Episode 114 Knit or Purl

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This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co.  The folks at Quince & Co produce a line of thoughtfully conceived yarns in an historic spinnery in the state of Maine.  Their wool comes from domestic sheep and other fibers come from earth friendly suppliers.  You will find that Quince & Co 100% wool is a living fiber, beautiful, practical, sustainable, and affordable. Find them at www.quinceandco.com

You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.  If you wish to be on my email preferred customer list, please send me an email at paulaef@aol.com with your name, mailing address, and phone.

I enjoy your feedback, comments on the blog, and questions.  Feel free to write to me at Paulaef@aol.com or on Ravelry as PrairiePiper.

I appreciate all the ways that you participate in the Knitting Pipeline Community whether it is leaving a comment on the show blog, participating in the Knitting Pipeline group on Ravelry, or just downloading and enjoying the show.  Show notes will be found at www.knittingpipeline.com.

Pipeliner Notes

Thank you so very much for your emails and messages and also for Christmas cards that appeared in my mailbox AND the packages of sock yarn scraps for my blanket.

I have enough sock yarn for the blanket now and am so grateful of every single bit you have sent me!  Please hold off on sending more until I get the current lot under control.

I had a question from MadameDeFarge about my rating for the adorable Béne Bébé hat by our friend Dawna of Dawna Rego Designs. You might remember that I knitted this little hat for my great nephew and enjoyed both the process and end result; however, Janice asked why I had rated it 3 stars.  Oh my goodness.  I had no idea I had done that.  It is definitely a 5 star pattern.  I might have been confused because I was not too fond of the yarn I used and probably thought I was rating the yarn.  So I fixed that.

In case you didn't see my adorable great nephew in the previous post, here he is again wearing the Bene Bebe hat.  

As always, thanks for your feedback on the last show when Bronwyn was here.  There are more ideas in the Handmade Christmas thread.  I have some felted projects that I’m ready to let go of but I’m thinking of repurposing the felted wool for these little bags.  The post came from PrairiePoet and with the link she gave there are tags that you can give with the handwarmers. 

Events:

Ellison Bay KAL started on January 1, 2013.

Knitting Pipeline Retreat  April 26-27, 2013 with optional loosely structured day on April 25^th.  Signups will be announced soon.

We had a chat in the Knitting Pipeline chat room on January , 2013  Thanks to those who joined in the chatter!

Nature Notes

We finally had snow on December 20, the day our son Pete was traveling from Portland OR to Illinois for the holidays.  We didn’t have a lot of snow but we had a lot of wind and it was a blizzard.  That melted and then we had snow a few days ago, just enough to cover the ground and due to very cold temperatures that snow is staying with us for a while.  Underneath the bird feeders there are many little footprints of birds and squirrels.  The ground feeding birds are led by our little slate colored juncos. 

Oh my goodness.  I have to tell you what just happened.  It is about 11:15 am and I’m here on the sunporch writing my nature notes and I heard the most unmistakable call of the Great horned Owl.  This is my favorite of all the owls I’ve seen but we have not often heard them here in our woods until recently. Our neighbors called one day to tell us that a pair of Great Horned Owls were in the woods behind their house but we didn’t get the message until it was too late.  Early on New Years Eve Bob and I were watching a movie and we heard a pair of Great Horns calling back and forth.  They were so close to the house that at first I thought the sound was coming from the television.  It was too dark to see anything.

As soon as the Great horned called today all the birds at the feeder and on the ground below suddenly flew away in unison.  I started scanning the woods, high up in the trees for the owl which called again several times.  I thought maybe it was on the roof of the house or on the side of the house that I cannot see from inside.  So I grabbed a coat, my binoculars, stepped into my boots and quietly stepped outside.  I think he had flown by then because he was nowhere to be found.  I’m back inside with binoculars on the table beside me.  All the regular visitors are back at the feeders, male and female cardinals, purple finches, gold finches, tufted titmouse cracking a seed on a branch nearby, a pair of nuthatches and quite a few groundfeeding birds like juncos.  They seem quite comfortable so I believe the Great Horned Owl is not in the vicinity.  I’m sure I will see them soon.

Nature Quote of the Day
What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?E. M. Forster

 Needle Notes

Sock Yarn Blanket by Shelley Kang. I’m calling it my Kindness of Knitters Blanket.  Thank you to everyone who has sent yarn for my blanket.  It means so much and I’m grateful for every single bit.  I have quite a lot of yarn now, probably more than enough for the blanket so if you have been planning on sending yarn, please hold off until I catch up and get the current lot under control.  I have a box that I still need to process.

 Started Nov 13. I now have 81 squares.

This week I knitted with yarn from PMack17, SeashoreSharon, Patfrag, Chessie, CbaaKnits, Pengwenn, and MariaEB.  MariaElenaBliss sent me a project bag and she has an etsy shop.  I’ve been keeping some of the yarn in the project bag which is a bucket bag and so very well made.  Her etsy shop is MariaElenaBliss.  Thank you, MariaElena!

Ellison Bay KAL

Thank you to Joyce Garris for her Project Sheet from her site After This Row. Joyce provided a free download for those participating in the KAL.  Small Bites approach. It is not too late to join.  I actually have not started yet.  I am using Quince & Co Chickadee in Carrie’s Yellow.

Tips:

Use stitch markers that fit your needles.

Read your knitting.

Question from GramCyn that might be helpful for many knitters and also applies to the Ellison Bay KAL.

Hi Paula,
I have a Fingering weight yarn, which recommends size 2 needles. My question is why does he recommend size 4 needles for the fingering weight? he purposefully wants a certain look with a larger needle? I am doing a swatch now just to see on the size two.
Thanks.
Cindy

Cindy doing the right thing by swatching to see what the fabric looks like with different needles sizes.

Needle sizes are just a guideline.  For shawls the needle recommended is often larger than what the yarn label recommends because we want a looser drapier fabric.  People will often go down a needle size or two for socks because they want t denser fabric.  If you knit a shawl in fingering weight yarn with a gauge like a sock the fabric would be very dense and it would take forever too.  Remember my first Pi Shawl?  I used a size 9 or 10 needle with fingering weight because Elizabeth Zimmermann said to use a larger needle than normal.  That was overdoing it a bit.

Remember that needle sizes are always just a guideline.  The needle size you use may be different from the one recommended.

Myth or Truth

Is the purl stitch more difficult than the knit stitch?  Bronwyn and I believe it depends on your style of knitting.  For continental knitters purling takes a little more maneuvering with the needle, at least for us.  Your mileage may vary.

The tune is Lovely Star from the collection by Steve Eulberg.  Twas in the Moon of Wintertime.

www.magnatune.com

I appreciate your support this past year as without the Pipeliners there would not be a show.  You are as much a part of this show as I am.

A happy New Year! Grant that I

May bring no tear to any eye

When this New Year in time shall end

Let it be said I've played the friend,

Have lived and loved and labored here,

And made of it a happy year.

~Edgar Guest