Gansey Wk 3

Our big event this week was Pat's Farewell Party. We are sad to be losing her; nevertheless, we had a lovely time. She will be moving to Southern California near San Luis Obispo any week. Linda L. found a local yarn shop near there, and they are looking forward to welcoming her in their group. The potluck was as good as always, and it was so nice to see Diana and Vickie.

Apology
Linda wanted to apologize to the class for being out of it last week. She received notice earlier in the day that said she was at fault for being run over by the golf cart this summer. It was unbelievable news, and she showed us the huge bruise that is still on her leg.



Class Assignment
We watched the DVD showing us the three different cables. We are to choose one of them for the gansey sweater. We knitted a sample cable swatch by using the following pattern:

CO 14

Row 1: Knit

Row 2: K2, P2, K2, P2, K2, P2, K2

Row 3: Knit

Row 4: Same as Row 2

Row 5: K2, make the true cable, K2, make the mock cable, K2, make the Barbara Walker Baby cable, K2 (If you were not in class, you can probably find the cables on line or in a knitting reference book.)

After making this swatch and choosing the one we want to use, we switched to our Gansey sampler handout and learned how to follow the chart. Linda showed us how to increase the left and right side using the make 1 (M1) technique. When increasing on the right side, pick up the stitch from the back and knit in the front of the stitch. When increasing on the left side, pick up the stitch from the front and knit in the back of the stitch.  You can check a reference guide or online for these techniques if you need help at home.

Our assignment is to knit up to Row 41.  Below is Cynthia's sampler. She made the neck bigger for easy wear.

Yarn Caddy
In the next couple of weeks, we will receive three cute designs for the yarn caddy.

Rug Book
Linda and Nola signed their contract to publish the knitted rug book with a deadline of Oct. 1. The table of contents was given to the knitters who plan to knit a sample for the book to pick which one(s) they may want to knit. Let Linda know if you would like to knit one of the samples.

Lambtown USA
Debi asked the class if anyone plans to go Lambtown USA on Oct 7 for the world record knitting event. This fiber fair is in Dixon at the fair grounds. Admission is $2 and parking is about $5. Details can be seen by clicking on the link on the left under "Knitting Events."

Stitches West
Linda announced that she will be reserving a bus for Stitches West for next February. Sign ups will start in December. Toni mentioned that if you want to take classes, there is discount pricing until Oct. 31. The website link is on the left side of the blog.

Shown n Tell

Lynette's colorful round crochet rug.

Lynette's hats and a felted cell case

Candi models Cynthia's gorgeous lace scarf.

Candi made this baby sweater for a coworker's baby.

Linda's morning class is knitting this vest which is still in progress.

Be happy and knit!
　

Gansey Wk 2



Welcome to Jill, our latest new member! A Get Well card for Diane made by Karen M. was passed around for us to sign; Diane has been ill throughout the summer.

Gansey Sampler 
We used one of the handouts from last week and two of the handouts that Linda L. sent us via email: The Sampler and the Alphabets. Several students had problems with the attachments. I think the consensus was that it will work by updating the program you use to open the documents. Linda demonstrated how to join the two sides together. A few of the students also watched the DVD on it. 

The assignment this week is to finish knitting the pattern from the attachment called "The Sampler" that we started in class last night (21 rounds). Joining the two sides at the beginning seem to be the most difficult. The important thing to remember on this is the placement of the needles. On the first side, two stitches are placed on a separate dpn needle and placed in the back to purl two stitches together (it reminds me of the 3 needle bind off placement of needles). On the second side, the two stitches placed on a separate dpn needle is placed on the front side. These two placements will make the side flaps face towards the back. Linda showed us what it looked like on her sampler. See the photos on joining the two sides together from last week's handout titled "The Sampler."

Change to size 7 needles after Round 1. Place marker to designate the beginning of each round. We will change back to size 5 needles on the cuffs and neckline.

