Knitting Passion

I am hoping to meet up with some of the Ravelry knitters this morning - from the Alaska Knitters group. We will meet at a Soldotna coffee shop.

Of course . . . . THIS is what Alaska threw at us this morning . . . so . . .

a nice fresh spring snowfall - about 3 1/2 inches or so - and, on the day AFTER I changed over from winter studded tires to summer tires. Bwahahaha! Alaska has such a great sense of humor.

Will a measly 3 1/2 inches stop us from getting out and meeting for coffee? Well, I can’t answer for the rest of the folks, but it won’t stop ME!

In fact, I will be meeting a second group - of dear friends - at 2 this afternoon at another coffee shop for a love-fest of coffee and laughter and hugs.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhlaska!

By the way - for those of you who like to do yarn crawls while on travels . . . here is a GREAT place to visit FIRST - America’s Knitting - just go to the state and town you are planning to visit and you can find most - if not all - of the local yarn shops listed there.

I wish I had found it beFORE going to Ohio in March, but at least I have it for the next time. And, check out the projects page to see a pair of my socks featured. That pair is now finished and I am working on the baby socks. Hope to have them done by Monday to take to the pool to give to the mama. She only has a couple weeks left in this pregnancy and I’m not sure how much longer she’ll be coming to the pool for her lap swimming.

thanks, Mary!

Hope you are all enjoying a snow free day. We got OUR snow for free! lol

That’s me and the bear next to the Juneau Courthouse. Behind us is the State Capitol building.

I mentioned that I was going to check into the local yarn store while I was in Juneau. I tried, folks, I really tried. But, everytime I went by, the place was locked up and dark. I talked with a man in another storefront - some sort of computer geekery establishment - and he told me that “she should be back any minute.” Then he mentioned a sign on the door, but when he came out to prove to me it was there, he was surprised to find nothing there, either.

Instead, there were craft calendars for January and February.

This is March.

sigh.

So, I missed out on visiting with the Juneau yarn folks and am sad about that. Guess I will have to look for yarn stores in Columbus, Ohio when I visit there next week. Yeah, I’m sure to find one (hmmmm - it’s a bit far from where we’ll be staying, but you never know) or two - Columbus is a big town. (It is currently a big town with a BIG snow!)

It’s also my home town - I have only lived in two towns in my life - in two states. That either proves that my life is oh, so sad . . . or it proves that my life is very stable.

hahahahaha

you figure out which one - and then let me know, too.

In the meantime . . . still crocheting and edging away for Share A Square. I want to get one of these finished before we leave town Saturday morning. I have all of the squares edged and have begun stitching the rows together. Then, I can put the edging all around and one will be complete. Yay!

Okay - Christmas family projects are beginning to get done.

I’ve decided that since the Girl asked for a bag (completed, btw)

and - the Boy asked for a specific hat - now completed (check behind the cut - don’t let him peek, mama!)

well, I would make ALL of the rest something (hats) as well. That’s five more to complete. I finished the Pup’s today and will show a picture of it tomorrow. Well, it’s all but finished. I still have a seam to do at the top and it will be done.

The hat is a cutie - and I just may make it for all of the others as well.

How many others, you might be asking?

Well, I am the proud gramma of 7 gorgeous grandkiddos. The Boy is the oldest at nearly 16 (March). The Girl is next at 13 (14 in August). The Pup is the youngest of that family at 8 (9 in May). They are all Lessa’s kiddos and live just two doors away from us - at one time our other daughter and family lived on our street as well and we threatened to petition for a name change to . . .

Family Way.

Hahahahaha - we crack ourselves up.

Back to the progeny:

Ladybug’s family has D-Man who is now 11 (Nov. 19th), TAT who is now 9 (Nov. 20th), Kinziebug who is 6 (7 in February) and Zaiah who is 3 (4 on Valentine’s Day).

I bought HUGE needles to do the Pup’s hat - size 19!! And, I spent $16 on them because they were the good wooden needles. But, they’ll last forever, right? Now, if I could just find another project for them.

Hahahahahaha - there I go again - cracking myself up!

On to the Boy’s gift . . . Lessa, turn his little head.
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This is actually NOT local to me - or, I guess I should say, it IS local, but 150+ miles away. That is pretty local in Alaska terminology.

I have tried to find the Knitting Grounds on my last two trips to Anchorage, but forgot to print out the map and missed it both times. Remedied that Tuesday when I took hubby up for a consultation for his upcoming cataract surgery.

We found the shop - and found that we were about 15 minutes early for opening time (noon), so we rolled down the car windows and waited. Actually, I pulled out a Karin Slaughter book to read while hubby got out to stretch his legs and walk about.

