Order of the Garter Stitch

Blogging from Big D (My, oh yes!), this year's location for the meeting I blogged from last year in Albuquerque -- using the same crappy cell phone for pictures. This is that blanket that I've been discussing forever, but never quite starting. The pattern is based on Elizabeth Zimmerman's Garter Stitch Blanket from The Opinionated Knitter. It's a Christmas gift for the in-laws -- let's hope they've forgotten the address for the blog for the time being.

I was inspired by Jared Flood's example. I, too, am planning on doing the seams with crochet stitch (Help! Stephi!). Jared's garter stitch seems so much tidier than mine -- I'm hoping this is less a reflection of respective knitting skills and more a function of using two strands (him) as opposed to one (me). I can dream, can't I?

Having fun at my conference. Getting a little scared that we're going to be hosting this event in my town two years from now. Getting to talk yarn with other talented librarian knitters like Becky and Janna. Good times!

Chart Reading

Click the image below to enlarge and read. Like a lot of charts, the interesting stuff is at the end.




I think this is a very, very cool pattern.

Knitter, Heel Thyself

Oops.

I took the Blue Tiger Socks to north Texas to work on while visiting the in-laws. I only got around to them for a little bit this morning, but boy did I do some damage.

First of all, I think the circumference is a bit tight. It looked fine until I started working the short-row heels. I think working these with a short row heel means I'm going to have to increase the number of stitches in the sock's circumference. Which means ripping all the way back to the toe. Might not even be a bad idea to start over.

But worst of all is the heel placement. I guess I got carried away wit the stockinette in the round and just took things a bit to far. Rather than a heel, it looks like I've inserted a pocket for some unnatural growth.

Had a good time in the Metroplex, though. Ate some delicious TexMex and went with the in-laws to the Kimbell Art Museum to see The Impressionists: Master Painting from the Art Institute of Chicago. Go see it if you have a chance.

Knitting Books

The librarian in me likes nothing better than exploring new books. And the knitter in me loves digging through information on the craft. Today I got knitting books in the mail. I feel tingly.

First of all, I got a copy of Elizabeth Zimmerman's The Opinionated Knitter: Newsletters 1958-1968. I've glanced through copies of this from time to time, but needed my own in order to make a version of the Garter-Stitch Blanket (p.52). I'm planning on making it as a gift for Christmas. If it turns out half as good Jared Flood's, I'll be happy. I won't be carrying a double strand of the Cascade Ecological Wool, since it will be used in Texas. I can't wait to explore this book thoroughly. I'm going to have to bone up on my negligible crochet skills to seam this thing together and make a border. I'm nervous, but motivated.

Secondly, I ordered a copy of Charlene Schurch's More Sensational Knitted Socks. Because if I'm going to be knitting more socks, they damned well better be sensational. I enjoyed this first book so much and have made so many socks using her patterns (see here, here, here, and here) that I wanted to get this one, too. I know it's not exactly the same as the earlier book, but I really like the way she writes her patterns.

One thing I see right off the bat (and which someone had mentioned to me) is that all the stitch patterns are stashed away in the back of the book, whereas in her earlier book they were right next to the main sock pattern. I don't know that this will bug me, but I'm thinking probably yeah.

And last, but not least, I treated myself to a copy of Cat Bordhi's New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One. My friend Janelle has been talking this book up for some time, and I knew it was just a matter of time before I got a copy. I'd seen Cat demonstrating knitting a sock using coriolis architecture on a television show (I think it was Knitty Gritty) and was intrigued. I really admire her ability to look at something that knitters have been doing for centuries and see it in an entirely different way. She has a crazy creative brain that I envy.

I can't wait to get reading...and knitting...and reading...and...

Must Stash

I had a busy weekend.

