Trish Knits.com

Category: Knitting

  • I Love the Knitters!

    Yesterday was the monthly meeting of our Bowie Borders Knitting Group. (Do we need a catchier name? “The Saturday Afternoon Mostly Once A Month Knit Group”? Hmmm. I’m open to ideas! Someone wanted to know what our group was called yesterday. Haha. We don’t have a name. How about, “Just Show Up And Knit”? I dunno.

    Anyway, it was a fun afternoon! As usual I had my camera handy, and took some pictures to mark the occasion. Click to biggefy:

    We were pleased to welcome two newbies to the group yesterday: Helene and Stacy. Helene impressed everyone with her beautiful stranded knitting, and the gorgeous dress she’s making. Most everyone was making something wearable… sweaters, socks, shawls, a dress… even my silly i-cord is going to be incorporated into a scarf. Rhoda is making good progress on her bucket bag, and Jo had some gorgeous socks on the needles that she was making with her own handspun yarn. Of course there was much chatter, yummy desserts, and plenty of pouring over magazines and books while group members helped each other with their knitting conundrums.

    Not pictured with the group this time are Amber and Leslie. Not sure how they escaped my camera. Sorry!

    Next week, June 13, 2009, is Worldwide Knit in Public Day. I didn’t get it together enough to list us as an official event, but rest assured, the Bowie Maryland Knitters Group (or whatever the heck we’re called) will be in our usual spot at 2:00 p.m., doing what we love to do best. If you’re in the neighborhood, stop by and knit a bit. We’d love to have you.

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article

  • Crankin’ Out the Cords

    I’ve been busy cranking out the i-cords with my handy dandy cord knitter machine:

    two i-cords next to balls of yarn
    two i-cords next to balls of yarn

    The two cords that I have made so far were done with Rowan Wool Cotton and Cascade 220. Now I’m wondering if I should try it tomorrow with my Noro Kureyon yarn. Should I dare? If so, I’ll let you know how it goes.

    This machine works well, if you use it very slowly and make sure you push the errant stitches down on the hooks so they’re below the latches as the next bit of yarn is being caught in the hooks. And I find I have to put my hand down on the base to hold it steady as I crank because the suction cups don’t stick well on my table. Your mileage may vary on that. I definitely need to use the weight to hold the cord down as it comes out the bottom. That helps a lot. So I alternate between using my thumb to push the stitches down as it goes round and round (I only need to do this every four or five stitches) and placing my palm on the base of the machine as I crank.

    The second cord went way faster than the first. The first one took all evening to get the rhythm of the thing. The second took just under two hours. So, despite its quirks, I say this thing is a success. For me at least, the not-speed-knitter, it was way faster than doing it by hand. So, yay! Only the fattest cords will be done by hand. So this project will go very fast. That, my friends, is a very good thing.

    A Beautiful Little Song

    Someone on Ravelry posted this little song on YouTube on Monday. I heard it yesterday for the first time and it just about brought me to tears. Have a listen:

    See? I told you so.

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article

  • Happy Birthday, DH!

    My DH is tolerant, in fact, fully supportive, of my knitting habit. Frequently I’ll find a knitting bag for my birthday or a needle set under the Christmas tree. But, you see… he’s not a wearer of knitwear. He doesn’t wear hats, unless he’s shoveling snow. Never a scarf or mittens. And sweaters? Forget about it. A couple years ago when we remodeled the bedroom we took every last one of them to Goodwill. (Well, except for a lovely cabled cardigan which I kept for myself!)

    So, I’ve never knit him anything. Until now:

    knit birthday card
    knit birthday card

    Ok, it’s small, but it’s the thought that counts! I love making knitted do-dads for note cards. and this, I guess, is my first stab at a birthday card. It just takes a few minutes of knitting and some card stock and glue…

    Anyway, we have a fun day planned. I’m taking DH to see the Star Trek movie this afternoon and then we’re having dinner out. No kids. How cool is that?

    Happy birthday to my DH! Gotta run for now…

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article

  • New Knitting Toy

    Today the Brownies left a box with this in it on my porch:

    Singer Spool Knitter
    Singer Spool Knitter

    It’s the Singer Spool Knitter! I got it because I really, really want to make one of these, which is the Spaghetti Scrap Scarf by Circé Belles Boucles. Her blog is in French, but the images are amazing. Have a look.

    I admit that my motives for doing this scarf are a bit more macabre than that beautiful, funky design would suggest. I want to use mine to make grey, black, and dark purple cords along with one cord of my eyeball yarn that I recently acquired from Insubordiknit. I see that the product is sold out, so I do feel lucky to have some. How creepy would that be, a black and grey snaky scarf with stringy eyeballs popping out now and then? I think it is the perfect Halloween costume.

