Episode 31 - Vogue and KAL

Episode 31

KAL, Wips, Out and About, Knitting Fail, Spinning On the Run

 

KAL – Thank you very much to those of you who participated!  Our group may be small, but as Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

• Knitting Travels – a copy of the Reflections of the Sun hat designed and donated by Leah Bothe
• Java Jennie - Any 1 single pattern of your choice from the JavaPurl Designs Ravelry storedonated by CC Almon
• DMBrown – Gradient kit of your choice from Birdie’s Knits
• LeahBothe – Any 1 single pattern of your choice from the Knit/Wit Designs Ravelry Store donated by Sarah Jordan

Should we do this again?  What time of year?

Wips

Frosted by Paper Daisy Creations, finished the colorwork yoke on the way to/from Vogue (you get a lot done with 4 hours each way on a train), body nearly done – on the bottom ribbing.

Star Wars sweater for Thing 1 - Using Nordic Yoke Pullover, a free pattern from Patons, as the base and altering the charts to have Star Wars characters/spaceships/icons.  I separated for the sleeves and am working on the stockinette body

Vanilla sock in Berroco Comfort Sock in Bali colorway.  Still chugging along at this 2+ year old WIP, it’s my car knitting.

Dahlia pattern by Brenda York from Berroco – working on this in Juniper Moon Farm’s Neve in a variety of colorways.  Turquoise main body, with a mint green for the flower vines and yellow and burgundy

Emerald Deep shawl – this shawl is a charity knit for AGC Scholarships, a group that raises money for families dealing with infertility or who are trying to adopt.  Worked in Ito Yarn’s Kinu, 100% silk.  Kinu has a colorway, Aqua, which is almost the exact color of AGC’s logo so it was too perfect not to use.  The shawl will be auctioned off at AGC’s annual gala to raise money.  If you or someone you love would like to learn more about AGC, visit agcscholarships.org

Use Your Stash Shawl

Oh my gooness you guys!  Can’t thank you enough for your reaction to the Use Your Stash Shawl!  Hot RIght Now on Ravelry??!!?  Wow, thank you so much.

Out and About – Vogue Knitting Live! NYC!

I had a blast at Vogue.  It’s very different than other knitting events I’ve been to, and it was soooooo much fun.  I basically went for the day.  I took the late train down Thursday after my husband got out of work and got to NYC around 11pm and checked into my hotel.  I should have stayed onsite, I forgot just how bad the hotel I stayed at was.  Remember in NYC, you get what you paid for.  My room was literally 85 degrees.  But it was clean, the shower worked, and the door locked.

I woke up early to the sounds of NYC, had breakfast at the hotel, checked out and dropped my rollerboard at the back drop at my hotel and walked up to the Marriot Marquis.  Since I signed up early, registration took about 2 minutes and I was off to class.  I took the designer intensive with Josh Bennett.  He’s designed sweaters for Tommy Hilfiger, Bergdorf and is currently designing hand-knit sweaters for Marvel – they were gorgeous, by the way.  I’ll admit the class wasn’t what I expected but ironically it was exactly what I needed.  We spent the day designing a line of patterns and presenting them.  Having hours to just brainstorm, then talking with Josh one-on-one for a few minutes about my patterns was completely worth it.   Then off to the market for 90 minutes before running to catch the late train home.

Now that I’ve been there once, I know how I would change my plans in the future - next time I will be staying on site and spending 2 nights (or more) so I can get at least a moderate amount of sleep. 

Knitting Fail

Not a fail in the traditional sense, but definitely a minor fail for the Emerald Deep shawl for AGC Scholarships.  I thought the gala was in May and I was planning on designing a shawl and giving profits to AGC – until on Martin Luther King Jr Day I learned that the gala was in March.  DOh!  So, I chose the Emerald Deep by Romi Hill since I’ve worked it before and I know it would work well in the chosen yarn.

Spinning

I finished the second single I mentioned last episode and plied them together – I needed to find a better way to ply.  Since I only had one spindle, I used a ball winder to wind each cop off the spindle into a center-pull ball and and plied them using the center pulls.  I ended up with 135 yards of a two ply of the brown and white spun together.  And since the white cotton was much better spun as a single, I got nearly 37 yards of a two-ply yarn out of the leftovers!  And since then, I got a 2nd spindle, spun naturally greem cotton and some dyed gray cotton and plied them together using a drop spindle.  Drop spindling is a completely different beast!  The green is fun because if you add Washing Soda when you scour it, it changes color!  We made a fund chemistry experiment with it for Thing 1.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

 

On the Run –

Not much new running, I’m on the 3rd week of my slow-and-steady training plan.  Legs are holding up well, though I’m getting knots in my calves for some reason.  My knee is also holding up, and Thing 2 and I have come to a truce – I carry him down the outside stairs and he walks up them.  He’s learning numbers and I’ve made it into a counting game which he loves.