Saturday, May 30, 2009

Knitting at Jennifer Knits

Having a nice time visiting with my friend Leslie.




Knitting my new socks "April Fools"






-- Post From My iPhone


Leslie trying on some samples to knit her new yarn a soft and wonderful cashmere.






More about the Sock Summit

Remember how I told you about there being more knitters than golfers in the U.S.? Well apparently there are even more Sock Knitters than regular knitters or golfers. Tina Newton one of the organizers writes on her blog:

.....There were 12,000 signed up on our mailing list. This is the number we went by. Rule of thumb is you count that 10% of that number is your true customer base. Knowing our actual customer base, we took that 10% and multiplied it by four. In the non-knitter world, that would have been more than enough (and actually a bit of a financial risk on on our part and a huge leap of faith). How could we have known that not only would we be hit with more than the 12,000 but over double that? 
( that would be at least 30,000) ......

Did she say 30,000? And no they can't make it any bigger it's already the biggest knitting event of the year or maybe ever! Well I for one was lucky enough to get classes and can hardly wait for August to arrive. 

Answers to most-asked questions and comments:

-No. We can’t make it bigger. It’s already the biggest ever. It’s really big, and there isn’t more room at the Conference Centre, and we actually don’t have a responsibility to make sure everyone can fit. A knitting conference for tens of thousands of knitters isn’t a reasonable thing to ask of us.

-No. We can’t get the bigger ballroom at the Art Museum. It’s is booked and has been since we tried to book it before.

- No. We can’t put more students in all the classes. Class size is dictated by the teachers. That’s industry standard and if the classes were any bigger you would just be sad that the classes were so big you couldn’t learn in them.

- No. We can’t get Barbara Walker to do some extra lectures. She’s almost 80 and a retired and extraordinarily well respected matriarch of our community. We won’t be exhausting her.

No. we don’t agree that we are horrible people because you didn’t get what you wanted. We are very, very sorry you are disappointed. We are even sorrier about the server crash, because it made what we now understand was inevitable - a lot of disappointed knitters, a lot who think that if the server hadn’t crashed it would have worked out for them. The server slowed down for all of you. It crashed for all of you. Nobody got an advantage and we’re heartbroken that you’re sad. Write to us. We’re helping everyone as best as we can. Really. While we don’t think we’re horrible, we know that this feels horrible, and we want to make as many people happy as we can.


Friday, May 29, 2009

Too many UFO's

For those who do not speak "knitterease" which is a language unique to knitters, UFO's are Unfinished Objects. I am very "lucky" to own many UFO's, I seem to have more ideas and start many different projects than my life allows time for. To monogamous knitters who are knitters who only work on one project at a time, (I can't even imagine such a thing) this "lucky" label I've given my state may appear as Un-lucky. This kind of knitting is not for the faint-of-heart it scares even me sometimes.

Because some of my projects take many, many hours & days & weeks to complete sometimes I let them rest and something new catches my eye and off I am starting something new. There are advantages and disadvantages to this fickle sort of knitting. The advantage is that when I get back to a half finished project I look and think oh I have a head start and all I have to do is finish the other half. But the downside is that sometimes I forget all about the project and it gets "tired" and periodically I have to have a "frog it or finish it" week. Fogging is another knitterease term for unraveling something knitted because a frog says ripp-it. 

Sometimes this comes along accidentally as I am searching for something I remember I have and find something else and other times my guilt makes me go searching for that unfinished project I remember starting. Also my "stash" of yarn seems to be huge and I really can not buy any new yarn until I put some sort of dent into the boxes and boxes of yarn I'm storing in the spare bedroom. Which is not really a spare bedroom because it is certainly fully occupied with yarn and clothes & suitcases and coats etc. and there is no room to spare.

I have no rules but for the ones I enforce up on myself. There are no deadlines except for the ones I make up, I hate deadlines so I don't make many of those. Right now I'm trying to finish some baby things but feel like by the time I finish the child will have outgrown it or the season has changed. 


The other day I found this beautiful ball of red cashmere yarn that I had but did not remember what project I had done with it or what state the project was in but the extra ball of yarn was separated from the project. I put it on the bed and within a split second Lucy my puppy snatched it and this is what happened. I took this picture with my phone so the color does not really show up and it looks a mess and it was a mess. 



What beautiful yarn, fine lace weight but soft and luscious, Mongolian Cashmere in a beautiful rich red. It took me 3 days to unravel it this mess but for some reason I did not have the heart to throw it out. Testing my patience, if Lucy was not so cute and had not gotten under our skin she would be out the door.


Did I do something wrong Mommy?

