The Fair Isle bag

I'm on a roll....




Here's the completed Annie Meadows Bag, done in Debbie Bliss Cathay yarn.

The first series of classes for this bag is just about finished and a new session will be starting July 16th (Wednesday's 11-1) for anyone interested in giving two-stranded knitting a try - no prior experience required, just a knowledge of both knit and purl stitches and a willingness to try something a little outside the box!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

The Chatelaine Table Runner

It dried overnight...

it never ceases to amaze me - that

something which starts out looking like this



and this,

turns into

something like


this






and

this,



with just the help of some water and a few pins, and of course the patience to leave the thing alone until it's thoroughly dry!

I LOVE LACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yours in crochet cotton yarn,

Claire

Goings On at the Purl...

First of all, I cannot let another second pass without sharing this photo of Daren and her Peasant Shawl...didn't she do a LOVELY job!!!! I love that this is done in sock yarn. But most of all, I love the easy repetition of the leaves and the way the edging emerges out of nowhere (practically) and makes the shawl into something more than just rows of lace - it becomes something lovely and ethereal: equally pretty over jammies in the morning, a black strappy dress at night, or just a pair of faded jeans and a favorite old t-shirt.

Good job Daren!!!!!!!!


Also,
I got a chance to stop by First Friday last week, and there was

quite

a

lively

crowd...

Chris was hunkered down in the back working on her very pretty toe-up sock design...

I believe she's calling it

"Wysteria"











And that's about it for Cultured Purl photos. I haven't done a lot of knitting lately. The design for the Fair Isle back is coming along slowly. Not the kind of thing that I can work on in a noisy chaos or surrounded by children, or while worrying about

THIS...



Yup. My pathetically pained puppers had her spleen removed. And it probably goes without saying that a 75lb moaning, hot-nosed, furry creature and two-stranded knitting just don't mix.

But she's a bit better now: sans staples and cone and eating like a trooper again. SO it's back to the bag for me.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Ellen's Shawl

Didn't Ellen do an AMAZING job with the Lace Triangle Shawl!!!!!!!!

This is by far my most advanced design and Ellen's finished project is absolutely gorgeous - pictures just don't do Zephyr justice. You have to feel it to really appreciate its ethereal beauty. Her stitch work is lovely!

Although not the first of my students to finish this shawl, Ellen is the first to stop by the Purl so we could see the finished work!. I'm hoping to see the rest of the class soon!!

Great job Ellen!!!!

Yours in yarn,
Claire

The Brooklyn Tweed Striped Scarf

Here it is done in Noro Silk Garden...a Christmas gift for my husband...



I made every effort to finish the thing by Christmas Eve (to the point where I was knitting it while sitting less than a foot away from him...but he has become oblivious to my knitting, the ubiquitous lump of yarn and clicking needles almost always on my lap when I sit down to watch t.v. at home: he HAD NO CLUE)

And so, it was not done for Christmas morning, but he was as pleased as could be and surprised to receive it 2 days later - just in time for him to take it to Georgia for the winter....but that's a story for another time...

...back to the project at hand. This is an easy yet interesting 1x1 ribbed pattern using 4 skeins of Noro Silk Garden: 2 the same, worked throughout, plus 2 different skeins which are alternated with the main to form the stripes. This sounds MUCH more complicated than the actual project, I promise!

Sue and Shirani both have made this scarf more than once, and I know a lot of customers have been in to pick up the yarn for it. There are so many interesting color combinations in the Silk Garden line, every scarf turns out uniquely beautiful!! It would also work nicely with Noro Kureyon on larger needles over fewer stitches.

Check out the pattern here. Shirani has an awesome supply of Noro so stop by this week and you'll have the scarf done by the end the weekend!!

Yours in Noro,
Claire

Rita's Masterpiece

We've been keeping this little beauty a secret from the blogging world, but now that Christmas has come and gone and the yarn's "out of the bag" so to speak, I can share these pictures of the LOVELY sweater Rita lovingly knit for her daughter Kelly!





