Camera Malfunction :-(

The best laid plans of mice and men. . .anyone know the poet?

I had loads of things to bring to Knit Michigan on Saturday, and planned ahead.  I had my bags and boxes packed and sitting on the porch when my ride arrived to pick me up, and that included my camera!  I'd hoped to take loads of pictures of the knitters, and shops, and contest entries, and contestants in the knitting contests. . .I had extra batteries, and I even remembered to grab the memory card out of the computer!  I was all set!

When I pulled out the camera for photo ops during the speed knitting contest, I got a message:  Memory Card Error  It seems that when I use the card in multiple cameras, only the nicer of the two likes it.  My inexpensive point and shoot camera was on strike!

Harriet (of the comments) took plenty of pictures, and promises to send them to me, or at the very least post them in the Black Sheep forum on Ravelry.  Suzanne has a few posted on her blog, too.  Me?  I've got nothin'

I did win the design contest (Whoo Hoo!) and had a great time teaching people to knit and chatting with friends all day.  The three to six inches of snow we got didn't bug me a bit!  I was cozy and happy all day long.  Hope you can join us next year!

Tonight is the first night of the Knitting class I'm teaching at my house.  There are spots still available if you're interested in joining us--we can figure out a prorated cost if you are--or make plans to join us in March.

Tomorrow is the Black Sheep Guild meeting, and I'm teaching a color work lesson as well as giving a demo on steeking.  If you've been interested in how either of those things work, join us!  I have my post-meeting post filled with all sorts of links ready to go already.

Looking for Prizes?

Me too!  Today is Knit Michigan. . .and I'll be running the knitting contests at 11:00.  You'll be able to try your hand at speed knitting, knitting blindfolded, with a partner and all sorts of other silly things.  We have a couple of events cooked up for spinners and hookers too!  Prizes abound!  There a some really great knitting bags as well as lovely fiber and interesting books. . .all you need to do is compete!  I can't win, so I hope you show up and show everyone just how quickly you can knit with garden gloves on. . .

Have you been to Knit Michigan before?  Our guild sponsors the Learn to Knit area every year, and it's an event many of us look forward to.  This is the fourth year of Knit Michigan, and they've donated over $80,000 to local cancer charities.  I love the philanthropic part of it, knitters giving back to the community.  The vast majority of the food sold, classes taught and items auctioned are donated by local folks or solicited from vendors across the country, and last I knew, even the school we meet at cuts Knit Michigan a deal on using the space for the day.  The overhead for this fabulous event is next to nothing, so nearly ALL of our money heads right to the people who need it.  However, it's not without benefit to those of us who love fiber.  For me, my donations get me a full day of fiber fun with my friends.  The day is packed with classes for you to choose from, many vendors tempting you with samples, kits and new products (several vendors are from the opposite side of the state so we can see all sorts of things we rarely do), a silent auction, LOADS of hand knits, contests, meet-ups, and more!

An event that was new this year was a chemo cap design contest.  My friend Matlie and I designed two cute hats and are hoping you'll come and vote for us today!  She fell on Thursday and broke a leg. . .and could use some good news!  This will be her first year missing Knit Michigan and she's feeling a little blue! A fibery prize would be just the thing to perk up her spirits!  One more thing to put on your list for the day:  Vote for Matlie and Tanya. . .

The entire day filled with fun is yours for only the $10 it costs to get in the door.  If you're in southwest Michigan today, I'm not really sure why you're still reading this blog. . .get in the car and join us!   You'll find directions here.

Blizzaster

One of the perks of my job is taking advantage of snow days. . .Today I slept in, since our superintendent called school off yesterday around 3:00pm.  Usually we're one of the last districts to get the call, but this time we were in the lead.  Most of my morning was spent shoveling the seven or eight inches that fell in our neighborhood, just north of Detroit.  I think the world was expecting "Snomageddon" and all we got was a heavy dumping.  Our city services are spectacular, and our streets are pretty clean, but friends report that streets in neighboring communities are still pretty snow covered and slick.  My gram--"Beazer" taught me to take pride in a well shoveled driveway. . .I think I can hold my head up today, as ours is as clean as can be.

