I hung with a lot of cool knitters this weekend! First on Friday night I met up with a few friends for knitting, chatting, and pasta. And yesterday I had a blast at the Mason Dixon Knitting Afghanalong sew-up party. It was great meeting Kay and Ann in person, and meeting several other knitters for the first time, and seeing Lis of Curls and Purls, who I had met before when she took a class with me at School Products. It was a lovely group.
It was inspiring to see so many beautiful squares! - and I understand that what Kay brought to the party was but the tip of the iceberg. And then putting them all together, they made really stunning blankets. I'm sure they'll be posting them over at their blog, if they haven't done so already.
I spent most of my time there working on one that was mostly purples and blues. It was interesting how invested I got in this blanket, as I first worked on a strip, then took someone else's strip and sewed it to mine, then sewed that section to another section. I felt like I really accomplished something - which is good since I felt very guilty the whole time that I didn't knit a single square for this project. I'm glad I could make a contribution to the sewing.
In knitting news, I'm almost finished with my poncho. I'm still astounded as I walk around New York how ponchos are EVERYWHERE. A friend was telling me about going to Macy's to buy one as a gift for someone, and they had them on three floors! I was in Old Navy last week and saw a heinous cable poncho that was obviously going for that hand-knit look but to me just looked poorly constructed and tacky. I have several ideas for ponchos, but I think this will probably be last last one I do, because, let's face it, this trend is due to go out of style any minute now. Of course, I've always loved ponchos, ever since I was a little girl. I had a blue crocheted poncho that probably came from a flea market somewhere, and I wanted to wear it every single day. I'm still like that with my favorite clothes. I just live in them. I guess it's kind of gross, but too bad.
All I have left to do on my lacy poncho is crochet a border, which I started last night. I think it will be just right for late September and early October. Unfortunately, I won't be posting a photo of the finished object, because this was one of the designs that I submitted to the Vogue Knitting On the Go ponchos/capes book. I think it would probably be okay to post a picture of a small bit of it, though, so you can expect that in the next few days.
Happy Monday, all! Hope your week is shaping up to be a good one.
Alison--It was SO GREAT to meet you! When finally got home after the sew-up party, my head was spinning so that I couldn't get to sleep. So trippy and fun to meet people who previously existed only inside my computer. Polly kept reaching over and patting my arm, and I know what she meant.
As for Your Afghan, I do think your special attention gave it some special sort of life--Kay will be posting pictures shortly. Oddly enough, we didn't take very many photos at the party because we were having such fun. I have tons of blurry pictures of people huddled over their sewing--so antique looking!
(Apologies for not coming to visit sooner--I didn't get home until Thursday and have been wallowing through home life ever since.)
Posted by: Ann Shayne | September 18, 2004 at 09:00 PM