Author: Trish

I’m ready! I’m ready! Egad, I sound like Spongebob! Too much time watching kid shows this week during Spring Break, I guess! But hey, my Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival catalog finally came the other day, and I’m psyched! I look forward to this event all year.

Ok, so I admit it’s overcrowded. And I can’t get around everywhere in my wheelchair. And there’s no way I could ever see everything in just one day.

But, the sights! All those lovely yarns, in any type of fiber you could possibly imagine. The colors! The amazing hand painted creations! wow.

And the sounds! Ah, the sounds of sweet mountain music, of the sort that one would expect from a festival with a truly down-home air about it.

And the smells! Oh my gosh, it might sound crazy, but the lamb kabobs are delicious! And the fresh sqeezed lemonade. I’ll have to remember to bring the wet wipes, in case my hands get sticky. There will still be a zillion yarn stalls to visit after lunch.

And the animals… I love the baby lambs. Ok, so I ate lamb for lunch. But the babies are so sweet and cute I would love to take one home with me. But, my suburban sensibilities know that the Sheep and Wool Festival is fantasy land, and I don’t really live in the country.

Back down to Earth. This year’s festival is May 5 and 6 at the Howard County Fairgrounds. I’m hoping to get a group together of people from the KnitTalk Yahoo Group. Hopefully, lots of people will be there to meet and greet this year. So far, we’re planning to hook up at Noon on the 5th, place to be determined. Of course, it’s still several weeks away, so everything is subject to change. Watch this space for updates!

So where have I been, you ask? Well, let me tell you, it’s been quite a month in my little knitting world. I’ve been working on a baby blanket idea for my good friend from work who is expecting. At first I thought I would try an Aran Sampler afghan, where every square displayed a different pattern. In typical fashion for me though, this became quickly overwhelming. Trying to figure out which pattern to do next and how to knit it up so it would mirror the size and shape of the other squares, was just making my brain hurt.Then I became focused on how much I hate fiinishing, and the thought of sewing up all of those strips of squares and weaving in all of the little ends that they would produce was not exciting me at all. So I decided that horizonal stripes would be the thing. And with my love of cables, I was determined to incorporate some kind of cabled pattern into the blanket. But you know what? With the vivid colors and the stripes, the cables just became TOO MUCH. So that idea went by the wayside, too.

Then I tried the Lizard Ridge pattern from Knitty.com. This pattern is truly great and I do think I will make one someday, but I need to practice my techniques further because some of the stitches on my short rows were icky looking. I think maybe there were times when I forgot to pick up the wrap with the wrapped stitch on the short rows. Plus I didn’t like that it was basically a stockinette pattern, and since I am using an acrylic yarn it won’t block well. So getting it to have the shape I wanted would be more challenging than I thought it was worth. I certainly see why the designer chose wool yarns with long color runs to do this pattern. It is well suited for that.

Then it occurred to me… a simple stitch pattern with almost random stripes? But what stripe pattern to use? That’s when I remembered reading another pattern on Knitty.com, Tiptoe Through the Tulips, by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee. In this pattern, Stephanie describes how she created a seemingly random stripe pattern by having a certain number of colors, and a different number of stripe widths. So, each time a color came up in order, it would be a different width, because the widths occur at a different rate. So, if I have seven colors, and five different widths of stripes, and the colors repeat x often and the widths repeat y often, I’ll get lots and lots of unique looking stripes. The picture in this entry sort of represents this. Stephanie also includes a table in her pattern that shows how this works, so i won’t try to re-create that here. So I’m doing seven colors (pink, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple) and five stripe widths (14 rows, 2 rows, 4, 10, 8) So, in combination, these rows of colors of varying widths are very striking. At least in my mind. That’s pretty much where this project is right now. I have started it, but I’m still knitting the first color! So I guess I’ll post pics when there’s enough color going on so I can show it off.

I’m doing the whole thing in a simple mistake rib pattern (K2, P1 every row), which is very simple and a far cry from the design I started with. But, I guess, sometimes simplest is best. I’m finally enjoying this project.

Last month I started making notecards with knitted designs on them. This one is my next attempt, and it represents a teeny tiny felted bag. I think it turned out pretty cute, and I do hope its recipient likes it! I used Knitpicks’ Memories yarn, which is a sock weight yarn that felts really nicely. Now it’s just waiting for the glue to dry, and then this little happy knitnote is on its way!

Wow! Somebody Made My Scarf!

A lady named Jan contacted me the other day to say that she had made my Fancy Cabled Braided Scarf. This was the first thing I ever designed on my own and the first time anybody ever wrote to say they actually made one. Isn’t it pretty? I’m so happy that Jan shared this photo with me. I’ve never made another one of these since I made the first one and gave it away, but I keep promising myself that I will. I think mine will be a tube, though, which will take a LOT of yarn, but then it will be cabled on both sides. Yum.

For the third square of my rainbow baby blanket, I have chosen basic lattice stitch. I am enjoying this one a lot and am already almost done with it. It is easy to see how the patterning goes visually, so after working with the directions for one repeat I was able to close the book. This square will be done by the end of the weekend and I will go onto my next one.

Because I am going to be working on this project for many months it will be on many blog pages and in many entries. So, I’ve created a summary page for the whole blankie, and a photo of each square will be put up as I work them.

Spring is almost here! It is sunny and quite warm today. Quite a difference from last week! But a refreshing change.

Not much knitting to talk about today, but what’s this? We were only supposed to get a little freezing rain this morning that was supposed to be all rain by noon. Even one of our local TV stations said our Winter Weather Advisory was cancelled. But then, look:

Steven with our first snowman of the year! As you can see, our snowman is wishing for the beach, complete with shades, a towel, and flip flops!

Thomas the Tank Engine Snow Sculpture!

Guess the weathermen (and women!) were a little off today! Haha. SNOW!

This is my second attempt at a knit designed stationery card. I don’t like this one as much as the one with the cute little purse on the front. My issue is my “knitting needles,” which in this case are toothpicks with beads on the ends of them. I wish I could get them to lie flatter against each other, but I don’t think that’s gonna happen unless I notch them like Lincoln Logs. And that just sounds like too much work. Sigh.

I think my next attempt might have something to do with felting…. yeah, that’s the ticket…