Monday, August 31, 2009

Lucy and I had a great weekend.

The "Fariview Knitters" Stitch n Bitch group met up at Palisades Park. Great company, good view and dogs allowed. We had a great time.




Sunday, August 30, 2009

Piros Bogár


My elaborate naming system, early on when I started this blog and actually even before that I decided to name my projects so I would know which project friends were referring to. Then I really liked naming my projects and got into it. The names I give them are random whatever comes to mind. And sometimes I rename a project if the carefully picked out name does not fit the project.

It's sort of like naming a pet, and sometimes these projects take quite some time to complete and indeed become like a familiar friend. This project I originally called "Paprika" but it just did not seem the right bright red color that paprika comes to mind. So I have renamed it "Piros Bogár" which means Red Bug in Hungarian. The yarn that I'm making this sweater out of is named Bugga, because the dyers are taking their inspiration from colors of bugs this yarn color is named Horned Beetle.

Good progress I hope to finish this by October when I'm going to see Cat Bordhi on "her" island in Washington. She calls this get together a "floating retreat" and of course she has renamed it the "non-floating retreat" because we do not float. But I digress I will tell you all about this fun retreat up at Friday Harbor soon.



Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I had an attitude early on.

I was sorting some "stuff" and ran across this picture, I think perhaps this is my very favorite of my childhood pictures. I was 2 years old and as you can see from my expression the photographer must have been teasing me.

Friday, August 21, 2009

I found this funny

As I was channel surfing, usually it's my DH who does this, take a look I think they have a woman knitting at one of the tables as she is listening to the big band play?

Do I just have knitting on my mind so much that I am imagining such a thing? So I back up the DVR player and stop the action and sure enough there IS a woman in the middle of the screen knitting at a night club and listening to the big band playing "Chattanooga Choo Choo".




This I found on You Tube and you can look for yourself. Speeds up my knitting.

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Ooooh I want more Bugga....

I call this project "Paprika" for obvious reasons.




No wonder this yarn was so sought after it is beautiful to knit with. I love the way it feels between my fingers. There are no knots when winding it and the yarn feels so soft to the touch the colors are wonderful, oh yes I want more Bugga.

I was lucky enough to be able to grab 4 skeins of the same color. I think I traded with Kari for the last skein. I loved this color and I had envisioned a wonderful top down garter stitch sweater and knew I needed some yardage to accomplish this. I know this is sock yarn but it seems like a shame to wear this wonderful fiber on my feet. A sweater is more like it. I found a picture somewhere and I can not remember where but here I am rushing to the Bugga booth to get one more skein of red. I laughed at myself when I saw this picture because you can just see the obsession in my body language.


The pattern I'm using is a simple top down "Gypsy knitting" with 4 anchor stitches. Inspired by Barbara Walker's book "Knitting from the Top Down" one of my favorite books in my knitting library. I was thrilled to meet Barbara and getting a chance to talk to her about knitting and chit chatting in general. She is amazing and to say the least a very interesting person.



When Barbara signed my book at the Sock Summit in Portland she told me that she only knits sweaters from the top down. It is the only logical way to knit, so you can try on your creation and see what you are doing. I so agree! When knitting a sweater in pieces one has to finish the whole project practically before you can try it on. For visual knitters this is tough maybe if you are a literal knitter and follow a pattern exactly as it is written this may not matter so much. I've always been a visual knitter and I have a tendency of using patterns as a guide as opposed to following them exactly as written. When I was knitting the socks for the Sock Museum that was the hardest part to follow the pattern exactly as it was written.

Here I am posing with Barbara Walker during the class she was teaching "mosaic knitting" as you see her beautiful sweater knitted with metallic yarn in the mosaic style and she had a purse to match. Don't tell anybody but I love metallic yarn too, it just sparkles and shines, I love things that sparkle I'm easy to please just give something that sparkles and I'm happy.


BTW I am wearing my wool socks this morning and a little wool shawl because it's cold! Note to self knit more socks the winter is coming. Yes we have a winter here in Southern California! Maybe not snow so much but it does get chilly or maybe I'm just a wuss.

Friday, August 14, 2009

The most talked about moment at the Sock Summit


Besides Barbara Walker coming out and teaching and the great line up of teachers and the amazing market place and how well it was all organized.

The most talked about moment at the Sock Summit 09 in Portland: "the woman who was impaled by her own knitting needle" and the medics had to cut the needle with huge bolt cutters and take her away on a stretcher. But they saved her knitting! She is fine and I heard that she was laughing throughout this ordeal, seeing how funny it all was. Beth, a school teacher from Virginia hope you will heal soon.






