Sunday, September 16, 2007

Fulmar KAL


I had a small amount of Frangipani on hand, so decided to swatch the "Fulmar" and see if I could get gauge. Surprizingly I got it first try with a 3.00mm Addi. Bit the bullet and ordered the Frangipani from the UK, pistachio in color. Since the KAL does not start until Oct. 1 I decided to cast on one sleeve and see if I could do the cables. It really is going to be a beautiful sweater, the patterns show so well. I'm going to knit the second size.

Monhegan Project


The "Son of Aran" progresses nicely. It is done FLAK fashion from the neck down. I'm using Cascade 220 and Addi size 5 needles. After knitting for 4 days on the island by headlamp and kerosene lamplight, I was surprized to only find 2 errors. One was in the moss stitch and only 13 rows back so that was ripped out and redone. It was an error that you could see sometimes and other times had to hunt for, but it is now fixed. The second one was much worse, one of the main cable twists at the very beginning of the back, too far to ladder back. All the ladies offered their solutions ranging from leave it, no one will see it, to frog it or pick up and knit over the stitches and bury the error. I finally decided to try Janet's "snip and fix" method, figuring if it didn't work I could frog it and start the back over ( which was what I was going to do anyway). It was driving me crazy even if nobody else could find the error. It worked like a charm! Best thing since sliced bread! You can bet I look at each row with an eagle eye now before starting the next!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Monhegan 2007




I'm just back from a knitting retreat on Monhegan Island, Maine. Ten miles off the coast, it's a small village and lots of beautiful scenery. Four days of knitting by the fire, eating, knitting by lamplight and headlamps, sleeping, eating, knitting.......... we had fun and relaxed. No electricity, phones, tv, radio, computer or any other distractions. I started Janet's "Son of Aran" and managed to get the front and back done to the armholes - only ripped out three times - got home and discovered one mis-twist and one seed stitch error - oh well! Twenty four ladies from all over the State of Maine left the island with projects including sweaters, socks, hats, scarves and baby blankets in various stages of finishing. Thanks to "Stitchery Square" in Camden for organizing our fun!




Weather was not great, foggy and drizzle after the first afternoon of sunshine, but we persevered and had a good time anyway. Burned about a half cord of wood and knit til we dropped!