KNITTING WITHOUT DOG HAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Here is the promised summary. Go practice and get ready for your German swatch:

knitting (noun) - das Stricken

to knit (verb) - rechts stricken

to purl (verb) - links stricken

casting on (noun) - der Anschlag

to cast on (verb) - anschlagen

to increase (verb) - zunehmen

to decrease (verb) - abnehmen

stitch (noun) - die Masche

yarn over (noun) - der Umschlag

lace (noun) - die Spitze

knitting needle (noun) - die Stricknadel

hat (noun) - die Mütze

mitten (noun) - der Handschuh

scarf (noun) - der Schal

sweater (noun) - der Pullover

k2tog (knit 2 together) - zwei Maschen rechts zusammen stricken

skp (slip1, knit1, pass the slipped stitch over) - 1 Masche rechts abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die abgehobene Masche über die gestrickte Masche ziehen

p2tog (purl 2 together) - zwei Maschen links zusammenstricken

cable (n) - der Zopf

cable needle (n) - Zopfnadel or Hilfsnadel

Slip 2 sts to cable needle (CN), hold in front, knit 2 sts, knit 2 sts from CN:

2 Maschen auf einer Hilfsnadel vor die Arbeit legen, 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 2 Maschen rechts von der Hilfsnadel stricken

pattern repeat (noun) - der Mustersatz

SL2 K PSSO Slip 2 sts knitwise, knit 1, pass the two slipped stitch over - 2 Maschen zusammen wie zum rechts stricken abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die beiden Maschen darüber ziehen

wool (noun) - die Wolle

yarn evenness (noun) - die Garngleichmäßigkeit

silk yarn (noun) - das Seidengarn

worsted yarn (noun) - das Kammgarn

yarn tension (noun) - die Fadenspannung

bouclé yarn (noun) - das Bouclé

to spin (verb) - ein Garn spinnen

cotton yarn (noun) - das Baumwollgarn

two-ply yarn (noun) - zweidrähtiges Garn

And I apologize for any broken links to the audio files. Somehow they stopped working. Hubby thinks LEO just assigns a serial number to each dictionary entry and these change when the dictionary changes. So - POOF - invalid link. Sorry.

WOW - WHAT A FIBER FESTIVAL!!!

Hah - I had to do that. On the way home from today's Lily Chin workshops, I was listening to the Yarn Harlot's latest book, Cast Off. She said:

TYPING IN CAPITAL LETTERS IS INTERNET YELLING!!!

But I'm not really yelling - this is squeeeeeeeeeeeing with excitement. Yup, SAFF has come and gone and I'm still excited. I'm sure you've already seen a ton of really interesting and fun blog reviews for SAFF. Therefore I'm just going to give you my personal highlights.

THERE WAS A SPINNING CLASS:

I took "The Magic of Spinning Hand-Painted Fibers" with Margaret Heathman. It was an all-day class on Friday. She's a wonderful teacher and she made my head spin. I was a bit worried about taking this class because sometimes I have no spinning mojo, and whatever I touch on mojoless days turns into crap. Plus it was my first real spinning class. But three lovely friends surrounded me and we had a blast.

We worked with Gale's wonderful hand-dyed Blue-Face Wool. This particular color is called Festival. Margaret had us divide the roving in eight equal strips. I went home with three, so I still have some left to spin up - maybe enough to make some nice fingerless mittens.

First, we spun good ol' singles:

These are the singles, after Margaret showed me how to set them. Which means you wet them, pull them tight to even them, and hang them over a chair back to dry. Then I knitted the swatch.

I tried to have Noah hold down the swatch with his paw but he wouldn't cooperate. So, the paw stayed under the swatch. Hermione, on the other hand, has seen too many pictures of Sadie.

