it was fun at the farm...

 Thanks to Jason and Carole! They are so hospitable, it makes you feel just like being at home! They feed you - Carole's tomato chili soup was great! and the desserts, OMG! The last time I was there, it was their #5 annual show and this year was number 24 - wow, they put so much into it, you have to plan on going next year - it will be their Silver Anniversary and Tom, the machine knitting guy has promised to be there!
I think everyone was impressed with the 2 TLR stole/shawls that I made for my niece's wedding this coming weekend - hope to get a 'live' photo of her which I will post later. I have promised to write up the pattern for this soon, hopefully before Christmas and will post here when it's ready.

It was great to see Jane Niemi's (blue-ribbon-winner at the state fair) version of 'Primitive' from Knitwords #19, Winter, 2001 - she modelled it in  the style show at Rocking Horse Farm - goes to show how enduring our fashions are! In fact, she inspired me to dig out mine - I may wear it to the Maritime seminar in Charlottetown next weekend - here's an excerpt from my #19 editorial:

During workshops, many times someone will say to me, 'This is probably a stupid question, but...' and I always say there is no stupid question, except a knitter who knows who I am, and asks me if I knit what I am wearing. Duh!!! How could I possibly show up and act like an expert if I don't have the confidence to make my own wardrobe? On this trip [the Maritime Machine Knitters Seminar in Wolfville, Nova Scotia], I was wearing our cover garment, 'Primitive' and got many rave reviews.  One of the knitters threw in this question as a joke and  I answered facetiously, 'No, I got it at the Wal-Mart. They have it in other colourways too. There is a red, white and blue version.' One of the husbands in the group quickly threw in, 'yes, but can you get the stripes vertical instead of horizontal?'

I did a bunch of knitting between the weddings and workshops...Rhiana's turquoise dress with ruffles; 2 WCD dresses for sister Janet (even I loved the 'watercolours'  one); LSA in royal WCD for niece/goddaughter Lauren (she wore it for her post-wedding brunch - sorry for the poor photo - new camera and I haven't had enough experience yet;-)); and 2 TLR stoles for niece/next bride, Karen...

substitute teacher...

Guess where I'm going? St Cloud, Minnesota!
I got a phone call the other night from Jason at Rockinghorse Farm in St Cloud. He told me my buddy Tom, the machine knitting guy, who was supposed to be the headliner at their September seminar had to cancel out due to a work conflict and would I be available to fill in? would I? gosh, besides having two out-of-town family weddings in September there was only one weekend I would be able to go and yes! it's September 18! I'll be there! Just when I thought I about had a grip on everything I wanted to do in prep for the weddings  and to be ready for the Maritime seminar the first weekend in October...
I promised Jason that I would have completely different classes from what I taught at the Founders Fest in July because there will be some of the same knitters there. I noticed that Tom had a class called Tuck Lace Rib - well, I can do that and fortunately I have some new samples! I am just finishing up a TLR stole for my niece, Karen, for her bridal outfit.
Check out this link for more info: https://www.facebook.com/events/1459456417678260/
It's stuck in my head, that old Trisha Yearwood song, 'On a bus to St Cloud Minnesota, I thought I saw you there...' but I'll be driving and there should be no snow on the ground, so I hope to see you there!

mail order fun...

I think I mentioned that my granddaughter's new best colour is turquoise and I didn't have anything even close. I went on-line to check out Yeoman Yarns Panama because for kidswear it's great - good yardage, easy care and easy knitting.  A knitting friend had mentioned last year that she had ordered from the UK and got her order very quickly  and easily.  I found an ebay website from UK that has very good prices, the postage seemed to be extremely cheap for overseas delivery and they take Paypal, what more could you want? So I clicked this and that and placed my order - the postage was based on 2 to 4 kg for the same price so I ended up ordering 6 - 500g cones which was still within the 4 kg range and held my breath - more is better, right? Within 8 hours, I got a reply that thanks, my order was on the way. It was delivered to my door yesterday, 1 week,  by Canada Post and no customs charges!!! OMG, I immediately began thinking of what colours of Cannelé I wanted but I put the brakes on - I'll save it for later!
 Janet's (poppy WCD) dress is done, almost finished an LSA cardi (Let's Swing Again, Knitwords #44) for Lauren in royal blue WCD and I'll get Rhiana's turquoise dress done this weekend - I think I may have time to get that new dress done for me for the Maritime seminar - I deserve to have something new to show them too, don't I? ;-))

mmkc founders fest a success...

The seminar was great - everyone was so excited to be there, me included! It was fun - the founders did a superb job of organizing, planning and arranging to make sure everything went smoothly. Thanks Dee, Jane and Maria Ann! It was great to see Pam from St Cloud, Bonnie and her entourage, Rosemarie and the gals from Wisconsin and to meet some new (to me) mk-ers, Rachel, Thomas and Heather - of course there were more but it's impossible to mention everyone.
I was really impressed when Rosemarie showed me her submission to last year's Door County Wearable Art Show near Madison, Wisconsin - she told me that she had used my  buttonhole band (#34 from '50 Ways to Love Your Knitter') which set off her design very nicely. Ah, validation! Nice!
My TLR cardigan was perfect. I felt professional and cool and I haven't stopped wearing it - it's so versatile and pretty - I'm thinking of a re-make but I have a to-do list to complete first.
I did finish up both the navy manfriend hoodie and the pink girlfriend hoodie - they are ready to go in the mail. My grandson, Nathan, would like a red MFH - he is 11 years old and gaining on me height-wise so I think he qualifies - I'm going to make him the smallest size- I'm confident he'll grow into to it pretty quick. Rhiana asked for a turquoise dress for back-to-school - her new favourite colour,  so I'll have to order some yarn - that's not a standard MAO shade!
My little-big sister Janet asked for a new dress like the navy one I made her last fall - she wears it so much, she's having a hard time putting it to launder so another one to switch out would be good - I talked her into 'poppy' which I'm sure she will get as much use of (if she doesn't, I will;-)). Promised my friend Ray a denim MFH; a cardigan for Lauren; something for me for Karen's wedding...and while working on Janet's dress I am cooking up a few new dress plans - stay tuned!
Oh, BTW, in case I never said, I'll be at the Maritime Machine Knitters seminar in Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, Oct  2, 3/ 2015 - get ready!

