Knitting Class

Tuesday night I went to a knitting class at Colorful Yarns taught by Stacey. Look at the fun needles I got:

This is the Denise Interchangeable Knitting Needles Kit. It was a bit more than I planned to spend, but now I have a wide variety of needle sizes and cord lengths; and the tips are so pointy! Also, for every purchase of the pink kit, $5 is donated directly to breast cancer research.

We are making a small felted bag, so I got 3 skeins of Lambs Pride bulky yarn. I’m using Charcoal Heather, Victorian Pink, and Chianti (I think; I’ll have to check on that last color).

My parents and sister came to visit last Tuesday and stayed through Sunday. I hope to write another post soon about their visit but I want to look over the photos I took first. My memory card was having problems, so I’m not sure if I got very many good pictures

Ribbed Hat Finished

(Sorry for the poor coloring; this is really a lovely shade of blue)

Started: Sunday, April 1st *
Finished: Sunday, April 15th
Yarn: Caron Simply Soft
Color: Lt. Country Blue (9709)
Needles: Clover #8 16″ Circular
Pattern: 1×1 Ribbed Hat from Kis*Knit’s free patterns

As I mentioned before, this hat was supposed to be finished in time for the Yarn Harlot’s Cast Off Book Launch on April 5th. Unfortunately, after I had knit a few inches I noticed a hole and no matter how far I tinked back, I couldn’t get rid of it.

* I ended up ripping the hat out and starting over…the day of the event. This was actually good because I think I originally started knitting this hat backwards, which is why I got that big hole in the beginning. When I cast on and joined the stitches the second time it looked much better. There was something weird that happened, though. I’m sure I cast on 80 stitches for this hat, but an inch or so into it, I only had 76 stitches! I couldn’t see anything wrong, so I kept going. I met Stacey on Friday at Colorful Yarns and had her look at it, too. She couldn’t find anything wrong either! I’m sure I cast on the correct number and I usually have trouble knitting 2 together, so I really have no idea what happened!

Because I ended up with less stitches than the pattern called for, the top of my hat came out a little different than the pattern, but it looks pretty good when it is being worn. Posh, a Yarn Boutique was collecting hats from the Yarn Harlot event, so I contacted them to see where they donated the hats. It turns out they are still collecting hats through the end of the month and will then send all hats to The Gathering Place, which is a women & children’s shelter in Denver. Now I have an excuse to visit a new yarn shop! I hope to drop the hat off sometime this week.

Can I teach someone how to knit?

An interesting thing happened at lunch today. For the past few months I have been knitting during my lunch break in the lower level of my office building. They have some nice, comfy chairs and a couple of couches which makes it a great place to knit and listen to my iPod.

Today a woman came up to me and asked if I could teach her how to knit! She said she remembers watching her grandmother knit when she was younger (she used the really long needles). Unfortunately, her grandmother lives in another country, her mother doesn’t know how to knit and she doesn’t know anyone who can teach her. I said I’d be happy to show her how to knit, but later I wondered if I was being foolish. I’m still a pretty new knitter and what if she has questions that I can’t answer!?! Oh well. I’m sure I can show her how to cast-on, knit and purl. Anything more complex we’ll just have to deal with if it comes up!

Since I haven’t made much progress with the blue hat or snuggles blanket, I’ll leave you with a picture of Charlie playing with some old practice swatches I found:

I met the Yarn Harlot!

I know, I should have posted this sooner, but on Thursday night Stephanie Pearl-McPhee came to Denver!

Her discussion and book signing was held at the Tattered Cover on Thursday at 7:30pm. They started handing out tickets at 6:30pm. I had to work late, so I didn’t get there until about 6:15; I was the 118th person in line! It was so cool to see everyone knitting while waiting in line. There were some very nice ladies in front of me who helped me with some knitting problems I was having. Unfortunately, I didn’t finish my hat in time for this event. I messed something up and had to rip it all out and start over I will have to mail it to someone when I finish it.

Stephanie walked in to thunderous applause; everyone was so excited to see her. And she was hilarious! I wasn’t able to get any good pictures, but I know there will be some on Stephanie’s website. I would guess there were over 200 people at this event. When the book signing started, Stephanie requested that all the parents with children and anyone else who couldn’t wait come up first. Then they continued with the numbers on our tickets. I like how they did that, because I was able to sit and continue knitting my hat and just wait for my number to be called.

Stephanie was wearing her Bohus when she first came in, and she had it laying on the table so we could all see it. It was so beautiful! I hope I can knit that good someday! I waited 2 hours before I got my book signed (which was fine with me since I actually got some knitting done for a change). There were still quite a few people waiting when I left. Stephanie was so nice to stay and sign everyone’s book! She must have been tired with all the traveling she’s been doing lately.

It was really fun to meet Stephanie since I’ve read all her books and have been reading her blog for the past year You’ve got to go see her if she’ll be in your town!