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11/4/2009 8:41:35 PM
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Bets - How Are You?
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Go to the hospital in nightgown, slippers, and a blanket and just sit there in Energ until something happens. Sometimes you need to be right in their faces to get attention. Don`t wait, go now and don`t forget the props. If you can pretend to be about to throw up, that works even better.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/12/2009 8:19:39 AM
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Tartan Hose (Diamonds) for Highland Dancing
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There`s a woan`s pattern at http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter07/PATTtoirneach.html
which you may be able to adapt to size and a different top. A place to start.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/12/2009 5:37:30 PM
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Question about Comfy Cowl.
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Have a look at Beech Wood at www.ilgaleja.com/free_pattern.html
The cowl is knitted in the round. To wear, overlap and pin with a shawl pin to fit your neck.
Really pretty knitted up and different from most cowls.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/21/2009 10:50:05 AM
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Saw this for the Picasso
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Good pattern, Les, this is a version of the stitch we are going to be playing with in June. Somebody try it in two colours of Picasso. [I may have to break down and buy some.]
I`m just finishing a baby jacket in half-linen stitch in the Laines du Nord Giunco that Elann had in early fall. Two shades - the rusts and the spring garden colours - two rows of each. Looks great as it all mellows in together. Knitting group thought it must be really complicated until they realized that I was knitting and talking about their knitting at the same time.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/21/2009 10:52:58 AM
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Well, look at the peeks-
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At least you live in a warm place, Bri. Think of us with low clouds and the November monsoons drenching us. Warm, woolly yarn is so tempting.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/21/2009 11:00:37 AM
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Flood Waters
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Is anyone on the West Coast flooded out? Campbell River, the Comox Valley, and now Duncan on Vancouver Island are hard hit. For those of you who know Dot, my sister-in-law, she`s fine, she lives up on a hill. The problem is made worse at high tide as the rivers back up and have nowhere to go except sideways. Pumps and dykes were installed big time about 35 years ago and this is the first time the water level has been so high it`s gone over the top. Those who live on high ground need to just sit at home and knit and leave the roads clear for emergency vehicles and evacuees.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/21/2009 3:20:10 PM
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Flood Waters
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Jenny lives up at Cowichan Lake which is quite a bit higher than Duncan. Some of the lake got snow instead of rain. We sit over 700 feet above sea level here on the top of the ridge, but down at the bottom is rather soggy. The Canada geese are having a lovely time on the golf course.Fortunately my family tends to choose to live on hills so are fine.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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11/29/2009 8:58:43 AM
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OT The Snuggie 2.0
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When I went into Watermark Books yesterday, Sherri and Steph were giggling away uncontrollably. They had found the Snuggie 2.0 and were trying to e-mail me the photo but were laughing so hard they were having trouble - then I just walked in.
We decided that it could become very popular here on the island as many people rely on wood stoves. Just think of the snuggly comfort.
I, too, said NO! I would not knit each of them one.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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12/13/2009 5:42:47 PM
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Wool for Cowichan sweater
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Real Cowichan sweaters are only knit by native women in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, Canada. The Vancouver Olympic Committee wanted 700 of them for the Canadian teams etc. Instead of having them knit in the Valley (everyone can knit if the need arises, so this could easily have been accomplished), the Hudson`s Bay Company got the contract to manufacture knock-offs, fakes in the Cowichan-style. There is a lot of controversy in the Valley over this issue. I spoke with several of the women who head-up the native knitting groups when I was at the Cowichan Fibre Festival and they were not even asked to put in a bid. It`s just the same as that shop in Edinburgh selling Alice Starmore designs without permission.
All that said, if you want to knit yourself a Cowichan-style sweater, not for resale, have a look at Priscilla Gibson-Roberts` Knitting in the Old Way (my edition is Nomad Press, 2004 but the book came out originally in 1985 from Interweave Press). The older sweaters were more tightly knitted than today and had mainly geometric motifs. These were like fair isle designs with thick wool, because a number of Scottish settlers showed the native women how to knit patterns and used the ones they were familiar with. The bird and animal motifs came later. The yarn was loosely spun but as it received fairly minimal processing except for a bit of washing (not enough to take away all the lanolin) it held together firmly. The sweaters were very warm, mostly waterproof, and wore like iron. I have a photograph taken about 1930 with one of my brothers wearing one. It was not new, so he received it from at least one older brother and maybe two, by the time I was wearing it in the 1950s, it had been through two more of us. So I was the fifth or sixth to wear it and then it was handed down to the next generation. We wore them for everything - in mud, brambles, in the woods, for chores, fishing. We probably smelt like unwashed wool by the end of the winter.