Second, we spun yet another single and plied it using the Navajo method. Very cool - because I have never done this before and, even tho' my singles (which were fixed with spit...) kept breaking, it turned out pretty nicely. And with that plying method you can actually turn your thin single in a chunkier yarn:

Third, we plied a single together with itself using the center ball method, which I hadn't done before either:

Fourth, we spun (and I think I should say - I tried to spin) two singles exactly the same way and length to match up the colors of the variegation when we plied them together. Not so much for me... I had a bunch of leftover singles on one bobbin... But it is purdy yarn anyways:

And with the fifth and last spinning exercise, we plied a variegated single together with a solid. I used the pink solid and not the yellow. Margaret called this pure color intensified. And would say - yes, HELLO intensified pink!

It is so interesting how all the different handspuns knit up totally differently.

THERE WAS A LOT OF ROVING, TOOLS AND YARN:

Let me tell you that all my yarn purchases fit into ONE paper bag:

I was pretty pleased with my few purchases. No craziness involved. Thank goodness. And instead of being really insane and buying a Strauch drum carder, I was very modest and only bought a pair of hand carders and a flick carder:

At least these carders are also made by Strauch. :-)

Here is the fiber I bought:

Ozark Roving - 4 ounces each blob

Sea Silk and EcoSpun

Brooks Farm Primero & Creative Yarns Sock Yarn

Ms. Babs Silk and Superwash Sock Yarn

OH MY GOD - that hank of silk is so freakin' yummy. I almost can't stand it... And lastly, one more sock yarn. Come on, you can never have enough... Right, Jen?

Knitting Notions Superwash Merino Sock yarn

THERE WERE ANIMALS:

These llamas are such hams. ;-) I dragged Hubby along Saturday morning to look at all the aminals and we had a great time. He actually got kissed by one. Too cute!!!

Llama beans.... Snicker, snicker... reminded us of coffee...

Cute and naughty little sheepies who stick out their tongue. :-)

Hello, I am a Wiener sheep with very short legs...

And goats. Is this a way to save leftovers for later?

THERE WAS A FINISHED OBJECT ON DISPLAY:

This is Gale, posing with the cardigan I knitted for her using her gorgeous handspun. It fits her really nicely.

THERE WAS A RAVELRY MEET-UP:

Hello Bob!

THERE WAS A WONDERFUL DINNER WITH FRIENDS:

We also got a little carding lesson from Jen that evening:

THERE WERE A FEW MORE FINISHED OBJECTS:

While I was on vacation I knitted the Koolhaas Hat and a matching scarf and fingerless gloves:

Yarn: 2 balls of Handpainted Pure Wool Knitting Felting Yarn (approx. 160 yards per ball) from Serendipity in South America in eBay
Needles: US #6 (4.0mm)

I also knitted the Stacked Wedges Scarf from Knitting New Scarves. Please admire the adorable woof-model:

Yarn: 2 balls of Noro Kureyon (Color 102)
Needles US #7 (4.5mm)

THERE WAS A REALLY FUNNY PICTURE:

When Hubby and I parked on Saturday, the car facing us had an interesting dashboard:

A wine glass and a ball winder. What do you know - isn't that almost exactly what you need for Drinkin' and Tinkin'?

SAFF 2007 - it was great fun. I love fiber festivals and the get-togethers with people you mostly know from online. It is always so nice and interesting to put a face with a blog, a comment, a post on Ravelry. I am already thinking about what to do next year.

If I can, and Hubby will let me, I want to broaden my fiber horizon and maybe visit a couple of other festivals and maybe go to Stitches. We'll see.

And last but not least, a little more Internet yelling...

A BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO DONATED TOWARD THE RENTAL OF THE BLUE BARN. THANK YOU - IT IS VERY MUCH APPRECIATED!!!

Holy moley...

I want to do I-cord edges around a sweater.
I want to make lots for swatches to try new techniques.
I want to knit a pinstriped cardigan.
I want to design a very cool multi-directional sweater.

Yes, I am insanely inspired by Lily Chin. And I've had only two of the four workshops.

Lily Chin is in town for a series of workshops with the Atlanta Knitting Guild this weekend. And guess what? I am her personal slave. Meaning, I drive her around, feed her, be her roadie and get to spend tons of one-on-one time with her. Lily Chin in a nutshell - SHE IS A PISTOL. Good thing I'm accustomed to New Yawk humor and bluntess (through Hubby). Some Southern belle might be offended because not everything she says is syrupy and sugar-coated. ;-) I love directness - my cup of tea. Maybe because I am German and we are blunt, too.