First, take a look at this humongous ball of yarn that recently found it's way into my stash. It has four siblings that haven't been wound yet. This is Cascade Ecological Wool, Color 8063. It's destined to be a blanket that I'm concocting as a Christmas present. I've already been ragged on multiple fronts for the color (or lack of it), so feel free to pile on. I'm immune. My winder is to small to hold this amount and thickness yarn. They have one at The Knitting Nest that could handle it. But no, I was in a rush and though I'd do it at home. Not wanting to make Jeff perform his husbandly duty of holding the hank, I just wound it myself, and, of course, got a huge snarl in it that I eventually had to cut out. When will I learn?

On Friday, I got an email from Staci saying that there was a new colorway of Lorna's Laces sock yarn at The Knitting Nest that I was going to flip over. She was right. I hadn't been there five minutes Saturday morning before I bought a couple of hanks. I really like this color. Lots of darkness and that startling ice blue. Very nice.

I took my Aunt June with me Saturday morning. I mentioned her before when she had gifted me a bunch of my great-grandmother's crochet and knitting tools. She was in town for the Austin Area Quilt Guild 2008 Quilt Show (which was awesome, by the way). It was great for her to meet my friends. We talked knitting and quilting and laughed a whole lot. Great fun. Aunt June totally gets the urge to create with fabric and fibers (she's no slouch herself) and is nothing but supportive of me and my attempts at knitting. Love you, Aunt June!

Saturday evening, I started a pair of socks with my new yarn -- I felt like I needed something on the needles besides the Piano Cushion. So I started these. Then I ripped them out and started again this morning. I'm using the same toe-up beginning that I used on the Back to Basics Socks that I just finished. Then I'm thinking of doing a standard short row heel and then the slipped stitch rib for the cuff from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks. I did vary the increases on the toe by using Cat Bordhi's method of paired increases described in this video* -- thanks, Janelle, for the suggestion. I like the way it looks.

I completely thought through the plan on these socks, which will probably come back to bite me. But for now, I'm having fun.

I've got some goodies coming in the mail. Hopefully I'll be able to post about them soon.

*(Cat Bordhi doesn't say this on the video, but she clearly knits into the back of the stitch that she grabs for the left-leaning decrease. I think it looks better this way.)

Holding Needles

Sometimes I record strange little films on Turner Classic Films to have on while knitting. A description calls to me and I give it a shot. Such was the case with "The Ghost Train," a British film from 1941.

Imagine my glee when I saw that one of the characters was knitting! She seemed to be working on an amorphous blob. She was knitting rather rapidly, I might add -- although something seemed strange. It was the way she held her right needle like a pen rather than like a knife. I knew people knitted this way, but I'd never seen it.

I dug through my copy of A History of Hand Knitting by Richard Rutt and found this on page 17:

By the beginning of Queen Victoria's reign (and perhaps for a while before) English ladies, as distinct from working knitters, had abandoned the older way of holding knitting needles. Instead of holding the right-hand needle under the palm of the right hand they began to hold it like a pen, grasping the point between the thumb and index finger and allowing the shaft to lie over the thumb joint. Before long, working class knitters, especially in southern England, began to emulate the new fashion, which is inefficient and limits the speed of knitting, but is to this day the commonest way of knitting in England.

Do you or anyone you know knit this way? I thought it looked quite elegant, but on reflection realized I would be terrible at it. The character in the clip, Miss Bourne, was played by Kathleen Harrison. I don't know if there is any correlation between longevity and the way one holds knitting needles, but Kathleen Harrison lived to the ripe old age of 103.

On my own personal knitting front, I'm kind of in project limbo right now. I'm still plugging away on the piano bench. I recently purchased some books that should show up soon, and I've also got some yarn together for a blanket project for the in-laws. But nothing to show right now. Hence the detour into film and knitting history.

Blue Wales

I finished the Back to Basics socks yesterday afternoon.

These were a delight to knit -- doing things differently, learning some new skills, getting good ideas from fellow knitters -- it's what it's all about, right? Definitely give this free pattern a shot if you're looking to shake up your sock knitting.

I'm still working on the Piano Cushion. An earlier post might have given the impression that I was fed up with and abandoning this project -- my apologies. I hauled it out to show to my sister. She oohed and awed appreciatively (sisters are awesome!), and help re-spark my interest in this She also hinted that she might be interested in learning a bit about the craft herself. I've never tried to teach anyone else about knitting. Little skills here and there, but nothing from the get-go. I knit strangely, so I'm a bit nervous about the whole idea. Still, I'm glad she's interested.

