The Knitting on Top of the World Knit-a-thon

A Steeky Situation!

As promised, I thought I would talk a little bit this week about - EEEEK!! -- steeks! 

But first, a quick shout-out to my son, Nathan, who finished junior high on Thursday -- I'm so proud of him, and happy that junior high is behind him.  (And me, considering he is an only child!!!)  Now for a fun summer, and then high school!  

Next weekend, I'm taking him to Chicago for Brickworld, the Lego convention (it's sort of becoming our annual trek, to celebrate the end of the school year.)  I'm just wishing he were old enough to do the driving - just think of all the knitting time!  But that will come soon enough...

A Beautiful Highland Fling Plaid Jacket!

I was exchanging messages on Ravelry with Cynthia (Ravelry ID "thiagram"), and noted that her current icon ID was a great picture of her, wearing the Highland Fling Plaid Jacket!

Her knitting is gorgeous - it looks just like the sweater in the book! 

Cynthia actually made this for her daughter, who was pregnant when these pictures were taken (and who now has a little boy!). Cynthia mentioned that her son was going to make her a nice belt to wear with it, but at the time, "she was not ready for a belt!"

Steeks - SO Clever, those Fair Islanders!

After successfully resisting this technique for the past 40+ years or so, I have finally (gasp!) learned the wonderful magic trick that is steeking, to make the cute little sweater/tea cozy shown above.  For those of you who are wondering what that word means, steeking is a technique where you knit the entire body of your sweater, whether cardigan or pullover style, in one continuous tube.  This is especially nice for Fair Isle knitting, as you are just knitting in a big spiral and are always on the "front side" of the work.  When you get to any portion of the sweater that you want to be open (like the front of a cardigan, an armhole, or the neck), you sort of knit a extra little piece of fabric (called a steek, apparently) that you can slice down the middle, so you can fold the edges back and have a selvedge. 

That's right - you cut right into it.  Your knitting. Your carefully-knit, on size 3 needles no less, delicate knitting.

(Which is why it took me this many years to even CONTEMPLATE actually trying this.)

For a tutorial, you can't do better than review the postings by Eunny Jang, who used to blog about kntting (and food!) and is now the editor of Interweave Knits.  Eunny's on-line tutorial, The Steeking Chronicles, gives a replete explanation of steeking - what fibers work and which don't, and why.  And then, she gives you step-by-step instructions, with excellent photos, for the various ways of both creatting steeks, and for securing the edges of the knitted fabric before you cut it to discourage unravelling.

Here is one of the steeks on the Petite Fancy Fair Isle, for the armhole.  To make the steek, you simply alternate every stitch with whatever the two colors on that particular row might be.  You can either line them up in vertical stripes, or alternate them like a checkerboard (I chose stripes):

And here is the tiny little steek at the crew neck.  the live stitches for the bottom of the crew neck are on the stitch holder below the steek:

It is my understanding that the authentic shetland wool used in the Petite Fancy Fair Isle sweater would not ravel even if cut, as the fuzziness holds it together.  But I wasn't brave enough to try it, so I followed Eunny's instructions and ran a line of back-stitches in sewing thread down the center of a column of stitches adjacent to either side of where I planned to cut:

Here are the two rows of sewing (blue) running right up the center of two adjacent columns of stitches. The idea is to splice as many threads as possible as you stitch, to bind them together.

And here (kinda fuzzy, sorry) is the seam from the back, after you cut it.  Those backstitches help to secure the many yarn ends.  You pick up stitches for the sleeve along the edges of the steek, which is then folded under and stitched down.

There are other nice details on this pattern; you knit together the live shoulder sleeves using a 3-needle bindoff from the inside.  I like how the diamond patterns mirror each other.

And the underarms have diamond-shaped gussets (which, if you were wearing the sweater, would make it more roomy and comfortable.)

And there you have it - project 19, the World Class Wee Sweaters are completed!

Project 20 - Fair Isle Tam Capelet

Time for some more Fair Isle, this time in the round, and in a much larger gauge!  So far I've finished 2 of the circles, and have one more to go.

The colors are just beautiful, I think.  (The circle above isn't blocked yet, so the edges are curly.

