on the needles

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Knitting News

Here's a couple of knitting things I thought y'all might find interesting:

1. The Barbara Walker Treasury Project : The Walker books are truly a treasury, providing umpteen knitting patterns which are, unfortunately, photographed and shown in black and white. On the blog, the members are attempting to update the books by knitting and posting samples of the patterns in full color. What a great community service! Bravo!

2. The Harry Potter Readalong : They may not be knitting books per se, but the HP books certainly are "knitting friendly". So much so in fact, that Alison of The Blue Blog has recently come out with a book of Harry Potter related knitting patterns called Charmed Knits. Bravo Alison!! (Am I the only blogger without a book in the works??)

3. Lastly but not leastly - I noticed that Webs has jumped into the podcasting ring! Called Ready, Set, Knit, the podcast is available through their website or downloadable on iTunes.

Oh - and in my own knitting news. Bettna is fini! All seamed and everything. Pics to follow....

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Turning My Thoughts to the Future...

...my knitting future of course.

I'm in the "construction" phase of Bettna - seaming everything up and very little knitting left to do. I've woven in most of the ends already so hopefully I can have the whole thing done fairly soon.

So naturally, about now is the time my thoughts turn to that eternal question:

"What to knit next?"

Some of the things on my list are:
1. Calorimetry - one for my daughter and one for myself.

2. Argosy - both as a scarf (possibly as a Christmas present for my sister - yeah, I plan ahead!) and also as a blanket for my new nephew (as seen in Mason Dixon Knitting.) However, I have no suitable superwash for a baby blanket in my stash so I would have to buy some yarn for that one and surprisingly I'm not really in a yarn buying mode.

3. Lizard Ridge - still want to knit this one but am still in blanket shock left over from my Log Cabin (note to self - must take photos of Log Cabin blanket for the blog before son destroys it somehow...) - anyhow, not likely to start this one soon - although goodness knows I have plenty of Noro.

4. A Sweater for the afore mentioned nephew - I'm thinking either of the Baby Surprise Jacket a la EZ or this really cute one called Angelsberg by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. I really like the contrast between the Blossom yarn and the Kureyon (although I would sub the Kureyon for something washable like Lorna's Laces Shepherd Worsted.)

5. Also want to knit a sweater maybe Tista (also CTH and in Blossom - can you tell I'm itchin to use some Blossom?) for my daughter - after all she's only getting bigger! Got to knit while the knitting's good!

So those are my ideas for now - but I will have to probably poke around in the stash a bit before I decide. Has anyone knit any of these? Any good washable worsted weight I could use for the baby blanket other than the LL? Suggestions?

Friday, February 02, 2007

Beware of Knitting Nuns....Seriously!

Great story from Guardian Unlimited:

Nuns on the Run After Their Greek Knitting Business Fails

A group of nuns were last night holed up behind the protective walls of the Xenia monastery in the central Greek town of Volos after fleeing their convent when their knitting business failed, leaving nearly half a millon pounds of debt. Ignoring pleas and protests to return to the fold from Archbishop Christodoulos, the country's fiery spiritual leader, the order's mother superior signalled that the nuns would be staying put, despite mounting consternation from a number of banks. Yesterday her stance sparked a mini-crisis for the Greek Orthodox church, which, after convening bishops and other top clerics, described the incident as "a first" for the church. The order, whose 55 members have been described as a "feisty crowd", are believed to have run up the debt after splashing out on six industrial knitting machines to produce woollens that became highly popular with the local community around their convent, close to the Greek-Bulgarian border. They apparently sold products to some 25 chains around Greece. Store owners complained that the nuns had also run off with a substantial amount in pocketed deposits. Apparently they removed their equipment a few days before they disappeared. Greece's authoritative Kathimerini newspaper reported that the knitting business began to unravel when the nuns accrued massive debts after attending foreign fashion shows in a bid to keep up with the latest designs in woollen garments. They are then believed to have mortgaged the monastery of Kyrikos and Ioulittis to the hilt to pay off the debt. With the banks demanding the money back, Greece's holy synod says it is confronting one of its worst crises ever involving an order of nuns. Last night there was little sign that the nuns would come out of hiding, even if Archbishop Christodoulos agreed to take them under his wing. Religious commentators said their convent would probably have to be liquidated to pay off the debt.
By Guardian Unlimited © Copyright Guardian Newspapers 2006Published: 1/30/2007

Thursday, February 01, 2007

All Hail The Random Number Generator!

Without it I never would have won a contest over at Susan's blog I'm Knitting As Fast As I Can.

She wanted suggestions for her new blog and since I'm computer illiterate I think the best I came up with was something like....

"Uh...I like pictures. Pictures on blogs are pretty. "

Big help aren't I? :)

Bettna is moving right along - although I haven't touched it for a few days. I'm on the home stretch on the second sleeve/front. So next up is sew the bits together. So far a very easy and super enjoyable knit. (The two don't always go together!)

The only bump in the road was the other day when I was knitting along and suddenly my yarn just came apart! I've only had that happen one other time and that was with some Debbie Bliss yarn that kept coming apart when I tried to cast on. This time was when I was actually knitting which is a lot scarier! That particular skein of Silk Garden had been fluctuating wildly between being thread thin and basically unspun. (You know how Silk Garden can be. Grrrr!) Anyhow - one of the unspun bits just came right apart. Stupid Noro.