A Whole Lot of Learning Going On

The time flew by at the meeting with our March Round Table Techniques.

Barbara Malcolm taught Magic Loop knitting.  This method is used to avoid ladders (or visible “seams”) where the needles end and begin when knitting in the round with Double Pointed Needles.  One long circular needle going through contortions does make this magic.  Pretty amazing.

Zoe Moulton taught a crochet cast-on that rocked my world when she showed us.  I can understand why she was so excited about it.  The method is so easy and makes the most beautifully even cast on (beats a crochet chain cast on hands down!).  The beginning of the waste yarn is so easy to find and it removes easily.  I may go looking for projects that need a provisional cast on just so I can play with it.

Victoria Jicha took us back to the basics that some of us never learned, or learned incorrectly.  Seaming is such an important part of our finishing touches.  A poorly executed seam can make good knitting look as if done by a monkey (I speak from personal experience here).  Vicki taught us how to make our seams properly.

We lost track of time, and it was almost 9:00 before we broke for those fabulous little fruit-filled delights that Zoe brought.  Show & Tell followed so we were all a bit later than usual arriving home.  I think that is a sign that everyone had a good time and maybe learned a few things in the process. 

Thank you Barbara, Zoe, and Victoria!

by Andy Trotti

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Our 92-year-old, preemie hat knitting sensation, Fern, sent along another bunch of hats.  She makes the cutest hats.  The Guild supplies her with yarn and she cranks them out.  Some of the rest of us make one here or there but that Fern, she's our mainstay.  Vicki and Mitch go over to Bellevue Retirement Center a couple afternoons a month to knit with the residents and carry Fern's hats to me to deliver to those tiny people who need help regulating their thermostats.  I hope I can be a hat machine like Fern when I'm 92.

I'm still working on my resolution to make 3 men's chemo hats every month in 2014.  Mitch regularly goes to the VA to deliver them for me.  We can always find a home for hats, mittens, and scarves if you get the urge to knit some.  Join us in a little charity knitting, it feels so good.  Contact Vicki Jicha if you need charity-knitting yarn.  The Guild has bins of it available for your charity knitting or crocheting pleasure, and with the way this winter is hanging on everyone's going to need hats for a while yet.