The Knitting Experience Café

The red carpet has been rolled out, Joan and Melissa Rivers are in position with the cameras and new botox injections, you have popcorn at the ready 

- must be time for the Battle of the Soxes II Awards!!

First up is the shop prize.  These camo sock blockers are a badge of honor to be proudly displayed by the winning LYS.  Three cheers for One City Market and the Missouri players for holding onto their BOTS title!!

Of course, we know that the glory must also go to our champion - Sally! Congratulations Sally! It was an honor to watch you play.  Your winner socks are done:

And we have a few things to help you along on your next project:

Golden sock yarn from Malabrigo.

Darn Pretty Needles from Grafton Fibers.

And the prettiest sock blocker I have ever seen! This sock blocker and the camo ones were designed and made by Bumblebeas. 

We can't forget Sally's noble competitor and Maine's champion - Luanne!

For Luanne, we have Socks a la Carte, to help her craft her next batch of deadly knits.

And to help her transport all her knitting needs,

The Blue Q shopper!

First Kill goes to Peggy who wins a Go Knit Pouch:

Best Embellishment Title remains with Esta for the second year in a row! Yay Esta!  This prize was easy. Esta  gets a skein of Glam Grrl sock yarn. The embellishment comes right in the skein!

Most Creative Kill goes to Jen D. for her Sock Monkey of Doom! She receives adorable sock shaped bobbins, a 1" gauge frame, and lovely pattern cards. 

For the Most Kills in One Household, the award goes to Amy of MO! A little bamboo yarn should help relax after such hard work.

Best Surprise BOTS Fun goes to MM for her awesome documentary.  (She'll have to share with filmmaker Ben.) MM will have some fun knitting from sheets of Flat Feet sock yarn.

Best Tracking Award goes to JenKC  for her BOTS II chart.  Now she can relax and focus on knitting her gorgeous handpainted sock yarn:

And finally, an award to Kat of OK for most kills from OK. The OK gang added a lot of fun this year and we were glad to have you join us.  Kat receives a Knit for the Cure kit!

Thank you to all for a great game, but most especially to Lisa of One City Market. Lisa donated the majority of the awesome prizes, and helped keep me sane throughout it all.  Thanks Lisa!!!!!                       

edited to correct my mistake on last year's winner.  I attribute the slip to being locked in the house with sick kids on and off for 2 weeks now.  Kat was selected for a prize but since I left my prize list at the shop last night, I had to guess at what the category was.  All is fixed now and sorry for the confusion.

I've spent the past few days locked in the house with 2 sick boys. As I cleaned all surfaces until the whole house smells of Lysol and did the millionth load of laundry, it isn't surprising that my mind has wandered to more pleasant activities.  

Knitters have been asking me for weeks now what the spring knit along will be and when will it start. 

Honestly, until last week, I didn't know.  I was waiting for inspiration to strike.  I knew we wanted to knit something summery. Something lightweight. Lace crossed my mind, but I just finished a lace shawl. A top perhaps? Something that could be dressed up or down, would look great on everyone, was simple enough to be a relaxing knit, yet not so basic that it is boring.

Then Knitty.com released the spring issue.  Perfect.  Knitty always comes through.

Announcing our 2009 Spring KAL - Pioneer.

This cap sleeve, v-neck top, is knit from the top-down.  At first glance, it looks like very simple stst, but if you scroll through all the pictures, you'll notice delicate cable detailing on the sleeves, sides, and back. 

We discussed Pioneer at KAN and while everyone was enthusiastic about the pattern, a number were not sure they wanted such a deep-V neck. No problem, I declared.  I'll figure out the changes needed to make it a shorter V. 

After examining the pattern today (in between fits of cleaning - did I tell you that my vacuum died today? The motor burnt out. Excellent timing.), I believe that anyone wanting a shorter V should repeat rows 4 and 5, and eliminate rows 6 and 7, when knitting the yoke.  This will bring the point of the V about even with the armpit, rather than several inches lower. 

I am actually going to be knitting the deeper V-neck as designed, so I'm relying on those who are knitting the modified version to send in their updates, pictures, and tips.

The official start will be April 4th, but I cast on today so that I can hopefully stay a bit ahead and answer questions.

I'm making the medium. You'll notice in the pattern that the designer intended the top to fit snugly with negative ease. Now, negative ease can be confusing. Basically it means that if you are a 36, like me, and want the 2" of negative ease called for in the design, you would knit a 34".  Wait, you say. That won't fit you.  Actually it will.  The fabric will be form fitting. In this particular case, the designer has allowed for extra stitches and therefore, ease, across the bust.  A good idea considering the deep V.

If you don't want all of your form fitted, you can simply knit a size closer to your actual measurement, or slightly larger. You are in control. That's one of the great things about making your own sweater. 

Now, what about yarn? You should be fairly safe with anything in the heavy sport through DK weight. I opted for Blue Sky Alpacas' Alpaca and Silk in garnet. Michelle is using Spunky Eclectic Summer. Others are discussing Hempathy, Silky Wool, Hacho, and Ty Dy Cotton. 

