Stitches East

Stitches East was held in my backyard a couple of weeks ago. I'm finally getting around to posting about it. I only went for one day and found out about it too late to get any classes, but the marketplace was awesome!! Yarn everywhere! Here is some of my treasure..

Noro for half price.

Alpaca to make winter scarves for the girls.

Wool and silk blends

Gorgeous Manos

While wandering after lunch, look who I spotted..the queen of the ballband! And she was wearing the (in)famous raspy. Did I behave and leave the woman her privacy? Of course not! I acted as any self-respecting knitting groupie would do. "Kay?? Oh, I love your book!" Luckily my friend was not so star-struck and coherently discussed the Chihuly exhibit with Kay.

Although we couldn't get any classes, we did attend a "market session" - a one-hour class right on the floor of the the marketplace. We attended the "carrying colors belt" class. Great class, great teacher. And... here's what we received to take home

I think the yarn and needles were worth more than the cost of the class.

All in all, a most excellent day!

To Block Or Not To Block?

I never thought I would block a dishcloth. Why bother, right? It's just going to get wet and wash dishes, wipe counters, clean up spills, etc. But when I was finished the September mid-month Dishcloth KAL, it was so lumpy! It looked like large bubble wrap on the back. I tried to get a picture of it, but you couldn't see how mogul-looking it was.

So I blocked it - sort of. I just wet it and shaped it (no pins) and let it dry. Gigantic improvement! Here it is in all its blocked glory -



Haven't blogged much lately, but have been knitting. Have also been taking some knitting / crochet classes, and have been knitting and crocheting. Will be posting pics of FOs very soon. Just need to take some pictures.

Ballband Minis

More ballbands.



These are mini ballbands. A good family friend was visiting one night before heading back to college and saw me knitting a ballband for one of my daughters. He loved it, and wanted me to knit him a smaller version to use as a coaster. But he wanted a large coaster. I knit the smaller one, but I think he wants something larger, so I knit the larger one. I'll send him both.

This picture gives better perspective -

Ballband Inside Out

or, Monthly Dishcloth mid-August KAL Redux



This is a variation on the dishcloth we did in the Monthly Dishcloth group in mid-August. The original pattern used the contrast color for 2 rows of the repeat. Because it was only two rows, the cloth needed two colors with strong contrast. Several people, including me, started the KAL using a solid and a variegated that matched the solid. The pattern just didn't work well; the variegated was lost in too many areas. I suspected that if the cloth were done using the variegated in 4 rows instead of only 2 that the colors would pop more, like the Mason Dixon ballband. It worked, but I like both versions.




Original in white with orange, pink, yellow variegated.

Revised with blue and daisy ombre.

This cloth is the opposite of a Mason Dixon ballband. Instead of "bricks," it has "windows." The bricks in the ballband are garter stitch and the mortar is stockinette. This cloth has stockinette windows with garter stitch frames.

September Dishcloth KAL

Finished the September KAL for the Monthly Dishcloth group last week.



Used size 8s and S'nC soft taupe.

Worked the bind-off in pattern and really like how it looks - much better than my normal bind-off.

Leftovers & Log Cabin on Labor Day

Someone on the Monthly Dishcloth KAL asked what people did with their leftover yarn after making a dishcloth - those remainders that are too small to make another cloth. I remembered seeing some very pretty cloths made with leftovers, so this inspired me to get out my bag of scraps. This one was made using the Petal pattern.



The yarns are all Sugar 'n Cream and Peaches & Creme. You change colors on row 7. There were sooo many ends to weave in. I thought I might be able to carry yarns since the color changes were in the middle, so I left the ends attached to the balls after I changed colors. BIG MISTAKE! The yarns became so tangled. So on the second half of the cloth, I cut the yarns after making the color change. I also wove in the ends of the 1st half before I started the second half.

One of my daughters wants me to make a Modern Log Cabin blanket from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. So I made another scrap dishcloth using the log cabin technique.



You can see I need a lot more practice with log cabin. There are some who advocate leaving the stitches "live" on a stitch holder instead of binding off at the end of a log. I tried both ways and thought, for me, it was much neater to bind off. I used a crochet hook to pick up the stitches. I also tried to make the stitch pick up easier on the selvage ends by slipping the first stitch of each row as if to purl. That did make it easier, but my edges were so loosey-goosey that the first row of the new log with these picked up stitches was loose. Overall, I am not happy at all with my log cabin and am hesitant to start a large blanket using this. Any suggestions for improvement? All will be greatly appreciated.

Hope you all have a nice Labor Day holiday, and sorry to all the college kids who have to go to class today!

Back to College

I spent last week getting my 3 daughters back to college for their second year. One went back on Monday, one on Wednesday, and one on Saturday. Each girl returned to school with a warshrag, knitted with the colors of her choosing.

This is SarSar - all Sugar 'n Cream (Pastel Print ombre, Hot Blue, Hot Pink) on size 8 needles.



This is Trishy. Again on size 8's, using S'nC Sunshine and Red and Lion Turquoise.



And this is LeeBee, also on size 8's but with S'nC Cool Breeze ombre and Light Blue.



Look at this edge, Lisa!



Ed., Instructions for this edge technique can be found on the Mason Dixon KAL blog here.

My daughters are identical triplets. The dishcloths are like my girls - same pattern, different colors.

They are my only children. They came all at once and they leave all at once. It's just as hard this second year as it was their first year.