Two days.

That’s how long it took me to add the finishing touches to Lexie’s Sweet Pea cardigan. I had the rest of the 192 front/neckband stitches to cast on, 4 rows to knit, side and underarm seams to sew, a button loop to add, and a button to choose and sew on. It would have taken me less time, in fact, except we had guests coming in for the weekend and I needed the time to get the house ready.

Had I just stuck with it, instead of tucking it away all those months ago, it would have been long done. But as I mentioned, some of the projects that seduced me away were necessary, and it’ll probably be another month or two before the weather will be right for Lexie to wear this cardigan, anyway…but it’s still a good lesson in sticking with something, especially when I’m so close to completion.

The important thing is that the cardigan is done, and Lexie loves it. She calls it her “princess sweater”…and what little girl doesn’t want to look and feel like a princess? So she was more than willing to pose for pictures just as long as Mommy wanted to take them.

Lexie even had a sedate little princess wave working:

Obviously, the sweater still needs a good blocking, which will fix the curling on the hem and front band, but I’m waiting on that until it’s closer to time for her to wear it. And now I can get started on the matching dress…

Just ask Lexie’s Sweet Pea cardigan.

I cast on for this project on July 24, 2009 (my 35th birthday, actually). I loved it from the first stitch, and only 3 days later, I was already screwing up the armholes (they got fixed). It was a lot of stockinette stitch, but it’s a cardigan for a 2-3 year old, so the pieces are small. I loved the feel of the soft alpaca yarn and watching the changes in what the colorway was doing as the stitch count changed.

So, I really can’t say why I got away from working on this. But I let new yarns and new projects seduce me–some of which, like the hooded sweaters and mittens I knit for both kids, were essential projects to finish before a spring cardigan. Sweet Pea got tucked away.

I’m currently in the midst of a Stashbusting Knit-A-Long (KAL). Basically, the focus is on using yarn, needles, notions, and patterns we currently have to create projects, rather than buying new. You get points for doing the former, lose points for doing the latter. And you get points for finishing WIPs. So yesterday I decided it was time for Sweet Pea to see the light of day again.

I couldn’t remember exactly where I was in the pattern, but I vaguely remembered starting one of the sleeves. I figured I probably had a sleeve and a half to go, along with the front bands and seaming…so I was quite surprised (happily) to pull out 2 completed sleeves and a back and 2 fronts already seamed along the shoulders.  In fact, I’d already started picking up the stitches for the the front bands, so all I needed to do was pick up the rest of them.

And that’s where Sweat Pea made me pay for my neglect.

I use a crochet hook to pick up stitches, which really works well for me.  I pick up several at a time, and then slide them off the back of the hook onto the needle.  The hook I was using was slightly bigger than the US4 needles I’d be knitting with, and because I slip the stitches off the back they have to be big enough to slip over the wider thumb rest on the hook. They went straight on the needle and then I’d pick up some more. All told, I picked up 192 stitches.

It was when I started knitting that I ran into trouble.  I absolutely could not get the stitches to slide up the needle to knit them.  The problem wasn’t the needle–all the joins were smooth–but the stitches were incredibly tight.  I knew I wasn’t pulling the yarn tight while picking the stitches up, so I’m not sure what happened.  All I knew was that it was taking a lot of pulling and pushing to get the stitches to move (if you look at the top picture, you can see the ragged thumbnail I broke trying to move stitches!) and that the friction was starting to really fuzz up the yarn.  Finally, I had no choice: I had to take the needle off of the left side of the cable and knit straight from the cable.  Once I did that, I was able to get the first row knit and move on.

I’ve got the band knit and just need to finish the seaming.  Hopefully, Sweet Pea feels I’ve been punished enough, and the rest of this goes more smoothly.

