What students have been doing this summer

Tuesday Sept. 22 was the last day of summer and the last summer knitting clinic. I hold these each summer for students who want to continue to get knitting help and be with other knitters during the summer. This summer I had 4 clinics, 2 morning ones and 2 evening ones. Each group met once a month.

Summer clinics provide an opportunity for students to make new friends, see what students from other classes are doing, and in general have fun! Two of my summer clinic students who are in different classes during the fall and spring, discovered they both live in the same neighborhood and now walk together several times a week. How neat is that...knitting "begets" exercise!

Several groups from the spring and fall classes decided to get together for lunch during the summer and graciously invited me to these get-togethers. Lots of good food and conversation!

Don't let anyone tell you that knitters don't knit during the summer...my summer clinic students have been very busy this summer with their various projects. Here are some pictures:

Ann has been working on a cardigan with an "antler" cable running down the fronts and sleeves. She's occasionally "butted" heads with those antlers but has persisted and is doing a great job!









Ebbie has been making the "learn to knit Fairisle" pullover that I designed a few years ago. At first she was pulling the unused yarn too tightly across but has now mastered the right "Fairisle touch" and it is looking so beautiful!

P.S. You'll have to ask Ebbie the "secret" to having so many colors without too many yarn ends to deal with!





Ellen has started the "Panels Baby Blanket". The yarn and colors are so soft and sweet...and she is doing so well as a fairly new knitter!

I designed the "Panels Baby Blanket" because so many students were having trouble with blanket patterns that called for a large number of stitches (think 120 and up...)with a pattern stitch. When they would make a mistake and need to fix it, they would have to pull out a zillion stitches and get very discouraged. So I designed the pattern to try out different stitches in "smaller doses". Each panel has only 30 stitches...not so over-welming when a mistake is made. 4 different patterns can be used, one in each panel, or one pattern stitch can be used for all 4 panels. Several other students are working on this pattern and seem to like it. I have even made just 1 panel for a scarf. Here are some pictures of my first Panels Baby Blanket:





Emily has been working on a pretty afghan with alternating blocks of knit and purl stitches. She's making headway in what I'm sure will become a family heirloom.






Merry has been working on the "Big Needle, Little Needle" afghan. It looks so wonderful in the varigated yarn she is using and she is doing a marvelous job!











Marion and Jean have been making the "Cable Pullover":

Jean knit the shoulders together in class this week and Marion started sewing the side and sleeve seams. They both look excellent!

So, dear knitters, summer knitting is alive and well in Baltimore!

Mary, who is now "revving up" for fall classes and lots of knitting!

Sheep and Wool, Students' projects, and a tiny mystery!

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year: the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival! My dear husband loves to go and wander around the whole Festival grounds, I love to go and spend my time looking over the various yarn vendors' offerings! So, we both have fun. If you are a knitter and live anywhere near Howard County Fairgrounds in Maryland, you should go at least once in your life. It is always the first weekend in May. Here's their website:
http://www.sheepandwool.org/
Even on a slightly rainy, over-cast day like yesterday it was a super experience of people," knitterly" things, and lots of sheep baa-baaing!

I was very restrained in my buying: only one skein of yarn and one pattern.
The yarn is "sitting" in my brain deciding what it wants to become.

And, the pattern is the Musette scarf by Candance Eisner Strick.It calls for a boucle yarn and has a flower on one end and the other end pulls through the center of the flower.

The pattern is also "mulling over" in my mind mentally going through my stash.

You can see more details about the Musette scarf at:
http://www.strickwear.com/cgi-bin/viewitem.pl?cat=1055

The "sitting" and "mulling" in my brain are always exciting and one of my favorite parts of knitting where there are endless possibilities and no mistakes made yet!




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Oh, and also my Max bought me a 2009 Maryland Sheep and Wool T-shirt. I just love this year's logo drawing!

Last week a couple of my Mitered Square Workshop students came to their regular classes with Mitered Square projects in progress! :

Peg's Mitered Square Mini-purse almost finished. She did finish it in class and it looks great!

Ann started a the Mitered Square Scarf Pattern that I designed for my students. This scarf looks great with varigated yarn and she's doing a lovely job!

There will be more student projects to share in my next post! So, students keep those knitting needles clicking and be ready to be photographed!

Now for the "little mystery" project. Can you guess what this is (and yes, it's crocheted not knitted, but you non-crocheters can still "guess"!) ??

Hope all knitters are enjoying whatever weather you're having. Here in Maryland it's spring and raining...but a super day for sitting inside by a window soaking in the greenery of spring and knitting!

Mary