Noro hat for Knitters Without Borders

I took pictures of the hat that I made during the Yarn Harlot program. Brett graciously offered to model for me. Strike a pose!

The top was an experiment with decreases and rib pattern. Instead of decreasing at regular points around the hat, I just decreased in every other purl valley until all the stitches were used up. Then I started decreasing in the other purl valleys until those were used up too. Then I stared decreasing at the same place I left off on the first set on every round until I had just 6 stiches left and ran the end through and closed.

I like this hat and plan to make one for myself too. I am truly a Noro junkie now! I haven't used a yarn from Noro yet that I don't like, and there are so many more yet to try!


I've been missing Texas lately. It seems to be cropping up in conversations all around me, so I decided to bring you along in my yearning and show some of the pictures I took this spring in Texas when we were visiting family in Austin.
San Antonio Riverwalk

Winecup and Bluebonnet

Michael in the Bluebonnets

Indian Paintbrush

Bluebonnet closeup

Sunset through the trees at the Bel-K Ranch in San Saba. The ranch belongs to friends of my sister and we stayed there for a couple of nights.

If you want to see some beautiful wildflowers (thanks to Ladybird Johnson) visit the hill country area of Texas around Austin in late March and early April. It really does look like a postcard in so many places along the highways. There is also a wildflower center in Austin that was started by Ladybird about 15 years ago. The winecup and bluebonnet picture was taken there.
Hope you enjoyed my little excursion to the Texas hill country.

Yarn Harlot at Hilan theater

We had a great time last night at the Yarn Harlot program. Lots of food and laughing involved. I forgot to take my camera, damn, but there were a lot of other people snapping pics left and right. I don't think Virginia Highlands was quite ready to be taken over by "the knitters". I didn't get home until 11:15. While we were standing in line at Knitch for the second book signing, we kept seeing groups of people go in and hardly anyone coming out... could it be... yarn is people! People go in, yarn comes out... (vague and blatant reference to Soylent Green)
Knitch did a great job handling the crowds. Thanks to Kim and the whole group at Knitch for a wonderful evening. They had actually saved the front row seats for the AKG board members, which was a great surprise, but we decided we would rather sit back a little ways and with our groups of friends. I never was one of those kids that ran for the front row in the theater anyway, I always wanted the center middle so I could see the whole screen/stage.
I worked on a hat with Noro Kureyon during the program for the Knitters Without Borders hat drive. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I'll post them when I do.
My butt is dragging a little today... but it was worth it! :)

Newsletter duties have kept me busy the last few days. It's almost done. :) I've been in a knitting slump the last week so not much to share knitting wise.


Going to see the Yarn Harlot herself, Stephanie McPhee, tonight at Knitch. I'm leaving work around 4:00 and hope that's early enough to find a parking place within 10 miles. It's probably going to be a traffic nightmare having 700 people looking for parking spaces in a small neighborhood with limited parking. I could probably just park at home and walk just as easily. Maybe I'll just get Michael to drop me off... someone is bound to have pity on me and give me a ride home... (sad puppy eyes with a grin) ;)


I rediscovered a knitter in Toronto (Danny Ouellette) who is a fiber nut too and I'd found his website and admired all his knitted creations several months ago. Of course, I hadn't bookmarked his page and I'd forgotten his name. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure out where I'd found him. His home page has a beautiful cardigan that is gorgeous. He also has a sock pattern in the new issue of Knitty that I'm anxious to try. Also, he has great patterns available on his web site you can purchase. I've added his journal to my blog links too if you would like to give it a read.

Short post today, but I'm looking forward to 4:00, meeting with my knittin' buds, yackin', eatin', hearing Stephanie... a knitter's jackpot!

It's been a while since I last posted. New manager at work... too much stress...

Knitting has kind of taken a back seat for a bit, but I have finished one sleeve for Michael's sweater and have started the second.

Our knitting guild donates bears with knit outfits to a charity every year to give to kids and we were talking about them again recently and a couple of people wanted to see the bears I donated in 2005. (I didn't do any last year unfortunately) I took pictures of a couple of them.



I used the left over yarn from the hats I made that I posted earlier. I bought the eyelash yarn at The Quarter Stitch in the French Quarter in New Orleans when we were there for Thanksgiving in 2005. I checked to get a link to the store, but it's not active, so I wonder if it's still open since the hurricane.
I made the 'hat' on the diva bear by first crocheting a net that would fit over her head and ears and then crocheted the curls onto the net.





We're off to see the Atlanta Arts Festival in Piedmont Park. We tried to go to the preview on Friday, and it rained like crazy, so we're going back today. The weather is beautiful now!

I spent the day yesterday at home nursing a headache and watching movies. I did get a little knitting in. I found a pattern in The Natural Knitter by Barbara Albright that I want to knit. It's a simple twisted rib sweater. I bought some yarn at SAFF last year that is linen/rayon/acrylic and the woman I bought it from says she has machine washed the items she knitted with it and had no problem. I knitted up a swatch yesterday to see if it will work.

I took a picture, but the color makes it look yellow, when in fact it's gray. I'll take another picture later after I get the sweater started, but this time with a flash or outside in natural light so the color is more accurate. The yarn has no stretch to it at all and works just like 100% linen. I think it will work out great since linen tends to get softer the more it's worn and washed. I hope to get this started before we go to SAFF so I can work on it during the trip. It's an easy pattern and shouldn't be too hard to work on with all the distractions.

I've been neglecting the fingerless gloves. But I did get the cable pattern started on the hand portion. I'm getting close to the place for the thumb gore.

I worked most of today on the sleeve for Michael's sweater. This is the first time I've done an entire sleeve in Fair Isle in the round. I had to start on double points and then changed to two circulars. I'm almost to the point I can change to just one circular and I'll be glad when I can.
We met today at the restaurant Roxx on Cheshire Bridge Road for our usual Sunday group. Only 4 of us showed up, but we had a great time anyway. As Nancy said, "It's quality, not quantity!" Michael was at home painting one of the rooms downstairs. I was supposed to help, but he got started too late and by the time he was ready to start, I was on my way out the door to go to Roxx. I was assuming I would have to help with the second coat tomorrow, but luckily for me, he had done both coats already by the time I had dinner ready! Yay! I wasn't looking forward to the paint fumes since my headache is still hanging in the background waiting for it's chance to pounce and smack me down. Thank you to whoever invented fast drying latex paint! :)