On the Alphabets, we will use the 10 Row pattern instead of the 14 Row pattern. Make sure to use a seed stitch design. Linda says using the garter stitch for the initials looks awful; several students agreed.

We will spend 3 or 4 more weeks on the Gansey Sampler. Then, we will have the option of making the adult size Gansey, the Trinity Stitch knitting bag, and the yarn caddies. By the way, Cynthia finished the Gansey Sampler while we were struggling with joining the welts in class. She wants to start on the full size Gansey as soon as possible.

One of the Yarn Caddies. Linda says it looks better when a ball of yarn is in it, but my batteries ran out before I could take the picture.

Reminders (Details are on last week's blog.)

• If you are attending this class and haven't signed up yet, please do so as soon as possible.
• Don't forget about the $5 materials fee.
• Start thinking about the Christmas Party craft projects and forming groups.
• Linda is looking for volunteers to knit rugs for her new book.
• The next class will start on Jan. 10, and the theme will be "Pop Knitting." Debi said the book is on sale right now on Knit Picks. We will also be working on some Nicki Gabriel patterns.

Things I Heard But Were Not Announced

• Stitches West has their class schedule up online already.
• Lambtown USA in Dixon would like 1200 knitters to knit together for 15 minutes to break a world record on Oct. 7.

Pat's Unique Scarf

Louise's Beautiful Shawl

Sandy knitted a bookmarker and felted a purse and two pumpkins.

Toni knitted a lovely color sweater, a linen hat, and designed a "Pop Knitting" hat.

Lynette felted a colorful bag started last Spring.

Here is the bottom of it. It looks awesome.

Linda showed us the latest yarn colors for this Fall. Also her daughter gave her a post card of Latvian designs when she came back from a mission trip. 

 
Happy knitting!

Gansey Wk 1

Welcome to the first class of the Fall session! We were all excited to be in class, and we extend a warm welcome to Monique, Kathy, Marybeth, and Toni, our newest members. Linda L. will put a list of names, phone numbers, and email addresses for us.

Did you know that Linda was hit by a golf cart this summer? She was not seriously injured, but her leg still hurts from the hit and run. You had to be in class to hear it from her. But, this accident led to her meeting the curator of the Sauderville museum where our presidents may be on display next year.

Presidents on Display
We were updated by the news articles this summer on the knitted presidents: Vogue Knitting News and the Colfax newspaper with Bradley Duck from Linda's morning class. The presidents will be on display in various areas starting this Fall to next Spring: Vogue Knitting Convention, Foresthill Library (Washington, Lincoln, Obama, and Romney), Sauderville Village, and perhaps the Hoover Library. We also found out that our yarn bombing of the naked Auburn statutes did make it in the Auburn Journal, but we did not know about it until recently. Louise will look for it in the archive for us.

Missing Members
We were very sorry to hear that Diane, Vickie, and Judith are not attending class. Diane is very ill due to several injuries she suffered in the spring. We hope they will be back with us soon.

Gansey Sweater
Linda showed us a little of a Gansey Sweater DVD and taught us the Channel Island cast on. We were given two handouts: one on the beginning portion of the Gansey Sweater sampler and the other on the Channel Island cast on. Our assignment is to make two sides (front and back) of the bottom of the Gansey Sweater. Note on this cast on, we will be using three strands of yarn. The first two stitches make the slip knot, so do not count those two stitches when casting on 32 sts. Also leave the slip knot hanging and ignore it for the 9 rows. You had to be in class to get this.

CO 32 stitches using the Channel Island cast on with Size 5 dpns.

Row 1: Knit across increasing one stitch in the middle of the row. You can choose any method to increase such as Kfb or M1. You will have 33 stitches.
Rows 2-9: Knit (this will make a garter stitch design on the bottom of the sweater)
Break yarn.

On the second side, do the exact same thing but do not break yarn.

Next week, we will join the two sides and knit in the round. We will be adding initial(s) to the front or front and back of the sweater, so think of which initials you would like to add.