 Our dog, Toshi, is part Husky and part Akita, and LOVES the snow--but she wasn't so sure about the massive amounts she saw this morning when we opened the door.  She's had a good day sleeping on her mat in front of the heater while I knit with a friend, and checking out how large the snow piles have become.

I realized I never showed you a picture of the blue version of Woden. . .it's been great to wear while outside for the past week or so. . .nice and cozy!

 It's sort of shocking to me how different it can look knit up in different colors!  I can't wait to see what others choose to knit for themselves. 

 My next version will be a combination of these colors, and I have another fair isle hat or two that I should be publishing soon--so if you like Woden, you'll have more coming your way!

 I pulled a sock from my UFO pile, and may work on that a bit in between some of the design work that I'm playing with for some upcoming submissions.  It seems somewhat unfair that now I have some interesting things to blog about and I have to keep them from you!

I hope you've been warm today, and didn't wear yourselves out cleaning out from under the Blizzaster.

Resolutions

We're a month into the new year. . .How're you doing on your resolutions for 2011?  Did you make any?  Officially I didn't.  Unofficially?  I'm in a group on Ravelry called Knitting Everest.

My goals for 2011:
Prepare and submit 4 items for publication
Weave 11 items from stash
Complete Level 2 of the Master Knitter program
Knit 11 pairs of socks
Have UFOs in single digits

If you know me in real life, you'll know I'm a pretty competitive person. I enjoy pushing the limits of my own ability and seeing how much can be accomplished by hard work and dedication.  That said, I don't compete against friends--especially with knitting and creativity.  We all come to the table with our own skill set and can all stand to improve our abilities.  That's what I think is so amazing about knitting in general.  Every time I turn around I see someone "unventing" a new technique or way to accomplish something, or someone else challenging themselves to move to the next set of skills.  But holding each other accountable to achieve what we set out to?  Two or more friends pushing each other to their goals?  I'm all over that!

In 2008 I participated in Summer of Socks to see how many pair of adult socks I could knit from the end of June to the beginning of September, in 2009 I tried to knit twelve adult sweaters in a year, in 2010 I was a slacker without any real goals.  I taught classes, went to camp and the BSKG retreat, knitted samples for PK, and mostly knit from stash, but overall, I was somewhat aimless.

The Everest group is a pretty quiet one. . .and I'm not really sure why.  Do knitters set goals and then abandon them? I don't think so, given the amount of finished objects are posted in Ravelry and on blogs all over the internet. . .

So on this last day of January 2011, I'm asking you to put it out there in writing. . .what are your goals for the next few months?  As a special ed teacher we constantly write new goals and objectives for our students.  As you consider your crafting goals make sure you write S.M.A.R.T. goals for yourself.  And post them somewhere for reference.  What is a S.M.A.R.T. goal?  I'm so glad you asked!

S.M.A.R.T. goals are this:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Results oriented
Time bound

To say you'll knit from stash?  not so SMART. . .How much stash?  When will you know you've achieved it?  When do you want to have achieved it?

To say you'll knit all of your stash?  is that SMART?  can you actually achieve that worthy pursuit?  Will you really stay on a yarn diet for as long as you hope to?

What is your SMART goal for the year, or for the next few months?  I hope you'll consider posting it in the comments so that I know that as I push my own creativity to the next level you'll be beside me pushing yourself too.  What great knitters we'll be if we keep on learning. . .one stitch at a time.

I have a few submission deadlines looming. . .so I'll be working on proposals for the next month, and have plans to move a loom to the basement to begin my weaving practice.  Here's to two completed and submitted proposals and two finished woven objects by the end of February!

Bev Galeskas

While searching the internet today, I came across the news that Bev Galeskas died last month.  Did you know Bev?  She was the founder of Fiber Trends, one of the most popular knitting pattern companies around.  If you’ve knit a pair of felted clogs, you’ve knit one of her patterns.  Bev was a talented designer in her own right, but also published and distributed many independent designer’s patterns under the Fiber Trends name.  She may have been the first independent designer, as the majority of the patterns published prior to Fiber Trends were published by yarn companies to promote their yarn.

