Saturday 24 October 2015

Conference Knitting

This week has been busy and full with little time to complete any projects.  I am off tomorrow to Toronto for a conference on Monday and Tuesday.

Years ago I found that I got more out of conferences and courses if I knit through them.  As long as the pattern did not require concentration on my part, if my hands were busy, I stayed awake and learned what I needed to from the course or the papers presented.  If the knitting was not enough to hold my concentration and keep my eyes from closing, I could stab myself with the needles.

There was one other advantage.  Even in a crowded room, I had lots of personal space.  No one wanted to sit next to the crazy lady knitting away.

This is just a round about way of saying I have been choosing a project for two lovely conference days of knitting.  I chose to start the Unisex Adult: Raglan Sleeve Jacket from Patons Canadiana Back to Basics. 


This sweater will be for my brother.  I measured him up at Thanksgiving.  He chose the pattern and the yarn from my stash.  He wanted a very basic sweater.  His choice suited me as well.  The sweater in the Back to Basics booklet has a zipper.  Neither of us wanted a zipper but this is the same pattern in an older booklet called Canadiana Raglans by Beehive which is a button front cardigan.  The trick is that the older booklet does not have the larger size that I need.  But I have both booklets and see no difficulty in making this sweater with buttons.

The colour of this yarn is somewhere between grey and brown depending on the light.  I think it will be beautiful knitted up.  The yarn was a special run for the 2014 Listowel Tent Sale.  It is no-name Patons Classic Wool.  If you know your brands, you can recognize the unlabeled yarn bargains at the tent sale.

To round up the 3 project plan, I started socks.  While rooting around in the stash, I found the baggies of sock yarn from the 2009 Sock Summit purchases.  I purchased Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up and was in love with her patterns.  I vowed I was going to make each and every pattern in the book.  I laid out the balls and skeins of sock yarn on the bed at home opened the book and asked each skein what it wanted to be.  I placed each in a zip lock bag with a note stating which pattern it chose.  I made three pairs of socks before other patterns took my fancy.  It started with a desire to make a hat.  I convinced myself that I would come back to the socks.  Well first the hat, then mittens, a sweater and as time passed the baggies in the stash were forgotten.


This is On Hold Socks.  The yarn is The Periwinkle Sheep Watercolour sock yarn in Fresh Lavender, chosen at random from the collection.  As this pattern requires some concentration it will be reserved for quiet time in the hotel room.

The knitting is done; I have started to assemble the poncho.


One more seam and the fringe still to go.  The stripes are growing on me.


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