And the Survey Says...

The results from the survey, "What draws you to a project?" are:
yarn: 25%
pattern: 37%
everything: 37%

Knitting Central Happenings

We have a phenomenal selection of Koigu PPM yarn. Here's a picture of the Koigu wall of color. Check out the knitting central website and blog for more information.

I am proud to announce my first published pattern on sale at Knitting Central. It's a great beginner project or a quick knit for an advanced knitter. It's knit in Rowan Damask yarn with yardage information if you want to substitute a different yarn.

A week in review

Michelle and I met on Wednesday and caught up on life and our knits. She's making this great lace sweater from the Spring 2007 Filatura di Crosa book. This book has launched a lot of projects among the stitch and chat knitters.

She's knitting it in Karabella Vintage Cotton in a lovely rose color.

I'm using the vintage cotton for my starry night shawl (which I am nearly done). There are 600 stitches in the lace ruffle! Then there is some unique finishing to be done in cleaning up the ends. I've already picked out the yarn I want to make it in for the winter; Blue Sky Alpaca Silk yarn. We had our last class with Jane Elliott this week. She brought in a new design which was, of course, fantastic. We all bought a pattern and discussed what yarn we wanted. Check the Knitting Central blog for a picture (it's not up yet, so check back periodically). Jane continues to be one of my favorite designers. She is so creative and fun to be around.

On Friday I met up with Angela, Danni, Elizabeth, and Sara. I haven't seen Danni since Knit Together went out of business. We met when she was working on a sweater for her son. She's working on a lace scarf from an Ann Norling pattern. Danni wants to try out new stitches. We worked up a pattern for a cable scarf to be knit in Manos Cotton Stria. It was great to see her again.

I brought Elizabeth yarn she had been waiting for to continue work on her Brilla sweater (also from the Spring 2007 Filatura book.

Elizabeth made further headway on the dog afghan, she's more than halfway done with the dog motif squares.

Angela and I met up a little early to get perspective on where she was with two works in progress. Now she's back on track with them and plans on finishing them so she can start the Rowan sweater from this Spring/Summer book. It's the same sweater that Sheilah and Theresa are making only she's making hers in cream, light blue and dark blue. I think it will come out being very crisp looking.

Sara completed the front on her husband's sweater and was delighted! She's two sleeves away from finishing and moving onto something for her!

We got to talking about books. Danni is in a book club and offered the following titles:

Water for Elephants
Water for Elephants: A Novel

Namesake
The Namesake: A Novel

The Kite Runner
The Kite Runner

Friday, July 20th

Elizabeth made fantastic progress on the afgan she's making for her husband as a surprise for Christmas. Each square is a different breed of dog. Elizabeth came up with an inspired idea to make reading the charts easier. She took the charts to Staples (Kinkos?) and had them enlarge each chart to a full page. It made it so much easier to read the charts. We all loved the blanket. Of course I'll be adding this to projects I'd like to make.

While Elizabeth is waiting for yarn to finish her Brilla sweater, she also is going to make a purse made from corde yarn. The pattern is in the 2007 Summer issue of Knitter's Magazine. We've brought you over to the joys of multiple projects, Elizabeth!

Robin and Elizabeth talked about how they get teased about our knitting group and being a bunch of old ladies. Knitters now (and of course our group) do not represent the "old lady knitter" picture so many non-knitters have. A few years ago when meeting a new (now) friend was asked what I do. I answered that I teach knitting. She wrinkled her nose and said that "only grannies knit". Not long afterwards I came to her house for coffee and of course had my knitting. When I brought it out to work on, she asked me what it was; I answered that it was my knitting. She said "that's not knitting, knitting is with grey wool".

Here's a picture of Robin's baby blanket in progress. I have a feeling that after seeing the assortment of interesting projects that everyone brings to the table, that Robin will be taking a leap of knitting when her blanket is done.

Sara is almost done with the front of her husband's sweater. She's getting afraid it will become a forever sweater. I think that she's right on time to have it finished for this fall and will be able to knit something new soon. I'm designing a baby blanket pattern for Sara that will be just the right size for a stroller or car seat.

