Q: "What about those Dale sweaters?"

You didn't miss anything, I haven't worked on the bugs in a while. Shameful, I know. I put the first one down to focus on Christmas gifts. The mutssjaals are the last of the gifts, so I hope to be able to continue with the bugs in January. I'm now planning to have them (I have to make two, of course) done for the boys' birthday in July.

Q: "Are you continuing to knit continental?"

I haven't done too much continental knitting recently because I was knitting tiny stuff on double-pointed needles under deadline (holiday gifts). I did knit the Kureyon hat continental though, since I didn't want it to be one of those tight hair-mussing sort of hats. When I get to greensleeves, I plan to knit that continental (I did the swatch that way). Ditto for the brown buttah for my husband.

Q: "Can we see more pictures of the boys?"

OK, no one asked, but I'll throw some in anyway. Here they are with their blankies (the first things I knitted for them!) when they were feeling a little under the weather recently. And here's my favorite blankie picture of them all.

Q: "What no update on the mutssjaals, or whatever it is you're calling them?"

You've seen through me. I pretty much took a non-knitting day yesterday, so no news to report on the baby hat/scarf. But I'm gonna go check out Becky's site now to see if she's started hers. So join me!

Back from Knitsmiths and learned about a great charity knitting association here in the Boston area: The Knitting Connection. They collect yarn and supplies and provide them to volunteer knitters/crocheters/quilters to be made into hats, mittens, blankets, whatever a child might need. They also collect finished items and distribute them with those made by the volunteers to local hospitals and shelters. We Knitsmiths had some yarn left over from our yarn swap back in November and decided to donate it to them. So the director joined our group today to pick it up and let us all know about the organization. If anyone in the area is interested in donating items or volunteering, their email is: theknittingconnection[at]hotmail.com.

I feel slightly better about my not having made a hat (as planned) for charity this Christmas now that I know that they accept donations all year round and would also happily accept just the yarn, in case I can't pull myself away from my growing mound of projects.

I spent my knitting time this weekend thinking through the mutssjaal project and figuring out just how I want it to look. Recap: Here's the catalog picture again. Following the pattern exactly would have meant fingering weight yarn (again!), so I wanted to find a bulky yarn to make the project quick. I ended up settling on worsted weight after falling in love with the beautiful colors of the Cascade 220. Man those skeins make some wicked huge balls of yarn. Small project. Big project bag! Update: I wanted to work at a gauge of 5 st/in, but while swatching, my fingers and my eyes just could not deal with going that "big", so I settled in at 6.5 st/in. I'm insane, I know. They'll be warm at least! Oh, and to make things more complicated, I decided to change the stripes. Since I'll never have the chance to make this sweater (also in fingering weight!) from another Phildar layette book, I'm going to try to bring those great stripes into this project.

And the best thing about my new project? I'll be knitting it in tandem, so to speak, with Becky! She's been my connection for Phildar fabulousness and always makes such wonderful things that I am just thrilled to be working on the same project with her. What fun!

Hey, much ado about knitting is working on the same mittens as me (but kiddie size). Neato! Elsewhere in the Knitblog Ring, through the back loop is like my doppelgänger or something. She just completed the bear hat from Double Knits, which I made back in October, and her other fo's are all on my baby wish list. Beautiful stuff. And lookie, I got a button!

And now the teaser... mittens, b.t. (before thumbs).

Stop, stop! No more unbelievably cute dogs in fabulous sweaters. I can't take it!

• Shobanista
  
• Kathy
  
• Knitting Knerd
  
• Teresa
  

As for me, I am continuting to slog my way through the dog days of holiday knit gifties. More tiger yarn, more wee stuff. Cute as can be, but I want to get back to my wips (aka, the dale sweater, native, elizabeth III) and start the boys' new mutssjaal (that's dutch for hat/scarf and the term amuses me, so I'm sticking with it)!

now!

I really like the cover pattern and those funny nosewarmers! Great looking articles too. I think the Tools for the DIY Knitter is my favorite feature so far.

