It's Done & I Love It!

I finished my Midsummer Night's Dream lace shawl over the weekend and I couldn't be happier. Of course there's mistakes here and there but the common observer would never notice. This was my first project actually knitted from the Shakespeare in Lace subscription club. I can't wait to wear it to my next festival or retreat.

Here's it blocking on Saturday morning:



Close up of the beads in the center and top sections:



On final modeling shot to show how big it is:



It took me about 4 months to knit from start to finish. The first rows with 439 stitches were a bit hard for me to do mentally when I was barely knitting 2 rows a night. I loved the beads and I have enough yarn left over for another scarf or lace cowl. I can't say enough how much I loved knitting this and I'm really looking forward to starting my next Shakespeare in Lace project.

Mittens for Kids in Upstate New York

A friend of mine from my former high school is organizing a offering "The Angel Tree" at our old school in Upstate New York (NNCS in St. Lawrence County). During the Christmas Holidays, this helps the less fortunate families in our local school district celebrate Christmas. This is the second year that he has made winter hats for the Angel Tree. He can make hats but can't knit (I think he has a knitting machine). He's asking for volunteers to knit mittens to be given with the hats.

If you know anyone who would like to knit a few mittens for this project, please contact me via Facebook, Ravelry or KnittingHelp.com and I'll give you my address to send them too. This will always be an annual event so I will gladly accept mittens year round but they will be collecting for an October 1st deadline this year right when the weather starts turning cold. I'll either make the trip up north to drop them off all at once or mail them when I have enough for a flat rate box.

The donation last year was 104 hats and 76 pair of mittens. They place the hats in one pile and the mittens in another and let them choose their combination. All hats and mittens were taken home!

Here's the specifics:
1. Most mittens are 32 stitches but knitters are making different youth sizes as these hats and mittens are given to families with children ages 4 to almost adult.

2. Just mittens only, no scarves at this time.

3. Unisex, multi-color, whatever so have fun with it. His mom knits what she calls "Crazy Mittens". She will make a brown and orange mitten with the cuff orange, palm brown, thumb orange and top orange. The other mitten reverses the color pattern. The kids like to be different and like bright colors.

4. He uses Red Heart Super Saver for the hats so any yarn that is machine wash and dry would be preferred.


Here are pictures of the hats and mittens that they did last year.

Thank you all and let me know if you have any questions.

A Tale of One Sock (so far)

A long time ago my son, Will, asked me to knit him a pair of socks. Not just any yarn would do either. He specifically asked for gray, yellow, blue & red yarn. I thought it was a phase that would pass but each time I asked it was the same 4 colors. Even with a little prodding and suggesting that maybe just 1 color or even 2 colors would be better he stayed firm with the original 4 colors.

So I searched Etsy figuring it would by my best chance for find such specific yarn. No luck. I tried the alchemy feature but found out it had just been shut down the day before. Desperate, I posted on the Etsy Ravelry group asking for suggestion on what to do. Several people gave me great ideas and then one indie dyer spoke up and said she'd do it for me. I checked out Jill's shop and loved everything I saw. We messaged back and forth with the details and I placed my order.

When the yarn arrived I made sure that Will was there when I opened the box. It was more than perfect. He was so happy that I had found him the exact yarn that he asked for. In fact, he now wanted socks, a hat and a scarf all out of that yarn (thankfully I ordered 2 hanks just in case). Next up was finding the right pattern.



My go-to pattern for men's socks is Anne Hanson's Gridiron. It's super simple, manly with enough detail not to get boring and it fits very well. The problem is that my son is almost 5 and I wasn't sure if it would fit him. I posted to Anne's fan group on Ravelry asking the question and very quickly was given several patterns to choose from that would size down to fit Will's feet. Anne even confirmed that she loves to use Gridiron to knit socks for her own nephews that are close in age to Will. She included a helpful explanation on how she sizes her sock patterns so I can feel confident that I'm knitting the right size the first time.

