Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Did You See That?

Hi Knitters!

Briefly, did you see Knitty Gritty today? Annie Modesitt was on, so exciting to see her in action, and she actually did a demo of the cable without a cable needle technique. You can tell she is a seasoned teacher. She did a great job. I actually watched the entire show today while I was on the elliptical. What a great way to pass some time while working out! I finished off the workout with a little Martha Stewart who had Jennifer Garner on as a guest. Is she cute or what?

Knitty Gritty + Martha + elliptical = one great workout!

On to The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs. I am loving this book. I would say I am about 2/3 the way through it. I have been reading it a little at a time, mainly in the early, early morning hours with a quick cup of coffee before my kids get up. Then I have to put it down to move on with the day. It is a very quick read, easy to jump into, easy to envision as it takes place in a New York yarn shop. The characters are comfortable and understandable. The main character, Georgia, owns a knit shop and is the mother to a 12 year old daughter. The absentee father of the daughter shows up out of the blue expecting to be included in the girl's life. This is the main story, but much of the time is spent getting to know several other members of the knitting group. Georgia also has a friend from high school who did her wrong show up suddenly. I highly recommend this book for a fun-filled story set in knitting shop.

The Knitting Circle is next in line in my novel stack. I will fill you in on this one as soon as I get going on it.
While on the elliptical I always look through knitting books. I especially like to pull out older books that I haven't visited for awhile. This is only a 2004 release, but I do pull out books from over ten years ago on a regular basis. Vogue Knitting Accessorize is an excellent book. There are so many patterns I am going to knit from this book. Do you see my post-its sticking out of the top? Here are a few I am planning on knitting in the near future: leaf scarf by Veronica Manno, muti-pink scarf by Jill Gutman Schoenfuss, seed stitch cap by Lipp Holmfeld, and the tea cozy hat by Gayle Bunn. I have yarn for all of these projects sitting in my stash right now! It has to be done. Check out this book, many of the patterns are timeless. Even though I don't like ponchos, these photos actually make me like them a little bit. What a great book!
I am almost done with these cute little ribbed socks. Only a bit of the foot and the toe left to go. I don't care what anyone says, I love my dpns. I have no problem with dpns and for beginners I think it is such an important skill to acquire. So many projects use dpns and if you don't learn how to use them, you limit yourself greatly in future project choice. This yarn is Lana Grossa Meilenweit. It has some cotton in it and they are wonderful light socks. I have another pair already finished and I wear them all the time. I have one more ball of this in fall colors, too. I ordered the three colors from Kpixie, one of my favorite online shops.
One last thing, these are the yarns I am using for a current book-related project. Can you guess the topic of the project?

best, susie

p.s. That is Kaffe Fassett fabric I bought years ago. When I redesigned my kitchen I knocked out the centers of my top cabinet doors to put glass in. In two of the cabinet doors, instead of glass I was going to put this fabric in the knocked out spaces. Instead I ended up using two stripey rugs I ordered from Pottery Barn. I cut the rugs to fit, used fray-check on the edges, and then I used a staple gun to the backside of the doors to attach the rugs. It turned out very cute. I never used Kaffe's fabric but I still think it is wonderful. Sorry I didn't iron for you!