Einstein

Einstein:
The facts: home-schooled, lived from March 14, 1879 - April 18, 1955, German, Jewish, had cool crazy hair, won many awards, etc.

Unfortunately, (although even more brilliant) I'm not talking about that Einstein. In fact, I'm talking about a great (see the similarities) knit sweater pattern. Perfect in that it's very neatly constructed, easy to follow instructions, totally do-able 1st sweater pattern for beginners & you will feel super smart once you've completed it.

It's from The Knitting Experience Book 1: The Knit Stitch by Sally Melville


Sweater Specs:

• less than 5 x 150g balls (or 11 x 50g balls of Lopi or another bulky weight)
  
• hand-spun 100% wool dyed in a khaki green.
• took a reasonable amount of time
• was a nice relaxing knit (perfect for obligatory T.V. watching with hubby in evenings or at appts.)
  
• straight forward, no nonsense pattern in garter stitch with the only decreases being in the sleeves
• only 2 seams (one at the top of each arm) to sew up to finish. (You pick up stitches to knit the various parts throughout)
• 5 buttons (I was given some wood toggle ones from Faye's stash)
  

I loved making this sweater. The only modifications that I made were that I didn't switch to the smaller needles when I had 11 rows to finish in each sleeve. I cont'd with the same size needles & only decreased down to 18 rather than 15 stitches & made it to the length I wanted. I actually had done it according to the pattern first, but didn't like the look, frogged it back & finished the way I discussed above. I like to roll the sleeves a bit & if you followed the pattern it would have turned out too tight & bunched for this look.
The total cost of this project was $15- including tax. I had gotten the yarn from a vendor at the last spin-in I attended in Port Hope at an incredible $15- for 5lbs of hand-spun (she was clearing out last years stock). The wooden toggles were a gift from my friend Faye's stash (yes, the same Faye who got me started with quails, lol.)

Anyway, got to go finish a flamingo, peace out, Boop

The Yarn Harlot

Yup, back we trekked to Aurora again this year. I convinced MA & Irene to go with me. Jack (not trusting my night driving skills since the motion of the car tends to make me fall asleep & who is MA's hubby) drove us all to Aurora last night to see Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (aka The Yarn Harlot) do another one of her awesome talks.

If you haven't gotten the opportunity then you're definitely missing out on something special. She is witty, intelligent, approachable & the farthest thing from pretentious ever there was. Motivational & inspirational, she makes you feel welcome & worthy regardless if colour, race or social economic level. A refreshing change to the norm.
(Pic of Steph asking us knitters to unite for the cause, lol.)

I suppose I could be viewed as a Harlot groupie, but for the most part, I think Steph realizes that I'm harmless, I just don't get out a whole heck of a lot & I'm a little obsessed with the whole knitting thing in general.

I also decided to take my (new-to-me) Blythe doll "Lydia". And, as luck would have it, was able to show Steph what a Blythe was (I'm hoping she's a better person for being enlightened, but she may just think I've crossed that fine weirdo line, lol). Erin (my friend in T.O. who I bought Lydia off of), was more than thrilled that Lydia got to meet such "Knitting Royalty"; her words.

Anyway, I have a ton of things to show/talk/blog about & really need to set aside some time to do so. Until then, peace out, Boop