Meeting March 16. Mercer Spinners and Weavers Guild

Some people are ready to start spinning their sock yarn and I for one am still carding my wool.

Come join us for the fleece to foot sock project or bring your latest project or wheel. Bring your latest project for show and tell or bring the project that is driving you crazy and get the help you need to finish.

Remember your lunch and cup for the beverage of your choice.

10:00 at Munnell Run Farm.

Bonnie Massing

Mercer Spinners and Weavers Guild March 2013 meeting

Attention!  Spinners and Weavers.  Lyn Croskey just called me to say we cannot use the building on March 9th.  The meeting was rescheduled to March 16th.  Sorry for the confusion.  Bonnie

Blocking cable knit hat.

Finished Cable Hat
Blocked over a bowl and sit on plastic jar. Washed in med temp water. It is amazing how dirty the yarn is. The wash water turns coffee colored.

Decrease the crown of the Cable tweed hat.

Finished the cable tweed hat today.
Now on to making another one
The next one is brown alpaca.

Winter cap in cables

I started this hat last night and this morning I ripped out the last 4 inches I knit last night. The cables were too complicated and going no where good so I have simplified my design.

Cast on 80 sts. On # 8 ndls.
After ribbing I increased to 96 sts(6 sections of 16) I will have two large open cables in each section.

I will decrease to only one cable in each section at the crown. It will be interesting to see this one evolve.
I will post pictures.

Mercer County Spinners and Weavers Guild meeting Feb.14

Hi Spinners and Weavers, Well, the groundhog didn't see his shadow so we are in the downhill slide to Spring!! Yea-a-a!
To remind you of the Spinners and Weavers meeting on Thursday, February 14 at Munnell Run Farm. Some of us are working on the "fleece to feet" sock project, and are preparing fleece to spin. Some people are ready to start spinning. If you choose not to take part in the sock project or if you plan to dye commercial yarn using the Kool Aide method and make self striping yarn to make socks when we dye later this year, please come anyway. Bring your wheel or other project as you wish.
We have tea and coffee and hot water to make the beverage of your choice. Remember to bring your lunch and a cup unless you like styrofoam cups.
Bonnie

Happy Valentines Day
Hope to see all my fiber fanatic friends at the meeting.
Nancy

Inaugural Ball, White House Tour,

We arrived in DC on Sunday around 11:00 went off to explore the Mall. Met up with friends at the Botanical Gardens and visited the Native American Museum and had some wonderful native food.
Inauguration Day : we stood with a million other enthusiastic mostly younger people to watch the swearing in ceremony. It was inspiring to see such a diverse and friendly crowd. I was renewed with hope that we can work together to make a better world. FORWARD. Into the new century. Everyone carried a cell phone to record the event and the felling of being part of this giant community was worth the physical endurance it took to walk miles and stand for hours in lines.

We did no use our tickets for the parade. We went back to our hotel to rest up for the Ball and find some food to keep going.

The Ball was hard to describe. Thousands of people all dressed up milling about. The music was great and seeing the President dance with Michelle was the high point of the evening.

The tour of the White House 11:00am
Frigid cold standing in line. We just missed the Surprise visit of the President, First Lady and Bo. If we were just a little slower moving through we would have seen them. Kathy F. From Greenville was there and had the her picture posted on the White House Site. I will attach it below.
Here are a few pictures:

Inaugural hat for Deborah

Knit cabled Tam my original design. Inspired by a tam I saw in Knitty Magazine. My tam uses larger needles and my flower only has 6 petals the other one had 8. I knit this without a pattern just making it up as I knit knowing that the math had to come out so I had 6 equal sections to create the design I hoped to achieve. Below are some notes that I took as I knit. An experienced knitter should be able to knit a similar hat following the notes plus pictures posted below.
You may email me at spinningotter@gmail.com if you have questions.
Worsted weight Manos yarn on #9 circular needles.
Cast on 64 stitches
K2p2 for a couple rows
Knit one row
Purl around two rows
Knit row increasing (k8m1) to 72sts
(72 Divide by 6 = 12) knit 12 place marker to create a design with 6 sections in the pattern. Blossom pattern on top looks like flower with 5 petals.
You will use the markers as a guide to increase stitches inside the petals to 104 stitches to make a Tam shape.
When the hat is large enough you will decrease inside of the petals(seed stitch) to form top of the hat. Look at the photos below as a guide