Other projects are in the works. I've got some Cascade Eco Wool on it's way to delivery at The Knitting Nest that I'll need to go snag soon (UPS scaled back it's delivery in our area late last week in anticipation of Ike) for Elizabeth Zimmerman's Garter Stitch Blanket, inspired by Jared's awesome example. I'm not double-stranding mine -- I don't want to cause anyone heat stroke.

And, I'm looking at making a Cobra sweater from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch. I'm reading on Ravelry that the pattern seriously underestimates the amount of yarn needed, so I'm going to continue to mull it over.

Strange Shape

I'd forgotten that I had already posted a picture of the Back to Basics Socks showing their unusual structure. But this morning I went to the trouble of hosing down the patio furniture so that I could take another picture without getting the sock and yarn all grubby, so you're just going to have to put up with it. Once I've got a plan, I've got to follow through.

This picture shows the sock right before the heel turn. The main tube of the sock is 60 stitches in circumferences. Through a series of increases (some on the sole, most across the instep), it is now at 96 stitches around, 40 across the sole and 56 across the instep. It's at this point that all the short-row magic takes place.

Just wanted to document this while it still looked like a knitted parfait glass.

Knit Nerd Note: Notice that in the v-shaped area at the top where the ribbing has started taking shape. See how there are little holes on the left and how it doesn't look like the right? If you're having trouble seeing this, try this enlarged version. The increases happen along those stitches, and they are done by executing a kfb in the first and last stitch of the "v" section. When you do kfb, the first stitch looks like a knit stitch and the second has a bit of a purl bump. So on the right, the knit stitch is up against other knit stitches on the edge, whereas on the left, the purl bump is up against knit stitches on the edge, creating more of a contrast. I wonder if there is some sort of increase that could have been done to minimize this difference?

Back to Basics

On Labor Day, I realized I didn't really want to labor over the Piano Cushion any more, so I decided to start a pair of socks. Sometimes you just need a pair of socks going, you know?

So I plowed through books and the web, looking for something different. My dear friend and fellow librarian Janelle recently started a knitting blog, TT820. In an early post, she described knitting some socks from Cat Bordhi's new book. This entry talks about Sidestream Socks, which I'm thinking might be constructed similarly to the ones I'm tackling right now.

These are the Back to Basics socks from the Fall 2007 issue of Knitty. I've knitted my fair share of toe-up socks, and I enjoy them. I like that you don't really need much of a pattern to make them. But the part I always hated was the crochet cast-on. This pair starts with the Magic Cast-On. I love it. It's so easy, and so tidy. In the spirit of being aware of different learning styles, here's a video of Cat Bordhi demonstrating this method, complete with funny voices. Try it -- you'll like it.

The gussets go off in funny directions (in fact, I'm not entirely sure where they are. As you near the heel, suddenly there are way more stitches than you would think would be necessary, but then some short row action kicks in and the heel is turned (the ribbing extends down the heel, which is neat), and everything is drawn in with a slipped-stitch line running down the sides. It's weird and lovely.

I've tried them on and so far they fit perfectly -- I was afraid they'd be too small. If you're tired of standard sock construction, try this pattern to shake things up a bit. Note to self: get that Cat Bordhi book.

Swelligance

I finished the Swelligant Scarf this morning. Not bragging or anything -- okay, I'm bragging -- eight days from cast on to bindoff. I should have made this one of those knitting olympics challenges. Actually, I did a lot of the knitting for this while watching the Democratic convention on the tube during the evenings this week. Perhaps it was the excitement of the times we live in that gave me super knitting powers.

I can highly recommend this pattern (Ravelers can find out more here) for a quick knit that doesn't require a whole lot of attention. Once you get a few stitch and row markers in place, you just whiz along. I did make a mistake toward the end where I cabled on the first strip and not on the matching third. Pretty incredible that I only did this once, come to think of it. I just ripped back and all was good.

