This poor swatch got really put through the wringer! First we had to cut a stitch and unravel back to show how you could cut your knitting to make changes (shorten, lengthen, etc). I wasn't afraid to cut, remember the Superman costume legs? I'd already cut them and lengthened them by an inch, before grafting the feet back on. We also learned how to fix a mistake by duplicate stitching then cutting out the original yarn. In this swatch, the blue stitches in the Fair Isle row were originally black. We duplicated-stitched over them, then cut out the black stitches.
This was our intarsia sampler. She gave us some great techniques for avoiding holes without too much twisting of the yarn.

After the classes Saturday night a bunch of us went out for dinner with Sally. We had a great time and had some yummy (but overpriced) Italian food in Dorval.

On Sunday it was one workshop all day long; I forget the name but it was something about tips and techniques "...for the Self-Taught Knitter".
This was a little stockinette stitch swatch I made to show Angie that knitting wouldn't unravel sideways. She was positive that if you cut your knitting, it will all come undone- this was to show her that even in a plain-old acrylic yarn, the stitches aren't going anywhere. The 1-stitch width you see unravelled above took a LOT of tugging and pulling to get it to "pop out" on its own.
This hideous piece was our increase, decrease and bobble sampler. It also prompted a witty observation- we spend money to go to a workshop, spend all day joyfully knitting away, then come home to our significant others waving this deformed mess at them, proudly exclaiming "look what I did today!!!". No wonder non-knitters don't get it!
This last swatch was for practicing seaming and buttonholes. I think one of the best "a-ha!" moments of the class was her tips on picking up stitches for a neckband. One simple modification to eliminate any gaps- it's genious.

All in all, it was a great weekend spent with some great people. I am thrilled that I was able to meet a knitting legend like Sally, and wish her much success with future books and projects.

Labels: MKG, Sally Melville, workshop

It came out perfect, with one small flaw. It's small. It's supposed to be about 17" long. Mine? Maybe 8". I switched yarns and instead of using a bulky yarn I used a dk-weight yarn. I didn't feel like fussing with the pattern (although it is really easy to make it whatever size you want) so I left it as is.
Here's a bad photo of it with Jakob to give you an idea of it's actual size.

I figure that it's being given to an infant. She's tiny, so her little toy can be tiny. Who knows...maybe she'll end up loving it and it will be the "doodoo" that she carries around until she's 18?

As I mentioned I wanted to give something to Elodie as well so she wouldn't feel jealous of the attention (and gifts) that the new baby was getting.

After some debate between knitting anothe cupcake, another bunny or another swatch bunny, the cupcake won. Both bunnies only take about an hour or two of knitting, but they each have quite a bit of seaming. The cupcake takes under an hour to knit and really only has 4 ends to weave in once you're done.

This time I followed the pattern exactly as written. I won't do that again. There's nothing *wrong* with the pattern, but my (and Yannick's) mental image of a cupcake has some overhang where the top meets the base. We're probably influenced by our love of muffins, and we freely admit that. Regardless...we like my variation on the cupcake better, so when I knit more of these ("when", not "if") I will continue to use my increase/decrease rounds in the icing section.

Labels: Blanket Buddy, Cupcake Stuffed Toy, FO, Sally Melville, workshop

Here he is having NO idea what he's about to get into.

...here comes the airplane...open the hangar...

...and the verdict is...

...he likes it! Ok, he really didn't express any form of like or dislike over the strange mushy stuff we were repeatedly spooning into his mouth. He did, however, avoid crying or fussing, and kept breaking out in his usual grins, so we're counting this as a success!

We've been giving him a sippy cup with some purified water after each meal to help wash down the cereal, and he has yet to refuse the cup. If he continues to take it we'll see if we can get him to take breastmilk or formula in it, and since he's still refusing bottles, this might be a way to be able to leave him for longer than 2-3 hours. (Of course, I'm not going to try to get him to take bottles any more, because there is no sense in getting him started on them just to have to wean him. I'd rather him go straight to the sippy cup).

