Recent News

I've returned from another trip west. On the flight out I had fun chatting with the woman in front of me who also had knitting in hand. I did finish the front for my sweater while I was out there, but not having the back with me, I couldn't complete the project. I since have and will post a picture shortly.

I see TAST has begun with a flourish. There's even a ring and a Flickr group. I'm looking forward to getting settled in with the challenge. I have doodled all stitches to date, but what I hope to start doing is creating a mini sampler each week. And of course I want to refine and complete the ones I did in conjunction with Sharon's online Joggles class, Developing a Personal Library of Stitches.

When I first checked my email I found a thread about Stash Guilt in full discussion mode on one of my e-lists. Right after that I received a link to the latest edition of http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/FEATcollection.html
and one of the best and therapeutically funniest articles I have ever read relevant to stash. I applaud author Kate Antonova , and encourage everyone to read it, for even though she speaks of a yarn collection it could be a stash by any other name. I see it as a miracle regimen for SGS (Stash Guilt Syndrome). This article is so liberating I think I'll stitch an homage to The Stashbuilders' Creed, shamefully adapted by me from the Ferengi Rules of Acquisition:

#10 -Greed is eternal!
#242 -More (stash) is good; all is better.
#97 -Enough (stash) is never enough.
#6 -Never allow family to stand in the way of opportunity (for stash acquisition)!!

Another Knitty article well worth sharing is Cheating at Color Theory by Julie Theaker. It promises a foolproof method for determining color value.

NORO SILK GARDEN LIGHT

As soon as I saw the second Argosy version in December's Knitty , I hurried to my LYS to purchase some Noro Silk Garden Light. I bought 2 skeins to make a scarf for my daughter for Christmas and 2 for myself. Hers is a similar colorway to mine, but instead of the coral-ish color, hers has fuschia. My scarf is show to the right. I think it's color 125.

I went back to the store for more but there was only one skein left, which I figured would be enough for a cap.

I had wonderful plans to create a hat that would be similar in appearance to the scarf, but since I was in a hurry to finish before I leave tomorrow for CA and since I had only one skein, I opted for a pattern I found online that would show off the beautiful striping. It's Nancy Delcomyn's Silk Garden Spiral, and I was pleased with the results. I made slight adjustments because I used the lighter weight yarn. By the way, this was my first time using a Noro yarn, although I've admired how it looks made up by others.

OUT OF OPTIONS

I'm ready to send my Options in Hardanger project in for evaluation. I haven't decided on a border yet which is just as well as I ran out of time. My piece was stitched on 25 ct Lugana

with Caron Watercolours and Wildflowers in "paprika". It is not without flaws, and I still haven't mastered picots! In the new

EGA education catalog there is another course by Dale Sokolow called More Options in Hardanger, and I'll probably sign up for it too.

Heaven help me, I'm a glutton for punishment. Although I think it is a beautiful technique, I only seem to find the hard in hardanger. I've yet been able to relax enough to enjoy doing it. I find it requires my total concentration, so I can only work on it when I know I won't be interrupted. Until I can find an effective means of magnification, I can only work for so long before I start getting double vision. So why would I even consider another course? I think the discipline is good for me.

And I just don't want to give up until I feel comfortable with the technique.