Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop

Buffy gets it.  This is her favorite book.

My first Elizabeth Zimmermann book was Knitting Without Tears.  It was a gift from my lovely mother-in-law.  Truth be told, it frightened me a little bit.  I had to take a nap after I opened it.  (that’s how I deal with stressful things I’m discovering…take a nap)  I really wasn’t sure I could ever follow EZ’s directions or ever really make anything worth wearing.

A little back story:

Before I was married and the very first time I met my soon to be mother-in-law it was after midnight after a very long road trip from Nebraska which is my home state to Wisconsin which is Dave’s.  We were doing the Meet the Parents trip.  Yikes!  Think about meeting people for the first time very late at night and being super road-dust-dirty.  Both of the Parents were so kind to wait up for us and as we got to talking, my Mother-in-law was knitting away.  She wasn’t even looking at her hands.  One time I looked and there was a row done and the next thing I know a sweater.  She’s fast.  I like to brag about her.  Anyway, I had never ever picked up a knitting needle.  Just never.  Later on the Parent Visit I was able to see so many beautiful knit things.  It was amazing.  This stuck in my head and-jump forward to just after getting married-I grabbed some yarn.  I started crocheting first and then stumbling my way to knitting.  I guess I thought knitting was too hard because there were TWO sticks.  I spent a lot of time at the library and found Elizabeth Zimmermann’s videos for the Knitting Workshop.  They were awesome and hilarious and awesome.  Did I tell you, they were awesome?  My MIL and I had a fun time talking and watching those.  I learned a lot, tried a lot, ripped out a lot and then was able to go back to my Knitting Without Tears and I didn’t take a nap.

EZ is just so smart.  AND she’s funny.  I love her stories about the Gaffer.  One of my favorite visions of her is her sitting on the back of his motorcycle and she’s knitting.  What a view that would be.  I would totally have dropped my yarn.  Or a double point.  But EZ would have a circular.  She’s so smart.

You should work your way through the Knitting Workshop.  Start with the hat.  End with the Surprise Jacket.  Laugh along the way.  Your brain will absorb so much info.  If you’re a beginner this workshop helps ease your way into with explaining the very basics about yarn, stitches, and styles.  It gets your knitting brain into shape.  It forms the foundation for a knitter who won’t need a pattern at all someday.  It will empower you.  Baby steps first though.  If you’re more experienced, take a look at this again.  You may just gain a little something more.  Or try one of those projects you haven’t.  Each time you will grow.

The thing about knitting is you will never get bored.  You will continue to grow no matter what your skill is.  It is inspiring, fulfilling, interesting, colorful, soft, warm, and cozy and a puzzler.  I like to take time to go back and see the things I did when I started.  I check out my very first sweater I made that was hideous.  I see how I’ve grown.  I see that I need to keep growing.  There’s never an expiration date.

I hope you’ll spend some time with EZ.  What a treasure.  The thing I most love about her is that I have fabulous family memories and laughs to enjoy thanks to her.

Without Tears and No Nap-pily yours,

-Here’s my pot o’gold-this moment-

Shana

Ode to Mason-Dixon Knitting

I just can’t wait.  Is it Christmas morning?  No, better than that!  It’s just 2 days until the Mason-Dixon Knit-Along starts on February 1st!  Party!  See, it’s hard to explain but events just make me so motivated and happy.  Goals…that’s it.  Everyone needs goals.  I just mean more yarn and projects really.

A week or so ago I stumbled across a post on Facebook from Mason-Dixon Knitting for a yarn give-away for a beautiful cowl kit of many colors.  So up my alley.  Many colors.  Shiver.

I went on and entered that give-away.  I don’t think I won though.  Or did I??  haha  Positive spin.  I started following M-D’s page and I remembered why I enjoy reading all that they can give me.  They’re just so funny.  And they know so much technical stuff.  Win-win.

Have you read their books?  Meet Kay and Ann:

(look-you can see me in that shot above)

I just spent the afternoon going through my books that I’ve had since my mother-in-law told me about their Warsh rags and swiffer mop covers.

When I open up the first book I just feel like I’m chatting with good friends.  I challenge you to make it a couple of pages without busting into a broad smile.  Or snorting.  They write like they talk and it’s a good way to read.

