Rejuvenated

Happy March everyone!  I was on a knitting retreat last weekend that I hosted here in San Antonio and got much knitting done.  Unfortunately, it was not much knitting done on my Sedgemoore.  One of my knitting buddies is doing the Masterclass with me and she did finish her Sedgemoore while on the retreat.  She seamed her cardi and showed it off sans buttons.  That was her next adventure, finding the perfect buttons to go along with her Knit Pick's City Tweed in a lovely almost charcoal grey color.  Well done Akaemi!

The 1st San Antonio Fiber Retreat (SAFR for short) was very sucessful!  I learned a lot about organizing the retreat, what needs wrinkles ironed out and what to continue to do that went right.  I've asked my retreat group on Ravelry for their feed back via polls, private messages, and opinions in the threads.  The responses I've gotten have been useful and helpful as well as insightful.  There will certainly be a 2nd Annual SAFR in 2015 and the owners of our site asked if I'd consider doing a fall retreat using their site.  The Fall Retreat is going to have to take some long consideration because we have 2 major fiber events close to San Antonio that go on during October and November and then there's the holidays shortly thereafter.  Much thinking to do on holding the retreat 2 times a year.

The weekend was beautiful.  The weather cooperated and we had warm, sunny days so we could sit outside knitting and chatting.  The evenings were cool and Saturday night we sat around the fire pit knitting, chatting, and having s'mores.  It was wonderful for me to be "Unplugged" for a little over 48 hours.  From about noon on Friday, all day Saturday, and until about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, I was sans internet, Facebook, television, and for the most part, phone service.  And you know what?  I really didn't miss being plugged into everything.  It was relaxing and rejuvenating.  It was a good time sharing the fellowship 16 other women who share the love of the fiber arts.  It didn't matter if we were spinners, knitters, crocheters, or weavers; the tie that held us together was our love for fibers slipping between our fingers and creating something wonderful from those various threads.  It is a metaphor for the circle of life, only in the case, the circle is more like a spider's web, all lacey and intricately woven of wool, bamboo, cotton, alpaca, mohair, angora, or anyone of a multitude of other fibers that we choose to work with.  To paraphrase Frank Herbert in his novel Dune, "Fiber is Life.  Fiber must flow."

While I'm not working on Sedgemoore, I am knitting and honing my skills.  I must be crazy because I've cast on 2 lace shawls in one day.  This past Tuesday evening I sat in my knitting chair and cast on 2 lace projects while catching up on my DVR'd shows from the 3 day technology hiatus.  One is the Mystery Knit along (MKAL) hosted by one of my favorite shawl designers, SusannaIC, who is also a good friend and attended the retreat last weekend.  The other is the Leaf Lace Shawl (LLS) which is a wedding gift for a dear friend.  Since the MKAL has clues released weekly, it's possible to knit on that for only a short time, then pick up LLS and work on it.  I have a month to finish LLS, but I'm pretty confident I can do that.

Sedgemoore is going to languish while I finish LLS, then I'll pick it back up and work on it some more.  I'm in no hurry to finish my Masterclass on a strict schedule.  I want to learn at my own pace and rushing to a finish line is not my style.  So until the next post...

Knit on, knit lots, knit well and always, keep smiling because it makes people wonder what you're up to!

XO, Peg

Not much to report.  Still working away at the back of the cardi.  Life's been rather busy so I haven't been knitting as much as I'd like.  I did get a commission piece and taught myself how to do basic Tunisian crochet stitch and the Tunisian knit stitch.  And, the biggest thing that's been occupying my time is the 1st San Antonio Fiber Arts Retreat that I'm hosting next weekend.  I'm really looking forward to spending the weekend with 17 other fiber artists doing our thing, getting to know each other, and having some awesome round table discussions.  I'm also going to have to put the sweater down so I can work on my bestie's wedding gift, a lace shawl for her to wear on her wedding day in April.  I think I can get it done by then if I don't work on anything else but that between now and the end of March.

So that's all from this end of the road, Siblings of Fiber.  Be good to yourselves and each other and play with string some more!

Still knitting away...

Not much to report since last week, although I am proud of myself to blogging about my progress on a regular weekly basis which is better than I've done in the past.

The Sedgemoore is moving along SLOWLY.  I have finished the first repeat of both charts on the back of the sweater.  It is a slow knit for me not because it is a difficult knit, but rather it is just a complex knit.  The reason I say it's complex is that you are knitting 2 different charts each row AND the twisted rib between each chart.  It's complex and I find that for myself, I need to be fully alert and few distractions to knit this pattern.  This is a personal issue as I am a confessed ADD knitter.  I do get distracted easily.  To quote the movie "UP",  SQUIRREL!