So, yesterday's workshops were Pinstiped Knitting and Knitting on the Edge. Both were three-hour classes and, boy, does she have some speed. Lily's favorite sentence throughout the day was: "I'm bored now, let's do something else, cast on 12 stitches."

I sat with Brett and Jacquie, and we had so much fun. At some point, Jacquie almost got us in trouble. She tried to slow Brett down by dropping her yarn to the floor and making him pick it up for her. We laughed so hard when Jacquie told us that she did it deliberately... But luckily Lily didn't put us in the penalty box.

Here are some workshop impressions from the morning session - all about pinstriped knitting.

I could hardly get a not-blurry picture of her - Lily is always in motion.

Wouldn't that be an awesome scarf pattern?

And she brought tons of samples. Whenever she wanted to show a technique or pattern, she pulled out at least two sweaters and ten swatch cards. Unbelievable!!! Now I understand why she came with the two largest suitcases you can buy anywhere on this planet and why she shipped an additional box (which weighed 33 pounds) to my house.

The picture is a bit dark, but you can see half of the big green suitcase monster in the back.

This is my class swatch in progress:

Brett didn't like his bird-eye edge. Awwww - even the Yarn Doctor isn't always perfect...

The afternoon session was all about edges:

The border on the beautiful sweater is freakin' garter stitch. But knitted sideways it is totally awesome.

Lots of cabling

No, the drawing in the back is not what you think. It shows the I-cord edging around a cardigan. REALLY!!!! I swear!!!! Even tho' Lily talked about knittus interruptus at one point. I am collecting her funny quotes for tomorrow's post. ;-)

Brett is modeling one of Lily's hats. He is such a goofball. But somehow he could not convince Lily that she should give the hat to him because it matches the color of his eyes. (Insert my rolling eyes here...)

And you can turn edge patterns into beautiful beaded necklaces. Now there's an idea for Xmas...

I left the class with a few knitted samples:

I even tried two-colored I-cord and it looks pretty neat. OK, I'm off to my second day of classes with the NY whirlwind. Stay tuned for the new class review.

Oh - by the way... one dirty secret... Lily requested to have dinner at Red Lobster. I was thinking - WHUH THUH FUH? Coming from New York she would want to NOT eat at a chain restaurant... But wanna know why? She totally loves their cheese biscuits. Too funny!

And no time to start any new projects.

Must ... not ... pick ... up ... needles ... and ... yarn ... to ... start ... project ... number ... who ... knows ... what ... just ... for ... fun.

I realized last week that I am pretty much totally booked until the end of 2007 with events, knitting workshops, get-togethers, holiday parties, some gift-knitting and a big wedding. I can't believe it. Somehow I must have used multiple calendars when I RSVPed for all these things.

And even tho' I don't have a long list of knitted gifts like last year, I still want to knit a few things. Anyway...

After the Saturday workshops with Lily Chin, I see a lot of reversible cables and short row shaping in my future.

The morning workshop was called Reversible Cables, and we had a lot of fun during this workshop. Lily had a very, very, very interesting way to explain how cables work.

For one, she explained with her arms and fingers how cables work - very visual. And then she went a fascinating step further… which was hilarious and will make me giggle every time I cable from now on. According to Lily, cables are like adulterous couples. I'm not going include on my blog all the descriptive words she used because I would attract a lot of visitors who don't usually read my blog. But she mentioned, for example, the movie Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice. You get my drift, no?

Coincidently, I wore a cable sweater that day that my mom knitted for me a few years ago. (I guess I was channeling Lily in the morning.) It has a pretty complicated cable pattern running down the back and front. I'll have to have a word with Mom about what she was thinking knitting such a Sodom and Gomorrah sweater for me. ;-)

Some of Lily's quotes on cables:
The back side (wrong side) of cables look like someone with a lot of zits and lumpy bumby.
The filthier your mind, the more exciting are your cable designs.
The s*e*x life of cables.

