Technique Tool Kit

I've been going to Rhinebeck for seven years now and have never taken a class there. This year Ann Budd decided to come and teach so I went and learned. I took her class on Friday; Cast On, Bind Off. You saw my wee swatches for the class a couple of weeks ago. 

As a bonus I got to see some of the vendors in their prep time. It is hard to believe but this area was packed the next day. I mean packed.

The number floating around for Saturday's attendance is 47,000. 

A bit easier to believe when you see all those people. 

Anyways, my class was very informative. Ann was charming, entertaining and knowledgeable. She told stories of how she learned to knit in Switzerland.

We each received two binders that we filled with the printed instructions and our swatches. We started off the day with the red binder and learning how to cast on. A few I knew and a few I did not. Even the ones that I knew I learned a couple of helpful tidbits. Ann initially split us into three groups. Each group would go and stand behind her while she demonstrated. We then went back to our spots and worked up a swatch leaving the last stitches live but on a red life line. That way we would not be confusing the cast on and bound off edges. Her comment on this was ask me how I know that. 

The blue bind off binder was filled in the afternoon, with you guessed it, bind off swatches. I learned how easy and lovely an i-cord bind off can look. Now I just want to knit a vest just so I can do an i-cord bind off around the arm holes like all the cool kids can.

I just love that I have so many more tools in my technique tool kit. Thanks Hubby for encouraging me to go and Thanks Ann for teaching.

Fast Approaching

So Rhinebeck is fast approaching and I am getting so excited about my class that I had a dream about my teacher Ann Budd. I don't remember much, other than sitting with Ann and discussing something knitting related. It may have been about a button band which is weird since I have never knit a button band. I do remember thinking to myself I'm knitting with Ann Budd!

Then sometime later that day I remembered that my class has homework?! Homework, I haven't done homework since...my ASL class last year. OK so it has not been that long but what would have happened if I came to class unprepared?

For class I have to knit eight swatches in stockinette and one in 1x1 ribbing. I get to choose my yarn and appropriate needle. Since I am a sock knitter and knit most of my things in a fingering weight do you think I should knit my swatches using fingering weight yarn? It does call for tightly spun wool yarn, sounds like sock yarn to me.

On the plus side I would be practicing using the yarn and needles I use the most. Much of the sock yarn I use is variegated and I can plan to have a color change occur on the bind off row, that should make it easier to see. On the minus side it would be sock yarn, sometimes it is easier to learn at a larger gauge.

What to do, what to do?

In other questions; do you think I can have her sign one of my books? I would not ask during class time but would that be inappropriate for some reason? If I do ask which book should I get signed, Sock Knitting Master Class or Top Down Sweaters?

Yes, I am really starting to get excited. Today I referred to the upcoming weeks as Stash Season. D looked at me funny and said You know there is no such thing as Stash Season. I replied that I did not know such thing since traditionally fall has been stash season since 2007.

I admit it

OK I admit it, I may be a bad influence. I contacted Kisknit to ask her opinion on which classes to take, because Anne Hanson and Cookie A are coming to a yarn shop near me. Well not really to the yarn shop but because of the yarn shop. They will each be teaching three classes.

Unfortunately, or fortunately for my bank account, they are all held the same weekend. So I needed to be selective, how to decide? I called my KS (Knitting Soulmate) and asked her what she would take. True to form she picked the one class I was 90% sure I would take, and another class I wanted to but could not make up my mind on.

Once she confirmed for me what I really wanted by choosing it herself, I pulled out the card and paid my fees. I may have sent an email and said that the classes were filling fast, but that part is still a bit hazy as my moral compass was spinning rather fast. Is it wrong to encourage your friends to take more than one knitting class in a month? On a scale of 1 to 10 how bad am I?

On Knitting

My friend Kisknit (my knitting soulmate) were talking last year and I was astonished to find out that she had never taken a knitting class. I find this amazing because I just assumed that once people found a level of obsession with their knitting that was the next step in the process, you use every available source to expand your knowledge, classes, podcasts, blogs, the internet and now Ravelry. I assumed everyone else went after knitting knowledge like it was the Holy Grail too.