But I am making progress on the back of the sweater.  I like the feel of the fabric and I am please with the look of the Knit Picks Shine Sport as I knit through the charts.  The color is rich and will suit my skin color well.  I can see wearing this to work or casually with a cami under it during the warm months and layered over a turtleneck when the weather here turns cooler.

Progress on this project is going to slow down over the next few weeks.  I am hosting a fiber arts retreat at the end of February and have 18 small projects to sew up for that and 18 embroidery projects to set up on the embroidery machine.  Fortunately, my embroidery machine is set up the pattern and let it go until I need to change thread colors which means I can do some mindless knitting while keeping an eye on the embroidery hoop.

That's all for this week, readers.  Stay warm and knit on Fiber Addicts!

Sweater Back Lower Border Done!

Lower border complete!  Yes, I had to read the pattern several times and it was a learning experience to knit the pattern thus far.  And yes, the 30 rows makes sense now because row 31 is the set up row for the body of the sweater.  I'll try to get some new pictures of the sweater back posted to show off the progress.

This is a pretty short posting, but I wanted to put something up to mark the progress on this project.

Nomenclature Differences

There are several adages in the fiber arts world that some of us (yes, I do mean myself) at times choose to ignore.  "Swatching saves time later" and "Measure twice, cut once" among other adages.  Well, here's a new one to the list.  "Read it once, read it twice, read it thrice to be sure you understand it."

Why do I say this?  In the course of watching others struggle with The Knitter Knitting Masterclass, I made a few personal observations and discoveries that and I'm sharing them with you here.

I think the biggest discovery is that you do need to read these patterns more than once to understand them.  These patterns are not published in an American based magazine.  This is a British publication and it appears that many of the designs used in the class are created by designers in Europe or the UK.  To that end, there's a definite style difference in how popular American designers and American publishers and technical editors write and edit patterns versus how submitters, editors, and publishers for The Knitter write and edit patterns. This is why I recommend reading the patterns thoroughly and more than once.  Here is an example of what I observed so far.

An American designer tells you to continue in the pattern stitch for either X number of inches or X number of pattern repeats.  In the first pattern in the Knitting Masterclass, you are given the ribbing pattern and told to repeat the rows and chart for 30 rows and end with a certain wrong side row.  This sounds fairly straight forward until you start to really think about the instructions and then look at Chart A that is an 8 row chart.  30 cannot be divided by 8 evenly.  You can divide 32 rows by 8 evenly and you actually then end Chart A on a wrong side row. 

This is why I recommend reading the patterns several times, ask questions if there's something you don't understand.  Also, search The Knitter website for pattern errata as many of the patterns are reported to have errors.  If you check for errata before you start the project and find corrections, it will save you A LOT of frustration later. And if you discover an error in a pattern and find no errata, contact the designer or The Knitter and report it.  One, you'll get the correction and be happier with your project; two, you'll be everyone's hero by getting the pattern fixed.  And if you're a member of my Become a Better Knitter group on Ravelry, please let the group know your findings in the appropriate thread.  You'll be our hero there too!

That's all for today, fellow fiber fanatics!  Knit on and knit strong!

Sedgemoore Swatch

I did say I was an inconsistent blogger, right?  Ok, so I've been busy with life beyond knitting for the last week.  Last Thursday, I returned to work after my holiday hiatus.  On Sunday, I spent precious time with my daughter as she prepared to leave our home to return for her last semester of her undergraduate degree.  On Monday, my future daughter inlaw, a dental hygenist, sent me a picture text message asking me if I could make/design a small project for her bosses and their brand new dental practice; this equates to a commissioned project where they will pay me to make the projects if they like the prototype I created (money for knitting, what can be better).  So, yes, I've had some other things on my mind and my needles this week.

And I finally took pictures of my swatch for Sedgemoore and my beginnings of the ribbing that I have done so far.  So without further ado, pictures of knitting!

 

I'm using Knit Picks Shine Sport in Terra Cotta.  The swatch is rather lighter than the actual color in the second photo below.  It is more of a deep coral color.

Sedgemoor Beginnings

Wow, 2 blog posts in a row. I think this is a record for me. They say doing a thing 21 days straight is how to make it into a habit. I’m going to try to keep up with daily updates even if it is only a few sentences.

So I cast on Sedgemoor last night. My tension was horribly tight and this morning I discovered a mistake in row 1. I was about 4 stitches from the end of the row when I discovered the mistake. And it was a mistake that would show in the finished product so I did the frog thing and ripped it, ripped it. Yep, frogged the whole thing and started with a new cast one because the tension was too tight and I wasn’t happy with how row 1 was setting up. It looked strange to me.

The back is cast on once more, tension is correct this time, and when rows 1 & 2 were done, the back looked better. I’m more satisfied with how it looks now.