The Frog Queen in Action!!!

Frogging. What can we say about it. It can be therapeutic to some knitters. It can be frightful to others. But it is part of knitting. We are only human and sometimes our knitterly pursuits go terribly wrong. This week we are highlighting the Frog Queen herself...in action.

This past Sunday was extra special. Although our numbers were small, we did observe an extra special treat... The Frog Queen (aka Melissa H. or the Yarn Girl) showed us her stuff. Gale had experienced an egregious gauge error. After much debate, coaxing, and convincing Gale finally handed over the "sock" (or shoe bag, as we dubbed it - this thing was truly enourmous and big foot himself would have had trouble wearing it - even if it was shrunk!) to Melissa who happily frogged along.

Extra special thanks to Jan, the Frog Hand Maiden, who graciously offered her assistance. enjoy the video and feel free to send your condolences to Gale at rai dot cara at gmail dot com.

Although Gale's mystery sock mysteriously turned into a shoe bag and ultimately met the fate of the Frog Pond, we had other successes!

The mystery sock before meeting its fate...



Leanne made a day trip to Regina and haunted the local shops (The Golden Willow and Hip2Knit). She came with treasures in tow and showed them off. Lots of ooooh's and aaaaah's were had as we all joined in the petting rituals of the nifty finds she found. She also finished another sock. She is embracing the sock addiction like a seasoned knitter...





Mellissa finally won the battle of the BSJ and completed the jacket, a tiny berry hat and one bootie. What a lucky baby the recipient will be!







Marion completed knitting and felting this adorable hand bag (which carried her supplies and projects to group).



Finally, I decided to take a dip in the designer pool and built my favourite technique into a sock (yes, I too am quite addicted to both cables and socks). One is done and the second is currently in progress...



The "Crack Lady" cast on (or, Judy Becker's Cast on Method as demonstrated by sock guru"ess", Cat Bordhi). This has quickly become a favourite method within our group...can be found at...

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=lhBIS0AhhQY

New encounters...

Meeting up with Knitterly friends was a most exciting event today. Much stitching was had, new friends were made, finished projects were shown off, and we even had to disband early due to another group of coffee lovers invading our stitching corner.

To those of you who were unable to join us today, and you know who you are, you were missed. However, we brought in a new round of stitchers. This is an official welcome to Trisha, Leanne and Jennifer...a few new gals with as much a love of all things yarn as we have. Yes, I'm glad to announce that our little group is growing fast and we filled out the back room of MacKenzie Coles quite nicely. As I mentioned we needed to break up a bit early today due to another group of coffee lovers having booked the room. We have, however, cured this issue in the future as the room is now reserved for us every Sunday between 2pm and 5pm. I'm so excited that we actually NEED to book space for our growing little circle.b

Jennifer, a computer lover as well as an eclectic knitter, was working on a knitterly version of a dissected frog. Yes, you read right (no need to re-read)...a dissected frog. She is a self pronounced knitteress of all things strange and wild. (I'm quite excited to eavesdrop on the conversation between Jennifer, Gale and Alison - when she returns to us. It should be a fairly interesting bit as Jennifer was keen on viewing Alison's Shrunken Head purse...)


And here is a preview, just for you Jennifer, of Alison's Shrunken Head purse:


PS: Alison, bring it along with you when next we meet...

Leanne kept her hands busy creating a pair of beautiful yellow baby booties. They were adorned with a ruffle cuff and are sure to please the recipient.

Trisha, enjoyed passing her love of crochet onto Summer (Jan's Granddaughter). Summer's relationship with knitting is currently on a time out. However, she seemed to enjoying the hooking until it bored her - we shall keep trying to infect her with our disease.

And, a big welcome to Nadia. Nadia was working on a pair of felted mittens. She wore her knitted socks and has plans to expand her repetoire of knitterly experience into a pair of slippers.

We had a great time getting to know the new gals in our group and truly hope they shall return.

Jan remained dedicated to finishing the shawl that was begun months ago. Last week it grew and this week Jan stitched speedily on finishing the last cuff. Here is hoping that next week she will model it for us.



We welcomed back our sunshine, both inside and out. Welcome back Pam. She brought some beautiful show and tell and spread her infectious giggle throughout the group. Pam has been busy crocheting up hats and scarves for her loved ones. Those pictured below are to adorn her lovely little niece:



Jeanette attained a record today. She actually stayed and stitched for about 2 hours! She made great progress on a baby blanket that is to be gifted to a very good family friend recently had twins. The Hoodie Baby Blanket is stitched from Lion Brand's Cotton Ease (50% cotton and 50% acrylic), which makes it wonderfully machine washable and absorbent at the same time.

Gale has made great progress for she busied herself seaming her Hoodie / Bunny Hug made of Homespun. We are looking forward to her modeling the completed item next week.

We even had a brief visit with Melissa and Acadia, sans stitching. You see, Melissa has suffered a knitting related accident that is keeping her from knitting. It would appear that knitting can be dangerous, my friends, as Melissa's sprained thumb is proof of. Her vigorous technique has left her knitting-less. We all offer her our heart felt empathy. Melissa commiserated with me over the mis-adventure of the book, the car and the credit card :) She so totally gets it ! You can look into all Melissa's adventures over here.

