A few more...

I was amazed to find a few more hours before the holidays to squeeze in a couple more presents.  Pure fun for me.

I finally got around to framing the cross stitch (above) that I completed for a special little baby boy and sent it out to him in the mail.  In case you can't tell, I am a big fan of Alicia Paulson's work.

The next gift was a second taggie blanket for special friends that just welcomed their second baby girl.  I made two for their first daughter (she needed a second one because she loved through the first!) and I really wanted to send out another for their new addition.  These owls are too cute and paired with a bumpy purple minky should be fun for the baby to explore.  I sent the blanket along with a crocheted turquoise crown - I called it the 'big sister crown' - made by a friend for the older daughter.

The last few presents came from a burst of sewing for my own three oldest daughters.  They all learned to knit in the week before Christmas so I sewed them each a knitting project bag and filled it with a skein of yarn and some needles.  They love then and I love seeing the bags and their knitting float around the house: the couch, the bed, the dining room table and their locker.  I first made the fox bag below to match the needle case for my niece.

Then I made three more.  I am really happy with the construction of these bags.  My serger makes such a professional finish and the satin cording for the drawstrings work perfectly.  I modeled these bags on the small della Q bag that I have for myself and they turned out great - perfectly sized and perfectly useful (I did skip the interior pocket this time around).

FO: La Flota Hat

FO: Birch Bark (CF Recipe)

**Sweater was first complete in December 2013, subsequent modifications complete in January 2014, but these photos were taken this month.**

My first CustomFit pattern!  I am so excited about this knit.  It's not perfect, it's not ideal, but it turned out just as I had hoped.

CustomFit is a new piece of proprietary knitting software developed by Amy Herzog and colleagues.  It is amazing in every way - and I thought she couldn't get more amazing after meeting her in-person last year for a "Knit to Flatter" course.

From that initial Knit to Flatter course I learned so much about knitting sweaters and fit.  As a result of that class I knit up enrobed and vignette. 

And then...

I learned about CustomFit.  This software allows you to pick a general sweater pattern (pull-over, cardigan, etc.), enter your own measurements, and enter in a custom gauge swatch.  The software will generate a pattern suited just for you and your specifications.  It is incredible.

My first sweater using CF was Birch Bark (an Amy Herzog pattern).  It turned out great, but a bit on the short side.  It's hard to know if this is a result of mis-measuring on my part, or the general pattern as I've seen other similar comments about this same sweater.

After stewing about the length for a bit I decided to add more.  I cut off the hem, picked up stitches in the round and knit down to add about 1.5 inches and a new hem.  That process wasn't without error and you can see an irregularity in the cables on the panel, but it's not terribly noticeable.  In the photo below you an see where the hem ends, and the new stitches, knit in the round, begin.

Now the length is perfect, but the sleeves are a bit short in proportion.  Learn as you go...learn as you go.

I won't go back and monkey with the sleeves on this sweater, but I have learned something about proportion - especially when looking back at photos of the sweater in its pre-modified state.  I really liked where the sleeves hit in relation to the hem and that relationship isn't the same after I added length to the body.

The yarn for this sweater came from a local mill - Blackberry Ridge in Mount Horeb, WI.  It is a natural gray, worsted weight (100% wool) that is getting softer and softer with each washing.

It is a great sweater for these transitional months that WI is so popular for.  A tank top underneath for warmer sunny days and a long sleeve tee for the chillier days.

And for comparison sake, here is a photo of the sweater pre-modification:

FO: Hildina

It has been a cool summer - which prompted me to put aside my sock knitting and take up a bigger project.  I pulled out a very special skein of unknown fiber and unknown origin that was given to me by my husband for the holidays.  The sport weight wool is heavy, but it made the most loveliest of lacework shawls.

This was my first attempt at lacework and I did ok with it.  I had to frog it a few times, ripping back up to six rows of knitting in an attempt to re-work mistakes with yarn overs and - most especially - the 3-into-7 stitch.















Once I got it sorted the shawl came together quickly and blocking it made a nice difference.  The yarn really opened up and and the lace panels blossomed.  I do wish I knew more about blocking lace and I have a feeling the some weights at the points would have helped give it a bit more shape.

Overall it is a great pattern and lovely finished piece.  I am excited to wrap up in it as the temps fall this autumn (or even tomorrow night).

Bliss!

The enrobed wrap is complete - I even took it out for a test drive at a meeting last night.  It went great.  I am really happy with my first seamed sweater and feel great about moving forward in making modifications to sweaters to fit my body.  Knitting this sweater - while not perfect - was blissful for the learning process alone.