Since I appear at the top of the list when you do a Google search for blue's clues joe sweater pattern, I'm feeling like I should come up with one. Okay, it's more than that. I admit it. I just like Joe's shirts! They're cool looking. I like the neckline with double collar, the raglan sleeves, the stripe across the front and, of course, all those colors. So I've been sort of toying with the idea of making little Joe sweaters for my boys. It's not like the shirts would have Blue on them or any advertising. Plus, I thought it would be fun to try to design the sweaters myself. And after reading Ivete's Knitting in Harry Potter site, I'm beginning to think why not.

[Why not, indeed. Because I've already got the Dale sweaters that I'm making for them this winter, cotton sweaters planned for them for Spring, summer short-sleeved sweaters to make them after that and jackets for next winter. I have most all of the yarn for these already as well! But I am just possessed by this idea that I could design these super-cute little Joe sweaters in a bulky-weight yarn (something not too heavy though and with an awesome color range) and it would be a real quick project. I've been so envious of clever people like Emma who have been doing baby knits on bigger needles than my usual 3's. I am so tempted! How bad does that make me?]

Anyway, for those of you searching the net and being directed to me, until I do decide to design the joe sweater, I'll leave you with these links:

• knitting chart for Blue from Flor
  
• another knitting graph for a Blue motif
  
• the Joe shirt/pants set from the NickJr. Shop
  
• Blue's Clues swimwear, apparently just "what kidz want"
  
• where to buy Steve's shirt

Get ready. Here's my rant about the KnitNet article, warning you all not to take knitting advice from amateur enthusiasts but rather only from those whose "financial well-being are linked to the quality of information." Okay, I'm not making any money from this site, so clearly everything I have to say about knitting (or otherwise) should be taken to be unreliable crap.

One might ask if this is perhaps the motivation behind KnitNet starting to charge for subscriptions - to gain credibility? Alright, that's unfair. I know that many people have used their video knitting primers to learn to knit and patterns to make wonderful items. Even when their articles and advice were - gasp! - both free and on the internet (beware, the alleged signs of untrustworthy advice)! Hmmmm.... How did all those people manage to discern good knitting advice, of the sort offered by KnitNet, from the other free advice lurking out on the net, of the sort KnitNet wants to protect us from? Well, Regis, I'm gonna have to go with B. We're not total idiots, thank you, and are inundated nowadays with so much information that we are already always judging each piece of advice (including yours).

So you're a contestant on Survivor and one person comes up to you and says, "Dude." (they talk like that, you know) "Dude, don't trust any of these other people, they're all lying all the time. Let me tell you what's going down. I'll give it to you straight." What do you do? Well, "whose livelihood depends on getting it right"? "Dude. I toootally need the money. It's not just a game for me." I can trust him now, right? What I really take issue with is this rule they give us for determining whom to trust. There are loads of people who despite (and indeed because of) financial considerations, lie to and manipulate us. And it's very hard to trust someone with motives ($1,000,000 or advertising revenue, perhaps) when they tell me not to trust anyone but them. And on a personal note, I really don't like it when I sense that someone is insulting me (either by calling me stupid or impugning my character).

It's not that I'm against this sort of an article in general. Of course people should be aware that search engines are coughing up every-damn-thing that uses the terms requested and any nut/genius could have written what they find. But we're talking about KNITTING here. (I'm gonna go out on a limb and just trust most of you guys and gals, 'cause I see no reason why you would be offering insane or dangerous KNITTING advice.) I wanna see this type of warning given to - no, forced onto - students, parents, voters, citizens. And regarding things that are truly important and truly difficult to judge well, like politics and life. Not 'the knit stitch'.

P.S - Thanks to Jamie for pointing out the article in her blog and giving me a reason to rant and then go calm myself down with a little knitting.
P.P.S. - Knitty rules!