Another pair of Angora Mittens

The mittens I made for Sue we so much fun I made another pair. Red Angora by Elsbeth Lavold and left over yarn green tweed from Dale of Norway.
Knitted.
Cast on 40 stitches on #5 ndls
Adding stitches for thumb gusset(16+adding 4-6 sts to finish the thumb when seperated from the body of the mitten). finished off the thunm with # 3 ndls to tighten up stitches.

Mittens for Sue

I have been knitting mittens. Each pair has been different. Each a challenge in pattern and shape. Here is a picture of my latest mittens. They are knit with Noro Silk Garden and a Angora blend by elsebeth lavold from KFI. I cast on 40 sts on #5 ndls. These a big mittens.
A friend asked me to knit here a pair of warm mitts. This is the main reason I knit the pattern so the yarn is double with more angora on the inside on the mittens. The angora will get real fuzzy with the longer floats on the inside to provide additional warmth.

Knitting gifts

I hope I will finish this hat tonight. Time is running out and there is still more knitting to do.

I discovered that I did not post this picture back in December. The cardinals hat really turned out good. I saw Marie wearing it on Valentines day. Knitting gifts for young people is always risky. You can never tell if they will like your creations. It made me feel good about knitting gifts to see Marie wearing her hat.
This cable hat is still evolving. I am decreasing the crown. I will post finished pic.

Mercer Spinners and Weave Guild Dec.13 2012

Our guild met today for a soup lunch.

Finished trellis Tam

Rainout of red yarn so I had to make a design change.

Red Trellis Tam #8

Row30 - 45

Two rows or so past the third cable decrease row
P2, k1, k2 tog, k1 around

I am starting to run out of yarn so I will add a new red yarn, introducing it every other row so if the dye lot is not the same the color will blend. The only other option is to finish the tam off and then it might be too small.
See photo.

Red trellis tam #7

Row 29 and 30 shown in this photo

Red Trellis Tam #6

Row 14. Cable row = 102 stitches
Move the rest of the purl stitches so they are arranged:
K2, P4

Row 15.increase k2, cable the knits. P2,m1P, P2
Knit around (knitting the knits and purling the Ps)

Row 16 Knit around

Row. 17 knit around

Row 18 move the purl stitches as you did before k1, p2, k1, p3

Row 19 move two more purl stitches
K1, p1, k1, p4, k1. See photo

Row 20 knit around. P4, K3
Row 21 P4, K2, m1 K, K1
Row 22 P4, cable 2 forward k2, K2 from cable needle
Row 23 - 28 knit around
Row 29 decrease p2 tog twice, K4
Row 30 P4 cable (same as row 22)

Knit Along Red Trellis Tam #5

Row 12 cable row
Knit, 2 purl, knit.
\ . . / . . \ . . / . .

Row 13 knit around
K, p2, k, p2

Knit Along Red Trellis Tam #4

Row 9 K2, P3

Row10 cable the knit stitches, p1, m1p, p2. Increase row

Row11 k2, P4

Knit Along Red Trellis Tam #3

Row 8 K2, P2 ( m1 p) increase

Knit Along Red Trellis Tam #2

Row 3 Cable the knit stitches
As shown in photo

Row 4 knit around knitting the knit stitches through the back twisting the stitches to make the cable stitches more crisp and stand out.
Row5 knit around follow the pattern as seen knitting and purling.

Row 6 cable moving the knit stitches over the purls as shown in the next photo. I will post again after Row 6 and 7 which are knit as seen.