Thursdays Are For Knit Group

Summer has finally arrived in Meaford.  30' temps today with a feel-like temp of 36'.  Too bad its September.  And good thing the library has AC in our meeting room.

Sharon proudly showed off her first-ever lace project. This pattern is Pretty Basic by Janina Kallio  

Sharon is a knitter who barely knew needles from yarn a year ago. This is beautiful, Sharon.   The colour gorgeous. 

Sharon learned another new skill today.  This is her first time using a swift.

 

Sandy B is going to be a Grandma again.  Any day now.  And what grand child of Sandy's would be happy without a mitred square blanket? 

This one knit with many  shades of lilac  - just like the nursery. (  I wonder  which knitter supplied all that lilac yarn?)  Sandy calls this her mindless knitting.  Pure genius, I say.

Despite it seeming like mid summer and despite it only being September, Sharon and Jean are working hard on the teeny, tiny knits for the Christmas tree display at their annual spinners and weavers sale. 

Look at that level of concentration.  Remember this is the spinners and weavers Guild they are working for.  SO - all yarns are hand spun.

Here's Jean with a little mitten.

 to go with all these other little mittens.

 Off to the left you see the matching scarf.

 

 That would be scarf with cable.  Hand knit.  Hand spun.  Teeny Tiny.  

Then look at this little sweater. With that great stitch pattern centre front.  Hand knit.  Hand spun.  Teeny Tiny.

I would need new glasses  - or new eyes - to do this work. 

Too hot to garden.  Must be knitting weather!  At least, one would think so by seeing all these wonderful pieces.

Fall, Routine, Knitting

For me, with fall, comes routine and routine means knitting.  The answer to "What's on your needles, Brenda? is this.

Started on the trip home from the trailer and despite  canning activities taking time from my knitting, nonetheless, progressing nicely.

This is a top-down, summer cardigan.  The pattern, Raddichio, is a ravelry  freebie. 

 

The yarn,  I purchased in Baltimore this spring while at the Marylalnd Sheep & Wool Festival. 

It is a cotton/wool combo

 

with the wool portion coming from the sheep at  the Cestari  farm.  Cotton with a bit of wool, I always feel is a  great combo.  Cotton for the cool, breathability it offers for summer.  A bit of wool to help the cotton hold its shape.  Perfect.

At the moment, with the  lace yoke complete, it is a no-brainer of a knit.  That works perfectly for a carry-along, or an in-between jobs kind of project.  Right now, I am about 6 inches below the great divide of sleeves from body.  I have inserted two rows of  shaping so far and am headed for the waist.

There are a couple of unique features I have included in this sweater.  Features,  new-to-me until last Wednesday evening when I attended a trunk show where Deb Gemmell, introduced her latest book - Need A Circular Yoke?.   Deb's technical genius was at work again when she wrote this book.  New and improved bust shaping and  a new-to-me way to short row are just two of the 'A-HA' items for me in Deb's new book.

Consider this a 'trailer'.  I'll tell you all about those new techniques tomorrow.

Fall Begins

Despite no longer having school age children, Labour Day, still for me, marks a change of seasons.
I spent the day reminiscing about our great summer  - 

 

Fred's big fish

 

 A summer party

 Abi mastered the Rubik's Cube

 Friend Ruby showed me her 'red-neck' fence.  Created from pallets.

 There was some knitting    -  the colourful shawl above and the monkey hat below

While I reminisced, I also made  spaghetti sauce.  Someone gave me the great idea to do this big job out of doors. I have a big turkey roaster, it held the entire half bushel of Roma tomatoes and  made a great sauce cooker.

No extra heat in the kitchen, so it was a great idea. 

The beach days are done.  My canning is done.  Time to get to the knitting.