But she is so cute and has so much personality so once in a while she likes to get into my yarn. I could share a few more pictures like this but I'll spare myself, Lucy must have been a knitter in a previous life. 

Thursday, May 28, 2009

My dog is pushy and demanding!

Fee Fee my 15 year old beloved dog hates when I knit! She has figured out that if she comes up to me and sits down on the yarn that I'm knitting I have to stop!

I know it's been a long time since I've been able to shove her out of the way so I could write but at last she was willing to give it up for a few minutes. Big of her but what can I do she is what she is I guess at this point there is no hope in teaching her courtesy or kindness the selfish person that she is and always has been. I do not know how I've survived by her side this long. But I keep trying and hoping, miracles do happen you know. 

I hate it when she knits! I have told her many many times I come first! How many times do I have to tell her this? Some humans are just so stubborn....  gee sometimes I can not believe the burden that is upon me to try and teach her my way! I am the most important being in this household! Especially since the little bitch came to live with us. How I long for the good old days when it was only my brother who was a total coward and I ruled over. This new little bitch thinks she is the Alpha dog but I digress.

She likes to knit first thing in the morning when she has her cup of coffee. I don't know why she needs this coffee business but every morning it's the same thing! I wake her up and she is not happy about it, I'm an early riser so sue me. I take many naps in the day and I don't need as much sleep as SHE does so I wake her up. I am very careful though I never wake her up in the middle of the night she really gets pissed when I do that! Only in case of an emergency do I resort to that, sometimes I have to tinkle at night! Well it's not like I have a toilet an
d I can't reach the door knob so what am I to do? Pee on the floor, well sometimes if it's raining I will but that is another story and she really gets pissed when I do that. (Excuse the pun)
When
 we first wake up in the morning I like to snuggle, this is the only time of the day that I like to snuggle the rest of the day I am busy. My brother on the other hand, (God rest his soul) the fool that he used to be liked to snuggle any time SHE wanted. SHE called him, he went running! And now this little whipper snapper is trying to do the same thing! She calls her and the little bitch goes running. Sucker! She thinks she will like her more than me but that will never I said NEVER happen. I am the cutest, the smartest and I deserve everything I get. My hearing may be a little off and my eyesight might not be the best but I am still QUEEN of this house!

The Bitch
ps. thank you for letting me vent.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

I'm so excited!


The day was finally here, Tuesday May 26 @ 10:00 am we could sign up for our classes at the Sock Summit. We kept getting eMails from Stephanie (the Yarnharlot) and Tina (Blue Moon Fiber Arts) that they were ready for the thousands of people who will be logging on at the same time. 

I am organized just like they told us to do choose more than first choices because it will sell out fast. I have my handwritten cheat sheet ready to go, but frustration I can't get in then I get in and at the last minute it kicks me out.

11,000 people tried and sure enough the server crashed! Stephanie told us that there are more knitters in the U.S. than golfers. Anybody I mention this to is always surprised and sort of acts like they don't believe me, like I'm making this up to bolster my crazy hobby.

Booo Hoooo we were all moaning and groaning. All the rules out the window! What do we do now? But I really, really want to take a class given by Barbara Walker. I love her books even though they may be dated a bit but a wealth of information and I love what I've heard about her. Quite frankly I thought she was so old by now and never coming out in public, but here she is on the list of classes at the Sock Summit


Calling my friend Joan my roommate, did you get in? No did you? Noooo .... another phone call .... refresh ... refresh. I got in oh but Barbara's class is sold out and Lucy Neatby's class is sold out. Cat Bordhi's class is sold out. I quickly go on Ravelry and check the "buzz" yup everybody is in the same boat. 

But I hang in there, I went and did a load of laundry feeling all disappointed and then I think I should try it again. A Miracle! I got in and got Barbara Walker's class and got Lucy Neatby's class and I'm a happy camper. But now I have to wait until August.

Here is a little detail about Barbara Walker, I find her fascinating. Cat Bordhi told me that when she visited Barbara's studio the walls were lined with Barbie dolls. She did her designs first for a Barbie, a miniature sweater or skirt etc. Here is what the Wikipedia says about her.

Barbara G. Walker (born July 21930, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a U.S. author and feminist. She writes about religioncultural anthropologyspirituality, and mythology from the viewpoint of Pre-Indo-European neolithic matriarchies. She often uses the imagery of the Mother Goddess to discuss these Neolithic Matriarchies. Her most important book is The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets (1983). She also is an influential knitting expert and the author of several classic encyclopedic knitting references.

