Seattle Stitch N’ Pitch 2012

I make no secret of the fact that I love baseball – from April to October, my brain is filled with practically nothing else. While I’ve always liked baseball growing up, it wasn’t until the last couple of years that I became completely obsessed with the sport (living in Boston when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2007 will do that). And since I now live here in the Pacific Northwest, I’ve become a big Seattle Mariners fan as well – I’ve gone to several games at Safeco Field, and I watch as many televised games as I can during the season. But one surprising thing I’ve never done is go to a Stitch N’ Pitch. Well this year I changed that!

This year’s Mariner’s Stitch N’ Pitch was less than a week after our beloved #51 Ichiro ran off to join the New York Yankees. But all us M’s fans were determine to cheer on our team in their game against the Kansas City Royals.

Arriving at Safeco, all the crafters were greeted by The Mitt with a special addition to it:

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Let the Games begin!

Today was the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympic Games! Of course
since I’m at the office I didn’t get to see them, but we’ve got a
couple of weeks to catch up.

For those of you who did get to see them, how were the ceremonies? what did you think?

Now, I’m not much of an athlete myself, unless
sitting-on-your-kiester is a new marathon event. But I do like to knit,
so I’m taking part in the Ravellenic Games! If you’re not familiar, that’s the knit-along competition that is timed to coincide with the Olympic Games on Ravelry.
Even if you don’t compete, it’s fun to see what everyone is working on
while they’re watching their favorite sport! I’ve only just barely cast
on, so there’s not much to see – but I’ve chosen quite the challenge for
myself, and it involves a lot of Palette and about three dozen bobbins. At least.

Honestly, for me, it’s not about winning or prizes or competittion, but the challenge of it.

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The Sock Knitter’s Handbook

I love books that are already spiralbound if nothing else because I don’t have to make a trip to Kinkos to have it spiral bound. I guess spiral binding is a sign of my respect for a book in some sort of weird way that I really don’t want to examine too closely.  

 

The Sock Knitter’s Handbook by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott is one of those kind of knitting books. Not a pattern book but it will definitely get you heading towards your sock yarn stash whether you are just beginning to explore the pleasures of knitting socks or you’ve got a few dozen in your sock drawer. 

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Podcast Episode 192: For the Love of Cowls

In this week’s episode, Kelley chats about her love of cowls! In
addition to covering a brief history of the cowl, Kelley talks about
several different varieties of designs that are based in the basic cowl
shape – including neck warmers, infinite scarves, and other styles that
experiment with unique ways of closing the loop. This allows designers
even more creative freedom in order to come up with even more fun ways
to wear cowls. And of course, Kelley also mentions that cowls are the
ideal way for using up those single skeins of wonderful handspun yarn.
Next, Kelley reviews a few books including The Complete Guide to
Spinning Yarn by Brenda Gibson
, Knit & Wrap: 25 Capelets, Cowls
& Collars by Nathalie Mornu
, and Ultimate Mittens by Robin Hansen.
Finally, Kelley catches you up on what has been on her needles – or in
this case, what will be on her needles! After finishing up all of her
works in progress, Kelley shares a few projects from her queue that will
be making their way onto her needles very soon.

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We’ve been Sunstruck!

We are so excited to introduce you to our newest type of needles, Sunstruck!

These gorgeous needles are a blonde twist on our Harmony needles – it’s the same laminated birch wood as the Harmony needles, but with a beautiful sun kissed look to them.  We’ve all completely fallen in love with them & we think you will too. They are available in interchangeable, fixed circular, and straight needles – perfect for any project.

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Backwards Loop Cast On for Toe-Up Socks

It was just around this time last year when everyone was buzzing with excitement over the second Sock Summit, held here in Portland, Oregon. And even though there are no gatherings on such a grand scale happening this summer, it sure hasn’t stopped any of us here at the office from springing right into a summer of sock knitting! It seems as though everyone has slowly put away the sweaters on their needles or quickly finished their WIPs in favor of these portable knitting delights.

Even more interesting is watching just how everyone works their way through socks – some work their socks both at the same time, some use the magic loop method, and others use double pointed needles all while some knit from the cuff down and others from the toe up. Don’t even get me started on the various cast ons, heels, and bind offs there are to choose from! And I love that about sock knitting – even though everyone is going through the same motions to create the same basic shaping, everyone gets to pick and choose from different styles and techniques to arrive at the finished project – a cozy pair of handknit socks.

So in honor of our sock obsession that is taking over all of our needles, this technique of the week highlights our video tutorial for the backwards loop cast on! Perfect for starting your next toe-up pair of socks, this is yet another cast on that is wonderful to have in your knitting repertoire.

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Knitting Scarves from Around the World

Every knitter appreciates our craft’s heritage but exploring all of those traditions is certainly daunting. On the other hand, just reading the history of sweaters like ganseys, Fair Isle, Norwegian, Cowichan and other fiber reflections of culture somehow doesn’t seem like quite enough. Thanks to Kari Cornell, you can use what I think is a brilliant way to blend samplers, utilitarians items and heritage into completely approachable projects – scarves!

Sometimes I am blown away by the way such a simple concept can be so brilliant! Think about it, scarves have been providing warmth, comfort, or decoration to both men and women almost as long as human civilization has existed. So says Donna Druchunas at the very beginning of her introduction to Knitting Scarves from Around the World. Then she goes on to appeal to my love of knitting history focusing on head and neck coverings. All the way back to 2900 B.C. and all around the world including Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Rome on up through seventeenth century Croatian soldiers, King Charles II of England and the aeronautical scarves of Amelia Earhart, Howard Hughes and WWI’s “Red Baron”.

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Elegant Simplicity

Sometimes when it comes to lace, less can be more!

Inspired by the hardy, well-adapted arctic willow, the Salix shawl takes cues from a seemingly barren landscape that’s far more alive than you might think!

Salix
is a full-sized Shetland-type shawl knit in Palette. Above a border of
Shells is a low-lying row of Buttercups. The body of the shawl is worked
in a pattern of Pebbles, with little variations just like those on a
beach. The stand-out feature, though, is the willow catkin running up
the shaped center panel.

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Dyeing with Bare Hare

When Bare Hare arrived to at our office, everyone’s first reaction was to uncontrollably “ohhh!” and “ahhhh” over how incredibly squishy and soft it was. Then almost immediately afterward, it seemed as though the same idea popped up for everyone at the same time – Bare Hare is an undyed yarn, which means you can dye it whatever shade is your color of choice! All of us have had previous dyeing experience and so of course, we couldn’t help but jump over to the dyeing section of the Knit Picks website to check out the different dyes and colors.

In addition to the Jacquard dyes, we were also drawn to the Earthues and Greener Shades dyes. And because we loved Bare Hare so much, we thought – why not experiment a bit and try out all three different types of dyes? I had been wanted to try out the Greener Shades Dyes, so I opted for the Coral Reef Aqua. Stacey chose Emerald in the Jacquard Dyes and Kerin went with the Earthues natural dyes.

Here is the result of our Bare Hare dyeing extravaganza, I love how they turned out!

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