Marianne brought in several projects to get organized and troubleshoot on. She's got several projects underway.

"How many projects do you have going at once?" poll results

42% answered they have 2-3 projects going at once.
14% had one project going.
42% said "don't ask"

A great place to be on a stormy day!

I haven't seen Theresa in a couple of weeks and she brought in all these amazing finished projects and works in progress. Wow! Look at this adorable baby wrap sweater with the ribbon and this cabled hat with crocheted trim. They're both knit in Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino. Her knitting looks fantastic. I want a hat like that in just that color too!

Today she began to sew the pink seed stitch cardigan.
She's well on her way in the Rowan fringed cardigan in Cotton Glace. This is such a chic and crisp looking cardigan.

Sheila has only to sew on the front fringe and hers is done. I'm thinking we're going to need an end of summer cocktail party (or dinner out) where we all wear our favorite finished knit of the summer season. What do you think?

Sheilah came in with 3 shawls (the Jane Elliott Simple Elegance Shoulder Accent). After much painstaking efforts and practice, she has got the crocheted picot edge down. It looks great and she inspired us all to go through our stash and make our own. Here's a picture of Sheilah and I modelling the shawl.

Some are going to be gifts and some will be keepers. It's funny, Theresa, Mary and Sheilah would keep the rust/blue shawl and Rose and I would keep the turquoise or red/blue shawl.

Sheilah's big question on the shawl were why there weren't instructions to cut the different yarns as you went and what you achieve by knitting the wrap with the slipped stitch. The reason you knit the wrap and the slipped stitch together is so that the wrap is invisible. If you didn't do this there would be a gap in your knitting.

Mary realized that she skipped and/or added a row in a spiral and flipped it so that she has a "right side row" on the wrong side or visa versa, how ever you want to look at it. Since she's taken it out a few times and had that look in her eye, I suggested she deliberately make the same "mistake" again and it would then look deliberate. Like a pattern choice.

Here's the bottom of my bag. Rose began her one skein scarf in Artyarns Regal Silk. Cynthia, the owner of Knitting Central, made one and it's a great idea. I made one last week. It is an incredibly quick knit and is very elegant to wear.

Rose spent the weekend at the CGOA summer conference, an event she's wanted to attend for 5 years. She had a great time, attended classes, met up with some Ktog people, and even one a fantastic door prize... the KIPer knitting bag set. This is an awesome bag and needle collection.
Line of the day: Rose reminded us of the philosphy behind mistakes in Persian rugs. The mistakes are left in because only G-d can make something perfect. Now we can have spiritual peace of mind if we choose to leave a mistake in.

Knitting in the NY Times

The Knitting Circle Shows its Chic, a NY Times article.

Afghans for Afghans

Liz learned about this and passed it along to me:

If you prefer to knit small items in the summer heat, we'd love to have you join us in knitting wool baby items to be sent to Afghanistan. Good way to use up oddballs of wool yarns, too.

The CURE Hospital in Kabul has asked us to send these specific items for
newborns: baby hats (head circumference of 10" - 15") baby socks (foot length of 2.5" - 3.5"/no booties, please) baby blankets (minimum 40" x 30") .

Please do send these baby items to us as soon as you are ready. We'd like to ship several boxes as soon as possible in the next month or so. The hospital delivers newborns every day.
CURE is one of the few hospitals that serves very sick babies in their neonatal unit. Although, please keep in mind, we do not need items sized for premature babies. Just the sizes above. (Anything larger that we receive will be sent with our next delivery to older babies and children, so not to worry.)

We're are probably going to soon announce a very large, more general campaign in time for winter delivery.

Meanwhile, we hope to get several hundred of these baby items packed up before we have to focus on our commitment to this other relief group. We just have to take advantage of these good shipping and distribution opportunities when they arise. Shipping to Afghanistan with reliable relief groups and manageable logistics are getting harder and harder to obtain.
And, when we receive specific requests from those working in Afghanistan, we do our best to say yes to the need.

Even though many are sweltering here (well, not in San Francisco, I confess!), this is the prime time for us to knit and crochet for Afghanistan. We'll be shipping our gifts in September to arrive in time for winter distribution.