I used all but about 6 inches of the four balls of yarn I had. The pattern says to knit to a certain row, and then knit 12 more rows of a certain type and then bind off. It requires a fairly good eye for how much yarn you have left. I got lucky. After doing a sewn bind-off, I had about 8 inches of yarn left (see photo). Whew.

I haven't blocked this, and I think I'm not going to. The finished scarf is suppoosed to be 60 inches long. This one is closer to 54", but I tried it on and it seems fine to me. Blocking would allow me to put in that stretch, but I just don't think it's necessary. What do you think -- is it necessary to block this?

Now I have to read up on the process for sending this to the OFA Red Scarf Project folks so it can be forwarded to its recipient. I've never done any altruistic knitting like this before. It feels pretty good.

Red Scarf

Last night, I faced the prospect of going to hang out with knitting friends the next morning and not having a portable project to hand. I know, right?

I'd always meant to participate in the Red Scarf Project, but usually managed to clue into it right before the deadline. This year, inspired by friends such as Janna, I decided to make one myself. I work at a community college, an institution which serves many former foster kids, so as a knitter, this excellent cause is tailor-made for me.

I found a reversible cabled scarf pattern in Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch 'n Bitch called the Swelligant Scarf, threw the book in my bag and headed off this morning. At The Knitting Nest, I picked up some lightly variegated (vaguely variegated?) red yarn and got crankin'.

It doesn't look quite like the picture in the book, the scarf in that example being made with a much more drapey silk/wool blend, but I'm liking what's going on. From a distance it looks plain, but up close, stuff is happening. Because the main panels are worked as a 1x1 pattern, cables incorporated into this pattern are pretty convincingly reversible. As you can see, the center strip is offset from the outside strips, creating a cool effect. Not only are the cables spiraling, but the spirals themselves spiral relative to their neighbors.

Now that I'm into the pattern, it's going quickly. I did all this in just a few hours. And it's the first project in forever that I've done with straight needles (ahem). They were a little hard to get used to.

Back to Work

The Mineshaft socks are complete! I only worked on these sporadically over the last month or so. I took them on trips and barely worked on them. Then I'd have bursts of activity. It's hard to knit anything in wool when it's 100+ outside. Even socks. There -- I said it.

I'm happy with them. I just love knitting with Lorna's Laces, no matter what the colorway. The yarn just flies through my fingers and the stitches end up so pretty. The yarn makes it so easy. The pattern I used called for 78 stitches circumference -- a few wider than I normally do, so they are a little looser than some socks I've made. But the pattern in the yarn spiraled nicely and there was no pooling.

Once again I chose too fancy a pattern with too fancy a yarn. In an ideal world, fancy yarn = simple pattern and simple yarn = fancy pattern. I can't seem to get this through my head. Maybe if I write it down here, I'll remember.

Tomorrow, I head back to work to start the new academic year. I'm ready. I like having my time off in the summer, but I'm usually ready to go back. I can use the structure. As usual, I've started staying up too late and sleeping in too long. I CAN adjust to being a morning person, but it's sure not my natural state.

I've added a few rows on the Piano Cushion since my last post, but not much. I found it disconcerting to switch between the lovely wool of the Lorna's Laces and the unforgiving twine-ness of the Euroflax linen. So I decided to concentrate on one at a time.

So, back to work.

High Points

Jeff and I have been out on the road for the past week, enjoying the cooler, drier climes of New Mexico. A goal of ours, at which we were successful, was climbing the highest mountain in that state, Wheeler Peak (elev. 13,161 ft.). Jeff and I have been visiting the highest points of states for years. It's a great way to see the U.S. -- you wind up in the strangest places. This was my 33rd high point! And before you start asking -- yes, most of the ones I have left to visit are difficult. (I say most -- I haven't gotten to Iowa, Janna!)

