KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Time just flies when you're having fun. I thought I'd use my lunch break today to give you a little update on last weekend. It was wonderful. Remember - the Atlanta Knitting Guild had Beth Brown-Reinsel in town. FABULOUS!!!

Beth gave a wonderful presentation on the history of Scandinavian knitting at the Guild meeting on Thursday, and she took us from country to country showing us lots and lots of garment pictures. I am now very itchy to do some fair isle. But that has to wait - until I finish a few things that have deadlines...

Friday's workshop was called Fair Isle Tams. Beth guided us through the construction of a tam, and gave us great hand-outs for backup (for when she is not around). I finished my sample Friday night after the class and dinner with her and a bunch of AKG members:

The tam won't fit anybody but maybe a baby or a teddy bear. But it was great way of learning the technique. What I liked most about the workshop was the tubular cast-on (as you can see on the last picture, very stretchy - I have to try that sometime on a "real" sweater or sock), the corrugated ribbing, and knitting fair isle with both strands in my left hand (these continental knitters...). I have to work on my tension tho'. You know how it is: whenever you learn something new, your tension is off. But as my mom likes to say - practice makes perfect. Or at least you get better at it...

And in case you're wondering - yes, that's a salad plate inside the tam. Great tool for blocking. Just slip the tam over a plate, spray it with a household mister and let it dry.

Saturday's workshop - Aran Pullovers Knitted from the Neck Down - was great, too, and filled with a lot of work. I was seriously brain-dead by Saturday evening. We learned how to construct an Aran sweater - once again with the lovely tubular cast-on. I can't get over how simple that cast-on is and what a great stretchy fabric the technique creates. Beth told us at the beginning of the class that we would not finish the little sweater during the class - it is too much to learn and knit at the same time. And she told us not to be competitive... That was tough for me - I am always competitive. You just are when you grow up with two siblings.

It took me a few more hours at home to finish the little sweater, but I figured, if I don't do it this weekend, I will never finish it because there is not really a pressing reason to. So, as you can see, a real fiber geek doesn't have teddy bears but sheep as plush toys. Ha-ha-ha...

You will notice that I goofed on the back of the sweater. When I started to knit in the round after the completion of the armholes, I didn't reverse the pattern (turn knits into purls and vice versa). Better to learn that on a mini sweater. :-) And I wasn't even my anal self and didn't rip the sample. It's just a sample for crying out loud...

And here are close-ups of details on the neck and shoulder saddles:

All in all - I learned a lot AND it was a lot of fun. The workshop participants were a great bunch and everybody had a good time. Lots of laughter when it came to creating bobbles. Well... I have to say this here is a bobble-free zone. They remind me of you-know-what and I don't want to run around with a sweater full of you-know-whats. I just don't like them and whenever a pattern calls for them, I either replace them with another pattern or I leave them out all together. We really got a kick out of Beth's explanation of how to strangle a bobble - now, that I would be interested in...

Since I was Beth's driver for the weekend, I had an extra bunch of quality time with her. Maybe some of her talents rubbed off - I can only wish - and I sure picked her brain about knitting whenever I could. :-)

Also, I still owe you pictures of the birthday gift I'm knitting for my dad. And what a coincidence - it is an Aran vest:

296 stitches on US #4 needles - knitted in the round up to the armholes. NO SEAMS! And I love, love, love the yarn - it is one of the Rowan Classic Yarns - Cashsoft 4-ply. YUMMY - feels like knitting with butter... Well - I still have a ways to go tho': I just started ball 3 of 10... Dad is tall and skinny. My goal is to finish it before the trip to Germany in April, or while I am there at the latest. Cross your fingers!