Fetching fingerlesses, and the fetchings: Kate, Emily and Petra

Well a few weeks ago I was cursing like a trooper as I was trying to manipulate those bloody tiny Double Pointed Needles and an even tinier bloody cable needle. Sorry Cheryl. (Cheryl is the generous, kind, creator of the pattern on Knitty). I take it all back. The gloves turned out fabulously. And sorry to the wonderful Project a Day Kate who was the teacher of the class. In my defense I was not the only one cursing, but I was definitely the most voluble. Kate is an amazingly good teacher. She comes by the talent honestly as her father is a professor. And did I mention that her mother was in the class too! Kate was clear, cool, and funny, giving us all great encouragement and churning out useful tips by the minute---or so it seemed. She will be doing both the Magical Mystery Knitting Party as well as the the Fiona Felted Clutch . Take a class from her. Just my advice. And if you need a few Irish curses, I can supply those.

And another of those Fetching ladies is the eminently patient and creative Emily. Emily created the website for knit-one-one and was a total pleasure to work with. She also took the fingerless glove class and if she was cursing, it was sooo quiet that I didn't hear her. Her gloves turned out fabulously--they are the lighter pink ones in the pics above.

And the final fetching lady for tonight is Petra, the Felting Queen. Petra has this amazing collection of felted items she has created---you name it, she can felt it. But the other thing about Petra is her fabulous sense of color. I mean look at these fabulous creatures . The other day I was carrying one of Petra's bag and you wouldn't believe how many people stopped to ask about it. The other amazing thing about Petra is how she remembers the colors of yarns. A few nights ago my friend Susan pulled out some yarn and immediately Petra ups and says" Oh that birches in Norway is gorgeous". Susan and I were gob smacked and Susan was so amazed that she almost forgot why she had pulled out the yarn in the first place. She wanted to consult Petra on a suitable wrap pattern for the shawl---another speciality of Petra's---matching yarn to a pattern. Susan consulted. And Petra advised. I hope we see the wrap soon.

wonder women/the blanket of babel 2

Wonder Women: (I know there are millions of you out there but today I will mention a few
1
One of my knitting and swimming friends Jennifer arrived at the
Magic Loop sock class with a virtual treasure trove of items in progress (WIPs). We were all gob smacked as the Irish would say by how much she manages to accomplish and mind you she is in her last year of her PhD program at Cal. All of which is to say that her holiday knitting is well under way. What about yours?

2
I had mentioned in a previous post how much support I have been getting from all you knitters out there. The latest show of kindness and good words was from the fabulous Yarn a go go herself. How she manages to knit all those wonderful creations is a total mystery to me what with her writing, dog walking, baking and.......well also working plus probably loads of things that I don't even know about. And she posts regularly too!
3 and 4
Lots of you e-mailed to remind me to put up another picture of the Isabel on her blanket. Sandy, her Mom, is going to take a pic of the divine Isabel on her blanket with the border showing clearly--this a request from my friend and knitting buddy, Peggy . Peggy has just recently had her second hip (yes, second) replaced, but is already able to knit (of course!) walk and dance for heavens sake.Sandy in addition to knitting up a storm for Isabel is also a student, studying and writing papers, plus ministering to the many times afore-mentioned Isabel.

PS Did I mention that the knitting aunties and uncle are thrilled to have a baby to knit for, cluck over and to cuddle!

The blanket of babel for Isabel

A few weeks ago a group of knitting friends and I had a terrific few hours of actually really knitting together. And I mean really working together. So you know when you are with a group of knitters, usually you are all working on a different project or sometimes using the same pattern but you are in fact working alone. The creation of "The Babel Blanket" aka 'Isabel's blanket" was completely different. A bit of background. Isabel has recently been adopted by our friends Sandy and Chris and really Isabel has the best knit wardrobe of any baby in the Bay Area. But I digress.

Months ago, our knitting group, the Just Knitters, decided to knit a blanket for Isabel and our friend, teacher and group member Julie gave us our marching orders as to the size of square we were supposed to knit. Tana, Sandy and Julie chose the origninal colors of the yarn but when we ran out, Sarah Jane added in many other colors. Hadas and I made the yarn into balls. Actually to be more precise, I did the winding while Hadas commented sotto voce on the color choices. Kate and Christine distributed them to each one of us including Peggy, Betsy, and Ricardo. We were on our way. We knit our squares plus or minus according to the Julie directions and then we got together to sew it in one piece.

This is where the group knitting took place. Each one of us had a task but of course the biggest challenge was how to piece the squares together so that they looked as if they were part of the whole. And as you might expect, some of the pieces were not knit exactly according to specifications! I will not name names---they know who they are. Tana had the brilliant idea of making little pieces to fill in for the small squares, Julie created a pattern for an edging piece which Hadas, Tana, and Ricardo got to work on right away. Christine, Sarah Jane and Kate made a few extra squares because we were a few short. I sewed in errant pieces of yarn, Julie and Betsy started the heculean task of sewing the squares together. Our friend Peggy gave us encouragement from afar---she had just had hip replacment surgery and Margot fed us and encouraged us in our labors. We all loved the process. I have included a few pics of the work in progress and in a few weeks, I will let you see the finished masterpiece!

Isabel in one of her many knitted wonders---this knit in Malabrigo

Mmmmm.. ....do these go well together?