knitting group

Knitting group this morning was fun again. Since each person in the group is doing different things, different subjects came up during the morning.

Angie had taken a scarf to the fair for her 4-H project, and though she wasn't there, we heard that she had gotten a blue ribbon. The judge was quite pleased that her cast-on and bind off were really loose. She needed to know more about design decisions to have gotten a purple. We will work on that for next year! She was the only one to enter a project this year, so, we will work harder on getting the 4-H students to get their projects done in time.

Mary had started a scarf, and was trying to decide what to do with it. She had two colors of yarn, gray and cream. Over the course of the meeting, we discussed the Fibonacci sequence and how it is pleasing to the eye.

Marjorie was starting some two needle mittens, and Mabel and I suggested that she do both mittens at once, so they were the same size. This also prevents finishing one mitten, and having to start over again and do the same thing all over again. My mom taught me this technique for sleeves, left and right fronts, front and back -- whenever you have two pieces that you want to wind up the same size. Use two different balls of yarn, and do NOT knit across the two. I find it helps to pin together at the center, to remind me which way I WANT to go across. My own mnenomic is not to stop a row between the two pieces, but either at the complete end of a row (both pieces done) or somewhere in the middle of the row where the working yarn will tell me which way I'm going.

Janine brought the "Pursenalities" book, so we had a great time looking at it. She is working on one of the "Two Old Bags" felted bags, a shell from a Sweater Wizard generated pattern (she figured out how to pick up stitches today), and planned a couple of other projects going. Today she planned out two more projects -- mittens and a winter jacket!

Carrie came and worked on a paperback loom. She isn't interested in knitting, but loves to come and chat with us.

We've decided to do a yarn crawl in November. We're going to call ahead and make arrangements. Sounds like fun!