It didn't take me long to knit the first sock and when he came home from school I asked him to try it on. The sock wasn't even all the way on his foot, his eyes lit right up and he said "Oh this feels really nice!". Once it was on we did a modeling session. This is how he wanted me to take the picture:



This is me trying to get him to hold his foot still:



This is him pointing to the coolest socks ever:



This is one happy boy who is ever so patiently waiting for his second sock:

Knitting Retreat Recap

What a wonderful weekend! I am just overwhelmed by how much I enjoyed the knitting retreat. It was my first time taking classes and first time attending a retreat. I'm still blown away today by how much fun I had.

This was the first ever knitting retreat done by the Yarn Cupboard, a local yarn shop in Jamesville that I still haven't visited (oh that will definitely change soon). It started on Friday night and at check in we were give a nice goodie bag with 3 yarns I had never heard of. I plan to research them more this afternoon. Then it was dinner and a talk by Sandi Wiseheart from Knitting Daily. I was a little late to it but what I did catch was educational, inspiring and entertaining all at the same time. Sandi is a great advocate for helping people understand what patterns will look nice on you no matter what your body shape is and how to adjust existing patterns (hello bust darts). Also on Friday was our preview for the vendors. Jill Draper's section was my first stop since I've bought from her before and love the quality of fibers and colors she offers. I bought two hanks of sock yarn (Cherry Pie & Iowa City colors) for one of my classes.




Next up was Holiday Yarns, which for some strange reason I didn't know they were an actual shop. I thought they were a place for workshops only - boy I was wrong! I was very good about staying away from her lace weights but her sock yarns have amazing choices for colors. I ended up buying one of her Yarn Fairies in a color that reminds me of Orange Sherbet. I was later told that her Yarn Faires are either the "oops" skeins or skeins used to finish up a pot of mixed colors. I originally bought it to make socks for someone else but by the end of the weekend I was smitten and it will be mine, all mine!



Saturday morning we had a lazy continental breakfast and then I headed over to my first class of "Reknittable Heels and Toes" taught by Jill Draper. Since the heels are where my socks tend to wear out first I thought this would be a great technique to learn. It was challenging because I used too light weight of a yarn to move quickly but I did eventually finish the heel. The most challenging aspect of this class was paying attention to making both sides even with the yarn overs. I'm really looking forward to using this heel technique in the next pair of socks that I make for the men in my family who tend to have rough heels and wear out that spot quickly.



Lunch was relaxing and delicious - I'm a picky eater so I was pleasantly surprised that I liked everything. Saturday afternoon we dived into "Fair Isle Toe Up Socks" taught by Shannon Chaffee Adams. I have already done fair isle projects before so I really wanted to focus on the toe up part of the class. The cast on was tricky and fidgety but once I got the first row completed it was easy. Shannon had a few tricks for knitting your ends in so you don't have to weave them in later and I really want to keep practicing that one. I can't stand seaming ends in. When we got to the fair isle part and adding in the second color she showed me how to knit with both hands, meaning one hand in each color. It was slow but I can see how with a little practice it will be faster eventually. It felt natural and fluid in my hands - just one more bonus for taking this class.



Dinner was great again and then we had a talk from the lady who started Great Adirondack Yarns. I loved her enthusiasm for embracing creativity and for recognizing that nothing is a wasted project. Later we heard from a yarn rep who gave us insight on upcoming trends in the knitting & yarn industry. It's nice to hear about the trends but I knit so slow that I'll probably stick with the staples of knitting for now. Several people & companies donated items for the door prizes and I ended up winning a skein of handspun yarn made by Beth. I was so touched. I know how much hard work goes into that and I can't wait to find the perfect cowl pattern to knit up with the yarn she made.



