Getting Off a Plateau -- by guest blogger Jana

I may be jinxing things by saying this, but I think I have had some kind of breakthrough with my knitting. For a very long time now, I've been frustrated by an inability to stay focused on one project and see it through to the end. That's why there are currently somewhere north of 3 dozen UFOs in my closet (and car and living room and freezer). However, over the past couple of months I seem much more able to stay with a project until it's done. I think doing the Ravellenic games may have been a factor -- I forced myself to stay with one project to meet the deadline, and discovered that it's not such a bad way to go. Obviously there will always be a couple of things I'm working on, 'cause I can't take the cable sweater with the 46 row repeat chart with me everywhere I go. But I'm hopeful that I'm becoming at least as much of a product knitter as a process knitter.

Knitting at Lucky Bean tomorrow! by guest blogger Annie

Just a quick reminder that we'll be knitting at Lucky Bean Cafe inside the old Borders at Sanbusco tomorrow from about 10am to noon. Everyone is welcome to come stitch, chat, and enjoy coffee, breakfast, or treats.

A Good Time Was Had by All by guest blogger Annie

I hope everyone who went to the Wool Festival enjoyed it as much as I did. It was a rocky start to the day with a minor car kerfluffle that reassigned the driving duties to Jana after we lost our chauffeur for the day. Jana did a fabulous job of keeping the those of us who are a bit "uncomfortable" on that road happy and calm and we arrived no worse for the wear and ready to shop.

After a brief stop at the carnival ride style porta potties (they weren't all leveled correctly and tended to rock and rock when entered) we headed to the Plain & Fancy booth to discover they have a new yarn this year - a wool/silk combination single ply and in all the beautiful colors they are known for. This is my favorite vendor and I  should have just headed to the Ravelry tent to knit at that point as I dispensed with my allotted funds there but I thought I should at least see everything else on offer.  I was relieved to see that there were no chocolate or multicolor bunnies for sale so was able to easily walk by the bunny vendor without a purchase.

Sheila had a mission for the day as she was looking for a few very specific fibers for what will certainly be a spectacular sweater so that added a little scavenger hunt style challenge to our browsing. We admired the many dogs who came out to entertain us and queried strangers about the patterns/yarns for the sweaters they were wearing. It was a much cooler day than it has been in the last few years at Taos and I was delighted to see so many sweaters and shawls which I always find so exciting and damaging to my Ravelry queue! Everyone enjoyed the breakfast burritos on offer and some of those wonderful smelling roasted almonds.

Jana came well prepared with coupons to Bisou Basin for us all so we felt obligated to make at least a small purchase there - can't let a coupon go to waste! Next in line was the Elsa Wool booth which is so dangerous and but their yarn is just too yummy to resist.

We enjoyed running into to so many LGY knitters and getting to see everyone's purchases. I think I've been in a bit of a funk with my knitting lately and this event was just the thing to bring back my enthusiasm. I've got at least a dozen new projects I'm excited to get on the needles and many more ideas of things to come. If only they knit up as fast as I can think of them!

Big thanks to Jana for taking care of us and delivering us to the alter of wool and home again.  If I've figured it out below you can see just how much fun we had by the view of Jana's car and a picture of Harry Potter the Corgi.

Many of you may have headed south this weekend for the Balloon Fiesta and I hope that was wonderful too, it's on again next weekend as well so maybe I'll get to go!. In  town next weekend we'll be knitting at Lucky Bean Cafe on Saturday form 10am -noonish and the Quilt Guild show is Sat & Sun at the County Fair Grounds on Rodeo Road. Hope you all have a great week.

Taos Wool Festival Approaches

by guest blogger Jana

A few years ago my book group had “travel” as a theme for our Christmas party potluck – we were each to talk about our favorite place we’ve traveled. Now, I’m not interested in travelling very much; my idea of heaven is sitting in my rocking chair at home with one cat in my lap and the other next to me, knitting or reading and having a cup of tea, with Van Morrison on the stereo and lots of tweetybirds at the feeders just outside the window. But since I had to say something at the party, I talked about my favorite day of the year, which does involve some travel – at least I have to spend about 3 hours in a car that day and put on shoes and leave my house and everything. I told them about the Taos Wool Festival.

