Knitting Set Up, Upstairs and Down

As I have aged I have found that there are some things that make my hobbies more enjoyable and productive.  One thing that has really helped is a metal music stand with magnetic strips. I can put pattern pages on the music stand and place the magnetic strips strategically to keep track of my place in the pattern or on the chart.  Works like a charm...unless I have several pages then the magnetic connection is tenuous and can fall off.  This always aggravates me and reminds me to "just do it right"!  Which means have only the one sheet of the pattern on the music stand and everything else organized elsewhere.

This is the set up!  The music stand is to my right with my headset waiting for me to use listening to an audio book if Dear One is watching something on the television.  I have my pattern for the mug rugs there with the line magnet at the top. (Hopefully I was successful in blanking out that pattern since it was a paid for pattern. I do not ever want to violate copyright.  People work very hard to create and if they want to be paid, far be it from me to take away their remuneration.)  There are stitch markers on the little wire arms that help hold the pattern pages to the stand.  The aqua lanyard has a small pair of very sharp scissors  attached and a little bottle which has a set of large tapestry needles for weaving in ends. (I feel very smart about that bottle--it is an empty pill bottle.  I got out the Dremel tool and drilled two tiny holes in the top of the cover then inserted some yarn in and made a loop to hang up the bottle.  Works great.).   There is also a pencil which I use for making a little chit sheet when I am making things like the purple periwinkle flower that is going on the front door wreath soon. You can see the chit marks for two different periwinkles. You can also see the television in the upper left.  When Dear One is not watching something, I use my phone to "cast" YouTube videos up there to keep me company and teach me stuff.  I love to learn new useful things.  

Speaking of learning useful stuff--I think I heard through the grapevine that a dear old lady friend in town is getting one or more sheep!  Yay!  I am looking forward to finding someone local who will give or sell me a fleece from time to time after they shear.  I am hoping she wants sheep to graze her lawn, and not necessarily for their fleeces....Does that sound bad?  I want to become a good enough spinner that I can  consistently spin yarn worthy of  knitting into useful garments.

Also in this photo you can see a new book that arrived this weekend:  Teach Yourself Visually -Sock Knitting.  I just saw yesterday that the deadline for Sock Madness was two weeks ago.  Probably just as well I missed it. I used to participate every March or at least for a couple or three years. I did a lot of sock knitting and learned a lot.  Eventually I gave those socks away.  Now I have sock yarn again and have socks on the needles all the time, ready to put in a few rounds at the drop of a hat.  I would REALLY be happy if I could spin reliable sock yarn!  But I don't expect that will happen.

Also in the photo you see a nice orange sunflower-y project bag. I "designed" my own zippered project bag.  I made about a dozen of them in different colors.  I do love them.  They are all filled with projects. This is in an effort to organize myself and prepare every needful thing.  Does it count if the bags are all full?!

So that is it for today.  One day I will put up the pattern instructions for the project bags.  You need one yard of cotton fabric and one 22' plastic teeth zipper.

Lilae Shawl Adventure

The White River Yarns shop sometimes invites people to knit samples for them.  This time the samples were shawls.  The pattern Karen gave me is Xale Lilae (Lilae Shawl) along with some lovely soft cotton yarn, which yarn I cannot name as she was kind enough to wind for me. I did not think to ask for the ball bands.

When I saw the pattern my stomach clenched!  I am not much of a lace knitter but I decided that I could give it a try.  Since I was going to be spending two weeks in Maine mostly by myself I was sure it would work to finish it in October as requested.

For ages I have wanted to get a music stand to use to hold my patterns at eye level. Now was the time!  I went to Blue Mountain Guitar and met a very nice man who had just what I needed at a very good price:  $14.95!

Music Stand from Blue Mountain Guitar

  I then went to Joann Fabrics and Crafts and found two magnetic pattern holders to put on the music stand. I needed two of them because the pattern for Lilae was two pages long horizontally.

Magnetic pattern holders with magnets, plus homemade long magnet from magnetic tape for very sturdy long magnet.

Here is Chart Two from the Lilae Shawl pattern installed on the music stand and magnetic holders. The hardware works like a charm, particularly with the long heavy magnetic strip I made with some magnetic tape and scraps of fabric.  It would have looked better if I had used some nice scrapbooking paper instead of the fabric scraps, but...I did not have any at the time.

The shawl was fun to knit, after a fashion!  When it was going well, it was great.  When I had to start over, again and again and again, it was not so fun.  When it was two-thirds done, I discovered an impossible error way back there, so I tore it all out once again, and started one last time.

One motif left of center

Left Front end, with crochet bind-off visible

Top Central Medallion with Nupps

It was interesting to learn how to do a crochet bind-off as the pattern instructed.

Even though I knit the entire thing more than once, and most of the rows, or portions of the rows, many times,  it still looks kind of nice.  When I turned it in to the yarn shop there were a group of knitters there, perhaps in a class, and when they found it was a sample, one of them said, "You won't even get to wear it!"  Not a problem, no way!  It was great experience and I learned a ton, but it is not my taste in shawls.  Actually, I don't know what IS my taste in shawls, but I will know it when I see it.