These giant tam-tops knit up rather quickly, once you manage to cast on 238 (!) stitches for the outer edge.  They don't make very good knitting for the bus, though.  I ended up going backwards every time I messed up the pattern.

I figure I can put this together at the Lego convention (which will give me some blessed knitting time away from the office!).  I'm also going to bring the yarn for the Galway Bay Shrug Shawl, and the Roman Holiday Shrug, which has lots of small bits to knit separately (bobbles that get sewn together to make flowers, etc.), as those kinds of projects can come in handy to pass the time during the inevitable delays of travel; waiting for food at restaurants, etc. 

My siblings and I are also planning a major road trip this summer; we need to transport 2 cars from San Francisco to Minnesota, and then my sister and nephew will go on with one of the cars to Holy Cross, getting there in time for his junior year.  All together, there will be 5 drivers and 2 cars, so I'm hoping for some serious knitting time when I'm not behind the wheel!  I don't know what project I'll be working on by then (mid-August), but I sure hope it isn't one with lots of color changes.  I might have to juggle the order a bit in order to use the time productively.

June Knitting Night

We had a smaller-than-usual knitting night this month; the summer months are always hard, given people's travel schedules.  Kim, Karen, Eva and I had a cozy evening.  Karen has been particularly productive lately - she is making this lovely shawl for a wedding present (although it might also be used as a table runner):

 

And she is almost finished with this lovely baby sweater.  I love the different rhythms of the striping yarns together.  (She also has such lovely hands :)

And finally, she made these great cozy slippers for a mother-daughter pair.  To differentiate them, she is going to try to kool-aid dye them, which should be a blast!  I asked her to take photos for us.

Eva is nearly done with this adorable baby set; I really like the two shades of green.  This is her second seed-stitch project.  We had a little tutorial on knitting and purling into the backs of stitches, as the sweater has a shawl collar with some double increases inside the side edge (increasing in 2 adjoining stitches, so as to keep the seed stitch rhythm going in subsequent rows).

Eva kindly modelled the Edwardian Lace Coat - I think it looks wonderful on her!  (She also has the best smile; which doesn't surprise me, as she is truly a beautiful person.)

Here it is on me - I'm not wearing anything elegant enough, but wanted you to see the open back as well!

I don't know if I'll get home from Chicago in time to do a post next Sunday night, but keep an eye out for my next post - as I'll be giving away a copy of Knitting on Top of the World!

XOXOXO, Mar...

 

Ups and Downs; and Moving On Into Spring!

Easter and Spring are on the Way!

Can I just say, I am SO glad Minnesota had an unexpectedly early spring this year?  We actually enjoyed our first snowless March in over 100 years (and, lest you worry I’m jinxing it by saying this on March 29,  the weather for the next two days is predicted to be in the 70’s, so I think we are unlikely to ruin that record!)  That huge snow mountain in our cul de sac is down to about 3 feet in height, and will probably be gone in a few more days.  

I apologize for the longer-than-usual lack of bloggy goodness.  It has been a sad time, with some misfortunes visiting my friends, who have been dealt some totally unexpected losses, and I've had an unreasonable number of crises of all sorts, which has left me and those closest to my heart feeling kind of low. 

But somehow, the weight of it all seems to be lifting this week, and I can feel my heart lightening, and a resurgence of hope for brighter days ahead. 

So, What Did  I Knit While the St. Petersburg Camisole Was In the Naughty Corner?

In honor of Easter (and to bide my time while regaining sufficient equilibrium to handle having to re-sew all that pleated ribbon on the St. Petersburg Camisole), I’ve been making some other things.

First, a family of chicks!

I also made one in an egg, as an Easter present for my friend Candee’s grandchild, Mattie:

(This chick-and-egg duo is from a free pattern on the website of an amazing knitted toy designer from England called Alan Dart.)

Daddies Who (Don’t) Knit:

Mark, a lawyer on my floor, came over to tell me that his 3-year-old daughter asked him to knit her a blanket.  He explained that he doesn’t know how to knit.  She responded, “Then why don’t you learn how?”  (MWAH HAH!)