The first book will guide a beginner knitter and cradle them as they explore their way through fiber-ty.  The second one gets into the knitty gritty and challenges the knitter to grow and become their own knitter-self.  Plus the favorite Warsh rag carries over to the second.

The funniest page I’ve ever read was in the first book -page 90-The places they have tried to knit and failed.  I can’t say more.  You have to read it yourself.

The pages of both books are crammed to the rim with info.  Treasures.  I need to go lay down now and just reboot as my brain wants me to go and get some cotton and get to making some warsh rags and the fancy powder room gifts.  Must make gifts for the ladies.

Also I need to think about my Stopover sweater for Monday with the Knit Along.  I wish I could knit faster!!

Go and visit their website:

http://www.masondixonknitting.com/

Get in there and I bet you’ll have some warsh rags before long, too.

Knitalong impatience-ly yours,

-Here’s my pot ‘o’gold-this moment-

Shana

 

 

Obsessive Sweater Disorder

I’ve got that.  I’ve got the OSD.  I see a beautiful sweater on social media and I’m in.  I want to make it.  No matter that I have one or two or ten other projects going.  So what.  Wouldn’t you know it, the Mason Dixon ladies said to me (not just me of course) on facebook, Hey…want to join a KAL and bang out a sweater.  Well, yeah!  I’ll do it.  I’m in!  Sounds like fun.  #bangoutasweater

Hi, I’m Shana.  I’m obsessed and addicted to new projects to knit.  Pretty.  Colors.

The project that is going to get banged out is the Stopover custom yolk sweater which can be found here:

Stopover Sweater

They had me at it should be a project completed over just a couple of days.  Booyah!  It’s fun to join a Knit Along so you can go with other’s advice and experiences to complete the project.  It’s very motivating to finish to because if everyone else is doing it and you aren’t, well…peer pressure and what not.

Here’s the Ravelry Group for the Mason Dixon KAL:

http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/mason-dixon-knitters/3363402/1-25

Go on and join!  Everyone’s doing it.

Here are my colors I picked out.  (Gray is the main color and I’m still digging in my stash for a dark heather gray for my last color):

The pattern calls for a Lopi Icelandic Wool.  I have some from Schoolhouse Press but people around my house think it’s kind of itchy so I’m going with this mixed ingredient yarn.  It knits up to gauge and the people here in my house think it’s okay.  Well, you know, if you can knit one up quickly, there’s always time for a second or third with Lopi.  I love the violet sweater scheme that is pictured on the pattern page by throughtheloops.  I retweeted the picture of that.  That will be my second and Lopi sweater.

Anyway the KAL officially will begin February 1st!  That’s fun.  What else do you have to do on that day?  Nothing!  I’m THE enabler.

After I saw this fun project I went and dug out some of my books that I need to give attention to.  I’ve had these all for awhile:

This sweater project really makes me want to make more of this type of sweater.

Plus you have to go through Mason Dixon books as much as possible.  Tomorrow I will go through these and give them their due.  Because it’s important.  Each one!  You should have all of these.

Another sweater I’ve been dying to do is Amy Detjen’s custom yolk sweater Sipsey’s Folley:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sipseys-folly

It’s so great!  Amy named this after her dog.  Her dog liked to chase squirrels.  Hence the sweater design.  She’s my kind of lady!

On a slight side note, I happened to be at Target yesterday and saw these awesome new organizers that look like they are knit in plastic.  So I picked up some:

Whoa!  That is cool.  My new sweater project yarn is in there now waiting for February 1st.

So I need to finish up my fingerless gloves, gloves, and chunky cable vest before Monday so my conscience will be clear.  OH and maybe a chunky hat.  Maybe.

OSD-y yours,

-Here’s my pot o’ gold-this moment!

Shana

 

 

 

 

Sweater Workshop

Dreary winter days give me the remember whens.  Remember when we got 18″ of snow the year Tommy was born?  Remember that ice storm?  Remember eating chili when it snows? (we eat lots of chili) Remember when I started knitting?

Today I was thinking about when I first started knitting things other than squares.  I had just two kids some twenty years ago and I was just loving every knitting book I could get my hands on and trying to master more techniques.  I was making baby hats for the hospital and trying to master knitting in the round.  My mother-in-law gave me Knitting Without Tears by Elizabeth Zimmermann and at the time it kind of blew my mind.  I went to the library and checked out her Knitting Workshop videos.  I really felt like I wouldn’t ever be as near as good as she was.  Then on another trip to the library I stumbled upon The Sweater Workshop book by Jacqueline Fee.