This is my practice sweater, my first seamed sweater ever, and I learned a tremendous amount.  My goal for this first project was to knit a relatively plain/simple sweater, but one that looks smashing on me and my body.  And while I didn't exactly meet or exceed that goal, I came close.  And the bonus is that I know so much more for when I knit my next sweater.

Some quick notes on modifications before I get to the lessons:

* I shortened the torso by 2 and 1/2 inches and sleeves by 6 and 3/4 inches.
* The sleeve details called for one stitch change on each side of every other row, I did two.
* I made the edging about 3/4 inch instead of 1 inch.
* For picking up sts along the neckline I did a repeat pattern of *pick up 3, skip 1, pick up 2, skip 1*















And my lessons:

1) For my body, when taking length from the torso, I should probably take some from all over and not just the bottom.  I think this is evident by the bit of extra bunching fabric under my arms and around my back.  I am really happy with the overall length - so I did take out the right about of overall length - but there seems to be some extra fabric between my waist and shoulders. I could probably have left a bit of length at the bottom, and taken 3/4 or an inch from the upper chest.

2) I should also have simultaneously done more shaping with the neck line.  And that stands to reason - if I shorten the length, but keep the diagonal line the same, it will simply shift upwards instead of becoming more steep.  It looks fine, but I would have liked a bit more reveal and steeper 'v' shape.  I could have accomplished this with a more rapid decrease along the neck line, but didn't realize this as I was working through the pieces.  You learn as you go, right?

3) A steeper neckline could also have brought my upper arm seam higher so it sits more on top of my shoulder instead of slightly over.  I think this would help with the overall shaping of how the sweater 'hangs' on my body.




















4) Sleeves always need to be set in on center with the shoulder seam.  In the photo above you can see where I off-set it by 3/4 inch (due to a slight differential in length between the front and back panels).  I shouldn't have done this, but it was my practice sweater and felt that I'd give it a try and see what happens.  Only a critical eye would notice this - and strangely it doesn't bother me at all - so I am leaving it and will wear it as is.  (The other shoulder and sleeve line up perfectly.)  Also, since you can block to even out length it likely wouldn't have made a difference in the end.  But again, learn as you go.
















5) Little shaping stitches make a big difference - and a good difference!  I am so happy with how just a few increases or decreases can make such a difference in fit and accommodate (accentuate!) curves.

6) I still need to work on sleeve length.  I tried to go for 3/4 sleeves, but after washing they crept longer.  They look nice, but I wonder if a shorter sleeve, ending at my waist where I am narrowest, would have looked more balanced?















7) Take notes, draw new schematics based on new measurements, and make changes as you go along.  I did this a lot and it really helped me to get into the pattern and understand it.  Rather than reading the pattern as text, I was able to interact with it and while there were measurements and stitch counts, on paper I could play around with changes and see what might happen - I could make changes to suit the project I was working on.  Amy's reference section on modifications was invaluable in doing these exercises, and having worked through them once feel that I can do even better, more detailed work the next time around.
 

Overall a fantastic first seamed sweater for me.  I love the color (most true in the second photo) and will wear this often.  I know now there are things that I could have done differently with this sweater, but I never would know to do them had I not knit it in the first place.  Onward with an adventuresome spirit I say (as does Amy in her fantastic presentations!)

Getting close!

All the pieces are knit and now for the seaming.  With some sage and experienced advice from a friend I feel ready to tackle it!

Spring Break: Enrobed Wrap + V Junkie

 

It is the middle of spring break for our kids and it feels nothing like spring around here.  The snow is still densely on the ground, ice is packed over grass, and the temperatures are more suited to hot cocoa and fires in the fireplace than trips around the block on a bike.  We are also having our house insulated this week (at almost 100 years old we felt it was time to bring in additional reinforcements).  

All this means that I am tricking myself into thinking that I will still need a sweater yet this season and thus working quite diligently to complete the Enrobed Wrap (a side-tie wrap sweater) by Amy Herzog.  After trying on a lot of sweaters at her workshop, I fell in love with her other wrap sweater pattern - the Striper Cardigan - but thought I would stretch my wings on a sweater that was a bit more straightforward first.  There's no color work on this one, and it is knitting up at a larger gauge.  I figure I can get things worked out on this one and move onto the next one with more confidence.

