Amazing Technicolour Quilt poster

Tickets are on sale now!
Draw will be during the Library Winter Wonderland luncheon, Wed Dec 15th in the SUB Ball room.

Clock Knits Time Into a Scarf

One Berlin-based designer dreams up a poetic (and crafty) way to tell time.

This here's a clock that knits time in 3-D.

Big Blanket project update ~ renamed Amazing Technicolour Quilt

Hello all,
We're close to having all our squares knitted. Next steps are arranging them into our desired pattern, blocking, sewing together, and finishing.
Then we can start advertising our finished project and selling raffle tickets for charity.
Here are the pictures from our meeting today.
Cheers, Meg

Leftover yarn afghan idea ~ Noro Squared

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well, and that the needles are still flying. I happened across this Noro Squared pattern - and I thought of our group: http://www.canknit.com/free/ns.html. I'm not sure how much Kureyon and/or Cascade the group might have laying around, but I think you could see how a nice blanket could come out of whatever you all might have left after two years of blanket knitting. Even if you had to buy more yarn - neither is very expensive and you could have a lot of fun putting the plain and the variegated yarn squares together ;-0

cheers, Shawnna

Online shopping

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you all know about two very successful ventures I've made into online yarn shopping ;-) In the event you ever want to get your hands on a foreign language knitting book - most especially Japanese or German - I can highly recommend Needle Arts Bookshop. This is a Canadian company so you don't have to worry about duties. I got my stuff from them very quickly, beautifully packaged, with some nice freebies as well. The company also distributes some yarn/pattern kits which are quite nice as well.

My other big success was buying a Hanne Falkenberg kit online from a British yarn shop - Cucumber Patch. Falkenberg is a Danish designer who only sells her patterns as complete kits with the yarn and unfortunately for me I saw one of her designs in a British knitting magazine and couldn't rest till I got it ;-). I ordered my kit last Monday and Canada Post just dropped it on my porch this morning. The only caution I'd make is to avoid Cucumber Patch's eBay Canada store and order from their own website instead. The shop assistant I emailed told me that their prices are higher on the eBay site as eBay charges a lot to retailers.... I saved $30 by ordering direct.

Cheers, Shawnna

How are those squares doing?

Knitwits met for their usual weekly meeting. Here are some more snaps of our Big Blanket project squares.

Cheryl Niamath's blog

Some of you may know Cheryl as partner of Paul L., but she is also an incredibly talented crafts woman, and author of Fetching Knits.

Welcome to the online home of Fetching Knits. Here you will find patterns, help with techniques, and occasional knitting news. This site is a work in progress; check back soon for new patterns & news.

World Wide Knit in Public Day

"World Wide Knit in Public Day was started in 2005 by Danielle Landes. It began as a way for knitters to come together and enjoy each other’s company. Knitting is such a solitary act that it’s easy to knit alone somewhere and sink into your work without thinking about all the other knitters out there. Neighbors could spend all their lives never knowing that the other knits. This a specific day to get out of your house and go to a local event (with your knitting in tow) just for you and people like you. Who knows you might even bump into your neighbor! Consider this a spark, to ignite a fire; getting all of the closeted knitters out into fresh air."

Knitwits, shall we participate Wed June 16th?

Crocheting book wins odd title prize

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/03/27/odd-title-crochet.html

LONDON (AP) — A book charting the frontier between handicrafts and geometry on Friday won Britain’s quirkiest literary award, the Diagram Prize for year’s oddest book title.

Crocheting Adventures with Hyperbolic Planes by mathematician Daina Taimina beat runners-up What Kind of Bean is This Chihuahua? and Collectible Spoons of the Third Reich.

Prize overseer Horace Bent said "the public proclivity towards non-Euclidian needlework" proved too strong for the competition.

"I’ve never won any prizes before. This is my first prize and it’s wonderful," said Taimina, an adjunct associate professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y..

The winning book’s title may be odd but the subject is serious. Taimina uses crochet to create hyperbolic planes, surfaces on which lines curve away from each other instead of running parallel, as on a flat plane, or converging, as on a sphere.

Previous champions include Bombproof Your Horse and Living With Crazy Buttocks.

It's hip to be square

The first squares for our Big Blanket project are done. What a beautiful collection of colour and texture. We're off to a great start ~ Keep up the knitting & crocheting :)

A first time sweater success!

Looks beautiful Winnie ~ well done

More guerilla knitting on Davie St.

Walking home along Davie, looked up and saw these little creatures peeking out at me from their houses outside the Community Garden at Burrard St. Made me smile ~ meg

What is guerilla knitting?

Knitwits new project: Big Blanket

Hi all,

We have made a great start on our Big Blanket project!!

Edita bought 14 skeins of yarn yesterday, and today we wound it into balls. I have two balls not yet claimed - navy blue, and a purpley blue one. We are quite certain that each ball will make at least 2 squares. Leftovers from your first square will be used in solid coloured squares or mixed up for multi-coloured squares.

I have attached my list of the folks who are participating. Once I have confirmed the number of us participating, I'll ask you to reimburse Edita for a portion of the yarn expense (it's going to be less than $10).

To remind you of the inspiration for our Big Blanket, check out the photo on the blog shown below. This is not a pattern so we're on our own for figuring out squares. If you're unsure about a pattern - reply to the Knitwits and someone will be able to help you figure out a pattern.

Getting started:

We are going to aim for our squares to 10" by 10".

You'll need to do a swatch to check your tension and to try out your pattern. Do your swatch in stocking stitch (or the pattern that you intend to knit) at least 4" by 4". Use 4.5mm or 5mm needles. (Use 5mm if you are doing cables or twists.)

To determine how many stitches you'll need to make a 10" by 10" square, count how many stitches you have per inch on your swatch. Multiply that by 10 and you'll have the number of stitches to cast on. Based on Edita's sample you should have about 42 or 44 stitches. (If you knit tightly you'll more, if you knit loosely you'll need fewer).

Our wonderful collection of Cascade yarns


Tracking our colour choices


A getting started lesson


Turning skeins into balls using wheel


We used two wheels to get the job done

Scarf made using short row knitting

Remember knitting the Lizard Ridge squares, and how we called the bumps boobies?

Well, you gotta check out the scarf at the link below!

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/knittyF04surp.pdf

The Knitwits consider a new project

Hello knitters,

I mentioned today during our knitting session that I saw a blanket made by many people and sewn together on a blog.

Here is the link to that blog. It looks little bit like the beautiful sweater Sara showed us today.

Just another idea to consider:

http://cmeknit.blogspot.com/2009/06/many-hands.html

Edita