Saturday was World Wide Knit in Public Day and we did our best to be visible. We met in the coffee shop downtown and knitted (and chatted and ate and drank) for a couple of hours. We got a few curious looks and some inquiries - especiallywhile we were winding up Liette’s skeins with the swift and ball winder.
 
There were seven of us all together and I think we did a good job of displaying some of the variations in knitting. There were knitters with many years behind them and others just starting out. There was wool and hemp and maybe some cotton. There was lace and cables and garter and stocking stitch. There was flat knitting and knitting in-the-round. There were strait needles and circular needles and double pointed needles, fat needles and skinny needles.
 
Unfortunately I didn’t take my camera, and I’d probably have forgotten about it anyway, so there are no pictures of our group. The picture above is of the project I started while I was there. A simple garter stitch scarf on big needles. I finished the lace squares before starting this - pictures to come later this week.

 

 

Here is that lovely Autumn coloured merino again moving into it’s second metamorphosis. After a couple of swatches and iterations I figured out a sort of a lacy squares pattern. The yarn kind of calls for something more organic and leafy but I wantit to be a nice sister to my felt scarf which was woven in large strips. It doesn’t look very big but it should stretch out a lot when I block it - hopefully enough to go around my neck and tie together.
 
It’s fun to watch the yarn moving through my fingers. The two plies blend together, colour-wise, and separate again every so often so that in some places the colour is very strong and in others it is quite soft. The twist varies as I go along too: Sometimes one ply is fatter than the other and it will puff out around it’s neighbour.  Other times the plies are very even and tightly spun and the yarn is very smooth. I found one two foot section that was somehow not twisted at all - the two plies were perfectly matched but somehow had lost all their twist and just travelled along next to each other.

Pattern: 2 x 2 rib over 28 stitches
Yarn: 3 skeins Manos del Uruguay in Mallard
Needles: 4.5 mm bamboo circular (16”)

This scarf is wonderfully long and cozy feeling. Rob wraps it around his neck twiceand it still has long tails dangling down. I finished it over Easter weekend but the weather was warming so quickly I wasn’t sure Rob would be able to wear it comfortably until next fall - luckily spring has been very gradual this year and it is still chilly in the mornings when we walk to work.
 
Rob picked out the yarn for me when we were in Edmonton in February. It feels lovely and warm and was very nice to knit with. The colour is absolutely amazing; it’s teal but with an unusual depth. In the sunshine the colour seems takes on a life all its own.
 
Knitting back and forth on the circular worked well though sixteen inches was a little short. It was easy to take this project with me when I went out and not worry about accidentally dropping a needle somewhere. I was even able to knit standing in line at the bank!