Knitting Club at ACMA

I am very lucky to teach at Arts and Communications Magnet Academy.  This year, I am also the faculty adviser for Knitting Club.  My favourite substitute teacher, Linda, came in every Monday last year (whether working or not) to run knitting club.  This year she is doing the same thing (on Tuesdays).
Today was the first day of Knitting Club and I had Four...yes FOUR boys show up and some of my favourite girls too.  I'd post pictures but I can't put up pictures of students.  Anyway, it was great.  We made our own needles, learned knitted cast on, long tail cast on and knit stitch.  The kids struggled with the casting on and knitting but we got some stitches from one needle to another.  I'm hopeful that the kids will be coming back a lot.

Green Chili and Knitting

It's Green Chili time back home in New Mexico. There are lots of farms selling their chili on corners throughout town. They roast them there and the air is full of the smell of roasted peppers. This is one of those regional things that I can't do with out. Seriously, I can't imagine not having green chili at least once or twice a week. Of course, I live in the Pacific Northwest now and green chili isn't available (canned green chili is crap and it's not hot). However, I have a great dad who will ship me chili. So, the green chili arrived yesterday and I spent today roasting it. The house smelled amazing. My nephew and I love the smell; however, Jeff called it "Burnt pepper smell." Anyway, I spent over four hours roasting chili today. This box was full at nine this morning
.
Here they are out of the broiler.

Anyway, the roasting provided me with the opportunity to knit, put the chilies in, knit two rounds, check on chilies, knit again, flip chilies, knit again, etc. It worked great. I got done with the first sleeve of my sweater.

I'm a little concerned about the sleeve being too tight but I think I can correct that when I block it. We'll see.
So, out of all of this I got my green chili addiction fixed as well as my knitting one.

And the Knitting Continues

Well, I have actually found time to knit even though this is the third week of school. I've been hyper organized so that I don't have to do work at home. Also, my students are really nice this year which means that I come home less tired.


Anyway, the Saddle Shoulder Sweater continues. I finished the body last night. 18 inches of Prime Knitting. I also started the first sleeve. As you can see there isn't much to it yet.
Then, just for fun, I decided to give the Hemlock Ring Blanket, by Brooklyn Tweed, a go. This is the first sorta lacy item that I have done. I'm not wild about how the center turned out. However, it was such a pain to start that I decided to leave it and not rip it out again.

Both of these projects are in Cascade 220 Heathers. I just can't seem to get enough of this yarn. I just love the way it feels and how it knits up.

Okay, time to go knit some more.

New Champion!

Our youngest poodle, Trudy, won a three point major this past weekend in San Diego making her a champion. Trudy loves knitting too; she devoured my bamboo knitting needles.
Anyway, the best part about all this show stuff is that she gets to come home. She's been gone since February and we have missed her so much.
Maybe I'll welcome her back with another set of wooden needles to chew up.

The Work Continues

Here are the beginnings of the Saddle Shoulder Pullover. One skein of yarn down. It's really knitting up nicely and I'm totally in love with this colour.

Saddle Shoulder Pullover

My work on this seamless sweater is going really well. I like the bit of a pattern that it has on the sides. This is the picture from the pattern. I replace it when I get some pictures of my current work. It's a free pattern from Knitting Pattern Central. I'm tweaking the it a bit. I hate making swatch after swatch trying to get on gauge. So, I did a swatch on US 7 needles and adjusted the number of stitches to match my gauge. Plus, I liked the way the yarn worked up on these needles. I'm using Cascade's Autumn Heather.

Dishes?

Well, to go along with my knitting glass and knitting addiction, I have yet one more. I love dishes. I think I got this when I was just out of high school and went to work in a department store in their china dept. Growing up, we never had fancy dishes. I really never knew they existed until I got that job.
My current fascination is with china patterns from the '50s. I already own several sets and I just found one more that I can't do without. I figure it can't be too bad. I mean, I could be spending money on crack or something like that. I'll get a pic up when I find a good one but this pattern has a pink band with those mod 50s gold stars and in the center of the starts is a little dot of turquoise. Can't wait to get them!

Back from Men's Fall Knitting Retreat

Well, I got back from Seattle yesterday after spending the weekend at the Men's Fall Knitting Retreat.
I had such a great time. It was great being around other guys who knit. I'm actually a little sad that it had to end.
Besides the great social atmosphere, my knitting skills improved a bit. I think it was due to sitting around and knitting for hours on end.
I'm also very inspired now. Most of these guys have been knitting for years and do such amazing work. Seeing their stuff has pushed my buttons; making me want to churn out the same quality of work.
So, here I am starting a sweater that I've modified a bit. Let's see if my experiment will turn out well.