Rosebud Baby jacket and class and a brochure

This spring I made a little jacket and cap for a friend at church who was having a baby girl. Many of my students have requested the pattern and for now I will only provide it to students who have taken one of my "Rosebud" classes. So, I have scheduled a Rosebud class for July 8, 2009 at 10 am. The cost will be $10 a student. We will be making a little purse with the Rosebuds on the flap so that the stitch can be learned on a small amount of stitches.

Everyone who takes the class will receive the pattern for the baby jacket and cap plus a pattern for a Rosebud Scarf.

If you'd like to sign up email me at

notesfromknitclass@gmail.com

Also, I have put a brochure on the left sidebar with information about my classes. You can download it at http://bit.ly/19xWtdc and print it out. I am offering my current students a $10 rebate if a student they have referred signs up for one of my fall classes. So, my dear current students, you can use the brochure to "lure" a new student in and get your rebate!

Knitting hugs from Mary, who is currently making another baby sweater for another new baby at church and calling it "Eat Your Peas and Carrots". Summer Clinic students can see it in progress and fall students will get to see the photos since little babe is due the end of July!

Travel knitting

My DH Max and I took a road trip down to Florida for my nephew's wedding. There were lots of festivities at beautiful Florida houses as friends of my brother and his wife hosted some fun parties. Here are pictures I took at the "Cocktails on the Beach" party at a lovely home right on the ocean and the fun "Bluegrass and BBQ on the Banks" at a wonderful home on the Intercostal Waterway.
I especially love car trips because my DH really likes to drive which leaves me free to "knit my way" to where we're going! On this trip one of things I worked on (and finished!) was this:


A little crocheted purse for a specific purpose: I like to walk around the house listening to music on my much loved Ipod Touch but I'm not always wearing something with pockets to stick my Ipod in while I'm listening. So....the little Ipod Neck Pocket was born! I started out writing down what I did as I did it, but kept adding little finishing touches that I didn't write down so unfortunately don't have a finished pattern to share. The cord starts out as a chain but I added stitches and several inches of single crochet where it lays against my neck which makes it very comfortable. I put the Ipod in upside down so I can reach the on and off buttons easily. Here are some more photos:


Here it is being worn around my neck:

















And, here is a close-up with Ipod in it. The X is to safeguard the Ipod from falling through the opening!











All in all, I'm a happy little camper wearing it, as strange as it may look!!

Oh, also on the trip we listened to the Audio CD of "The Number One Ladies Detective Agency". We loved it and we're looking forward to our next long car trip to listen to the next book in the series: "Tears of the Giraffe".

Let me know what you are reading, listening to, knitting and crocheting this summer...
Mary

A shrug vest with sleeves (free pattern for sleeves) and another student project.

I have a finished project to "show off"! My Baby Alpaca Grande Vest is done (you can see what others have done with this pattern on Ravelry at http://tinyurl.com/ptqkvt ). I bought the pattern from L & B Yarn Co. (http://tinyurl.com/pn39kg ).
I decided to add sleeves to it and have written up a pattern for what I have done. So, if you decide to buy the pattern and make this vest, you can download my sleeve pattern for free here:

http://bit.ly/19xWtdc

). And, here are some pictures:














About 10 of my students are making this shrug/vest. Marion, one of my Tuesday morning students brought in her finished one so I had to take a picture. Didn't she do a great job!?
Bonnie, one of my Monday morning students, just finished a vest.
Isn't it cute? She did a beautiful job!

















Oh, here's a picture for another clue for the mystery project that I made:
So, I use it to hold something and it's VERY little...any guesses yet??

If you want me to email you when I put up my next installment (post) please let me know in a comment. I'll then add you to the notify list.

Well, off to knit and hopefully finish some more projects....
Mary

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!




-->

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

Mitered Fun

This week I gave 2 Mitered Square Workshops. For the class I designed a little purse (shown above) made of 2 mitered squares to teach mitered square basics. Each person received a key ring to attach to their little purse. They had a choice of a button loop closure (shown below) or a flap (like the one above). I have attached one of mine to my everyday purse to carry lactaid tablets in. Students had other ideas such as carrying a decaf tea bag in case the restaurant where you're eating doesn't have decaf tea. Or, clip it to your jacket zipper and carry a key when you're out walking or jogging.


In trying to find some YouTube videos of mitered squares to put here on the blog for you to watch, not only did YouTube come up with knitting videos but also carpentry videos...so knitters, we share the "mitered square" with woodworkers!

Mitered Square knitting is sometimes called Modular knitting. And, you might ask who "invented" modular knitting and thus mitered squares? Well, a woman named Virginia Woods Bellamy invented a type of knitting in the 1940s. Where did I find this information? On "the girl from auntie's wonderful website:

http://www.girlfromauntie.com/journal/index.php/2005/so-who-invented-modular-knitting/

She has an interesting history of Virginia Woods Bellamy and Modular knitting.







Here are some "scenes" from the workshops. Everyone left with one square finished and had at least started the 2nd square. Some left with the little purse almost finished.
I think everyone had a good time and learned a new technique. It's so much fun introducing knitters to new ways to take their "knitting path".

I also designed a scarf of mitered squares and a cap for my students to get more mitered square practice.



The cap is a variation of Holly's cap at
http://www.hjsstudio.com/miter.html#hat .
She has a great tutorial and all kinds of information on her website.

And, here's a picture of the scarf.










Well, that's enough "mitering" for today. I have some more pictures and ideas which I'll post soon.

Mittens visits class and a tutorial

On Monday our kitty, Mittens, decided to "visit" class by jumping up on the knitting table. All of my students love that and don't like me to tell Mittens she doesn't belong there...Mittens doesn't like that either!

Yesterday a student was working on a pattern that called for a yarn-over followed by a SKP (slip a stitch, knit the next stitch, pass slipped stitch over the just knitted stitch). To do a yarn-over after a knit stitch, usually you just bring your yarn forward as if you are going to purl and knit the next stitch:



Her pattern read as follows:
K 1, YO (yarn over), SKP
Now, doing an SKP right after a YO can be tricky because the YO likes to “sneak” over the slipped stitch and look like the stitch that you will use to pass over the knitted stitch:


So, you will need to move the yarn-over out of the way and pull the "real" slipped stitch over the knit stitch:
Dear knitters, do watch out for those yarn-overs!

Free Pattern Spring gift for knitters

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring
I just love this part of spring when the new "baby" leaves are first coming out. There's a tree outside our bedroom window that I just love to watch each day to see the leaves grow.
Here's a picture I took this morning from our window:
In honor of spring I am sharing a "leafy" pattern. It's called "Leaf Bookmark & Necklace". Leaves often represent new life to me. You can use it to wear or to bookmark your current "read". This is a pattern I designed last summer. I made these for some special people who briefly entered my life. Last summer I became very anemic and had to have 8 weekly iron infusions. The nurses in the Infusion room were so caring and made the experience a happy one. So I gave each nurse one on the day of my last infusion. They were delighted and I was very grateful for the "new energized life" in my body! It's a quick pattern to make so it makes a great last minute gift. Here are some pictures:

Here's where you can get the pattern:

http://bit.ly/19xWtdc

 

So, put some new life into your knitting with the Leaf Bookmark and Necklace!