Where I got THE cake, a knitting exhibition, the generosity of knitters

A lot of you have e-mailed me about where I got THE CAKE for the knit-one-one launch. I am sorry but if you don't live in the SF Bay Area, you will just have to knit your heart out instead of eating cake. The cake, a wonderful mousse/raspberry confection came from Sweet Adeline, located on the corner of Adeline (duh..) and 63rd Street in Oakland. Drop in, have a scone, a sandwich, a chocolate chip cookie. The café/bakery is a lovely bright spot and a perfect place to meet friends, while away a few hours or just to sit and knit! The goodies are terrific but the people are even better.

For those of you with a little extra time in your lives, I recommend trying to catch Embroidered stories/knitted tales in Walnut Creek. It closes on November 5th. My friend Nancy told me about his show. And today her blog, Away with Words , was chosen as the featured blog on Typepad. Way to go Nancy.

And now a little about some knitting people. By this phrase, I mean people who knit, not picking up your needles and knitting a person! Since starting this blog and knit-one-one , I have had lots of encouragement from the wonderfully creative rambunctious world of knitters. Just today I heard from Kristine at Curious Creek. Her yarns are really scrumptious and worth every penny you spend. A blogger I love to read is Knit and Tonic. Her irreverence is refreshing and in an amazing coincidence her blog of a few days ago referenced the aforementioned Curious Creek! One of the instructors at knit-one-one is Jesse aka Yarn boy. Jesse is an amazingly kind, creative, guy and a terrific teacher to boot. His first class at knit-one-one is The Magic Loop Sock and it promises to be a winner. And finally for this post anyhow, I will mention another favorite blog, Hiznits . Hiznits and I share a love of the water, dogs and knitting of course. Like Jesse he is a writer, and I wish him well as he holes up to work on his latest oeuvre.

Reusing and recycling wooly items and eating cake

Knit-one-one had a launch party on Saturday night and loads of people showed up. I am one of those people who love to have an excuse to throw a party. Of course it gives me a chance to indulge in 3 of my favourite past-times: eating, drinking and socialising. I have posted a few pics just to give you a flavour.

Inevitably there was much chat about knitting, felting and sundry other yarn related topics. Julie Weisenberger will be teaching a class soon at knit-one-one on transforming your old sweaters into"the Emily Elf Slipper." So as people were ogling the slippers, the conversation turned to giving up old and perhaps beloved sweaters and transforming them into other wonderful, useful, items. My friend Ellen suggested that we should call the class "the Gift that Keeps on Giving" because if you reuse a sweater given to you by an aunt, felt it and create the Emily Elf Slipper, that is exactly what you are doing.

My friend Janice has a gorgeous brown, black and cream Icelandic sweater, which she knit herself. However, she has almost never worn it. (The weather in the Bay Area is not exactly conducive to such a warm garment.) So she brought the sweater along to the party to ask Julie's opinion about the sweater's felting capabilities. (Janice has signed up for the class) The crowd reactions to her wanting to felt the sweater ranged from incredulous gasps, "Noooo, you can't do that!", "I could never do that" to cheers "Yeay, you go girl!" (In case you are wondering Julie and I were in the latter category.) Julie allowed as to how the sweater will be utterly transformed into gorgeous, comfy Emily Elf Slippers at the class. And Janice was immensely relieved and happy that she would finally get to wear her sweater, albeit in a different form!

My friend Pat, an unutterably fine seamstress, was so inspired by all the knitting and felting talk that she rushed home, raided her husband's old stash of sweaters and promptly felted them all! One sweater just shrank and didn't felt very much so Pat will do some embroidery on it and voila a perfect gift for a granddaughter. Another sweater is already on its way to being a hat. Pat did not disclose what transformations she has in mind for her other creations but knowing Pat, it will be something completely unexpected.

So the message is: "Hang on to those sweaters and don't throw anything wooly away!"

Tips and musings on knit-one-one's first class: Refined Garment Finishing with Julie Weisenberger

Knit-one-one had its first class yesterday and a good time was had by, all not to mention that Julie shared a gazillion tips on how to finish garments--specifically sweaters. One of the students, my swimming friend Shelley, almost filled a whole notebook about finishing armholes, neckholes and goodness knows what else. She has finished knitting a vest for her boss (lucky guy) and it looks very dapper indeed---a lovely dark blue-- which Shelley thinks is boring. The whole class disagreed with her. However, I do know what she means in that Shelly usually knits using many variegated colorful yarns, so I can imagine that this monochromatic color was a bit of a trial for her.

In case you don't know (I didn't until I took Julie's class), finishing a garment begins with the knitting even as early in the process as the casting on. Julie prefers the long tail method for sweaters which I had never used before. The long tail casting on method leaves a much neater end to your garment according to Julie. She showed us samples and I have to say I agree with her. The question of the moment was "But Julie, how do I know how long to leave my yarn?" Now, I should interject here that I have never been in the presence of Julie when she didn't have some very practical, wonderful answer to the many knitting questions she is barraged with daily. The answer to the above question:

The tail should be 4 times the length of the piece you are knitting. So for example, if you are knitting a sweater front, measure the front of one of your sweaters and the tail should be 4 times that length.

Another tip: When you are casting on a lot of stitches, put a stitch marker every 20 stitches. What a life saver this tip is. No more counting, recounting , and counting again to see how many stitches you have cast on.


Everybody in the class said that I should be saying more about the food that I serve at the classes. So here I will give the menu for the "hearty snacks" served at yesterday's class. I made an egg salad with fresh organic eggs which I get weekly from Eatwell Farm. I put the salad on little slices of Acme Bakery's sweet rustic baguette. Also on the menu was some coleslaw---again made with organic ingredients from Eatwell Farm. These were both accompanied with fresh apple slices from the Temescal Farmers' Market. The sweet ending was my shortbread which is an adaptation of a family recipe given to me by my Scottish sister-in-law, Hazel. Hmm... I am getting hungry just writing about this food. Because I am an intuitive type of a cook and generally cook with what is in season (luckily chocolate is always in season!), the menu of what I serve at the classes will vary. My thinking on the whole knitting classes plus food thing is is that people learn best when they are having a good time and when they feel comfortable. Since the classes often straddle traditional meal times, I thought it made sense to include hearty snacks with the classes so that people wouldn't be in class accompanied by the sound of stomach rumblings!

Website Launched!

The official knit-one-one website has launched! Sign up for classes and browse our other offerings at: www.knitoneone.com.

See you online!