The most talked about moment at the Sock Summit 09 in Portland: "the woman who was impaled by her own knitting needle" and the medics had to cut the needle with huge bolt cutters and take her away on a stretcher. She is fine and I heard that she was laughing throughout this ordeal, seeing how funny it all was. Beth, a school teacher from Virginia hop you will heal soon.

The pictures are from cbturtlegirl76's photostream

YouTube video from the Sock Summit 2009

I found these on YouTube and thought that it showed the flavor of Sock Summit 09.

Knitters attempt to break Guinness World Record








Nancy Bush who was one of the popular teachers at the SS09 in this video demonstrates a stretchy Estonian cast on for sock knitting. I was not able to take her class but here is a bit of what she was teaching.




Another variation of the Estonian cast on by www.woolywonder.com



Why knit socks by hand, get a sock knitting machine:

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Bugga, Bugga.....

What in the world is that? Bugga, I'd never heard of it before my friend Marla asked me to pick up some yarn at the Sock Summit Market Place. She asked me to please go there first because it will sell out. I was skeptical and wondered how she would know this and what the heck it was she was asking for. She wanted me to buy $100 dollars worth of yarn. I asked what color and as you will ready the story you will see what a silly question that was.

Marla did write down some colors she wanted, names like Blowfly and Oak Timberworm, Ruby Tailed Wasp. I was totally confused. But ok I am now curious what is so special and why would she say that she know that it will sell out in a minute. The name of the yarn is The Sanguine Gryphon.

Here is a pictorial of what went down. The market place was open on Thursday afternoon for 2 hours for registered students. Which was a very nice gesture we felt kind of special of having the market place all to ourselves and getting first crack at some of the special yarns like "Bugga".

I lined up early because I did not have classes that afternoon and was waiting for my roommate Joan to finish her class. I ended up at the very front of the line and the first ten women were all talking about Bugga. I was kind of wondering weather I should go there first or hit some of the other special vendors I was interested in. They all told me no just to go there first but to run. Really? Oh yes it will sell out in minutes.

We are starting to line up in front of the doors ..... and by the time I made it to the booth rushing as fast as I could this is what I found

I could barely get in there to grab let alone look for colors.



This picture is within 3 minutes, see the woman with the long hair and the arm full of yarn? This is the line to pay and there I am on the left, you can just see half of my face I have on my banana earrings and yes my arms are full of yarn. I just barely was able to get in there and so I grabbed what I could. The yarn is 70% washable wool, 20% cashmere and 10% nylon 412 yards of hand-painted sock yarn.


Within 5 minutes everything was sold out and the line to pay was very long. If you look carefully at this picture below you can see a woman reaching for the very last skein that was there.




One of the funniest sites was how some of the other merchants came running to see what was going on and as we all went running past them the look of puzzlement on their faces. Some were asking "where are you all running to we have yarn right here?" I would answer I don't know but I'm following them.

I ended up with a lot of yarn but my friend Marla will be happy and I'm sure some of my Knitting buddies from the stitch and bitch groups I belong to will buy the left overs I have. The color I fell in love with is "Hogwood Bonking Beetle". A deep rich red, I am planning to make a Christmas Sweater out of the four skeins I got.

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

I'm exhausted from my vacation

Heads up: if you are not a knitter this post may have some "off the wall" remarks and knitting craziness.

The Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon was amazing! It was well organized, there were lots of wonderful people there, mostly women but a few brave men were there knitting too. We had tons of activities to choose from and the market place made my head spin. Yes pun intended.

On Friday lots of us gathered to break the Guinness World Record for the most people to knit at once in one place. The old record was 256 set last June in Australia. Pity their record did not last long. There were 1800 registrants for the Sock Summit and the official count for us was 936.

We had to knit on straight needles, no circulars or double points! Yes they checked your knitting at the door as they collected your registration tickets. There were official judges and it was all filmed and published in the local newspaper and shown on the local news channels.

Yes even Barbara Walker took part in the mass knitting even, and Lucy Neatby sitting close by. Below is a close up of Barbara Walkers mature hands knitting. Around here she was our Rock Star.


Cat Bordhi and Clara Parks gigling as they knit, because Cat hates straight needles she only knits on circular needles.
Amy Singer and Judy Becker, the same Judy who invented Judy's magic cast on made famous by Cat Bordhi and is now well known for her clever way of casting on if you are knitting socks toe up.


Judging from all the smiling faces, fun was had by all.

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Meeting a legend


Meeting Barbara Walker has been the highlight of coming to Sock Summit. The class was great she is teaching "mosaic knitting". She was also selling some of her hand knit socks!

Yes I'm actually wearing a pair of socks hand knit by the Julia Childs of Knitters: Barbara Walker.
























Ps. She is staying at the same hotel and she is right across the hall from our room. She is a knitting rock star at this event!

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