By Wendy on September 28, 2009
I had a great time down in Virginia Beach this past weekend. There was a book-signing/party Friday night at KnitWits that was a blast. I met a lot of fun knitters and thoroughly enjoyed myself. My friend Rusty did a nice photo-filled blog post about it here.
Rusty and her husband Larry had just returned from a trip to Canada and Rusty brought me some prezzies:
To the left is sock yarn, from Belfast Mini Mill on Prince Edward Island. It’s a beautiful heathered green-blue. The bright turquoise is laceweight from Tanis Fiber Arts. And the Dala horse is . . . just because. 
I also got a cap from Larry’s ship:
The classes on Saturday were wonderful. The knitters were fun and enthusiastic about learning the techniques. In fact, we now have a group on Ravelry dedicated to the wonder that is a toe-up toe, called “Toe Cuppage.” And a challenge has been issued there . . .
For my travel knitting I cast on a sock.
Can you guess the yarn and colorway?
My purchase of the weekend — I discovered that KnitWits carries Lawre’s Laine bags. And they had a style I hadn’t seen before — a pouch:
I love how it has a stitch counter attached to the drawstring! It’s big enough to easily carry a sock or two or a smaller lace project.
I returned home yesterday afternoon to this:
A very happy little kitty!
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged knitwits, lace project, little kitty, prince edward island, ravelry
By Wendy on September 24, 2009
Who needs a clever title, eh?
I left the True Love Stole at home today. It’s hot and humid here, so not having piles of cashmere draped on my lap on the train seemed like a good idea. It was a good idea — they apparently have turned the air conditioning off on the trains.
This is what I did on my commute.
Cute little devil, isn’t he? Here he is with his buddies . . .
These little guys are prep work for a workshop I’ll be teaching late in October at SWAK in the City in Oklahoma City (see this page for more information) — What to Do With Leftover Sock Yarn. Should be a fun class!
But this weekend, I’m heading down to Virginia Beach to KnitWits for fun and classes. Since the last time I was in Virginia Beach was when I was around 4 years old, it is about time I went back, don’t you think?
I’m leaving early tomorrow morning and returning home Sunday afternoon. Depending on my mood and state of exhaustion upon my return, I may not blog until Monday.
So have a good weekend!
Lucy is not sure how she feels about having me away this weekend . . .
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged clever title, little devil, little guys, sock yarn, swak
By Wendy on September 23, 2009
On the commute home yesterday I finally finished my second Mallow sock. Ta-da!
To recap, I knit this from Madeline Tosh sock yarn in the “Malachite” colorway on 2mm needles. And in a spurt of energy, I even wrote up the pattern, in 3 sizes. You may download it for free in pdf format here.
It’s also listed on the “Free Patterns” page. It’s been a while since I posted a sock pattern, hasn’t it?
Now I’m down to just one bloggable project, my True Love Stole. Here she is, lounging in my office chair:
Yes, she accompanied me to work today. I knit on this baby during the morning commute, which was interesting as it was a particularly bumpy train ride. Lace and bumps don’t necessarily mix, so I did exercise some caution.
I also did a few rows during my lunch break, but the stole stayed in its very cute tote bag for the trip home as it was too crowded on the train for me to unfurl it and knit on it.
But if I did, I probably would have gotten some funny looks. 
Meanwhile, Lucy is wiggling. While she ponders the wonderment of her existence.
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged colorway, commute home, lunch break, sock pattern, sock yarn
By Wendy on September 22, 2009
I love getting stuff in the mail, and an added benefit is getting stuff in the mail when you have little to blog about. Presto chango, instant blog fodder!
Exhibit A:
This is my yarn for the Enchanted Wood Lace Shawl KAL from The Unique Sheep. Hope on over to the page I linked there to read all about it. The Unique Sheep is finishing up The Secret Garden KAL. I didn’t join that one, but my buddy L-B did and she has been having a lot of fun with it. so I decided to sign up when they announced the Enchanted Wood club. You make your choice from many many yarns, and I chose their Luxe yarn (wool/silk blend) in a gradience colorway: Mirkwood. I love my yarn!
It looks like sign-ups are still open so anyone interested can still join in the fun. The KAL starts January 10, 2010.
Exhibit B:
What a surprise it was to receive a package from Johanne, as I was not expecting it. Inside was this:
Sock yarn! Sock yarn! Sock yarn! And this:
It’s a Swedish crafts magazine, and this issue is focused on knitting. Great magazine — it reminds me somewhat of Threads. Johanne sent it to me because it has an article about traditional Swedish knitting with some wonderful photos:
I was flipping through the rest of the magazine and this caught my eye:
Hee hee. 
(It’s from an article about knitting resources on the internet.)
And from the comments . . .
Tammy said:
Oooh – I love the kitty bag. Where did you get it?
That is a custom made bag from Three Bags Full. Michelle does gorgeous work — I highly recommend her bags!
Lucy sez:
“What’s for dinner? Catfood again?”
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged crafts magazine, lace shawl, silk blend, sock yarn, yarn wool
By Wendy on September 21, 2009
Once a literature geek, always a literature geek.
In the comments Brit observed:
It seems that progress on the True Love stole is going more slowly than on your last two shawls. Is that because you aren’t finding as much time to knit? Or is it because it is a difficult pattern?
I was wondering when someone would ask me why the heck it is taking me so long to knit this baby.
The reason is the former, not the latter. While this stole is heavily patterned, there really are no tricky bits to it. The lace stitches consist only of yarnovers, k2tog, and a sl1 k2tog psso double decrease. Every row is knit. There is patterning on every row, but that just makes it more entertaining to knit, as far as I’m concerned.
And each row can be completed pretty quickly. Because it is a stole, it is not extremely wide, so I can whack out a row in a few minutes.
Getting that few minutes is the problem. I have had a whole lot of impediments to knitting lately, so progress has been almost non-existent. Still, I got a nice chunk of knitting time in yesterday afternoon, so that was encouraging.
And my second sock is almost done. I will hopefully finish it tomorrow on the commute. As soon as it is done, the stole will accompany me as commuter knitting, so I can get a few more rows knit every day.
Stay tuned for further developments . . .
Lucy sez:
“Just finish my white blankie, willya?”
Posted in Wendy Knits | Tagged blankie, impediments, shawls, tricky bits, yesterday afternoon