I am really pleased with how this wrap is turning out so far.  I am trusting my measurements and modifications and so far it seems to be working quite well.  The back and front left panel are complete and when I hold them up to myself they fit nicely, not too wide or too long.  The increases and decreases are in the right places; the seams match up.

This method of piecing a sweater - knitting it in separate pieces and sewing it together at the end - is new to me and I am learning quite a bit as I go along.  I will give more detail when I write about the finished sweater.  So far, they mostly have to do with selvage and edging. (I haven't gotten to seaming yet!)

 

My other spring break project is V Junkie by Alice Yu (in Socktopus).  I had started with another of her patterns - they are all quite stunning with variegated yarns - but got frustrated after I had trouble following the pattern. So I abandoned it for another with a honeycomb design.  It looks pretty cool so far and is a much easier stitch pattern to follow.

The colors I have on the needles at the moment are reminiscent of dyed Easter eggs - maybe spring really is just around the corner.

Knit to Flatter

This past weekend I found myself surrounded by amazing wool sweaters, supportive women and an expert on how to make hand knit sweaters both fit and flatter every body shape.

we tried on A LOT of sweaters

 My LYS hosted Amy Herzog for her four hour Knit to Flatter workshop.  It was fantastic.

Because I don't pay much attention to fashion or commercial clothing design there are some fundamentals about dressing that have always eluded me.  I have a good sense of what colors look good on me, but cut and style?  That is a whole other ball game.  And the few hand knit sweaters that I have made, while lovely, haven't left me exactly excited about knitting more.  And this class taught me why.

First, I have leaned heavily towards raglan sleeve sweaters which, based on the method of increasing stitches, presumes your body is the same shape on the front that it is on the back.  Well, I haven't been that shape since before puberty!  And while they are arguably easier to knit up, they don't fit as well unless they are heavily modified to suit your shape.  And that is incredibly difficult to accomplish well when you knit your sweaters all in one piece.  If you deconstruct your sweater into parts you can focus your modifications where they are needed/necessary.  This allows you to make a custom knit, without too much pre-planning.  And the tailored look is always in...if your clothes fit they will almost always look good.  If they don't, well, then they won't.

Secondly, I have never understood the concept of ease in a knitting - I vaguely understood it to mean that negative ease would give you a tighter garment and positive ease a roomier one - but this class showed me exactly how to work with ease to match your measurements to a garments schematic, thus greatly increasing your chances of making a sweater that looks suited to you (vs. a sweater you are trying to fit into).

Lastly, during this class we took digital photos of our bodies, drew our outline and took a few measurements  - now I have a solid understanding of shape.  I am relatively proportional, but straight (as opposed to curvy).  It is not how I envisioned myself as I walked into the classroom, but upon leaving a light bulb had gone off and I realized why certain sleeve lengths and necklines look good on me while others most certainly don't.  Fantastic.  And I would almost call it magic, except Amy is wicked smart with the numbers and has obviously spent a tremendous amount of time and energy analyzing these issues.

my homework

Amy's book, Knit to Flatter, is full of patterns that will suit any body shape made in amazing yarns.  Each sweater features directions for how to customize for your particular body, including flattering shaping lines.  You can also access all her wisdom on her blog.

I have already ordered yarn (Shelter by Jared Flood!) to knit up a new sweater for myself.  My goal for this sweater is to spend a lot of time focused on shape and fit; to knit a relatively plain/simple sweater, but one that looks smashing on me and my body.  Armed with Amy's expertise I have more than half a chance at success!  Wish me luck.

History in my hands

In mid-November I was contacted by a neighbor about making repairs to a few sweaters that she had.  She mentioned that they were a mix of ones she acquired and ones that her Grandmother had knit for her Grandfather before leaving Ireland for the United States.  An old sweater knit in Ireland?!  Could it really be a real fisherman's sweater?  I jumped at the chance.

 

She dropped them off and I spent the next few weeks getting to know them.  The construction was amazing, and so different on each one.  Two raglan sweaters, one saddle-shoulder, and one yoke cardigan from Iceland to round out the set. 

 

But that one on the top of the pile?  It stole my heart the moment I set my eyes on it.

 

 

I must sound a bit strange, going on and on about a sweater (and one that I just met no less!).  But this sweater!  It was made with patience, focus, talent, love and care.  I didn't find a single mistake in the patterning.  The cables and stitch definition are gorgeous.  It is unbelievable.  And it is old.  You can feel the years gone by when you hold this sweater.  It is substantial, measuring a mens XL/T, and probably weights 4 lbs.  That is a lot of wool folks.