OH!  This book was it for me!  There was information on how to take any yarn and make whatever you want.  Empowerment.  Hold on.  That’s what Elizabeth Zimmermann always talks about.  Jacqueline Fee was connecting the dots between me and EZ.

In this book one of the first suggested projects is to make a Sampler.  It helps you to figure out many techniques that you might want to use in a sweater or any project.  You practice it and move on to another.  It also is something that won’t be worn so you can go nuts on experimenting and if you make a mistake, well…who’s going to know but you?  Or of course you can do the proper thing and go back and fix it, like you should.  (heh heh).

So I grabbed my yarn and dove in.  I discovered a lot of things that day.  Wow, I knit loose.  I also didn’t want to put the thing down until I had finished every last technique.  The family had to starve until I was done.  There was no time for laundry.  Or housekeeping (or who wants to do that ever?).  The place just blew up.  Not really.  It actually went quickly.  My brain was on fire to get to the next step.  Do you want to see it?

Such beauty.  Such a masterpiece.  Oh, such skill.

What??  Is?? That??

My Shelby doesn’t get it.  Also these two things are almost the same age…more than 20 years old.  They should be friends.

Here are close ups of the steps (remember it was my first time so don’t look too closely):

Knitting in the Round, Knitting garter stitch, stockinette, different ribbings, and adding color:

Increasing:

Color work, pockety thing, decreasing:

Oh, yeah!  I signed it:

Edgings:

I-cords!

Anyway, if you are a person who is wondering about making whatever you want without a pattern, want to improve knitting in the round, learning new techniques, figuring out Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Percentage System, want to make a weirdy little thing-y like this PLEASE!  Go get this book.  It is so great!  One other tip is if you do get this book in your hot little hands and it’s not spiral bound, go to Kinko’s or Office Max and see if they will do it.  You will be grateful a thousand fold.  (sure, sure)

There’s also a cool pattern for Spiral Socks that I made for my very first socks.  I can’t find those any more but let me tell you they were blue and pink and just about the coolest socks ever.

There are patterns in the book to follow to make sweaters or you can make your own up with whatever design styles you want.  This makes me think of those kid flip books where you could change the characters tops, middles, and bottoms.  FUN!

You can also go on Ravelry and explore the Jackie Fee Sweater Group:

http://www.ravelry.com/groups/jackie-fees-sweater-workshop

You can see other people’s samplers.  Yep, they are better than mine.

Here’s a picture of a bunch of them:

They’re ALL better than mine.  But I got so much out of this book I can’t even…can’t even.  haha

After this I went straight to Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop and sat so proudly reading it.  I got it.  I really got it.  That lady was a trail blazer.

Please go try this out!  Let me know if you do.  Yours will be better than mine, too!

Pretty loose knitting-ly yours,

-Here’s my pot o’gold-this moment!

Shana

 

I like to paint and color things.

I had a white house once.  For a short time.  Had to paint it.  Had some white towels.  Oopsie, now they’re blueish.  Had some gray hair once…wait a minute.  Never mind.

I just like to color.  My sister and I used to color the newspaper.  We just colored columns.  It needed it.

Most of the time as a knitter I’ve just gravitated toward what others have made for me because my eyes become huge saucers when I see their beautiful work and I must, must, must work with their yarn.  Then one glorious day I found a sock dying kit that I had left from my yarn shop.  Why I didn’t use it earlier is really a mystery.  There it was, just sitting there, waiting for me.  Colors.  Anything I could think of to mix together.  Hold on now.  I didn’t know how to dye anything.  Most of the things I had dyed were by “mistake” or I mean by “opportunity”.  The kit had directions but it was like I had opened a furniture kit.  I didn’t need directions.  I could just figure it out.  (insert snort)

So that didn’t quite work out as I had hoped.  Then hey, I went and googled how to dye things AND I read the directions.  What a concept.  There are so many kind people out there who helped me and gave such good tips.  (Oh and holy cow, my Pinterest Board is full of more…how do people survive without Pinterest?)

(Here are a couple of awesome ones that I used).

