Zig Zag Afghan

It's done! This is an afghan made from 50/50 Bamboo/Cotton yarn. Colors chosen by my eldest son, and finally his to take away to college. He was able to take it with him when he went home from Thanksgiving break.

I've just posted the pattern free on my website. Its a traditional pattern and not mine. My grandmother made on very similar to this for me when I was in high school/college.

It took a bit longer than I expected, but I probably averaged an hour a day for 2-1/2 months.

Nice and large. 48" x 54" without stretching.

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A Quarter Century

Today marks the day that I have worked at IBM for 25 years. So much has changed in that time. Rather amazing I'm still there.

In honor of that, my boss held a reception for me in Las Vegas during the Information on Demand conference. It was a way to be able to celebrate with mor of the people I have worked with over the years. My mom and dad and twin sister were also able to join me. I had a great time.



The week before, I designed a color sweater pattern to be worked on the knitting machine. I wanted it to be my QCC Sweater (quarter Century Club), so I chose a Laurel leaf as a motif. I took inspiration from the following image.



I have been thinking for a long time that I'd like to design with gradual color changes in the foreground and hardly any color changes in the background. This seemed the perfect opportunity. You can see these colors in the two following photos:



This final photo shows the bands of patterns that I plan on using. The sweater has a lower band with Navy background, persimmon, ginger and toffee in the foreground. (Shows 11001). Then the next band goes from golden greens to teal greens with a sapphire background. Thats the laurel motif. Then the final band moves from teals to lavenders with an allover patterning with a central celtic motif.



I'm looking forward to having the time to actually knit the sweater. I still have some calculations to finish up and some final decisions on the styling.

I worked rather hard today in the studio/sun room to get it cleaned back up and move all of the mailing stuff out of there. Now I'm back to being able to actually get something done there! Plus I uncovered the floor loom, so hopefully will also be able to start working on some denim rugs.

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Sock Summit Booth

Here are two photos of our booth at Sock Summit. In the first, my sister, Dianne, is working with a customer. On the left, you can see the Metlon reflective yarn. With the flash of the camera the reflection really shows up! Funny, because the scarf is woven with a Black tweedy chenille and you can hardly see the reflective yarn stripes in person. Pretty cool.

The second photo shows the cone yarn and some of the cloth bins with the Double Bambu. I didn't get a really good photo of the spool rack with all of the colors on it... it shows a bit in the first photo. Thinking that for next time, we might need more space, so that all of the bins can be on tables, and we can see more of the colors of the cone yarns-- we had cones 3 or 4 deep on the shelving.

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Sock Summit - Day one

Well- I say day one, and that really is because the marketplace opened to customers today. Some vendors set up their booths yesterday, and Lantern Moon sponsored a vendor party at The Kennedy School last night... so things are started.

First day. Moved our stuff into booth #307 between 11 and noon. Spent the afternoon setting up the booth. We are using basically the same layout as last time... with one less table, so more room for moving around. We are using the feet displays for my latest sock patterns, but not the other dress forms, etc. This way the focus is on the yarn and it shows. Nice colorful booth. I meant to take a photo. Will try and get one tomorrow.

Today Judy Sumner stopped by and signed her books that we have for sale. So they are autographed copies! Very cool.

While the marketplace was open, so many people stopped by its a bit of a blur. I hope we did well by everyone. For most of the time I was operating the booth solo. My sister had to go back into the office.

Tomorrow I hope to be there to help set the WORLD's RECORD in most people KNITTING at the SAME TIME. Should be very interesting!

I'm exhausted. But it was a wonderful day.

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Sock Summit is HERE!

Ack! Its really time. I am still finishing writing up my sock patterns, and making sure I have enough other patterns printed. Luckily, we didn't have as much winding to do this time... tomorrow we actually move into the booth.

Today I went on over and registered, when it could be at a more leisurely pace. I did this around 3 and the place was nicely busy but not too croweded. Perfect.

Got a note from STC craft (we are carrying two of their books at our booth #307, "Knitted Socks East and West" and "Knitalong" both great books). They have a list of where they will be during Sock Summit here.

This is going to be so much fun! I even snagged a couple of sock displays (feet) from Portland Store Fixtures to round out our garment displays.

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Seattle trip and sock knitting

We had a great, quick trip to Seattle this weekend. The whole family. Took the train up and back (very pleasant and where I got most of my knitting done). We walked from the train station to the hotel, stopping to see the Klondike Gold rush museum which is a National Park in downtown Seattle. The favorite activity were the embossing stations. Luckily I had a small notepad in my knitting bag. Then after a nap for rejuvination, we headed back down to Safeco field for the Mariners game.

Since we had plenty of time for the walk, I pulled out my knitting and actually got a few rounds done on my socks on the way down. I also pulled them out after we'd finished off some ballpark fare and got a couple more rounds done. It helps that I was at the straight knitting part of the socks (rather the circular knitting w/no increases or decreases).