I’ve already said pretty much all there is to say about knitting Misty Seacoast, Lexie’s jumper. But I got the buttons sewn on last night, so I was finally able to take a finished picture (although the straps and armholes could still benefit from a good blocking; since it’ll be a year at least before Lexie wears it, I figure the blocking can wait):

Pattern: Missy, by Berroco
Yarn: Springvale Bulky in Seacoast (variegated) and Skipping Stones (semi-solid) by Three Irish Girls
Size: 4 (with modifications)

I knit up roughly the size 4, but I made several modifications to get there. Once I’d knit the skirt the first time, it was larger than I wanted, so I cast on the number of stitches for the size 2 and went down a needle size (so I was no longer on gauge)…and then I had to figure out the proper number of stitches for the bodice with the smaller gauge. But I really liked the overall look of the finished product with the slimmer skirt and the firmer fabric.

The final finishing touch was the buttons from Wooden Treasures, and they were just perfect:

I wasn’t sure how I was going to get the right color and do the variegated/semisolid yarns justice, and the answer was natural wood with its own color variations. Now to tuck Lexie’s “princess dress” away ’til next year.

It took just another 2 days to knit Lexie her own scarf.

Did she like it? Well, to give you an idea of just how much she liked it, when I announced that her scarf was finished she came flying into the room. “On, Mommy!” she insisted, motioning around her neck. I put the scarf on her, and she pulled open the drawer of the side table next to me where she knew the camera was kept. Then she handed me the camera: “Take a picture of Lexie!” I took several pictures, and then she began pointing at my laptop screen. “Picture! Lexie picture!” Only once the picture of her in her new scarf was on my computer was she satisfied.

Now, that’s the finished item, but my favorite picture is one I took of her wearing the scarf before the eyes were added. Since the colorway of the main yarn is called Yo Ho Ho!, I named the project Yarrrr! Apparently, Lexie was giving me her best pirate face:

A package arrived today, addressed to me (much to Steve’s disgust, as he is still awaiting the second attempt to ship some of his Christmas gifts). At first I couldn’t imagine what had been shipped, but as soon as I saw the return address I knew: it was my goodies from Wooden Treasures. I’d stopped by my favorite etsy store for wooden buttons a few days ago just to grab the URL for someone on Ravelry who’d asked for button store suggestions…and saw a notice that he was having a going out of business sale.

Now, I’m in the middle of a Stashdown KAL (knit-a-long) where we get points for using yarn, notions, and patterns (for the first time) but lose points for buying any of the above. After some debate it was decided that “notions” included buttons, which I think makes sense. If I use buttons from the collection I have, I’ve reduced my stash. If I buy some to stock up, I’ve added to my stash. And if I buy buttons just to use on a finished project, the points (for buying and using) cancel themselves out, so no harm done. But there was no way I was going to pass up the chance to stock up on my favorite wood buttons, especially if they weren’t going to be available much longer, especially if they were on sale. So I purchased 6 sets of buttons (it was “buy 2, get 1 free” for sets) and dropped a line to the owner of Wooden Treasures to tell him how I sorry I was to see him go and how much I loved his buttons.

Happily, he replied with thanks and to tell me he wasn’t going out of business–the note on his store that I’d misread said it was a going out for business sale; in other words, a sale to thank customers and get more business. He wasn’t going anywhere. Much relief on my end…but I wasn’t at all sorry I’d bought the buttons. And with good reason:

I picked up a nice variety of buttons in different sizes, woods, and shapes. I got oak with the bark still on (upper left), large oval cedar (upper right), square cedar (middle left), medium oak with bark (middle right), large North Carolina cherry with bark (lower left), and square zebrawood (lower right). I really can’t pick a favorite–I love them all for different reasons: the colors, the smells (the cedar buttons smell awesome), the exotic/rustic/sophisticated looks. Each set contains 10 buttons except for the large oval cedar, which is a set of 8, which means that since most will go on either children’s wear or swing cardigans for me that button only at the top, I’ll be able to outfit several knit items with my new wooden buttons.