While on the road, I visited (or attempted to visit) a few yarn shops -- high points in their own right! I only got to one. One was closed -- a few I couldn't find. I haven't been in much of a knitting mood over the past month -- blame it on the heat -- so no huge loss. I did manage to get these hanks of sock yarn at The Yarn Shop in Taos. The ball bands have SECONDS stamped on them. I've never seen that before. Does it mean it's full of knots? The price was right, so I grabbed them. And get this -- like the current pair of socks I'm working on, this yarn, too, has a distinct pinkness to it. What's happening to me?

Some progress has been made with the Piano Cushion. I had about 10 responses to my question of which color to use to link all the colors together. Only one person voted for the sandalwood (brown) color. So cream it is. As you may be able to see, I've done nine 8-row sections, which means I've repeated each color 3 times. I think it's looking pretty good, although slipping the stitches across 6 rows does stretch things a bit. I guess that's why linen yarn was called for -- it can probably take it. I'm not finding the linen too harsh to work with. But I'm noticing that the lighter green color seems to be spun thinner than the the darker green and the brown. You can clearly see through it in several places. I'm hoping that washing the fabric after knitting it will cause it to fill out and bloom a little.

In the meantime, we're sweltering here. How is it that I can live 200 miles from where a tropical storm hit the coast, directly in its path, and get only five minutes of rain out of it? It's a good thing I live in an area of only extreme drought. According to this map, the exceptional drought is still 15 miles away!

Knitting on the Road

Hanging with Rocky at The Yarn Shop in Taos, NM

Knitting on the Road

In Arroyo Seco, NM. They were closed!

Which Swatch?

I'm back from Miami. Our chorus brought down the house on Tuesday night and seemed to be popular. We managed to get off stage mere seconds before the lights went off -- they were pretty strict about the 30-minute time limits for performances. I was glad to get it over with and we had quite a bit of fun for the rest of the week. We also heard some amazing music and ate some darn yummy food.

I didn't knit as much as I thought I would. I got to work on my Mineshaft Socks a little on the plane, but except for a few stolen moments shown in the picture here, I didn't have much time for the fiber arts. I managed to finish the first sock in the airport at 7:00am (they have one of those now?!) while waiting to fly home. I'm happy with it. More pictures when I've finished the pair, which may be a while because I've got a new big project in the works...



I finally gathered all the linen yarn I needed to start the Piano Cushion I want to make. I've got the colors I like, but while making swatches (no really, I did!), I decided to monkey with the colors. I'm trying to decide whether to use the brown (sandalwood) as the border color in the pattern or whether to go with the cream color. I like the sandalwood as a border since it's different from the green-scale of the others in the picture on the left, but I also like the idea of using the lightest color to tie together the darker ones as shown in the picture on the right. Which do you prefer? Comments and opinions welcome!

(As an aside, the picture on the left was knit on size 2 needles. I'm definitely going to be using the size 3 as shown in the photo at right. They're what the pattern called for.)

Mineshaft

Whew! About to slip down!

Yesterday I got assertive and contacted the company with which I had back-ordered the linen yarn I've been waiting on. I told them not to bother sending it and please credit my account. We'll see how that goes. For some reason, I expect it to be a big headache.

To have something on th needles I started -- what else -- a pair of socks. I had this Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway Mineshaft that I'd bought at The Knitting Nest several weeks ago. When I bought it, all I saw were the dark colors. Now that I'm knitting with it, all I can see is a rosy-greyish color that is dangerously close to (gasp!) pink! Sorry, Janna and Staci, but I'm scared! Tell me it's not too pink.

I'm using a pattern from the six-stitch pattern section in Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks called Chain Rib. I thought that an industrial-sounding yarn color should probably go with this industrial-sounding ribbing. It's kind of hard to see the chain shape to me -- mostly because the "links" seem to be lining up with the color striping for the time being. So far, no problem with pooling. I'll keep my fingers crossed. I love working with this yarn.

Jeff and I are headed for Miami on Saturday for a week of music and singing at the 2008 Gala Festival of Choruses. I'm going to take this sock to work on, but somehow I don't think I'll feel like doing much knitting in the semi-tropics. I will have plenty of free time, though. Maybe I could scope out a local yarn shop? Do people even knit in Miami?