The news of her passing made me sad.  As a new knitter, I was intrigued by the felted clogs pattern and was discouraged from trying it by a LYS owner.  She told me the pattern was too challenging for me.  Perhaps she hadn’t knitted one of the Fiber Trends patterns before, or perhaps she underestimated the power of desire.  She had to know that knitting happens one stitch at a time, and when you are eager to have the finished product, you’re willing to persevere. . .I wish I’d taken the challenge and ignored what that shop keeper told me. . .it took many more scarves and hats until I was willing to attempt the slippers on my own.  When I did, I was surprised to learn that Bev included stitch counts after nearly every row.  While there were techniques that were new to me, the directions she wrote were clear, and guided me stitch by stitch to a perfectly executed finished object.  Actually, many finished products.  I think I’ve made about a dozen pair of these in adult sizes, and at least two in children’s sizes.  It's too bad that I let someone else's judgment of my skills keep me from such a brilliant pattern.

Later, I cast on for the Pacific Northwest Shawl.   

The graphs coupled with written instructions helped me learn to read graphs with confidence.  The Fiber Trends' Sheep Shawl is in my pile of UFOs, but has the same appeal—I just can’t seem to find the time to sit with a graph and do some “thinking” knitting.  Both of these shawls were designed by Evelyn Clark, but have the same attention to detail that Bev's pattern's have, the quality that so many of us came to expect from Fiber Trends.

I knit a pair of clogs today in Bev’s memory.  I hope she’s looking down and approves.

Woden

I posted my first "for sale" pattern on Ravelry last weekend, and it's been met with a warm response.  (A special thanks to those of you who have made the purchase!)  I named it Woden.  Woden's Day in Old English is our Wednesday. . .Woden being loosely connected to Mercury--a speedy sort of god.  I liked it.  Wednesdays are good days for me.  Every Wednesday for about 18 months, I've had dinner with friends, and have knitted.  When we started talking about the things we want to learn this year, and the things I'm teaching at our guild, it seemed a beginner's fair isle hat needed to be designed. Enter Woden.

This hat is great for beginners to begin working with two colors at a time.  It truly is a speedy knit.  The bits of the chart seem to fly by and before long, you're at the snowflake, and then beginning the decreases for the top. The colors in the initial hat are perfect for Joanie, and since she's already laid claim to it, I guess that's a good thing!  Wanting to have one for my own, I cast on another in colors more suited to things I like to wear.  I began the facing on Monday during some social knitting at a local restaurant, and before long I was past the point of where I should have joined the facing to the body of the hat.

I know I'm a speedy knitter, but hadn't planned to make it quite so far.  I was stuck with a choice.  Rip back and install the facing as written, or keep going and sew the facing up differently.  I kept knitting.  The idea behind the provisional cast on in the pattern is to allow the cast on edge to be lose and stretchy (raise your hand if you cast on tightly!)  and to allow it to move with the body of the hat when the stitches are knit together.

I finished the hat last night, and attached the facing this evening.  Here are some pictures of how to hem your hat if you too knit past the point of no return. . .

First, remove the provisional cast on for about ten stitches.

Then determine where the hem will land on the hat once sewn up, and take a lose stitch into the back of the stitch in that row.

Following the color on that row will help keep you lined up and have a neat hem, put your needle through one live stitch from the facing. . .

And back into the body of the hat. . .Obviously, I'm using a shocking color choice so it will show up in the pictures, but with a color that actually matches, it blends in nicely.

Be careful not to pull so tight--remember you want this to be somewhat elastic.  Once the tension is eased in around the hat, you barely see it--even in a color you wouldn't typically use. . .

. . .even on the right side of the hat.

It's soaking and will be blocking overnight.  Pictures of the finished hat tomorrow.

Bummer.

My first, and only, hand spun socks.  Rats.

Hope your day was better than this.