The first project that will get some of these buttons is Lexie’s jumper–I’m planning to use 5 of the small oak buttons. So I had the jumper sitting next to me while Lexie modeled her new scarf. As soon as we were done, she picked up the jumper and put it on…backwards. I was about to try and correct her when she looked down and smoothed the jumper with a smile, then looked up at said, “Look, I’m a princess! Mommy, take a picture of Princess Lexie!”

As you wish, Your Highness.

As quickly as was polite to Lexie’s cast off but unfinished (needs buttons) jumper, I hurried downstairs and dug out some fingering weight yarn from storage.  I had 3 skeins that I’d purchased from Artsygal some time ago that I liked, but I had no idea what I wanted to do with any of them.

The one of the left, named Neptune, is probably my favorite because of the colors and the nautical name (Neptune), but the middle one has the best name: Yo Ho Ho! I offered Jeffrey his choice of the three yarns for his Don’t Be Mouthy scarf. He went for Neptune.

Originally, I’d named the project Mom Said Your Face Would Freeze Like That, but because of the predominantly green color of the yarn, Jeffrey started referring to it as his lizard scarf. So I renamed it Lizard Tongue, cast on, and began knitting away. The pattern is written to be knit with either bulky weight yarn or any combo of thinner yarns, so it was knitting up pretty quickly. In fact, I had almost enough done to wrap the body around Jeffrey’s neck in several hours.

Unfortunately, when I tried it on him, I verified a suspicion I’d had since just a couple rows in: the fabric was too stiff. So I decided to frog and go up 2 needle sizes. I also cast on fewer stitches to get a slightly narrower scarf. It knit up just as quickly as it had the first time, and soon I was shifting over to the bright red yarn for a long tongue. I finished up at 2:30 this morning…yeah, I was on a roll.

I was childishly amused by how…um…rude…the scarf looked when posed on its own. It looked much better on Jeffrey.

I’d already promised Jeffrey that he could pick out the buttons for the eyes–I’ve got a jar of buttons that I’d collected over the years. So this morning–after I’d gotten a little bit of sleep, of course–I upended the button jar on the kitchen table and Jeffrey and Lexie and I started digging through them.

Originally, I’d planned to do something similar to the scarf shown on the pattern, with colored buttons on top of large white ones. But while I was pulling the white buttons out of the pile, Jeffrey’s eyes lit on some large red ones. It was love at first sight. In fact, he loved them so much that 2 were just not enough. His scarf needed three eyes. I suggested pairing the buttons with small black ones for pupils, and Jeffrey agreed and picked them out.

I couldn’t help but smile once I had the eyes in place…but it just didn’t look like a lizard any more. Jeffrey loved it; he was getting a kick out of sneaking up on it, pretending that it hissed at him, and running away. I made a comment about his “monster scarf”–and it clicked. Clearly, we had a monster here.

Fortunately, Jeffrey’s Monster Tongue scarf is friendly!

I have a serious case of cast-on-itis right now.

I’m not letting myself cast anything on until I’m done with Lexie’s Misty Seacoast; I had to refrog about 7 rows of the bodice when it became clear that the stitch count I’d settled on was going to give me a bodice too big, but I’m now finally cruising along and should be done in the next few days.

And that’s good, because I want to knit a scarf shaped like someone sticking out his tongue.

Yes, you heard me right.  A friend of mine, together with her 3 year old son, designed a keyhole scarf where the part sticking out the hole looks like a tongue.  At her son’s suggestion, she added button eyes.  Last night she was soliciting name ideas and I came up with Mom Said Your Face Would Freeze Like That.  It got tentative approval from my friend, but her puzzled sons pointed out, “Mom, you’ve never said that.”  So the pattern has officially (and hysterically) been named by her sons Don’t Be Mouthy.

I really can’t wait to cast on this one.  I know I’m going to love Lexie’s jumper when I’m done (a voice in the back of my head is screaming, “You’d better love it after all the work I put into that ratzin frazin booworms!”)…but the getting there has been a lot more, um, fraught than I anticipated.  So I’m ready for something fun, something where gauge doesn’t matter so much…something that makes me giggle when I knit it.  Most importantly, something that will let me collaborate with my children the way my friend did with hers.  I’m already anticipating pulling out the button jar to find the best eyes.

