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Archive for January, 2014

It’s “Thumbs Up”!

Posted in knitting, tagged , , on January 30, 2014| 4 Comments »

Carolyn’s Hitchhiker

I’m so excited that this lovely “fussy” Hitchhiker scarf designed by Martina Behm is done. (You can find this pattern at Ravelry.com). I love the yarn and the results….so why fussy?? It was an 8-row pattern with 4 increases during those 8 rows. Now how tough is that I ask? For me it was a challenge. When I knit garter, which I like to do, I often drift off to another land…..in this case it often meant that I forgot one of my increase stitches. How did I resolve this? I put markers on the needles to count stitches every 8 rows and I knew that each 8 rows must increase by 4 stitches. If I failed that simple test…..one could hear “frogging”!

As I mentioned in a previous post I love this yarn gifted to me by Maurie….many thanks! The colors are perfect and I will enjoy this for many seasons. One day my internal thermometer might cool off and then I will wear lovely garments like this closer up on my neck. So…..in the meantime I put my vanity aside and just enjoy the knitting designs!!

Oh….that reminds again of PJ’s thoughtful advice to me re: cowls. I want to knit the Honeycomb Cowl that is another popular design that you can find at Ravelry.com. I loved PJ’s rendition….a double wrap cowl. She suggested that I consider more stitches for this double wrap. She used a sock yarn and 280 stitches….I am using a sock yarn and 320 stitches. The sock/fingering weight yarn is that lovely choice my “personal” shoppers made at Interweave-Lab last fall. The stitches are cast on and I am on row 4 of 320 stitches. Stay tuned!

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The Vintage Poncho

Posted in knitting, tagged , , on January 25, 2014| 1 Comment »

Poncho Pattern
My nieces 1972

In a recent post I mentioned the marathon poncho knitting that I did in the mid-1970’s. It wasn’t a Vogue pattern after all….it was Columbia Minerva Leaflet #2520 “In Ponchos”.

My friend Nan wore her “Aran Isle” poncho to church a few weeks ago and I recognized the pattern immediately. It was the same poncho design that I knit about 40 years ago for my sister , her daughters and myself.

I love our neighborhood/church grapevine…..CJ loaned me a copy of the same pattern !

Nan
The details

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Ear Muffs

Posted in Christmas, Crafting, knitting, tagged , , , , on January 23, 2014| Leave a Comment »

IMG_0985You might recall that I mentioned that I had four belated Christmas gifts (headband earmuffs) in the making for Idaho nieces and nephew. I cracked the whip one Saturday in early January and I was able to finish and send the gifts. Check out my nephew’s video thank you! I have a couple tips for you in making gifts for those who live long distance. For the two ear muff/headbands on the left I pinned the adornment on so that the girls could remove/change at a moment’s notice. For the one on the right I left a long thread so that my sister or her mother could crochet the correct length for the loop (so that it would fit around the head perfectly).

It was Susanne and Terry who inspired me to knit these muffs. We saw Terry’s version a couple posts back.

Terry wanted warm ears
Model Diane
Mohair over the ears!

Now here is Susanne’s. She says, “Abbi loves having a grandma that can knit!!!  We saw one of these in the store, asked grandma to make it & viola!”

Grandma Susanne

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What’s “cooking”?

Posted in knitting, tagged , , , , on January 14, 2014| 1 Comment »

We do cook….and we do knit! Many of us refer to our knitting patterns as our knitting recipes! Here’s a bit of what’s cooking at the moment.

Kimberly - Honeycomb Cowl

Kimberly – Honeycomb Cowl

Some of us….Kimberly, Jean, PJ and Laurel are knitting (or just completed) the Honeycomb Cowl  published by Madelinetosh and featured on Ravelry.com. This simple 4-row pattern, worked in the round, produces excellent results. You have two choices for the number of stitches to cast on…it all depends on whether you want to have a single “wrap” around your neck or a longer cowl that you can wrap twice around. Oh……I have just added this pattern to my “do list”…..will knit with the wonderful yarn that “my personal shoppers” picked for me at Interweave Lab Knit last fall.

PJ has repurposed a merino sock yarn for her version, Jean’s version is a brown wool yarn, and Laurel is knitting her version with Brown Sheep’s Superwash Pride in Mint.

My (Carolyn) Hitchhiker Scarf

My (Carolyn) Hitchhiker Scarf

I think I mentioned recently that I was a season or two behind (on many fronts)…and that I  embarked on knitting the lovely merino sock yarn that was gifted to me by Maurie when she returned from working in Germany a few moons ago. I’ve loved this yarn but couldn’t decide how I wanted to “feature” it. I finally embraced the ever-popular Hitchhiker scarf. My tune now is much like “99 bottles of beer on the wall”…..I am humming “32 thumbs on the hike and only 11 to go”! Who knows why but I had a bit of a “brain freeze” in the beginning and a couple of the thumbs weren’t quite right! I had a knitting melt down and frogged back to almost the beginning. I am quite happy now and will be wearing this soon. In fact, I am now catching up on Downton Abbey and plan to start Season 3 after a meeting tonight. Looks like I will make a dent in “only 11 to go”!

New Sock for Bonnie

Bonnie recently purchased this lovely colorful packet of mini-skeins of yarn….I think it was at the Interweave Knit Lab last fall. She has designed her sock with her color line-up choices and she is custom-shaping. I love this sock and the custom fitting!

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Signature aka Friendship Quilts

Posted in Friendship, Quilting, tagged , , , on January 9, 2014| Leave a Comment »

Because of my interest in Quakers and quilters – both part of my heritage – I recently started listening to “The Last Runaway” by Tracy Chevalier. When I heard the words “Signature Quilt”, I remembered that I intended to write about a meeting in Summer 2012. Now I share.

The meeting…… Barbara, a friend from church, shares my interest in family history and she suggested a meeting with her friend Lynda Chenoweth, who is a quilter and a researcher. We met at Lynda’s home in Sonoma and poured over the history of  Philena’s quilt as well as Lynda’s  two published books, and her library of genealogical resources. Whoa! Who is Philena?

In 2001 Lynda and her husband attended the Annual Petaluma Antique Faire. It was nearing the end of the day when they entered a shop and spotted a Signature quilt in a hutch in the back of that shop. Upon closer examination she could see many names on the quilt and that it was stitched in 1853. The search (which took her back east a couple of times) was on! She became a genealogist of Philena’s family and friends as she learned whose names were on the quilt. It’s a fascinating story which Lynda chronicled in Philena’s Friendship Quilt Quaker Farewell, published in 2009. Lynda blogs about Quaker Quilts.

Philena’s Friendship Quilt
Philena’s Quilt
Philena’s Quilt
Philena’s Quilt
Story of Pilena’s Quilt
Another Signature Quilt
Another Signature Quilt

It was a beautifully sunny day …. we continued our conversation over lunch at Della Santina in Sonoma. The last two photos are of another Signature Quilt that Lynda is researching.

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