The Wonderful Wallaby hooded sweater designed by Carol Anderson of Cottage Creations is a popular and classic pattern loved by Woolbearers customers. The class teaching the techniques for the sweater is always full. Some variations shown are without the hood. Myra knitted it in red Bingo Chin by Lana Grossa, which is super soft and washable, dark turquoise blue Cascade 220, and neutral stripes of washable Mission Falls merino. The are all beautiful! You can get the pattern and take the class at the store . The pattern covers sweaters from size 2 to 2XL.

Finis!! At last, the Lacy Top from Holiday Vogue 2006 is done. I had some difficulty sewing it together because the back was an inch wider than the front even after I blocked the pieces; obviously I had done something different. The top is shaped for someone with a waist, and that is interesting in itself as I don't have one anymore. It's very 'hour glassed'. The neckline was fun to do. You pick up stitches around the neck and do more yarnovers, so there is a lacy effect to it. The little wings are fun, too; you do one row of feather and fan and five of k1 p1 ribbing. As I have written before, I love working with the Jamieson so much, it is a real yarn. You don't have to pamper it, it just knits! So I am treating myself to yet another project, from Simply Shetland 3, The Santa Fe Wrap. It's also knitted of Spindrift, so will not be the quickest knit I have done, but once Myra showed me how to use two colors without having ends to weave in, I am enjoying the process. It's another modular project, but with shadow knitted pieces. I'll get some pictures up soon.

Puddle Jumpers

We are on a roll doing baby sweaters. They are a quick knit, use less yarn than an adult sweater, and are just all around cute! This little number knit by Myra of Classic Elite Sundance washable cotton microfiber is pictured on the cover of Puddle Jumpers. It's so cute and speaks for itself. The picot edge is beautiful.

The Bounced Check Jacket has another convert. This is knitter Ginny's first square.

The picture to the right shows the finished first square. The picture below shows the 12 green stitches for the second square picked up with one pink original stitch.

The picture to the right shows the square with 25 stitches, the one original from the pink square, 12 picked up along the left edge and 12 cast on with a cable cast on.

Last Sunday while the spinners spun and knitters in the store knitted, Gwen, Rina, Cate and I got together with Rina's Ultimate Sweater Machine and had a little demonstration of how easy it is to use. Although Rina's Machine was busted; looked like someone had previously tried to use it and returned it to the discount craft store, which promptly placed it back on the shelf for sale, Cate just happened to have her brand new, still in the box machine, so we pulled that out, set it up and away we went! It is just amazing how quickly it knits.

If there is enough interest, I'm sure we can convince Uyvonne Bigham to teach another beginners class. The machines used in the class are the Bond Knitting Machine, The Ultimate Sweater Machine, or the LK 150 (I think that is the number). If you have one of these machines and can't get it to work for you, it is usually just a simple adjustment needed and you can start knitting right away. I knit a baby sweater in less than eight hours, shown above, and that included finishing by hand. Uyvonne teaches you how to assemble the garment using the machine and also finishing on the machine. There is almost no hand work done in her class.

Please let me know if you would like to take a beginner's knitting machine class. We may be able to convert the upcoming intermediate class to a beginners. I took the class twice and each time, learned tons of useful information. I wish I had the time to use the machine more!

Uyvonne is a wonderful teacher. She is patient beyond belief. Trust me.

Sign up soon for a class with Uyvonne on the Bond and watch your stash disappear!

Suzie

You Need To Knit More if the two dolphins in the picture have more than one or two differences. Cate sent me this stress indicator. I'm definately getting out the needles when I am done with this post.