At noon on the dot Zaynab, the owner, pulled into the lot and opened the front door to welcome us. We were the only car in the lot at the time. Within 5 mintues it looked like this:

Zaynab and I chatted for a bit while I wandered in delight around the shop. She gave me permission to take pictures inside.



This is a quilt hanging behind the counter - in the lower left corner that is a felted bag - there are a lot of felted bags around the store - each showcases yarns or patterns and accessories. Several sport ribbons won at either the Alaska State Fair or other such competition.

The shop is in a warehouse - so the ceiling are quite high - the lighting was not at full strength when I took the pictures (they are the kind that have to warm up - if you accidentally turn them off they take 10 minutes or so to come back on - you know the type I mean?)

The articles on display have been knitted by customers and class members.

If you ever make it to Anchorage, be sure to stop by the Knitting Grounds - and let Zaynab know that you read about her here.

Oh - and of COURSE I picked up some sock yarn - TOFUtsies - which is a natural yarn - 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk fibers, 22.5% cotton, and 2.5% chitin (shrimp and crab shells!) It works up beautifully, too. I’m excited about knitting this up soon. (we all know “soon” right? That’s the “13th month”, the “8th” day, etc.)

local yarn shop, anchorage, knitting grounds, alaska

the following article is written by BARBARA WATERS - not the person to whom it will be attributed over at technorati - she (K A) is the FORMER writer of this blog - not the current writer (moi) - thanks, any who might have gotten here through the tags. I appreciate your support and understanding.
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Drove to Anchorage Saturday for some retail theraphy. It had been a very long week - full of emotion - blah, blah, blah. I don’t usually go in for the retail therapy thing, but this time . . . it just seemed right.

I stopped at wally’s to pick up . . . well, STUFF, you know?

And, then it was time to go visit my sister-friend with whom I had arranged a lunch date. We don’t get to see each other very often - a few times a year - and we like to do the lunch thang and visit, visit, visit. She’s a late nighter, though, so that’s why I had to stop at wally’s first. I had to let her have time to wake up and such. I was to go by at 1 to pick her up.

Arrived, knocked on the door, heard the yapper welcome me . . . but no friend-ly voice beckoning me inside. I knocked again, pushed open the door and found that she’d been awakened by my knock and the dog barking. Turned out she’d had a very tough night - a visit to the E.R. and had only been to bed for a short time.

We hugged and then I gave her the blue bag I had knitted and felted for her. She was delighted with it. Said she was going to sleep with it - awwwwww!)

After a couple of minutes chatting - making sure she was on the mend - I left.

Went looking for the local yarn shop I’d heard about from several people - simply could NOT find it. It is supposed to be back behind the giraffe-run toy place - but I was not able to find it. I’m quite disappointed, but will try again maybe the next time I’m in Anchorage. We’ll see.

I did call a number listed in the phone book, but got NO answer - soooooooo maybe it’s just as well I didn’t find it, eh? Too bad. I was looking forward to seeing it as I’d heard such good things.

Did stop at another shop - clothes for work - before heading out of town.

And, then one more stop along Turnagain Arm to take the picture below - that is looking across the Arm toward Hope, Alaska. There was a huge storm a-brewing over thataway. I had sun to the back of me - to the right of Hope - and to the left of Hope. But sitting ON TOP of Hope was:

Ran into a bit of rain coming back to Kenai, but I am glad to see rain at this point. The state is still on fire and every bit of rain helps quell it.

Tally for the day’s trip:

tank fill-up in Kenai: $39.20
coffee for the road: $5.00
sausage biscuit & water: $4.00

Wally’s: $85.00
B&N: $10.00
Yarn shop: $0
work clothes: $120

munchies & water for the road: $6.00

visit with my sister-friend: priceless.

Total mileage for the day: 350

equals one pooped knitter!

felted bag, anchorage, local yarn shop, lys, retail therapy, hope alaska, kenai, sister-friend

Monday I told you about the Opal baby sweater pattern by Lucia Tedesco. I finished the body of the sweater, but couldn’t get started on the sleeves because, silly me, I didn’t purchase the size 4 dp needles, thinking I already had them. (That’s how I have accumulated several pairs of duplicated needles - forgetting which I owned)

So, I picked them up tonight after work - and before a board meeting at work. I generally don’t go to the board meetings - going this time because our president was resigning to be with his children. We’ll miss DT as he is an extremely hard worker and really has our agency’s best interest to heart.

