something new

I started something new which is not a baby anything. It's not in baby friendly yarn, it's not baby sized, it's not for a book, it might even be for me but I do have someone else in mind for it.

It's Hemp for Knitting's Ponchette(http://www.hempforknitting.com/) #k409. The hemp is DK weight and the ponchette is knit with large needles, I'm using 4.5mm/US7, and it's flying along.

It's so easy that I cast on last night during our last knitting guild meeting. We went formal for the occasion and had a pot luck at a members house. We sat in her sun room and knit the evening away. There were baby sweaters, socks, a baby afghan, a coat, a couple of shawls and a ponchette being worked on. Our guild is very small about 14 knitters and this is about 1/2 of us here but we have a great time together.

In fact there was always so much talking going on during the meeting that we now meet for dinner first and then go to our shop for the meeting. We generally have a show and tell which takes up most of the time and a short workshop afterwards. Some home made wine made it even better this evening.

We set up our program for next year. Different members have volunteered to attempt to teach us all: spinning with drop spindles (one of our members husband is going to make us some), a new 'knit one below' stitch one of our members test knit for a new XRX book coming out in November, tweed stitch squares from Sally Melville's stash busting book 'Styles' and maybe we'll throw them in a dye pot too, knitting with wire & beads (before christmas so we can all make presents), japanese cording or braiding, twinning (spelt right? - using 2 ends of the ball at once), work on some accreditation samples for the Canadian Guild of Knitters (http://www.cgknitters.ca/ - Cynthia, the president, is one of our members), and we're going to get a demo on cutting a lining for a knitted jacket which one of our members does beautifully. It's going to be an exciting year. We're not done yet though. In July I think we're going to Huntsville to do a dyeing workshop with Karen the owner of the Sheepstrings store. So much good stuff to learn and try out. Makes one giddy!

-Deb