Twisted Stitches

I picked up this book because I am fascinated by the effects that can be accomplished with simple, twisted stitches.

When I opened the book, however, I must admit to feeling a bit intimidated!

Fortunately the fine folks at Knitting Daily must have anticipated that this might happen to knitters and they put together a very informative
video for us! (Note: there are a couple of twisted stitch patterns in the current issue of Interweave Knits (Fall 2010) you won't want to miss. It's a great intro to the genre and will perhaps picque your curiosity!)

Happy Knitting!

On My Swap Box

My friend in CA and I recently had our annual swap fun. Let me tell you, I am one spoiled knitter! Look what I found when I opened the box!!!


This generous gift makes the box I sent her look pathetic.

She sent not one, or even two(!) skeins of yarn, but rather six! Five of these beauties were hand dyed by me friend. (Isn't she talented?! I'm telling you, she should sell these on Etsy or something!) And the other is Wool In the Woods!! It's so lovely with delicate gold threads running throughout....simply lovely!

Here are the details of what-is-what:



1. Hand dyed wool in greens/golds.
2. Hand dyed in lovely red/scarlet.
3. Hand dyed blues/purple.
4. Hand dyed sock blank in orange/toffee colors. (She knew I struggled with knitting the other one she sent last year and so unknit it and rewound it into two seperate balls.) I really love this one and am saving it for when I feel the dead of winter greys/whites surrounding me. I will need a splash of color and this is perfect!!
5. Autum spice blend to add to my coffee in the morning. This stuff is UNBELIEVABLY delicious!!!
6. Wool In the Woods which I'm thinking is likely to become a shawl....but we'll see.
7. Second hand dyed sock blank. Look, I've already cast on my next pair of socks!
8. Sachet of lavender...smells incredible!
9. Pair of scissors for my knitting kit with lovely bead work attached. I'll always know which pair is mine at knitting group!
10. Stitch markers which match the scissors. (Someone has some mad beading skillz!)
11. Festive ceramic pumpkin. (Looks terrific on my mantle!)
12. Labels to put on my hand knit projects.
13. My favorite treat this time of year!

Now don't you all agree, I'm terribly, horribly spoiled, aren't I???

Want a closer peek? Here you go!












Thank you K!!!!

Color Work

Went to be with my knitting friends for our weekly gathering today. I took this for show-and-tell:



It's knit from Rauma wool I purchased at the new yarn shop in Ames a few weeks ago. Those of you who know I knit some Latvian mittens for people last year will recognize the braid technique I picked up from that experience.

Everyone oohed and ahhed over the hat this morning. They wanted to know if they could get a copy of the pattern. That's when I had to admit to making it up as I went along.

I thought the three colors I found in the sale bin ($4 each) would look nice together and I just cast on 128 stitches and took off with whatever struck my fancy at the time. (I do tend to keep Fibonacci numbers in mind somewhat when thinking of rounds/patterns, but not always!)

I had enough wool left over to finish off the last 6 items I needed to create for the male presents I'm doing for the holidays. (Hopefully some of the men I'm gifting are ok with deep turquoise and eggplant purple. I think some of them will be.)

On another note:

For those who are interested in the issues of bullying and suicide, I would direct you to one of people I follow as a personal knitting icon, Franklin Habit, who wrote a very poignant and elegant blog entry regarding the topic on his blog The Panoptican titled "It Gets Better." Go, read it....and don't skip the hundreds of comments, especially if you have been bullied or felt hopeless/desperate because you felt no on supported you, no one cared, no one was there for you.

Things I've Been Shooting

I've been on some very interesting photo shoots for various work projects in the past couple of weeks. Here are a few of the things I've captured.













Well, I would show you more but my DS sat down to watch Hulu and has sucked up all the bandwidth making it impossible for me to upload any more photos right now. Suffice it to say there were smiling ladies, a dental hygeine school lab, and a restaurant.

I Am Sick & Tired

I'm sick and tired of opening the newspaper or turning on the news only to hear that another precious life has been lost to suicide. And while I understand that not all of the people who take their own life are dealing with homosexuality, enough of them are that I feel it's vital to get the message out.

Chris Colfer for The Trevor Project - It Gets Better from The Trevor Project on Vimeo.