Still-- I had hoped to get more done on them than I did. I did get the feet done and am now working the gussets before turning the heels. I'm working two socks on two circulars and am really happy with how that is turning out. I'm using US size 2 needles and am knitting with the "Double Bambu"... using one of the double strands for one sock, and the second for the other. Since they were wound together and I knit one round each before moving on, it works out perfectly.

Occasionally I have to hold the yarn closer to the ball and let them unwind. But not often. The main thing to keep track of is keeping the stitches nice and tight where the fabric goes between needles, and to keep using the correct needle when starting up another one. I have both 16" addi turbos and they are the same color, so can't keep them straight that way. I was using the Susan Bates Quicksilver, and although I really like them for a nice inexpensive all-around needle, for the smaller sock work, I was having to spend too much time pushing and pulling the stitches over the little bump where the cable is attached to the needle. So the Addi's are perfect for this knitting.

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Can you Knit and Chew Gum???

I have been struggling with finding ways to get the excercise in that I KNOW I should be doing. To that end, I've started taking Pilates on Mondays during my lunch hour (very good). I purchased a new pedometer which I LOVE. Its an Omron Walking Style which has a couple of features that are great: 1. it is more accurate than my previous peds... 2. it tracks regular steps and aerobic steps (10 minutes or more) and 3. it has a strap and clip that prevents it from getting lost when (and all of the pedometers I've clipped to my belt have done this) it decides to jump off the belt.

When I walk I often listen to books on my Zen Mp3 player (from audible).

All this is well and good, but walking takes time. Time away from getting the knitting done I can't do during the day because I'm working (and, believe it or not, work isn't always conference calls that I can knit through).

So. I've been thinking about trying to knit on my walks. Actually, I've been thinking about this for years. what kind of knitting apparatus would I really need. A large bag to hold things, a small bag? The point is I've been thinking and knitting and not walking.

Previous projects were really too large to do this comfortably. But, since I'm readying for the Sock Summit, I have a lot of smaller knitting to do-- namely I'm working on two at once socks with our "Double Bambu"

So. Now I've challenged my coordination by knitting AND walking AND listening to books all at the same time!

I feel like this is a major breakthrough. I can hear you now... women have been walking and knitting at the same time for ages. Still... that hasn't been me (at least not in recent memory... there was the time I worked on a pair of very small baby mittens with pencils and left over yarn for a friend who didn't have any for her youngun and the snow was at the campground that year...)

At any rate. Yet another reason to like socks. It really does feel like socks are the perfect project to help me get my walking time in!

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We'll be at the Sock Summit!

I am SO excited! We just found out we get to have a booth at the Sock Summit August 6-9, 2009 at the Convention center in Portland. It really feels like being a part of history... you gotta admit, who ever heard of a Sock Summit before? Now I need to get going on some sock patterns to be working on. I think the Double Bambu with a bit of elastic will be great... so I'll be experimenting with what works and feels best between now and then.

We already had signed up for a booth at the Knit & Crochet Show in Portland May 14-17. Plus we had a booth last year there (in September). That was a lot of fun. I'll have two outfits in the fashion show and so I'm looking forward to that. Gotta come see!

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Bamboo Cabled Gloves

Here are my Bamboo gloves. They have a trio of cables that move up into decorative stitching (looks like beads). Soft. You knit the fingers in little i-cord tubes and then knit the body/hand of the glove.

I don't have these any more since I donated them to the TKGA Auction last fall.

If I ever have a lull in projects, I'll make myself another pair.

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Snowflakes and Stars

This is a sweater that I wanted to show at the Kntting Guild conference last Fall. However, I really didn't have enough time to finish it myself. I ended up sending the pattern and yarn off to Ghost Knitters, and they did a wonderful job of knitting the pieces. I then did the steeking and finishing myself.

Made out of "Double Bambu" which used two strands of Silk City Fiber's Bambu 7, the sweater has wonderful drape and is cool feeling as well as warm.

I do offer this pattern for sale on our website.

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Stormy Sky Hat

Here's another hat! After finishing the Red and Black hat for my younger son, I told my older one I'd knit him one also. When we were picking out colors from all my stash of Bamboo, he pointed to my Stormy Sky bag and asked "Can you make one like that?" So the challenge was on.



This is my first attempt. I am going to make a few changes and knit him another one. I think it needs to be a bit longer. So consider this a sneek preview!

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Entrelac Jacket

I finished this one last fall. In time for the Knit and Crochet Conference in Portland. So I entered it into the Fashion show. Lots of fun. I've since worn it to my neice's bat mitvah and it was great!



Besides giving yourself the permission to lose control of the color (Noro is in charge of that here), I challenged myself to do this garment without any edge triangles! those of you who have done entrelac know what I'm talking about!

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