Here are some other patterns, we will have the option to do in class.

The cute Fisherman's bauble bag on the bottom right corner.

This big knitting bag using knitting needles for the top edge.

Class Fee
A $5 materials fee is being collected at the beginning of this session. Most of the patterns will be sent by email for us to print out at home. Linda explained the reason for this fee in class.

Thank You
Linda expressed her gratitude to the following students.
Teri for a wonderful summer party beyond our expectations.
Rosemary for taking the knitted presidents to the State Fair.
Karen M. for picking them up from the State Fair.
Linda L. for sending emails to the Knotty Knitters.
Irene for the class blog.
I'm sorry if I left out anyone...going by memory here.

Linda's Interview on Monday, Sep. 10
Here is the link to the wonderful interview by Maria Seger. It is worth seeing.
http://undergroundcrafter.com/blog/2012/09/10/interview-with-knitting-teacher-linda-pietz/

New Book
Linda and her sister, Nola, are writing a knitting book on rugs to be finished for Oct. 2013. The content has been approved, and they are looking for volunteers to help make the samples. Volunteers cannot be paid, but they will receive a free book and their name will be mentioned in the book. Please let Linda know if you would like to knit a sample.

Christmas Party
Already thinking ahead to our Christmas party, Linda thought it would be fun if we signed up to present mini projects for the class to make, copying Teri's summer party. For everyone who missed it, Teri had ideas after ideas for us to fill our time, and we enjoyed it tremendously. We made mini flowers on old knitting needles, a knitting journal, a inner bike tube dpn holder, yarn ball holders, bracelets, necklaces, slippers... So, start thinking of ideas for your group to present to the class. You will need to supply the example, materials, and instructions.

Karen M. brought some of the projects we made at Teri's.

Spring Class
The Spring schedule needs to be set by next week, so we went over the dates. The date for the Spring session will begin on Jan. 10 through Mar. 21 (11 weeks). The short session of 8 weeks will begin Apr. 4 through May 21. The theme of the class will be Pop Knitting, a very colorful, texturized technique.

Show n Tells

Rosemary received an Honorable Mention at the fair. She made this beautiful seal for her father.

Linda L. finished her loopers rug. She added fringe to the ends.

Linda L. also made this beautiful lace scarf over the summer.

Louise is knitting the cutest sweaters for her grandchildren. Here are two below.

Karen M. shared with us the newest addition to her family: Easy Pickins! She hopes her cats like the cute little puppy.

Cynthia did not disappoint us; she brought a lot of beautiful things.

Cynthia's baby set.

Cynthia's Baby Surprise Jacket

Cynthia's reversible scarf

Cynthia designed these two crocheted scarf and neckwarmer.

Cynthia's knitted scarf

Monique, all the way from Grass Valley, made these two chunky, soft scarves using Barbara Walker's designs.

Irene made coasters out of cotton yarn with a felt backing.

A copy of the leaf pattern was available in class.

Happy knitting!

Class Registration Began

Hi.  I hope you will be attending the Fall class that starts on Thursday, Sept. 13.  The Gansey sweater sampler we will be making is shown on the left.  It is so cute.  The class supply list is also listed under "Pages."  And right here:

 

Supply List for Fall Knitting 2012

• 1 skein light to medium colored worsted weight yarn
• Size 5 double point needles
• Size 7 double point needles or16 inch circular needles
• Stitch markers
• Row counter
• Cable needle

Linda will be bringing a copy of the article from Vogue Knitting News that she says was a great article and one that appeared in the Colfax paper while she was out of town. 

 

Linda is also being interviewed by Marie Segares, a CYC Certified Crochet Instructor (Level I) and Certified Crochet Teacher (Level II), and Proprietress of Underground Crafter. That interview will be on Marie's website on Monday, 9/10 at 6 a.m. Eastern time at this link: http://undergroundcrafter.com/blog/2012/09/10/interview-with-knitting-teacher-linda-pietz/

Until we meet, happy knitting!