A Piece of History

Every wanted to be part of getting a book published?  Annie Modesitt is publishing "A History on Two Needles" and is looking for some financial backing.  Check it out as it's kind of like an NPR donation; there are prizes attached, like a free e-edition of the book when it's published.  The pieces are amazing.  Go, Annie!
See the Slideshow and her Flickr stream and her website.  

Busy week!

Busy week for the Stockinettes.  It started out with Stitch 'n Pitch.  Thanks to everyone who pulled that together.  Nice tote bag souvenirs and free hot dogs, chips, and sodas for the seniors (I think that happens every Monday).

Sandi and Jude looking like they threw out the first ball, but they didn't.  

Last Sunday Gwen Bortner came to teach us the joys and beauty of Entrelac.  She had a large trunk show with her and the samples were amazing.  You can follow Gwen on her website Knitability and if you missed the class you can take on online version at Crafty.com I hear that's great and almost like having her there in person.  In the afternoon Gwen taught us how to really take our measurements so that the garments we make truly fit and how to turn those measurements and a  proper gauge swatch into a sweater.  Turns out you can't measure yourself.  You need a partner for that and she had lots of suggestions how to fit that into a date-night activity.  Use your imagination.  Both classes were packed with information and had excellent handouts and resources.  Gwen will also be teaching at TKGA in Reno.  Registration is tentatively set to open on June 13th but check the web TKGA - Reno Event to stay updated. I think any of her classes would be a terrific addition to your knitting know-how bag.  Thanks for visiting us, Gwen!

Elizabeth, Lisa, Gwen, Jude and Doris..............

Monday night found about 15 Stockinettes gathered at Lisa's house to sew together all of the strips we have been knitting for the upcoming yarn bombing at the Discovery Museum.  Fiber Event Discovery Museum  Susan cranked out yards and yards on her machine and we all sewed and chatted and had a grand old time.  We even had the help of a few of Lisa's pets.  We will gather again on Saturday June 2nd at 10AM for the installation that will be up for two weeks.  Knit in Public day will be June 9th at the Museum grounds.  Bring your chairs, umbrellas, water, snacks, and your knitting and sit in the midst of the yarn bombing which is really an art installation.  Hope you made or sewed a few strips and get to see them displayed.  I'll post pictures for sure.  

 Susan manning the ironing board 

 Sewers.  Who said we don't like to weave in ends.

 Measuring the distance - this is about 400 yards.

I helped just by being cute and quiet.  

Leave it to the Experts

Perhaps you've heard stories of copies of "The Principles of Knitting" by June Hemmons Hiatt going on EBay for over $400.  The first edition went out of print in the mid-1990s and was a very hot item indeed. We heard rumors that she was updating her book and here it is!  Principles of Knitting

Currently selling for about $26 from Amazon and so far well worth every penny.  I'll tell you why.  I'm a pretty experienced knitter, self-taught, but experienced.  It's rare that I can't figure something out.  But I have a tool called a 3+2 or a croneedle that I use to pick up stitches if I'm adding a button band or collar or something like that.  It has a crochet needle on one end and a knitting needle on the other end and I never could quite figure out how to get the stitches off once I had picked them up.  I would gingerly knit them off the crochet hook end.

So today, as I went to pick up some stitches, I thought to myself, "Self, let's see what June has to say about picking up stitches" and lo and behold, the truth about this needle appeared right there on page 109.  The trick is that you do a type of long tail cast on so that when you finish picking up the stitches, you just go to the needle end where the end of the yarn that goes to the ball will be.  How could I have been so blind?  I am so wedded to doing a cable cast on that I never consider doing any other kind.  I heard one review of this book that counted her cast-on techniques.  52 of them.  Imagine that.  She has instructions on the Tricolor Braid Cast-On and the Contrast Color Half-Hitch Edge.  How about Wrapped Cast-ons and a Knit Picot Cast-on.  Seriously, this is the book to go to for both experienced and novice knitters.  It's big, over 700 pages and 450,000 words.  It's mostly black and white photos and lovely, clear illustrations for the techniques.  This is a book everyone needs in their personal library, no doubt.  Thanks, June!  Well done.

