SoXperience 2010 on Chincoteague Island, VA

SoXperience is in the works for this year and will be held on Chincoteague Island, VA on April 10-11th. Even though we are not settled in our new shop on the Island, we have rented a conference room overlooking the bay at one of the hotels and will hold this year’s event there. Wendy Johnson of Wendy Knits is graciously allowing us to use one of her sock patterns, called the Seaweed Sock (how appropriate!) for one of our workshops. Please check back for details and registration information. It will be a great weekend full of info, techinical tips, and plain good fun.

Giving your hands a break

Thank heavens for being able to switch back and forth between large and small needle knitting. I am knitting a little shrug out of Rowan’s Lenpur Linen on a size 4 needle, casting on in excess of 100 stitches for the back. WHEW! And of course the edging was on a size 2 in seed stitch. Loved finishing that edging. Sweet to change to the Rowan Colourscapes yarn on these lovely size 8 needles and only cast on 49 stitches for working a side to side vest. The color changes are terrific by the way.

The completed afghan is blocked and ready to go to some lucky graduating senior. 

Melissa added the knitted border chosen from Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Embellishments. What an incredible amount of information is contained in this book.

Sock Yarns with Stretch are the Best!

I love working with this Megaboots yarn. The stretch in the yarn makes it fit perfectly on ankles and the rest of your foot. And who would have thought that this ball of yarn………………. would turn out this sock??? Usually I work two socks at one time on the addi turbo needles using the magic loop method but for some reason I only cast on for one sock. BLAH! I hate doing the second sock! But I do like working with this yarn so it shouldn’t be too hard.

If you would like to try out the Megaboots yarn, it is our featured product until the end of Feb. which means you will receive a special price on it. It is normally $16/ball (only takes one ball for a pair of socks) and as our featured product, the price is $12/ball. To receive this price simply enter the word - megaboots - in the coupon code box on your shopping cart. We know you will enjoy knitting and wearing socks with this yarn.

KnitXperience Miters

Melissa was working on this afghan when we were at KnitXperience in November and just finished it. She used Elsebeth Lavold’s Chunky AL yarn and designed the pattern herself. She added a knitted edging when she finished. The sides definitely needed blocking when finished, so she threaded Lysley Solomon’s blocking needles through each side, then blocked with a steam iron and a damp cloth. The wires held the afghan in place and made an arduous task considerably easier. You can see what a difference it makes in these photos. These wires are too long for us to ship, but we will have them at the Mancuso Show in Hampton in February.

or where did my needle go???

Have you ever been traveling along, minding your own business, knitting away, and all of a sudden your knitting needle slips out of your knitting and disappears into the underworld between the seats? The question is…does it end up under the seat, in the engine, on the road or just into a land occupied by lose change , emory boards and anything else that slips from your fingers? On that occasion I am happy to report that Dan swerved to the side of the road (in response to my screech) and rooted the neeedle out before it had joined all the other debris. Happiness prevailed.

And now I am looking forward, not really, to a trip back to Charlottesville for a heel doctor’s appointment for Dan. Looking forward to it because he is able to drive a little now so I can once again blissfully knit the miles away. You can’t imagine how the last few months have cut into my knitting time because I have had to do all the driving. Not nice. But we are almost at the point where, when I ask, “want me to drive” he says, “no, you’re knitting, that’s fine.” Oh happy day!