The first full weekend of every October, fiber fanatics of all sorts meet at the lovely Kit Carson Park in the equally lovely town of Taos. Booths full of yarn, fiber, spinning wheels, notions, and bunnies ring the park and the interior holds food booths, tents for Ravelry get-togethers, workshops, and other fun stuff. The air is always crisp, the leaves are turning, and the whole place is packed to the gills with my people.

When I told my book group about the festival, I brought a purchase I made there many years ago: 28 yards of curly karakul sheep wool hand-dyed in oranges and pinks. It’s something I’ll likely never use in a project, but I keep it around because for me it represents the essence of possibility. That’s what yarn is to me, and that’s why I love the wool festival. 

So maybe I’ll see you there. Just don’t get between me and the Plain and Fancy booth.

Patterns, patterns everywhere by guest blogger Annie

Patterns, patterns everywhere by guest blogger Annie

It is so wonderful to awake early each morning to the crisp pre dawn air. It actually makes me want to get up earlier each day so I can enjoy the cool quiet morning and get in some extra knitting time.

There are lots of choices to be made lately in knitting land this time of year, new yarns, new pattern collections, and what to knit for the holidays if you are so inclined.  

The shop has some really wonderful new Rowan in stock Lima – an alpaca blend, & Felted Tweed, to name a couple. They also have the heavenly soft Eco Cloud and the solid color version of Eco Duo. New sock yarns continue to arrive including Pagewood Farms, Heritage 150, and new colors of Petals sock. 

Once you’ve picked your yarn of choice then it’s on to pattern selection – though I know that many of you do this in the reverse order I seem to be first drawn to the yarn then search for a pattern. There are of course the pattern books in the shop which offer an overwhelming selection but if you don’t find anything of interest there you can browse the many individual pattern notebooks and magazines for inspiration. If you still can’t find just the right pattern might I suggest heading to Ravelry for a search?  You can search by yarn/project/designer/level, etc. Searching Ravelry often leads to mind overload and an exponentially expanding queue but I’ve found some really lovely patterns and reminders of patterns I’d seen in the past while browsing there. 

Other sources of patterns are of course the multitude of websites devoted to knitting. One favorite that is celebrating its 10^th anniversary and just posted its latest edition is www.Knitty.com all of their patterns are free for the downloading and the entire archive is online. One of my favorite’s websites is www.brooklyntweed.net where designer Jared Flood has a series of download only pattern books as well as individual patterns. Last but not least on my list for patterns on the web is www.twistcollective.com they publish 4 times a year and have a great selection of designers from all over, patterns can be purchased individually.

Post a comment and let us know you’re favorite sources for patterns – and if you chose yarn or pattern first, I’d love to know!

A Change is Gonna Come

and it will be a good one for Looking Glass Yarn. Beginning Monday, September 10, 2012, the store will be open on Mondays from 10-5. No more waiting from Saturday night to Tuesday for that yarn ER visit!.
The other change is that Looking Glass will now be closed on Wednesdays (beginning Wednesday, Sept 12). That day has historically been a very slow one in the store, so the change to Monday openings will be good for business.

Please spread the word among fellow yarn people. While you're at it, go to the Looking Glass Facebook page and "like" us to keep up with all the announcements.

Early Morning Knitting by guest blogger Annie

 I’ve been enjoying the lovely early morning temps the last few weeks. I try to get a good uninterrupted hour or so of knitting in before 6am when I have to feed animals and head to workout. It has been wonderful waking up to temps in the high 50’s or low 60’s to sit down with a yummy larger knitting project. I’m working on a sweater dress with Imperial Stock Ranch yarn and I’ve made it up to the neck and sleeves which makes for quite a bit of squishy Columbia yarn on my lap. The cool morning temps are just perfect for working larger projects that may need to be worn in just a few short weeks. I get so excited every year around this time and it never fails that a bout of startitis runs through most knitters I know. What are you itching to cast on now that fall is near?

