Is It Time For The Olympics?

 In  2010 and 2014,  I  chose to participate in the Olympic Knitting Challenge.  You know the one.  You cast on for a project during the opening ceremonies and if finished before the end of the closing ceremonies, Voila! you are a knitting Olympian.

 In 2010, I knit Elizabeth Zimmermann's Green Sweater.  Sport weight yarn and 'different' construction.  I knit and knit and knit.    I finished in  time but I had sore arms, sore wrists, sore shoulders.

In 2014, I wisely chose  a heavier yarn.  I knit a sweater with chunky weight yarn, BUT  with lace work.  It, I finished without as much pain and even with a teeny bit of time to spare.

But neither of the above sweaters could come close to the speedy finish of Glenora.  Started Thursday September 17 and finished Sunday September 27.  Ten days.  A record for me.  Mind you twice as long as it took the designer.  She reports knitting one of her versions in 5 days.  No fair!  I ate and slept.

Glenora too is knit with Chunky weight yarn but it is a very unstructured design.  A no-sew unstructured design.  The end product has a very 'organic' look.  I love it.

Pattern:  Glenora by Elizabeth McCarten. A great design.  A well written  pattern.

Needles:  6.5mm

Yarn:  Sable Soft by Kertzer.  I purchased mine several years ago intending to knit a different design.  I knit the back, two sleeves and one front before abandoning it as something that looked better on paper than knitted up.

Mods:  None.  I knit Glenora exactly as the pattern suggested.  Yikes.  Who am I and what the  heck did I do with Brenda?

Next Time:  The collar of Glenora is knit as one with the sweater.  As such, when it rolls, the underside is what you see.

This could be righted simply by reversing the wrong and right side rows once the collar is started.  But then, would it looks as 'organic' as the designer planned?
Probably not.

Below, you see the sleeves above the shoulders as the cable that is a feature of both sleeves and collar  continues on to form part of the  collar.

 

 Unique and great design.  Thanks, Elizabeth.

What I like about my Glenora:  It has, as Elizabeth states, a nice close fit in the bust and shoulders while at the same time a lovely A-line flare to the bottom.

  

The combination of the close-fitting top  with the bottom looseness, gives Glenora a delightfully modern, stylish flare.  I like it.

 Mine is very light-weight.  This is in part due,  no doubt, to the yarn I chose.  But the slightly larger- than-normal needle helps too.

Glenora is designed for speed knitting.  It is a one-piece, no-sew design with no finishes.  No bottom or cuff ribbing,  no button bands.   No trim of any kind.

Above, you see the bottom, cuff and centre fronts.  All trim-less.

The collar is worked as  simply an extension of the sweater.

 

 Draped over the back of the chesterfield, it is easy to see how the collar simply grows out of the sweater. 

A totally trim-less sweater. The non-finished edges help to give Glenora its very modern look.  And certainly helps with making it a quick knit.

Elizabeth shows Glenora  closing only at the top of the sweater with either  a   shawl pin or  three buttons.  I love that partially  unbuttoned look.  It makes Glenora appear to be and feel like  an 'easy' wear.

  

 I have closed mine here with a shawl pin, but am off this afternoon to buy buttons.  Three gorgeous buttons.

I have been wanting an autumn sweater and Glenora fits the bill perfectly.  It was a fun knit, a quick knit.  Perfect for my next Olympic project.

 

 Because I can sure see more of these in my wardrobe.

 

Thursdays Are For Knit Group

Normally, knit group is the only activity that occurs on my Thursdays.   But today was a big day in this small town life I live.  The Meaford  library hosted a 'Learn To Make An Autumn Wreath' workshop over the lunch hour. Of course several knitters signed up for that. 

 

 This is my 'Ten Minute Wreath'.  Mind you,  the online instructor was the only person finished in ten minutes.  The rest of us took an hour.

Later in the afternoon,  it was the first movie of the season for the Meaford Thursday Flicks Club.  Of course several knitters signed up for that.  I left home about 11:30 and returned after the beginning of the 6 o'clock news.  Poor Fred.

In between these two special happenings, we had knitting.

Sandy models another of her gorgeous shawls. 

 

This one, though, she doesn't like.  'An old lady's shawl' she says.  It is the shape that makes it so in her eyes, she told me - Sandy prefers rectangular or triangular shapes for her shawls.

Sandy has asked Gail to give the shawl to one of knit group's friends. At 88 years of age, the lady no longer comes out to knit group. Laughing, I asked Gail how she was going to present the 'old lady' shawl to the old lady.  Gail, ever gracious, said she will simply say" Sandy knit this shawl and asked me to give it to you."

Sharon R finished one of the three Noro hats from the kits she purchased  at the Knitters Fair.

She said the seller had calculated the amount of Noro almost to the stitch.  She had about 12 inches left over.

Along with the hat, Sharon managed to finish this little baby sweater and togue.  Sharon is our knitter that aspires to learn something new with each project.  I asked her what she learned while knitting this Cabin Fever baby pattern.  " I learned how easy top-down, no-sew knitting is" she said. No argument from me, Sharon.

Isn't this  a pretty sight?  A row of knitters concentrating on their  knitting and some of them wearing their knitting. 

 

Sorry about the delay in posting this Thursday post.  Blogger gave me grief.  Instead of posting, it ate my work. 

Glenora

A couple of weeks ago, I spotted a new design by Elizabeth McCarten on ravelry.  Glenora.  Elizabeth referred to it as a 'relative of' and  'an unstructured version of ' one of her previous patterns,  Petrova.

 It has been a long time since I have fallen so completely in love with a pattern.  I love the loose look, the easy-wear look, the warm-yet-not-heavy look  of Glenora.  And in the rust-coloured Chunky-weight, wool/acrylic blend that has been in my stash for years, it would make the perfect fall piece. I fell so completely in love that I cast aside all my preciously-planned, next-in-line projects and as soon as the Serendipity Vest was finished, cast on for Glenora.

What a fun knit!  Chunky-weight yarn  and 6.5mm needles saw me finishing the first sleeve  in one day.  Two days for both of them.

 

 Wow.  No sleeve island slump for me. 

The body comes next, and starts at the  bottom, which is  11 inches wider than the bust.  Despite all those stitches, after a Sunday start, I had almost 11 inches done as of  Tuesday evening. 

Wow.  While I won't be finished in a week I suspect it won't be much longer.

Thanks, Elizabeth for a great pattern.  Oh - did I mention that it's free?