I don't think this particular croneedle is available any longer from Skacel but a work-around per the suggestion from the nice folks at Purlsoho is to build your own if you have Addi-Clicks.  You can also do the same with  Denise Interchangeables.

Oh what a tangled mess we weave.......

Intarsia by any other name can be a tangled mess.  I did an intarsia sweater for my youngest grandson about 10 years ago and I thought it turned out pretty good (shown here with my niece who now has her own young one) but I just couldn't get the hang of it this time.  Enter Lucy Neatby!  Lucy was here last year teaching a class which you may have missed (I did).  Turns out, she has done a wonderful series of DVDs that are in our library.  Elizabeth R. mentioned them to me and I'm so glad I checked them out.  Each volume runs over two hours and it's like having a private lesson with Lucy.  The photography is great, the sound volume is great, and she not only gives you step by step instructions but gives you glimpses into fantastic intarsia fantasies.  Did you know that if you use the wrong color or don't like a color section, you can completely change out the color, even if you're done with the garment?  It was amazing to watch her switch out a red section and change it to blue.  Here are some of the topics in Volume 1 :

• Chart preparation and making a shade card
• Yarn and tool preparation
• The first few rows
• Living with and resolving tangles
• Reading wrong side rows
• Rescue techniques

The DVD is nicely indexed so you can easily return to any section if you want to review something.  I'm going to give my sweater another try and see if I can neaten it up Neatby style.  The pattern I'm using is an old one, Truck Sweater by Ann Norling which is on Ravelry http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/truck-sweater  Also check out Lucy at http://www.lucyneatby.com  On to Volume II.  If you've read something from our library recently that you'd like to review, just sent the review to me via email or Ravelry and I'll post it here.  Our library is such a great resource.  What have you been reading from it lately?  Post a comment below and share.

Spotted at Stitches

Look who was spotted at Stitches and who was mentioned in the Never Not Knitting Blog (scroll down to the 4th picture from the bottom for a nice storyline).  Our own Elizabeth R.  Lookin' good there, Elizabeth.

Spring Flowers!

Spotted at A Perfect Blend and knitted by our newsletter guru, Sandi.  She'll be entering her flowers for the April Challenge at the next guild meeting, so better get working on yours.  Flowers can then be used for the yarn bombing Fiber event at The Discovery Museum  in June.  The Guild is supporting this event and has bought a fence that will be bombed with 7" wide strips of knitted or crocheted acrylic fabric and decorated with FLOWERS, all shapes and sizes and varieties.  (Hint, click on the FLOWERS link to be taken to a Ravelry page for free crochet and knit flower patterns.  You have to be a member so if you're not, follow this link Ravelry and set up your account today.  It's free and pretty much risk-free except for frequent episodes of yarn lust and project envy).

Another hint for today is to look on the right hand sidebar.  See where it says "Follow by email"?  If you fill in your email address there, every time there is a new post it will show up in your inbox.  Or, underneath all the posts, you can sign up for an RSS feed.  More on that later.  Master knitters arriving here soon.

RAVELRY!

2nd Monday of the month is our Program night open to CCS members only.  Tonight Cindi presented "Ravelry - the ins and outs and how-tos".  It was a very engaged crowd that had lots of questions and we hope that they all go out and sign-up for Ravelry and "friend" one another.  A few of the members shared their Rav names:  Nina is Ninaclock145, Cindi is Cindiknits, Beth is Topfrog, and Jude is Meherbie.  Once you find one of us or someone else you know on Ravelry, you can look at their friends and maybe find some you know as well.  A suggestion was made to maybe include Ravelry names on the membership list.  You can also add your Ravelry name to your CCS name tag.  And once you are up and running on Ravelry, be sure to go to Groups and search for Camellia City Stockinettes and join the group.  Have fun!