Now for me, what have I been up to? Baking for one in the new KitchenAid Convection oven!! Yes, it arrived and is well loved and used. While out and arranging for its delivery last week, I found myself mere blocks from McNally Robinson. The car, being possessed by some knitterly entity, forced me into the parking lot of the book store. What was I to do? Just sit there and wait for it to get the notion to become mobile once again? Well, that didn't seem right. Into the book store I go.

Where do I find myself, but in the knitterly book section. What do I find there? Why, a new knitterly book to add to my collection of course!!!! I left the store with Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book. An interesting compilation of history, technique and design that is a wonderful addition to my library (all the other books have welcomed her with open arms and no complaints can be heard from the library shelves). I was excited to see a contest connected to this publication: The Ultimate Sock Contest. Since the deadline is March 15, I have my doubts if I'll have the time to put in an entry :( However, I cannot wait to see what sort of creations the knitterly sock maids of the world come up with.

PS: I take no responsibility for being forced into the situation that lead to the buying of this book. For, as you all know, the Knitting Goddess works in mysterious ways and who are we to question her ultimate wisdom and direction? That could prove dangerous, as we all know.

On the project front: The Confused Cardigan is still in the works but the Jaywalkers are nearing completion. I am on the final few rows of the toe and hope to be wearing them next week!


Until next week, my friends...Happy Stitching :)

The Fearless Knitters...

Fearless knitting was our theme. We fearlessly discussed the ins and outs of meat knitting. We showed our wares. And, best of all, we tackled new techniques.

We began our knit with some knatter. Meat! Yes, my friends, there is a whole hoard of knitters out there who knit meat and meat related items. They, in my opinion are indeed fearless! Surf on over to Melissa's Blog for some really cool meat related tid bits, sites and discussion. An entire culture has been built around the construction of food related items. Knitters are indeed the creators of a mirror of life in that almost everything edible has been made from putting two pointy sitcks and some yarn together.

Show and tell came next. Just take a look at Alison's first attempt at felting. A beautiful carry-all created from a palette of colours pleasing to the eye and spiced up with an intricate geometric pattern. After expertly putting yarn to needles and stitching up a storm, Alison threw the fabric through the felting process and, VOILA, out came a beautiful accessory big enough to carry knitterly items, books, or anything her heart desires.

During the show and tell we deviated from our normal knitterly discussions to listen to Alison's review of the latest series of books that she is tackling. The Book of Shadows, The Book of Spirits and The Witchery by James Reese are " a remarkable trilogy of magic, upheaval, lush sensuality and epic history." Alison successfully piqued the interest of several of our knitters / readers.

Next on the show and tell agenda was Mary. Although she did not create these beauties, she did regale the tale behind them. Mary's daughter is a Tibetan translator and through her professional pursuits, Mary had formed a knitterly friendship or two. These socks, knit in what we assume is the Tibetan tradition, were recently sent to Mary. In return Mary agreed to dye some burgandy yarn and send back a pair of hand knit beauties of her own making. The only down side is the socks seen in the picture below are a wee bit too small for Mary to wear herself.
Now, onto to our own experiment in fearless knitting: Toe up socks. The internet is plied with numerous free patterns, hints, and techniques in relation to this style of sock making. There is a plethora of cast on techniques, a few types of heels and numerous patterning techniques to make the sock interesting. I'll leave it to you to seek out your own, but will say that Ravelry is a superb resource for anyone looking to give this mode of sock construction a go.

Jeanette (our apprentice knitter) put aside her Teddy Bear Construction in favour of creating some socks. We made a trip to Prairie Lily on Friday and picked out new yarns (for as you all know full well the current stash was just not offering any inspiration - besides a new technique is a great reason to shop for more!). She was thrilled with the wall of sock yarn in Prairie Lily and picked out two slightly matching balls of sock yarn. As anyone with teenagers will tell you, matching socks are boring. Therefore, Jeanette's plan is to create a stash of mismatched hand crafted beauties to keep her tootsies warm.


After an afternoon of stitching and some very interesting false starts here are the results. The toes were completed by Jan, Melissa and myself. Not everyone took on the challenge of Toe Up Sock Construction: Kristin brought along her Chevron Crocheted Afghan, Gale kept on stitching her Homespun Bunny Hug and Mary opted for the cuff down variety and made use of her beautiful hand dyed yarn.

Those of us who attempted the feat were not swayed by the confusion of learning a new cast on method. Although it took a while to get the technique down pat, we were soon off stitching up a frenzy. For a very simple cast on method please direct your browsers to Denise's Toe Up Sock Lesson One. A great sight for everything toe up related. Another good resource is Knitty.com where a number of various patterns and techniques and tutorials can be located. Hear is a group picture of some of our progress:

Finally, I was able to get some knitting time in this past week and finished the Presto Chango baby sweater. A friend is about ready to have her baby girl very soon (due date is March 2, 2008) and absolutely loved this little creation. It was a joy to create a baby item. I find them to be fulfilling, joyful and a pleasure to craft plus they offer the added bonus of satisfying the quick fix or instant gratification portion of my personality. Now onto creating some items for another friends set of twins. Jeanette and I have both decided to knit up something special for the little boy and little girl to help keep them warm. She'll take on the boy and I'll do something for the girl. Any ideas? Pass them on...

As always, my friends, keep on stitching. Don't forget to check out the Saskatoon Knitting Circle on Facebook for updates and information and event postings. We are still looking for new members to join us on our Yahoo mailing group as well, so check us out and sign yourself up! As always we meet every Sunday at 2pm at MacKenzie Coles Coffee here in Saskatoon, SK.

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