Our notes and mail addresses are here for your reference:
http://www.afghansforafghans.org/blanket.html

Our fiber memo is here for review:
http://www.afghansforafghans.org/aboutfibers.html

In anticipation of our upcoming large campaign, we would also appreciate if you could hand out flyers to your local yarn shop, community places, guilds, houses of worship, and other places where you encounter knitters and crocheters. We need to reach more people to keep on going. Passing out a couple flyers would be a boost. Even if you are not inclined to knit for Afghanistan at this time, getting the word out is an invaluable contribution with minimal effort. We count on the word-of-mouth to keep the momentum.

This is the to our link downloadable PDF flyer (uses Acrobat Reader):
http://www.afghansforafghans.org/afghansforAfghansflyer.pdf

Thank you for joining us if you can. Thanks for reading, as always. We should have some photos from the Afghan Mobile Mini Circus (remember those 700 colorful hats that everyone made earlier this year?) on our website within a week, and I will post when the page is up. You will get a real kick when you see the kids enjoying our hats. Thanks to all who participated and continue to be concerned about the people of Afghanistan.

Have a good weekend, everyone, Ann

Ann Rubin
http://www.afghansforafghans.org/
San Francisco, CA

I met with Marianne, Puja, and Kathy tonight at Cosi. Puja and Kathy were coming back to knitting. They both remembered it very quickly and went on to trying border stitches, ribbing, and seed stitch. Ultimately they are going to make scarves with a garter stitch border.



We talked about the different weights of yarn, different needles sizes, gauge and what would happen if you put a thick yarn on thin needles or thin yarn on big needles. Puja remarked that there is a lot to remember without looking at a pattern or notes. She's right and sometimes as our skills grow, we take for granted the skills we found challenging in the beginning.



Marianne brought a bunch of projects to discuss. We went over her questions for each project and then they were set aside to pursue at home. She bought lamb's pride yarn in beautiful sea greens (with a purse handle to match) and is going to make a bag from the Berroco free pattern website. We were going through the pattern repeat and there is a funky purl stitch on two of the rows. It was just not coming easily; so in Marianne's flair for the creative, she is going to make her own pattern repeat.

There won't be a stitch and chat next Tuesday night. Tuesday stitch and chat will resume the following Tuesday.

Fridays at Cosi

There were 6 of us today at Cosi's. I look forward to the conversations, growing camaraderie, and of course a delicious lunch!


Sara is making a gauge for a baby blanket gift she's going to start soon. I'm going to write up a pattern that will be a "mindless" knit with a ruffle for a border. She's near the end of the front of her husband's cable sweater. Just two sleeves away!


Michelle (who is making the same sweater for her husband) finished sewing one side and finished weaving all her ends. She said, she's in the home stretch and the finished sweater is now attainable. There may be a celebration after she's finished, just bring the lint brush!


Shilpi joined us for the first time, normally she goes on Tuesday nights. She's finishing a beautiful baby sweater (and learned to sew with the mattress stitch). Her next project will be a baby sweater where she learns to add a cable. It's great how she jumps into new stitches with such determination.





Mary and I returned to the La Baguette pattern by Jane Elliott. I finally caught up with her on the bottom. Unfortunately Mary went the wrong way in her short rows. Very easy to do. That meant taking it back to the first spiral wedge. Luckily, the spirals can go quickly. Mary, I finished the bottom and the rest of the bag is not knit in the round!

Robin came with Bria and they showed us fantastic bracelets they made at Beadz Boutique in Darien. They were amazing. Robin said that the people at the store helped you with your beading project and no appointment is necessary.

And the Knit goes on at Borders

Monday night was the first "And the Knit goes on" at Borders. This going to be a monthly series (the second Monday night of the month) where Liz and I will offer book reviews, current knit trends, and who knows what else (it will evolve as we go).

This Monday I was joined by Miriam, Shelly, Marianne, and Rose. We met in the Poet's corner and discussed several books. Since it was a small group we spent a lot of time really going through the books and talking about the projects we liked.