Sunday morning after breakfast I took a second class from Jill Draper called "Double Time Cowl" which focused on double knitting. The cast on took forever for me to pick up but I did eventually get it. Double knitting felt intuitive and I caught on to that quickly. Soon I was focused on the chart with "same, same, different, different" repeating through my head. Big light bulb for me when I realized that I could take just about any pattern and make it double knit. When my husband saw the swatch I made he immediately made a request for a double knit hat. The best part was that I'm not very good at the Kitchener stitch and Jill stayed late with me to make sure I had it down. The resulting swatch is the item I'm most proud of from all of my classes: brand new cast on, brand new double knitting & proper kitchen stitch to finish it up.




There were other vendors at the market but I tried to avoid them for stash overflowing reasons. I bought a Addi Lace turbo needle from the Yarn Cupboard but tried to stay away from her other yarns because her kits and lace were so tempting (I have tons of lace & kits already). There was also a lady with gorgeous spinning fiber and I was very close to buying some but I stayed strong since I haven't been able to spin on a regular bases. Another lady was selling rug hooking supplies and then on Sunday morning there was a table of amazing cupcakes.

I can't believe all I purchased was 3 hanks of sock yarn and a set of needles but it's wonderful now to have new sources for buying yarn in the future. This whole weekend really opened my eyes to what's out there and inspired me to learn more and try more projects. Here's a look at the contents of my knitting bag when I finally got home:



Hands down, the best part of the entire retreat was hanging out with such nice people. We all ranged in age but got along great. This morning my Ravelry inbox was full of friend requests from all of the ladies I met. I can't say enough how lucky I feel to have met them. I will definitely be signing up for another retreat if/when the Yarn Cupboard does it.

Committed

I checked my Ravelry project page and I started Midsummer Night’s Dream on January 19th. I’ve knit on this project exclusively since then with the exception of a week’s vacation where a sock project made more sense for traveling. Tonight I should finish the first full pattern repeat. Let me repeat, first pattern repeat. I never thought of myself as a slow knitter. Maybe I’m just enjoying knitting this so much that I’m not rushing? With the decreases each row now I’m averaging about 3-4 rows a night which is up from the max of 2 per night when I was knitting the border.

I’m definitely not going to finish by March 21st. I’m looking forward to my first knitting retreat later this month and then maybe finishing this project by June? Good thing I really, really like knitting lace – and that my friends have stopped having babies for the time being

What’s really crazy is that including this one I have 4 Shakespeare in Lace kits from 2009, 4 from 2010 and 2 already for 2011. I’ll be knitting these well into retirement and loving every minute of it!

Long Road Ahead

The stars have aligned and I’m finally able to participate in my first season with my first Shakespeare in Lace shawl. I joined the club each year since 2009 but never had time to actually knit one. I picked the Midsummer Night’s Dream shawl kit because there was no grafting required. The last project where I tried to graft lace was horrible looking so I need more practice in that area.

Ravelry Pattern Link

The yarn is 1300 yards of Wooly Wonka silk/merino lace weight in the “Love in Idleness” colorway that was dyed for the club.

I starting this on January 19th which was a bit late for Selfish Knitting Month but still counts in my book! I’ve got all 439 stitches on the needles, knit the 2 garter rows and just finished row 8 on the border.

I do know how do place beads with a crochet hook and I’m really enjoying the process:

I don’t expect to finish this in time for this Season of Lace but I saw a category for spanning several seasons so that might be it for me. I’m getting about 2 rows done a night so far and I should speed up once I can start decreasing. It feels so nice to finally be knitting something just for me!

35,843

That's the number of remaining yards in my stash that's up on Ravelry. It doesn't include my charity yarn or left over balls from projects.

Yeah, it's a big number but I'm thinking I can double it in 2011 if I try real hard. Most people may be looking to knit from their stash and reduce what they have. I'm looking towards retirement when I won't have an income. I've got about 25 more years of stashing to make sure I'll be comfortable. I heard another knitter call it our 401(k)nit savings plan :)

I like it!

I'm in both 2011 Shakespeare in Lace subscriptions so my lace and fingering weight yardage will increase from those. I'm also on the look out for some funky sock yarn from festivals. I don't ever seem to have enough sock yarn. I knit almost every day so it's just a further investment into my happiness!