Knitting Pipeline is sponsored by my Longaberger home businessn and Quince & Co.

Knitting Pipeline is sponsored by Quince & Co. and Knitcircus Yarns

Friday, October 31, 2014

Episode 187 Cornerstone Inn Fall Retreat Recap

The Cornerstone Inn Pipeliners

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.

This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co. I am also a Craftsy Affiliate. This means that if you click from the Craftsy ad on my website and purchase a class and/or materials, I receive credit for it. It is an easy way to support the show. I can tell that many of you have supported me through Craftsy especially since I’ve been mentioning it on the show. Thank you!
You can also find me here:
Events

Winner of Project bag is Candlefun (#107) who said her favorite colorway was Seraphina.

Events
Knit any mittens, for yourself or others. Keep for your family or donate to charity.
If you want to donate to Threads Hope and Love please send to me at:
 PO Box 549,  Washington IL 61571
Tag for mittens on Instgram and Twitter is #kpmittkal.
Join the #annealong on Instagram and Twitter
Balsam Hollow and Green Gables kit from Little Skein in the Big Wool on Etsy 

Cornerstone Inn Retreat Recap

#kpcornerstone

I do not have time to link everything. Notes are in order that they were mentioned on the show.
Group 1: Tracey aka fun4tracey, Becky aka Hybridgirl
Group 2: Kathy aka Kisforknitting, Barbara aks SFCmarmara

Mittens for Threads, Hope, and Love

Thank you, JudyintheDyes and mmlt!

Beautiful Mittens headed for Threads, Hope, and Love

Mittens for Threads Hope and Love



Mitten Delivery Posse

  • Madison’s on The Square
  • Bernardi’s
  • Jan’s Retro Trunk Show
  • Barbara tried on vintage knitted dress presented by Jan.
    The Clincher
  • Ogle Designs Gradient Coloration
    Group 3: Lynn aka Knitlynn, Kelley aka Kellpatt, KarenE1969
Coffee break at Eli's 

Judy, Lynn, Becky at Eli's
Knitting at my house. Karen, Julie, and Karen E.
It was a gorgeous day on the deck!

Thank you, Door Prize Donors!

Friday, October 10, 2014

Episode 186 Mittens are the New Socks

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.

This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co. I am also a Craftsy Affiliate. This means that if you click from the Craftsy ad on my website and purchase a class and/or materials, I receive credit for it. It is an easy way to support the show. Thank you!

Quince & Co wool yarns are sourced and spun in the US. Known in the trade as "territory wool," our wool comes from Merino, Rambouillet, and Columbia-based sheep that roam the ranges of Montana and Wyoming. All our wool and wool-blend yarns are spun in New England mills with venerable histories. By sourcing our wool in the US and manufacturing our yarn locally, we minimize our carbon footprint. Find Quince wool and the other Quince fibers at www.quinceandco.com.
You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.
You can also find me here:

Knitting Pipeline Ravelry Group


Pipeliner Notes

Kickstarter Giveaway Thread is here. October 29 deadline. Leave a comment in the thread about your favorite colorway from Twist Fiber Studio.



Events

Knitting Pipeline Cornerstone Inn Retreat October 22-25 2015



Knit any mittens, for yourself or others. Keep for your family or donate to charity.

If you want to donate to Threads Hope and Love please send to me at

 PO Box 549,  Washington IL 61571

Tag for mittens on Instgram and Twitter is #kpmittkal.

Join the  #annealong on Instagram and Twitter

Balsam Hollow and Green Gables kit from Little Skein in the Big Wool on Etsy


Nature Notes

We are in full fall mode here in Central Illinois. It’s a little chilly in the house this morning. I’m sitting on the porch with my Esjan shawl by Stephen West wrapped around me. The summer clothes can be safely put away now. We’ve had some warm days with temperatures about 80 but it was only for a short time around midday. Some of the plants in our garden show signs of cold weather damage. I’ve been covering up the Sweet Basil even when the temperature at night is in the 40’s. You don’t need freezing temperatures to blacken basil. I’ve been growing basil for 30 years and have tried many varieties, some of them a little strange such as chocolate basil and licorice basil. My tried and true is plain old Sweet Basil. Although there are many cultivars I try to get the most basic of basils for the garden as the flavor seems to be the best. This year I waited too long and was only able to get one Sweet Basil plant at the nursery. I purchased another cultivar which was also labeled Sweet Basil but had very small leaves. It is interesting to note that this plant with the smaller leaves (sorry I’ve lost the tag) is less susceptible to cold weather than it’s big leafed neighbor. I have not bothered to cover this plant at all and the leaves only have the occasional spot of black from the cold. The downside is that the smaller leaves are not as fragrant or taste as the large leaves.

