Close Knitters

Changeable weather means changeable clothes, and this spring has certainly had it’s share of changeable weather. Which can make deciding what to wear for events interesting.

The staff here have an assortment of offspring (between us we have 16 children, five grandchildren, seven dogs, four cats and a bunny) so of course there are many events.

This year the only graduation is Phyllis’ daughter, graduating from Mount Holyoke. The women wear traditional cap and gown for the formal ceremony, however one of the school’s traditions is a parade the day before graduation. They all wear white dresses, and carry a long chain of laurel leaves, which they use to decorate the grave of the founder of the school. Reunion classes are part of the parade, all in white.

My daughter found the ideal dress, white linen with bare shoulders and spaghetti straps. I mentioned a scarf, but she wasn’t sure, so I set the idea aside. Then the weather turned cold- maybe a shawl would be nice.

Short notice! Which calls for fat needle knitting.

Here’s the shawl/scarf- wide enough to keep shoulders warm, but narrow enough to be a scarf, if the weather is warm.

Just over a skein of Provence, nice soft cotton. Pattern is available in the store.

The medallion sweater is that work of art on the cover of the current Vogue Knitting.

Carol decided to make one. She’s doing it in pale blue Provence, and it’s looking great.

She says that, like the swirl shawl, there are some tricks to this. And it’s much more fun to have company for this sort of thing. So she’s leading a class/knit a long for it- two class sessions to get it rolling, then drop in to work together.

Carol is the creator and keeper of Julia the Chicken. If anyone wants to visit Julia please be warned that she is in residence only until mid July, when, like all good chickens, she heads to The Country for the summer season.

We’re a week into the knit a long, and the shawls are starting to grow. Lynn’s is the most impressive, she’s getting into the rhythm of the individual swirls.

Dot and Joy had a slower start, but are more comfortable with the swirls now.

Dot says that it’s easier to follow the pattern if she writes it out on file cards, one line per card. Lace knitters do this too- move the card to the bottom of the pile, and you can keep track of the row number at the same time.

The Swirl Shawl Knit a long has begun!

Kim promised that this would be tricky, but worth it. The swirlers started off with great gusto

And the need to concentrate soon became clear.

There was a lot of counting, some mumbling, some muttering about how this wasn’t going to be the sort of thing you do while watching tv.Kim said that she started her first swirl four, or was it five? times, but after a couple of swirls it moved along nicely and becomes a nice knit. And with the color changes there’s something to look forward to.

But Lynn kept at at, quietly counting and noting. And look at that swirl!

Blue swirl, lots of pink in the yarn. Hopefully we’ll see more of it next week. The color changes in the yarn are fascinating.

The yarn, Melody from Jojoland, has gotten a lot of people thinking about what to do with it. It’s going to be turned into scarves and shawls, but also a throw for the foot of the bed and a toddler sized poncho.

Diane knit up the Genevieve Wrap (named for her mom) out of Bonsai. It’s less than impressive on the mannequin.

The tag was put on by Carol. It says, “I’m amazing! Try me on-you’ll love me!”

So we had a try on session, and it really is amazing.

It also looks great on Linda, who comes all the way from South Carolina to buy her yarn at Close Knit. She’s still deciding what color to make.

The pattern is in the store. It uses 7 skeins of Berroco Bonsai, a bamboo yarn with great drape and a little shine. Soft and summery.

Come try it on, we’ll take your picture, too.

We have a new visitor in the store! This is Julia the Chicken.

Why knit a stuffed chicken? Just think how great she will look as a pillow in a guest room of a country house in Vermont.

And since she’s named for Julia Child, she will inspire not only knitters, but cooks.

Jin took one look at the Roxy yarn, from Lang, and said,”Dressy summer top!”

It’s a blend of silk and microfiber, 4 stitches to the inch on a size 10 needle. The colors are jewel tones.

Jin’s top will look great under a suit jacket or all by itself.

She’s written up the pattern, it’s in the store.

The swirling starts next week, check the class list for the swirl scarf information as well as the other classes.