We had a great group at Knitsmiths today. Lots of people and lots of fabulous projects. There were three(!) Eros scarves being made at my end of the table. Novelty yarn isn't really my thing, but I've got to say that that red Eros is really yummy looking. Some newer members also brought in great stuff, like May who is working on a Starmore design, which is just amazing! Her daughter joined us and had one of those cute little knitting knobbies that I've always seen in the store and wondered 'what the hell is that for?' Well, it's the cutest little I-Cord maker. And Lisa brought in a new Knitsmiths mascot: knit-dog Axel!

Check out the Knitsmiths' page for all the new pictures!

A list of knitty things I am thankful for.

• The next project.
  
• Circular needles,
  
• a case to keep them in,
  
• and Elizabeth Zimmerman, who taught us (among other things) how to use 'em.
  
• Self-striping yarn (like the Kureyon in the hat I'm working on).
  
• Amazon.com's wish lists for helping me dream my dreamy little dreams.
  
• All things Phildar
  
• and fabulous frenchy friends who live near Phildar shops (you know who you are!).
  
• Chibi's
  
• My friend Julia for teaching me how to knit
  
• and my boys for looking so good in whatever I knit for them.
  
• Pottery Barn for sending their sheets in bags that are just perfect for knitting projects.
  
• Norway, for all of its amazing designers who inspire me to do fair-isle knitting (my first Dale so far).
  
• Knitty, of course
  
• and all you awesome knitbloggers out there!

Finished the tiger hat for my nephew! All drunk from my recent knitting successes, I threw caution to the wind and just did the intarsia knitting with no bobbins and let the ends hang all over the place. Wild! The Opal tiger socks are next. And to inspire me to keep finishing off the odds and ends, today we present an internet tiger sock tour.

Of course, we must begin with Wendy. She made hers at the beginning of the year. Next, we have Stephanie of stephknits. It looks like she finished hers earlier this fall. Inga from Der kleine Sockhaus and Erin, aka tree, just finished theirs. Valerie of Valerie's blog has both socks on the needles. And Melissa from loose ends has a pair still just as virtual as mine!

And look, I didn't even mention this once!

For anyone who hasn't seen it yet, I wanted to call attention to Kristi's fantastic fiber voyage. She's lining up knitbloggers to take us on virtual fiber arts tours of their fair cities for a day. I thought the idea was so cool that I signed up right away and will be presenting my favorite knit spots around Boston in December. Join us!

Not too much to report from the blue room today. I'm still working on the sleeves for the crazy continental. The first is complete and I've got a few inches done on the second one. I'm thinking about going ahead and blocking the pieces that I've finished so I can sew them up (at least provisionally) and finally see if/how it fits! I still have to shorten the front, but I'd like to slip the whole thing on once before I decide how much to cut off. I don't want to have to do the cutting thing twice.

I'm having the same feeling about the sleeves that Clemence is with hers: they are taking forever! I was thinking 'oh yeah, I'll just whip up the sleeves and be wearing this thing in no time'. News flash - knitting is not only not a way to save money, it is also not a way to save time! At some point I think I started focusing on the finished product and mentally skipped over the actual knitting process. I started expecting a finished sweater and forgot about the knitting, which I really do love. Bad Alison! Does that ever happen to you all? How do you keep from letting the pressure to make progress (either from deadlines or your own expectations) get in the way of the pleasure of knitting?

Nope, not the Dale sweater. I wish! I haven't worked up the courage to start the pattern yet.

But I've passed the halfway mark on the first sleeve of the crazy continental. I should be doing the raglan decreases later today. There have been a couple of spots where my tension went bad, but usually only for about ten stitches at a time and I've been able to pull those stitches tighter and spread out the extra yarn through the rest of the row to even it out. I really think the long, straight sleeves are going to look great!

And I'm almost halfway done with an entirely different project, my one hundred things about me page. It's wicked hard to come up with 100 little tidbits, especially ones that I haven't already written about somewhere else on my webpages. It's fun though. Enjoy!

The editor and several contributors to Knit Lit had a reading at the Booksmith today. They scheduled it to coincide with our weekly knitting group so we could all come and bring our knitting. It was great fun and the stories were beautiful and sweet and funny. If you haven't checked out the book yet, you should!