The word basil comes from the Greek βασιλεύς (basileus), meaning "king",[6] as it has come to be associated with the Feast of the Cross commemorating the finding of the True Cross by St Helena mother of the emperor St. Constantine.[7] Alternatively the herbalist John Gerard noted of basil that those stung by scorpions would feel no pain if they ate of basil.[8] and Nicholas Culpeper notes of basil that it is "a herb of Mars and under the Scorpion, and therefore called Basilicon",[9] relating it to basilisk. The Oxford English Dictionary quotes speculations that basil may have been used in "some royal unguent, bath, or medicine". Basil is still considered the "king of herbs" by many cookery authors.[10]

I agree with the latter statement. Basil is probably my favorite herb for seasoning and I’ll be sad when I cannot walk a few steps outside my door to pick some basil.

Last night, October 8, 2014 there was a big show in the sky. There was a lunar eclipse with what they called Blood Moon because the moon appeared to be red, or rather orange red. There are loads of photos online right now and it was quite spectacular. I saw it through the trees from the comfort of the bedroom around 4 am. I could barely make out through the leaves that the eclipse was in progress. The moon appeared to be normal in color. That will have to suffice for me as I didn’t get outside early enough to see it this morning. Bronwyn, Missy, Pat and I were texting back and forth last night. Bronwyn recalled the solar eclipse in 1994 or 95 and how the shadows of the leaves were unusual. That is what I remember best about that eclipse as well. I was standing under the trees in our front yard and the shadows of the leaves looked like crescents. I still don’t understand why the shadows changed although I did read an explanation of it at the time. I probably took photos but if I go looking for them I’m sure I will get distracted and end up spending several hours looking at old photos.

Our quote today is from one my favorite nature writers, Edwin Way Teale.

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together.
For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad.”
~ Edwin Way Teale
Needle Notes

I finished my Opal Sock Bunny from the workshop by Susan B Anderson at the Knitting Pipeline Maine Retreat. He’s pretty cute. Once I set my mind on finishing him it didn’t take that long.




Susan has come up with techniques so there is very little finishing work and you don’t have to figure out how to place the appendages. I like that so much!

Mittens!
Why knit mittens?
These are some of the reasons that people gave for sock knitting on our board. I think these apply to mittens as well as socks.

  • Mittens are portable. You can memorize a basic pattern and knit it without having to pay too much attention.
  • Mittens can be as easy or as difficult as you like. A beginning knitter can easily make a simple pair of mittens or you can get into more complicated mittens such as Norwegian Selbu Mittens or Latvian mittens with super fine yarn.
  • Mittens are great stashbusters for single and partial skeins of worsted weight.
  • They will fit someone. Your gauge might be off a bit but someone will be able to wear it.
  • Knitting mittens connects us with the past and with knitters around the world. People have been wearing mittens or some form of handwear for centuries. And people have been knitting mittens for centuries.

I like to knit mittens on dpn’s. I have used Magic Loop and its  fine but mittens for me lend themselves to dpns. Many mitten patterns are written for use on dpns but experienced Magic Loopers can convert.

Kathleen Kibblehouse Sweetart77 on Rav




Susan’s probably created a run on Noro with her Noro striped mittens with blog post A Pair and A Spare.

My friend Missy and I are on yarn diets. I suggested that she use the Magic Cake with scraps of worsted weight for mittens. So here’s how you could do it.
  • You will need 60 to 70 g of worsted weight yarn for an adult mitten.
  • I would probably find 30 to 40 g for a main color and then use any scraps for the other color. Then if the scraps are not coherent the mittens will still look like a pair.
  • Gather up worsted scraps and splice them together using the Felted Join or Double Knot.  I would probably prefer a Felted Join when possible because the colors would transition a little more smoothly.
  • Alternate 2 rows of MC with 2 rows of Magic Cake. You could knit the thumb in a solid color. You will need about 5 g for each thumb. Wouldn’t it be cute if the thumbs were different colors?
What are you waiting for? Go get Susan B Andersons Waiting for Winter Mittens pattern and cast on!