Random things that came out of the evening...
**Using pretty buttons to "anchor" a shawl to your shoulders.


**Prudence Mapstone, author and freeform knitter/crocheter.



**Slipping the first stitch of each row to make it easier to sew later on.

**Stowaway Shopping bag knitting pattern by Oat Couture.

Sally Melville is coming to Creative Fibers

Sally Melville, the author of The Knitting Experience: Book 1: The Knit Stitch (The Knitting Experience)and The Knitting Experience: Book 2: The Purl Stitch (Knitting Experience Series)will be coming to Creative Fibers in Windsor, CT this fall.

Mark your calendars for Saturday & Sunday December 1st and 2nd. Sally will be teaching four different workshops in addition to a book signing; maybe an evening talk on Sat. as well.

She'll be teaching four workshops over the weekend. For more information, click this link for Creative Fibers .

Michelle, Sheilah and I met Wednesday morning in the Poet's Corner at Borders in Stamford. We have the spot reserved for us from 10-12.

Michelle has to unknit (a kinder word than rip out!) her Point of Reyes sweater really far back, she found a stitch that was out of place on both the front and the back. I give you so much credit Michelle, that takes a lot of strength. Needless to say it's going on the shelf a while until she is motivated again. The black tank is coming along. Michelle is in need of a truly motivating project to get her back on track. Anyone have a suggestion?

Sheilah brought the Shoulder Accent to finish. We worked on learning a crocheted picot edge. After several efforts, we both decided that a round of single crochet, followed by a round of reverse single crochet would work better for her. Crochet is the bane of Sheilah's knitting experience!

I got further along on the bag that I'm working on with Mary, now I have something to show for myself this Friday when we meet. Now I'm motivated to get past the bottom and onto the body of the bag.

Lisa and I met last night and got in just before the rain hit. She came with all sorts of knits ready to sew.

She finished sewing the Baby Bolero from One Skein by Leigh Radford. Everytime I see this Bolero I am reminded how wonderfully soft the Blue Sky Organic Cotton is.

Lisa also took some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk and knit two sets of baby booties and a a striped hat to match. Alpaca silk has a lovely soft feeling with a slight sheen. The patterns she used are from the Filatura Di Crosa 2004 baby book.

We spent the evening sewing, she's got the mattress stitch down now! Lisa and I talked about the Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs and both of us shared the same feeling. Neither one of us enjoyed the outcome of this book. Has anyone else read this? How about any other books with a knitting theme. In all the years I've been knitting, I've never seen so many books with knitting woven (couldn't resist) into the plot or the plot itself.

Summertime Knitting

When I think of summertime knitting, I think of portable projects like socks, bags, baby/children clothes.

I like to switch from wool to lighter fibers like cotton, silk, soy or bamboo.

Summer is a great time to do some stash busting. You can take some of your odd balls and knit them together on big needles to make interesting shawls or scarves to give as gifts (or keep for yourself).

There are many books on stash busting:

And then there's "Christmas in July". Now is the time to create or evaluate your holiday gift list. Prioritize your projects, see what supplies you need, get knitting!

Volunteer Opportunity

The Childcare Learning Center (CLC) in Stamford is looking for volunteers to read to children in its classrooms. The mission of the CLC is to provide comprehensive early education programs for children from birth through five years of age and their families.

The readings are from 10 to 10:30 a.m. and bow to your individual schedule.
If you are interested please email Robin at ackermanr@hotmail.com.

We had a large and animated knit session at Cosi's. There were six of us there to knit (seven if you include my daughter who was playing hooky from camp of all things).

Sheilah finished a beautiful shoulder shawl. The pattern is from Not Just Plain Jane, Simple Elegance Shoulder Accent. Sheilah is finding very creative ways to use odd balls in her stash.

Sheilah asked me about more colors in Sirdar Vegas, here's a color card. I just googles Sirdar Vegas Yarn.

Sara and Michelle came with their sweater projects for their husbands. Sara is just about to reach the arm hole shaping of the front. She's making her sweater in off-white.

