Knitting at a Wine Place?

Today is World Knit in Public Day.

So, where are the knitters gathering?

At a wine place, of course. I've looked at their website, which offers wine tasting opportunities -- and a souvenir wine glass which you can take home with you. The site includes a pronounciation guide -- you wouldn't want to be caught not pronouncing the names of the wines correctly, would you?

 Thanks to the downsizing of a friend, I acquired two skeins of red acryli, with which I knit two scarves with the Stephanie Pearl McPhee one-line patters. The result looks a bit more complicated than it is. I typically fasten the yarn label on the end of the scarf so that the recipient can determine the type of fabric, and thus be guided in how to wash. My knitting group has knit thousands of scarves for a hospital program, and I hope someone with a connection to that program will be at the Knit-In so I can pass them on.

Wine and knitting? Could produce some interesting results.

Can't Keep My Fingers Off the Red

 I said I was through, through, through with knitting red scarves for a hospital project, cancer or cardiac, I never knew which. I missed last week’s craft group, during which they had their choice of yarn from someone’s stash, but today there still was a huge basket remaining. One of the crafters told me where it was, and said there was so much red yarn we’d never have to buy red again, I could have all I wanted. So I came home with four small skeins of a coral color, and two big, huge skeins of — you guessed it — scarlet red. I love that one-line scarf pattern by Stephanie Pearl McPhee. Every stitch except one is a knit stitch, although one of the knit stitches is in the back of the stitch instead of the front.

I remember the day at the Knitters Guild when someone told me they had a new scarf pattern for me, was I ready to write it down? Yep, pen and paper ready. "Cast on in multiples of four. Knit one, *knit two, knit in back of stitch, purl one*, repeat until last three stitches, knit three". Then she turned her attention to someone else. I waited, pen poised on paper, for the next line of the pattern. I finally had to remind my friend that I was writing down a pattern. "That's it," she said, with finality, and turned back to her conversation with the other knitter.

In disbelief, I cast on. Knit one row. Dubious, I knit another row. And another. It's magic. Makes a lovely scarf with a beautiful pattern, looks far more complicated than it really is.

Too Many Hats, Scarves. . . . .

 I had a goal. I would sell the results of my knitting at a vendor event, with all the proceeds going to a school nutrition program.

Alas, the Pandemic had something else in mind, explicitly, no public events for the foreseeable future. My closet fills with lovely knit articles.

Because I have two incurable problems.

(1) I can be seduced by color.

(2) I cannot leave a knit shop empty-handed.

I Am NOT Making This Up

Why do I have so much trouble with Ravelry?

Couple of days ago I decided to resolve, once and for all, my problems of getting on Ravelry.

I hate being confronted by a sudden request for a new password. Some websites seem to keep a record of previous passwords, and will not permit the use of previously used passwords. So, in an idle moment or two I play a game with myself of writing down possible passwords I might use in the future.

Tried to log on to Ravelry. Happily, Ravelry returned with my current, usable username. I confess I have had previous trouble with usernames, but since Ravelry was gratuitously offering me a username, I thought it wise to use their suggestion.

Ah, now, the password. Took a guess. Didn't work. On to password reset. Revelry rejected my first reset attempt with a weird message that my suggestion was already in use. So, on to the next password on my list of possibilities. Okay with that one. I wrote it all down in the notebook I am trying to keep of my login sites.

Two days later, we have been told that the City of Fountains patterns are available on Ravelry, so I try to go take a look. Ravelry accepts my username, but will not take the password. Frustrated, I try the password Ravelry rejected two days ago. Astonishment. It works.

Will it still work two days from now?

Not MY Mistake

They call it a "casting on" party, but that's really an easy part. Unless you miscount and do not have the exact number of stitches to begin with. Which was my first false start. My second false start was not reading the instructions for the I-Cord edge. I think the I-Cord edge is looking much better, but I still was planning to go to a "casting on" party.

Since I no longer drive at night, the afternoon "casting on" party at Yarn Social in Midtown Kansas City was going to be the only one available to me. I was watching the weather forecasts very carefully. I hadn't realized that the Yarn Barn over in Lawrence also would be hosting a "casting on" party, so I was a bit surprised to read an e-mail message that because of the predicted weather that event was cancelled. Lawrence is some 30 miles to the west of me, so I still had hopes that the afternoon event at Yarn Social was still on schedule.

I don't give up easily, held on to hope . . . alas, further e-mails came flying along the ether waves, Yarn Social was cancelling as well.

One good bit of news in flurry of e-mails was the information that a mistake had been discovered in the Droplet Lace Stitch section. What makes that good news is that I am not there yet -- still far from that section. I should be happy that someone else discovered the problem -- happy that it wasn't me.

Smugness Goeth Before a Fall

Oh, dang, I had about four inches before I discovered I was making a major mistake on the i-cord on each edge. No choice but to begin over again.

It's amazing how strong a tiny piece of fiber can be. I had used two short pieces of red yarn as markers. Tiny, tiny pieces of fiber I could hardly see had wrapped themselves around the strands, making it difficult to unravel. Finally had to get a sewing needle to break the marker yarn. Started over again. I should have known there was trouble ahead when I unpacked the kit and found FOUR sheets of instructions.

Okay, starting over again . . . cast on 66 stitches . . .

The Right Kind of Needles

It's amazing the difference the right needles can make with a knitting project. The yarn for the City of Fountains Scarf is -- well, the scarf describes the yarn as shimmering -- is indeed a chatoyant blue. So the right kind of needles for that color of yarn is not a reflecting green, especially not at night.

The only size 6 needles I had were an aluminum green. Not totally unusable during the daylight,  but totally unsatisfactory at night. So off to Momo's on Delaware in Leavenworth. I had hoped for a light color plastic, but what she had were medium dark wood.

The pattern has three differing sections, the first a checkerboard, the second an Arches Lace Stitch, and the third a Droplet Lace Stitch. Make two identical strips and put them together with the Kitchener Stitch. After the "Cast On" parties, maybe we'll finish with Kitchener parties.