If the above doesn't represent your situation but the desperate feeling is still a part of your life, call 1-800-273-TALK (8255) to reach someone who cares and who will help.

It gets better! There are people who want to help, people who care, people who understand.

Added on 10/15/2010:



Thank you Joel!!

Resistance Is Feudal

Greetings! Feels like it's been a while since I blogged! We had a fun trip to Riverssance this past Saturday. It's a Renaissance Faire in Sioux City which has been going for a few years now. What a great time! (I had forgotten how much FUN Renaissance reenactors are! If I ever decide to get into reenacting, it will definitely be Renaissance period stuff.)

Lords and ladies, knights, falconers, artists, elves and faeries, pirates, belly dancers, peasants, musicians, craftsfolk and tradesfolk...I love the atmosphere!

(Plus, who doesn't love a good shout of "Huzzah!" every now and then, right?!)

Here's the photo recap!





















This last photo requires a bit of explanation. It is a 4 ton carillon, the only instrument of its kind in existence. It dates back to when the cathedrals had carillons in their bell towers. The musician would be hidden away and noone ever knew who played the melodies that tolled from the towers. This is Cast In Bronze and he tours with the instrument. It is AMAZING!! What a site to see and a musical experience not to be missed. My niece kept asking me to take her back over to see and listen to the bells. I will be putting a few of his CDs on my holiday wish list!

One thing I enjoyed was the village where you could experience the trades and crafts of the Renaissance. Particularly interesting to me were the weaver and the lady with a small hand mill who was milling grains and baking bread over a campfire.

Fall Was In The Air

We had a very fall-like weekend. The high temp yesterday was only 54*F! I finished these socks in a very fall-like colorway last week and am just now getting around to posting.



This is Knit PIcks Felici in the colorway "Clay" (although I keep thinking of Indian Corn when I see them!) I decided to do toe-up and use up each ball completely. Consequently, the feet are a hair too big for me. I'm counting on them shrinking up just a tad when I wash them.

I also started another pair using Paton's Kroy from Hobby Lobby. It's the line called FX and I really like what this colorway is doing!



I'm knitting these with 64 sts to the round and the fabric is coming out dense. I think these are going to make very warm socks!

Yes, I'm on a sock knitting bender. I noticed that most of my hand knit socks were darned at least once, if not more. I have given several pairs away and decided to go on a spree of sock making for myself. In doing so I have decided I LOVE my Kollage square needles!! I'm using the 5" and 6" double points in size US#1. (Although I just got some US#0 today! Yippee!!)

Happy knitting!

More

More apples . . .

And more on the mitts.....they are completed.



I have been crazy busy with work this week and not doing a lot of knitting, but the photography has been fun!

Knit/Shoot on!

A Tribute

To fall...

To Andy Warhol...

I went out to shoot photos for the magazine, including a stop at the local orchard. Now I'm just having a little creative fun!

Aqua Mitts

I have been knitting some fingerless mitts along with my friend for our second KAL. I have reached the end of the first mitt!



This is something new for me as it is bulky weight yarn and size 10.5 needles!

More Socks

Yes, there have been more socks. These are from Noro's sock yarn.



And these are from Austerman Step.


On these I copied an idea from Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot) and carried one section of ribbing down to the ankle on each side. I like the effect and since they are for me, that's perfect!

Happy knitting!

Everyday Art

One of the things I really enjoyed about vacation in Door County, Wisconsin was the enclave of artists working in the various communities. Many of them had not only galleries, but studio galleries.

I really enjoyed visiting TR Pottery in Fish Creek. I watched Tony throwing some bowls and it was really fascinating to me how easily the clay forms took shape in his skilled hands.

Another thing I appreciated about TR Pottery is that all of their pieces are designed to be used. They are, in a sense, every day art. I just love that! I bought myself a tea cup there. Something about the fact it has no handle and the way the glaze fired in a sort of yin/yang pattern really spoke to me. I picked it up when I first saw it. I walked around the gallery looking at all the pieces available, but I couldn't put down "my" cup. Don't you think it's lovely?



I have my morning cup of tea or mate in it each day and I savor every sip. Thanks TR Pottery for adding a touch of beauty to my day!