Please picture a room full of proper Southern ladies. ;-)

You can see that Lily had everyone paying attention. You simply have to if you want to keep up with her. Or it might just have been her very vivid descriptions of "proper" cabling...

Unfortunately, my camera batteries croaked during the morning workshop, so I have almost no cable pictures. But I got new batteries during lunch break, and there are tons of pictures from the afternoon workshop.

The afternoon class was all about Shaping Up with Short Rows.

This is my class swatch:

Look how small my swatch looks compared to Lily's class swatch:

This workshop was an eye-opener for me regarding shaping sweater decreases and increases at the shoulders, armholes, sleeve caps and necklines with short rows. OMG - I thought a gazillion times - duh, so much nicer and so much easier than binding off all these stitches and picking them up again later. Here are some short row examples for you:

You can look at all my Lily Chin workshop pix in my Flickr album.

I had such a great time. Lily was very fun to be with and I truly enjoyed the weekend. She was also very funny. One of my favorite quotes was, if there's ever a nuclear holocaust, the only survivors will be cockroaches and Red Heart.

I'm glad the AKG was able to get her for these workshops. Lily teaches a lot at Stitches and other conventions, but she is always fully booked within hours. I was told that some people have had to wait years to get into one of her workshops. Good thing she likes to teach at knitting guilds and yarn shops as well. ;-)

Thanks again Lily - I really had a great time and I learned a lot!

Oh, and you can see my indecent cable sweater in this picture. I'm trying to conceal some of the action with my scarf... just kidding!

OK - That translates into: ONE... TWO... THREE... LET'S GO!

Which means for you - get ready, get set, swatch! Yes, I am done with the German swatch. We can start the contest.

Here you go:

Material:
Wolle
Stricknadeln
Hilfsnadel (Zopfnadel)

And it turns out there were a few words I missed during the month of October. Sorry!

Other German words needed for these instructions:
Row – die Reihe
RS right side – rechte Seite
WS wrong side – linke Seite
repeat 3 times - 3 Mal wiederholen
bind off - abketten

Mustersatz:

36 Maschen anschlagen.

1. Reihe (rechte Seite): 8 Maschen rechts stricken, 1 Umschlag, 1 Masche rechts abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die abgehobene Masche über die gestrickte Masche ziehen, 3 Maschen rechts stricken, 2 Maschen rechts zusammenstricken, 1 Umschlag, 6 Maschen rechts stricken, 1 Umschlag, 1 Masche rechts abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die abgehobene Masche über die gestrickte Masche ziehen, 3 Maschen rechts stricken, 2 Maschen rechts zusammenstricken, 1 Umschlag, 8 Maschen rechts stricken.

2. Reihe (linke Seite): 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 32 Maschen links stricken, 2 Maschen rechts stricken.

3. Reihe: 9 Maschen rechts stricken, 1 Umschlag, 1 Masche rechts abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die abgehobene Masche über die gestrickte Masche ziehen, 1 Masche rechts stricken, 2 Maschen rechts zusammenstricken, 1 Umschlag, 8 Maschen rechts stricken, 1 Umschlag, 1 Masche rechts abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die abgehobene Masche über die gestrickte Masche ziehen, 1 Masche rechts stricken, 2 Maschen rechts zusammenstricken, 1 Umschlag, 9 Maschen rechts stricken.

4. Reihe: 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 32 Maschen links stricken, 2 Maschen rechts stricken.

5. Reihe: 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 3/3 Zopf (3 Maschen auf einer Hilfsnadel vor die Arbeit legen, 3 Maschen rechts stricken, 3 Maschen rechts von der Hilfsnadel stricken), 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 1 Umschlag, 2 Maschen zusammen wie zum rechts stricken abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die beiden Maschen darüber ziehen, 1 Umschlag, 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 3/3 Zopf (3 Maschen auf einer Hilfsnadel vor die Arbeit legen, 3 Maschen rechts stricken, 3 Maschen rechts von der Hilfsnadel stricken), 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 1 Umschlag, 2 Maschen zusammen wie zum rechts stricken abheben, 1 Masche rechts stricken, die beiden Maschen darüber ziehen, 1 Umschlag, 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 3/3 Zopf (3 Maschen auf einer Hilfsnadel vor die Arbeit legen, 3 Maschen rechts stricken, 3 Maschen rechts von der Hilfsnadel stricken), 2 Maschen rechts stricken.

