party dressing

Posted on Posted in book reviews/events, designing, projects

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sooo much news to tell today!
(isn’t this a cute idea laura found for dressing our mannequins?)

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we are all scurrying in several direction at once, between getting ready for the last installment of the 2014 BNK, our holiday open house, and rolling out the annual flurry of patterns appropriate for last-minute gifting.

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we’ve also kicked off a twelve-days celebration of some past patterns—you can get a different one free each day with a purchase of $15 or more. the first one is the spectator sock, which i published in 2008

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despite the hustle bustle of the pre-holiday race season, each day i spend some time knitting a repeat or two on my current snow tire scarf project which i’m knitting in ghillie sport/DK. its soothing pattern, long ago committed to memory has become a steadying force in my morning routine. some days, it’s the only knitting i get done, but at least i go to bed knowing that i did that much.

if i didn’t feel so committed to making steady progress on it, i think i’d be at my computer almost immediately after opening my eyes (i can’t tell you how many mornings it has gotten to be 11 am and i still haven’t had a cup of coffee—that is NOT me, haha!)

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at yesterday’s company meeting, emily updated all of us on the numbers for our red scarf fundraiser . . . . drum roll . . . . at the end of our third week, we are at approximately $2000!! (she followed that by saying, “maybe even a little more”).

 

that’s halfway and if i’m not mistaken, we are three weeks along with three weeks to go—right on track. way to go team! if we can keep up this momentum, we will meet last year’s goal of $4000.

forgive me if i mentioned this already, but erica B added a ghillie sport option to our snow tire scarf kit, in case this project is calling to you or you’d like to gift it to a knitter on your list.

we have to think of some ways to get the word out beyond our cozy circle; got any good ideas? we are all ears—tell us your thoughts!

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update on holiday preparations across the steer; looks like things are hotting up over there alright.

in other knitting news, i have finished a really large amount of secret knitting and moved right on to some other secret projects i have to get going (that’s the clubbing and gifting life for you; never no knitting to do). but  just after one club goes out, i usually take a little time to sneak in a few goodies for just us.

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like these . . i couldn’t resist; what’s a great scarf without a pair of delicious matching mittens? they are yummy now, but after a nice long bath?? they will be fantastic.

they knit up super fast—i made most of this one inane evening, but then set it aside while i thought about how to finish off the top (which required a consultation with barb; she’s great for bouncing ideas with).

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the color is exactly the same as my snow tire scarf, but i’m knitting them with the worsted wight version of the yarn. we have a small number of 8 ounce worsted weight skeins left and then some two ouncers that were mill ends. i son’t know yet how many yards these are going to require, but we’ll tell you all of that as soon as i know.

these are just so fun, haha.

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in fact, i’ve got all kinds of presents going on in various stages of completion and secrecy. this hat, for an unnamed recipient whose head measures 26.5 inches around (hmm, who could that be?), is finally picking up steam after being somewhat ignored for a week.

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i love it in the various shades of stone soup DK, which because it is a speckled tweed, are softer and more muted than the clear, strong shades of the confection sport yarn  i used for the original boilermaker cowl

 

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the patterned brim is done and i’ve begun the cashmere lining by picking up the stitches form the topmost row of ribbing all around and knitting separately in pura bella fingering weight cashmere.

while i knit that (and it won’t take long) i have to decide what shade of stone soup DK i want to use for the top of the hat—the longer slouchy part. i originally thought i’d just stick tot eh main color of the brim, which is the marble shade

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but then i got thinking that it might end up being too blah that way; that the hat brim wouldn’t pop enough.

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so my next thought was that pumice—the original stone soup color and still my favorite, i think—was really the perfect one, providing some contrast but in a soft, sophisticated way (and it looks so nice next to david’s skin).

but then i wondered if it was too soft and just to be sure, i looked at the granite too.

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hmm, crap; i thought i had this thing solved, but i like this one as well.

i think though, that i’m still leaning toward the pumice; it’s a tough one, right?? i’m enjoying this project; i love making something a little more complex with some engineering involved for david.

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working with the ghillie sport gave me an idea for another secret gifting project, which i’ll probably start tonight. i’ll show you bits of progress as i go but i won’t tell what it is until christmas (and if you guess, don’t go shouting it out in comments either; we don’t want to spoil the surprise).