Isn't it amazing?? Our Purl's been wearing this since Rita finished it earlier this Fall, so if you were in the shop at all in November and early December you've probably seen it up close, and have been able to appreciate the softness of the Debbie Bliss yarn and the beauty of Rita's skillful stitchery in person. These photos don't really do it justice!










The pattern is from one of the Debbie Bliss books, sorry that I can't recall which one right at the moment...the sweater design is incredibly creative - it's begun in the center and is worked in the round so that the center back forms out of a sort of sunburst. Really quite remarkable!







I stopped in the shop this morning and heard from Rita that it fit Kelly like a dream and she loved the gift! We of course had no doubt!! Rita is a terrific knitter and a sweet and irreplacable member of the Cultured Purl family!

Happy New Year!
Yours in knitting,
Claire

I should have listened to Shirani...

Shirani introduced me to this adorable Fake Fair Isle hat pattern. My daughter has been asking me to knit her a hat and this seemed the perfect, knit-in-a-weekend project. But....I didn't REALLY listen when Shirani complained that the pattern seemed small and I should use bigger needles. I mean, being the loosest knitter on the planet, I NEVER use bigger needles!

Well, wouldn't you know it...it's a little too small, yet oddly floppy and loose around the brim.

My daughter is so sweet, she's trying desperately to make it fit. But..it just is not going to cover her ears...

So...i'm going to run back to Cultured Purl in the morning to get some more blue yarn, tweak the ribbing a bit, go up in needle size, and mostly I'm going to remember this the next time Shirani gives me some advice!

Yours in yarn,
Claire

Just one more...

Okay, three more...but they go SO FAST!!!!!!!



I'm in a huge state of denial about all the knitting I really have to do very very soon.... I keep telling myself, I'll just finish this one Lizard Ridge block and then I'll get to it...but then I can't wait to cast on another skein because it's so TOTALLY COOL to see how the waves will work up!!!! And anyway...knitting should be about calm, not about guilt! So while watching an unbelievable run of scary movies on (I think) American Movie Classics, - whatever channel 26 is... - I've managed to whip out 3 blocks. I've come up with a method of knitting them which will enable me to make all the blocks unique using only 5 colors of the Silk Garden.

This project is extremely portable -
I've taken it to riding lessons, the last of the outdoor lessons for this year maybe, considering the change in the weather this weekend...





And I worked on it while driving down to Cornstalking USA, at Buffalo Nickel Farm in Edinboro which, if you haven't been, is worth the trip. It's a corn maze in the shape of Sponge Bob and Friends. At the start, you're given a page with a grid of characters. As you proceed through the maze, you find stations with the character's pictures which you tape onto the grid. The pictures are actually bits of a map of the maze.
Here we are about to get started...We began the maze as a group, but almost immediately disagreement on strategy and the general competitiveness of the group led us to split up...



We met up briefly to compare notes... The girls had gotten off to a good start and were 4 or 5 characters ahead of us at this point,

However, my son was on a mission...at about the hour mark, we found the last, trickiest character, hidden in a corner of the maze, and after a mad dash through the twists and turns, we got to the finish less than a minute ahead of the girls!!!!




The maze is open till, I think, November 10th and is a ton of family fun, regardless of age and interest in Sponge Bob.

In the meantime, stop by Cultured Purl and check out the Silk Garden and Kureyon and see Shirani's blocks. They're lovely.

Yours in yarn,
Claire

So much yarn; so little time....

I am plagued right now with project-guilt...all together too many pending projects when all I really want to do is work on Lizard Ridge... (As a total aside here - I could have easily typed "alot of projects on the needles" but as my sister called to point out to me last night: "alot" just isn't a word... Susan doesn't very often take the time to read this blog, but she was so mortified by my error, that she searched on "alot" and was horrified to find 4 instances of it in my writing...As I pointed out to her, there are just as many occurrences of "a lot" as I do, in fact, know it's two words. I type fast, however, and tend to rely on Blogger's spell check which, it turns out, does NOT recognize the error of "alot". My sister did go on to say that maybe I rely a little tooooo heavily on this phrase, spelled correctly or not, and so, in deference to her, I wrote instead, "all together too many." And there you have it Susan!)

