My writing friends -- not my knitting friends -- will be meeting again in a few days, and I have not forgotten Felix.
I'm quite prepared. I have several more hats, all from the same skein of variegated blue yarn, in different sizes. I KNOW one of them will fit Felix. Maybe his grandmother should take two -- one to fit him now, and one to grow into.
I've knit a lot of red scarves for a hospital women's cardiac program. The scarves have to at least a minimum size, can be any pattern, but MUST BE RED.
Getting a little tired of knitting red scarves, I decided I would try something else, maybe toddler and smaller hats. I'm learning to put the two ends of a rectangle together using the Kitchener Stitch, which, if done properly, form a seam which can hardly be detected.
Couple of weeks ago I went to a meeting of several craftwomen who knit or crochet items for charity programs. We met at The Studio, which was closed for the day. We have access to donated yarn, bag after bag of it. A couple of the ladies were going through the bags of donated yarns and every time they found a skein of red yarn, they threw it at me!
Guess I'll be knitting more red scarves.
My excuse is that I have never seen Felix in person. In my mind he was not far from newborn, but he is actually five months old. I was going to be having lunch with his grandmother, so I took three very small hats. The dear lady never remarked on how small the hats seemed, chose a blue-white made in that weird pattern that fortunately is very stretchy. After she got home, she sent me a picture -- hat barely covers his cranium -- but what a smile he has! I replied that the too-small hat won't see him through the winter.
I was working on a hat that would have been a much better fit, but, alas, I let the privisional stitches get out of control. I'm contemplating ripping every thing out and starting over. Drat!
On August 14, the 111th birthday of Elizabeth Zimmerman will be celebrated by members of the Sunflower Knitters Guild at the Stone Pillar Vineyard and Winery, 11000 South Woodland Street, Olathe, KS, 66061.
What is it about wine and knitters? Wine makes the yarn flow smoothly?
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.
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.
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.