Exciting New Patterns

by Jana

I've come across a couple more pattern collections I want to alert people to.

Cookie A (of sock fame) has an e-book collection of 13 patterns called Cookie A Knitwear Volume One: Shapes+Form. Very intriguing approach to garment shaping (only one sock pattern).

Ann Weaver, whom I've praised here before, has a new e-book collection through Knit Picks called Twentieth Century Graphic. Her interest is in color theory, but the shapes are interesting also.

It's great to see these new designers finding an audience and to see how technology is changing the way they do their work.

The Gauge, She Lies

by Jana

I’ve been thinking lately about the whole notion of gauge and gauge swatches in knitting. It’s taken as the First Commandment of Knitting that you must do a gauge swatch of at least 4” square and then wash and block it in order to determine your gauge for your garment. The assumption is that, if you do this, you’ll get the exact size you choose to knit. Some of you may belong to this school of belief – I’ve even had one knitter near and dear to me claim that she always gets gauge and it always works out. If she’s not just messing with my head, then I’m happy for her. But I have to tell you, that ain’t my experience.

Let’s start with the gauge for a pattern. Even using the exact same yarn in the same color as the pattern, I’ve almost never gotten the gauge called for using the recommended needle size. I always go down at least two sizes to get anywhere near the gauge the pattern requires. I remember one Vogue Knitting pattern where my gauge wasn’t even in the same zip code as the pattern. By going down to practically sock needles and knitting as tightly as I could with that bulky-weight yarn, I finally got the gauge called for – but the resulting fabric could stand on its own and serve to insulate the space shuttle, it was so dense. When I looked at the picture of the sweater in VK and used the model’s hand as a relative size measurement, it was obvious that the sweater pictured could not have been knit in the recommended gauge either.

I recall reading somewhere that Elizabeth Zimmerman said that she believed the gauge listed in patterns was as tight as humans could conceivably knit. That’s not how I knit, and that’s one reason I say that gauge is a lying liar.

Here’s the second reason I question gauge’s honesty: the gauge you’ll get over a 4 inch square is nothing at all like the size the garment will be once you’ve knit something 44 inches or whatever around. A 4 inch square cannot really account for drape or the effect of thick and thin yarn over a much larger area. It’s really frustrating to knit the whole back of a sweater and have it come out at 50 inches wide when you were aiming for 40.  Even if you take your ruler and measure your gauge over 4 inches at various places on the sweater back and are getting 4 stitches/inch, and even though you cast on and worked 160 stitches, which ought to equal 40 inches, you’re still likely, if you’re me, to get something a lot bigger.

What’s a knitter to do? My only solution has been to cultivate a relaxed attitude about how something fits. I don’t mind clothes being a bit oversized. I also measure the total width of garment pieces early in the process and decrease (rarely, increase) to bring things back in line. I can do that because I don’t care to knit garments with lots of “sewing pattern shaping,” as I think of it. I’d be curious to hear how the rest of you feel.

Santa Fe County Fair by guest blogger Annie

I wanted to reminder everyone about the SF County Fair.

The fair this year is Aug 2-5. If you plan to enter anything you need to take it on 7/30 between 1-6pm or 7/31 between 9am-1pm. I haven’t looked at the fair book yet but last year they promised to broaden the hand spinning categories. The fair is very tiny and struggling to keep going. There is an active 4H component in SF but very few adults participate in the fair. I'd love to see more knitters,crocheters, spinners, and weavers, as well as all other artists and crafters get involved by entering their works. It's just plain old fun - plus the fair building is air conditioned so as you browse the exhibits you will be nice and cool!

If you want to see the fair book or get more info you can go to:
http://santafeextension.nmsu.edu/santa-fe-county-fair.html

My Love at First Sight by guest blogger Annie

Jana gave you her idea of the best pattern ever so when I saw this I thought I had to pass it along. Go to Ravelry's pattern section and look up "Union Suits - Adults". There you will find what I think is the absolute best pattern ever for the one garment that I would be happy to wear every single day of the year, if only they were acceptable outwear! I have long been a fan of the adult footie pajamas but an actual Union Suit with a flap door is so much better than that. We could knit them and wear them to a knitting slumber party!

