Knitting- Holiday Style

Last night we held a holiday party for ourselves. The lovely Spring hosted it at her house. Which if you've never been, is currently an awesome mishmash of Halloween and Christmas. We were all to bring a handmade white elephant gift of some sort. And we had to bring food. Yum! The FOOD!

Spring made us all homemade hot cocoa!
Maiya made sea salt caramels and cheese stuffed dates wrapped in bacon. Yes. Bacon.
Sandra made delicious, moist pumpkin bread.
April made an awesome caramel apple crisp.
Mary brought us all some bread with an olive spread. Super yummy.
The gift exchange was hilarious!!! We played it so you could either steal from the person before you or pick from the wrapped gifts. MacKenzie kept getting her gifts stolen- first from Maiya and then by Sandra. At the end, Candice and Spring swapped gifts as Candice doesn't have pierced ears.

Spring made fish shaped soap with tea tree oil in it. It's supposed to get rid of super stinky smells... like fish! MacKenzie won these in the end.
MacKenzie made earrings and a ring that are a gorgeous green color. Spring won these.

Candice made super cute fabric trees that you can exchange the beads on top. The fabric is so pretty. Mary was lucky enough to get these.
Mary's gift was the most adult. She knitted a chapstick cozy in the shape of a penis!! The penis has a moustache- AWESOME! April stole this gift right away from Candice.

April made a beautiful keepsake box which she filled with an amethyst necklace and homemade chocolate raspberry lip gloss. Maiya stole this from MacKenzie.

Maiya knitted a toilet lid cover that looks like a fishbowl. She calls it Fish bowl for your Toilet bowl. MacKenzie opened it, Mary really wanted it, but Sandra stole it! She was very excited for this saying that it's going to go great in her bathroom.

Sandra made some very pretty beaded jewelry. She told us she used to make and sell these years ago. Candice won the necklace and bracelet.
After all the gift opening, we played a couple rounds of Apples to Apples. It was Sandra's and April's first time playing. Sandra was so funny! She would read the little descriptions of her red cards and start giggling to herself. One of the funniest things that can happen while playing this game is that sometimes the red cards really do not have anything to do with the green card. I had to take a picture of one hand. Poor Spring. How do you choose?

All the Kool kids are doing it!

Last night's Knitting is Knotty was held at Maiya's house. She taught the girls how to dye wool yarn with Kool Aid. Instead of writing out what we did, we can recommend some other blogs and tutorials that followed the same or very similar process.

Knitty.com has a great tutorial.

Snow Angels has good pictures.

And Streets and YOs shows how to do self-striping yarn.

We had a great time! Ate good food. Cheese, bread, trail mix, Toby's tofu spread, hot cocoa, smores, cookies... and after we all dyed our yarn, we played a few rounds of Apples to Apples!!

Christina used 3 packets of Grape Kool Aid to dye her yarn. A rather fortuitous mistake had occured. Her yarn soaked up all the dye before she could completely saturate it. So parts of her skein ended up not being dyed or was a faint blueish color. It looks great! Can't wait to see what it looks like knitted up. Christina thinks she might knit gloves for her husband Chris.

Spring did a two color skein. She used Grape and Fruit Punch. The Fruit Punch looks soooo bright! She's thinking about what to crochet out of it. Again, can't wait!

Mary did three colors! Lemonade, Lime and Ice Blue Raspberry. She left a little bit of the natural yarn color in between. The colors look so good together! She thinks she might knit these into hats for her two sons Chase and Eli.

Maiya also used Lime and Ice Blue Raspberry. The Lime is such a gorgeous green. She is going to use this yarn to knit, then felt slippers for her husband Brandon.

If you have any questions on the dyeing process, let us know! We'll be happy to help! We'd also love to see any dye jobs you've done with your yarn!

Confessions of a Yarnaholic

Last night's Knitting is Knotty went back to the coffee house. A lot of us didn't get very much knitting done while drinking beer at the last meeting. What did we talk about this time? Pretty much everything. Children, family, Twilight, health, schools, art, money....

Candice brought roving, foam and felting needles and showed us how to needle felt. It's so easy and so much fun!! Here she is crocheting a cord.Maiya was knitting socks, but took a break to try needle felting. Candice said a great place to get supplies for felting is at ETC, here in Eugene. By the way, Maiya ordered a Chai Nog. It's chai tea mixed with egg nog. Very recommended!!Spring was working on several crocheting techniques. She crocheted a flower using a lot of chain stitches.
Kelsey is knitting with a HUGE ball of yarn! This yarn was upcycled from a sweater. She took a used sweater apart, then unraveled the yarn and wound it into a ball so she can knit what she wants. This is a great way to get good wool for very little money. Check your local thrift stores.
Sandra was super tired last night but she made it anyways! We're very glad she did as we love her company.
And lastly, Mary came for the first time. She has been knitting on and off for the last several years. She was frogging a baby blanket to reuse the yarn. Here baby is now 3 years old. (Hey, we all have those UFOs- UnFinished Objects.) She learned how to use circular needles to magic loop so she can knit herself a pair of Alice Mitts.
Next meeting, we're going to have at Maiya's house. Maiya is going to show everyone how to dye yarn with Kool Aid!

We scared him away with talk of circumcision.

Yup! Last night instead of our usual coffee, we haunted McMenamins. Beer + yarn + friends = AWESOME! We once again talked about a lot of things, one of which was circumcision. Our waiter could not be found so we thought maybe our dinner conversation scared him away. We love McMenamins- their hummus, artichoke dip, french fries and of course their beer. But it took fooooreeeever to get seated largely to the fact that they gave a couple a table that would have fit 6 people, while us 5 had to wait for a 2 person table to clear out. Regardless, I think we all had a blast.

Spring was crocheting away- she's turning out some amazing work.
Unfortunately, we didn't end up getting a picture of her last night.

Candice took out a pad and started painting a watercolor of Maiya. Maiya was knitting an entrelac sock using Noro yarn.Kelsey was working on a cute pink and white scarf.Sandra was knitting away on her lovely green purse.

I thought this week I'd talk about celebrities and knitting. Rivers Cuomo- the frontman for Weezer has mentioned he knits on his Twitter page. He posted a picture of himself knitting! Seriously, what's hotter than a man knitting?

And there's been recent attention on Kristen Stewart knitting- who portrays Bella Swan in the Twilight saga. I've included a picture of her holding a felted skull knitting bag with large knitting needles sticking out of them. I found the pattern so you can make the bag for yourself!


Obviously from our posts, you can tell knitting is no longer an old lady's game. It's nice to see other young people knitting- especially celebrities. Because if I can't convince you, then maybe they can. Knitting is cool.

It's Knitting Circle. Holy Shit!

That's the response we got last night at our knitting group. A woman walked up to our table, watched us knit for a few seconds then exclaimed, "It's a knitting circle. Holy shit!" Very funny. It pretty much set the tone of the evening. I think we would all have to agree that last nights' meeting was the best. We couldn't stop laughing. What were we laughing at? Pretty much everything. Our kids, other people's kids. Other people's kids names... Chinook, Apple (yes we're talking about you Gwyneth)... As we were rounding up our things to leave an older gentleman came over and insisted he must learn how to knit as it looked like we were having a lot of fun. We also agreed that the next Knitting is Knotty, we're going to meet at McMenamins. So the next blog should be fun too. Instead of drinking coffee, we'll be drinking awesome beer and wine. But then that means, we'll spend the next day frogging our work.

Christina is forging ahead nicely with her cable work. The yarn is GORGEOUS and is striping beautifully in the cabling pattern. Unfortunately, Christina's work schedule changes and she will no longer be able to attend Knitting is Knotty. We're going to try to work out an alternative schedule so she can come some more.Kelsey is also working on cables. She's knitting Bella's Mittens. She just learned how to work double pointed needles and is totally rocking it. The pattern calls for the mittens to be worked in magic loop method. Maiya showed everyone how to do magic loop. Soooo easy! Here's a link to a video that shows you how.Sandra is still knitting on her amazing purse. We just fawn over the yarn color whenever we see it. She accidentally purled a row instead of knitting it, but it works out great, because she's just going to use that row as the bottom edge and fold up the knitting from there.Spring didn't bring her crochet work with her, but did bring some crochet books for us to look through. We love looking at patterns, but it's always frustrating when you see something you'd like to make and then notice it takes 13 skeins of yarn. 13 skeins of $9 yarn.... you do the math.Maiya is still working on the same scarf as last meeting. She hadn't had the time to knit on it since the last meeting. It's a nice project to bring to Knitting is Knotty since it's a mindless knit of stockinette stitch in the round. She doesn't have to concentrate on following a pattern and is left to talk and laugh freely.
Candice wasn't able to attend this week, she just started back at school again and is so tired! We missed you Candice! Last week, we mentioned that Candice and Maiya were collaborating on a project. They made Dia de los Muertos fascinators and pins. Candice made the sugar skulls and Maiya made the flowers. On the back, they have a hair clip and a pin so you can attach it to your updo or your sweater, purse... whatever. So far you can find them at Nobody's Baby in Eugene and on Etsy.

Knitting really is naughty!

I think we'd all have to agree that last night's Knitting is Knotty was fun and a bit wild. The discussions we ended up having were being addicted to facebook and er.... pubic hair. Apparently, we all have a "pube story." You're probably recalling your own story right now.

Anyhow, we had a new member come! Shelsea is a crocheter who is also looking into how to knit. Last night she was crocheting a pink baby blanket. She has a 2 1/2 year old son who loves babies and Santa is bring him a baby doll for Christmas. Shelsea is making sure that the baby has it's own blankie.

Candice has a phone interview with someone from the Art Institute of Portland. Very exciting! She came late to the group and didn't bring her crochet or knitting. But she did bring some sugar skulls that she made. Her and Maiya are collaborating on a project. Stay tuned!!
Maiya is working on a scarf for a charity project. She is a member of a Twilight group on Ravelry and they're donating scarves for The Love Scarf Project in honor of Peter Facinelli who plays Carlisle. Peter is known for wearing scarves. Her scarf is looking a bit like an octopus but it's all part of the master plan.
Christina was working on two projects! Way to go Christina! She's knitting a scarf for a gift using cotton yarn and making a basket weave with it. She also is learning how to cable knit to make a purse. She's gotten about 3 rows before she realized she would have to frog back a bit. Cables can be tricky! She picked out some gorgeous pink and green yarn for the purse.
Kelsey also was learning something new!! At the last meeting, Maiya taught her how to use double point needles. Look who's mastering them now! Kelsey is making fingerless mittens out of this gorgeous red color. I heard this morning that she finished the first mitt and is now working on the second. Yay!Sandra was able to join us again after missing the last couple of meetings. We're happy to have her back!! She is a beginner knitter as well- she learned how to knit just a month ago. Here she's working on a purse with a delicious green yarn. She's also discovering that her project is varying in width due to unintentionally increasing and decreasing. But that's part of the fun, isn't it??Lastly we have Spring who is doing some amazing lace work with her crochet hook. She's been working on this scarf for the past two weeks and she's made some serious progress. If I remember correctly, her yarn is made out of soy in such a pretty color! I can't wait to see what Spring whips up next!We also had a blast looking at a book Maiya brought. The Museum of Kitschy Stitches. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Highly recommend you check it out!