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.
