This evening I'm doing a talk at the Kawartha Hooks and Needles Guild. I'm going to use mittens

to point out that there is a very nice blank canvas right there on the back of a Basic mitten pattern. What might we do with it? I've made some samples with patterns from the Need A Hat book.

Basketweave pattern from the Ice Cubes hat,

and the Mock Cable pattern from the Snowshoe Hat. Also it's easy to see that any mitten pattern can be made into fingerless mittlets. We're going to have fun playing with patterns and imagining all kinds of mittens we might make.
-Deb

photos??

I am not a photographer. In fact it takes some effort to remember to take pictures at all. And I failed again to take pictures for the blog of the Kawartha Needles and Hooks Knitting Guild on Thursday. There is no photographic evidence so you'll just have to believe me that it was fun and, I hope, interesting for them. We looked at starting hats from the top (crown) and tried 2 different ways of beginning, one knitting and one with a crochet hook. This is a great way to knit a hat if you are in a swatch-free zone. And sometimes you just need to spend some time there, at least I do.


I have discovered, on reflection, that if I am speaking or doing a workshop I do not think of pulling out my camera. Other things on my mind, obviously. If I am participating I can think of the blog and photographs.

Friday I went to Sudbury to be a participant in the Sticks, String and Stewardship knitting retreat. It's based on spirituality and charity knitting. Guest speaker Gailand MacQueen spoke on how needlework reflects your life. He has written a book on labyrinths and mazes so later we walked the labyrinth in Sudbury at sunset with candles, a cool thing to do. They collected quite a bit of yarn to be knit up for various charities and several blankets, in the middle of the table, for the Blanket Linus project.
And we did some knitting.I picked the Moebius Scarf class and knit a small neck warmer for myself. I understand that winter is coming, again!Here it is on a vase, since I couldn't take a photo of it on my neck. It is so dark inside, raining like crazy today.Terry-Lynne brought a sock knitting machine, circa 194..., which she was given and has working really well, it's amazing.(It's painted red inside.) She can churn out tube socks with ribbed tops. The heel seems to be the sticking point. It's the same for hand knitters and the sock knitting machine - that blasted heel! And speaking of amazing things you can learn about, we started the weekend with the cutting of Sharon's knitting cake.AMAZING and delicious too!

-Deb

Kitchener - Waterloo Knitting Show

Back from the annual Kitchener Waterloo Knitting show which was terrific as it always is. This is a show that is completely run by the members of the KW Knitting Guild. We've been going for years - way back when, when the show was held at the highest level of bleechers in a hockey arena. We sold yarn, while the kids played hockey on the ice below us. Very appropriate we thought.

We see lots of old friends and meet many new ones too. I wanted to thank my two amazing helpers, Judith and Dana, who did a sterling job of helping me set up (and even more importantly, break down after the show!!) and worked hard during the day, along side Deb, answering questions and picking yarn colours. Yea! What a team!

Lynn stopped by to show off her beautiful Sarah, from our "Button Up Your Top Down" book, designed by Bernice Vollick. Here's the front view:

And the back view: (sorry I was a bit wobbly there)

Lynn knit this in Buffy's yarn (Shelridge Farm) and here's Buffy in her booth:

Lot's of old friends like Evie, in Karen's booth (SheepStrings)

Caroline of SweaterKits with her daughter Laura:

A great time was had by all and I've booked us to do it all again next year! See you then.

-Lynda

I am an extremely bad blogger. Went to the Gateway Fibreworks shop in Gravenhurst, ON http://www.gatewayfibreworks.com/ where they are setting up an alpaca mill and didn't think to take one picture, not one! I will remedy this in the fall when Gail, the mill owner, assures us it will be up and running. She gave our knitting guild a tour and explained the process. Very, very interesting. They will have a gallery where you will be able to watch the mill working when it's all set up. I did buy some alpaca.

