Flagel Knitting Files

I am so lucky to have people in my life who seem to enjoy my obsession with knitting about as much as I do.  For example,  I received a wonderful gift from one of my daughter-in-laws, Suzanne, relating to this obsession. A while back I yammered  about the great work of Christine Grant from Mad Monkey Knits, a knitting designer from the UK.  Suzanne meticulously went through Grant's  site  then purchased and printed in colour (yea, I love having patterns printed in colour) no less than six different fun animal knitting patterns.  I'll list the names of the patterns here, and if you wish, feel free to go to MadMonkeyKnits.com  to see all of them using the search function:           *Lottie Lobster                                                   *Pet Baby Chimpanzee       ...

I acted on my decision to frog the wall flower project.  As I imagined it, the process should have been relatively easy, but in actuality it was more like an ordeal. The size was about double this by the time I decided there was a need to change. Intarsia knitting refers to a type of knitting that creates coloured blocks rather than smaller changes in colour done every stitch or two.  In order to create the blocks separate balls of yarn are needed (see above).  To insure there are no holes in the end results the knitter needs to twist one colour around the other on the wrong side of the work (Apparently this was something I seemed to have struggled with causing me to have to frog the thing in the first place.~~Who me upset by this, no I'm not upset~~ well maybe a little bit.)  At any rate these tiny twists mean if you wish to rip your previously knitted intarsia work out, the twists need to be undone.  This causes a great deal of stopping to twist th...

On Saturday at Black Sheep Yarn they gave away instructions on how to make a quick cup cozy.  I liked the idea of making a coffee cozy in brown and decided it needed to be dressed up with a happy little sheep. The entire project took about 2 hours to complete, so if you're in a hurry to knit something for the coffee lover in your life, this is an excellent project to keep in mind. The design is a simple k3, p1 (knit 3, purl 1) ribbing.  I used a knitted cast on so that the top remained stretchy and a k2 tog (knit 2 together) bind off that is much more stable.  This means the cozy will stretch and yet stay in place over a tapered cup. The directions on how to knit the sheep came from the book 20 to Make:  Knitted Mug Hugs by Val Pierce.  I had just the right amount of boucle' leftover from another project to make the fuzzy body of the sheep.  (I do save all my excess yarn for just this purpose.)  It had to be sewn on in such a way that the cozy d...

Saturday was a busy day for me considering my mobility issue.  I headed out to Black Sheep Yarns, my LYS, where two events were taking place simultaneously.  First there was Yarn Harvest, a yarn crawl held in connection with Fraser Valley Knitting Guild.  No less than 14 regional yarn shops were involved with the addition to ten other participating artists.  Since I was at the shop I can attest to the fact it did increase traffic.  And it was great to see fellow knitters from the region enjoying the selection found in my LYS. Helen, the owner of Black Sheep, and Alexa, my teacher, with her new baby boy Emily, in a sweater from Pacific Knits ,   and Alexa taking a quick coffee break Also on Saturday the shop sponsored a book signing for  Pacific Knits , a new book containing 18 new knit designs by Emily Wessel and Alexa Ludeman.   I so admire these two, both local designers, who have taken inspir...

So I returned to work on Monday and have spent the last few days spending 8 hours at work and then 8 hours resting at home.  Paul has been fantastic making sure all my needs are being met here at home.  However, I have not had enough energy at the end of the day to write here, until today. Knitting nirvana has not and will not materialize in the wistful way I imagined.  So now that I have that behind me I can spend efforts thinking about more realistic things.  This leads me to one decision.  I plan to frog the wall flower because the connections between the colour changes are not good enough.  What I will do is knit the entire thing in white and then go back and double stitch the flower in black.  The double stitch approach is much more controlled and will yield a more professional looking finished product.   Although I have yet acted on the decision, I feel as if this change in technique is the way to go.  (There is often a rather ob...

Knitting is not a profession for most of us who pick up needles these day.  It is something we do, a hobby, or past time.  However, that has not always been the case. Knitting was an essential skill well into the mid-20th century.  Before the Industrial Revolution, knitting was a true cottage industry, with every member of a family making knitted goods.  The two World Wars encouraged those at home to knit scarves, sock, sweaters and gloves for those fighting the war thus providing a way for mothers, sisters, and girlfriends to contribute to the war effort.   Even as late as the 1960's handmade knit- or crochet-wears were seen on the runways.  During the late 20th century knitting did become something out of vogue and generally only something older people did.  Scarves, gloves, sweaters and socks all became so much more affordable at the local department store there seemed little need to make your own.  Then in the early 21st century with th...

The doctors (when you're at the ER 13 hours you see more than one doctor) told me at approximately 48 hours after the fall the full brunt of the pain would hit; they were right.  Last night both feet had that achy, nagging pain, and I did take more Tylenol 3 than I had up to that point.  Good thing, Paul was home and doted on me which was a welcome change from having Mike, the cat, try to help. Today we were able to get to the shop that sells the boots.  Here's my next new look Fully equipped for healing now. It is amazing the amount of stability this moon boot gives.  The crutches were OK, but when you don't really have one good foot, using them is a challenge.  Now with the boot, I can walk around pretty well, in comparison to what I have been doing up to this point.  So with the prescription of Tylenol 3 renewing my supply, the boot, and a 2-hour nap this afternoon, I'm doing pretty well. It's not yet knitting nirvana, but I did pick up my need...