Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Week 4








This week we had knit class but we did not meet at Margi's and knit. Instead we were invited to Deb's home/Woolie Bullies business to take home any projects we had left there and some yarn by her mother and sister.
Having arrived there early, I walked around Deb's gardens taking some pictures. She loved to work in her garden and what was vibrant right now were her trees. All of us had this in common with her and had shared plants with each other from time to time.
It was nice to look at her place one last time, and see some of her sweaters she had designed and still there. Her mother showed us a picture book of some of the sweaters she designed and many if not all we recognized. Deb was very talented. I think I may try to get some pictures of the sweaters from everyone and post them here.
We left about 7:10pm, I went home and the rest of the crew went back to Margi's to meet for a few minutes. Next week we will update all of our work, I am sure Margi finished all her stockings and then some!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Week 3

Food

It was all about bread this week! Did we have a meal plan set from the previous week?

  • Lisa came with stuffed breads of potato, cheese and sausage. Very good!
  • Kath brought a lemon cake, recipe by Williams Sonoma. Anything lemon is her favorite and this cake was soooooo lemony, yum!
  • Wine was brought by Margi's guest Maureen. I am doing a horrible job with the wine and remembering what was brought. I might have to start writing it down.

Knit Projects

  • JoAnn is cruising right along on her shawl.
  • Margi puts us all to shame! I forgot to bring the camera and she has already blown by her stocking project as shown on this blog, started another one, finished a hat and started another! She posed the question to all of us if her stocking foot was long enough as done by her directions. We all felt it was proportionally just fine. Who was giving her that notion it was not? Her husband told her she needed to make it longer. Denied, rejected and opposed by all in the group. The hats she made were the campus hat design that allowed a pony tail to come out of the top. I modeled it again for everyone since my hair was up, very cute. Pictures next week.
  • Lisa is back and working on her sweater with the yarn I love!!! She is not to keen on me taking a picture of it, worried about her progress but to me she has made great strides on this sweater and I predict will be done in record time....for Lisa that is!
  • Kathleen is working on her Einstein Sweater project, chocolate brown, many skeins involved, two per panel as she stated. Looking good and working up fast. She brought in two other sets of yarn she plans on using for projects. One is a felted bag we all did several months ago, a mohair with deep purple and some pink splashed in it and adding the purple and pink as the main part of the bag, gift for her niece. The other is a black sweater, the one Lisa is working on. Her issue is she does not have enough black mohair and it is probably 6 plus years old. Kath has evidently asked several people at sit-n-knit and us how she can make it work and we all seem to have come to the answer she does not want to get. Need more mohair! So Margi is on a mission to match it.
  • Me....I did not attach the buttons yet, will do it this week and I am 3/4 done with the Einstein Sweater for my daughter. I plan on having this done by next week, with buttons attached!
  • Maureen, Margi's guest who she had worked with brought an unfinished project she had found. We all have that situation going.

Topics Talked About

  • Walking in to Margi's house, the ALCS game NYY vs. Angels game was on, this of course consumed Kath, Lisa and myself. As much as I complained that the game was on at 4pm on a Monday, it was very cool to watch it together. This just confirms to me that we need to go to a game next year. Much of the talk was about Saturday night's game, I went with m husband and stayed for the whole game. Lisa said she fell asleep by 11:30pm that night and had no idea who won.
  • Maureen confessed she is a Red Sox fan, but not an obsessed one. We confessed we are obsessed Yankee fans, I think she saw that in full effect.
  • JoAnn sounds like she will be going to the Stitches East held in Hartford this weekend.
  • Lisa recaped her college tour she took, showing her son a few colleges from R.I. to New York, all seem to be priced about the same in the upper $30k's!
  • Did I miss anything? Besides bringing my camera?

Meeting adjourned 7:30pm.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Knitting With Friends

I am so happy that my Monday nights will continue to be shared with friends and knitting. Our long time instructor and mentor recently succumbed to cancer. Our challenge is to continue to create stunning knitted projects and solve our own knitting problems. Robin the wine we enjoyed last week is a malbec from Argentina called Colores Del Sol.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Week 2

Food

  • Humus! Kath brought humus from a store in Mystic that is sooooooo good! We all try to figure out what it is that makes it soooooo good but cannot seem to put our finger on it. Kath....what is the name of the store that sells it? I forgot! I wish we could duplicate it, but then they would never be able to sell any. She also brought their own ships which wee so light and tasty.
  • Margi had some sweet chocolate covered pretzels, I scored one for the road. Ate so much humus that I had no interest in having left over white bean chili for dinner!
  • JoAnn brought the wine. It was red and should have looked at the label more closely, I caught the word "sol", it was very good! Maybe she can remember and post it.