Last night, I stayed up late to finish knitting Misty Seacoast, a jumper for Lexie.

Tonight, I frogged it.  Well, half of it.

The jumper pattern I’m knitting is Missy by Berroco.  It’s a free pattern, and really cute…and seemed to be the perfect way to use up the rest of the Springvale Bulky I had left over from the hooded sweaters I’d knit Jeffrey and Lexie.  I was pretty excited to get it done, and since it’s knit with bulky yarn it was a pretty quick knit.  So it wasn’t long before I had almost the entire skirt knit.

That’s when I realized I had a problem.  I was knitting the size 4, since the next smallest size was 2.  Lexie turned 2 in November, and since the soonest she’d likely wear this is next year, a 2 was going to be too small.  But the skirt I was knitting up was huge.  I’m pretty sure my sister-in-law could have worn it as a miniskirt, and although she’s fairly thin, that’s still a bigger skirt than a 4-year-old needs.  But there wasn’t much of a stitch (and therefore size) difference between size 2 and size 4, so in addition to reducing the stitch count I also went down a needle size.

I was much happier with the skirt I ended up with, size-wise–I stayed with the size 4 length but the skirt didn’t feel nearly as huge.  When I got to the bodice, I opted to reduce to the size 4 stitch count but stayed with the same (smaller) needles.  The bodice went quite quickly, I finished it up last night, and seamed the shoulders this morning to try on Lexie.

It was immediately obvious that I had a problem.  The skirt was big on Lexie, as I would have expected…but the bodice was tight.  Since I hadn’t changed the needle size back to the original size (which I wouldn’t have wanted to do; the weight of the skirt required a thicker bodice fabric to avoid droopage) I really needed to keep more stitches.  What I should have done was measure the bodice around Lexie before splitting out for the armholes, but it was too late for should-have-dones.  Now I was left with a have-to-fix.

I decided to frog down to just before the last buttonhole on the skirt.  It was actually supposed to be on the bottom of the bodice, after the stitch reduction, but I hadn’t read far enough ahead in the pattern to see that.  Not a big deal, but since I was frogging anyway, I might as well fix that.  And I did want the skirt a little shorter.  I’d realized that while Lexie was only a middling good model for a jumper that was supposed to fit a 4-year-old, I did actually have a 4-year-old at hand (even if he’s tall for his age).  Jeffrey was less than thrilled at the idea of wearing his sister’s dress, but the prospect of getting the Wii all to himself won him over.

I used to hate frogging.  I mean, I still hate having to frog, and all of the wasted knitting, but the actual act of frogging really isn’t a big deal, especially with a simple stitch pattern like I had here.  The key to quick and successful frogging?  The afterthought lifeline.

Using an Afterthought Lifeline

This can be done with needle and scrap yarn, but I prefer using the cable of my interchangeable needles, with a needle smaller than the one used to do the knitting.  That way, when I’m done frogging, all I have to do is change out the needle tips and I’m ready to start knitting; I don’t have to then get the stitches back on the needle.  The key is to have a very flexible cable–I love my Knit Picks cables.

The first thing to do is figure out where to insert the needle.  This is the back of my stockinette stitch, stretched out so you can see the stitches better.

In the rows with the alternating bumps, you can see that the top ones loop down and the bottom ones loop up.  The top ones are the top of a stitch.  I’ve outlined the stitches below and drawn some arrows pointing to the top of some of the stitches:

I insert my needle into that top loop from the bottom up.  If I were to insert the needle the other way (top down), the stitches would end up twisted on the cable.

I can generally collect several stitches on the needle before I have to pull the needle all the way through and put the stitches on the cable.  You can see in the picture below how the stitches lay on the needle so that the front leg is to the right, just as they should be when knitting.