Treads

I finished the Treads socks this morning. I'm not sure what I think.

I liked working with the yarn (roughly 45% wool, 45% cotton and 10% chemicals), but I just wasn't jazzed about the construction. I've probably complained about this before. Working double-wrapped heels in top-down construction wasn't bad, but working the toe the same way was weird. I got weird bulges around the sides of my toe knuckles (call me, Oprah -- I can set you up!) and I didn't fancy doing Kitchener stitch over 36 stitches across the soles.

But I did. The kicker is I didn't have to. I could have done a normal toe and I would have been much happier with these socks. But I can be a bit of a slave to the pattern, sometimes. Knitting is all about branching out, right? True, but sometime you have to know when to say, "no." This was one of those occasions.

Still waiting on some back-ordered yarn to get started on the piano bench cushion I want to make. This is taking forever. I went by Gauge yesterday and found that they had just ordered some Euroflax in the color I'm waiting on. They've got my email, and if it gets here before the back-ordered stuff ships, I'm canceling with the back-order lady. Enough is enough. It's been six weeks!

I engaged in a little retail therapy while knitting at The Knitting Nest on Saturday morning. Stacy had just received a shipment of Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in the colorway Franklin's Panopticon -- part of their new line of colorways based on famous bloggers.

I consider myself a bit color-challenged. I'm not color blind, but I don't trust my instincts when it comes to matching colors. I like this, though. Some bright colors to take me out of my comfort zone, but mixed with enough soothing beiges and browns to keep my from hyperventilating. See this post at Franklin's blog for some insight into how this colorway came about. Can't wait to see what this looks like all knit up.

Summertime Blues

When there's no knitting, there's no posting.

I've been on a real reading kick, and I've been using more spare time between the pages of books rather than at the needles. I did work on the Treads Socks last weekend while at the in-laws. I managed to finish, and then realized that I had made them to short. Last night, I frogged the toe and started over.

The strange thing about this pattern is that it's worked from the top down, but it uses short-row construction for the heels and toes. This means the Kitchener join is across the sole of the foot on half the stitches. Which, in my case, equals 36 Kitchener stitches. Fun! I started over last night and go to the tip of the toe, just before starting the double-wrap back down under the toe. I've tried it on, and I'm happier with the length.

Otherwise, I'm still waiting on some back-ordered yarn so that I can get started on the piano bench cushion I've been itching to start. I'm also eying Brooklyn Tweed's beautiful garter stitch blanket as a possible Christmas gift idea. I think his crochet seaming and i-cord edging look awesome.

To share a bit more about my summer, Jeff and I went to the Dallas Museum of Art and the Nasher Sculpture Center last weeked. We did see a nice exhibit of landscapes by James Onderdonk featuring his bluebonnet paintings, but we spent most of our time at the sculpture center. Below are a few pictures of some of the cool stuff that caught our eye.

All in the Family

There's a glimmer of hope for the possibility of the existence of a knitting gene. Today, at the biennial Weaver-Armstrong family reunion, I found a relative who knits!

This is Debbie Tasker Major of Colorado. We are second cousins -- we share a set of great-grandparents. Our grandmothers were sisters.

During the reunion, we always have a silent auction of crafts and other homemade (mostly) items to help pay for the barbecue and the hall. This year's selection included everything from Texas history books that mentioned our family, to my Aunt June's delicious fig preserves (for which I was outbid) to baby blankets, to handsewn handbags. However, this year, my eye was caught by a hand-knitted and felted bag. I didn't recognize the name, but made a note to keep my eye open. Just before lunch, I saw the unmistakable hand motions of knitting from across the room, and made a note to chat later.

After things slowed down in the afternoon, I finally got to introduce myself. Debbie was working on a patchwork blanket that she is doing as a knit-along with a friend. Every time one of them knits a square, they knit two of the same pattern. Then, at the end, they'll have the same squares to stitch together to make a blanket. And although they are using the same squares and the same yarn color scheme, they can stitch the squares together however they want. I think this is a great idea. They're using Jan Eaton's 200 Knitted Blocks for the patterns. Some neat stuff in there.

