First Outing

I like to go away but I hate leaving. Does this make any sense? Tonight I leave for the NENA show in Sturbridge, MA. A trade show where we get to talk to lots of knitting store owners and see lots of knitting products. We'll see what the initial reaction is to our Need A Hat? booklet. First time out of the box, oh my.

I'm also teaching a Top Down class at The Fiberloft store in Harvard, MA on Saturday afternoon. I'm looking forward to that a lot. It's going to be fun. But before I start my mad dash around the house collecting bits of clothing and my 5 knitting projects which I won't even work on and the 2 books I won't have time to read, I did get some more done on the little pink sweater.

I'm calling this the Tuxedo shaping. You get to decorate the shirt front with whatever pattern you like. I'm going to try the broken rib pattern next because that would look like a shirt with pleats.

A nice wide panel across the centre back to play with, which is of course not tuxedo-like but I'm trying not to get too caught up with that one. I have some alterations to do on this and then a reknit. I'm going to think about it over the weekend. See you next week.
-Deb

P.S. Commenters
Thanks for the kind comments. It's always a little nerve racking taking a new project to it's first outing. You have given me a boost.

Need A Hat?

Yes, it's here! Hot Off the Press!!

After a fair bit of technical hair-pulling the booklets arrived Thursday afternoon and Sophy and I immediately packed them up and shipped them to Sturbridge, MA, for me to sell at the trade show next week (and hopefully for Deb to show and sell when she does her classes at Reba's store The Fiber Loft in Harvard, MA). On Friday we sent off our first store shipment to Diane of Georgetown Knitting & Crafts. Karen, of SheepStrings in Dwight ON, stopped to pick up copies to take to the Knitters Frolic Show in Toronto and for Miko and Jennifer at The Purple Purl.

As an interesting aside, Karen stopped by my house on the way home from doing the show (mainly to get fed I think) and told me that people had trouble believing that they could use ANY yarn for ANY hat in the booklet as much as Karen assured them they could (Karen is one of the designers in the book, see page 45, hat #10 so she knew this was true, lol). They bought the booklet on faith ... and hope. I think they'll be pleased.

I've put more detail and bigger pictures on the Cabin Fever web site if you want to go have a look!

-Lynda

Just wanted to update with an email comment from Diane:

Hi Lynda and Debbie,
Seeing I am the first store to receive your new hat book - I will be the first to comment - What a great book!!! I think there is a hat there for everyone!! Good job!! I bet you do not ever want to knit another hat for a long time!!
Diane
Diane & Bob CrawfordGeorgetown Yarn & Crafts

170 Guelph St.Georgetown,

ON L7G 4A7Phone: 905-877-1521

Fax: 905-877-3614

knitting@cogeco.ca

http://www.canknit.com/members/dcrawford.html

Pink

This one's pretty in pink.It's time to play. This is a top down with the increases put in different places. At least different than the standard raglan formation which we are familiar with.

This is the set-up at the neck and the lines are where the Markers are set up. It's fun to mix it up and see what happens. I think that is my design approach - what would happen if . . . ? I have no idea how this will work out. I've put seed stitch in the back panel and in the front 2 panels including the buttonbands. The sleeves are a bit of a mystery at the moment. And I have some idea what the bottom edge will look like but the reality may be different when I get there. It's definitely interesting to knit and see what's happening.

-Deb

Pink

It seems like it's really spring now. And what does a girl's fancy turn to in spring? Yes, you got it . . .home renovations. This was the temporary solution to putting out 7 buckets to catch all the rain which all of a sudden seemed to be falling inside the house as the thaw set in. I did contemplate just leaving it there or maybe putting a big umbrella over my whole house, could be festive looking don't you think?Better looking than this, for sure. Yuck, old places never look nice underneath. As you can see the rain has probably been coming in for some time. And denial can only last so long, in my case 7 buckets was the breaking point. But doesn't it look lovely in pink? If you are a carpenter of any type, do not torture yourself by looking at this picture with it's irratic stud distances. It will only cause you distress. My whole house looks like this under it's skin. Weirdness everywhere. As my father says it give me licence to do anything I want, anyway I want. So I do. That was today's job. Friday's job was to shingle the roof (how sore was I??). Now it's raining and I keep running in to see if there is any water coming in. So far, so good. Come on rain, give me all you got !!

And I did do some knitting too (although not on shingling day - do you know what that stuff does to your hands, it's like handling giant sand paper, ow, ow, ow). I'm on my second swirl sock. Yes, eat your heart out 'Samm from the comments'. Second sock, right there, almost done. Hurrah.
I feel the need to start something new to celebrate. Something in pink I think. Ha, ha.

-Deb

How long

How long can you go without knitting?

My own record is only one day. Even when I'm looking for a break, one day seems to be as long as I can manage without picking up my needles at some point or reading a knitting magazine or at least talking to someone about knitting. So despite wanting a bit of a break I did finish my first sock with the swirl.I have wound up the second ball and have got the ribbing going for the second sock. Yes, you got that right. The second sock. I'm excited again. This weekend we are out and about and now that I'm prepared I'm all set for car knitting and concert knitting and knitting in my class on Sunday. Have knitting, will travel.

-Deb

Meanwhile

I'm making some headway on the redo of my sock foot.

But otherwise everything is kind of at a stand still. The hat booklet has gone to the printers where we have run into some sort of misfit between our computer software and theirs. But fortunately it seems to be resolving itself (Lynda and the tech guys there are working on it). There will be a booklet shortly. Yay! Otherwise I am in that no man's land between finishing a big project and not being able to get any energy together to start anything new. This too will pass. Meanwhile I guess I could always work on the second sock.
-Deb

P.S. Commenters:
Elizabeth, the blue sweater is in http://www.briggsandlittle.com/ Soft Spun. I like using it a lot. It knits to 4.5 or 4 sts = 1" which is a nice quick knit.
Thanks for your comments, Valerie and Jed. I've worked on one sleeve but had to rip it out again, too tight. But I'll be starting it again soon.

Reworking

This sock is no longer working. I've done the heel and put all the 'top of foot' stitches on one needle. As I work the gusset and top of the foot the pattern is starting to skew off to one side. Hmm, more experimentation is needed but not now. I think the heel is headed for frogging and a plain foot is called for here. I will have to cogitate on this some more but at some other time.

Speaking of reworking. I've redone the back of the Cut-Away cardigan.
I dropped all of the P2 parts of the ribbing,
and hooked them all back up again so that portion of the back is now stocking stitch.
And decided to make a diamond out of the ribbing at the small of the back,
because the whole cardigan needed to be longer. This is the before . . .
and the after. And the Front before . . .and after.
About 3" longer, and now 21" long from the bottom of the collar. Still a shortish jacket.

I suppose I should put some sleeves on it.
-Deb