Thursdays Are For Knit Group

Word must be spreading about the fun we have on Thursday afternoons in the upper room of the Meaford library because today there were so many knitters we needed two rows of chairs around the table.  Just like in Church, some knitters  headed for the back pew row of chairs.

Sharon, wearing her Shalom,  finished her Noro Mistake Rib scarf.  The colours are glorious - especially great against her new, red coat  -  

 which you will just have to imagine as I didn't capture the coat in the photo.

Nicki again is up to her teaching tricks.  Here she shows 'newby' Pat how to drop spindle spin.

Gail has one Christmas gift finished and stroked off her to-knit list.  This pair of socks, displayed so nicely against Carol's bright red coat.   

Honkin' big socks I said. 

Doreen arrived wearing her latest scarf.  The scarf colours look great with the coat.

 "Yes, that's why I bought this yarn" said Doreen.  Of course.

Newby Pat showed off her ear-warmers, knit with a front-peak opening  to accommodate a baseball cap.

 Ingenious, n'est-ce pas?

Nell is most definitely our crochet queen.  I have wrapped her in one of her colourful lap rugs and she is working on another. 

The latest one looks like the American Flag I thought.

A nice picture of Nicki with her cabled hat - especially for her Mom in B.C.  Merry Christmas Vera 

A few weeks ago at Knit  Group, Gloria gave away some no-longer-loved yarn.  Sharon took home a bag of 'rail-road' yarn and brought it back today - all knit up into a beautiful scarf for Gloria. 

 That's Christmas spirit, knitter style, I'd say.

Carol's daughter is the lucky girl who will get this hand knit tunic.  Perfect topper for leotards.

 If that is for December 25th, Carol, there won't be much sleep at your house.

Lots of fun, laughter and chatter today.  Oh - and knitting too.

Nifty Idea

Last June, while  on a road trip with a group of knitters, I learned a nifty, helpful tip.  One of the stops on our day of yarning was  Philosophers Wool.  Eugene and Anne Bourgeois, gracious hosts, gave us a grand tour and showed us many of their colourful  knits.

Eugene, himself, was knitting a multi-coloured,  'leftovers' sweater with several, small balls of wool.  I didn't recognize it as a sweater, though, because, with a closed bottom, it looked more like a bag.  Puzzled over what the finished item might be, I questioned him.  He assured me it was a sweater.

"But you have sewed together the bottom" I said.

"Yes, he replied.  "It creates a bag to hold my yarn while I knit."

Now isn't that clever! No balls rolling around the floor.  No balls getting lost under cushions or played with by curious animals.  Clever indeed!

It has been that long, though, since I have knit a sweater in the round but at the  moment I have one on my needles. 

Some running stitches were all it took to create my sweater cum yarn carrier.  

Since this is one of those fine-yarn, large-gauge sweaters where it is so, so, so easy to drop stitches, I have also found that the yarn bag is a god place to store my too-often-needed  crochet hook.

Clever.  Thanks, Eugene.

All I want For Christmas . . .

No front teeth wanted here.  Last weekend was my family Christmas get-together.  For several  years now, we have down played the gift-giving aspect of the get-together and instead have an entertaining,  gift  - for want of a better word - fight.

Each person brings a $10 -$15 gift, suitable for themselves.  That is, as an adult female, I am to bring a gift suitable for an adult female.  That way, there are gifts suitable for each person in the room.  The gifts arrive wrapped and are placed on the coffee table.  Guests names are drawn, one by one.  When a name is called, the person can either pick a wrapped - and therefore unknown entity -  gift from the coffee table or 'steal' an already-opened gift from someone whose name was called earlier.

  If  a person has their gift stolen, they are now, of course,  gift-less.  They then  can steal someone else's  gift or choose another unknown one from the coffee table.  The only rule is that one cannot immediately steal back the same gift. 

Each year there are a few, very popular, and oft-stolen gifts.  I aim for that category when I select my purchase.

My gift this year, following the very successfully fought-for purple scarf of Christmas 2011, was  the Red Infinity Scarf and Hat.  As hoped, it was passed back and forth quite a few times.

Dad's friend Dorothy went for it every time her lap emptied.  But in the end, it went to one of my sisters.

At that point, Dorothy came and sat on my lap and in a mocking, whiny kid's voice said    "Santa..."

 How could  a knitter resist an appeal like that?  So another Infinity Scarf and Hat are in the works.

 

 

 

Not quite finished over the weekend, but certainly it will be  finished in time to tuck into Miss Dorothy's stocking before Christmas.