Anyhow...

Shirani and I were just agreeing today that Lizard Ridge really is our favorite thing to knit on these days. The yarn is wonderful, the blocks are manageably small, the pattern is simple, yet the short rows keep it interesting...just an all around satisfying project!!

The guilt though...there's that Sock It 2 Me class project...


meeting tonight so I REALLY need to be farther along on that...

Then there's the Lace Triangle Shawl that I'm knitting along with my students. It's a Christmas gift, but more importantly, how's it going to look when my class is leaving me in the dust?

And then of course - George's Mitered Blanket...if it weren't for all those bloody tails I might be nearly done with it. The class is around the corner (can you believe November is almost upon us????? WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?


I cannot be alone in this kind of project guilt, can I??

So tonight, I am really really really planning on getting those miters out the back of the linen closet...I'm just going to do a couple more short rows first!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Ann's Afghan

We're just about to wrap up another 7 month long afghan class and one of my star pupils finished her project ahead of schedule!



Everyone in the class is doing a great job. I've loved our meetings and it's been really rewarding seeing the group's progress over these months. This project really increases confidence! All that's left now is the seaming ladies!!

Yours in knitting,

Claire

Lizard Ridge

The Lizard Ridge Afghan, pictured here on Knitty, is so beautiful that the stash of Noro at Cultured Purl is disappearing like hotcakes! Shirani's midway through knitting up a small throw out of this totally cool short-row pattern. It uses Noro's Kureyon or Silk Garden yarn and 1 skein works up to be about 1 square. For a while now I've been sneaking peeks on the sly at Shirani's progress and I just couldn't take it anymore, so....

I picked up a few skeins of Silk Garden and decided to jump right in the deep end of the pool with another new project!

These are the colors I've chosen for my throw - all pretty bright and similar in tone so I think the overall effect will be nice.

And while it might seem INSANE for me to have purchased more Noro, considering how much Silk Garden I have in my stash, my logic here is that it would be really great to make two: one colorful, one more soothing in muted golds and teals (the stuff in my stash from last spring...) Yes, I could have gotten started on the yarn I already own...but I am really in the mood for some color and didn't quite think I could face muted gold this week.




Here's my progress to date...

The colors blend nicely. I love the richness and depth of Noro's colorways. And the Silk Garden softens beautifully when blocked. (I had to block right away to convince myself that the rather odd, udder-shaped bumps caused by the short-row technique would, despite initial appearance, wash out...and yes they did...)

I would have gotten more done this week, however...

what used to be my deck,




became,

almost overnight (not really because it was 2 years in the planning but it did seem to all-of-a-sudden go from "thinking about" to "OHMYGOD there's so much mud..."),

this...

--

that's my friend and builder extraordinaire, Tim Colvin, in the middle of the big mud pit!---


and then just as quickly
(his guys EJ, Doug, Richie, Bobby, and Jake, really are amazing!)

it became...





THIS!!!!

so....I haven't been doing alot of knitting, because this project has CONSUMED ME!!!! (but in the nicest way possible, there's not a nicer builder on the planet...)

for now though, it's back to LIZARD RIDGE..

We're talking about getting a knit along going. So stop by and take a look at the Noro before it's all gone!!

Yours in Silk Garden,
Claire

What a cute hat!

Rita knit up this adorable little hat that Leo is modeling...You can't see in this picture, but there's a little green leaf and stem at the top, making it a pumpkin... (Although I suppose it also works as a tomato!)

Stop by the shop and see it in person. There are several varieties of fruits & veggies included in the pattern.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Knitting Lace with Crochet Cotton

Chris K, who loves lace but isn't that keen on knitting a shawl, got me thinking about other project avenues waiting to be explored as I forge ahead on this lace journey of mine! This is the start of a table runner done in some ecru cotton that Shirani had in stock at the shop. (Not being skilled at crochet, I've never really paid much attention to it before.)

Cotton is entirely different from wool and I have to admit it's taken some getting used to. It's a beautiful fiber, with a great sheen and smoothness. It's quite tightly plied and cord like though, making it not as soft as the silky wools I've been working with lately.