Unfortunately, I ended up being that annoying woman who keeps having to get up and go outside. You know there's always one of them. I'm just not used to it being me. First, I arrived a few minutes late, since I totally forgot that it wasn't regular old normal knitting group and I parked a ways away and enjoyed my stroll to the store through the lovely fall weather we've finally been having. Then I just had to pee - I'd been thinking about it the whole way over - so I had to get up and run out to the coffee shop next door. And then, my husband called twice (during a very touching story about a dying grandmother) because the boys had gotten into the Balmex and he didn't know what to do. But, thankfully, after the first twenty minutes, all my crises were resolved (they didn't eat any Balmex and certainly not enough to be harmful) and I was able to enjoy the stories and even managed to knit some!

While I was there, I cast on for the first sleeve of the crazy continental. After spending way too much time yesterday doing all the math to come up with a sleeve that I liked in my gauge, I was excited to finally start it. I'm doing a wide full-length sleeve. The body of the sweater should be pretty form fitting (I hope!), but I wanted the sleeves to be kinda hip and loose at the wrist. So, I decided to start with the full number of stitches (about one third of the body stitches, says Elizabeth Zimmerman) and do a straight sleeve up to the raglan shaping. Reading Knitting without Tears again almost convinced me to do the sleeves in the round, but then I remembered that the point of the crazy continental was to practice knitting and purling with my left hand. And since I'm getting practice knitting with my left hand while doing the fair-isle work on the Dale sweater, there was no way out of doing the purling here. And speaking of the Dale sweater, I'm just past the ribbing and am about to start the pattern on the body. Stay tuned!

Got this in my kinder surprise egg today!

I'm getting a lot out of my most recent knitting book purchase, Sweater Design in Plain English. Maggie is my new hero. I feel like I am finally getting some tips that are going to help me make better sweaters. As we have seen, I can make yarn into a sweater, but I can't always make it fit. What I need is a way to tell when a pattern is going to produce something that isn't going to fit me well and then the way to adjust it so that it does. Well, this book explains how to take measurements correctly and how to convert those measurements into armhole depth and raglan shaping and bust darts, whatever you might need. Exactly what I was looking for!

What I really really like about this book is that Maggie doesn't just give us some formula to use, but rather explains what is happening. There's a chapter about how different stitches and stitch patterns "act", ie, how they change your gauge, how they stretch with wear, when/where it is best to use them. And the whole last half of the book goes through a series of patterns which are less for making than they are for learning. They take you through the planning process of progressively more complex sweaters involving more and more shaping and leading up to top-down, in the round sweaters. She makes the process so clear that I am actually starting to believe that I could design a sweater. Of course, I have no orignial ideas, so I'll be sticking to published patterns, but I hope to feel more confident about tweaking them so I can use the yarn I want or make them to the exact size I need.

Empowered with my new knowledge, I immediately set off to take some proper measurements and check out the crazy continental. I'm just winging the pattern for the sweater by mathing up a pattern from A Season's Tale for different gauged yarn. Since I'm just learning continental, I'm worried about my gauge and the shaping, so I wanted to check what I've already done against a good set of measurements. Well, it checks out okay so far. I'll be making the front about 4cm shorter than the back (since it will be too long, as I suspected), but otherwise the width and armhole openings look like they could work. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

And here's the front of the crazy continental after some weekend knitting. I'm really happy with how how the tension is improving. It's almost as even as my right-handed knitting now. Lookie!

Finally got some knitting done. Yay! I cast on for the front of the crazy continental at Stitch 'n Bitch on Tuesday and managed yesterday to knit a few centimeters up to the beginning of the decreases for the waist. My tension is definitely improving and the motion of using my left hand is feeling a lot more natural. Finally! And last night I started the fair-isle pattern on the second sleeve of the Dale sweater. I think I'm doing a better job with the floats this time. They started out too loose at first, but I carried on and concentrated a bit more on getting the right length and weaving in the longer floats (the yellow especially) and it looks pretty good so far, I think.

