Well the past couple months have been hard for me to sit still. I think I am finally settling down. The Yarn Harlot(Stephanie Pearl McPhee) has been here and left. Stephanie from Space Cadet yarns has been here and left and now the next event will be Knit in Public Day! What a delightful weekend all of us willing students had. What a humbling weekend we had trying to master new skills and take in the amazing amount of information that Stepahnie shared. And then again, there was just plain old fun. I have some pictures to share with you now and there are some great ones that were posted to our Facebook page. If you haven't already, please become one of our friends. We delight in meeting new people as we continue to build this amazing fiber community. So what you see here is the Harlot modeling her Color Affection Shawl during a discussion about how to wear it. The other photo is the two Stephanies that came to visit this past weekend....Space Cadet Yarns and The Yarn Harlot. Thanks to the two of you for a great weekend!

Sneaking in this picture of the Grace Akhrem Seaweed Scarf done in Twisted Sisters Petite Vodoo. This yarn is sock weight so I doubled it and ended up with a wonderfully drapey, silky scarf. sorry if I wear it too much....I fall hard when I fall. HA!

For the first time ever. the organization Warm Hands, Warm Hearts has run out of hats to give to children. The hats are given to children coming to 3 Emergency Rooms in Northeastern Ohio. If you can at all, please take time out of your week and knit or crochet a hat(pattern of your choice, any size that a child can wear) We are acting as a drop off site for collection of the hats. While our winter has been mild it is still lovely to have a hat on your head. We look forward to seeing you! I found this simple hat pattern to share with you if it makes it easier,
Thanks,
Erika

What a lovely day I had today. I kind of hibernated and focused on the tasks at hand, finishing projects. First of all, I took the time to use the measurement schematics from my Rasta Jacket and wet blocked them on my fancy blocking board(i.e. the basement floor). Now mind you, I have a blocking mat but in this case I wanted the freedom to use as much space as I needed. On Saturday I started sewing the sleeves in without blocking, but decided that blocking was an absolutely necessary part of this garment looking its best. After consulting with the book "Seven Things that Can Make Or Break a Sweater", I sewed the sleeves in again. Once the sleeves were in place I knew I could pin and measure the pieces to match. I used a water mister to encourage the fibers to relax and stretch to measurements...a little patting to smooth out eased in seams and I left the piece to dry....hoping that the fit was going to be as excellent as my mind was saying it was going to be.

The next task at hand was the Leigh Radford hat pattern. I had to finish the knitting today so I could felt and see how the "new" hat was going to turn out. Finish that I did and now it is in the machine to see if this time it will successfully fit my head.

In my mind, part of startitis is the beleif that you can start and finish a project within a very short time. Of course though, this time does not include the luxury of mistakes. I have an example here. I adore the 1920's Ribbon Hat by Leigh Radford. This hat is felted and uses the Imperial Yarn Columbia 2 ply. I decided that was going to be the first project I launched into. Finish it I did(as you can see by my pictures). The hat before felting, and the hat after. What I did not really think about before I started was the fact that I have a new fancy washing machine....So by all accounts I can tell you I have started and finished this hat and it is as cute as it looks. The problem however; as a shopowner with a high code of ethics, is that I have to tell you that my head is too small for the finished project. This is a polite way of saying this project after felting is still waaaaay too big, which of course you could never tell by my picture. I am confessing and telling you I am going to take another shot at the project with a different yarn that I know felts well...like Malabrigo worsted. I am also going to knit up a swatch of the leftover yarn and see if it will felt better if I knit it looser, though honestly that does not seem to make sense with the printed gauge. Stay tuned as I try to problem solve the final product(by the way, I looked it up on Ravelry and I saw at least one person where the hat turned out way too small).....sigh, the art of felting projects.

The path is clear...let startitis begin!!!