Knitting Passion

Stinkymum is getting her patriot act on . . . check out her various red, white, and blue knit items. She just posts pictures - no patterns and, well . . . something to that scale would take more than a day or so to complete.

Sooooooo - if you’d like to wear a bit of the colors for the parade today maybe you might want to stick with this simple patriotic ribbon. Simple - easy to do - and quick, also. You could get started right now and have one finished in time to head to the local parade and festivities.

Okay, I use google a lot - haven’t tried the new bing search yet. But, I typed in patriotic knitting and one of the links was this one to a book titled Rendezvous with Death by Mark W. Van Wienen. The page that popped up, as you can see, talks about the folks who knitted socks and other such things for the men who went to war - WWI, I believe, since the date is 1918.

Anyway . . . reading down through this little section on knitting I came across the following:
In 1918 the New York Sun initiated a poetry contest with the express purpose of stimulating both this patriotic knitting and the composition of poems about it. From 12 May until 10 November the Sunday edition of the Sun published first, second, and third place winners and ten honorable mentions seleced by the editorial staff. The paragraph goes on to say that the poems were then published in 1919 as a book-length collection entitled Sock Songs.

The book is available - you can read more about it here. Juxtaposing the high literary art of well-known modernists with wartime verse by working men and women, soldiers, and pacifists, Rendezvous with Death collects an unprecedented range of American poetic responses to the Great War.

Fascinating. I never knew what a little dig through google would bring up.

Sometimes I come across the neatest things. This qualifies as one of them. It helps that the project combines two loves of mine . . . writing and knitting.

The Poetry Society in London is celebrating its centenary . . . it is one hundred years old this year. As part of the celebration they have put out a call for submissions . . . knitters from “all around” are asked to knit a poem (to be revealed in its full glory at the end of the year) one letter at a time.

You can register your interest by one of two ways:

To register your interest, send your contact details to:

Post: PLEASE INCLUDE AN SAE
Rebecka Mustajarvi
Knit a Poem
The Poetry Society
22 Betterton Street
London
WC2H 9BX

Okay . . . those of you who have read my words here for any length of time know that something like this will just tickle my interest . . . right? Right!

My email is going out as soon as I finish this entry. I’ll let you know when I hear back and will even share with you pictures of MY letter, should I be accepted as one of the knitters.

Wonder what the poem will be? So hard to wait. I like things that can be done quickly - and well - in short amounts of time (one of the reasons I like dish cloths so much). Delayed gratification can be SO overrated, don’t you think?

Yesterday I told you about Jess at Sticks and Strings. Last night while watching SYTYCD (what??? You don’t know what that means? sigh. So You Think You Can Dance, of course) I cast on the Lake Ariel cloth. It is a super easy pattern of only four rows. It works up really pretty, but there is an error in the number to cast on. I’ve let Jess know, so she will likely change it soon. If you decide to try it before . . . or just want to make sure . . . it should be CO 41 (not 42) to make the pattern work out right.

I’m doing it in a cream color - hers was done in a gorgeous green - and I think it will look really nice when it is completed.

I’ve completed another tweed cloth and another petal cloth - I haven’t take pictures yet, but will post them when I do.

So, for now, I’ll share some more pictures of the cloths finished for the fall ladie’s retreat. This is the Lace Curtain cloth by Patricial Lawrence (meowmama).

This is a really super easy cloth to knit up. Again, it is a simple four row pattern stitch. You should know YO (yarn overs) and P2SSO (pass two, slipped stitches over). They are easy to catch on - and there is help out there for you if you need it.

Another beautiful cloth is the Lilacs on the Verandah cloth from Keeping You in Stitches.

I am drawn to this pattern firstly because I love lilacs - we had a huge bush next to our rental house when I was growing up. My mom loved flowers of all kinds and had roses, the lilacs, four o’clocks, and many others.

My own lilac bush here in Alaska has never bloomed. The moose keep it pretty well pruned and it has just never gotten there in all these years. At least I have a pattern to keep me in mind of the flowers.

Yeah, I know . . . lots of dish cloths - what else can I knit? Well, I am about out of dish cloth cotton so it may be time to dip into the sock yarn stash . . . . . . .

Okay, I don’t know about YOU . . . but when we get to the fourth of July I am starting to think summer’s over, it’s almost time for school to start, what the heck happened to my summer?

Am I the only one? Yeah, I didn’t think so.

We are having a MUCH nicer summer this year than last - I think we only had ONE day of summer in 2008. This year? Absolutely gorgeous May and most of June - and July looks to follow along the same path. I am grateful for that - because, even though I am not much of a sun-loving person (allergies to uv rays) I do enjoy seeing it from inside my house.

There is NOTHING like a sunny day to lift any bits of gloominess.

But . . . this is not a weather blog - this is a knitting blog. So, while I am listening to the sound of mowers down the street and a neighbor blasting a young Michael Jackson across the street, I am here writing to all of you.

And, I’m going to send you somewhere else . . . yup, today I’m going to share some other knitters’ blogs with you.

First off, I’d like to introduce you to Jessica - at Sticks and String. It’s all about her, you know. It says so right there. Jess is one of our fearless leaders at the Dishcloth KAL over at ravelry. And, she has designed a couple of very cool cloths - I’m going to have to knit them.

Next is Snookie’s Oz. She’s a fellow Big Brother crazee - we’re in a pool together. She has a pretty neat tutorial, complete with pictures, of an I-cord bind-off procedure.

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Lastly (for now), here is Diana’s Place. Diana is a BRAND NEW blogger so go on over and say hello and welcome her to the great big wide blog-o-sphere.

Leave a comment with your fave knitting/crafting space.