ANYway - I got off work at 5 and before the meeting I went to the LYS to get the needles - and pick up three more skeins of yarn - in a different color - also for an as yet unknown baby. Got started on the first sleeve tonight.

progress photo:
click for larger version.

Aren’t the colors just luscious? I love them.

I want to give a shout out to some recent visitors:

Dee, Debbie, and Joan.

thanks for stopping by, ladies. I’m enjoying your sites, too!

knitting, baby sweater, friends, novice knitting, knitting deb, vamantaknits,

click for a larger view

Felting is completed and the bag is dry and ready for delivery to its intended recipient. I took a photo with the same book so that you can compare how much shrinkage was involved in the felting process. I think I like the deeper version, so will probably do the same if I make another bag with this pattern.

I’m not sure when I will get the chance to go to Anchorage to take this to my sister-friend. Depends on hubby’s work schedule - he may be going onto 24×3 this weekend - and if that is the case . . . well, a ride to the big city might not be out of line. And, if not this weekend, perhaps next.

I have the baby sweater body completed. Went to start the sleeves and realized that I did NOT own a set of size 4 dp needles! Ack! So, it is back to the LYS tomorrow to fix that little problem. I would do them flat but I kind of like the idea of no seam. We’ll see how far that takes me.

You all have a lovely day. We have been having spring showers - not out and out rain, but just enough to make the ground wet and get the grass and trees greening up nicely. Alaska is beautiful when that happens.

[tags]french market bag, felting, knitting, felted, knitted, knitty.com

Just took the French market bag off the needles - I made some modifications to this one. I added a deeper blue, funky yarn, stripe to the body of the bag - and then added some of it to the handles as well. Also, I made the handles a bit longer - 15 rows - because I thought the last one’s handles just felt too short. We’ll see how this one works out.

here’s a shot of the bag with a book - Friday Night Knitting Club - on it to show you just how big these things are before felting.

I will probably not get to the felting part of the project until Saturday.

What’s YOUR next project?

[tags]felted bag, french market bag, friday night knitting club, book, finished project, knitting, felting

So, I have black yarn - and some white funky yarn. I took a hint I found somewhere (you know how it is - click a link here - click a link there - pretty soon you are SOMEwhere!) and cast on from both balls of yarn onto a circular needle. That way I can finish two in pretty much the same time it would take me to do one.

Found a square pattern (again - SOMEwhere) and for the life of me can’t find it again - but I printed it out. It’s originally for square dish cloths, but seems to work fine with this yarn for the 8 inch squares.

The white is bulky, so will take fewer stitches.

The black is 4-ply and will take more stitches. How much fun to play with it.

Click for larger photos.

The pattern is done on a diagonal - simple knit, yarn over, etc. stitch pattern.

So, I’ll finish these and hopefully a few more and get them sent off in a week or so. (deadline is May 31st.)

If you want to help - check out the original story at Mosaic Yarns. Interestingly enough, our bigger town newspaper (neighboring town to the far north) ran a story in its Two Sticks column today. (way down at the bottom)

Hokie Spirit, knitted squares, blankets, Go Hokies!

click for larger photo

My nearly teen aged granddaughter has asked me to teach her how to knit. So, Saturday she and her friend and I spent most of the morning together. First they came to my house and I got needles out for them and let them choose a practice ball of yarn from my stash.

Then we began to learn to cast on and from there to knit. There were sighs, giggles, and many exclamations of “Gramma! help!” followed by more giggles and sighs.

At 10 we went to the library where we joined the Gathering of Knitters for a bit over an hour. We did much giggling there as well as “frogging” (a term I had yet to hear - but it fits) good naturedly.

When we left the group I took the girls to a local sewing shop which also has yarns - we went, as far as they knew, to purchase ribbon for the baby bonnet (pics of it tomorrow). However, after we picked out the ribbon I told them to follow me.

I led my little parade (no, we didn’t have a permit for our parade, but we paraded anyway ) to the back of the store and watched as their eyes grew bigger as they saw just how many yarn varieties there are. Then I let them each pick a skein of worsted to use once they felt comfortable with the practice yarn. Oh, the angst and decision making that went on - this color, no this color, no, that one . . .

It was lovely to watch. Thanks, girls, for asking me to work play with you.

chicks with sticks, learning to knit, knitting, beginner knitting, gathering of knitters, teens knitting, yarn stash, yarn store, knit, purl

I promised pictures - so here we go.

this is the progress - actually only started on this today - on the baby bonnet. It has a really sweet pattern stitch. But it is a bit complicated and I haven’t memorized it yet, so I left it at home tonight.