6. Reihe: 2 Maschen rechts stricken, 32 Maschen links stricken, 2 Maschen rechts stricken.

1. - 6. Reihe 3 Mal wiederholen.

36 Maschen abketten.

I will knit the swatch tonight. Then I'll post a picture for you in a couple of days. Then I'll post the chart a tad bit later. And finally I'll post the explanation of the chart in English.

Leave me a comment where to find a picture of your finished swatch once you are done. The deadline for the finished swatch will be Friday, November 16, 2007. I also would like to hear how hard it was and how much you enjoyed or hated knitting the swatch. Bring it on!

I'll also pick out some prizes for you to win and post about them. I hope a lot of people will participate. I know quite a few of you have been following the contest.

Viel Glück!!! Good luck!!!

Mom knitted another fabulous sweater for me. I am just such a lucky girl. I knew she finished it but I told her to wait until Christmas. Would have been a nice gift. Now she might have to knit something else...

What amazes me tho', is that I'm never there to try them on but they always fit to a tee. Jen says it's because Mama knows my size, but then she somehow knows that it sure has changed, too. :-)

The yarn is Schoeller Stahl La Spezia. It says Baumwolle-Cablé. It is 100% mercerized cotton and it feels very soft. The color is called rubin red. LOVE IT!

Anyways, I'll be all dressed up and a show off with the new sweater for the Cat Bordhi class at Knitch tomorrow. I am very excited. Jen, Jane and I are taking one of Cat's mind-twisting classes where she'll teach us to understand how she designed those new sock architectures and how to create socks based on her new book. I met her last night at the AKG Meet & Greet at Knitch.

She is extremely funny and totally interesting. I can't wait for the class tomorrow morning. Brain-twisting from 11am to 6pm. I guess I should bring some garter stitch knitting for the breaks.

OK, off to pack my bag for class. And tons of vitamins to keep my brain running.

First, let me show you something. :-) Three gorgous swatches. I promised you I would knit it but these knitters are so lightning fast. I hope y'all don't mind that I'm showing off your work.

Go look at Mrs. Fife's swatch.

And this is blogless Diana's swatch (if you are on Ravelry - you can find her as dyetom):

And this is Doug's swatch:

Guys, you did a great job!!! The swatches are all beautiful. So all the rest of you can say:
Thank you, Doug, Diana and Mrs. Fife's, you made my swatch life a lot easier. ;-)

After the weekend I will post the chart.

AND NOW - TA-DA!!! I can finally say something before I totally burst with giddy excitement. The new Debbie Stoller book Son of Stitch 'n Bitch: 45 Projects to Knit and Crochet for Men is on the bookshelves:

If you go to page 185, you find a sock pattern called Tubey:

Yup - my first published pattern. It is exciting!

This weekend is going to be fun. Jacquie and I are taking a two-day-workshop at Knitch. We are going to design our own bag with Noni pattern designer Nora Bellows! I guess fall is finally really here and I am ready for some felting.

I finished the prototype of a brand new chemo cap. The pattern will be up for sale soon and the proceeds will go towards a breast cancer research group that I heard about from Cat Bordhi.

Stay tuned for the Cat Bordhi workshop report and cap pattern. I need to go to Knitch now. :-)

It's here. Die deutsche Maschenprobe - the German swatch. Sorry for the delay. Somehow the days just slipped by...

Click here for a larger view of the chart.

I have so much to blog about - Cat Bordhi, Nora Bellows from Noni Patterns - but no time... I can't wait for the long weekend next week to spend some time getting more organized. I'll post the chart explanation soon, hopefully tonight. And I'll have pictures of the prizes, too.