Finally got my copy of the new Vogue Knitting (my fave pattern). Could someone tell me why I bothered subscribing? Maybe it was cheaper, I've forgotten. It certainly wasn't earlier. I've been hearing about it and seeing it about for a while now and no sign of it on my doorstep until yesterday. Sucks to be a Vogue subscriber with no patience. But it rocks being a Rowan subscriber! I subscribed online at the beginning of the week and had the latest magazine, newsletter, and the free purse kit delivered to my door yesterday afternoon. Not bad! I also subscribed recently to Interweave Knits and ordered some back issues. I've heard good things about their latest issue and so am looking forward to getting a big 'mag bag' from them soon. Finally, enough new magazines to oh and ah over until new ones come out!

Last night I managed to make it to the Stitch 'n Bitch here in Boston! I'd heard that there are a few other knitting groups in the area and knew some people who go to the S'nB, so I worked out a one-time Tuesday night deal with my husband and drove out to Harvard Square to check it out. Cool kids up there. They're young, but they're knitters, so they're cool. One woman is working on a thesis about social cohesion in knitting circles and a garter stitch something. Neato! I was (slowly) casting on for the front of the crazy continental.

In other knit group happenings, my regular knitting group is having a yarn swap this week. We're all bringing in yarn/projects we are just sick of having and can't imagine ever using/finishing and doing sort of a Yankee Swap. So essentially, we're redistributing our stashes. One knitter's stash trash is another knitter's future stash trash. No, seriously, I'm really excited about it! Although to enter the swap I need to donate to it and I can't imagine parting with anything in my tiny little stash.

Ok, I did a Google search for blue blog. And this is what I find (in order of Google ranking):

a blog dedicated to Pepsi Blue Berry Cola and its effects (yuck!)

Big Blue Blog of everything and nothing

nik's page of crap, photos, info, etc. (truth in advertising, for sure!)

editorial rumblings from the blue food adult literary website, which I prefer not to link to (trying to be careful with porn spam via referrer logs and meme engines)

adam mathes' rather honest and apparently popular former blog

and this little gem.

Thank goodness for Theresa. Thanks to her links page, I do show up on the list (indirectly) on page five!

I recieved another wonderful Phildar baby catalog from another wonderful fellow-knitter in France. Thanks, Becky! I now have enough Phildar projects picked out for the boys for all of next year (including these). Am I a sucker for animal designs, or what?

1. So I'm watching old episodes of "Changing Rooms" [you all know about "Changing Rooms"? The original British show which inspired "Trading Spaces". OK, they copied it. Anyway...] and the crazy designer woman wants to KNIT huge blankets for the sofas [yes, it's exactly the same show: one designer, a thousand dollars/five hundred pounds, and TWO days!]. She's got a knitting machine alright, but the first thing she does is pull out the instruction manual. Yikes! Forty-eight hours, honey. In one, you can run down to the store and buy blankets, even nice ones, even cheap.

2. Got a new holdeverything catalog in the mail yesterday. In addition to selling all kinds of outrageously expensive furniture-y basket-y things, they're selling a Cable Knit Christmas Tree Skirt for $129! [No, it's not on the website.] Omigod, that is ridiculous. Big selling points from the blurb: "keeps the tree stand hidden" [well, that's worth big bucks] and "provides a vibrant background for wrapped gifts" [what gifts? I blew all my Christmas money on the damn tree skirt!].

3. And then there's me. Had one of those, 'well if I just keep knitting this problem will go away' moments. My pattern for the crazy continental is really only pieced together from patterns here and there (plus I'm using yarn with a different gauge), so I should have known that the sizing was likely to be a little unreliable. Well, I did know, but I was in denial. Since I'm trying to nip those sizing problems in the bud now (after my Elizabeth fiasco), I decided better late than later. So, back I go to lower the armhole shaping a few centimeters.