Barbara G. Walker describes herself as an atheist. In the book, The Skeptical Feminist: Discovering the Virgin, Mother, and Crone, she writes about her belief that there is no deity. However, she believes that people, and woman in particular, can use the image of the Goddess in their day-to-day lives. Her book Woman's Rituals: A Sourcebookis an attempt to show how she puts her "meditation techniques" into practice, and is meant as a guide for other women to do the same thing.

In the 1960s and 1970s, she authored several volumes of knitting references which have become landmarks for their comprehensiveness and clarity.[citation needed] Her knitting treasury series documents over a thousand different knitting stitches. Other books considered mosaic knitting, for producing multicolored designs while knitting only one color per row, and constructing knitted garments from the top-down rather than the usual bottom-up method used in western knitting tradition. Her legacy continues with the reprinting of most of her knitting books, starting in the mid-1990s, as well as the publication of new contributions to the knitting literature.

Barbara G. Walker studied journalism at the University of Pennsylvania and began working for the Washington Star in Washington, D.C. While serving on a local hotline in the mid 1970s, helping battered women and pregnant teens, she became interested in feminism. The American Humanist Association named her "Humanist Heroine" in 1993, and in 1995 she received the "Women Making Herstory" award from the New Jersey NOW.


Bibliography

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I usually do not post jokes...

But this one involves knitting and I thought it was funny. Sent to me by my friend Devra. 

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover. In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife's bedside. She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dills and a stack of money totaling $95,000.

He asked her about the contents. 'When we were to be barried,' she said. 'my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.' 

The little old man was so moved he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness. 'Honey,' he said, 'that explains the doll, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?'



 'Oh,' she said. 'that's the money I made from selling the dolls.'

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Progress...









I am progressing but I think I'm not going to make the bunting portion it will be just a little Einstein jacket. Cute little car buttons!

What do you think?

Post From My iPhone

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I've been sooo busy.....

I've hardly have had time to knit, but still have managed to squeeze in a couple of projects. I'm still working on the 7/11 Gypsy Sweater I will post pictures soon. So far it fits really nice and the colors are wonderful.

I have a dear friend who just became a grandmother and I started Sally Melville's "Baby Albert Coat & Bunting" for the little one.




ps. I have been looking for an Application to be able to post to my blog right from my iPhone and I found it and it works. BlogPress is Amazing! I can now take a picture with my iPhone and put up a blog entry in minutes. Have I mentioned how much I love my iPhone?

Monday, March 30, 2009

Yarn hangover

I went to Newton's parking lot sale this weekend. It was a hunt but I think I did come home with something I can work with.

A sea of yarn......

It all starts to blur

Now what to do with new yarn?

Sunday, March 29, 2009

creative knitters


I got to meet Lisa Ann Auerbach at Amano this weekend ("Bad Girl Night"). She showed us her work in a power point presentation. What a kick, she is so creative and a huge body of work. She knits on a knitting machine an does the same style of sweater with different designs and "words" statements, mostly controversial political opinions. We all had a great time, lots of great food & drink and a little bit of knitting.

I'm getting ready to teach "Short Rows: the long version" lots of short row methods and how to apply them in your projects. Thursday 6-8pm at Amano Yarn Center. ... I love short row shaping so does Hanne Falkenberg here is an example of a short rowed sweater I knit




But why? Because she had to.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

7/11 Gypsy Sweater progress & book report

One of the great pleasures for me is to be able to listen to an "unabridged" book (now on my iPhone) and knit. Somebody to read me a story and I can knit, knit, knit..... lots of stitches in a row and I'm in heaven. Time slips into that magic "suspended" zone where it just glides along like a sailboat on a beautiful lake. Somehow I can never really tell how a knitting project will turn out to be, it evolves and sometimes turns into a fun great knit with ease and well other times not so much.

It's the same way for books, sometimes a book turns out to be excellent and other times a bit disappointing or downright a "dog" and I don't even want to finish. Knitting projects are the same, some I have not finished and others knit up fast and with great pleasure. When I first start a book or a knit I can never tell how it's going to be at first until I'm into it a bit and realize that it's going well or not so well. This new sweater I'm knitting from the top down is going well, it's a fun knit, maybe it's all the festive colors or the feel of the wool sliding through my fingers and it is starting to fit nicely. I think I will finish this one and get some good many years of wear out of it.

The book I started listening to thanks to a recommendation from my Audible listeners group on Ravelry is "The English American" By Alison Larkin and Narrated by the author. This book was wonderful and charming and Ms. Larkin is not only a talented writer but a great performer. She even sings beautifully. Just enough singing when appropriate not to become annoying "musical" but fit into the story. I was sorry to have the book end.

