Thursdays Are For Knit Group

Today the car thermometer read 23' as I drove to knit group.  The same temperature as  Florida, Sharon,  who has family there, told us.  It is amazing that there was any wool to be seen.  But heat doesn't stop our knitters!

With three cowls finished and a scarf in the works Wilma must have  necks on her mind  in this pre Christmas season.  This one -  String of Pearls  -  

is a free ravelry download. With some Madeleinetosh for the main colour, it will be beautiful - and warm.

Then there are the other three cowls she brought to knit group today. An orange one, a pink one, and the grey one she is wearing.

 

See that gorgeous button on the grey one?

 

Her husband made that.   I just might have to commission some of those.

Gail is busy knitting things for her Church Bazaar.  Today she brought two hats slated for the Bazaar to show us.  Patons Classic in blue and black with a rolled hem.  

Gail has the movie star look with her dark glasses.  She had just come in from across the street where she had run to buy more yarn.  Hard to knit when you forget your yarn at home.

Sharon finished the Yarnharlot's An Unoriginal Hat. Another free pattern on ravelry.

Unfortunately,  Sharon's is too small.  A second attempt next week, she says.

Ingrid arrived today wearing a gorgeous vest.  Pieces like this, I cannot wear.  They  swamp me.  At 5 feet, I'm too short to carry them off.  But Ingrid does it easily and well.  It is beautiful, Ingrid.

Ingrid and Wilma today proved that it is important to use spectacular buttons.  These are metal and heavy enough that Ingrid adapted her edging to support them.  

Lots of wooly lovelies today. Just imagine when the cooler temperatures arrive!

Christmas Cowl

Having finished my Need A Yoke? sweater, I grabbed a ball of James Brett Chunky Marble and started a cowl. An easy, simple, fast-to-finish knit to fill the gap between major projects.

Last year, my great Christmas give-away was a pile of H20 Hats but this year it will be a stack of cowls.  The pattern for this one was a freebie, given to  me at Shelburne's Wool & Silk  LYS where I purchased the yarn.  It is a very clever design of spiralling ribs.

Spiralling ribs I have done before but never as easily as in this cowl.  In the past, when I knit spiralling rib socks, the beginning of the round had to be marked and noted so that the  rib pattern could be offset by one stitch each time a new round was started. That required - at least for me - an excercise of  stop & think  at the start of each round. The clever folks at Estelle, the designers of this knit-in-the-round, spiral ribbed cowl, used a bit of simple math to make the spiral happen automatically.

The ribbing is a multiple of six stitches - K3, P3.  The cast on was 'one stitch short of a full repeat' as knitters like to say.  A multiple of six plus five stitches. In this case 143 stitches.  Being one stitch short of a full pattern repeat means that,  automatically, the ribbing moves one stitch over and therefore it spirals. Easy peasy.  Thanks, Estelle.

The 143 stitches, knit on a 6 .5 mm needle - a bit bigger than normal  for this yarn - gave me a cowl than when held against my five foot frame reaches from neck to thigh.  Large enough to wind twice comfortably around the neck.   

The basket now holds three cowls.  Not full yet, but on its way.  Afterall,  Santa's arrival is still serveral knitting weeks  away.

Enough Already

November.   Although the next few days are reported to be warmer than usual, I know it soon will be time to wear my winter duds.  That means removing the summer tees, sandals and sundresses from the closet and installing the heavier skirts, closed toe shoes  and of course - my wool sweaters.

In transferring the sweaters from their summer storage boxes to the closet, it occurred to me that maybe I have enough.  Six cardigans.  Four pullovers.  One vest.  An eleven day wardrobe right there.

Then I realized I had forgotten to include these latest additions to my fall closet.

I can look at each one and  fondly recall the knitting.  Even when there were struggles - poorly written patterns,  getting the finished to replicate the vision, lace charts that baffled,  limping to the finish line in the Olympic challenge  -  the  memories are fond.  The feel of quality yarn in the hand, the finished product that fits and flatters and the many, many hours of time  well spent.

But I do have to ask myself - is this enough already?