Free Form & Vest, Ext. 2

Julie shared with us how she made her own purse form by purchasing two round plastic canvas and one big square one to use on the sides and bottom.
Linda L. has a new grandson; here is a little hat she made for him.
Fran crocheted this beautiful beaded necklace using a #26 wire and single crochet; it is long and has three strands.
Fran completed her vest! She used three different yarn and just that little ball is left. She shortened the vest, and it is really cute.
Guess who completed her vest? It's Mary Jane! Here is the front and back of her pretty vest. The stitch marker is on the back for a reason...I forgot what it was.
Knitters also excel at other handicrafts. Here is a quilt Gordi made. It is beautiful, and the details are lovely.

We had a wonderful substitute instructor Thursday evening who also happens to be a Knotty Knitter – Julie! She led us in Show n’ Tell, gave us several pages of handouts from Linda on more crochet motifs for our free form project, went over announcements, taught us a couple of exercises for knitters and, most important of all, took role.

Julie reminded us the importance of taking a break and stretching our hands and arms while knitting. To relieve tension and stress in hand muscles, Julie’s chiropractor taught her to use a stretch band that looks like black licorice. We were each given one to hold above our chest and stretch and hold on both sides for 10 seconds several times. Another exercise was to hold our arms twisted from the elbows, see photo for demo. She also noted that there are 10 exercises in the back of the book, “Knitting for Dummies.”



Noelle and Diana were Julie’s assistants, and they also did a great job preparing the tables, starting the fans, and helping with the handouts. Many were confused with the bra pattern, so Diana explained it to us by writing the instructions on the board. When using worsted weight yarn, use size 8 needles and cast on 90 stitches. Then where it says to knit 21, change the numbers to the following.

Row 1: K11, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 2 and all even rows: Knit
Row 3: K10, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 5: K9, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 7: K8, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 9: K7, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 11: K6, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 13: K5, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 15: K4, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 17: K3, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 19: K2, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 21: K1, k2tog, yo, k2tog, rep. to end
Row 23: k2tog to the end

The deadline for the challenge is June 5 since the Art Walk is June 12. There is some confusion on which month has not been filled yet to complete the whole year. It is either the month of October or November. Linda is having a professional photographer there so let’s fulfill our commitment if we signed up.

Bea shared with the class to be careful with the alpaca yarn we bought in class. She knitted a vest with it that stretched so bad that she had to take it apart. She suggests using another yarn with the alpaca when knitting.

The Hit & Miss scarf class meets next Monday evening for their second session; I hear everyone is having fun with it.

Keep cool and knit on!