Here you can see stitches on the needle, as well as (if you look closely), stitches behind the needle on the purple cable:

Once all the stitches are on the cable, I’m free to start frogging with abandon.  The nice thing is that I can frog as quickly as I want to without having to worry about accidentally dropping a stitch, since they’re already on a cable.

Frogging done; now all I have to do is change out the needle tips and I’m ready to start knitting!

…Again.

The only video game system in this house is a Wii.  I love the fact that it’s such an active system, and we have a great time playing the basic sports games.  Jeffrey’s favorite is boxing, but he has trouble getting anyone to play with him because he moves so fast that an opponent can work him/herself into a lather without getting more than a few punches in.  So we try to focus him on golf, bowling, or baseball.  He’s not a very good batter–his hand/eye coordination needs some work–but he’s a wicked pitcher.  He throws a change-up that will have me swinging several seconds before the ball crosses the plate…but his most impossible pitch to hit is his curve ball.

I’ve been practicing with hitting that curve ball and getting better at it, which is good…because a few days ago life through me a curve ball of its own.

A couple months ago I noticed a lump on my neck.  Didn’t think much of it at first, mostly because docs have noted several times in the past that I have an unusual thyroid (right before doing a battery of thyroid tests that all came out negative), but it kept getting bigger.  So, after the usual bureaucratic wrangling and wait, I got a visit with an endocrinologist this week.  An unrelated MRI (for my multiple sclerosis) had shown that it was a mass 7 cm long and mostly on the left side of my thyroid.

The endocrinologist recommended a thyroidectomy–complete removal of my thyroid.

I…wasn’t quite expecting that.  I had done some research online, but the impression my reading had given me was that as long as the mass wasn’t affecting thyroid function, it would simply be biopsied and watched if benign.  If it was so big it was affecting breathing or swallowing, it would be removed…but the reading didn’t make clear that removing the mass meant removing at least part of the thyroid.  However, the endocrinologist explained that for a mass this big, there was a good chance of sampling errors (meaning, the biopsy could show benign cells but a different part of the mass could be malignant and be missed).  Also, an ultrasound showed small masses (nodules) forming on the right side of my thyroid as well.

Obviously, removing something as important as a thyroid isn’t something you do on a whim.  But the endocrinologist was quite convincing and firm in his belief that this was the best course…and frankly, I’m not willing to let a mystery 7 cm mass just hang out in my neck.  If removing it means removing the thyroid…well, so be it.  It’s not going to be easy, to say the least, and this isn’t exactly minor surgery.  And, of course, I’ll be on medication for the rest of my life (but that’s actually something that’s fazing me the least because I’m already on medication for the rest of my life).  I’m much more interesting in doing whatever needs to be done to ensure I have a rest of my life.  I’ve got young children to watch grow up and to knit for…and I plan to knit for their children.

I’ve been amusing myself by coming up with silver linings for this cloud.  My first one was that after the biopsy was done (tomorrow), I could tell people I’d fended off a vampire attack, but then I learned from someone who has had her thyroid removed that the biopsy sites are barely visible.  But once my thyroid is removed, because I scar easily I’ll have the basis for a great Halloween costume.  And for when I don’t want to scare people with my slasher victim look, I’ve got a reason to knit more really cute shawlettes (like my Simple Things) with all of that fingering weight yarn I bought that I was wondering what to do with.

They should whip up pretty quickly, especially since I’ve learned the last few days that I knit a lot faster when I’m worried. Heck, I’m already up to the bodice of Lexie’s Misty Seacoast jumper…

Ok, so now we know how my plans went…or didn’t.  What else was I up to this year?