Tour de Fleece Wrap up by guest blogger Annie

So the Tour de Fleece ended on Sunday and it took me until yesterday to realize that while I had lots of fun spinning for 3 weeks straight I totally screwed up my destash plan for the year. All year long I've been trying to knit only from the stash, buy very little yarn, and gift  yarn that I knew I wouldn't knit. It was going pretty well and by June I had knit about 22,000 yards from the stash. Then TdF comes along and I spun for three weeks every minute that I wasn't at work or a knitting event. I nearly spun up all the fiber in my stash and even though I didn't reach my goal I was content. Last night I was putting it all together and I thought I should add up the total yardage spun to include with the total weight. That's when it hit me.....I would have to add that yardage to the stash and undo some of the destashing work I'd done all year ----urgh. Now I'm thinking that maybe everyone I know really wants some handspun yarn for their birthdays and Christmas.....even the non knitters.

Love at First Sight

by guest blogger Jana

Run as fast as you can, do not linger, get to Ravelry and look up this pattern: Sanagi Dress by Olga Buraya-Kefelian. Go to the video and watch the 10 different ways you can wear it. THIS THIS THIS is my kind of styling -- a little bit Japanese a whole lot fun, and very very different. I swore I'd never get married again but I may have to ask the NM legislature for a law permitting me to marry a dress.

Someday I Will Find You

by guest blogger Jana

Wanted: knitting bag. Perfect specimens only need apply (see requirements below).

1.            Stand up by yourself – have some backbone!

2.            Widebodies only. No skinny shanks bags for me. But not pear-shaped – definitely NOT bigger on the bottom than the top.

3.            Your straps must fall automatically to the outside, not toward the inside of the bag. Don’t be so clingy.

4.            Light-colored linings only. I don’t need anyone with deep dark secrets.

5.            Multiple pockets, at least one of which is big enough for a pattern or magazine. You need to be able to carry whatever baggage I have.

6.            But the pockets can’t be so deep I have to root around in them to find things. See #4 above.

7.            Separate compartments to hold non-knitting stuff (wallet/keys/lipgloss/phone/snacks). Please respect my boundaries.

8.            Able to pass for a real purse. I want to able to take you anywhere, so please don’t embarrass me.

I know you’re out there.

Buy a Bag for Charity

by guest blogger Jana

Like many knitters I am also a knitting bag fiend and am on the quest to find the perfect one. My personal bag needs list is a subject for another (very long) future blog, but in the meantime I wanted everyone to know about the sale coming up next week of Jordana Paige bags -- they're "seconds" for only $50 each, and 100% of the proceeds goes to the Preeclampsia Foundation. The sale is next Wednesday, July 18, and is online at jordanapaige.com -- where you can also find out more about the sale and about the charity. If you score one and I don't, please don't tell me how wonderful the bag is.

Knitting in fiction by guest blogger Annie

Knitting in fiction by guest blogger Annie

Over the weekend I had the chance to catch up on my reading. I picked up A Fatal Fleece    by Sally Goldenbaum at the library. I had never heard of this author but I liked the cover and needed something to simply escape into so I took a chance. I really enjoyed the book which tells the story of a group of knitters and their loved ones in a small seaside town. The knitters become amateur sleuths when a local legend is found murdered in his yard. I was able for a few hours to just immerse myself in the cast of characters and forget my troubles, which to me is the sign of a good read. What I didn’t know when I selected this novel is that it is the 5^th in a series so I’m now anxious to see what other adventures the group undertakes. 

Do you have a favorite novel with knitting in it? I know many knitters have switched entirely to audio books and I enjoy them very much. Sometimes I just like the feel of book as I sit curled up in my chair, especially on a nice rainy weekend.

Shredded Dignity

by guest blogger Jana

Think of me surrounded by piles of yarn as I tried to gather together the tattered remains of my dignity and come to grips with the damage I did to my budget at the 5th anniversary sale last Friday. That's how I spent my weekend. How about you?