Taiwanese Pork Noodles - Steamy Kitchen : TLC

Mmmmm....going to have to make this sometime SOON! (Photo from TLC blog!)

Taiwanese Pork Noodles - Steamy Kitchen : TLC

Surprise! (not)

The swatch I posted earlier was a pair of socks I knit for my SIL's 30th birthday present. Some of her favorite colors were among the stripes and I do believe she really liked them. Other than the tour of the ER at the local hospital with our son which ended the day (x-rays showed nothing major wrong as it turned out, so we're thankful for that!), we had a great day at Okoboji!!

Off and Running

My next knit along project is a pair of fingerless mittens my friend found the pattern for.

They are knit using bulky weight yarn with only 27 stitches per round....which is really fast compared to socks (or even hats!)

I am using Cadena from Knit Picks in the Neptune colorway. It's a Wool of the Andes, Alpaca blend. Here's what mitt #1 looks like up to the point where we start to form the thumb gusset.



I like the k2p1 twisted faux cable stitch. (It reminds me of the twisted faux cable I did on the socks I sent to the state fair. You might remember them as the socks with the pooling issue.)

Happy knitting!

Swatch

Here is a bit of a teaser r.e. what's been on my needles the past few days. I can't show you any more of the project for a few more days since these are going to be gifted to someone who may, on occasion, stop in and read what's going on with my sticks-n-string habit.



I think the person for whom they have been knit will like them.

Just watched Nanny McPhee for the first time. Cute movie. Have I mentioned that I can hardly wait for the first Deathly Hallows movie November 19. I re-read the book at the beginning of summer. (I guess being a huge Harry Potter fan is my guilty pleasure.)

Happy Knitting!

Hats for New Guinea

My hats for New Guinea are complete (a project from Ravelry). I managed to put together a dozen hats. They were also requesting old prescription eye glasses to take along, so I rummaged around and found 5 pairs (four from when the kids were little/younger and one adult pair from DH). Hopefully they will help!

KAL Complete

My Windy City hat which was the KAL I was doing is complete! I like the final results. I would definitely knit this hat again. This one is going in the box with the others to be sent to New Guinea on a medical mission.

Up next, fingerless mitts KAL. Stay tuned!

Happy knitting!

This Just In

A late breaking news update:

It appears that 4 of the 6 knitting projects I sent to the State Fair have indeed received ribbons.

A 2nd Place ribbon on my lime Citron Shawlette and 3rd Place ribbons on the 2-color mittens, the cabled cowl and the felted slippers.

The socks and scarf are just hanging out in the background awaiting the return flight home and hoping they don't have to listen to a bunch of bragging from the afore mentioned items in the box while en route back.

You gotta love the State Fair!

Don't Laugh

"Darn it, Jim, I'm a knitter, not a crocheter!"

So please be kind as I put this out there . . .


This is a crochet hat I did to send along with the knitted ones I'm doing for the medical mission to New Guinea.

Please keep in mind, I never really learned to crochet (or at least I don't remember it) other than single crochet and a shell pattern to edge on my knitting. I wasn't even quite sure how to decrease for the top of the hat. I used a few different stitches to accomplish the hat.

A couple other hats I finished are baby/toddler/child sized. One has an i-cord drawstring closing up the top and the other has a seed stitch rim instead of ribbing.





I'm still working on the KAL hat as well....updates to come soon!

Happy knitting! (or hooking for those of you who do crochet!)

The Year of Weather Discontent

It has been an unusually brutal year in terms of weather.

First we had the winter from hell.

I mean, I like winter and this past one drove me nuts with the amount of snowfall we received. [The fact that we had a record 9 or 11 snow days to make up for school speaks volumes.]

One storm after another lined up and dumped all over us.

Now we have been having the summer that has only brought more of the same.

Sure, the precipitation is in liquid form, which means we don't have to shovel and scrape, but how many times are we going to have to Shop-vac the basement?

All this is my prelude into having driven to Des Moines yesterday to attend the State Fair Photography Salon reception.


I received an Honorable Mention on the interior photo of Sacred Heart Church. (They also are exhibiting the photo of the lily close-up I entered.)