I told Mark that I willingly I teach all comers on Mondays in the 42^nd floor lunch room, but he declined my offer of a lesson or two.  However, I did learn that pink is his daughter’s favorite color.

Then, during our weekend in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, I stopped by “A Fit Knit,” a charming little yarn store, to hang out with some companionable knitters that have a knit-together on Saturdays.  The store had these little kits all prepared, with soft and thick baby yarn (Paton’s Melody) and a simple pattern; and since one of the kits was in pink, I immediately thought of Mark, and his 3-year-old… so I made this:

Thus, I have made several offerings to the Baby Gods this month, in the hopes that they will grant me grandbabies some day.  Or maybe just one to borrow for a few hours.

St. Petersburg Camisole – 4^th Project Finished – TA DAAHHH!

Phew!   Taking a break seems to have done the trick – sewing the pleated ribbon on to the St. Petersburg Camisole was MUCH more successful the second time.  (Or, at least successful enough that I don’t feel the urge to undo it yet again!)  I found myself in just the right mood for some calm sewing this weekend, and finished it!

These photos aren’t the best – the first one was taken at work this AM (my hair was still damp!)  And the second was just taken out on the deck (can you tell I was sleepy when I got off the bus this afternoon?)  It was really fun to wear this to work today – the yarn, Valley Yarns Deerfield, is incredibly soft and comfortable, and didn’t shed a bit!.  I wore it over a black t-shirt, and took it off this afternoon as it is much warmer outside, and there isn’t even any fuzz on my T-shirt!  It’s a miracle, I tell you!  It was also just perfect to keep me warm in this in-between-winter-and-summer, 40’s--50’s weather.  My work gal-pals told me it would look great with just leggings.  Now if I could just find some really looooonnnnnggg leggings.  I saw some on a British website for tall women called Long Tall Sally, and am waiting for a good excuse to spend some money on myself. 

March Knitting Night:

I forgot (as usual) to take a lot of pictures at our March knitting night.  But I did manage to take one very important photo.  The St. Petersburg Camisole reminded me of the persistence and determination needed to finish a project sometimes, and the need to get it right. 

Well,  you might recall that Kristin, our group’s newest knitter, had knitted almost an entire scarf as her first project.   But then, she unraveled the entire thing, as she just wasn’t satisfied with the end result.   She has since re-knitted and completed this legendary scarf, and it is just gorgeous!  (And although you can’t tell from this photo, it really brings out the color of her eyes as well.)   And look at those beautifully even stitches!

Kristin is now working on some of the Raggi slipper socks that I made way too many pairs of in 2008.  She is knitting in the round!  On only her second project!  I was not nearly so intrepid – I don’t think I knit anything on 5 needles until after I’d been knitting for more than a decade.  WOOO HOOOO!!! You go, brave knitter gal!

Kim was working on a elegant, simply designed stockinette cardigan in a beautiful color of Rowan bamboo cotton, sort of like banana ice cream.  She was rushing to finish it in time for a trip to St. Maarten (ahhhh bliss…).  I understand she had a crisis with the sleeves; one came out too narrow, but both were sewn on before this was discovered.  And then, there may have been a certain amount of cursing to herself when she realized that she had accidentally removed the sleeve she had knitted perfectly, instead of the other one.  (There was much commiserating in the knitting ranks this month; as I could see from your comments, I'm not the only person who has certain... "moments" in her knitting!)  I think Kim's plan was to finish this sweater on the plane flight – I’m hoping she can make this week’s knitting night to catch us up on her trip, and to show us the finished result!

Yet Another Beautiful Northern Lights Cardigan!

Lynnine sent me this photo of her beautiful NLC – I love the silver buttons she chose.  They are very similar to the Nicky Epstein buttons now being sold on her website (check them out!) 

Isn’t it beautiful?  Lynnine says, it may not be perfect (looks pretty perfect to me...), but that this is the FIRST sweater she has ever finished!!!   (How is it that all you knitters out there are so fearless about starting complicated projects early in your knitting lives!  VERY cool.) 

Lynnine is also working on the Princess Bride Mittens (and like me, had to frog them several times), but that she has now figured out how to do them, so I’m hoping she’ll forward some photos of those as well!

