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Friday, July 29, 2011

New style Knit-a-Long

If you have ever looked at the blog address you will have noticed that it is ourknitalong.blogspot.  Long ago and far away we started this blog (Teresa - the Mastermind; Mom - THE Mother; and Dena - the crip).  The purpose was to let us knit together and keep up with each others lives.  We live on opposites sides of the country and don't get to get together as often as we wish we could.

Sometimes I go visit Teresa and get to attend Stitches South - and I am hoping that she is going to the Palmetto Tat Days and is going to invite me to visit again.

And sometimes Teresa comes out to my farm (ranch really but don't tell her).  When we are together we knit and so does mom.  Mom taught us and it doesn't get better than that.  Since we can't be together but a few weeks out of a year we spend a lot of time knitting together on Skype.

When Teresa and her girls were out earlier this month, we all went up to White House Yarns and got lots of yarn that was essential.  Mom got some great red yarn for a shawl and also some really nice purple for a shawl.  Teresa volunteered to knit the shawls for mom using the To Eyre shawl since she had just finished one for herself.

I had started a To Eyre shawl using  some Raven Frog Fiber Yarn which I ended up frogging after the first skein was finished.  It wasn't the yarn or the pattern but the combination.  That yarn couldn't do that pattern.  So We found a new pattern for the yarn. (See Teresa's blog post Knitting on the Farm. Look very closely at the second picture - do you see that gold wire?  Did you notice it and realize what it was?)

 This was the start of Teresa's version of a knit-a-long.  The pattern for my shawl required that I be able to count to 7.  Since I only have 5 fingers on a hand, I could not for the life of me get the pattern correct.  I would knit a row or two and have it so messed up that Teresa would take it and fix my mistakes and then knit for a while.  I would get it back, knit for a shorter while and mess it up. 
Apparently in this type of knit-a-long, one person knits and then the next person knits.  This worked well while Teresa was here.
But she went home.  And we knit together over skype.  And we tat together over skype.


Teresa started knitting the red shawl for mom.  And ran out of yarn.  She called me one afternoon to say that the shawl was going to be a knit-a-long but I had to get my own yarn.  My husband was a block from the yarn shop, a quick call to Gail, the owner who looked up what we had bought and gave my husband the yarn to bring home to me.  Teresa got the shawl out in the mail and I waited patiently.  24 hours later Teresa and I get on skype and I am knitting on her shawl.  She supervised my work and I got the shawl done.
Mom looks great in the shawl.  The yarn came in 50 gram balls and I only needed 20 grams.  So I looked at Ravelry for something to do with the extra.  (My part of the knit-a-long).  Three Red Hat Embellishments and a Shawl pin.  
I had about a foot of yarn left over.
Did you see the base of the shawl pin?  The gold wire?  I am on an alcohol free diet so that is as close as I can get.

4 comments:

Teresa said...

Oh my! I really do love the base of the shawl pin - what a great use for champaign cork wires. I think I will drink some more for you and send Fred the top. Then you and he can make me a shawl pin too! I also love the little red hats - so cute! Maybe you can make me a straw colored one.

Gina said...

I wondered where you were going with the gold wire and then your reference to alcohol free diet in relation to the wire puzzled me until I read Teresa's comment. LOL! Now I see that it's an inside family thing.

It's still so hot here and even though it's cooler inside, the idea of working with yarn prickles my senses! Come October though, I intend to reduce my yarn stash significantly. Don't hold me to that too closely as I'm a slow easily bored knitter but I love the look and colors of the yarn! Now that I know so many yarn snobs, I find it harder to just pick up a skein in Walmart these days. (smile)

Gina said...

ps..your mom looks wonderful in that red shawl!

Bree at "Bree's Way" said...

My grandmom belongs to the Red Hat Ladies, and I am going to make her a red shawl with a purple edging and a little red had , maybe with purple rim shawl pin!!!

I love love love your blog post, thoroughly enjoyed reading this one :) thank you :)