Dharma Acid Dyed Yarn

Kool-Aid tips

Wool Festival Kool-aid tips

Then I dove in again, this time armed with directions.  I used my acid dyes from the kit.  Then I went to the store and got some Kool-Aid because that works, too!  Then I used food coloring.  Then I ran out of white yarn.

Seeing what happens when you add a little of this and that is so exciting.  And when the white yarn becomes this vision from your head, well, I can’t even find the words.  Such joy.

I found the very cool Knit Crate site that had more white yarn and also was just about to start a subscription for dyeing yarn.  What the heck, I thought.  This looks fun.  Kits are fun.  I like getting mail, too.  Their shiny red envelopes are so exciting to receive.  (Here’s Knit Crate’s link:)

Knit Crate

I have had a lot of fun creating my own yarn and I have learned tons of different ways to achieve different looks.

I just keep running out of white yarn.

Here are pictures of my “Irish Rose Yarn” that I handpainted 3 different ways (pretend to not see the purple in the picture, okay?)  I can’t wait to see how they all knit up differently:

I found this Irish Rose as my inspiration and aren’t I fancy for saying that:

My talented sister-in-law knit this great hat with some of the Irish Rose yarn:

Isn’t she cute AND talented?  Here’s the pattern that she used:

Girl with a Pink Beanie Pattern

I also have a thing for Purple so:

Note to self:

Make sure you get that dye all dissolved because:

Isn’t that weird?  But I love it.  And it’s one of a kind.

It has been so great doing this and I’m exciting to keep going.

Maybe I’ll just start dyeing these right where they stand:

So now I’m reading about natural dyes and it’s just so amazing.  I want to throw stuff in a pot from my yard and see what happens.  Or use big ol’ Sun Tea jars and stick things in with yarn and see what the sun can cook up.  No end to ideas, just white yarn.

What are YOU going to color?

Can I get some more white yarn-y yours:

-Here’s my Pot O’Gold-this moment!-

Shana

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where’s my Finish Line Ribbon?

Yeah!  LOL!  Here’s a follow-up to my unfinished things from yesterday.  Still nothing on that red chunky sweater though.  Baby steps, baby steps.

Finished the Giant Purple scarf and the flap cap:

Oh my stars!  All this hat needed was an i-cord and pom pom.  Done!  Check.

Then ta da:

I just love it so much and I also love a giant purple pom pom:

Hoorah.  Maybe there’s hope for all my UFOs.  Let’s go shopping for more yarn!

Finish a couple-y yours:

-Here’s my pot o’gold-this moment!

Shana

How come I didn’t finish that project?

Well, that looks pretty good.

Except I am not sure what pattern I was using.  Why didn’t I finish that?  Well, simply I have a bit of knitting ADD.  I like pretty colors.  AND I like THOSE pretty colors.

This is an intervention.  You can see my dog, Buffy, is watching me and trying to keep me on track.  Good luck, girlie.

I was looking through some knitting bags (oh I have many) today and I found that beautiful red chunky yarn in what I think was going to be a cardigan and this hat:

It’s all done except for the I-cord on one side and a pom pom.  Geez.  I made it the whole way around the track and fell down at the end.  Ah, well at least I forgive myself.  I’m planning on finishing the hat at least tonight and also this beautiful purple chunky scarf…it just needs pom poms as well:

It’s hard to focus some days on finishing.

How do you keep yourself on track?

I told myself this year is the year I either finish these types of projects or pull them out and get it together.  Okay.

I will keep you posted!  I shall call today:  Finish It Friday.

Going to finish it for sure-ly yours,

-Here’s my pot o’gold-this moment!

Shana

What are you watching and knitting?

What are YOU watching and knitting?  Well, Buffy is watching me in hopes of some kind of food falling on the ground mostly.

I’ve been kind of obsessed with watching new shows that are on and please don’t judge but I’m totally loving the Bachelor, American Idol, and I’m so sad that Dancing With the Stars isn’t on right now.  Well, I get a lot of things done during these shows.  When I sit down I think, Man I have to knit a lot on this sweater.  Then after I shout at the TV for a while because Ben shouldn’t be picking that one mean girl, I look down at my knitting and hey wow!  I got really far.  Yeah!  Sometimes my knitting gets a little tight.  That’s because of Ben’s bad choices again.  Or that singer that really probably should have had his Mom tell him the truth that he should only sing in the shower.