Then somebody recommended "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" they said that if I liked the "English American" I will probably aslo like the:
"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" By Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows. Quite a title but it sounded intriguing and it's all written in letters and correspondence between the characters.

What a great follow up to the English American. But this one was sometimes a bit tough to listen to although performed and written well but the subject was painful at times. It takes place of life right after the Second World War in England and how it affected people during and after this great horrible event in history. It brought up memories of my childhood in post WWII Budapest. But a wonderful pleasurable "read" I sometimes laughed and I sometimes cried. The readers were great and I'm not quite sure who they were because Audible does not list them? Juliet Mills is the main character but that is all I can remember. All the readers did a great job. I usually don't like too much dramatization in my Audible books and don't like music added etc. I just like a good reader to read me the book. However if it's done well it adds to the book.

But my sweater is not finished! I need to browse around for a new book. I finished one of the sleeves and did a successful i-Cord bind off. This is one of the bind offs' I'll be teaching this coming Thursday during my class at Amano Yarn Center. This is one of the nicest edges it gives the piece a "finished" look and a straight edge. There is instructions all over the internet or search this blog for it.


I think I've made a decision about the neck opening I'm going to use a short zipper.


Got to go now, I have a busy day today.

Happy Knitting & Listening
ana

Sunday, March 15, 2009

So I now snore SHE says!


What of it? You may snore too when you reach the ripe old age of 98. Yup in human years I'm going on 98 years old. I'm not sure if what they say that each dog year is equal to 7 human years but if that is correct, I am 97 and in August I will be 98. Actually 14 in calendar years but no matter how you slice it I am a senior dog now. I like to rest up and sleep a lot and sometimes I may snore a little. SHE has been complaining.

Can you imagine how inconsiderate SHE is? I'd like to see how loud SHE will be snoring when SHE reaches my age? I am a bit slower now too, what's the hurry, I know what's happening and if I don't know about it I simply don't care. So life is pretty good sometimes when I first wake up I kind of limp a little bit and am a little stiff but usually I can walk it out. The best part of that is that SHE starts feeling sorry for me and treats me with some good chewy or a special massage. At last SHE kind of treats me like I've been training her to do.

The training has been tough, SHE is an "old dog" and you know what they say about old dogs, you can't teach them new tricks. Now let me tell you about this little "miss full of energy" puppy they adopted to cheer me up. I was so content at last that I had the house all to myself after Makenna my brother died and I was enjoying the peace and quiet and slept a lot. SHE mistook this for depression, SHE thought that I was depressed and mourning my brothers death! So somehow in her twisted mind SHE decided to get this mutt to cheer me up. I'm not sure what breed she is but I think part Tazmanian Devil.

The amount of energy this little mutt has is enough have you whirl around like a whorley gig. I think she does speed when nobody is looking. I'm not sure where she gets it but I'm convinced that no normal dog can have this much energy. Did I tell you she is crazy too? Like a wild animal runs around here bouncing off the walls. I'm tired sometimes just watching her do all this, then she runs out of energy and she is down. When she is resting there is nothing that can wake her or get her to move. It's either petal to the metal or shut down. I don't get it.

Well SHE is giving me the evil eye and I must go, she wants the computer so SHE can shop for Apps for her new fancy shmancy iPhone. I'm not sure whatever Apps are but SHE is really into this one. You see SHE always has something that is so annoying to all of us and most of all me. 

Thank you for listening as always
The Bitch

Saturday, March 14, 2009

I LOVE my iPhone!

At&t or not, phone function good or bad, battery not lasting as long as some other phones.... I don't care. The other functions of this phone way outweigh the any of negatives in my opinion. And the Apps! One of my very favorite app is the "Stitch Minder".

Wow! How did I ever manage without this? How was I able to count rows and increases and all those stitches that need to be counted before? Well yes I used to use a piece of scrap paper and pencil and just mark or write down the count, then I have one of those clicking stitch counters, oh yes not to forget the kind that fits over the needle. But eventually I would misplace the paper the clicking thing and those little tiny thingies that slip over the needle well who could ever keep track of those tiny things?



But now I have my iPhone with the StitchMinder installed. I always have my iPhone I carry it with me at all times much like a Panda bear who carries it's tiny young in her paws. The movie "The Gods Must be Crazy" comes to mind, if you've seen this great movie about a Coca Cola bottle that is tossed out from an airplane in Africa. It lands in this primitive village and they suddenly fall in love with the glass bottle. Everybody wants to use it, they find so many uses for the bottle they just don't know how they ever did without the bottle. I've embeded a clip from Youtube, just because this little movie was so wonderful and one of my all time favorites. But I digress.

