A Great Day Off
I had a lovely day off yesterday, despite it being so very cold. After morning coffee and paper, the dogs and I took a rather short walk – they don’t mind the cold when they’re out and about, but I certainly do – then I went off to do the normal errands: bank, post office, groceries, and so on, then spent about an hour at the store, calling in orders, sorting through paperwork, taking out the garbage. I got home and was greeted like the long-awaited Messiah – something I take for granted but it’s very sweet, really, for the boys to be so happy to see me. We had lunch and I sat down to knit and catch up on my favorite knitting podcasts. I was amazed that I hadn’t listened since the end of July, but time really gets away from me, I guess. Anyway, I caught up with David Reidy, who lives in Australia. He downloads and plays the most beautiful guitar and piano music on his podcasts and talks a little about his life as a teacher and what he’s knitting and so on. It’s very pleasant to listen to different accents and local idioms, I think, and their seasons are the opposite of ours, so he’s talking about mowing the lawn and the weather getting warm right now. Anyway, if you want to listen, his podcast is called Sticks and String. It’s really enjoyable.
While I listened, I worked on a new project. I was in the process of knitting just a pretty little scarf in the Italian Chain Stitch from BW#1 in Lace Merino from Ella Rae:
and enjoying it very much when, I think because of the double yarn-overs in the pattern, my elbow got sore. This is a good reason to have at least 2 different projects in process, or at least available. I didn’t have another one I wanted to start, so instead I decided to do a little research for spring styles. I looked at Nordstrom’s website because I find their choices in knitwear very good and came upon this:
I know, not a great image, but you can see it in more detail here. Looks simple enough, yes? Well, this little jacket costs $725 in Nordstrom’s catalog. I took a good close look at it and decided we could make it for about one-tenth of that price. I had a bag of Crystal Palace’s Panda Silk DK at home and had been wondering what to make from it, so I found the stitch pattern, also in BW#1 – really, anyone who is serious or even not particularly serious but just interested in designing should have Barbara Walker 1 and 2 – and began swatching. The swatch worked out and here is the jacket prototype in progress:
I think it’s going to be very cute and wearable and I believe we’ll have two versions, one with cuffed sleeves and one without sleeves in a couple different yarns.
Anyway, my afternoon was very nice, and even though the house was a little chilly, I was covered in dogs and knitting and listening to some man with a lovely accent talk about knitting – it doesn’t get any better than that in my yarny life.
We had a meeting of our teachers last week and I think we have a very good schedule worked out for the winter. It will take a couple of weeks to be sure dates work out and to get photos and descriptions and so on, but I expect to have the schedule up on the Class page shortly after Christmas – of course I’ll send an e-mail when it’s all finished. One of the classes will be for this very cute wrap, which I thoroughly enjoyed making. It’s in Classic Elite’s Montera – which I love and have declared that love ad infinitum on this blog until you’re sick of hearing about #%&&^%*&( Montera, I know. The design is from Cheryl Oberle’s new book called Knitted Jackets, a terrific book full of really nice wearable pieces.
It’s shown in the book with sleeves, but I made it without. Janet K is teaching the class and is hard at work on her own version. Several other good classes are coming, including a few smaller projects and beginner classes as usual. It looks like a good schedule.
Here are some wonderful projects we saw this week:
Mary Ann Posey finished this pretty sweater in warm and lusciously soft Miski, 100% baby llama. The buttons are temporarily tied on so they look askew, but the sweater is gorgeous and fits just right. It’s difficult to see all the stitchwork from these photos – there is a pretty braided-looking border and twisted-stitch motifs all over the back and front. Very nice!
Lisa Krocker and her husband came in with Emmaline, their beautiful little girl in this very cute hat that Lisa made:
And Wendy Bisbort came in wrapped in the Lady Eleanor Stole from Scarf Style, another class we’ll be doing this coming season. A beautiful entrelac piece and the knitted fringe really sets it off.
It’s just lovely in Noro’s Silk Garden. Karen Walter is teaching the class and is doing her own scaled-down version in Silk Garden Sock!
I have to work out when we’ll be closed for Christmas and New Year. I’ll let you know as soon as I know. Meanwhile, hope to see you soon…
Trish