This is lace weight and really soft. The top skein in 100% alpaca in a silver colour and the bottom skein is alpaca and silk in a taupe/silver blend. I'm trying to see if I can work with lace weight. I think most of us have a range of yarn weights we prefer or maybe it's needle sizes we like best but for me lace weight knitting is out of my comfort zone. I've worked my way down to fingering for socks and have not finished anything I have tried at a finer weight. But I am determined not to limit myself to the heavier weights and will be making a scarf with this lovely stuff. Although it does feel awfully nice in the skein just like it is, so easy to pet sitting right there beside my chair.

I had a lovely visit from Ann, vacationing from Florida at her friend Stephanie's place in Port Sidney, ON. They both came down for the afternoon. She has made the Texture Time jacket out of the Top Down for Toddler book and it looks gorgeous. I have always liked this one and it was nice to see it knit up.
As you can see there is little knitting going on here. It's been hot and difficult to knit sans air conditioning. But I am busy lining up projects to start in August when it's a little cooler. For now it's small projects and catching up on some pattern writing.
-Deb

wire

NOT a hat post. Yes I did something other than knit another hat last night. Our Guild and everyone showed off their braids.

This is braiding with 6 strands, on a Kumihimo disk. The blue braid above is done with wool which is held in the bobbins. Speaking of those bobbins - did anyone else use spoollies to curl their hair in their youth? Spoollies are curlers just like these bobbins, but pink, and you wound your hair around and around and then flipped them closed. Because they were soft rubber you could sleep with them hanging all over your head and wake up with kinky hair. Ahh, the sacrifices I used to make to be beautiful!
These fancier braids were are made with 4 strands of ribbon and 2 strands of beads on thread. They come out gorgeous and look like those crystal experiments where you stick a toothpick in a jar of salt or sugar solution (I can't remember which but sugar would be more fun) and crystals form on the stick. Pardon me, everything seems to be reminding me of high school today.
The braids are pretty aren't they. The shawl is a Pie Shawl in progress and it's gorgeous too. But I didn't do any of this. NO, too busy knitting hats but I did put a hat aside last night to make a bracelet.
Is this cool or what. My first bead project and it was fun, fun, fun. We strung beads on no.26 wire (available at craft stores) and then cast on, slipping a bead between each stitch. We knit one row and then Cast Off, slipping beads between all these stitches. It was great and took about 45 minutes and a second bracelet would take about half an hour now that I am sort of used to the wire. It has no give at all, well of course it doesn't, but this takes some time to penetrate a thick skull. You have to do all of this loose, as loose as you can.
It's fun to see the different sized beads come up in line. I enjoyed doing it and it's not a hat!

-Deb

2nd attempt at a slip stitch hat

Not too much knitting got done last week between getting everything ordered, organised and packed up for the Stitches East show in Baltimore, then shipping out books and things for the Rochester Guild talk and our book signing at Embraceable Ewe in Hamburg (both on the way back home from the show), all while carrying on with business as usual (and it is our busy season). And no relaxing on the weekend either as I had company!

But I wanted to try another slip stitch hat for our new booklet and the first attempt was not ideal ... you could barely see the pattern at all! So, here is the 2nd attempt. It's a "mock cable" slip stitch. I can't be bothered to use a cable needle for a 1 stitch cable and as I'm working in wool, I just slip it off the needle and hold it behind with my fingers. Works great and no constant seaching for that darn cable needle!

I'm having a hard time, as usual, planning the trip knitting. I'd love to take (and try very hard to finish) my pullover, I want to finish the mock cable hat and I'm winding some yarn to do some adult sizes of my new flap cap. The knitting is tricky because I hate having idle hands at a show but when I get busy, then the knitting is up and down and up and down and it's very easy to make a mistake (it is not at all unusual for me to rip out any knitting I've done while at a show unless it's a really easy hat or sock). And I really can't take anything I have to concentrate on! However, there's the LONG drive (we take turns) and the evenings in the hotel room ... And it's far too dangerous NOT to take knitting as then I end up buying yarn and starting something new! I've way too many things to finish before I start anything else new. Well, except for my Christmas knitting. :-)

I will have to make some decisions soon as we'll be leaving at the crack of stupid tomorrow morning.

Now I'm off to print off directions. I love Mapquest!