 

And like all really good love affairs, I came away from my time with this sweater knowing more about myself (this time myself as a knitter).  I realized that I know my way around sweater construction and repair.  I know my way around bind-offs, cast-ons and sizing.  I know a thing or two about wool and I know that I have the confidence to dive into a project - even one that is not my own - and work with it.

Sadly the wool on the older sweaters is starting to deteriorate.  As with all organic materials they begin to break down over time, and I'm not too sure what can be done to slow or halt that process.  I suppose that you could seal the sweater in a display case and not expose it anymore to the elements.  But I don't think that is the life this sweater was made for.  It was made to be worn.  And worn, and worn, and worn.  This sweater was made to go out into the world and soak it up.

I've fixed up the sweaters, given them all a good (gentle, hand) washing and let them dry.  I wound up a few yards of the repair yarns for the owner to take with her.  I am sad to see them go, but it's time that they head home. 

I've grown as a knitter in the past few weeks and I think I have two old souls to thank: one of an Irish gentleman and the other his wife.

FO: 100th project for my 1yo

I just entered my 100th project on ravelry!  I find this to be a surprisingly delightful milestone.  I know that I've knit more than 100 items, but seeing that number - and all those projects - in one place really gives me a sense of accomplishment.  And it is amazing to look back at some of my earlier work and see how far I have come in my craft.

For my 100th project I knit up a little cardigan for my wee girl.  She turned 1yo last week.  I can hardly believe how quickly the months flew by, and find it even harder to remember a time in our family before she was with us. 

The pattern is in threes, and I knit this up in a Coed Mawr (a small scale fiber company in Cambria, WI) worsted weight; size 18 mos.  The buttons are from Jennie the Potter.  Next on my needles is a little shrug to help this cruising babe's wardrobe transition from spring to summer.

First Yarn Purchase!

I took the plunge and made my first yarn purchase of the year. I have to say it was a little difficult, a little indulgent, and very exciting. I have been eyeing the Linen Stitch scarf pattern from Churchmouse Yarns for a couple months and went ahead with a purchase to make it happen. I had a skein of Louet Gems on hand, the purple-ish yarn, and paired it with two new skeins of Koigu Painter's Palette, the orange and green yarns.

One lesson moving forward with my knitting is to not get ahead of myself with my purchases. Sure there will be times that certain projects will jump ahead in my queue out of necessity (holidays, births, etc.), but I can't let those projects trump plans for a project that I am excited about knitting; especially one that I purchased new yarn to make. Maintaining fidelity to my stashed and purchased yarns is certainly goal-in-process, but one that was made concrete for me over my last year of knitting adventures.

In this vein, I am happy that I pulled one skein from my stash and matched it with two more new purchases. The me from 2009 would have purchased three new skeins (maybe even 4 if I couldn't make up my mind), and then worked the project, letting the perfectly suitable, lovely, and fantastic purple skein rest awhile longer in my stash. When would the old me ever have used that purple? I'm not sure. Hopefully the me of 2011 is more conscious and more creative.

I am very excited to cast on for this project - I think the scarf is going to be fantastic. It also uses a stitch that is new to me, the linen stitch. What a lovely fabric it produces!

Holiday Knitting (a.k.a. why I should weigh my yarn, or knit socks from the toe-up)

I am knitting a pair of bright, self-striping socks for my SIL for Christmas. We have a big-ish family and draw names for gift giving. This year I was lucky to get DH's younger sister. She is fresh out of college, just moved to our town, is writing a novel, has a steady job at a bookstore and has just entered adulthood. What a cool stage of life to be in! (Ok, maybe that is just my mid-30's, kid-raising mind rambling some BS. I think I also remember that stage of life being plenty full of longing, uncertainty and confusion too.) Regardless, I think that she'll like the socks. I think they are suited for a 20-something.

The thing that I didn't account for before starting the socks was her foot size. She wears a shoe that is 3 sizes larger than mine and I didn't make any changes to my pattern to accommodate. Yikes. And how many days until Christmas again?

There are a couple of things that I could have done to make this error easier to deal with, before I even started knitting. First, I could have split my skein into two balls and weighed them, thus ensuring that I had equal amounts for yarn to work with for each sock. I would have very quickly realized I was running low on yarn on the first sock before finishing it and could have made changes then. Secondly, I could have knit these socks from the toe-up. This makes adjusting the leg length much easier technically speaking. Since you are assured of having the proper foot length you just knit the leg until you run out of yarn.