Michelle is making hers in a charcoal grey and began sewing it together today. It was not easy to find the stitches in the dark charcoal! Once she got the first sleeve sewn on, she was really excited because it looks like a sweater with completion in sight!The pattern is from a Lopi book, it has great big cables across the whole sweater.

Robin brought the baby blanket she's been working on and learned how to change to a new skein of yarn. It's coming along beautifully.

For someone relatively new to the area, Robin continues to amaze me with interesting places she learns about that I haven't heard of. She told us about Beadz, a Bead store in Darien, Creative Kids in Norwalk, and cooking dinners (also in Norwalk). I don't know what I want to look into first. Click the name of the place for the link to that site. They are all really great!

Mary finished another panel of the bag bottom. The short rows get a little confusing, it's so easy to knit past the turning stitch. I still have to catch up to you Mary! I'm adding the first contrast yarn and I think it needs to be doubled. Hopefully I'll get more done by Friday.

Elizabeth made incredible progress on her Brilla Cotton Sweater. She even let me take a picture of it before it's done! Thank you Elizabeth, it's so beautiful and Theresa and Michelle will want to see it.

She's also started an afghan for her husband with dog motifs. It's going to be a surprise. We've brought Elizabeth over to the dark side of several projects at once! Welcome to the world of the obsessed (is there any other way?) knitter.

Here's a picture of the finished alpaca scarf, this yarn is so soft.

As for myself, I finished these ankle socks for one of my daughters. I'm going to use the leftover yarn to knit little ankle socks for one of my nieces. I also finished this lace cardigan (pattern is from Berroco booklet #255 and is called "Berlin". My mother loved it and wants one and I may make myself another one in brown.

I only have 3 motifs to do on my starry night shawl and then I can begin to graft them together.

Best line of the day:

"Notice to all teens, NO is a complete sentence.

Book Commentary

I finished listening to Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls. What an amazing book. It truly deserves all the praise. It's a memoir based on the author's childhood and gives dysfunctional a whole other meaning. The book isn't depressing, more thought provoking. I'd love to hear what other people who have read it thought.



I'm listening to a book by Terry Pratchett right now, Wee Free Men. His books make me laugh out loud. It's english humor, and I know not everyone enjoys that. He has a series of books written about a fantasy world called "discworld". My sister introduced me to these books and I have to pace myself or I'd read them all and not have any of them to look forward too.



Lastly, the "print" book I'm reading is a historical fiction called The Coffee Trader.

Stamford Borders Special Event

And the Knit goes on….
Please join me for an evening of conversation about knitting, summertime projects, and recent knitting books and magazines on Monday, July 9th from 7:00-8:30pm.

Attendees at this special event will receive a coupon for 50% off one hour of a Stitch and Chat session, and (for new subscribers only) sign up for the Stitch and Chat email newsletter prior to the event and receive an additional 50% off coupon.

Please feel free to bring your knitting, and look forward to a fun event.

Friday, June 29th

I met with Mary, Elizabeth and Robin today at Cosi's. Robin is relatively new to the area. Through getting to know eachother it turned out that Elizabeth's daughter knows Robin's step daughter. Mary and Robin had an acquaintenance in common as well. What's more is that they all share a generosity of spirit with their time, their hearts and their homes. Mary recently retired from Kids in Crisis and has a wealth of knowledge about teens in need and "the system". Robin volunteers her time at the Childcare Learning Center as well as participating in a Mentoring program and being a Big Sister in New York City. Elizabeth's family has twice taken in teens in need to live with them. I am really impressed by these woman.

As I was driving home, a Billy Joel song came on and one line stuck out. "To talk about life for a while". I'm very grateful for the people I meet in s&c and the opportunity to talk about life and here different perspectives and experiences.

Ladies, if there are websites (or phone numbers) where interested people could go to learn more about what they can do to help, can you add a comment at the end of this post?



It never ceases to amaze me how small a world it is. I love when people come to the s&c and come to find out that they not only do they share the joy of knitting, but know the same people, and share other interests.



While we were talking, Mary completed the first spiral in the La Baguette bag. I caught up to her, but forgot the next contrast color! Next time.