What I’ve done…

Holy cow…I completed 43 items in 2009. Now, I didn’t completely knit all of them during 2009, and some of them were pretty small…but 43 items is a lot more than I realized:

1. 3IG Minature Knitting Ornament (2), 2. Feb Lady Can’t Say No (5), 3. Lucky Birthday pouch (2), 4. Beat Army hat, 5. Birthday Squash, 6. broccoli (7), 7. Christmas Spices Cardigan (7), 8. Doo-Da-Dah shawl in blue (4), 9. Willard’s cardigan (3), 10. Heirloom baby bonnet, 11. Colder than He Thought (2), 12. Jeffrey’s Funky Mittens (1), 13. 3IG log cabin blocks (3), 14. Mom’s friend’s mittens (1), 15. Winter Waves on the Seacoast (14), 16. Kyle Busch Knitting Bag Ornament, 17. Northern Lights Shrug (4), 18. Not for Christmas Hat 2 (2), 19. Not for Christmas hat (1), 20. organic spa cloth, 21. Lexie’s Funky Mittens (1), 22. Go Navy hat, 23. Blanket square for Ohm, 24. Skipping Stones (21), 25. Rhinebeck or Bust (1), 26. Smell the Roses (4), 27. SWO baby Uggs 2, 28. Windy Days Lace Hat (1), 29. 3IG WIP pins (7), 30. all carrots

That’s not everything, of course, but I had some duplicate items or small things not worth showing (like 2 identical baby sweaters, 5 of those carrots, and an unadorned diaper cover).  I’m really happy with a lot of the things I did last year.

• The sweaters:  Not only did I knit Jeffrey’s first sweater, I knit one for me. It was my first adult sweater, my first top down raglan, and my first seamless knit. I made a few mistakes, but it gave me the confidence to knit coordinating sweaters for him and Lexie using just a recipe…and I even figured out the hoods that I added all on my own.

• The mittens:  The funky mittens I knit for Lexie and Jeffrey were only partially done with a pattern.  I’d picked up some crazy yarn at Rhinebeck that I really wanted to use for the cuff, but that required figuring out how many stitches to cast on, what needle size to use…and most importantly, how to get from the very few cuff stitches to the required number for the rest of the mitten, knit in regular worsted weight yarn.  I had to turn every stitch into at least 2 stitches, sometimes 3.  But it was more than worth it, because the kids adore their mittens, and this year they actually got to wear them to play in the snow!

• The Navy hats:  The hats themselves were pretty simple.  I chose different patterns since Steve preferred a ribbed bottom while I like roll brim hats.  I made my own decisions about where the additional color would come in, but what I really loved was the duplicate stitch detail: a block “N” on Steve’s hat, and a more ornate “Navy” on mine.  I’d never done duplicate stitch before, and I think both turned out really well.  Steve loved his hat, that’s for sure…and we both loved that fact that we wore them to the 2009 Army/Navy game to see our first Navy victory in person!

• My designs: I added 7 original designs this year.  I designed a lace hat because I wanted something lightweight to hold my hair down in the constant Texas wind.  My Work In Progress (WIP) Pins were inspired by ones I’d seen on etsy, and I’ve since knit several to give away to friends as well as some to sell to support the NASCAR Knitter’s Victory Junction Gang Afghan Project.  When I couldn’t find a quick, lacy poncho in worsted weight yarn to knit up for my Rhinebeck trip, I designed one myself…and then added a hat and set of wristers with the yarn I had left (and let me tell you–I was glad I had them this year!).  Probably my most popular designs this year were my carrots and broccoli, which came from my sister-in-law’s question: “Can you knit food?”  My niece was quite happy with her knit veggies this Christmas, and immediately started feeding them to her doll.

What’s left…

Not all of my projects started in 2009 were finished, of course–I’m still living up to my blog’s name and I like it that way!  I don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have…9? I think…WIPs on the needle right now.  Of what I started in 2009, I have a pair of socks from a club I joined, a charity blanket I need to finish and send back to Texas, a top for me, a pair of mittens to match my Navy hat, sweaters for Jeffrey and Lexie, a pair of mittens I’m test knitting (but need to adjust the pattern for my hand length), a jumper for Lexie, and several WIP pins–yes, I get the irony–that I’d started for a Three Irish Girls meet up but didn’t get finished in time.