It's been hot and sticky here for the past 4 or 5 days, yesterday being no exception. There have been excessive heat warnings and general heat advisories issued by the national weather service each day. With that, in Iowa - in August, usually also comes plenty of thunderstorm watches and warnings.

We drove home in a doozie last night! The clouds were dark, low-lying and menacing. The wind shifted a couple of times. Torrential curtains of rain prevented us from seeing the 2-lane roads we were on. We already had to go out of our way because of road construction detours only to discover that the other way into town from the south was flooded. (We discovered this in the midst of a thunderstorm warning I might add.)

We had to turn around and go many miles out of our way until we could finally get into town and home safely.

Between the heat, humidity, rain and plethora of mosquitos and other unwanted bugs birthed out of this weather pattern....most people are spending as much time cooped up indoors this summer as they did over the winter.

Good thing I have lots of knitting to do! (There is a silver lining to every cloud!)

KAL Pattern

The goal for my KAL hat project is to complete the first section of the 10-row pattern by the end of today.

I really like how it looks!! It reminds me both of a leaf motif and a stained glass/arched window. I had to pay close attention on a couple of the rows because I got off by one stitch (which, as you can imagine, throws the entire pattern off!!) and had to frog back to the beginning of the round and try again. (Thank goodness I discovered the error before going on to the next round!)

The next part of the pattern is to repeat this 10 row pattern. I'm thinking I can have that done by the end of Friday given the fact I've now done it once.

Stay tuned! (and happy knitting!)

Happy B-Day EZ!

Today is Elizabeth Zimmerman's 100th Birthday! Here's to the icon of fearless, "can-do" knitting!!

KAL

For non-knitters out there, KAL means "Knit ALong." I'm doing a two-person KAL with my friend in my native state (California). We have been arranging our annual swap project and she admitted to needing a bit of encouragement to get the needles going once more, so we are knitting a hat together.

We conidered a few patterns, and settled upon the Windy City Hat by Jodi Haraldson. I am trying to make a few hats from stash for a medical mission going to New Guinea. (If you're on Ravelry, you can read about it here.)

Our first goal was to get the ribbing edge and 4 rows of stockinette done. Here are my results:



This is a fun pattern to do and it looks quite fancy when completed (according to photos on the pattern!)

So far I have 6 hats done. I hope to get a few more done before I mail them off to reach their destination by Sept. 1.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of the knit-along hat!

Happy knitting!

Summer

Have done a lot of traveling the past two days for medical stuff with kids. I sat for 3.5 hours yesterday while DD had her infusion treatment at Blank Children's Hosp. and did not do even one stitch of knitting, even though I had taken a sock project.

Since I didn't knit, I'll just share this summery photo I took on the Iowa Central Campus last weekend.



It reminds me that I did see a TON of butterflies (and dragon flies) while out driving the roads of Iowa.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Vivonne Bay Hat

I am knitting a couple hats for charity from stash and completed one over the weekend. I really like the pattern, which is called Vivonne Bay. It was fun to do and went quickly...I'd guess maybe 5 hours of knitting altogether. (maybe less)




(thanks to my DD for modeling the hat!)

Happy knitting!

August Is . . .

. . . here. (How did that happen??)

August is also the one month of the year that I really would rather live somewhere other than Iowa. (Like Alaska! And I know I'm going to receive some paper wads or rotten tomatoes being thrown in my direction.) It's the hottest and most humid month of the year and that is the type of weather I have become increasingly physically intolerant of as I get older. If it's above 80*F and humid, I tend to become physically ill with a headache and nausea (possibly worse!). It's just not fun.

If I had my way the constant daytime temp would be 55* to 60*F with an overnight low around 45*F.

I went out in the heat yesterday to shoot some photos for an upcoming project at work to celebrate the newest building on our community college campus.




It's the new Student Resource Center which houses the library, book store, Triton Zone bistro and student center. (Kind of the equivalent of a student union.) It was done by the same architects who did the school's Biosciences & Health Science building last year. (In fact, it shares space on the geothermal pond designed to aid in the heating and cooling of the buildings.)

Here's a view from across the pond.



Whatever these dog days of summer bring your way, I hope you find a way to enjoy and stay cool!