I just saw that Theresa has also put on a little "stash & tell" show over at her blog At the Still Point of the Turning World. What wonderful yarn! I am just green with envy (I wonder if that's a good color for me?). I have got to get me some winter yarns for my stash! Oops, I probably shouldn't say that out loud, should I?

A combination of a few things has driven me to reorganize and rethink my stash. First, we are slowly outgrowing our apartment and I've got little baggies of yarn stuffed here and there and that just will not do! Second, I saw that KnitDad took on the challege of organizing a few weeks ago and thought that seemed very admirable. Finally, I started reading Maggie Righetti's Sweater Design in Plain English and was thinking more about what sort of sweaters I should (and not could) be making for myself. That led me to decide that the projects planned for the stash might not be very well-suited for me.

So, I gathered up the random bags from here and there, organized everything in the official stash box (an old picnic basket with handy-dandy straps for smaller items like sock yarn), and sat down with my also overflowing stack of pattern books. I've decided that the Linen Drape (I love the periwinkle color!) should become Flame from Rowan #31 (Jackie Blue is working on this one). And the colorful collection of Cotton Glace should become a fitted stripey summer cardigan, maybe Smoulder, which is also in Rowan #31, or Flourish from #29.

I can change the patterns I'm using, but not the colors in my stash, which I hear may be a problem. Some of my fellow Knitsmith knitters were talking about "their colors" last week. I've never understood it when people got "their colors done" etc., but they made it sound, well, pretty sound. And they dropped the horrifying suggestion that those colors that I like best (ie, my whole stash!) may not be those that look best on me. Well, I look down and there is my crazy continental just choc' full of colors that I like. Hmmmmm.... Despite this unfortunate revelation, I began the raglan decreases (have a look see), because I love this sweater, dammit!

Anyone out there care to assuage my fears about this whole color thing?

Thanks to Clémence, I got the Phildar catalog from my wish list today! The patterns are so adorable, it's too bad that my boys are almost too big for them. They're too good not to make though, so I'll just size them up a bit. I'll have to put a little bit of work into getting through the patterns, as my high-school French was ousted long ago by my college German. But I think there's enough of it deep down there somewhere which, when combined with my general knitting knowledge, should get me through. This is the perfect pattern book for me though, since it also has a little knitting primer in the back for the first time knitter/mother, which is going to serve me as a visual dictionary. I love Phildar!

I got the latest Rebecca magazine finally! I have a german subscription that is sent to my in-laws and they put it in the mail when they have other stuff to send us. I've heard lots of talk about the "new Rebecca", so was excited to get a look at it. So they say the new Rebecca is bigger. It is surely a lot bigger than previous issues, but it's now only going to be published twice a year! And the Baby & Kids only once every two years. [imagine frowny face here.] They also have patterns now in some bigger sizes, but many of the sweater patterns are still written for just one single size. That makes sense perhaps for some of the designs (oversized sweaters or tiny form-fitting shells), but still generally irks me.

But let me just say I still really love this magazine. It is definitely one of the reasons that I got so into knitting. I don't know if I would have been so excited to knit more stuff after the baby blankets if I'd only seen, for example, Knit 'n Style. (Note: There are nice things in Knit 'n Style, but nothing that has made me say "I just have to learn how to make that!".) Rebecca just has such stylish, fabulous, sumptuous, and lovely knits. And the patterns are often quite clever. Now, I'll admit that much of the stuff in Rebecca is little too high fashion for me--I actually wear a bra--, but I liked thinking this was a magazine made for hip knitters like me. Well, apparently, I was wrong. Now there is the new Edition Rebecca for women (gasp) 30 and over. Has knitting become so hip so fast that I'm now over-the-hill at 33? It seems that I am, sadly, not a Rebecca; I am a Rebecca-wannabe. [imagine less hip looking frowny face here.]

Speaking of Rebeccas, have you seen the new blog, hi, it's rebecca yet? She's working on a beautiful sweater with Rowan's new Cork yarn. I really love looking at what other people are working on because things often look so much different made up than they do in the catalogs. I'm not sure I would have noticed the Bless sweater she's making when flipping through the Cork book, but I'm really impressed with how it's turning out. Thanks for opening my eyes, Rebecca! And Becky of fluffa! has so convinced me of the fabulousness of everything Phildar that I'm going to have to entirely change my opinion of France (not to mention move there and learn French in order to find the stuff and be able to read the patterns!).