There was some hope that, since I couldn't get to the sale until 7:30 am, most of the stuff I was interested in would have been snapped up already, saving me from myself. I reckoned without Annie and Amy, who managed in the midst of shopping for themselves to set aside "a few" skeins they thought I might like. "A few" as in "all the MaggieKnits linen in the colors we haven't already grabbed." That came to about 27 skeins. Plus the two or three Amy rooted out from under some other things. Then there was the Sublime merino boucle in -- surprise! -- just enough skeins to make a sweater. I fell over a bag of the Malabrigo worsted in the "Frank Ochre" color I adore. And some Yummy sock yarn because, you know, sock yarn doesn't count as stash.. And while I was grabbing at the Hempathy, a bag and a half of Ripple leaped off the shelf and hit me on the head. Ripple in, I might add, a color I already had enough of at home from a previous sale accident to make a sweater. I guess now I'll make two sweaters. The universe demands it.

On Sunday I had to try to wrestle it all into the yarn room. Turns out I don't have enough of those wire mesh cubes. Turns out I also can't find any more in town. But wait! The six cubes holding my knitting books don't really need the mesh back -- I can remove the backs and have enough to build three more cubes to hold yarn! And it won't cost me anything!

Here's a helpful tip for anyone who might ever use the wire mesh cube storage system. Turns out the back is there for a reason. IT HOLDS THE WHOLE THING TOGETHER SO IT DOESN'T COLLAPSE.

So thanks to Sheila and Kay for providing me with such entertainment and a learning experience all at once. Let's do it again sometime.

Yarn Fumes

by guest blogger Jana

So Looking Glass is having its 5th Anniversary Sale tomorrow and Saturday -- endless opportunities for stash acquisition. I expect that I will humiliate myself once again and exceed whatever fantasyland budget I set for myself, but honestly, it's not a lack of willpower -- it's yarn fumes. This is a medical condition that has received virtually no attention from the medical/scientific research community -- I suspect collusion between that group and the sheep/alpaca lobby. Its symptoms include, but are not limited to, a state of denial about how much yarn is already in the stash, a willingness to ditch any "rules" about what colors and/or fibers are appropriate for the victim, temporary blindness about the size of the Visa bill, and an enormous ability to rationalize any purchase ("I'm shopping locally and helping out my community"). In my case, the condition comes on whenever I'm within eyesight of the words "sale" and "yarn" combined. The only treatment for it is to make sure that the only yarn on sale contains mohair. I suspect this will not be the case at Looking Glass. I will report further once I recover from this latest assault on my immune system.

Tour de Fleece - get your wheels going by guest blogger Annie

Tour de Fleece - get your wheels going by guest blogger Annie

I can’t believe it’s the end of June and you know that for me and lots of other spinners that means it’s time for the Tour de Fleece! What is the Tour de Fleece? It’s a spin along on Ravelry with the Tour de France bicycle race! The goal is that each day the Tour races you also spin, when they take a rest day we take a rest day. If you’re competitive you can join one of the many teams on Ravelry, upload pictures of your progress and compete for prizes but here at Looking Glass we just do it for fun and bragging rights. This year the Tour runs from June 30 – July 22 with rest days on July 10^th & 17^th.  Those of you who are interested in watching the Tour De France can find daily coverage online or on NBC Sports network if you have basic cable or Dish.

I do like a bit of friendly competition but mostly this is just a fun way to concentrate some time on reducing the fiber stash. When I learned to spin I was very dedicated to spinning at least one evening a week, as time has passed I tend to only spin in fits & starts, usually only close to the monthly spinning group at the shop. The fact that I spin very little has not slowed my fiber acquisition, especially since the shop has so many really lovely hand dyed and special fibers for sale. One of my favorite fiber producers is Abstract Fibers and the shop carries quite a good selection from them in various blends including Alpaca/Silk, Merino/Alpaca, Merino/Silk, and on. 

Last year during the Tour I was able to reduce my stash by several pounds which allowed me to reward myself with several more. This year the goal is 10 pounds – yikes that is such a big number in print. I think if I get a good jump on it this week then I can maybe buy some new fiber to motivate me at the big anniversary sale next week!