Sisterhood of the Traveling Ball of Yarn

So, a couple of  months ago I decided to try my hand at organizing a knitting meetup. Now don't get me wrong there is no shortage of knitting meetups in my area. There is a Hampden Knitting Meetup, Towson Knitting Meetup, and every LYS (local yarn store) has it's own knitting social gathering but the yarn shops are too far for me and I also feel bad if I go and I don't purchase any of their yarn. The other meetups are like little gangs. I went to one knitting meetup I shall not name names but I was had just started knitting and they called my WIP (work in progress) a dish rag, mind you it was a baby blanket. They also had some choice words about my red heart yarn. I have preference when it comes to yarn like any other knitter but I don't judge what yarns someone choose to use...ugh! There is an acceptable way to be a yarn snob.  Let me give you the ways 1. Oogle yarns in store or online occasionally talking to the yarn and snuggling the yarn 2. Waiting for sales like a hungry lioness ready to pounce and feed your stash. 3. Sending love ones pictures and names of your favorite brands for gift ideas. 4. Using commercial yarns to practice a project before using your new beloved one. 5. Introducing your new yarn to friends as if it was a brand new  baby. Notice none of those include belittling others about their yarn. Yeah, don't do that, not cool.

So for various reason I decided to get some knitters together for a good ole' fashion stitch and bitch.  I have some knitting friends from my previous employment, who decided to try on knitting after seeing me knit during a company outing. At first it was me plus one other person, then it was two others, three others, then four!! We had quite a presence at work.  We were called the "Knitting Gang" and then the "Knitting Bitches" which then got censored to the "Knitches." A term I think we have grown quite fond of actually. It edges us up a little a bit against the grandma connotation that everyone thinks of when thinking of knitting.

I'm sure this is how everyone at work saw us. 

On the contrary, we are much more like the following picture...all shits with minimal giggles. Rebels who don't follow the rules and hopes to change the systematic oppression of those who choose to knit. We aim shake up society's perception of cool, hip, and meaningful. Ok, none of that is actually true but I do think we are a really cool group who don't care what other people think. Prior to my present attempt at creating a gathering we all really haven't been together for two years. Some of us went on to different jobs, moved to different areas, and really just been caught up with our own lives.

I looked at few venue ideas Panrea Bread, Denny's, and the local arts and crafts store but I wasn't really feeling that setting. My sister recommended reserving a room at the library. They had space and time with a multiple of branches and locations to choose from so, I decided to go try that option. I sent out e-invites, purchased some sandwiches and drinks...what else could you need for a fun knitting meetup? We had a good time there was a lot of catching up and some knitting. We made plans for the next knitting meetup and even decided on doing a KAL. We shall see how that goes... All in all it was pretty successful. The second meetup was more people, we welcomed 3 more crafters to the group including a crocheter. This time a lot more knitting and crocheting took place and we also brought desserts to snack on, I highly recommend sweets for your meetups. I don't know what took me so long to organize a meet up but so far I am having a blast and will continue to host one for as long as I can.

We do have a little sisterhood going on, almost like a Kate Jacobs novel.We shall see what adventures and misadventures our sisterhood will encounter. Stay tuned till next time.

Knitch001 out! 

-Paige

Baby Fever

Image found Randeepk Tumbler

So, this year it seems like there has been a severe epidemic going around and that is Baby Fever. I myself caught the fever around mid July. This April as a result of baby fever I came home from the hospital with a bouncing, happy,  and healthy baby boy. But it wasn't just me, it was two of my co-workers, one of my best friends, my sister, and my cousin. Not to mention celebrity royalty Beyonce.
So many things to knit I don't know where to start and I am seriously behind. I made my newborn son a baby blue blanket with lace and cables shown below. It was a quick knit with worsted weight yarn. I absolutely love the finish product I hope to make him a sweater before the end of fall (Fingers crossed).

  I have to knit at least 3 more baby blankets and I haven't even casted on a single stitch. I am looking for quick cute blanket patterns. Maybe garter stitch, maybe stripes...I don't know here are some blankets that stood out to me.

 Maybe I would be better off making some hats and baby booties. Do people actually keep up with their baby blankets. I made five baby blankets for my little girl, who knows where they are today. I imagine them floating in the wind lonely and depressed being run over by cars and kicked by people passing by. I plan to preserve Cj's blanket by putting it up and not using it. My daughter pooped and threw up on hers.
My grandmother crochet all of her grandchildren a baby blanket and we had ours for a very long time. Regardless of the condition the blanket, the intention and thought never deteriorated it was an expression of love which is very few and far between when it comes to my grandmother.  That being said I guess the lace, the cable, and the style don't really matter. It's the love you put into creating it. That is what makes them beautiful and that is what makes them stay imprinted on your memory long after they are gone.

It's been said that true love has a habit of coming back

There's been a tear in subspace and I have been sucked into a temporal paradox, someone please call Captain Janeway and B'lenna. It would appear as if I am writing to you from the distant future, year 2017 when last we spoke it was 2015. How could this be?
One possibility is that I have been disgracefully neglecting my blog while I charted unknown knitting adventures. I don't think Captain Janeway ever missed a log, I should be ashamed. Another possibility is that I was held captive by a nomadic knitting society with no access to the internet so I was forced to recount my experience to a mere mouse with whom I shared a cell--something tells me those accounts will go unseen and unheard. The last and most fantastic possibility is that just like the tragically long movie interstellar all of my posts and messages takes years to get to you as I have fell through a wormhole in landed in a  whole different time frame in outer space.

What really happened?!?!?

Well...a little bit of all that happened actually the last year and a half seemed to have gone by at warp speed. But, as they say true love has a habit of coming back and knitting and writing have been as true a love as any. So, I have returned from my solo adventure, my captivity, and my wormhole only to pickup exactly where I left off.

In my travels I have come across beautiful luxurious yarns like Blue Heron's Cerulean Sky Rayon Metallic Yarn: 85% Rayon and 15% Metallic.  The feel of this yarn is like silk and the drape is incredible if I ever have an opportunity to knit with this yarn again I would definitely make some sort of garment like an elegant tank top.

What I ended up making with this yarn is a shawl link here: Holden Shawl. I am not sure if I picked the right pattern for this yarn. I will let you be the judge. I found this pattern online and I thought the simplicity of it would allow the yarn to stand out until I ran out of before the end of the pattern...oops. See the picture below a few rows of the scalloped lace pattern are missing.

I tackled the pattern again with a different yarn. Bonita Oasis, which is 50% wool and 50% acrylic. The coloring is beautiful the drape is kind of stiff. Below our pictures of the yarn and the shawl. I desperately need to block the yarn because of curling on the picot edging but I am super lazy when it comes to blocking and weaving in ends so, that may or may not happen another year and a half from now. 

I have so much more to share with you! But alas it must wait until next time I want to tell you about my adventures in organizing a meetup, the baby fever pandemic, KAL's, and designing mishaps. Miss you already! 

Peace, fleeace, and yarn ball grease, 

-Paige