For yarn, most people use Buffalo, but homespun is great if you can get it. Consult with Ann and Angela about the closest Elann yarn - you never know what might be coming.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
(I was born in the Cowichan Valley)
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12/18/2009 6:20:57 PM
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OT About those Nanaimo bars, Les
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Knitters at the June retreats have been known to take home tins of Byrd`s Custard Powder tucked in with their yarn. Both grocery stores on Salt Spring sell it. DH also managed to find a supply of saskatoon berry jam to cuddle up with the yarn, too. We also have Lyon`s Golden Syrup for treacle tart. Not to forget Stilton Cheese for the best cheesecake on earth.
Frozen Nanaimo bars thaw to eating temperature very quickly.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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12/18/2009 6:28:22 PM
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OT About those Nanaimo bars, Les
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Lisa
Here`s a link: http://www.nanaimo.ca/EN/main/visitors/NanaimoBars.html google `nanaimo bars` for more.
I`m sure they`ve been around for more than 35 years. I seem to remember making them for my mother`s tea parties when I was a teenager still living at home.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
PS: the custard powder must be Byrd`s - anything else is quite inferior.
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12/28/2009 9:26:15 AM
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The best Christmas present...
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What a wonderful surprise! And they managed to keep their arrival a secret!
All the best, Jamie
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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12/30/2009 1:18:29 PM
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Happy New Year 2010!
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Happy 20-10 to everyone! Knit up a storm, then you`ll have room for more yarn.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/1/2010 8:52:40 AM
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Happy New Year!!!!!
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Have a very good 2010 all of you. Looking forward to seeing some of you at Madrona in February and here on Salt Spring in June.
All the best
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/2/2010 9:17:23 AM
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Aran Knitting by Alice Starmore republished
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Good news. I have older editions of Celtic Knits and Fisherman Knits which I should probably store in a bank vault rather than just on a shelf from the way their prices have risen!
T, that must be so tempting.
Hope you are steadily improving Benne.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/4/2010 9:26:10 AM
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Bird`s Nest Smoke Ring free pattern
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It`s correct. You have a k2tog and an ssk in each repeat, so you need 2 x yo to keep the stitch count correct. It`s VERY important not to skip a yo. I usually put stitch markers between every repeat or every 2 repeats if they are short, in lace knitting. Then I find it easy to check the count.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/9/2010 7:33:00 PM
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Emoticons are driving me crazy!
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At least you are getting through to people, Benne. When my computer became sick in November, DH told the guru at the computer hospital on the big island that it was just fine to wipe my hard disk. Needless to say the much-touted computer back-up programme in which he had complete faith was very selective in what it actually saved. Fortunately, my thesis was finished. My address book was another matter - wiped clean, so all I have is the contacts on my laptop whilst I was in the wheelchair. Anyone who changed e-mail addi since late-summer 2008 is just out there floating somewhere in cyberspace far beyond the reach of my computer.
Does anyone have Lorraine H`s e-mail? Lorraine, if you are reading this, please contact me - you are one of the ones who completely disappeared. Others, contact me, I don`t want to lose you.
Don`t worry Benne, we can handle those funny faces.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/11/2010 8:46:43 AM
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pattern help
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In general terms, you need to reduce fabric in the shoulder area. One good way is to plot the shoulder/neck area of a sweater that fits well (A) - use knitter`s graph paper (available on-line). Then plot the same area of the pattern as written on another sheet of graph paper (B). Put B on top of A against a window or light table and trace the shoulder/neck area from A onto B. You may have to tweak a stitch here or there, but you`ll have the shoulder you want on the pattern.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/11/2010 8:46:43 AM
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Pattern Help
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In general terms, you need to reduce fabric in the shoulder area. One good way is to plot the shoulder/neck area of a sweater that fits well (A) - use knitter`s graph paper (available on-line). Then plot the same area of the pattern as written on another sheet of graph paper (B). Put B on top of A against a window or light table and trace the shoulder/neck area from A onto B. You may have to tweak a stitch here or there, but you`ll have the shoulder you want on the pattern.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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1/11/2010 8:46:43 AM
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pattern help
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In general terms, you need to reduce fabric in the shoulder area. One good way is to plot the shoulder/neck area of a sweater that fits well (A) - use knitter`s graph paper (available on-line). Then plot the same area of the pattern as written on another sheet of graph paper (B). Put B on top of A against a window or light table and trace the shoulder/neck area from A onto B. You may have to tweak a stitch here or there, but you`ll have the shoulder you want on the pattern.
Alice
Salt Spring Island
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