So since she made a bold declaration to knit her stash down this year I antagonized her by inviting her to take a knitting class with me. Wait before you all start sending me hate mail, it is within the original rules. She did say that yarn could be bought if it was for a specific project. What is more specific than a knitting class?

So what will we be making, you ask? The Central Park Hoodie (CPH)

We merrily went to the yarn store on Sunday and each bought yarn. She got a bright beautiful green and I wimped out and went with my original choice after contemplating many colors. I will be knitting it in the same British Racing Green as D's current in progress sweater. I think it will look OK as it is a different style sweater than D's and it is very unlikely that we will wear them at the same time. I tried to look at other colors, I tried to tell myself that a lighter color would show the cables better, I really wanted that color! They did not have enough for my sweater but I think I will have 2 skeins left over from D's sweater. I took the plunge and bought what they had hoping that it would be the same dyelot. The amazing thing is that it was the same dyelot. See it was meant to be mine.

Oh, D's sweater is going along fine. I have most of it done now, I'm working on the collar, and just need to go back to the body bottom and knit some ribbing. I am not cutting yarn or weaving in ends till I have it all knit up and he tries it on. I want to be sure so I don't have to pick back any woven yarns to make changes.

So Kisknit and I are just counting down the time to class in February. Our homework is to knit a swatch, do you think I can just use D's sweater as an acceptable swatch?

A day in the life of Yarnkettle

So the problem with taking picture and organizing things a bit it that I have more than enough blog fodder but I seem confused and overwhelmed by it all. Now I want to tell you everything in one huge blog post.

I don't think any of us want to see that so I will try to limit and organize today's post by telling you about today. I know a day in the life of Yarnkettle seems as interesting as the Russian book. (A Day in the Life of Ivan Ivanovich.) Well I don't think it is going to work that way but it is way too early to tell.

We started dance classes again. We had taken 4 or 5 sessions of dance class through community education a few years ago, then D started graduate school and he was way too busy. I was happy to stay home and knit. You can really get a lot of knitting done when you are a school widow or golf widow or bike widow. But now he is back to having more free time for us and we jumped at the opportunity to try dancing again. We will never be Fred and Ginger but we can do better than looking like we are attempting to kill each other on the dance floor. We have our issues but I think we are more resolved to be ourselves and not worry about what others think. I have what I refer to as 'the anti-rhythm.' There is no help for it we just work around it. I also have problems with being lead, turns out I am a total control freak on the dance floor too. So to combat it I close my eyes, hard to try to lead when I can not see where I am going.

But after a few years off I am happy to report that the first dance lesson went better than I thought it would. I think we were both happy to be doing it again and that makes for a much more enjoyable time. Oh I still hate the Foxtrot but I will enjoy the swing portion. Who knew walking backwards would be such a big problem for me, oh yeah you do it in time to the music, that will get me every time.

I have talked a friend into taking a knitting class with me. We are off to the yarn shop tomorrow to sign up and make sure we do not choose the same yarn. Hey that is a real possibility with my knitting soul mate. We were married in the same year, her in NY and me in SD we picked the same dress. Of all the wedding dresses they make how likely is it to meet a person that wore the same style as you a month later? Since she gave her wedding dress away and I kept mine I have offered to let her daughter wear mine. Don't worry she is just over a year now I have some time to get used to the sharing idea. She may not want to feed her too many veggies since I am shorter than Mommy so she may need to stunt her growth a bit.

So I really like the color of the sweater I am knitting for D now, would it be wrong to make a sweater for me in the same color? It would be a different style, does that help?

My cats have taken to cuddling with me when I am knitting. Gus to my left and Jack either on me or to my right.

Jack even crawled into D's sweater as I was knitting the sleeve. Everyone in the family loves Mom's wooly goodness.  You can conserve many BTUs wrapped in wool next to a knitter.

That red thing would be my upside down cup cozy on Jack's head. Wool is warm and never goes out of fashion. Words to live by people, words to live by.