But instead I am doing some magical knitting wizardry.

The leg of the finished sock on the left was WAY TOO tall if my yarn was going to accommodate the length of the foot. I realized this when I got half-way down the leg of the second sock and started running out of yarn.

So I had to do some emergency sock surgery to steal yarn from the finished sock for the unfinished one. This caused me to stop for 2 days and really think about the most efficient way to go about this. Here are my steps:

First, I snipped a stitch just below the ribbed cuff and unraveled the leg a couple inches. Then I unraveled the cuff and wound the yarn into a mini-ball. [You can't unravel a ribbed cuff from the top-down. It just doesn't work.]



Secondly, I re-knit the cuff on the finished sock, going up the leg this time, and bound off.



This allowed me to take 3 inches off the leg of the first sock - theoretically freeing up 3 inches of yarn for the foot of the second sock.

It's not the most elegant of solutions, but it works and it got me back on the road to finishing the socks on-time. [The cuffs on the socks won't match exactly since one has a cast-on edge for the cuff, and the other has a cast-off edge, but I don't think she'll notice.] I also debated on just ordering more sock yarn in the same colorway, but given my stash challenge I diligently encouraged myself to find a different solution.

Here was my stopping point last night. The returns are still out, but I am feeling pretty confident that I have enough yarn to finish off the second sock, albeit with a much shorter leg length.



Once the socks are done I will take pictures in the daylight. The colors remind me of a winter sunrise in WI - how the pinks and oranges in the sky above blend into the white and gray of the snow below.

Sweater for my husband

Early on in my knitting I made a mistake, one that is common to many newbie knitters. I tried to knit an adult sweater as my second project. Ever.

During my first project, the requisite first-knitting-project-ever-scarf, I figured out the knit stitch, the purl stitch and achieved a reasonably even gauge. So I thought I was ready to move on to something bigger, and better. I had a faux confidence that outmatched my true abilities.

With my boyfriend in tow, I went to The Yarn Co. on Manhattan's upper west side, and in one afternoon spent more money on yarn and a pattern book than I had on food for the entire month. We went home, a few days later he flew back to Wisconsin and I was left in my apartment in NYC with a bag full of yarn (which, aside from my laptop, was the most expensive thing in my apartment), a pattern, and my needles. I dutifully cast on and tried to knit up the sweater.

The pattern was perfect for a beginner but in hindsight I didn't have the skills to finish that sweater. I didn't know anything about yarn and it's many personalities. I didn't know what blocking was, how to seam a garment, why shaping was important, how to bind off stitches, nor did I understand the supreme importance of achieving gauge. Those skills came piecemeal over the following years. And once our wedding plans were underway, and my move back to WI began, the un-finished sweater and yarn were packed up and put away. It went with us to our housing co-op, it went with us to Paris, it was with us during various home renovations. It hid in a plastic bag in a box in our bedroom closet as our family grew from two people to five.

Every now and again my husband would let a sarcastic comment slip. Usually something about my amazing knitting, but where was his sweater? Yes, he told me, the one I started in 2003. Yes, he assured me, the one that was sitting in a bag in a box in a closet. Yes, the one he was certain wouldn't fit him anymore, even if I did manage to finish it. And I started to feel really bad about it. That feeling prompted me to alternate: between pretending the project didn't exist anymore, and really wanting to drag it out and just finish it.

When I started my stash challenge I re-discovered the really nice yarn I bought oh-so-long-ago, the yarn that was destined to be his sweater. For not knowing anything about knitting at the time I picked out super nice sweater yarn! And I couldn't bring myself to re-use the skeins for a different project (every time I looked at it I saw him staring back at me) and so I decided to just start again. I decided to knit a new sweater for my husband.

I toured ravelry for a time and happened upon designs by Jared Flood, of
Brooklyn Tweed. They are incredible - one of the best designers of knitwear, especially mens' knitwear, around these days. So I unfurled one skein, wound it up into a ball, and cast on for cobblestone. My husband really likes the pattern, and there are a handful of other sweaters knit up in this particular yarn so I have an idea of what the end product will look like. It will suit him and his personality quite well.

I'm about 8 inches up from the waist and the project is moving along. I know I will run into difficulty when I hit the sleeves, but it won't be insurmountable. I now know things about gauge, shaping, binding off, casting on, and knitting in the round. That's not to say I always get them right, but I have the skills and the confidence to move on with a sweater in a way I didn't before. I know that I can finish this sweater.