And on a non-Rebecca note, here's how Elizabeth is progressing.

Well, I want some new books now too. Here's my wish list:

Norsk Strikkedesign (surprise, surprise!)
Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Patterns for Knitting
Jil Eaton's Big Fish Little Fish
Rowan's Tadpoles and Tiddlers

and, since it's a wish list:

Got the book, just need a little girl. I want to knit adorable girlie things too!

Seeing all those fabulous sweaters at the Knit Out inspired me to start dreaming about making, well, fabulous sweaters. Here's my fantasy wip list.

A. & J. Starmore:
St. Brigid
Maidenhair shawl
Mary Tudor
Butterfly vest
Valtos

Rowan:
Chinoiserie cardigan
China Clouds jacket
Gameboard cardigan

Norwegian designs:
Dale of Norway Kastanje cardigan
Poetry in Stitches leaf stripe cardigan
Poetry in Stitches muff
Norsk Strikkedesign aran sweater
Norsk Strikkedesign 'Season of Darkness and Winter Light' jacket (what a name!)

and pretty much everything in this Phildar catalog, including:

(PS- if anyone knows how I can get my unworthy American hands on this Phildar book, please let me know!)

We were certainly out and we brought our knitting with us. There were tons of knitters at South Station on Sunday and just an obscene amount of knitting-in-public! Obscene in a good way, of course. Overall, however, I would only rate the Knit Out a 3 out of 5 (that's how I filled out the little comments sheet), and here's why.

The space was just too small. South Station is not the location for this event. Maybe if half the people came they would have fit, but Boston's got a buttload of knitters and we were really herded in there like cattle. Boston also has an amazing number of knitting shops, each of which was only given a teensy space smaller than my computer desk to display stuff. I didn't get to look at the shop displays until about 4pm after most of the crowd had left. There were also some demonstration tables, but because of the herding phenomenon, I could only see the backs of other peoples heads as I was forced to keep moving. Ditto for the fashion show. I saw the woman describing the sweaters. From what she said, I imagine that they looked very nice.

There was no selling. I knew this before the event, so I wasn't expecting to buy anything, but man didn't realize I'd miss it so much. Browsing not just my local yarn store, but all of the yarn stores from the Boston area and not buying anything. Very depressing.

No Show and Share. This was the part I was most looking forward to. What I love most about my knitting group and reading knitting blogs is seeing what other people are knitting and hearing how it's going, what they're doing or changing, whether they love it or hate it, etc. There were two Show and Shares scheduled, but they never announced anything about it and nothing happened at the stage area at those times. I am totally bummin' about that.

OK, on to the good stuff. Kaffe Fassett was there and he seemed pretty cool. He even modelled a few sweaters in the fashion show. Other great designers were also there, like Jil Eaton. I don't really get the autograph thing though. I mean a writer's signature maybe. Writing is what they are famous for. Or someone like Abraham Lincoln who changed the world, but a knitwear designer? For that matter, a football player? Nope, don't get it. But I was glad to see designers come out and support a local gathering like this. They encourage us to make fabulous things and we can encourage them to keep inventing amazing stuff for us to make.

Prizes were raffled off. I loves me a good raffle. Two of our Knitsmithers even won gift certificates. Not me, but I got to run up and pretend I won, since one of the girls had to leave early. So that was almost as good!

I think that the best thing was just seeing all those knitters sitting around together and knitting or chatting about their sweaters (both those on the needles and those on their backs). I saw some beautiful sweaters there that were really impressive and inspiring. The atmosphere was just wonderful. It was in a sense a Show and Share all day long. Check out some photos from the event. (Note: Due to a rather Humpty Dumpty like fall, my camera is dying. The poor thing lost a few of the pictures and some of the rest are mighty blurry. Sorry!)