-Lynda

Kawartha Hooks and Needles

The Kawartha Hooks and Needles Guild asked me to come to their guild. And a terrific group they are. They asked questions as we went along. And afterwards brought over some knitting projects where they needed a bit of help. I am so happy to demonstrate a technique because words quite often are not enough and nothing duplicates the hands-on experience.I went through a basket of samples, even took my socks off and passed them around. I was in a quandary about patterning socks so posed the question: When you put a pattern on the centre top of the foot, should the pattern look correct to the knitter looking down at their own sock as it's being worn or should the pattern look correct to the casual observer of the sock? The vote was very close but the "knitter looking down at their own socks" won. Must be some sock knitters in the crowd, Thanks.

I'll keep my next quandary until next year (yes, they're asking me back, yay!). I'll be coming earlier in the fall with the Hat Booklet which will be out then, so they can get started knitting hats for their Christmas charity hat drive. It's exciting to know that the new hat project will be helping people in their community.

Thanks Wilma and Mildred,

-Deb

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

Moebius guild

Our guild meeting was Wednesday night and here are the Moebius scarves which these conscientious knitters finished. You'll notice my absence in the finished catagory. They all thought it was an amazing thing to do and it truely is. We all cast on 120 sts and they all came out different sizes. But it will at least give us all an idea of whether to add more stitches or take some off for a second try. I still thing making a moebius shawl is the coolest idea.

We meet once a month and 8 - 10 of us go out for dinner before hand which is the most fun of all. At the last meeting I think we decided where we were going for dinner first and thought about the program for the meeting after. Was it decided - the program that is? I guess it will be a surprise.

My work since yesterday. The blob at the bottom of the photo is one of the original yellow yokes which was glowing so badly that I cropped it out.

I started with a fold-over collar but wasn't satisfied when I got it done so have gone back to the neckband idea. The middle strip has too many gray rows and ribbing at the base. Decided to change both of them to a thin edge of gray and no ribbing at the bottom of the neckband. The knit up yoke at the top is close to what I want. I'm going to try one more with 6 fewer stitches which will then be added into the neckband at the bottom. I wondered if it would be more snug looking with fewer stitches and possibly lie flatter. We'll see. If that works I'll continue with the yoke knitting tonight and write some of this up before all the bits of paper get confused.

Onward,

-Deb

Self-Interview about Self-Publishing

March 19, location - downtown Toronto, DKC knitting guild (http://www.downtownknitcollective.ca/) , present - many knitters knitting, Lynda and I speaking on Self-Publishing.

I put myself in the position of the knitting audience and asked ourselves questions that I thought they might be interested in. We did a Self-Interview on Self-Publishing. You might recognize a theme here - self, self, self. We DO like to do things ourselves. At least we thought so until we asked ourselves "How many people were involved in making the Button Up Your Top Down book?" - an astounding 22 !! - 6 of us doing the designs, a photographer, our contact at the printers, a friend doing the copy edit, several models, 2 pattern checkers, another friend wrote some style text, a graphic artist did the cover, several test knitters and ... I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. Anyway a big crew and now I look back I'm not sure how it all came together but it did.

I do remember moments, like choosing the cover. We had the basic style set and had to choose between 4 different colourways. So we pinned them to the wall and 3 of us are stood with our eyes closed, open your eyes, which one do you see first? Change them up, eyes closed, open and which one jumps out? We all agreed, Done.

I have spoken now at the DKC 3 times, a friendly and very active guild. It's a joy to go there because of all the familiar faces and of course each time meeting some new knitters.

If you are in the Toronto area at the end of April come to the guild's Knitter's Frolic (see their website above) it's a terrific show, lots of vendors and a great line-up of classes. We'll be there as vendors and teaching.

"Lynda, What is the trickiest part of doing a book like the Button Up Your Top Down? - The layout.

What's the most work? - The layout.
What's the most fun? - The layout.

The knitters continuing to do their thing.

Rocky brought her Top Down pullover from the Top Down For Toddler book. And look, it has 3 tiny pockets (you can just see the yellow lining of the pockets). Wow, what a great addition. I love it.

