attempting to design some fair isle sock patterns to give her. These pics are my swatch attempt. I'm testing the different patterns in a short sock so that I can do some washing and wearing tests as well.

Just thought you'd like a look at one designer's slow process of design. Gee, I wish I could do some of this on paper or computer, but it just doesn't work for me.

In the mean time, check out Cotton Fine in you LYS. It knits lace beautifully and I'm far from the first to use it for socks.