A new pair of socks for Stephen, well he won't get to wear them for a while because they are on display.  The yarn is Fabel.

I took this on one of our Tuesday evenings, the number of people who come to knit, sometimes there is only six of us and then another week there can be twelve.

We have a great mix of people, not everyone comes every week but some people do. 

I went with the 4mm needle and on the washed swatch my gauge was 24sts to 4ins.

As I was knitting the back I realize the K1 in the pattern of K4, P1, K1, P1, every 12 rows was a perfect place to add a bead.  I had two packets of beads the right colour and I used a crochet hook to put the beads on as I knit the row.  When I had completed the front I had two beads left!

I changed the neckline, the pattern called for a crochet edge but I just picked up stitches around the neck line and worked a couple of rounds in garter stitch.

I can see this as being a favourite sweater especially in the hot summer, it is so light and drapes nicely and I only used three skeins!

I changed the pattern slightly, I just added three extra rows as my son always has a large coffee.  He chose the buttons, he thought the worn down edges looked like the whites of the eyes.

I was told it looked more like a hackey sack until I put the loop for hanging on, maybe next one I'll put some beads on it

I was walking to work and wondered why there were people standing around on the sidewalk.  I don't usually see many people on my walk.  As I walked towards the people I realised one of them was wearing the white Olympic tracksuit and hat.  Further down the road I could see a slow moving police car with it's lights on.  The Olympic torch was on it's way.  As I'm walking along watching people with their cameras and phones with cameras I remembered I had my camera in my back pack!  Now I have a photo of the Olympic Torch.

I offered to make Stephen some wristwarmers/fingerless gloves for his cycle home, they had to be long enough that when his fingers were bent around the hand grip his knuckles were covered.  I used some alpaca/wool from Custom Woolen Mills, I'd knit a swatch and so had a lot left over.

Of course, by the time I had knit these the weather had turned colder and wet, oh well they can stay in the drawer until the spring!

October 2009

I used the basic toe up sock from Wendy Knits.  I've knit toe up before but they were short row heels which I found difficult to get on.  I found this a really easy pattern to followed - when I remembered it was written for two circular needles and I was knitted with double pointed!  Now I have to wear them, I'm interested to see how the Kauri wears with it's blend of merino, possum and silk.

The weather was beautiful and we moved the pine table to the little piece of grass in our parking lot for lunch.

Knit until it Fits sweaters start with just one stitch, the first thing we learnt was how to make a triangle, after that an extended triangle and you would not believe how easy and quick it is to join these pieces together - it's amazing!

The two pins are holding my 'live' stitches from the joining method and these will be worked in when the sleeves are added. 

September 2009

I finally took a picture a liked and now have two pairs of gloves!

When I started reading the pattern it turned out this pattern was knitted flat - not going to happen.  So I used their number of stitches cast on in the round, finished the ribbing and we still waiting to see the doctor.  Worked my regular thumb shaping, still no doctor but a paper clip works as a stitch holder! 

Mum had blood tests and a cat scan but they could not find a reason why she passed out.  I found out I can knit all the way to finger shaping in 6 1/2 hours!  I finished the fingers using Bees Knees Knit Guess Who? pattern.  I loved this because the little finger is knit first and then you knit two rounds before knitting the other fingers.  It fits great and the fingers are longer then they look in this picture - but not much!

Here's a 'manly' scarf knit from the Punta Yarns
Mericash, this is a merino/cashmere blend.  A nice one row pattern with an I-cord edge.  The pattern is one of our free patterns.

Kathy's Scarf. 

Kathy fell in love with colour of this yarn when I received a sample skein and she just had to have it!  This simple pattern is ideal for the hand pained kid mohair from Punta yarn.

The pattern is a simple K2tog, YO pattern, I've added it to our free patterns.

The is my Tech Square Afghan which I will be teaching this fall and winter.  It was very interesting to knit and considering that I don't get much time to knit was finished very quickly.  I started on March 4 and finished on May 15.  I don't usually keep track of my time but because this was going to be a teaching project I kept good notes.

The afghan is knit using Sandnesgarn Perfect which is a great afghan yarn as it is 85% wool, 15% poyamid, machine washable and $3.99 for 100m
 

Holiday Socks!  using Trekking XXL the leg of one sock was knit from home to the cottage where we stayed, the other leg was knit from the cottage to Nelson to join the Nelson knit and chat.  The heels were turned on the way back from Nelson to the cottage and one foot was knit from the cottage to home.  The other foot was knit waiting at various doctors offices!

When I saw this Fiber Trends pattern I knew I had to knit it just for fun.  It is knit with the EcoUll Multi and stuffed with stash yarn I will never use.

Another new wool, ECO Ull from Marks & Kattens, this is an environmentally friendly undyed wool is incredibly soft.  I'm knitting a shawl in the ECO BabyUll and will put a picture up when I'm finished.

There were a couple of things I wasn't happy with on the first Marley Moebius and this is my second attempt and the design I will be teaching this fall.  I used Cat Bordhi's moebius cast on from her books and the reversible cable is an essential on a scarf.

For the class on colour by Paulette Lane at knitting retreat we had homework.  The mystery project turned out to be a purse that showed what happens when  you knit with variegated yarn.  I used Hand Maidens Swiss Mountain Cotton and Silk and I thought there was enough to knit the hat on Hand Maiden's web page.  There wasn't which is why no picture of my purse!  If I knit this again I would  leave out the stocking stitch rounds.

After knitting the Fabel Big socks I had a lot left from the second ball.  I used Mission Falls 1824 Wool to knit the ear flat - this turned out to be a really great looking hat.

These are socks I knit following the Entrelac Class with Janet Armstrong at Retreat

These wristwarmers are from Celeste Culpeppers class, we learnt about colour stripping, honeycomb pattern (I didn't read the pattern correctly on the first one!),  fairisle and lots more.
 

The Cutting Edge designed by Celeste Culpepper was a free kit we received at Retreat.  The first instruction is - threat 200 beads.  This was a very quick design to knit up and now with the Clover thread cutter around my neck I don't have to go looking for my scissors.

We also learnt about mitered modulars at knitting retreat, when Ellie show her jacket for show and tell the whole room (50 women) said "Ohhhhh!"

This is Lucy Neatby's Cloud Scarf knit from Misti Lace Weight Alpaca

When LanaDesigns hempforknitting hempwol arrived I knew I had to knit it up into my sock class pattern.

I also wanted a bag where I wanted constantly rooting around looking for my keys.  So, a pocket for my wallet, one for my keys and a center one for my phone.  I used the light grey for the pockets and inside base so that I could see them.

As you can see there are three compartments, the purse is knitting using the double knitting method, you make both sides at the same time.  I then picked up stitches along the original cast on edge to make the inner purse.  No sewing of seams.

This fall I will be teaching a five week course on how to knit a cardigan - OK so they are small cardigans!  We will cover the techniques needed to knit a cardigan.  Before teaching the class I had to knit my own cardigans.