Knifty Projects

I've been bustin' my buns working on the book inventory for the yarn shoppe. I've entered over 400 titles and that's just in knitting. Next week I get to tackle crochet, spinning, weaving, and dyeing.

Some friends came in to work on projects and seek a little help, and others brought projects to show off. I managed to snap a few pictures to share....

First came Mariea Caruthers with a cotton mitred block rainbow vest.

She said she'd be selling it at the 17th Annual Columbia Weavers and Spinners Fall Exhibition Sale, November 10-12.

Don't quote me, but I think she said it would be $65.


Next I had a nice visit with Christy Porter, who appeared to be working on at least three projects at once. She also likes to modify patterns, so she's a gal after my own heart. One project was a lovely lavender sweater based on "Bobble Blue" from the cover of Interweave Knits Spring 2006. But without the bobbles.

She was also working on a lace stole in a traveling vine pattern from Barbara Walker's 2nd Treasury of Knitting Patterns. Later on she'll be adding a border using a leaf pattern from Nicky Epstein's Knitting on the Edge. She said she'd do the leaves in 4-5 different autumn colors so it should be really spectacular and I'm really looking forward to seeing it finished.

Christy and I talked about felting and agreed to carpool to the three-week class for Bex's Olympic Bag which will cover not only felting but some two color knitting Christy wants to try

I was very pleased to see Linda Lyle who has been working this week to rescue Alice Kimble from her infamous "toss it down" sweater that has thwarted all attempts to complete it. It's a very pretty pale green cabled sweater with an interesting cable. One branch of the cable is in stockinette and the other branch is in moss stitch. The rest of the sweater is purled which was making it difficult to seam. Linda worked some decorative seaming magic and made the seams look like part of the pattern.

Linda pointed out that this sweater lookes equally nice inside out. A reversable sweater, who'd have thunk?

I've been busy working on pink ribbon pins and pink chemo caps for October's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and Columbia's October 6th celebration. Please remember to wear pink on the 6th to show your support for cancer research, patients and family in any way you can. A five dollar donation will still get you one of our lovely crocheted pink ribbon pins. Even Nancy Belcher joined in and made some, all the while exclaiming that she couldn't crochet. (I noticed she showed up a second day to crochet some more. )

I've knit half a dozen chemo caps and have two more on my needles for one of Joan Ditmore's friends. Yeah, I'm knitting them two at a time using the magic loop technique and pretending they are two socks.

I've been trying to convence more people to try magic loop, but I haven't had many takers. Joan gave it a try on her mittens and had it working smoothly in about ten minutes. I tell ya, if you hate double pointed needles, magic loop is the way to go!

I'm also working on a stash-busting project that I'll share as soon as I can get pictures uploaded from my camera. It's a fast and fun project that makes a great fashion statement.

If you have a project you've been working on that you'd like to share, bring it by the shoppe Monday or Thursday afternoon and I'll snap a photo for the blog. Hey, there are worse kinds of photos that can wind up on the internet. I'm trying to get the daytime Knitwits group rolling, so if you're free on Thursdays from 1 to 3-ish, drop on in to Hillcreek and set a spell. If you aren't there to dish the gossip, expect us to be yakking about you!