I wish that I could speak of this sweater as a metaphor for larger lessons in life - but none are coming to mind at the moment. I know that I've always been the kind of person to bite of more that I can chew. But I muddle through and usually wind up with something to show for my efforts. And maybe this sweater is showing me that while I still tend to reach beyond, I am catching up with myself. Through life with my husband, our children and graduate school, I've learned patience; I've become a more patient person than I thought I could ever be. I've learned that there is time to accomplish dreams, but there are skills to be mastered along the way. And I've learned that if I slow down, just a little, I will enjoy the scenery more, and our destination is much the sweeter for having taken our time getting there.

This piece will be for him; for my husband. It has been a long wait my dear, I know. But I think you'll find it was worth the wait.

FO: Men's Vest

I finished it!



And it fits him perfectly. It looks great; I'm so happy. The zipper was a bit more challenging than expected, but it's done. I machine sewed it to the vest and then hand sewed the ends with extra care. [The zipper came from Zippersource, a great place to order custom zippers!] For more info. on the project you can check ravelry or here.



The pattern is from an Australian knitting publication - which I borrowed from a friend - and the yarn is an undyed, locally-spun worsted weight wool. I learned a new cast-on technique and how to machine sew in a zipper. Overall a great project, but the challenge to finish was tough. It took under 750 yds. of yarn to knit, which made it an budget-friendly project too, but the zipper was an added expense.

If I were to knit the pattern again I would do an applied i-cord around the armholes as the Italian cast-off is difficult to manage and, I think, unnecessary there. The i-cord would give a nice finished look and match the detailing on either side of the zipper. I would also probably shave a few centimeters off the length of the neck/collar. It's pretty long.

Holiday preparations

Wow - it's been busy around here. And it will get busier before it slows down. It's not that I've a long queue of holiday knitting or sewing. In fact, I've pared down my holiday knitting to one item and sewing to three items. But we are preparing for 20 overnight guests (incl. 7 kids under age 6) and a kitchen that will be working overtime. So...I'm making lots of lists and checking them twice.

Knitting-wise, here's what I've been working on: a zip-front vest for my brother-in-law. (Pattern is Rugged Up Vest by Judith Avery - Copyright holder for the two pics below is Yarn Magazine 2006). I was inspired to make this piece after a good friend knit one for her husband. And I'm a sucker for o-ring zippers. I just love 'em. The zipper had to be ordered before I finished the knitting so I'm hoping that it will all go together in the end. [If anyone is looking for a custom zipper, zippersource.com is where I found the one for this vest. I am reserving endorsement for now as I have yet to receive the zipper, but I'm hopeful it will be here this week.] The vest is turning out great - and that cast-on is brilliant. The pattern calls it an Italian cast-on, but I think it is also known as the tubular cast-on. At least that is the one I used. I learned the technique from this book. I got it from the library, but it's now on my amazon wish list.












So, 10 days to go until it needs to be done. I figure I need four days for blocking the pieces, assembly and sewing on the zipper, so that really only leaves 6 days. The back will be done tonight, so if I get each front panel done in three days there's a chance it will be finished on time...

A giveaway

I could blame it on the holiday weekend, the gardening or the kids. But the fact is I just simply forgot to note the sign-up deadline for the Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway day on my calendar. Melissa over at Tigerlily Tinkering - be sure to check out her recent apron adventures - reminded me of this amazing creative effort and I felt the urge to jump in too. So…I'm not sure if I am an officially sanctioned participant, but I will host a giveaway anyway. Here are the details:

I'll be giving away two knitting pattern collections, both by Melissa Matthay and Sheryl Thies (rav link), this one and this one. This means there will be two – yes two – winners here. Each pattern collection will arrive at it's destination packaged alongside a homemade, freshly-baked batch of biscotti. I usually make chocolate-almond, but I am happy to accommodate any food preferences or sensitivities.

To win, leave a comment describing either who taught you to knit (or sew, or create, or do what it is that you do) or why you began. Beginnings and origins are interesting to me and I'm curious to learn if crafting/creating is something that we are raised with, or whether we reach for it during particular moments in life. Or is it both? My twin daughters will pick the winners from a hat at 12 noon CST on May 31st. Lucky for them there are two winners! I will post the winners later that afternoon. Unfortunately I won't be able to send these items internationally, so the giveaway is only for individuals in the U.S. and Canada.

Good luck and I look forward to hearing from all of you!