And now a few more beautiful swatches:

Phyllis's swatch

Allison's swatch

La's swatch

Amy KD's swatch

AND - Elizabeth's swatch
ELIZABETH - SORRY I MISSED YOUR EARLIER POST!!!

Congrats - you girls did good!

There were so many comments and posts, I'm afraid I may have missed others. If I missed you, please let me know and I'll get you up as fast as I can!

OK, here we go:

2oz of Islandic Roving from Michaiah from Schacht Fleece Farms

a ball of Trekking XXL Sock Yarn

a skein of Mountain Colors Moguls

a skein of Knit Picks Shimmer

a skein of Manos Del Uruguay

a skein of Mountain Colors 4/8s

There will be drawings for three categories of winners:
1. You participated in the contest and knitted a swatch.
2. You posted the contest button on your blog.
3. You saved my butt by pointing out that I made a mistake in the instructions.

If you're eligible in more than one category, you have that many chances to win. Cool, right?

So, if you haven't knitted the swatch because you haven't had time or you didn't want to deal with the German (which I can sympathize with and Hubby can relate...), here is the symbol explanation for the chart:

The contest will end Friday, November 16, 2007, at midnight. GOOD LUCK!

Winners will be drawn with the help of Random.org and I will post them sometime over this weekend. If you are one of the winners, I will email you for which of the prizes you would like and where to mail it/them. First come, first served for your pick!

This is the look I get every morning. And then I slink away to work - guilt-ridden - because I have to leave this pathetic little precious doggie behind. She has to stay home with her pain-in-the-butt little bro. Noah and Hubby barely lift their heads for me to kiss them goodbye. But Hermione follows me around... just in case... you never know... One day I might take her along. There's always hope, right?

Last night was the funniest knit night at Knitch. If you weren't there, you missed a good one. We laughed so much that we snorted every once in a while. I'm not going to post much about why we did what we did, but Kim had us knit little chickens for a project.

Of course, the Chicken Goddess had to supervise and hold court:

And she was gracious enough to pass her crown around, so others could feel the mighty bock power as well:

Olivia and Haley

And here are a few pix of the knits:

I'm looking foward to a great weekend. Spinning on Saturday with the Peachtree Handspinners Guild, and knitting and meeting with friends at Knitch on Sunday for the Knitch Thanksgiving Party. YAY for the holidays!!!

AND - WE HAVE MORE SWATCHES!

Donna's Swatch

Jean's Swatch

Alma’s Swatch

Keep 'em comin'! You still got 10.5 hours left. ;-)

OH, and this is too funny not to share with y'all.

What kind of yarn are you?

You are Merino Wool. You are very easy going and sweet. People like to keep you close because you are so softhearted. You love to be comfortable and warm from your head to your toes.
Take this quiz!

Category 1: You participated in the contest and knitted a swatch:

and the winner is...

Jean

Category 2: You posted the contest button on your blog:

and the winner is...

Elizabeth

Category 3: You saved my butt by pointing out that I made a mistake in the instructions:

and the winner is...

(blogless) Diana

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I will email you for your snail mail address and your choice of prize. You can pick one out of the six choices. First come, first served.

I am off to reheat the red cabbage dish I'm taking to the Thanksgiving luncheon at Knitch. See you there! HAPPY SUNDAY!

I prepared the red cabbage dish last night, as well as Apfelkuchen. Both will go to Jacquie's Thanksgiving Dinner with Hubby and me later today!

HAVE A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!!!

I am very thankful for Hubby dearest and the furry children, my family and friends, and the wonderful knitting community that I've found!

I am in knitting heaven, y'all! Not much going on around here except lots of knitting, reading blogs, catching up on emails. And writing up and translating recipes...

Here are the latest two:

Gestürzter Apfelkuchen which means Toppled Apple Cake - because you put the apples in the form first and pour the batter over them. It is a super-duper-easy recipe, promise!!!

Blaukraut - the red cabbage dish I brought to Knitch for the Thanksgiving lunch.