Knit Projects

  • JoAnn is working on her shawl, love the color. Picture posted to the right.
  • Margi working on her magic loop "red sock" stocking for her daughter's boy friend. Picture posted also to the right. I am sure she will have it done by next week and on to something else!
  • Kathleen cranking on the Einstein Sweater for herself in chocolate brown. Picture posted to the right.
  • Lisa was MIA, touring colleges with her son. She is still working on her sweater, hopefully picture will be taken next week.
  • I(Robin) have 95% of my daughter's sweater done(as shown to the right), just need to weave the ends in and sew on the four buttons. I will post the finished project on my daughter for next week. I started the Einstein sweater for my daughter, already having to reduce the needles size to get within gauge.

Topics Talked About

  • A week does not go by without talking about the New York Yankees. A-Rod or as Margi calls him Dora (A-Rod spelled backwards, pretty clever). Then Robertson getting the WWF belt by Jeter....love him! Me of course complaining that I have a week of NO baseball....minus the Rockies game of course. Umpiring touched upon on how bad it has been.....the Melky call was no exception, it was fair and called foul. Oh well...it all evens out.
  • Margi gave a nice review of the Magic Loop technique she learned at YDU via Sheila. I have taken a few classes on it to make mittens and socks and it is much better than using double points. Of course I have forgotten the basics since it has been over a year. Margi enjoyed the new technique and gave some great tips on a few things she learned. Using a post-it note to follow along the pattern was one and the other on how to wind a ball of yarn to make a pull string center, very cool.
  • JoAnn brought up a site she learned of call Ravelry. When I had started my other blog over a year ago, I had stumbled upon this sit and you had to put on a waiting list to get in and use it. Got in and never used it to it's full potential. Now I feel I have to go back ad take a look at it again. It is a knit and crochet community with a lot to offer.
  • Stitches East was brought up again being held in Hartford, CT October 23-25. Most of us had an interest but had something else going on during that weekend. JoAnn may go, and leave her wallet at home!
  • Did I miss anything? Field trip to a yarn warehouse?
  • Meeting done at 7:35pm.

Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Our First Recap, Week One

We meet as a group every Monday night from 6-7:30pm. I am going to work on a format so here is a start.

FOOD
  • Always important, the food! Lisa brought some new cheese for us to try. One was a tomato chipolte and another a strawberry Chardonnay. Not bad. Margi provided some desserts that were cookies and biscotti.
  • Kath brought the alcohol which was Pinot Noir, Pepperwood. Of course the question came up on what movie made Pinot Noir even more known. Do you know? Margi had some super good cider, not spiked. I (Robin) needed some before I was off to two meetings after the class.

Knit Projects

  • Never got to see what Margi was working on. She is know for whipping out the projects in a week and coming up with some new cool item! Last week it was a winter hat with a hole in the top for a pony tail!
  • Kathleen was starting the Einstein sweater for her. Hopefully will get some pics of that. She was finishing a three quarter sleeve sweater last week and had to have it put together. Maybe we will post that picture next week.
  • Lisa is knitting a very cool sweater with a little back vent and some great variegated color yarn, green of course. Seems to be the color she migrates toward.
  • Joanne is knitting another shawl is not your basic shawl. It is a little fancier and has a nice knitted hole to gather it in. And I love the color of it which is plum.
  • I(Robin) promised I would finish my daughter's sweater I have been working on for over a year. It is a smock coat style and seems like I am working on tooth picks, size 4 needles! I will have it done for next week and post a picture. I had to rip out the two front panels due to too loose, it is looking good now.

Topics talked about

  • Just so you know, three of us are NY Yankee fans so this seems to come up first. Who should the Yankees play for Game One of the Post Season. Sunday's game was a quick topic of A-Rod.
  • I think I am going to post some yarn shops on the sidebar which we frequent. Margi is taking a Magic Loop stocking class at Yarns Down Under.
  • Katie Couric vs. Mcneil Lear News Hour......I think we do not need to point out which is better. Lisa like Inside Edition.....seemed to be the only one!
  • I had to go to a Nursery School Board Meeting than a campaign meeting afterward, crazy night!
  • We all seemed to state we did not need to buy more yarn and wanted to finish current projects. I already broke that statement! Bought some yarn at OSJL, bulky multi-colored at $1.50 a skein to make the Einstein Sweater for my daughter.

I left at 7:15pm.

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Welcome everyone!

For about three years I have been meeting with a knitting group at a yarn shop in town. A few weeks ago, we lost our instructor to cancer. Several of the knitters have known her for many years and we decided to continue meeting as a group, carrying on her legacy. Strange how this is a reflection of the book published a few years ago.
What will the posts be about? It will be not only what we are working on, what we have finished(which seems to be a challenge for a few of us), but also what we eat, drink and talk about as a group! Basically a recap of our Monday night meeting.
I am hoping several of us will go on and add to the posts and the blog will develop. We look forward to seeing comments and would love to hear from you!