I swore I wasn't going to do it--so I'll blame it all on Donna. She came in the other day all excited about the cover of the latest Vogue Knitting Magazine. I thought it was really pretty, but was more intrigued with the shaping of another project in the magazine. So, we looked at what yarns would be appropriate. I thought the Rowan Purelife Organic Cotton was the closest match to the yarn that was called for in the pattern. I've been knitting with it to make toys that were featured in the latest Rowan book for kids and really liked working with it. When I got home that evening, I opened up my copy of Vogue and started looking more carefully at the pattern. Gee, I already had the yarn -- so I couldn't resist. Since I finished up two projects recently, I just had to start yet another three.

I love knitting lace -- this pattern reminds me of the Hemlock Ring Blanket, of which one is finished and another is still on the needles. Be forwarned. There are errors in the pattern. The first one is on Round 2 -- you need to increase to 3 stitches from 1 in order to get 18 stitches at the end of the round and Round 10 should read K1 at the end instead of K2. I know this is a major problem -- errors in patterns -- I found 2 big errors and am only on Round 40, so I suspect there may be more. I have to wonder where the errors are actually made. Are they from the designer or are they made during the transcription process. Is anyone doing a thorough job editing? I happen to speak with Nicky Epstein at TNNA last year about this. I had a few customers who were very upset with her, because of the errors in her books and they swore they would never buy anything from her again. She was adamant that when the pages of designs left her hands there were no errors. Somehow the errors appeared during the "editing" process and I use that term loosely, because someone is not paying attention. Whenever a customer comes in with a problem, the first thing I do is look for the errata sheets for the pattern. I'd say that 75% of the time, that's the answer. That is not a very good batting average. I think the industry needs to do a better job. How many UFO's do you have lying around because you are stymied by the pattern and just gave up?

Thank goodness Harriet didn't give up. She just had to have this beautiful pattern and found the right yarn that worked. She used Cascade's Rustic - a wool/linen blend and can't wait to start another project with the same yarn.

Jill has been busy getting ready for Easter.

On Saturday we had 3 brave souls and their knitting machines with their first attempt at machine knitting. Uyvonne Bigham came to teach the basics of machine knitting, while making a beaded purse on the machine. Here is a selection of Uyvonne's work -- I think there may be a book in store for this -- and a few pix of student works in progress.




Sunday finally finished her socks -- she came in to show them off to her teach, Sabra.

Linda finished her Stonington Shawl out of Jamieson Spinddrift. Isn't it a beauty?

And Bonnie is almost finished with her Great American Aran Afghan. It is gorgeous! She made it out of Punta del Este's Lava -- a machine washable wool/acrylic yarn. Good choice for an afghan.

A new display of kids sweaters and such.