Great Beginnings

As Mary and I walked across the parking lot, we spotted each other and laughed. You would've thought we'd called each other up to see what we were wearing! Great minds think alike.

When we all gathered together, Mary pulled out her new skein of sockina cotton that she got at Knitting Central and flashed it at Elizabeth and said "ooooh Cotton!". I knew when that cotton sock yarn came in, Mary would love it! Elizabeth on the other hand prefers wool for the socks she's knitting (on two-at-a-time circulars).

It seemed most of us were starting new projects. Mary worked on her gauge for the
knit loves crochet class at Knitting Central. I realized I had better get going on mine. Since I knit loose like Mary, I went down three needle sizes from what the yarn called for (it's cotton and it's harder for me to get gauge with cotton sometimes). Well, first attempt, too many sts to the inch. I've got to go up needle size and re-swatch (see, it happens to me too).

Here's a picture of Maureen's poncho. She ripped out her first efforts and started over. Well done. She'll probably have the second side down by the time we meet again.

Elizabeth started a baby doll pattern from Nashua Handknits, she's knitting it with Classic Elite Soft Linen. The pictures a little fuzzy, but you can still see the pattern forming.


We talked about lifelines in lace knitting. I'm knitting "Not Just Plain Jane's Renaissance Shawl" and she suggests putting in a lifeline every 10 rows. It's really hard to take lace out to fix a mistake. The life line saves you, seriously, from having to rip the whole thing and suffer needlessly.

You can see the yellow yarn right below the stitch markers. I hadn't worked on it for a while and then had another class with Jane. That got me motivated and even though it doesn't sound like much, I've disciplined myself to get 2 rows done in the morning with a cup of coffee handy. I'm not looking at how many rows there are, I know I have approx 320 sts and I've heard the st count gets up into the 600's.

After a long hiatus, Sara joined us. She's making a baby blanket, knit in Cashmerino Chunky, as a gift. It only took a few rows and our sparkling conversation to bring her back into the fold. We're really glad to have you back, Sara!


Sophia was back and finished her scarf within a few minutes of sitting down! It only took her a little over a week to finish her first scarf. That's on par with Claudia, Maureen, and Sara for catching on quick. (Even though it's not a race). Here's a gauge swatch for the leg warmers she's going to knit next.


Sophia and I were catching up on podcasts we like and I promised to email the links for a couple of them:

Charlie bit my finger (cute, really)
Not Funny!
Dog attacking it's own leg