We talked about how we got started knitting and chit-chatted about yarns and needles. So while I didn't knit on World Wide Knit in Public Day, I did get to talk about knitting in public today -- and with a newly-discovered relative. Thanks, Debbie -- I had a great time visiting with you today.

And now to think of a project to knit for the 2010 reunion!....

Treads and Linen Threads

I finished the Kohle Socks this past weekend, and since I was waiting on a package of yarn to come in the mail, I thought it prudent to jump on another pair of socks. I decided to pair this cool blue yarn with a pattern I'd been wanting to make for a while.

The pattern is called "Treads" and it's from Debbie Stoller's Son of Stitch 'n Bitch. The original calls for much much thinner yarn. It recommends casting on 100 stitches on size 0 needles. I was okay with size 0s, but I couldn't imagine castin on 100 stitches with any yarn I had around. So I'm changing the pattern up a little to work with this yarn -- 72 stitches. The circumference is right, but the cables are a bit larger than they are in the original. When they stretch out, the make little O's. And the yarn is 45% cotton, so I'm thinking that maybe this pair will have more versatility than some of my more wooly socks.

The package I mentioned earlier came in the mail today. It's Louet Euroflax linen yarn. I had a gift certificate from my sister-in-law that I hadn't used and which made this purchase affordable. Three of the four colors have arrived -- the cream-colored hanks will come later. These are destined for something completely different -- a piano bench cushion. If you have a copy of Mason-Dixon knitting, you can see what it's supposed to look like on page 42. My piano bench hasn't had a cushion on it for nearly 20 years. More about this later...

Franklin

World-famous knitter and graphic artist Franklin Habit was in Austin this weekend. He brought his 1000 Knitters Project on the road, and I volunteered to help The Knitting Nest host his visit. What a day!

I showed up bright and early -- two hours before the shop opened -- to help get ready, blowing up balloons, etc. There were already people waiting in the parking lot! Franklin got there an hour early and got set up to start taking pictures. Since shop employees and volunteers were there first, we had our pictures taken first.

For reasons possibly related to the massive amounts of caffeine I'd ingested, I was very shaky during the knitting. Franklin asked some questions about how I got started, and before I knew it I was relaxed and knitting away on the extremely long scarf to which all of the knitters are contributing. He said we could knit whatever we wanted, but did ask that we try to keep the same number of stitches on the needle. I just knitted straight across, but the person before added a whole bunch of YOs, so the scarf quickly expanded in width. Future viewers should be able to find the "double-wide" section from Austin.

I don't know how he does it, but he had a very relaxing approach that put people at ease rather quickly. I enjoyed listening in on the stories people told as they talked to Franklin while being photographed. I can't wait to see this book when it comes out. Franklin's first book is due out soon.

The day went well, with a steady stream of people in the morning, a bit of a convenient lull around lunchtime, and then a bit more relaxed in the afternoon. We had time to sit around and knit -- I finished my Kohle socks with much help from Entrelac for helping with a tapestry needle, scissors and a wonky stitch that she tamed with extreme skill. We snacked, got to chat with Franklin, a coffee run was made (like I needed it). I got to meet tons of fun knitters that I've never met before. A most excellent way to spend the day.



Then, after the shoot was over and the shop was closed for the day, even more fun. Stacy asked Franklin if he would draw a picture of Dolores on a wall in the store. And we got to watch it happen. Franklin said it was the largest drawing of Dolores he had ever attempted. It's so perfect. From the bird on her head, to the figure of Hank in her arms, to the little Knitting Nest birds on her, um, caftan(?), it's marvelous. Here are some pictures of Franklin at work...







And then we had barbecue, courtesy of Stacy and David. Jeff brought some potato salad we'd made, and others brought bread and slaw and beer and all kinds of other yumminess. We all had a wonderful meal, surrounded by wonderful people and beautiful yarn. How fun is that? I think everyone who was there would agree that this was a truly special day. We'll have to do it again sometime!