Both recipes are courtesy of Mama Lang. :-)

Right now I'm bundled up in my crafts room under a blanket, the fiber dogs curled up next to me, a nice cup of tea "sweetened" with Captain Morgan (thanks Jen!) at my side, and I'm knitting away on Jacquie's shawl. Well, I'll get back to the shawl when I'm finished with this entry. Believe it or not - I have only a few more rows to go, then I can bind off. I am very determined to finish it this weekend, maybe even tonight. And then I'll get going with my lace dress. WOO-HOO!

This is a picture of the shawl progress from last Sunday:

And there are a couple of FOs for this week - two Skull Isle Hats from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch: 45 Projects to Knit and Crochet for Men:

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft Aran (2 skeins Gray, 1 skein Lime Green, approx. 95 yards per skein)
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm (16 inch circular)
Modifications: I cast on only 100 stitches (rather than the pattern's 208 for size large), since the yarn I'm using is a lot thicker. I also modified the crown decreases and left out the knit row between the decrease rows.

Yarn: Rowan RYC Cashsoft Aran (2 skeins Medium Blue, 1 skein Dark Blue, approx. 95 yards per skein)
Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm (16 inch circular)
Modifications: I cast on only 90 stitches (rather than the pattern's 180 for size medium), since the yarn I'm using is a lot thicker. I also modified the fair isle pattern and left off the first pattern to make the hat shorter.

The hats are birthday gifts for two nice young men. ;-)

Hope you have a beautiful fall weekend!!!

Came and went... But they were awesome. I didn't blog about the things I was supposed to (the review of Cat Bordhi and Nora Bellows) - yeah, I know I'm a slacker... so what. ;-)

But a lot of knitting happened. YAY for that!!! One of the big projects that needed finishing before Christmas was done at 9:30am last Saturday:

Needles: US 5 / 3.75 mm (Knitpicks Harmony)
Yarn: Jade Sapphire Mongolian Cashmere 2-ply
How much? approx. 2.75 skeins = 1100.0 yards (1005.8m)
Colorway: Plum Crazy

I really enjoyed knitting the DROPS Shawl with Leaf Pattern for Jacquie. Once I got going with it and made it my "only" project - yes, I can be a very good monogamist - it went faster then I expected. I was really shooting for the finish line to be Friday night, but I got so-o-o unbelievably tired around midnight that I stopped 6 rows before the end. I just couldn't bear to screw it up at the very end. So, with a rested and alert brain, it got done on Saturday morning.

All I need to do now is the blocking part and that will take no time.

And since I got the shawl finished Saturday morning, I put my housekeeper clothes on after that and started cleaning the house. The bathrooms really needed a good scrub (I still need to do the floors, but oh well), and I dusted and vacuumed to get ready for the holiday decorations. Oh, and I even went outside to cut a few bushes and clean up the front of our house, so we don't get black-listed by the Nazis of our homeowners association.

After that, Hubby and I got into Christmas mood - well, I guess I made him get into the mood - and he dragged boxes of crystal ornaments up from the basement, as well as our artifical tree. I even made him listen to holiday music. Poor guy... What was really funny tho', was that I asked him to pick the Christmas CDs he likes (We have about 30 and maybe only 5 or so are mine, so there...). Well, he looked around the CD player - we have one of those that holds 5 CDs - to see if I had left some Christmas CDs laying around. Boy, he knows me so well... Not only were the CDs still laying around - they were actually still in the player. Now, what does that tell you???

After putting the tree together, stringing the lights and decorating it with ONLY crystal ornaments (mostly Swarovski, Waterford and Mikasa - yes, he collects a lot of things), we have a very sparkly and quite beautiful Christmas tree this year, I must say:

Sorry for the blurry picture - I tried to hurry before the lights started blinking. Not that you would think we had lights on only one corner of the tree. ;-)

Yes, we do have crystal car ornaments and an American flag. :-)

On Sunday, Jen and I decided to pay Knitch a visit. It was a smaller group than usual because of the holiday weekend, but plenty of fun just the same. Jen decided to steek her husband's beautiful fair isle sweater in public. I used the camcorder function on my little camera and the videos turned out quite nicely. Once they're on YouTube, I'll let you know. But Jen sure had an audience, and we all gasped when she did this:

Such a brave woman - and she makes it look soooooooooooooo easy.