Favorite Mittens by Robin Hansen 2006
From Torirot:
Hi
I was listening to you podcast, and it was interesting that you mentioned “the mitten day”, October 14th. This day was known in Norway to be the first day of winter. This was marked on the “primstav”, the wooden stave they used as a calendar.The symbol for this day was often a mitten. They say this has nothing to do with the fact that you need mittens for winter, the symbol is suppposed to be a bishop’s glove (sometimes a bishop’s hat) to remind of some catholic saint. But anyway, we who like knitting mittens, we can interpret that as we like.
It was also fun to hear because I will be releasing a mitten e-book on October 14ht this year. It’s made together with some fellow Norwegian knitters, bloggers and designers. It will be published in Norwegian on the 14th, and then, as soon as we get the translation ready, also in English.
So I thought I’d ask you if you would be interested in doing a giveaway on your podcast for the e-book later this autumn. The mittens are colourwork mittens, in fingering and sport weight yarn, and there are both children, woman and man’s sizes. One of the mittens is currently beeing knitted as a mystery Kal, see here.

Best regards,
Tori


Have a great week, haste ye back, and hold your knitting close!

Friday, October 3, 2014

Episode 185 Maine Retreat Memories

Listen here or use the Flash Player on this site for current and past episodes. Flash Player is not compatible with Internet Explorer.  Try a different browser like Safari.  Or jaunt on over to iTunes to find the show there.


Photo by Susan Wilkins, Fresh Air Photography


This episode is sponsored by my Longaberger Home Business and Quince & Co. I am also a Craftsy Affiliate. This means that if you click from the Craftsy ad on my website and purchase a class and/or materials, I receive credit for it. It is an easy way to support the show. Thank you!

Quince & Co wool yarns are sourced and spun in the US. Known in the trade as "territory wool," our wool comes from Merino, Rambouillet, and Columbia-based sheep that roam the ranges of Montana and Wyoming. All our wool and wool-blend yarns are spun in New England mills with venerable histories. By sourcing our wool in the US and manufacturing our yarn locally, we minimize our carbon footprint. Find Quince wool and the other Quince fibers at www.quinceandco.com.
You can find my Longaberger Home Business at www.longaberger.com/paula.
You can also find me here:
Me and Louise from Caithness, Scotland. She's wearing her new LL Bean outfit.

Events
Knitting Pipeline Cornerstone Inn Retreat October 22-25 2015
Mitten KAL thread—I am way behind!
Knit any mittens, for yourself or others. Keep for your family or donate to charity.
Watch Episode 43 of Knitting Dish at www.knittingdish.com to see mittens from the retreat. Mary has a great video cast.
#Mittenalong is the tag for Instagram and Twitter


Mittens for The Maine Mitten Project

Nature Notes
It is a cool rainy day as I sit here at the window to write about nature. I enjoy a good rainy day in any season except winter when it is cold enough to freeze and do damage and make the roads slick. This rain is gentle and the sound of it on the leaves is pleasant. Some trees in the woods have already shed their leaves although we still haven’t had the major fall color display. I can see all the way down to the creek that winds through the woods at the bottom of the ravine. There is a fresh layer of mostly yellow and brown leaves on the little clearing of land, almost a peninsula, that is formed where the creek bends sharply. We’ve had nights that are warm enough for the frogs and insects to continue their nocturnal lullaby. Through the open windows flow the cool autumn air and night sounds. One night the Barred Owl woke me up as he…or she…was right outside the bedroom window. There wasn’t enough moonlight to see but I could tell by the volume of the call of the “Eight Hooter” as the Barred Owl is sometimes known.
Birds are migrating through and the local birds are cleaning out the feeders. Our hummingbirds are still here. My husband takes the hummingbird feeder in at night because of marauding raccoons. One night he tried leaving it out and although it had been at least a month since we had seen evidence of raccoon bandits, it had obviously been tampered overnight. So each morning my husband notices that a hummingbird is sitting on the hook that holds the feeder. So he says, “I’m coming, just a minute”. It’s pretty cute to be a servant to a hummingbird. I’ve been watching one now sipping at the feeder and then just sitting there for a while. Earlier there was a downy woodpecker getting nectar from the hummingbird feeder.


Last Saturday when I came back from my morning walk a toad was sitting on our mailbox. I shared this photo on Instagram. He very politely posed for me with his eyes mostly closed, as if ignoring my presence. His feet had little suction cups on the ends of his toes so I’m guessing he is a tree toad or frog. I have to admit I don’t know the difference between toads and frogs except that frogs seem to be found closer to water, but I think that is not entirely true either. I found a site for you if you want to read about frogs vs. toads.