Send me an email or post a comment here if you'd like to join in on the fun. 

Our house is in the midst of that fun known as children home with the tummy flu.  Alec is on day 5, and despite dire warnings from the wonderful Dr. A., that it could last 6-7 days, he seems to be greatly improved.  I'm desperately hoping it lasts.

Connor is on day 1, but has made a remarkable recovery after the decision was made to keep him home from school.

Suspicious? Perhaps.

Rather then bore you with the details of the sick homefront, let's look at the latest arrivals in the shop:

TY DY Cotton! 100% cotton, 198yds per skein, 5sts to the inch on a US 7, in the same beautiful colors as the beloved TY DY sock yarn.  Lisa already snagged some for a fantastic summer scarf.  I'm debating between a scarf for myself, or an adorable little sweater. 

Isn't it cute? Would make a great shop sample.  

We have 2 new colors in TY DY sock:

and...

the new spring pattern books from Classic Elite!!

Ok, time to make something nice and bland for the boys' dinner.  On the plus side, I have gotten a lot of knitting done over the past few days and even finished a few projects.  I'll take pictures to share tomorrow.  Just in time for the new KAL that has already kicked off!  Details on that tomorrow as well. 

Well over a week late.  Yes, I know. I'm sorry. Especially to Lisa, who has been stuck in bed and waiting for news of SPA.

It was fantastic! I arrived just after the TKE gang had departed for lunch, so although I missed "the tomato incident," I did get an hour to wander around the booths by myself.

It was lovely - if not a little overwhelming - to spend some much personal time with the fiber. I blew my SPA budget in about 45 minutes. 

Looky what I got:

From The Woolen Rabbit - this is an alpaca/merino/silk blend that has since been spun, washed, and set. I don't really think the colors are good for me (they would look gorgeous on Becka) but I love them.  The skein reminds me of a golden tapestry.

4 bumps of Surino  (a special suri alpaca/merino blend) from Flaggy Meadow Fiber Works. 

2 bumps in the grey plum, and 2 in the burnt red.  I bought 2 pink bumps of their fiber at The Fiber Frolic last year and almost died spinning them. Like buttah! OMG. So soft. Here's how the summer stash turned out:

Obviously, I needed more.

The Dye Dreams booth had the most vivid colors,  and I couldn't pass up some sock yarn.

And then I fought my way through the crowd at the Spunky Eclectic corner to snag these lovelies:

That would be handpainted alpaca in Lichen on the left, and a merino/cashmere blend in Thunderstorm on the right. 

Amy knows that I have a bit of a weakness for handpainted alpaca, and it was hard to walk away with just one color, but this one was just so perfect. And I know where to get more. 

After spinning up the golden skein, I wound up the latest batch for my handspun afghan.

I'm not a great spinner by any means.  In fact, I have no idea what the parts to the wheel are called beyond the bobbin and the WHEEL. But, I don't care. I just like doing it. Yet, despite my fairly novice state, it is still incredibly hard to recreate my very first yarns. The whole idea behind the afghan is to use the thick and thin texture of my uneven first yarns. Well... now I've gone and gotten even! I had to force myself to let chunks of fiber through to get the think patches you see above. 

Anyway, the afghan is now big enough to cover a lap or two.

About 4 more skeins should do it.  2 in the blue plied with Burning Bush, and 2 pure Burning Bush.  All dyed by Spunky. 

I almost had a nervous breakdown prior to SPA just trying to decide what project to bring.  You see, my current knit was this:

Lace.  Lace is no good for knitting when you are talking and shopping.  Needed some mindless knitting. Decided on a sweater for Connor.  It is his turn in the family queue. Found the perfect sweater in an Ella Rae book of kids designs. Picked Cascade Sierra since it washes like a dream and he is a 9 year old boy.

Got the back almost done!

So. Why haven't I posted the SPA stuff till now?  Well, the spring yarns are arriving!! And the Namaste bags, of course.

Here's mine.

My favorite part is how it opens so I can see everything and easily pull out my knitting.

Only three bags remain from our first shipment. BUT I am putting in another order very soon. If you'd like to special order one, let me know ASAP.

Ok. Back to the yarns.  Remember how I said that the Cascade Alpaca Lace was coming?  It's here!

We also have new colors in Cascade Venezia:

Mucho colors in Hempathy. Check them out here.

And new cotton colors from Blue Sky Alpacas!  Plus the pattern for Knit Chickens!! KNIT CHICKENS!!!

How seriously awesome are those?????  Even Peter - who often scoffs at the whimsical knits - suggested that I make one because, hey, it's a KNIT CHICKEN. 

The Namaste bags arrived yesterday.

They are beautiful. And I love them.

Mine is pink. I need to get you a picture.  Although it is a big bag, I filled it with all my oh-so-necessary stuff in about 2 seconds.  Everything has a place or a pocket.  And then it sits and lets me knit right from it!!!!  Perfect. Knitting and handbag in one.  Brilliant. 

Amy grabbed the awesome green.

We also got the cute little accessory bags. 

Ahhhh...