There's an app for that...

Well, I had to start over on my new coat design - totally forgot I was adding a one inch ease to my coat. Luckily I hadn't gotten very far. Two inches on the back done -   again.

Does anyone have any favorite knitting apps they would like to share?

I use Vogue Knitting for IPhone all the time. I always have my phone with me, where I might not with a tablet. My favorite thing is that I can add multiple counters, which really helps with counting pattern row repeats as well as shaping. Or even two shapings at the same time (neck and armhole). You can label the row counter, for example, Neck rows, armhole rows, sleeve rows, etc.

You can also inventory your needles and stash. For needles, when you indicate they are being used in a project, it highlights them in the list. That way when you go looking for them you know they are actually in use and not just rolled under the couch!

Also a handy place to inventory your books. Am I the only one who has two copies of several books? I have so many on my mental wish list, that I forget sometimes if it is on the purchased list or not.

There is also a stitchionary, how-to and yarn substitution calculator which helps you figure out how many skeins of a different yarn to purchase. Cool!

Back to KPLU Jazz Matinee and more knitting!  

Go Red in February

Knit Red: Stitching for Women's Heart Health

By Laura Zander

Go Red in February! No, I’m not cheering some athletic team on to the championship.  I am talking about the campaigns to bring attention to heart disease as the number one killer of women, more deadly than all cancer. Part of what makes it so deadly is women don’t understand the signs of heart disease and it can be a silent killer. Go to http://www.goredrowoment.org, sponsored by the American Heart Association and Go Red for Women to find out more.

Last year I discovered “Knit Red, Stitching for Women’s Heart Health,” by Laura Zander, co-founder of Jimmy Beans Wool. This fabulous book is something beautiful enough to just sit on your coffee table – open it up and you will find glossy pages of beautifully red garments. The photography is stunning all by itself.  Warning: you may find yourself wanting to knit them all!

But what makes this book really special is that it is a collection from some of the world’s greatest knitwear designers – Deborah Newton, Nora Gaughan, Nicky Epstein, Kim Hargreaves and many, many more. Each designer’s project is accompanied by a personal story about heart disease and a heart healthy tip. At the back is a collection of heart healthy recipes. Knitting and food – my two favorite things!

Living in the northwest I was happy to see a design by our own Kit Hutchin of Churchmouse Yarns and Teas on Bainbridge Island (a short ferry ride from Seattle). She created a pattern for the softest, most luxurious wristers I have ever seen. They are made with two hanks of Shibui Silk Cloud (silk and kid mohair) in yummy cranberry and luscious peony. I was practically drooling over this picture every time I leafed through the book.

My friend Kathy and I made a sojourn to the Churchmouse shop and in a daze, wandering amongst the yarns, I stopped dead in my tracks. There, in a tidy, clear vinyl pouch with a black ribbon drawstring were those cranberry and peony yarns. I was so excited! The reversible wristers all packaged in a kit. How easy was that! I had to have one – ok, if you don’t tell my husband I will admit I bought two – who knows?  I might finish them someday; in which case if I show them off, someone is going to beg really hard for me to make them a pair.

Here it is -  one done, almost. Last night I bound off the edge. With Kitchener Stitch. What is it with Kitchener? I have been doing socks for a million years and I have to look it up every single time I get to the end of the toe! Once I get started, ‘insert purlwise, leave it on, insert knitwise, slip it off’ and so on, I am fine. But every time, do I start with the knit or purl, do I leave the first on or take it off? Hmm.

I have to say the knitting goes quite fast, even though it is done on size one needles (think – knitting with toothpicks) and the fabric is doubled. Make sure you have light colored needles – otherwise you will go crazy trying to see your red, fuzzy stitches against dark needles.

The second project I tried was Ysolde Teague’s Slip Stitch Beret. This is not a project for fainthearted knitters. It is a 37 row repeat done eight times, so that essentially you are working on wedges of the hat. The texture of the finished fabric is thick and beautiful and well worth the concentration it took to complete the hat. Sadly I found I am a slouch hat kind of girl and berets are not my best look.  I am saving it for a gift or maybe donation to one of the charity auctions.

Christmas Projects Done at Last!

Well, almost, kind of.  I did get Chris' scarf finished. It is a beautiful heather blue yarn and almost 7 feet long. This is a super soft bulky yarn made by  Bernat called Alpaca Natural Blends with 30% alpaca and knits up super quick!  But of course I then decided to make one for his brother, Jeff, with the same yarn, but different pattern in a heathered medium brown. That left the third brother, Jay and his beautiful wife Anna. But I ran out of time, so will have to make sure I create something for them for next year.