While in Maine I had opportunities to walk on the beach as it was just a short walk from the retreat location in Kennebunk. There were a few houses along the way to the beach with gardens sporting late blooming flowers such as asters, roses, sedum, and brilliant blue hydrangeas. They must have the right soil for hydrangeas there because it seems they were everywhere. On my morning walks on Goochs Beach (I love trying to say that and usually stumble on it) the clouds were almost as glorious as the water. The gray clouds were tipped with the pinks and oranges of the rising sun. The rocks were fascinating too. I’m sure a geologist could tell you a lot about these rocks but if you don’t know a geologist just ask Jaxie985. I saw some photos of her giving rock talks and I want to be in on that next year. I have never outgrown my love for rocks and watching the waves slide over the rocks and sand was mesmerizing. Then there is the sound of the water and the gulls. Who needs to listen to podcasts when you have this kind of morning entertainment? Not me. The only time I used my ipod was on the flights to Boston and back to Illinois.



Morning walk on Goochs Beach

On the Tuesday morning of our retreat, Martha, Jan Marie, and I drove a short distance to the Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge that is maintained by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. For the first part of our walk we didn’t see any other hikers. The trail was gravel and flat so it is handicapped accessible. There were many viewing platforms. The leaves were starting to turn and in some places the trees were reflected in water. We saw some waterfowl and flycatchers. We also heard a lot of chipmunks and sadly we didn’t know what they were until Martha figured it out later. “Chip” can sound like a bird call note especially when you are hearing them come from the treetops. Lesson learned! Thank you, Martha. As a side note, any birder who will not admit to being tricked by squirrels or chipmunks is probably not entirely truthful.
Rachel Carson (1907-1964) was a biologist and writer who is credited with starting the environmental movement with her book Silent Spring. The Rachel Carson Wildlife Refuge is near her summer home in Maine and was so named to honor her legacy.
Our quote today is appropriately from the writings of Rachel Carson.
Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature -- the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after winter.Rachel Carson, Silent Spring 
Needle Notes


Balsam Hollow and Green Gables kit from Little Skein in the Big Wool on Etsy
Anne of Little Skein sent a box to the Maine Retreat so I could share with the knitters there.
·        Shawl samples in all colors
·        Two project bags
·        Companion yarn from Leading Men Fiber Arts in Anne’s Story colorway
·        Shawl pin by Leslie Wind
·        Little valise


KristeB wearing Balsam Hollow in Green Gables color way

The Blethering Room
JP Knit and Stitch in Jamaica Plain/Boston.
Ladies of the Knit audio podcast. Met two of the three, Susan and Kris. 


Ladies of the Knit (Kris and Susan), Paula, Martha, Pat, Jan, and Lisa in front

Show and Tell
·        Lots of Sister Bay Shawls, Upstairs Downstairs, Piper’s Journey, Gills’ Rock…yes I notice each one. Thank you!
·        Color combinations of Sister Bay Shawls were amazing. Sue had one in Camel and Peacoat. Susan aka Guerne knit one in cranberry with brown border.
·        JanMarie’s Upstairs Downstairs caused quite a stir. Two colors.


Sue with Sister Bay Shawl in Camel and Pea Coat

Opal Sock Bunny workshop by Susan B Anderson
Thank you to Unicorn Press for sending us beautiful copies of the patterns!


Sock Bunnies in various stages of completion

Lobster Roll lunch at The Crab Shack with Susan, Martha, and Lisa.


Susan B Anderson and Lobster Roll at The Crab Shack in  Kennebunk

Susan B Anderson at Walker Point

Quince & Co landed!
Mitten Show and Tell. About 70 pair of mittens for The Maine Mitten Project!
Susan B Anderson’s Waiting for Winter Mitts. Read her blog post here.
Thanks to Michele of Three Bags Full for sending one of her lovely project bags for a door prize.
Fold the Flock: the Passenger Pigeon Origami Project


Kelly, Susan B Anderson, DebbieME, and KristeB with Fold the Flock contributions. Good job!

Fold  the Flock shenanigans

The Maine Diner


My good friend, Pat, and me at The Maine Diner
Thank you to everyone who came and to all the wonderful helpers!

About Me

My photo
I play the Great Highland Pipes, knit, observe nature, and read. My name on Ravelry is PrairiePiper. Find me on Instagram as KnittingPipeline.