    So anyway, I bought this Singer gadget hearing on one of my knitting lists that it does heavier yarns than some of the other spool knitters do, so I thought it would be worth a try. We’ll see. The yarn in the photo isn’t anywhere near worsted weight, and it took me a while to get the hang of it to do this one bit of cord that I have so far. We’ll have to see how far it will go. I’m pretty lazy about knitting cords, and the thought of doing them all by hand doesn’t excite me, but the scarf itself does, so we shall see how it goes. Of course I don’t expect to be able to knit the eyeball yarn on my little spool gadget, but if I could knock some of the others out that way? I’d be really, really happy.

    Gotta run. It’s Leno’s last night, and I’m watching. When it was Johnny’s last night, 17 years ago, it was the night before my husband and I moved in together, thus, a major turning point in my life. Nothing so earth-shattering this time around, but I gotta wonder if something’s not looming.

    **Update**

    Guess what??? While watching Leno I did try to use the spool knitter with Wool of the Andes yarn, which is worsted weight. Guess what?? It WORKED. As long as I went really slowly and made sure that my previous round of stitches would drop below the latch on the hook before the hook picked up the next round. Yes, I mean REAAALLLLLLYYYYYY slow. But it’s still faster than knitting it myself. I think it’ll be good. Yay!!

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article

  • In Good Company at the Ballgame

    Tonight was the annual Stitch n Pitch event at the Washington Nationals ballpark. As luck would have it, it was a cross-town rivalry game because they were playing the Baltimore Orioles. (The O’s won, 2-1. But we left after the 8th inning, and didn’t know it at the time.)

    Of course I had my camera with me and I snapped quite a few photos. Click the thumbnails to embiggen.

    BoyZilla shows his support for Stitch n Pitch
    Knitters in the Stitch n Pitch conference room. That’s Jane, a Rav friend on the left.
    Yep, you can see my office from the Ballpark.
    Even The Bird has to warm up before a game.
    The presentation of the colors
    O-oh say can you seeeeeee?
    The Nats at Bat
    And here’s the pitch…
    My knitting enjoyed the ballgame immensely.
    I got to Kinnear some knitters
    Kinnearing again
    This is Edith. She was sitting in the section across from me and I noticed the stunning shawl she was working on. She said it was in Vogue about 10 years ago.
    Typical for Her Highness the Teen, the loudspeakers were, well, too loud.
    But she perked up after a visit to the Build-a-Bear.
    BoyZilla got his very own Nationals mascot, Screech. Note the miniature foam finger. Like boy, like bird.

    This year, because the event was on a Saturday, we brought the kids along. BoyZilla got his one big wish… to have his very own foam finger! It was hard to keep a straight face when he said to the cashier, “This is my very first foam finger!” As if there will be many more. Wait, this is BoyZilla the Clown we’re talking about. Of course there will be more.

    Her Highness the Teen had pretty much made up her mind that baseball was going to be boring, but by the 7th inning stretch was singing along to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” with a smile on her face. Busted! She had a good time.

    As for me, not much knitting got done. There’s so much to see at a baseball game, that I was too easily distracted by the sights and sounds all around me. Not to mention the smell of the Chili from Ben’s Chili Bowl. Ben’s is a famous Washington Landmark located next door to the historic Lincoln Theater in the famous U Street neighborhood. If you visit DC, you have to go here. Seriously. I’m glad they have stands at the ballpark to expand the tradition to so many others who might not experience it otherwise. Yeah, I had me a chili half smoke with cheese and onions. It was messy, and I had a big ol’ glob of chili on my nose when my friend Amy’s mom Ruth walked up to introduce herself to me. How embarrassing! I would have hugged her or something, had I not been completely coated in chili at the time, but man, that’s Murphy’s Law for you! Anyway, Ruth, if you’re reading this, it was lovely to meet you! (And that top you were wearing was Fabulous!)

    The evening ended too early for me as always, and I already can’t wait for next year. Yay for Stitch n Pitch!

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article

  • As If…

    Well, here it is, the Friday before the Sunday that I’m going to see my friend Jen for the first time in four years. I’m excited! We have lots of catching up to do. A couple of weeks ago, as I was staring at a ball of hot pink sock yarn on my ball winder, I immediately thought of her. She loves Hello Kitty and and all things hot pink, so this scarf was just the thing:

    pink scarf in progress
    pink scarf in progress

    Except, what was I thinking? Of course, there’s no way I could have gotten it done in time. In fact, I’m not sure how people can get a whole scarf done in a few days or a week. On average, a single scarf takes me about a month, a pair of socks can take about two months, and even a simple felted hat takes me about three weeks. Clearly, this was not going to happen. But hey, I tried.

    There’s going to be plenty of knitting time this weekend, though. Our pool opens for the season, which is prime knitting time for me. Plus tomorrow night is the Washington Nationals Stitch n’ Pitch, where I’ll be in good company with hundreds of yarny friends. If you’re coming to the game, look for the goofy lady in a wheelchair with spiky hair, knitting furiously away on a hot pink scarf. That would be me.

    Oh well, that’s tomorrow! For now, it’s another day at work. I’m chanting already: Come on, 5 o’clock! See ya!

    Listen to this article
    Listen to this article