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speaking of little surprises, everyone who passes through the shop these days is oohing and aahing over barb’s latest obsession, which she dropped off last week—baby uggs knit in bare naked wools. i honestly don’t know which of these patterns she’s using, except that it’s a felted design. barb, please enlighten us . . . and she did; she says tried a couple of different ones before she settled on the bubbyuggz by tracey waller.

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on wednesday afternoon, sheyanne and laura transformed out classroom space into an impromptu film studio in order to shot a few short videos. among these was a little instructional video for my grandma’s cast on, which i know a lot of people are eagerly awaiting. i demonstrated my grandma’s cast on in an episode of knitting daily TV that aired this past summer, without realizing that no one would be able to access the clip later on for reference—otherwise, we would have done this in time to release it concurrently.

well, with one thing and another throughout a busy autumn, we just couldn’t coordinate things to make our own version until now. sheyanne should have the film ready to upload to our youTube channel in a few days; we’ll let you know when it airs.

laura filmed some very short clips to post on instagram and other social media—look for her presto-change-o takes on wrapping cowls and mixing knits to create ever-new effects.

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last night was the first session of our holiday open house and yarn tasting, which we’ve been preparing for all month.

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we decorated, made snacks, and created a yarn bar for our tasting sessions. barb even made her famous whoopee pies, but you have to come in to taste one . . .

i was so happy that our neighbor norma decided to join us—she is going to learn to knit; i couldn’t be more excited! we’ve been neighbors for many years now; she and her husband bruce always read the blog—i think they know more about me than some of my family members do, haha.

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last night we had a smaller number of guests, making for a more freeform, but cozy experience. most of the guests knit from presets we made for the yarn bar, sampling a few favorite patterns at the same time. even david joined in to try out some lace knitting, which he hasn’t done before (and of course he did really well!).

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i was able to sit with norma while she made her first knit stitches instead of the patterned samples the other tasters were working on. it’s always an exciting honor for me to be present when a new knitter emerges from a regular person.

norma has many great reasons for learning to knit now, but probably the one that really tipped her hand was the birth of her and bruce’s first grandson just two weeks ago. such a happy reason, right? she went home with a set of needles and her sample packet of yarn to play with. i cast on 20 sts for her before she left; if we’d had more time, i would have helped her get a washcloth going in our organic cotton (norma is a retired science teacher who really appreciates the color grown cotton story).

sigh, what a lovely evening—i sure hope saturday goes as well. i’m a little nervous because we all allowed ourselves to dally over the one seating we had last night; we’re going to have to be more concise to move things along more quickly on saturday.

we still have spots open if you live nearby and are looking for a relaxing diversion from scurrying around in the holiday rush—please join us for a warm, knitterly break from all that.

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afterward we cleaned up quickly and went home to our dinners. later while we watched TV, david finished up the squish me hat he knit last winter with breakfast blend DK in the morning smoke shade. and now it’s ready to be blocked—after i finish up here i’ll go downstairs to help him get it onto the bath.

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mmmm. i wonder what he’s going to knit next? i think he might be interested in socks, actually; maybe some nice thick boot socks would be just the thing.

 

6 thoughts on “party dressing

  1. Love the new header for the holidays and all the projects as always. I’ve just unearthed my Luxor socks to move along while I wait for the December BNK club shipment…so many cool projects in the wings!

  2. So much going on…..those mitts sure will look nice with the scarf. I love David’s hat. I remember when he started it and I think socks would be the perfect thing for him to knit next. The uggs pattern is Bubbyuggz by Tracy Waller. I just tried different things like lengthening them so you could cuff them. Have fun Saturday!

  3. Love the granite for the brim of the hat. Good luck with the open house, it sounds very exciting. I guess you could try to spread the word about your red scarf fundraiser by getting people to blog about it and link to your pattern page. Perhaps a Youtube video (may be too late for this year) promoting it, with a quote or two from Brandy. Her success speaks volumes for how important it is. It would be really cool if she were able to say thank you – lots of people wearing their red scarf doing the same thing?

  4. Oh my, so manY lovely knits…so little time! And your Saturday night gathering sounds wonderful…wish I lived closer! Snow coming tomorrow. It might be a great excuse to stay home and finish my graduation gift scarf (pattern by Anne, of course).

  5. I just re-watched your appearance on Knitting Daily and recorded your Grandma’s cast on with my phone. You demonstrated it at a class I attended in Miami a few years ago and I liked it, but I needed a refresher. Your video will be much appreciated.

  6. So much terrificness here!! The yarn tasting looks like a blast.

    Is there a concise description of our scholarship effort that people can easily share elsewhere? That might help spread the word.

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