Wide Rib Scarf in Alpaca Blend

The amazing part is that they are in the mail and hopefully almost to Montreal. This is a first for me, actually finishing it on time and then getting it in the mail besides! Wow! what is going on here? Maybe it really is the end of the world coming? No, maybe I am just a little more organized at this stage of my life. I sure hope so!!!

So, Chris' scarf is made in a wide 6x4 ribbing on size 9 needles.  It actually only took about 3 evenings for which i was truly grateful, and used 3 balls of yarn.  No pattern needed, just cast on 36 stitches and work in K6, p4 ribbing until you run out of yarn or get tired of knitting.

OK, no laughing, but I was in such a hurry to make sure I got it in the mail, I forgot to write down the instructions. So I had to enlarge the photo above to figure out the stitches.  I think I got it right.  This was a good project to catch up on all the Christmas movies since it was pretty mindless to work on. Sometimes we need these kinds of projects, yes?

Dad talked into modeling scarf.

I can't believe I got my husband John to model the scarf! I think he looks pretty nice, don't you?

For Jeff's project I started with the same yarn, but it is in a squares and stripes pattern that makes for a textured fabric, but lays flatter than the wide rib.

The pattern will be available for download as soon as I can get it onto Ravelry and the Ravelry store thing figured out. I always think I am pretty good on the computer but then creating a site to buy from is a whole other world!

Here are the pictures of Jeff's scarf. I hope they don't log onto the blog to see what is going on - but then Christmas is only a week away.  Omigosh!  A week!  Well, I guess that means the other projects I thought I would finish will be post Christmas gifts.  Does the first day of Christmas start on Christmas Eve? That would give me an extra 11 days to finish.

Squares and stripes scarf.

Whatever you celebrate at this time of year, I wish you much love in your life and good health along your journey.

Yarn, yarn, everywhere . . .

It’s official. I have crossed the line from avid knitter to crazy yarn lady.

I have a wonderful stepson who is pretty nice looking. Yes ladies, he is single. Smart too. Just finished his master’s in economics. You will need a passport – he is in Canada.

So I am talking on the phone with him and he asks what I am doing.  Knitting of course. Every minute I am not doing anything else I am knitting. Then he tells me he was out showing his friends the sites of Montreal. Winter of course, minus ‘extremely frigid’ below zero Celsius. No hat; don't mess up the hair. But no scarf or gloves either! “Really Chris? You don’t have a scarf with you? Wait, what do you mean you don’t even own one?! How does anyone survive Montreal without owning at least one scarf? No, no scarf he admitted. But I sure wish I had one now!

Truth be told, this young man is rarely cold. He chalks it up to the fact that he was born in Yellowknife, NWT.  That’s the Northwest Territories for my friends this side of the Canadian border. I have visited him in post-blizzard Montreal and he comes walking up the street, loafers, dress shirt and slacks and a blazer. Smiling. Not seeming to notice the wind blowing snow every which ways. His dad and I are of course bundled, scarved, hatted and gloved and still freezing.

Oh right, the crazy yarn lady. So I was going to whip up a scarf in the Habs colors – red, white and blue. That’s Habs, as in Montreal hockey team. I had purchased some variegated sock yarn at the LYS in Pointe Claire, QC on a previous visit in this very colorway. So I run upstairs to my stash, pull out the bin labeled ‘Sock Yarn, and there it is, just as I remembered. Put it on the winder and sat down to knit a scarf for him.

Not. I rip it back 3 times and then give up. I just didn’t like the look of it and it didn’t look like Chris anyway. Now months later, I had better get started on a scarf if I expect to get it done by his birthday in October. Well, missed that; how about Christmas? But then I should make one for his brother Jeff also. Hmmm.

Boxes and boxes later, I have looked through my entire stash. A box of Koigu – no that’s for the Turkish slippers and shawlettes I am going to make for all my friends. Someday. Frog Tree Alpaca? No-o-o.  I have in mind the perfect sweater for that box of luscious softness. A bin of copper colored cashmere? Uh-uh, that goes with the other copper colored specialty yarns that I will use someday to create a gorgeous, multi-textured jacket or cardigan or something. The purple box? Well, aside from the fact that I don’t think Chris is a ‘purple’ kind of guy – that will be a purple “Tree of Life” afghan. Someday.

Oh has anyone knit that afghan from Lion Brand? I friend of mine has just started it, but I haven’t seen it yet.

Focus girl… scarves, Chris, it’s mid-November already!

Honestly, I don’t think I can bear to use any of them. In fact, some are so special, I think I will never make anything from them.  I just like to open the box and dig my fingers into the soft, warm bundles and remember the places visited. Memory yarns.

Yep. That’s the crazy part. Yarn, yarn everywhere – and not a bit to knit.

Who wants to meet me at the LYS Monday morning?