York Region Knitting Guild

As I mentioned yesterday, I belong to a Knitting Guild, that was to remain nameless unless I got their permission to broadcast it. Well, last night, they agreed to let me talk! (Trust me, it's pretty hard to keep me from talking, but I did not want to say anything unless they agreed.) Privacy being what it is, information will be sufficiently vague in order to protect the innocent. The York Region Knitting Guild encompasses an area north of Toronto, ON - our members come from all over - from Thornhill through to Barrie, and all points in between. We are pretty widespread as far as location, and Aurora is the centralized meeting area - upstairs at Needles and Knits (a FABULOUS yarn store!), the first Tuesday of each month at 7:30pm. If you're in the area, come join us! We have a very diverse membership, from knitters just learning to people that produce Kaffe Fassetts and Dale of Norways like there's no tomorrow. (I'm in awe most of the time...) Every one is willing to share tips, tricks and techniques, we ooooh and aaaaah over WIP's and FO's, and generally have a great time together. We have wonderful guest speakers (Fiona Ellis, Maureen Mason-Jamieson are two that come to mind), and presentations from yarn producers - Wellington Fibres. All in all, I have been very lucky to find this group and be welcomed by them.

Another project:


I did a kool-aid dying experiment at the Guild a few months back and ended up with some space dyed 1 ply Briggs and Little. Not enough to do much, so I came up with the idea of making the hat brims, then making the hat out of alpaca to be softer against the forehead. I've completed one, a pale pink alpaca with just a regular ribbed brim (not shown), this one is a brim pattern worked laterally - it's a lacy arrow pattern from a stitch dictionary. I will then take the blue alpaca, and pick up around the edge to make the hat. Maybe. I may also make this into an ear warmer band and line it with the alpaca. I tend to design on the fly. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't - I'll let you know.

I also picked up some fabulous blue Mandarin Petit cotton last night to make the Fiona Ellis lacy edge cable tank top from her book Inspired Cable Knits. I was leaning to the green, but Elizabeth pushed the blue - smart girl, that Elizabeth...

And in another case of starting something before finishing ANYTHING... Blue Suede Booties! The Ugg Booties from DIYnet. Two pregnancies around me, so these should be fun and fast. Elizabeth to the rescue again - she recommended the Phildar Neige instead of Berroco Plush (which I couldn't find). I already had the blue suede in my stash. (Using stash yarn - what a concept...)