I'm off for the weekend. My husband and I are celebrating our silver anniversary with some time away and some time at the curling rink too as our daughter is playing in the Tim Horton's Trophy Provincial championships. Fun for us to watch her doing what she loves to do. I am of course taking my knitting, it's second sock weekend, being as it's a celebration of coupledom.

- Deb

Time flies when you sleep all the time but I'm finally over my jet lag. I wasn't much help to my curling team on Tuesday morning - jet lag, a cold, and stiffness from all the flying time does not help to make you limber and alert. I was standing in the house (the bull's eye rings for the non-curlers) and supposed to tell the sweepers when to sweep and the thought that they should start sweeping came into my head and stayed there because before I knew it the rock was already in the house. Just a wee bit slow on the transfer from thought to verbal output. I started to wake up around 10:30am (which would have been 7:30am for me, still on California time) but that's half way through the game and a little late to be surfacing. We still tied the game but next week, watch out, I have to make up for this poor showing.

And now back to work. We are going to a small show on Saturday, March 1, at the Simcoe County Museum (www.county.simcoe.on.ca/cultureinformation/museum/index.html) called Heritage Crafters Sampler Day where they are featuring several different hand crafts with a display of work, a small market with vendors, and a list of classes that the museum will be holding in April. This is part of their education mandate and it will be fun. They want to introduce more people to hand crafting which is wonderful.

Our Guild was introduced to something completely different at our meeting last night - Cat Bhordi's Moebius cast on. Not an easy thing to get on to but Terry did a great job of keeping us at it and we all got a cast on round and several rounds knit. It is an amazing thing and next month we should see some Moebius scarves finished.

Here's my Moebius beginning. Can you see where the fabric crosses on the second photo? And can you see that the circular needle is winding around twice? At the crossing the needle is moving from the inner circle to the outer circle. You cast on in the centre and knit away from the centre at both edges at the same time. Pretty amazing. I am knitting 3 rounds, then wrapping and turning to the inside and knitting 3 more rounds. That way I get the ridges that are showing. It's fun to try out and most of my fellow guild members picked more exciting wool than I did so I hope I can photograph them next month.

- Deb

Kawartha Hooks and Needles Guild

I was in Peterborough, ON last night talking about our book Button Up Your Top Down. I had 2 suitcases of samples to show and pass around and lots of information on Top Down knitting. The Peterborough knitters showed up even though it was snowing and were wonderfully friendly and asked great questions (which I love). They were a joy to talk to.

But I have failed dismally as a blogger. I took my camera but do you see a photo? No, I'm afraid not. A good looking group too. I will have to try to do better next time.

I am now on the second sleeve of my blue pullover and progressing but it's slow going at the moment. I have 2 movies lined up so that should finish the sleeve off. If it doesn't I'll have to think about changing professions or something equally drastic.

- Deb

Thanks Houston.

"We knit in Houston", Vicki wanted me to tell you that. I saw lots of evidence too.

Although it was very hot to me (91 degrees - if that was here in Ontario we would all be warned to stay at home) but it's business as usual in Houston. Several knitters were wearing wool socks which totally surprised me. We all wore sweaters in class because of the air conditioning and one of their guild projects recently was a shawl and I saw several beautiful ones being worn.

Here they are with their scaled down sample top downs and one on a doll. Terrific.

Vicki was my welcoming committee and started off my weekend with wonderful stories of their group. Betsy and Judy wined and dined me and we had a marvelous time.

Mary Lee and Amy are the retreat coordinators, past and present. Thanks for inviting me and everything went smoothly due to Amy's hard work. And I met Kaki Gemmell - can you believe that! We figure somewhere we must be related - so nice to meet you cuz.

And Laura gave me a great idea for putting darts in a vest and now this project has jumped into my project bag and I'm casting on today.

It was a terrific group and lots of very interesting questions came up in class which was wonderful. An engaging and friendly group. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Thanks to everyone.

And if you make a top down send me a photo and we'll put it on the bragging board.

-Deb