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Monday, December 28, 2015

The Knitting G-ds Frown on Cockiness


Since Lois has set aside the vest she was knitting for her husband, she decided to knit him a Santa Hat.  Her plan was to give it to him as his first Christmas present so he would wear it all day. She combined Santa's Ho-ho-ho hat with the Celtic Santa hat. 


She felt that knitting a plain hat would be boring.  However, the brim on the Celtic Hat was a bit of a bear to work.  So she worked a ribbed brim before changing to the cable on the body of the hat.

Lois has never used double pointed needles and was not looking forward to that part of the hat.  Luckily her daughter is an excellent knitter and can stand in as her back up. Lois also had to work the cable from a chart, there was no written pattern for the cable.  In the end she found it easier than she thought.

We talked about threading a lifeline because she hates ripping out and wants to manage the process. This was her contingency plan.


The following week Lois brought in the hat, explaining that she had read the wrong cable chart and was totally off.  Unfortunately she got a little cocky and had only put in one lifeline after 20 rows instead of 10.  (We've all been there.) The knitting G-ds frown on cockiness.


After ripping back to correct rows, we used the chart to compare it to the hat and determined where she was in the pattern.


Eileen is making an asymmetrical poncho with yarn from her stash.  


She knit up a gauge and we figured out the dimensions based on a poncho she liked.


The following week, she unceremoniously tossed her project to me (at me?). She thought she had dropped a stitch. She didn't, it only looked that way. There are times when there seems to be a wide gap between the stitch on the right hand needle and the stitch on the left hand needle. That conjures up the image of ladders and lost stitches.  If you don't see a loop hanging in the wind, there is no dropped stitch. With great ceremony, I handed to project back (nope, not really).


She also was working on Daisy #238QK, a cute little dress. We reestablished where she had left off.

Donna was working on a pumpkin hat as a gift for a co-worker's baby, the pattern is Ann Norling Kid's Fruit Cap.


She misread the decreasing directions. After round 8, the pattern says to repeat the decrease progression until 1 stitch remains in each leaf.  Donna took it to mean repeat round 8, her hat decreased way too quickly and didn't look like she knew it should.


Elizabeth was well into one baby sweater


and swatching for the next.


She knit Christmas lights for her daughters.  Cool, huh?


Here's proof that even knitted Christmas lights get tangled. 



Lois' Santa hat was a success!

I hope you all had a Happy Holiday.


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