Food and Knitting

Food and knitting is always a good combo. Here, the Grey Heron Sock KAL ladies enjoy a Christmas luncheon courtesy of Karen, the shop owner, shown here wearing the red and grey.

Arlene showed off her completed sock. When she left last week, the toes were only partially decreased. Arlene commented that she would most likely not be able to figure out the grafting at home. She expected she would wait for me to help her at the Christmas luncheon. But look what she did all on her own. Completed, grafted and ready to wear. Well done, Arlene.

Ruth who finished her sock in class last week, showed us her latest scarf. This is not the scarf she started. Her vision for the first scarf didn't work out, so she ripped it, purchased some novelty yarn to tart up the plain red and started over. This one is gorgeous, Ruth.

I'll not mention Diane's poor sock. Diane, remember, went south for a week. That meant last week, she played catch up. At home, she thought she would be able to progress but forgot to decrease through the gusset. Oops! She had a pretty funny, fat sock when she came to class. We let her eat with us anyway.

I can't tell you how proud I am of these knitters. They came to the store in the early fall, non-knitters all. Since then, they have knit scarves, hats, mittens, learned to felt and now to make socks. Well done ladies. What shall we tackle in the new year?

Grey Heron Knitters Finish Their Socks.

Ruth finished her sock in class and learned the Kitchener stitch to close the toes. Proud is too mild a word.

Diane, though forgot her knitting bag at home when she headed off to Southern climes for a week. She was ready to turn her heel this week.

There were promises though to have all socks complete by this Wednesday so they can be worn to our Christmas lunch. I'll keep you posted on that one.

As The Heel Turns

The Grey Heron sock KAL group all turned their first heel yesterday. During class time, they went from heel turning virg - - s, to accomplished turners! Diane is on vacation somewhere sunny and warm and we all hope she took her sock and book with her. We'd feel badly, Diane if you were the only 'virg - - - ' left in our crowd!

As last week, the day started as concentration central. 'New' Diane is concentrating hard. The wonderful thing about watching 'new' Diane turn her heel is that she has tried more than once in the past to do this and found the instructions confusing and complicated. To see her accomplish her heel turn so quickly and easily was gratifying!

And here she is later with heel turned amidst expressions of " I can't believe I did this!"

Arlene had problems with her yarn splitting. Every time she did the SSK on her short row. This look on her face? Frustration!
Not a quitter, though. She persevered and before she left for the day the heel was turned and her first round of gusset decreases done.

Ruth, our knitter/comedian, shows her turned heel and you can clearly see the marker for needle number one. Ruth's comment was " No one will believe I can knit socks"!

Well done, ladies! There was laughter and fun and turned heels. What better way to spend Wednesday afternoons.

Heel Flaps

Things were in a flap yesterday at Grey Heron! Heel flaps that is.

Remember Arlene who left last week with her yarn re-wound and not a stitch complete? Look what she did at home during the week.

Arlene knows she is a very slow, methodical knitter. Knitting this seven plus inch sock leg took her a l-o-n-g time she admitted and required some 'stick-to-it-ive' discipline. Well done Arlene!

Re-arranging stitches to obtain the correct number on one needle to begin the heel flap took some time. Mostly because I didn't stress the importance of rearranging the stitches according to the leg chart on Page 17 before the class left for home last week. Sorry, ladies.

The heel flap is knit on 50% of stitches, but not the 50% already on one needle. It's the two 25% needles that come together to form the heel flap. Reversing the stitch configuration is required and can be confusing if the stitches are not already arranged according to the percentage system. Check out the chart.

Once that was done, tension mounted. There was dead silence in the room as heel flaps were begun. Can you sense it? Here's Diane in deep concentration.

Ruth too is very studious!

But by the end of class, look what was accomplished!

Diane's heel flap - just a couple rows short of completion. The entire class loved the easy row-counting tip pictured at the bottom of page 18 .

Before the ladies went home, we had a visitor. Never a dull moment at Grey Heron. Carol, a soon-to-be Great Grandma, came to the store to show off the knitting she has done for baby. I took her into the workshop room and while she oohed and awed over the ladies socks, they oohed and awed over her little, pink, baby outfit. There were knitterly smiles all around.

Next week, - the dreaded heel turn. Not!

Sock KAL At Grey Heron

What fun we had at our Need A Sock? KAL today at Grey Heron.

There were four knitters - all experienced in knitting on double pointed needles. But! None of them had ever knit with such fine yarn or such small needles.

Starting was awkward.

Can you sense tension in those hands?

As I say in the book, the awkwardness doesn't last long. Look at where they were by the end of class.

Well, poor Arlene has decided to start over.

They have homework this week. They will knit the leg at home, then next week, we do the heel flap. Stay tuned.