Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Ways to Avoid a Major Project!


 O.K.-I now have the sleeves and body all on one needle.  A whole lot of stitches on there!  Now I begin my yoke and my colorwork.  For some reason I am busy doing other things.  It is an avoidance thing, I think.

First the other night I was so tired, and all I could knit was one teeny-weeny sock for my Christmas tree.

Also other people in my house had both comfy chairs.

Then yesterday I went to Eureka Springs for a mini workshop by Beth Brown-Reinsel.  I learned a Swedish technique called Tvaandsstickning.  I apologize that I don't know how to put those little marks above the a's.  We call it Twined Knitting.  It is a technique about 400 years old, and it makes a firm, warm, and inelastic fabric.  Beth showed us a beautiful jacket found in Sweden on one of her trips.  The sleeves were knitted in twined knitting, dyed after knitting, fulled, and taken to the tailor to finish.  The tailor then sewed the sleeves to a fabric that was made from a felted material and embroidered.  There was a cotton lining. It was very heavy, and I assume very warm.

We all were concentrating so hard with the beginning of the workshop.   It is a bit fiddly to learn how to manipulate the stitches.  Once that part got into my head, I finally developed a rhythm of sorts.  I know if one practises a lot, there would definitely be an easy rhythm to flipping the threads front and back and in the twining process.

 We had potluck!  Lots of good food and desserts!
 And lots of visiting going on.  That was fun too!
 And my finished cuff!  Not in the least bit perfect, but finished.  I did get the instructions from Beth to make a pair of fingerless mitts using a cuff like this, and another pattern for a pair of gloves. 
I took Beth and another friend downtown to do a little bit of snooping in shops.  We had a nice walk and saw some really beautiful things!  Then home again, home again, jiggity jig.

I am still spinning on the pretty blue yarn.  Nearly there, but another week of work probably before plying.

I found a great sale today online-I will apologize now to my LYS-for some sock yarn.  It was Regia for 2.95 per ball.  Then they had a great discount at the end.  When it came to shipping it was only 30 cents more to ship Priority.  So for 16.95 I got yarn for two pairs of socks!  Yeah!  A great bargain!
Another Christmas gift under my belt!

It was so warm on Monday that I went out to the front flower bed to dig out more grass.  It was nearly 75 degrees!  I ended up putting on a pair of shorts.  Then Monday night we had a little rain, and a cool front.  Still warmer than it should be this time of year.  But the really cold front is coming next week.  Highs in the 40's.  Sigh!

CJE and AE are having their annual party on Saturday.  This is a big event for our tribe.  I have some Bison sausages that I will cook.  It will be good to see folks again.  I didn't go to Mirkwood for the usual events, and I haven't seen most of these folks since last year.

So all avoidance aside, I should be able to start knitting the yoke this afternoon.  I want to spin a little more, and then I will sit down to that.

 

No comments: