Knit 1, Take 2

Knit in the Park this week

admin — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:23:23 +0000

Our annual Knit in the Park & Anniversary party is this Sunday. Please meet at Queen’s Park (and NOT Waves). If you haven’t been out in a while, we’d love to catch up. If you’ve never visited, why not make this your first week… you’ll get to meet the lovely people from both groups. Here are the details:

Knit 1 Take 2 Second Annual Knit in the Park and Anniversary Party

When: Sunday, September 18th from Noon to 4:00 pm

Where: Queen’s Park
We will try to get a place on the east side of the band shell. Attached is a map on roughly where that will be (where the purple pin is)

If you are driving, enter Queen’s Park at 3^rd Ave. Drive through the parking lot and turn left at the road after the Arena and before the field under construction.

Continue on until the road splits. Follow the road on the left.

There are 2 parking areas on the right hand side of the road, one after the other. It’s closer to park in the second one.

The band shell will be on the left hand side and so is where we will set up.

Activities:
Yarn Steal
We will be doing a yarn steal. If you want to participate please bring 100 grams of yarn, wrapped. Please select a yarn you’d enjoy knitting.
Pot Luck:
We will also be doing a picnic pot luck. Since this is a picnic please choose food that’s easy to serve and doesn’t need heating or refrigeration. Please bring enough food to serve 5-6 people.
To be more environmental this time, please bring a reusable plate, cup and utensils.

We will meet, rain or shine.

To recap, bring:

- Potluck item to feed 5-6 people

- Reusable plate, cup and cutlery

- Wrapped 100grams of yarn

- Something to sit on (blanket or chair)

- Probably a sweater, given this weather. Hmmmm… a chance to show off something you’ve made???

Note: the Terry Fox Run will be in the park as well. It looks like they will wrap up by noon but parking may be tough in the park. Plan extra time for parking.

We can’t wait to celebrate with you.

YO&O,

JAS

Announcements:

- The Yarn Harvest Yarn Crawl is creeping up on September 24th. This is a great value! For $5, you will be able to save 15% on your purchases at participating stores in the Lower Mainland. It looks like there are about 18 participating retailers, including New West’s Shan’s. Thank you to Susan for sending the info: http://fvkg.wordpress.com/yarn-harvest-yarn-crawl-2011/

- We are working on confirming our Vancouver location. We hope to launch in the Broadway/Cambie area within the next 2 months. Please let your friends know who might be interested in joining this group. Same stitches. Same motto. Double the fun. (well, not double the fun that New West has. Just a second location so double the number of groups…)

- Learn to Knit will start after Thanksgiving. If learning to knit has been on your to do list, you won’t want to miss this series. You could take lessons for about $100 or you could make time to come to our group and learn for free! Plus, we think you’ll have more fun. Just sayin.

Our yarn bombing project from Knit in the Park 2010

A year to remember …

admin — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:17:59 +0000

Our yarn bombing project from Knit in the Park 2010

An excerpt from Joie …

OMG!!!!!!
I remember it as if it was only yesterday……..my house the day after meeting on some show at Riverview ( which by the way, there is no river view ). Who would have ever thought that one year later an idea nurtured by the love and hard work of you both, would end up with a one year celebration.
… this idea, with the love, laughter and learning to people that would have never noticed one another on the streets is something to really be proud of.
so here on this day, Sunday, October 17th, 2010, I will rise a glass to celebrate knit 1 take 2 and the wonderful people who have weaved their way into your hearts.

Yes, looking back I think we are all stunned and impressed with the difference a year can make in our lives. It’s hard to believe we’re a year old today. So much has changed and we have all accomplished so much. We started with a simple plan to knit, laugh, learn, and share. And as Anne so eloquently put it, we have evolved into a group that “meets about knitting and connects about community”. We’d like to take this time to thank all of you for coming out to our meetings and allowing us the opportunity to knit, laugh, learn, and share with you. We truly appreciate it.

We have seen so much happen in a year … good times and not quite so good times, we’ve had members go and more come to replace them, we’ve had a marriage and even a birth (and our future youngest knitter), and we’ve had someone go from casting on their first stitch (literally) to completing two sweaters for her children. We have completed four blankets (and continuing to work on more) and donated a few dozen individual items (hats, sweaters, scarves) to local charities and people in need. It’s great to see what can happen when a community of strangers united by a common thread (or yarn) can accomplish when they get together. Here’s looking forward to the next year and all the stitches it will bring! Here’s just a very small sampling of some of the memories forever knit into our hearts …

Yarn over and out!

JAS

Content Continental …

admin — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 23:31:15 +0000

Your mother might have told you not to pick at your food, but hopefully she didn’t tell you the same thing about your knitting. You see, in knitting, picking is a good thing. There are actually several methods of knitting, and one of the most common is called Continental knitting. It’s also referred to as “picking”, because you use your needle to pick at the yarn in order to form the stitches. This may sound a little strange at first, but once you get used to the technique, you realize that it’s an apt description of what you’re actually doing. This week we’ll look at the knit stitch using this method and next week we’ll cover the purl stitch.

For both stitches, it all starts with preparation. The wrap is important as it gets you ready to start picking. When you’re picking, the yarn is wrapped on the left hand instead of the right as it is for Traditional knitting, or “throwing”. It is a personal preference whether or not you want to wrap it around your baby finger, but I have found it to be helpful in maintaining a consistent tension. Here are a few pictures and explanation showing how it’s done.On a short or circular needle, cast on 16 – 20 stitches with a yarn appropriate for the needle size. Worsted weight yarn and 4.5mm needles are a great place to start.

1. With the palm of your hand facing forward, place your yarn between your pinky finger and your ring finger and send it to the back of your hand.

2. Bring it up to your index finger and wrap it around it twice with the yarn traveling towards you while you do it.

You should now have a strand of yarn between your two bottom fingers, along the back of your hand, and then around your index finger twice. This yarn is attached to the last cast on stitch on your left needle and leads to your ball of yarn. Check to see that the length of the yarn from your index finger to the stitch on the needle isn’t too long. It should be between 2 -3 inches for now – the shorter the better when you’re first learning. Hold the left needle (the one with the cast on stitches) in your left hand, and take the other needle in your right hand.

3. Using the right needle, go into the first stitch just as you would to knit it – from front to back.

4. Using the right needle, pick the yarn that is leading up to your index finger with the tip. Use your middle finger to push the yarn forward while at the same time hold the stitch on the left needle in place. This creates a larger hole for you to pick the yarn through.

5. Using the tip of the needle, pull the yarn back towards you and through the hole that is there. It is important to work below the left needle at this point. If you allow the work to go above the needle it gets a little cumbersome and is more difficult to work with.

6. The knit stitch is on your right needle now. Slide it completely off your left needle and repeat steps 3 – 5 for each stitch on your needle. This the the technique for working the knit stitch picking or Continental style. The best way to get good at it is like with anything else – practice! Luckily, since we are making blanket squares, you have the perfect opportunity to do so. Cast on 42 stitches onto 4.5mm needles and work in garter stitch (knit all stitches) continental style until the work is a row shy of 8 inches. cast off loosely in pattern and remember to leave a long tail with your cast on and cast off for sewing the squares together.

Yarn over and out!

JAS

Keeping you on your toes …

admin — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:52:34 +0000

The T2′s were in the final week of sock work today and so had to learn the toe decreases and the Kitchener stitch. Since there is no need to reinvent the wheel, here are two links that show how to do each part. Once you have the concept of the toe decrease down, you can customize the shape of the sock by working your decreases accordingly. If the sock is for you you can customize the fit exactly and even make a left and right sock by varying the decreases on each side of the foot. Remember to try them on as you go to make sure the fit is exact. When working with socks it is a good idea always to try them on when possible as they stretch when you put them on. If you’re measuring only, you won’t get an accurate measurement. Here are two links to a post I created a while back in a previous sock knit along.

Wedge Toe Decrease

Kitchener Stitch

When doing the Kitchener stitch, remember the mantra after the setup – Knit – Off – Purl – Purl – Off – Knit. If you finish your socks bring them next week for the show and tell. We’d love to see what you did!

Yarn over and out,

JAS

Sock it to them …

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 17:32:33 +0000

* UPDATE – After the second group on Sunday, Anne came up with a way of knitting on 2 circulars that is quite a bit easier than the one in the links below, and that was shown. Here is a video by Cat Bordhi demonstrating the technique …

Ever wanted to make yourself a pair of socks? Not just the $2 you can pick up at the store, but really cool, funky, comfy, warm, socks? Well, yesterday, Carol started the Take 2′s on a journey to doing just this. The group will continue with this for 4 weeks, with 3 actual weeks of instruction. Purely by coincidence, here is a website that is doing a sock KAL (Knit ALong) that goes over the information that Carol presented yesterday. Rather than reinventing the wheel and rewriting out all that information, here is the link to the site with the sock info.

Sock KAL 1 Sock KAL2 Sock KAL3

If you are just starting or missed Carol’s session yesterday, you are still able to join in. We are working on the cuff and leg of the socks right now and will be continuing this through this upcoming Sunday. Make sure you do a swatch to get your gauge!

Yarn over and out.

JAS