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

Winner of Knitwit's Lizard Ridge afghan!

CONGRATULATIONS Knitwits! Our combined efforts, creativity, and talent made a beautiful afghan that we raffled off for Covenant House. At last count, there was approximately $1350 in proceeds from raffle tickets and donations. A tremendous success. I can’t wait to see what our next project will be.

Raffle winner: Robin Dutton

A new link: Ravelry is a knit and crochet community

Hello all,

This is a link Sheryl pointed us to. Ravelry.

Ravelry is a free site. There are currently 543,850 registered users.

ORGANIZE - Organize your projects, stash, needles, and more.

SHARE - Show off your work. Share your ideas and techniques.

DISCOVER - Find new designs & yarns. Make friends. Try new things.

Cheers, Meg

New yarn store in Victoria BC: Button & Needlework Boutique

Button & Needlework Boutique

This shop has been around for 12 years apparently, but only branched out into yarn a couple of years ago. It stocks buttons, embroidery materials and a lot of yarns you don't see all that commonly, like Ella Rae and Spud & Chloe, and some local stuff too - as well as colours that some of our locals don't have (ie, Debbie Bliss Donegal Luxury Tweed in two different shades of pink! :)

Best of all, the shop has a toll-free order number, reasonable shipping rates and super friendly and helpful staff. A great place to consider if you need something desperately and the local shops cannot or won't supply.

http://www.buttonedup.com