Hubby and I went with daughter and one of the granddaughters to hear grandson sing with his high school concert choir tonight - a 2 1/2 hour concert! They visited Spain and France over spring break - singing in cathedrals, the French/American cemetery, the Guggenheim (! NOBODY sings in the Guggenheim - nobody until Hendy’s group, that is) and in many other places. It was a trip of a lifetime and we were so pleased to have a small part in grandson getting to go.

Tonight they gave a performance of their music. And I was enthralled! They had fun and they sang so beautifully.

What, you might ask, has this to do with knitting?

Well, I took the felted bag I’ve been working on with me. It is just knitted in the round and that can be done anywhere - in the dark, eyes closed as I wept with the music - it’s portable. So - here is the progress made tonight.

I have my fingers poised where I began tonight once in the auditorium. Everything above was done while listening to the choir.

So - that’s it for today - I hope to get some more done on the bonnet before heading off to bed tonight.

(post was written 10 pm Alaska time Tuesday - set to post at 2 am Wednesday)

click on the pics to see a larger version.

knitting progress, knitted baby bonnet, felted bag, music, kenai central high school choir, concert, knitting in the dark

With apologies to the song writer (knees up Mother Brown . . .)

I have begun my first pair of toes up socks. Oh, my!!! Getting started was quite (QUITE!) interesting. I think I had several false starts before getting the stitches onto the needles and getting the first row done. But, finally got it done and have now gotten past the toe increases.

So far, so good. I had help from two web sources:

Knitty.com to the rescue for the “magic” cast on approach. Whew! Great pics - and, really, once you get the hang of it, it works like a charm!

The pattern is from knitty.com as well - Widdershins. I’m doing the plain sock this time. Maybe I will advance to the cabled sock next time - once I get both socks under my belt - get both cast on correctly this time - maybe then I can move on to the cabled sock. It IS pretty, though I think I would stick to a non-patterned yarn like pictured. I think the pattern in the yarn I’m using right now (Supersocke 100 from Turkey) would be competing too heavily if I tried the cable with it.

I’ll share pics tomorrow of my sis receiving her socks for her birthday. Happy, happy, joy, joy. She is looking forward to her feet staying warm in her apartment.

Also working on the scarf for the veterans page I shared last. How are you all coming on yours?

toes up socks, knitted sock patterns, free patterns, warm feet

My winter’s labor.

A friend from church asked me if I would like to be in a knit-along over the winter months. The idea was for a group of us (my friend, her sister-in-law and me) pick out a pattern, our yarn, and off we would go.

We chose a simple cardigan that each of us felt was within our talents to complete. (I have made plenty of pullovers, but this may have been my first cardigan) Two of us purchased yarn from online stores and the third from a local vendor. Surprisingly (or maybe not) none of us chose the same color.

We checked in with each other over the winter and encouraged each other when one of us became bogged down - not necessarily by the project, life has a way of interfering. We met at one point to show our progress and one of the ladies showed us a simple joining stitch. We used the mattress stitch shown on this page.

Going home from THAT meeting was interesting - two of us got stuck (very well stuck!) in the third’s driveway as we had to have chosen the most snowy day of the winter to meet.

About a month later my friend and I got together and went button shopping. Because, as you all know, buttons make the final piece. We also stopped at the Kenai Library to check out a new knitting group that was meeting there.

And, we learned something! Now that is just cool - to be able to learn something when you weren’t really expecting it, huh? The head of the group suggested placing a button behind the knit (back side) when placing the fancy button on the right side - an anchor button. Now, you may all have already known that and practice it faithfully, but it was news to us. Sure makes the buttons look nice, I must say.

This past Saturday the three of us got together for a sweater luncheon. We all brought or wore our sweaters and I took photos after lunch.

I cropped the other ladies because I don’t have their permission to show their faces. But here is my friend (left) and her sister-in-law (right) with their sweaters.

We have chosen our next projects - something new for two of us - felted bags. Watch here for updates.

Soooooo- what are all of YOU knitting?

sweaters, knitting, friends, knitting lunch, buttons, friendship, felted bags, felting, alaska, snow, knit along

So I haven’t put up a pic of Lisa’s new scarf due to my lack of time and energy. (Kyle has Strep Throat now.) So here it is.

This scarf was crocheted with 2 yarns held together. The tick was embroidered with a crochet hook.

If you will glance to the right side of the page —-> you will notice the “About Keri the Sheep” section. Well if you look at the bottom of my little blurb, you’ll see some links. Those are my other pages. They don’t have a lot on them right now, but I’ll be updating them as I get time.

Woo hoo for me!

PS: There’s the link to my podcast too.