Did I mention the KnitGauge? This cleaver little app measures the gauge! You just move those little pins to the spot and voila it shows your gauge! Oh yes there are many many apps I could talk about but I know how boring it was for me before I had an iPhone so I won't bore you any further.




I love this movie:

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Comment envy....

I wrote all this on Monday and was planning to post it all but somehow I got sidetracked and here it is Thursday and I am just now getting back to posting. Tonight I start a 3 week session teaching "Gypsy Knitting", Classes at Amano Yarn Center to teach how to knit without a pattern, knitted from the top down. This has been a popular class and I look forward to teaching it again.



I have turned over a new leaf.
I am changing my ways. There are a number of blogs that I visit regularly, well sort of regularly, and follow yet I have seldom left comments. When I read something interesting about a blog friend I smile and keep all my comments to myself. Yet when my visitors do not comment on my pages I complain. My immediate thought goes to nobody really likes what I write except maybe be the few friends who regularly comment (thank you, you know who you are).

My traffic meter tells me there are visitors and yet I think all those people who come and look just accidentally land on my blog. So I have decided that others may feel the same way and if I visit a blog I will make every effort to leave a comment. That is my new resolution. You see I would love to hear back from my blog visitors I look at some blogs and they have comments I mean lots of comments and I'm having a "comment envy" moment.

Just in case you only look at pictures here are some pictures from the weekend. I know it does not have much to do with knitting but it's part of my life so I thought I would share.

Woodley Park


















Tuesday, March 03, 2009

The iCord Bind off?


Some nice demonstrations on YouTube. The web is just wonderful for knitters, we have a huge community and may I say generous "I want to share this with you" kind of knitters. I love this when I'm trying to figure out some knitting puzzle I go surfing around and it always inspires me.

The dilemma is this, what bind off should I use for the bottom of my 7/11 Gypsy Sweater? If you can just imagine this steam blocked which will add to the length I think it's time to bind off. I took the stitches off the needles and tried it on so far so good.  I've made the back just a few rows longer because all my sweaters turn out too short in the back. This is one of my pet peeves'  I'm always looking at how sweaters fit people and often I see the back too short. Then I got a "rear view" mirror and realized that MY sweaters are too short in the back too. Now I always add a few rows to compensate for this mystery.





or this one which is not really a bind off but an iCord border:

Gypsy Knitting





I call it 7/11 Gypsy Sweater. Why 7/11? Because some of the stripes are 7 rows and some are 11 rows. Why Gypsy? It's my affectionate way I call colorful, festive "make up your own pattern" sort of knitting. I discovered Kauni yarn at Madrona. The Colors! I loved the vibrant vivid hues of EQ "scratchy wool".  Similar to New England Shetland wool that Vivian Hoxbro and Hanne Falkenberg like to work with and design for. Most knitters I know love the colors but do not like the scratchy wool, I like it. It feels so familiar to me and the wool holds it's shape and wears and launders well. Perhaps it's my European background it kind of feels like my childhood sweaters and yarn I was used to. 

When the yarn is too soft the garment kind of feels "jiggly". It does not feel like it has body to it and it seems like it's going to stretch out and not behave properly. With the exception of Cashmere, I'm not sure why I have this perception but I do. The inspiration for this sweater came from Vivian's "Lolli" I saw this sweater in person and it looked really nice. I wanted one. This picture does not look as good as the one I saw but the design is good, well except for the collar I think I need to modify the collar a bit..... and the drop shoulders..... I have to modify that ... the length I will have to make it a bit shorter...... other than that ..... I guess I'm redesigning the whole thing.
I thought the Kauni EQ would lend itself really nicely to this, and I especially like the button opening to the side. I could not wait to start knitting. The pattern? Well I'm making it up as I go, I call this my "Gypsy Knitting" style. Top down provisional cast on 88 sts place my markers and go.... knit.... knit .... knit.... The colors surprise me the rows are sort of counted for the stripes but not all are perfect some are 7 rows and some are 11 rows. 

I look forward to sharing this with my next "Top Down Gypsy Knitting" no pattern needed class I'm teaching at Amano Yarn Center.

ps. I love to knit and listen to a book on my new iPhone, and the book I've been listening to while knitting the 7/11 Gypsy Sweater is "the English American" by Alison Larkin. What a charming "read/listen". Ms. Larkin reads the book herself and she is a wonderful actress and can sing too! I give it  ★★★★ four stars. I liked it and was sad when it ended. The sweater is not finished so I have to search around for a new book....