GFH - girlfriend hoodie

MAO - mary anne oger (I actually had someone ask me what that meant in MSP!)

MFH - manfriend hoodie
MMKC -midwest machine knitters collaborative
TLR - tuck lace rib

my plan worked....

I'm ready for you, Minneapolis! (and I've decided that it's tuck lace rib!)

I used the shape from Mazatlan (KW#45) with vee neck, elbow length sleeve and mid hip length for the body. Because I wanted to add a crochet-look hem after the fact, I started off with stockinette waste yarn, using the ribber comb for the cast-on, (see blogpost, Wasted...Not! Nov 25, 2008) so I would have it to hang the weights for double bed work. After the ravel cord, I knit 2 rows of stockinette and then transferred to the ribbed tuck lace arrangement - I needed to have a plain row to be able to rehang the stitches for the hem, but found that 1 row was not enough because they were getting moved around and some doubled, so 2 plain rows worked much better. I used the crochet-look look hem from Tumbleweed (KW#53) but didn't do the RTR in the middle, just tucked the alternate needles on the last half and it worked beautifully. I used the stockinette bands and buttonholes (starting one tension number tighter to make up for this lighter-weight yarn) from Purple Purls (KW#52) - it's gorgeous - I don't care how hot and humid it's going to be! Hope to see you there!

ribbed tuck lace or tuck lace rib...

I knocked off that skirt, no problem and I'm on a roll - looked around for something else to do...I have a ribber class to do in Minneapolis as well as the seaming techniques for the manfriend hoodie which was all single bed, so I think I should do a project on the double bed just for a bit of practise. Oh, I know, I mentioned after San Diego that I would like to use that tuck lace rib stitch that was in the old cover garment tunic from 1994 (blogpost, cover story, May 20, 2015).
You may have noticed that I have an affinity for cardigans - rarely do I make a pullover, so it's kind of a given here. I like cardigans because they give me more wardrobe options and to be honest, I always feel fat in a pullover. The illusion of a small waist is easier to maintain with the vertical lines down the centre of the button front, open or closed. You'd think I'd get over it one day but it doesn't look like to  be happening soon, so, cardigan it is!
I want this to be really lightweight,  MSP can be very hot and humid in late July, so I've chosen Wool Crepe Deluxe - I have 2 family weddings in September and this could be a good option for at least one of the associated events. I made the first swatch and as I was knitting it, I remembered one of the problems with this tuck lace is that it tends to lengthen and narrow and, as it is WCD that I'm using, which is usually at 34 to 38 stitches/10 cm that could make more trouble than it's worth.
I also want the lacy holes to stay open and not get dragged down as the fabric narrows. I throw on the 'tuck-every-other-row' option on the ribber and wow, what a difference! not only takes the stitch gauge from 49 sts/10 cm (top swatch) to 35 sts/10 cm, but adds a flatness and width stability to the fabric. A few tweaks to my cast-on edge so it's easier to rehang and add one of my favourite trims (a variation of #33 XOXO trim from Band Practise) and I have a plan!

dyed and done...

I opted for the stovetop  method of heating 3 gallons of water, 1 cup of salt, a bottle of the pearl grey dye and the glycine lace sweater - it was less than a pound in weight, but I used the full bottle, even though the label says the bottle is good for 1 kilo of garment (my experience in the past says more dye is better than less if you want even coverage) and the 3 gallons of water was plenty to swish the garment about nicely and evenly. I 'cooked' it for the full 30 minutes recommended and then rinsed it several times in the sink until the water stayed clear. After machine washing and drying, I do have a beautiful steel grey cardigan that looks perfect with my snow leopard tank - I'm so happy - the buttons are okay but I will probably change them out for something in a tarnished silver or pewter look.
I did the same thing with the beige girlfriend hoodie, using the royal blue dye. It weighed almost 700g. I followed the same formula but pulled it out of the hot dye at 15 minutes because it looked really dark. After drying, it was slightly patchy, but a really nice colour overall. Yesterday, I went to get another bottle of dye to redo it and went to Michael's instead. Shame on you, Fabricland! Mike sells the same thing for $6.95 and gave me a 40% off coupon for next week!
Today, I re-did the hoodie, using 4 gallons of water and left it in the full half hour - OMG, it's gorgeous, a lovely cobalt blue. One thing funny, though, the beige thread I used took the dye but the beige zipper tape stayed pretty beige - I don't mind really, but just saying - if you are going to dye a zipper to match something, start with a white one. The pink hoodie is all ready for the Minneapolis seminar!
Buoyed by the thought of using my stolen headlamp again, I'm going to work on that black 'Tiers of Joy' skirt re-do from last year...oh man, time flies when you procrastinate - I looked it up and that was  actually Sep, 13, 2013! Talk about putting something on the back burner!