Updates and Upcoming
The Christmas Knitting frenzy continues. We had a minor setback yesterday as I realized I had incorrectly reported the status of one item, thinking I had done more on it than I actually had. But that’s been fixed now.
Here’s where we stand. As before, changes in status are indicated by italics:
- Bag from cotton yarn – status: All pieces knit, ends woven in. This was the part I discovered wasn’t done – I thought all the ends were accounted for, when in fact, not even half of them were. Now, though, this status is true. Next steps: steam blocking, then assembly.
- felted bag – status: Felted – needs handles stitched on.
- felted bag – status: Awaiting felting.
- bead knitted bag – status: Body of bag knit. Must sew together and create strap.
Spinning project– Dropped from list- unnamed object to include felted bowl – status: Completed, though I may choose to add some embellishment
- mesh shopping bags – status: Learned that some of the yarn colors I had chosen for this (which was cannabilized from an 80’s era sweater kit) wasn’t enough to make a bag. With this style, you really need to be able to knit a single bag from a single skein – some of the skeins from the kit were short, being all that was needed for the sweater pattern included. Bottom line – I have colors to complete two bags, but must buy a third to make the set I envisioned.
- same as #6 in different colors – status: Felted bowl in progress, scarf-like parts continuing.
- same as #4 in different colors – status: String beads before knitting.
- “We Call Them Pirates” hat for Gryphon – status: Needles arrived from KnitPicks. Just need to knit it now.
Big Knitting Around Doings Tonight
I mentioned at the start of November that our Thursday night “Knitting Around at Panera” had been going on for a year. It’s worth noting that it wouldn’t have been possible to have such a pleasant, long term, weekly gathering if it weren’t for the wonderful, helpful, and oh-so-friendly staff at our local Panera Bread Cafe.
Sometime last summer, I conceived of a plan to thank everyone at Panera in a special, knitterly way. We found out how many people are typically on staff at the restaurant at any given time. We did some stash-diving. We started knitting. And, well – let’s just say that there are exactly 50 hand knit scarves carefully folded and tucked into this holiday be-ribboned laundry basket!
Tonight’s the night we present them, along with a special card expressing our thanks to everyone who works at “our” Panera for making it such a great place to hang out.
Why so early with a Christmas gift? This way, they have time for everyone on all shifts to have a chance to pick out the scarf they want and enjoy it during the entire holiday season. We’ll also be letting them know it’s okay to donate any leftover scarves to a charity of their choice.
It’s been quite a project, turning out this many scarves. But it was a lot of fun as well. We had a chance to experiment with a number of simple, quick-to-knit patterns. And we did some stash-busting at the same time. We were so on top of this project, in fact, that the actual knitting of the scarves was completed almost two months ago!