Still, its firmness and slight inelasticity make it the perfect choice for tablecloths and runners. I'm pleased so far with the way it's turning out. I'll let you know how it goes...especially once I get to the blocking!

Yours in yarn and those wonderful Addi lace turbos,
Claire

Blocking Wires

Yes, those are my toes in the corner of this picture...I uploaded it without really taking a close look at it. Anyway...




This is the "Autumn Leaves" Shawl done in Lorna's Lace sock yarn. I have been off socks lately and totally, and with abandon, engrossed in lace. So what better way to deal with the pressure of the MOUNTAINOUS sock yarn stash than to knit a shawl with it!! Okay, as a total aside...I'm am writing this from my husband's new laptop, and I am having some trouble getting used to the flat mouse, not to mention the flat keyboard, so it's going r e a l l y r e a l l y s l o o o o w l y... but isn't technology cool? Thanks to the Geek Squad, we have a network in our house and all the printers talk and the pictures on the desktop can be viewed from this laptop wirelessly and can be uploaded to the Internet in pretty much the blink of an eye...In truth though, Vista is a big mystery to me and I have accidentally left this post and mysteriously gone to various Internet sites or random places on the laptop about five times since starting this post,, so it's going a little slow...but still cool!

Okay so getting back to the point, Sue and Shirani are selling these really useful blocking wires which make blocking something as large and ungainly as a big lace shawl very easy. The trick is knowing where to insert the wires.




Here you can see that I inserted the wires into the main body of the shawl and then used T-pins to pull out the points of the edging. That edging, by the by, is the beautiful and timeless Van Dyke Edging from the Shetland Islands. I have been reading alot about vintage knitting techniques and some things are too lovely to ever go out of style.

The shawl is on display at the shop and the blocking wires are in stock also, so stop by and take a peek.

Yours in knitting,
Claire

Blocking the Triangle Shawl

We're back! And of course, despite all the unpacking we have to do, I couldn't wait to block the new shawl.


I used JaggerSpun's beautiful Zephyr: a lovely blend of wool and silk which is easy to knit with and blocks into something almost more ethereal and gossamer than what is implied by the term "lace".

Here you see the shawl pinned out on my bedroom floor. I had soaked it for a good long while (to remove the tell tale campfire smell!) in this really nice product Shirani has started carrying:


I used the citrus scent and while there was a bit of bleeding in the sink (funny that the water turned RED from this taupe colored "suede",)it didn't seem to affect the loveliness of the yarn.

Now the trick is to leave the thing alone so it can dry completely. I'm SO IMPATIENT!!

I'll bring it into Cultured Purl so you can take a peek.
Yours in yarn,
Claire

A Ruffled Baby Hat

Look at these adorable hats that Sue and Shirani knit. They're done in cotton with a cute little lace ruffled edge and a bit of fair isle detail. Very quick and easy - a nice introduction to both lace and color strand work.

I'm teaching this class on Monday July 23 & 30 at 6pm. If you're interested, call the shop and reserve a spot!

Yours in knitting,
Claire

The Ankle Socks are finally finished!!!!!

These socks have been in progress for so long that I can't for the life of me remember what the yarn is. Shirani might remember... it's a very nice, muted stripey thing in various shades of red and green and my daughter loved the yarn so much that what was originally intended to be a pair of socks for me became, almost as soon as I had cast on, a pair of (blessedly) quick ankle socks for her. I hate those never ended ribbed legs! (I realize as I write this that the quickie ankle socks concept seems to be in direct contradiction to my opening sentence...however the actual knitting time was really quite brief!)

They would have been done yesterday, but I ended up having an epiphany that downloading this way-cool palm project management software would be a great way for me to better organize and stay on top of all my knitting projects. It of course took 2 hours to install on my Treo and another 4 hours to load all my knitting projects into it. And it did cross my mind that, compared to the 30 minutes of knitting I actually had left on the ankle socks, this way-cool have to do right away software tangent was maybe a bit ridiculous. But it is WAY-WAY-WAY-COOL how, with only the touch of a button, I can get a neat list of all my projects On The Needle, vs say another view of What I Must Get Down For My Classes ASAP. (I'm thinking I may have lost most of my readers' enthusiasm at this point, and maybe only fellow palm-lover Chris J is still with me here... so back to the sock....)

