Tag Archives: Knit One Crochet Too

Hey I’m back!

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Ahhhhhh vacation was so nice. Came back all refreshed and ready to knit ;^> Actually before I left I went to the local nail place and had a manicure. While I was there I noticed a gal getting a parafin treatment. She said it makes your hands soooooo soft so I sprung for one. Being eczema prone I figured any little help I could get you know. Knitters pay attention: that parafin treatment relaxes your hands so much! Any sore achey fingers from overknitting will disappear. Remember that come Holiday Knitting time why don’t you. My place offers the treatment with or without a manicure and I know where I plan on being when trade show deadlines have my hands all cramped up. Best $5 you can spend for your knitting. Trust Elka.

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Here is the 9-Scarf Vest all sewn up. I actually finished knitting her a week and a half ago but the mere thought of all those seams and ends had me quaking in my sheepie slippers. In the end it wasn’t too bad. Just a few hours for finishing. I sure wish I had just done it instead of putting it off. Another project late out the door.

I’ve gotten tons of yarn in the mail lately via trades and I will show you later in the week. For now let me talk about my visit to Memphis. We ate, we slept, we putzed around. Great time. I also visited with a fellow blogger~ Jessica I have been corresponding with Jessica for a little while and I think she is too kewl. My intuition proved correct… she is too kewl. Lurv her! And, as usual, my feelings that any semblence of social graces that I may have at one time possessed are totally gone was confirmed. Yep Miss Ditz[that’s me] kept wandering off to the car while poor Miss Jessica was speaking. And I twirled my hair and acted all femme when my husband pointed this out. Gah. Anyway my husband and I met her and her children for burgers and then I dragged Jessica to a LYS. Why is it that knitters always get together to visit yarn stores? I realize its a safe form of entertainment for out of towners but still… Anyway I purchased yarn!

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Two hanks of Bearfoot sock yarn because we all know I am a sock knitting fiend. Well I cannot think of a local shop that carries it and Miss Liz has mentioned her love of Anne sock yarn, also not carried locally to my knowledge, which has the same fiber composition. I am of the mind that hand dyed yarns often come from the same source but I could be wrong about weight. Fiber content check/weight ??? And how could I possibly resist that Mountain Twilight colorway? The Wild Raspberry was pure indulgence. Not often I manage to talk my husband into a yarn store crawl. Actually the first time in a decade of marriage. Score one for Elka!

OK toodles~ great yarny day and knitterly evening to you alls….

 

A scarf update and more mail

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

So you thought I hadn’t posted today because I failed to meet my scarf/day goal? Silly mortal. Just kidding. The scarves for the vest are small~ 2.5″ wide by 14″ tall for the first one which I did finish last night quite easily. Here is a picture:

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I think its upside down in the picture but I didn’t feel like rotating it again after cutting out all the desktop and rotating once already. I don’t think I will be casting on for the second right away because I want to start the Artyarns one right off. The postal code was incorrect on the pkg and it took a full week to get to me plus its a simple 2 row pattern repeat which makes it good going to Drs tomorrow knitting. I wound the silk ribbon last night and ended up having to file my nails and ultra moisterize my hands. Vaseline and gloves. My hands are rough due to excema which was cleared up until the whole stomach flue fiasco. Stress makes me break out worse. The silk ribbon is narrow and reminds me of the very first sweater I ever knit from French Chic[if anybody has a copy….]which was Black and Blue Bernat Casino striped with a Spool of white silk ribbon for intarsia bits along one shoulder. I don’t knit much with cotton anymore but I do miss Casino. That particular scarf will take longer than a day to knit but I figure I can get underway long enough to know I am still getting gauge on project and then work a few inches every day while I try to keep up the scarf-a-day with the 9 scarf vest.

The benefit of posting late is we got mail! The ab fab Anmiryam read of my Maya love and took the ‘even partials” to heart and sent me this:

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Leftovers from French Market bag join the two partials I already had in stash shown on right[tangerine and chartreusey pea soup green] Come On folks. I happen to know that the French Market bag was big ol knitalong fodder and I am sure somebody else has partials they can send my way. Big Mwah to Anmiryam.

Also in the mail was some yarn from Alchemy for one of Mare’s Magical Hats and a scarf. I can hardly wait to Cast On for those and I challenge you all to resist this yarny goodness:

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And as if I don’t have enough work knitting lined up I just got a call from Classic Elite. I almost never say no to work so look for more yarny goodness by next Monday.