Here's another photo of him, just because. :) I can't stop taking photos of him and I can't stop staring at them, so now you all get to see what I get to see every day. My gosh I love this boy!

Does anyone remember the Froggy Hat and Socks set? I finally found the bag of handknits I made while pregnant. Just in time too...the socks are too big still but the hat barely fits! I think he will have worn it just for this photo, and it is now going to go into the "grown out" bin.

This is my short row swatch. The pink section uses the "wrap and turn" method, which I usually tend to use in garments (like the bum area of the Superman costume). It works well, but if you look closely you can see the 3 turning points. The blue area uses a "yarn over, slip first stitch" method, which I enjoy. I find it shows less than the wrapped one, and I tend to use it a lot on short-rowed sock heels (and toes). The yellow sections use what I think she called the "Japanese or catch method" where you grab the back of the stitch in the row below to close the gap. I didn't mind it, but it was fiddly. I was knitting fast on Sunday so I had enough time to make a second "catch" swatch and do the short row/3-ndl bind off shoulder method. I didn't really need practice on that, however, as I almost always adapt patterns to enable that bind off on the shoulders. I really, really like the professional look it gives.

Before the short row class was over we were given the time to work on a creative swatch. The assignment was to work the short rows while interrupting a pattern, and the examples given were lace and cables. I decided to see what would happen if I worked short rows while working a striped pattern. This was the first time I used 2 different colors to cast on (I did the long tail method) and I was able to practice my Fair Isle. I tend to pull too tight when switching colors (probably because I do a lot of intarsia) so I was trying hard to keep things loose. I was also holding the green with my left hand and practicing the two-handed technique. I was able to knit pretty fast using both hands, but I had to remember to knit that color through the back loop on the following rows because the stitches I knit from my left hand wound up mounted the wrong way on the needle.

This is my swatch from the slipped stitch class. There are 6 different techniques shown, I did the first 4 twice each for practice. I never before realized how much fun slipped stitches are, and how much I enjoyed working them and how much I like the look of them. I think this is something I will definately have to play around with some more!

It was delicious! Thanks Caroline! Next time I would probably try adding just a dash of lemon juice (I like how it brings out the flavor of the apples) and I would put less sugar, because I found it sweet. I would also probably make up for the less sugar by serving it warm, with vanilla ice cream. :) What I also found cool was that I'd sprayed the dishes with Pam first and the resulting dessert was able to pop out and still hold its shape...so I would try making it in smaller ramekins next time I entertain and each person could get their own little one for dessert, maybe with some melted chocolate drizzled across the top...

The other last thing is my current knitting. I have been working on something but I can't show photos of it here. I can tell you it's a hat, but I can't say much more because it is one of my Knitty.com submissions. My mom's manicurist saw a photo of it and wants me to make her some to give as gifts, but before I can figure out how much to charge I need to make a second one and record how long it took, the exact yardage it took, etc. So I've been working on that for about a week now, but today I decided to put it aside temporarily.

We have a family event to attend this coming weekend and I wanted to dress Jakob up a little. I decided to knit him a little vest to wear with a white button-down shirt and dress pants. After rooting through what little of my stash is unpacked, I found some gray Patons yarn left over from the Glam Coat. I have two balls left, which I'm sure is more than enough for a baby's vest. I didn't feel like hunting down a pattern at the right gauge, so I spent today writing one up. I was able to knit the ribbing too, and hopefully I will have a vest in time for this weekend.

Here's my swatch, before I unravelled it. I wasn't sure if I wanted to use a garter or ribbed edging for the cuffs, so I swatched it with both. That's regular garter on the bottom, sideways knit-on-as-you-go garter on the top left, and ribbing on the top right. I like the look of the regular garter the best but the swatch kept flipping up really badly along the first stocking stitch row, so traditional ribbing it is.

Tomorrow I get to go knitting with Robyn, Tara and the blogless Kate, so I hope to have some vest progress photos by night time.

Labels: Fiona Ellis, FO, Froggy Hat and Socks, WIP, workshop