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Sunday, March 30, 2008

Knitters night in Greensboro



We had a new knitter join us for the March Crafters night. Our friend Lydia brought along "The Z-man" for his first Crafters night. Though he didn't really get much knitting done we all enjoyed his company!!!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Spring Break Adventure


My son, Evan , and I just returned from a quick trip to New York City for Spring Break.
We had several destinations and events planned but left some time up-in-the-air for adventure.
I had several yarn shops in mind to visit but never made it to them. I did, however, come across these crazy hats in the window of a funny little store on Bleeker St. We went in and heard all about them from the Chinese lady who runs the shop. It is kind of hard to tell from the picture below how interesting they were. They were themed hats- Birds nest hats, Squirrel hats, Rainbow Hats, Jeweled hats, hats with baby dolls sewn all over them, hats that looked like birthday cakes, hats that looked like tea pots and more. She said she learned to knit and crochet in China as a young girl and unraveled store bought sweaters and reknit the yarn. She said she loved making hats and people bought them as art and put them on the wall. I was amazed and fascinated and asked to take pictures. 


She said no but we could take a picture of her. So we did. My brother was with us so he sneaked some more hats in the picture behind our heads. 
We met the hat lady after we met the crazy squirrel lady in Washington Square Park. We didn't get a picture of her feeding the squirrels out of her hands and having them crawl on her. The crazy squirrel lady might like to see the interesting hats the hat lady makes .



Evan then ran into Cruella DeVille- who is definitely a crazy lady.
One of our main reasons for the trip to NYC was to see the guitar playing legend Les Paul play at Iridium in Times Square.He is 93 years old and still plays 2 shows every Monday night. He was amazing. He can play that guitar like nobodys business - and he seems to have a great time entertaining the crowds. The special treat was that Evan brought his guitar named for the man and got to meet Mr. Paul and have him sign his guitar. We were all very happy that night !

Before we left on Wednesday visited Nicky Epstein and had a great lunch in Chinatown. Nicky is as busy as ever and is working on so many projects. She showed us a sneak preview of her next 3 books that are going to be published in May. She is amazing! She keeps coming up with so many great ideas and new projects to knit and crochet. She says she will come back for a workshop when her schedule calms down a bit.

All in all we had a great quick trip. I got NO knitting done until I had to wait in the airport for our flight that was delayed 3 hours. Thank goodness I had my knitting!

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Felting Magic



Felting or Fulling a finished knit product has a certain magical quality to the process. Janis knit this great Intarsia bag from an Interweave Knits pattern out of Cascade 220. It was big and loose and a bit misshapen.






She put it in the washing machine with some detergent, hot water and agitated it for a while. After 30 minutes or so it was done and she has a sturdy colorful bag!


















This is the Fiber Trends Gelato Bag before I felted it. 



Here is the Gelato bag after felting . I am really pleased with how it turned out. I have felted many projects over the years and I am always surprised and happy with the magical result.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Linus Blankets



There is a wonderful organization called Linus Blankets that provides handmade blankets for children in need. There are so many creative people in the area who knit, crochet and sew blankets. Yarns etc... is a designated drop off point for finished pieces. I am so fortunate to be able to see all the beautiful creations before they are picked up and distributed





Early last Summer we sponsored a Stitch n Pitch at the Durham Bulls game and asked people to contribute knit squares so they could be sewn  together into a blanket for the Linus Project.
Our friend Carolyn sewed them together for us one day. 


This is a blanket that was knit by a High School 
student for credit for her community service hours.

Everyone can make a blanket! You can make an easy one or try out a new stitch and make a more difficult one. You can crochet one or sew one. You can even make them out of Polar Fleece. They are all needed and appreciated.

Check out their web site at;

Monday, March 10, 2008

A CHANGE OF MEANING

With an anniversary coming up, I needed a special gift for my sweetie. I looked high and low for a good sock yarn for him and found nothing to suit my liking. This one is too bright, this one too drab... you see where that was going. One day Mary Ann brought a test skein into the shop, "Etude in Grey" that was it... love at first sight for my love at first sight. 
So of course I sat on the yarn until the beginning of February; I had three years and eleven months to get him an anniversary present, what's a couple more weeks! (Leap Day this year was the second anniversary of our first "date".)  When I remembered that our anniversary was at the end of this shortest month. I cast on and knit away. Then quite a few things happened and before I could finish the socks they changed...


These lovely socks went from being boyfriend/anniversary socks to Husband/Wedding socks!
And wear them to our Leap Day Wedding he did!
He was so wonderfully handsome too!




It was the least I could do for the man who made my ring, and always makes me happy.



We had the most wonderful day! We were surrounded by our family and friends, my mother and brother and sister-in-law cooked up a storm and we partied all night!
There were also a few more Knitted Object sightings!

Socks as a thank you to my mother- thank you for hosting our wedding party and thank you for my birthday earlier in the week. It's kind of a tradition to give my mother presents on my birthday, she earned them!





Hunter's hat,




and Baby's burp cloth/bib!



It truly was a fantastic day!




On another sock note, we are participating in Unique Kolours Think Outside the Sox Program as a Sox Hot Spot, check it out and get your ideas ready for their big contest!


Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Baby Surprise Jacket

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket has been a fun knitting project since it was first published in 1968. There is a twist to this pattern. The sweater looks like this -right- before you twist it around and sew the shoulder seams.







We have been offering classes at Great Yarns and Yarns etc to help knitters through all the "surprises" of this pattern.

Here is Irene helping students with their projects.


Baby Surprise Jackets can be made with many types and gauges of yarn.





Everyone loves the Baby Surprise Jacket!

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