(By the way, don’t you just love PURPLE?)

I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I watch Downton Abbey.  I’ve NEVER watched an episode…until the night the Packers got beat by the Cardinals.  I decided that would be the night I would watch just to forget about that game for a while.  Hey, it’s pretty good.  I’ve only watch two episodes but yeah, I’m probably hooked.  Pretty easy really.

I just have to pick projects that aren’t too involved to be able to watch the shows though.  I’ve tried with some lace patterns and a more than four line pattern and that was nuts.  Yep, had to do some unknitting.

Have I mentioned my love affair with Vampire Diaries?  Sigh.

My DVR is only about two years old and I cannot believe I could live without one!  I mean, how does one go and do activities when Agent Carter is on?  I need to see Peggy kick some butt.  She’s so fancy and awesome.  How can I catch all of the Wednesday night shows when a kid needs to get dropped off here and there?  Heidi has to tell me who is going to be on the next Project Runway and if I don’t hear Tim Gunn say “Make it work” I can’t go on.

I hear you.  You just said Get a life, right?  haha  I just like stories.  Oh, and drama.  Also the glorious world of Say Yes to the Dress.  Sweetheart necklines and beaded bodices.  Yeah!

Hey, there’s a pattern on Ravelry that is called The Mindless Knitting, TV Watching, Scrap User Upper Afghan:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-mindless-knitting-tv-watching-scrap-user-upper-afghan

I’m saved!  There are others like me!!  Are you?

Now to look for more patterns that are TV-ready…

Talk to you during the commercial…er wait, I can fast forward through them now.  Well, dang!

TV addict-ly yours,

Here’s my pot o’gold-this moment!

Shana

Travels Tuesday: In search of yarn in Ireland

Who wants to go to Ireland?  Well, duh!  This past August I got the chance to go and do a charity run in Dublin and of course search for YARN.  I must admit that when I think of Ireland I think of sheep roaming everywhere freely and yarn just sitting all along the road.  Kind of like Wonkaland but with fiber.  (Here’s an Irish candy store that really got me thinking of Willy Wonka):

Here’s what it looks like as you are about to arrive:

Then you get off the plane and:

Well, not really.

Silly.

There weren’t any sheep roaming freely when we arrived.  Or yarn just sitting there for the taking.  Or edible dishes.

Dublin is a pretty big city.  So the next best thing:  look for yarn shops.  Thanks to Ravelry I had my list of yarn shops on my phone so I was ready.  I figured along the sightseeing tours I would spy some.  Well, not quite as easy as that.  Dublin streets are kinda curvy and hard to navigate (probably just for me) so I only found a couple of stores.

My favorite was:

This is Knit was pretty cool.  It was in an old building that was divided into a lot of small business and a restaurant.  I walked in and wouldn’t you know it, the knitters were all so NICE!  It doesn’t matter where you go but knitters and crocheters just are like that.  Daisies!

I just like talking to Irish people.  Doesn’t matter what we talk about.  They are just cool.  They could talk about laundry, soap, or rocks and I would hang on their every word.  The kind lady in the shop listened to me talkin’ in my hard Wisconsin accent and knew just what I needed.  I wanted Irish yarn that I couldn’t find in the states.  Well, lookie lookie:

Guess what treasures I found:

Yeah!  Oh and I scored some patterns, too.  Heh heh.

The shop was set up with all of the lovelies (my fiber loves) on the main floor and then upstairs was a gathering area for fans of the lovelies to gather and do their thang.  I knew that if I lived here in Dublin (right???)  I would totally hang out there.  For reals.

There are more shops to visit and boy, I sure want to go back and try.  Time flies double fast when you are there.  I did get to see this (the hubs posed nicely):

Mostly everything in here was already knit.  There are lots of things already knit here.  A lot of locals looked at me funny when I asked about yarn shops.  One lady asked why I would want to have yarn when you can buy many varieties of already knit cabled sweaters.  Well, come on now.  Silly.

After searching and searching some more we did this:

Also found a little of this:

There was a crochet coral display as well:

So much more to see:

Thanks, beautiful Ireland!  You were super nice to us.  Maybe we could hang out again sometime.  And I’ll search for more yarn.  Cuz I don’t have any.

Silly.

In love with Ireland-y yours,

-Here’s my pot o’gold-this moment!

Shana