Not all of them are on my high priority list to finish this year–the socks are on the “whenever” list, the pins aren’t relevant until we’ve got another meet up scheduled, I’m not sure about the top, and I don’t really need my Navy mittens until next year (I’ve got gloves).  But some have moved to the top of the 2010 list…stay tuned for the rest of it!

For several months now, one of the knitting blogs I’ve been reading is TrishKnits.com. I enjoy reading about Trish’s knitting trials, tribulations, and triumphs (we all have ‘em) and I like her sense of humor and honesty with all of them.

Back in mid-October, I made a comment on one of Trish’s blog posts regarding a knitting designer. Trish responded via email, telling me she’d seen my February Lady Sweater and liked how it had turned out. And she invited me to join the Bowie Knitters for one of their monthly meet ups.

I liked the idea.  I really miss the Saturday meet ups we used to have at Knotty Girl; I haven’t found any place around here where a group of people get together on Saturdays to knit.  I do have a weekly group that meets on Monday, but unfortunately because of where it meets I need Steve to get home from work to take the kids early enough to make my trip worthwhile…and that hasn’t happened for a couple months now.  I also haven’t had a free weekend where I had enough spare time to make the hour trip to Bowie.

But it occurred to me this week that today could be a perfect day to do it.  Steve’s got a 4-day weekend, so I could take today off and leave him with the kids without him being robbed of a day off (in fact, he got Thursday and Friday to do whatever he wanted while I did most of the kid-wrangling).  So I was going to drop Trish a line and let her know I’d be stopping by…but then I thought, “Why not surprise her?”  It required a bit of blog and Ravelry stalking (where I found the Bowie Knitters group), but I was able to verify the location and that there would be a meet up today.

I got to the meet up location a little early so I was able to help set up by putting several tables together–group size varies from just a handful to over 20 knitters (and it’s a good thing we grabbed as many tables as we did, since today was one of the big days).  Then we took our seats, started knitting, and greeted the others as the arrived.

I wasn’t the only first time visitor today, and I ended up sitting right next to a table with two other first-timers, Susan and Cathy (Cathy, if you see this, I hope I spelled your name right, and I’m sorry if I didn’t!).  Susan and Cathy were working on a bag kit from KnitPicks where they’d be learning various new techniques, and we were chatting about that when Trish rolled up to sit next to Susan.  Someone else introduced the three of us to Trish, and when she got to me, I smiled and said, “Hi, Trish!”

Trish did a double-take, then gasped, “Jennifer?!”

Trish and I (photo courtesy of Trish)

I’m sneaky, I am.

The meet up turned out to be a blast.  I went with no expectations other than to meet an online friend, but I also really enjoyed getting to know other members of the group as well and chatting with them as the knit.  It’s a very friendly and welcoming group, not to mention one of the most helpful I’ve ever seen.  I’m not kidding–at any given point at least one person was holding or discussing someone else’s knitting, helping them figure out where they were in the pattern, making suggestions, or helping to fix mistakes.

I even found myself in a teaching role several times, which I always have a blast doing.  One knitter was trying out a stitch pattern for the first time and had misknit a row, so I showed her how to tink both knit and purl stitches so the stitches are properly aligned on the needle, then how to read her knitting so she knew which row to work next.  Then I showed Susan and Cathy what an M1 (make one) was and how to do it so there was no hole left in the fabric.  And I even got to discuss the modifications I made to my February Lady Sweater with another knitter interested in making one.

The group official meets from 2-5pm, but when I looked at the clock it was quarter after 5 and most of the group was still there.  Some people, I learned, stayed until closing, and I seriously considered doing the same (until I called home and found out Steve was grilling steak with blue cheese and bacon topping) since I was having such a good time.  But I’ll definitely be back–I probably won’t be able to make it every month–but hopefully I’ll be seeing everyone again by March!

Trish has blogged about the meet up too; you can read her post and see more pictures right here.