If I were expecting to be able to go to Stitches East, I'm sure I could have enjoyed the Knit Out for what it was, but with the babies and all, there's no way I could do an out of town/overnight convention. So, I'm a little disappointed, but I'm very glad I got to go. After all, knitting at home or at knitting group is really nice, but it's always more fun to knit out.

I've been working on the old website again, this time on my germany pages, so I got in the mood to do a little german web surfing. If anyone out there speaks German, here are a couple of german knitting blogs I found last night. Claudia has a lot of great pictures in her blog (and archives), so take a peek, even if you can't read German. And the little sock house is a terrific looking site with a gallery of finished socks and links back to english-language sites (including Knitty!).

I also made a bit of progress reknitting the back of Elizabeth I. I've begun the armhole decreases. And here she is. Now I'm off to the Knit Out. Woo hoo!

I've been working on so many other things over the last few days, I feel like I've been unfaithful to my knitting! Most of my free time has been spent on the website renovation - redesigning and updating all the pages and moving them over to the new site.

I have been surfing and reading lots of blogs though. This really is an awesome group (great job, Ivete!). I'm way impressed with shobanista's new iro shell and really want to make something with vertical stripes now. I've got a ton of Rowan Cotton Glace that I've been collecting for a while for some kick-ass stripeyness and just hadn't decided exactly what sort of pattern to use. I think I've made up my mind now! I also just love the new sweater wendy is working on. I can't wait to see how it turns out. If I didn't already have a crazy Starmore project on the needles, I'd be mighty tempted! And of course Knitty is fabulous. The vegan fox is the coolest. I would love to make it, but don't think I could carry off wearing it. I'm looking forward to the gallery section so I can see what everyone makes. Neat idea!

Back in non-virtual knitting, I did manage to turn the heel on the second stripey baby sock while at knitting group on Sunday and yesterday began to knit the ears for the bear hat. But I just haven't worked up the energy to pick up Elizabeth I(II) and start knitting again. I've promised myself and my knitting bag that I'll make some quality time for knitting tonight!

Just got back from our local knitting group. We had a great crowd today (lookie!) and some really great projects (check out the knitsmiths' page for some photos). Today there were about six sweaters going, a hat, three blankets, a pair of fair-isle mittens and I was working on the stripey baby socks. We had some new knitters working through their first projects - like Anna, who finished the back of her first sweater, yeah! - and experienced knitters doing what they know best - like Claire who was crocheting more of her amaaaaazing handbags. And we like to bring in the stuff that we've finished so the whole group can oh and ah together. We rule.

Since our founder is in charge of the crafts section at the Brookline Booksmith where we meet, we usually get an early look at some of the new knitting books. We've gotten to take a peek at Knitter's Stash, Vintage Knits and Knitlit when they were hot off the presses. Today Dava brought the fabulous new book Norsk Strikkedesign, which I both so want to buy and actually be able to knit something from!

Next week is the Knit Out (and Crochet too, of course) in Boston, conveniently being held at our regular knitting time! I've never been to one of these events, but I'm excited about being around so many other knitters. I hope it will be like the knitsmiths, the knitting bloggers and my local yarn store all rolled up into one and then multiplied by ten. Can't wait!

Rather than knitting, I'm working on getting this blog all set up!

Here's an attempt at incorporating some pop-up image windows. Click here to get a picture of my progress on Native and here to see Elizabeth I.

If this works, I'm off to block Elizabeth I!

Inspired by Wendy Johnson and others, I've decided to give this blog thing a try. So here goes... my first post!

The topic here is knitting. So what am I knitting? Well, I've finished the back and the sleeves of the Native sweater from Rowan #29 and have finished re-knitting Elizabeth I by Alice Starmore (saga to come!) and am ready to block and sew up the seams. Check out works in progress for some older pics. I've just finished fall vests for the boys out of Regia sock yarn (see hot off the needles) and am starting on some matching socks with the left-overs.

More on these and other projects-in-the-works as the blog progresses.