I also finally got my act together for some tiny little knitted Christmas and Hanukkah gifts. Since some of these people - big wave to Yvette and Bob ;-) - read my blog, I won't say here what the gifts are.

And while talking to my mom on Sunday, I found out what I can knit for her for Christmas. She told me she wanted to knit herself a hat with a brim - she's always wanted one and they are very trendy at the moment. I told her to hold her horses because I would knit one for her. And I found the perfect pattern. Here is the Half Pipe Hat from Son of Stitch 'n Bitch: 45 Projects to Knit and Crochet for Men. So I HAD to buy some yarn at Knitch. He-he-he... Love those excuses...

Yup, and it's already finished:

Needle: US 6 / 4.0 mm (INOX 16 inch circular & Knitpicks Harmony to magic loop for the crown)
Yarn: Rowan Wool Cotton
How much? 2 skeins = 246.0 yards (224.9m)
Colorway: Olive Green

It is one of Debbie Stoller's own patterns in the book. And she really isn't kidding when she says that this hat knits up fast - it took me only a few hours. Even the sewing part - sewing a plastic canvas into the brim - was not a very big pain in the rear. I'm very tempted to knit one for myself in another color. Mom wanted a very neutral color but I just couldn't make myself knit with white or beige. I think Mom will be a very cool 70-year old granny walking around with an light olive green Half Pipe Hat in my little hometown, don't you think?

What else? Since the Cat Bordhi class, I've been working on the Bartholomew's Tantalizing Socks from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One:

It's going slow because I haven't had much time to knit on it. Plus it needs some quite careful pattern reading. I also needed some encouragement from Jen on Sunday because I wasn't sure about the structure, and the sock looks very long... But Jen said to trust Cat Bordhi. And I will, I promise. ;-)

And last but not least, I'm done with the dress for the AKG Trauma Bear:

Needle: US 5 / 3.75 mm (Knitpicks Harmony for magic loop)
Yarn: Noro Kureyon
How much? 1 skein = 110.0 yards (100.6m)
Colorway: Bright rainbow colors

If I have some time between now and the next guild meeting, I'll knit a little shawl and maybe a hat band to match the dress. I still have some yarn left. The bear will be donated to the Atlanta Knitting Guild's Charity Project at the December Guild Meeting. They collect teddy bears dressed in knitted outfits, which the Georgia Center for Children gives to children who are in crisis situations. Such a cool charity project!

That's all for this dreary fall Tuesday morning. Have a great week!

Pardon the jerkiness, but I'm not Claudia Spielberg. ;-)

At least you get to see what Ms. Jen did last Sunday. You might want to sit down and take a little valium before you hit the play button. I have to say, tho', she sure makes steeking look very non-threatening...

Leading up to this climax are part one, part two and part three - in case you want to watch all the little videos I made.

Y'all - Advent starts tomorrow. I dragged the plastic wreath out of the storage closet and decorated my office today:

I hope you'll be the lucky recipient of an Advent calendar. When I grew up my Mom would always get such a calendar for me and my siblings:

So this year, Hubby had a great idea to celebrate Advent for me. He will do a Bovent. Which means I'll get a treat every day - a new CowParade cow. You could call it the 24 Cows of Christmas. And I'll share with you. You'll see each cow photographed with some of my favorite yarns. After all, this is a knitting blog, right?

So, lean back and enjoy with me. :-)

And to get you in the mood, I'll share with you what my dear coworker brought back for me from her trip to Germany last week. A Bavarian Cow Pie:

Yup, the cow pies in Bavaria are all like this. Hazelnuts, rice crispies and lots of chocolate. And we sell them to tourists. MUA-HA-HA-HA-HA...

And with this cartoon from The New Yorker for all the kitty lovers, I'll let you go into your weekend. Hope it's going to be a good one.

I have the first of quite a few holiday parties on Sunday. I can't wait, because all the guests are knitters and/or spinners. Pictures to follow!