The best part of this swatch was when Mary took a closer look at it and noticed that her tension changed every few rows. She thought that maybe when it was very loose she was relaxed and when it was much tighter, she was tense. She said "this is a good example of hormonal knitting"! I loved that! We've all done some hormonal knitting from time to time.

Elizabeth was able to move onto the cable section of the Tahki cardigan. No pix till the finished project though, I promised.

Robin is making great progress on her blanket. Her goal is to finish the skein she's on, so she can change skeins in class.

The manager of Cosi, Scott, stopped by to check in on us. We all enjoyed meeting there. With the class starting at lunchtime, we can have a healthy meal at the same time. Much better than the eating on the run stuff!

Wednesday 6/27

We continue to meet at the Poet's Corner at the Stamford Borders. It's especially helpful since Borders is renovating their cafe.

Since last Friday's s&c, Elizabeth went to Knitting Central where she bought yarn for an absolutely gorgeous striped knit and crocheted cardigan. The pattern is in the Tahki Filatura DiCrosa Spring/Summer 2007 booklet.

The sweater is knit in Brilla, a sport weight cotton yarn. Here's a picture of the sweater from the pattern book:

We've been talking about how to choose the right size to knit. Elizabeth and I worked on choosing the size based on her measurements, the fit of two sweaters she brought with her, and of course the schematic of the pattern.

Theresa and Michelle were so taken with the project that they wanted me to find out if we had more patterns at Knitting Central. (Theresa did come in the next day to Knitting Central to buy the yarn for the cardigan. I think she got yarn for another project too.)

Theresa has finished the pink seed stitch cardigan and next time we meet she and Michelle are going to work on the finishing. In the meantime, she's working on a baby sweater.

Michelle is finishing up the black tank with the lace panel in the center. On the other hand when she put the Point of Reyes sweater onto circular needles and began knitting in the round, she found that her tension completely changed and got tighter! Theresa helped her with the decision to "unknit" to the row where the sweater was connected in the round. It was a huge process, something like 200 stitches and 4-5 rows. Michelle is a very dedicated and focused person. She sat there and unknit it till she got to the row she needed to be on. I give her a lot of credit!

Rose has a little finishing left to do on this tank from the book Knitting Loves Crochet by Candi Jensen. I remember when she picked out the yarn. It is so cute! The darker color is knit and the lighter color is crocheted.

She's onto yet another pair of socks. This one done in Sockotta. Rose, I think we should start our own sock of the month club.

But wait, there's more. She's been working on a crocheted shawl in Colinette yarn, parisienne. A very fine mohair. The pattern is in the book, Arboretum.

I've been working on my Jane Elliot, StarryNight Shawl, socks for my daughter, and a new shawl for Knitting Central.

Tuesday, June 19th

I met Lisa tonight and she brought some felted bags she's made. She's almost done with the Baby Bolero she's making from the book, One Skein by Leigh Radford. It's made in Blue Sky Alpaca organic cotton and is so precious!

A Few Blogs Behind

Between my daughter's graduation and birthday (and all the happy chaos that goes with it), I'm a little behind in my blogging...

A week ago I met my Friday Stitch and Chat (s&c) at Cosi Restaurant on High Ridge Road. We had a great time! The Manager, Scott, welcomed us and said I could call ahead to reserve a table if I wanted. Fridays will now be at Cosi from 12-2!

Elizabeth finished her forever sweater. It came out great, we still don't know if it's going to be hers or her daughter's. She's started a garter stitch lengthwise scarf in Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk in red and white.

Sara plans on starting a baby blanket soon as a gift. I'm going to write a pattern for a stockinette baby blanket with ruffle to be done in a worsted weight yarn.

Robin picked out yarn at Knitting Central for a baby blanket to knit as a gift. She's using Sirdar Snuggly yarn in a pretty blue. The pattern is from Ann Norling and is done in stockinette and reverse stockinette alternating blocks. It's a good "next step" project to practice reading a pattern, changing stitch patterns, and incorporating a border.

Mary worked on the Jane Elliot La Baguette bag that she and I are making. She's learning how to do short rows to make the circular shaped bottom. I love the colors she's mixing together. I've got to get on the ball (of yarn - bad pun) and get to work!