A Bit of Baby...

Wow, it's already October! Time passes so quickly, eh?

I have been knitting, just not writing about it. Currently, I am working on holiday gifts and a very quick baby blanket for my husband's boss, to give to him tonight at his birthday party. He just had a baby (well, his wife did), and so I wanted to have the blanket done when I see him. JUST finished it today! ~pants~

Fiji Kit

My friend works in an industrial sales office, and is around men most of the day. She lives in the Midwest, but I think would be more comfortable in a writing cabana by the ocean where she had nothing to do all day but write.

Since I can’t buy her the cabana in the Caribbean, I’m making her a desk set instead. It’s one of those awful, uber-cute desk sets, too - the kind you find at White Elephant sales and bad parties.

Yes, I’m that kind of friend. ~leer~

Update from the Itinerant Knitter

Our writing group, the Writers Retreat, had a mini-retreat March 4th through the 6th in Indianapolis, Indiana. Authors A. Catherine Noon, Nicole Gordon, Darla M. Sands, and the Pack Rat met for a weekend of touring and hanging out and, of course, writing.

It's All About the Fabric

I am weaving on a Schact table loom that's been converted to a floor loom.  It is an eight-harness loom, but I'm only using four of the harnesses.  Unlike my previous project, which I wove on a four harness table loom, this loom uses floor pedals to control the raising and lowering of the heddles.  If you remember, the heddles are what control which warp threads are up or down for each pass of the shuttle; this is what creates the weave structure (like, for example, a houndstooth pattern or herringbone).

News from the World of Weave

I continue to attend weaving classes at the Chicago Weaving School, which in turn continues to grow and prosper.  Founder and Instructor Natalie Boyett conceived yet another excellent idea called WeaveSpa - single weaving classes with a pre-dressed loom or packages of lessons for very reasonable prices.  It's a great way for people to dip a toe into the weaving world without having to take an expensive and time-consuming plunge.  (It's also a great way to get hooked on the weaving addiction, but that's beside the point...) 

The first WeaveSpa is February 2, 2011.  Check it out on Facebook.

As for what the heck I'm weaving, I'm weaving a Quesquemitl!

Say huh?

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!  It's 2011!  Wow, amazing.  It feels like it should still be October...  (don't ask me what YEAR I mean, either; we'll just assume for the sake of my dignity that I mean 2010 and leave it at that...)

I hope this year brings you great peace and prosperity, and that your craft aspirations become reality.  If you don't HAVE any craft aspirations, maybe I'll finally convince you to join the bandwagon and you will decide to pick up a craft or art of some kind and play with it.

I would also like to share with you the recent honor I received.  As readers of Knoontime Knitting know, I started weaving school in 2010 at the Chicago Weaving School.  I was invited by my instructor, Natalie Boyett, to contribute to an online gallery showing of weavers' works - a true honor, considering I am a very new weaver and relative novice.  My work is featured under my name in the world, as opposed to my pen name, and is reached thusly:

Visit the website Through the Shed.  For you non-weavers out there, that's a pun:  the 'shed' is the opening between the warp threads that one passes a shuttle through; this is the essential weaving operation that creates a woven fabric.  Once there, you click on the 'through the shed' graphic.  To see my work, and other students' work, click on "Works."  My name is the first in the list, Amanda Clothier.  You'll be able to see my placemat project that I've talked about here on Knoontime Knitting.

I wish all of you a very Happy New Year!  

Holiday Knitting: The Bolero of Doom

I decided to tackle a bolero for my friend R..., and figured it would be easy because it's a Lion Brand free pattern.  It stumped me a little at first, because of instructions like "and at the same time" in all caps.  But I took it apart, started over again, and am pleased to report that I have now finished the left front.

Read on!