Yarny days and knitterly evenings y’all

Not Worthy

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Wendy recently did a post about worthy projects. Apparently she is getting guff for not knitting Wendy skill worthy stuff. I don’t normally read her blog for various reasons but just happened to pop in when this post was up. It is timely because I got a new project for work~ woo hoogood reason to not knit on STTS. Beautiful yarn from K1C2:

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The design is called 9 Scarf Vest and is geared towards beginning knitters. According to the blurb if you have only knit scarves and thought you couldn’t knit a sweater think again~ knit 9 scarves, sew them together and voila a vest. Something like that. The pattern is upstairs.

I am disappointed. I consider Helene Rush one of the greatest, and highly underated, designers of our day. Her designs have, in the past, been extreemly classic and wearable. I have stated before she is a master of the set in sleeve. Thats a digression. The premier issue of IK had two of her older sweaters redone in modern yarns. I think they were from the 80’s so we are talking classic as in staying power. One of the first sweaters I did after she purchased K1C2 was Mini Diamonds Cardigan:

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See what I mean? You could wear that to the work, at home, or out. Classic. I just don’t see that falling victem to fashion cycles. So yeah I am disappointed. I don’t know if this is because she owns the company and does all the designs so has to put out stuff for any sort of experience level and taste or if its because knitting has become kinda dumb. Whoa there!

You know there is a problem with been around the block too many times knitters when we think the vast majority of patterns {and yarns} are dumb. Its not true. I have some of my old knitting books and magazines. Trust me they were knitting some gawd aweful yarns and patterns in the 80’s. For every filled with dreck pattern mag/book and ‘stupid’ question we face today there was an equal number of filled with dreck mags/books back then and we were the ones asking the stupid questions. Trust me. And for all the gems which increased our vocabulary of techniques back then there is a modern day equivalent. Actually there are more. Lets think about it. EZ, Walker, PGR are all still in print. Those were the biggies back in the 80’s. And sorry to say I think EZ patterns are not fashionable tho some can be cute. Thats the thing about formulas~plain and boring until you add your touch. Her daughter, Meg, presents formulas and techniques in much more stylish garments. Knitters has turned into dreck but we have IK now. AS and her Fair Isle is, in my humble opinion, overshadowed by Feitelson for color and Knitting from Camp for techniques. AS and her Aran Knitting[a relatively late book from 90’s wasn’t it?] has Szabo, Zimmerman{Kathy}, and Lavold. Her pattern books can be met by Ron S and Feitelson again. MacGregor has been reprinted~ except for the small and relatively unknown Traditional Knitting which was a 30pg or so overview of history. Nancy Bush presents doable projects chock full of techniques. Hiatt is over rated~ trust me I had the book, parted with it, and reacquired it and I still only use a few pages. Tessa Lorant is overshadowed by Sharon Miller. Why it is safe to say that almost all the books I treasure above all others are currently in print. Lets give the newbies a break OK? And the ‘experts’ one too. 20 years of knitting means that sometimes a person just wants to veg out instead of strain the brain. Well I don’t know how long Wendy has been knitting but long enough where she should be allowed to knit whatever she wants whenever she wants. After all she has the skill :^>

Still disappointed in the 9 Scarf Vest…..

TTFN knitbuds. May you have a yarny day and knitterly evening.

First FO Of The Year

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

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Here we have a beach bag knit up for K1C2 out of their Second Time Cotton~ a favorite cotton yarn. I am not sure I did it right but then I am not a bag knitter generally speaking. I have knit itsy bitsy beaded silk bags before but this is an entirely different breed of bag. The picture does not do it justice. Anyway its way late since Helene was out of town when I had a Q so that slowed me down a week and then I really have not felt much like knitting it. I hope its correctly done cause I am so not wanting to fuss over it any more.

The WIP that has seduced me is Stonington Shawl. I wonder if it qualifies as my Shetland Shawl along project. It is EZ’s take on the Shetland shawl construction so I guess so. Yipieeeee one knitalong almost complete. Not really. I am starting the 4th trapezoid border section and then the edging. Have you ever noticed that the edging of any shawl takes an absurdly long time to knit? I always get to the edging portion and then think I will have gobs of yarn left over and a short time left in the knitting. Not that I am in any hurry but I am always surprised.

OK enough inane late night babbling. Have a great yarny day and knitterly evening :^>