It's got a star toe. Thank you Nancy Bush for that great book on vintage socks!! And for those of you with teenage daughters, ankle socks seem to be the only knitted garb they'll wear these days...which makes only having to do an inch of ribbing all the nicer.

I can't however bask in the glow of a freshly completed knitting project because there's SO MUCH FREAKIN SOCK YARN IN MY STASH SCREAMING my name that I can't think straight. I have to cast on either the Lorna's Lace, the Jitterbug, or the Cherry Tree Hill...so I'm off to find my new Lantern Moon Sox Stix...

Happy Memorial Day,

ps (Did you know the original date of Memorial Day, May 30th, was chosen because it was the only spring day on which a civil war battle had not been fought?)

Yours in knitting,
Claire

It's Done!!!

Well, I finished the Lace Sampler Shawl yesterday...and blocked it last night, and I have to say that the Silky Wool turned out to be a beautifully lacy fabric. Working a lace pattern with any kind of yarn, but certainly one not really intended for lace, takes a giant leap of faith. It works up looking like this:




pretty, but



not really



very lacy looking...


because




you haven't blocked it yet...



and it takes a


really strong constitution to take this thing that you've LABORED over, maybe even very likely seriously STRESSED about for a long LONG LOOOONNNGG time, and soak it in water.



and by soak I mean really truly drench it...

and then


it takes



every


T-

pin


you



can



put


your



hands


on




to stretch it out...(by the by, that's the (in)famous Teddy Bruschi make-a-wish t-shirt...a story for another time)



and then with the patience of Job, you wait and you wait and you wait for it to dry; and you try not to cry when you step on a T-Pin because you stupidly blocked it in your bedroom and it doesn't exactly glow in the dark...


and then the everything you put into it suddenly seems SO WORTH IT.....

because





it turns out like this:







and this....





and even this.....







And you think


MAYBE



I can do this in another color...



Yours in Silky Wool,

Claire

Teddy Massacre

Despite the limbs and severed heads this is not a teddy massacre....This is Laura's teddy bear class! Some really really cute bears were made that day. Trish even made one for Leo...Thanks Trish, we LOVE it...

The Lace Sampler Shawl

Well as Linda kindly reminded me, it has been a while since I blogged...besides feverishly working on this....



to keep ahead of the very talented lace knitters in my Wednesday Lace Sampler Shawl class,

I was busy last week running our elementary school's bookfair. 24 hours at school doesn't sound like alot until one considers that during those 24 hours (spread over 2 1/2 days) we sold $5,200 in paperback books to over 600 students and their families!! I did NOT get a lot of knitting done!!!

but I THOUGHT about knitting...and how I was going to set aside most of the weekend to finishing the shawl and maybe a sock or three (lonely singles waiting for partners but that's another story) but then I came to my senses and the reality of the laundry problem set in: My dear husband is away - renowned heart surgeon who's real claim to fame is his amazing ability to fix hearts all week and STILL get all the laundry sparkling clean and BEAUTIFULLY, METHODICALLY, PERFECTLY folded and (here's the clincher) - PUT AWAY!!!!! I had really felt kinda proud about getting it done through the busy week, but getting is done led to the larger problem of not being able to get into the laundry room to start another load because I couldn't move through the 6 loads of clean clothes that were piled in front of the door crying out to be folded. I tried to ignore the cries (plaintive ones, for any kind of folding, not even the crisp done-right kind), so that I could get a few more rows done on the shawl, but then I started to panic and hyperventilate a little and my count was off....

so the laundry is done...but the shawl is not...

still, I'm in good shape for the class today and it's a beautiful, crisp, May kind of day today, and I'm not going to let a little thing like a few unfinished pairs of socks bother me. But Linda, I'm glad to hear you finished the Lorna's Lace socks and that they turned out nice, and thanks for missing me!

Yours in knitting,
Claire