MaggieBKnits

My "Alaska" cardigan progresses, albeit slowly. I believe I mentioned in my previous post that I didn't like the way the bottom was flipping up, just above the Latvian braid.  It got to annoying me enough that I decided to go ahead and knit in a hem. I also knit in the name-- -- and my initials.  Also, possibly overconfidently, the year.   I would like to finish the knitting of this before Camp (July) but unless my speed increases dramatically I don't see that happening. This is incredibly addictive knitting but, boy, I wish I could knit as fast as Hazel Tindall .   (I hope that link works-- it should go to a short video that Amy Detjen posted (last year?) on her facebook page.)  So amazing.

First, a couple pictures of my project, a self-designed Fair Isle, which I call Alaska-- they are in order of knitting, increasing in size. This is the lower section of the body-- The braid is causing a little folding issue (grr) so I am taking a break from the color work to knit an anti-bend repair.  Blocking might fix it just fine but it is driving me bonkers and I just want it to stop. OK so the real topic I want to discuss is-- knitting needle storage and organization . Over the years I have accumulated quite a few knitting needles. (ahem) The double points were in a box, still in their wrappers (many of which are pretty darn battered. Some had no wrappers so every time I had to pull out my needle sizer to check which needles were the size I wanted.  (the angst 😉) I finally broke down and bought a DP roll from Della Q .  Mine is red and I totally love it. I love Della's labels, and the little pockets hold at least 2 sets-- and there are tw...

Today felt like spring around here- very nice- except when the hawk swooped (I believe the official term is "stooped") onto a flicker and killed it - right in front of me. I know, he needs to eat-- but I love flickers. I do have some photos but not sure how much any of you care to see that sort of non-knitting focus.  Bird world and all... OK, just a couple.  Feel free to skip over them to get to the thrilling knitting content! The good news is, my knitting has been on a roll.   On. A. Roll.  I ordered the yarn for my Designed-by-Me Fair Isle sweater, from  Janine Bajus , last night. I call the sweater  Alaska , for the stunningly gorgeous photo of an area of Alaska that inspired my color choices.  If I knew where it is I might show you. Wait, here it is: Alaska inspiration photo I know, seriously girl, it is ripped in two pieces?? I'm sorry... It was in a magazine...   but aren't the colors totally gorgeous? Most of the...

(That title gets me humming Proud Mary, but I will spare you.) No knitting in this post, although, yes, I have been knitting (yay) Instead-- here's one of my boys: He has just --Today!!-- passed his Private Pilot check ride and is a newly minted FAA certified Private Pilot. Lots and lots of work involved in that certificate! So proud of you, dude.  Love you lots and lots, too.

I am a member of a knitting group that meets once a week at a local library. One of the joys of the group is meeting knitters from many different backgrounds and with a wide array of knitting abilities and interests. Another is, frankly, an hour and a half of dedicated knitting time! The precious woman who started it all is such a delight-- she will try anything, knitting-wise, and I mean anything.  She is insatiably curious, intrepid, bold and joyfully flings herself into new projects. Great fun. Today we all met, but there were only three of us. And I got to help another knitter a bit. She is a very talented knitter (originally from Ireland and oh I love her accent), and had two beautifully knitted socks, whose toes she wanted to graft, but she had never tried to do Kitchener Stitch.  She asked if I'd ever done it, and I said, oh yes, it is a great technique I really love. She said, "well, I probably need to be somewhere quiet and alone to figure it out." I wasn...

I love knitting in January. All the chaos (joyous though it is) of Thanksgiving and Christmas is over, the decorations are stored (well, sort of stored.) Carrying them upstairs to the attic is on my list for the day.  Really. Promise! Don't believe me, eh? All right I will go do it right now.  Hold on a sec... Done.  Wow. Easy. (accountability-by-blog 👍)  So- back to "I love January Knitting." Anything warm and wooly that I start, I have a fighting chance of finishing in time to be useful before the warm weather arrives.  The possibilities seem endless.   The year seems endless. Even with the non-warm-and-wooly items (filmy shawls, for instance) I feel flooded with endless hope and potential.   Ideas burgeon at an astonishing rate, faster than I can write them down. Naturally this necessitated a foray into my chaotic fiber den  knitting room to paw thru old projects and yarn.   I happened across a project ...

I must be unhinged. Yesterday I started a new project (let us not even count the already existing projects, aka wips). The project, yes, requires those shorter circular needles and their annoyingly short grip-this-part-of-the-needle parts. It is-- another Very Warm Hat. I have never had such a dramatic response from my family, to something that I knit. Consider the Awesomeness of Elizabeth Zimmermann:   My son-#2-in-Colorado (where let me tell you the high yesterday was 6 degrees Fahrenheit so he really wants his hat) is hourly checking the progress of the hat I mailed to him on Tuesday morning.  Sons #1 and #3 have both admired the finished hats, and politely indicated they might, in fact, want one.  Husband loves his and wears it literally any time he goes outside in the cold. Even, sometimes, to work.   My daughter, who otherwise considers me Far From Cool (which I consider quite the compliment, frankly, when I see what passes for Cool) also likes it a...