Please keep sending me photos of your finished projects, so that I can share them with the everybody!

Baltic Cap and Cuffs – Almost Done!

I was able to knit a lot during my trip with Nathan to LaCrosse for the model train show; I managed to make both of the armlets, and finished the rest of the pieces this week and weekend, so now they are all being blocked:

I think the sewing up may not occur until this weekend, however, as I completely submerged the pieces in water to see if I could get the maximum flatness out of blocking.  The tile stitch on the cuffs and edging tends to roll up quite a bit.  I also have another knitting night, and dinner with some girlfriends planned this week.  

Of course, the weather is due to be in the 70's for the rest of the week, so I don’t think I will be needing to wear a woolen cap and cuffs any time soon…

Oh, and it turns out that Easter is at my house this year – my Uncle Jack wants me to cook a frozen turkey he’s had taking up room in his freezer since Thanksgiving.  So, instead of ham, or whatever else most people have, we are doing turkey and having a sort of East-giving, or Thanks-ter, I guess. 

And… (Drum Roll….) – A Milestone is Reached!

Susan from Tampa was the 100^th person to join our Ravelry Group, Nicky Epstein KOTOTW Knitathon! In honor of being the 100^th person to sign up, I shall send Susan some yarny goodness!  Probably something lightweight, as she lives in Tampa…  Hmmm…. Time to hit the stash!  

And now that I’m in a giving mood (maybe because it is almost East-giving at my house???)

… IT IS GIVEAWAY TIME AGAIN!!!

I have 3 copies of Knitting on Top of the World by the brillllliant Nicky Epstein, which were generously contributed by Soho Publishing, to give away to 3 lucky readers!   This time, to enter the contest, I'm asking you to email me a photo (or description, if you lack the necessary technology) of whatever is on your needles right now, so I can see what you are all working on, and I also want to know how many knitting projects you have going right now.  My knitting friends run the gamut, from buying yarn and working on only one project at a time, to (ahem) insane me, with about 15 things on the needles at once (OK, I’ve worked that down from 25 at once, people!! – at least some progress is being made, albeit at a glacial level of speed!)

SO:

To be eligible for a copy of KOTOTW, just send to me, at [email protected],  either:

-          A picture of what you are currently knitting or a description if you don’t have the camera/technological wizardry to send photos); AND

-          The total number of knitting projects you have on the needles right now.

 

I’ll keep the contest open until Monday, April 5 at midnight!

That’s all for now!

XOXOXO Mary

Knit, Knit, Knit... Study, Study, Study...

Project 2 – the Copenhagen Royal Shawl – FINISHED!

I finished my Copenhagen Royal Shawl!  (YAAAYYYY!!!)  I really like the way it came out.  (These aren’t great pictures; I promise to take better ones soon!)

 

This shawl is a very light and elegant garment, but cozy at the same time; having the attached scarf helps to keep it on your shoulders.  And I figured my heart pin would be a good choice for the neck, considering Valentine’s Day is nearly upon us (note to self – must eat lots of Haagen-Dasz Chocolate ice cream to compensate for lack of romantic gifts, due to fact that boyfriend is completely imaginary at this point…)

For those of you knitting along on this project, I have a recommendation which may make sewing it together less daunting.  I think the standard way to go about this, would be to sew the individual squares together in strips first, and then to sew the strips together.  However, then you would need to start and stop a sewing thread each time you added an individual square to a strip – too many thread ends and starting and stopping, IMHO.

So, I sort of laid the squares out in the way shown on the diagram, and then sewed the entire looooonnnng seams, first one way, then the other way.  Here’s a diagram that sort of explains the seams I sewed; they are numbered to show the order, and I added arrows to show the direction I was sewing in.  This way I didn’t have to stop and start the sewing so much, and it seemed to go pretty easily. 

This was a pretty lengthy project --  I think the NLC probably took only about 45 hours to make, maybe 50 if you count the bead sewing; but this one took at least 70, I think.  (Knitting on 5 needles slows me down, I guess) . I am going to the orchestra next Friday night with my friend, Laurie, so I’ll have the perfect occasion on which to dress up and wear my new shawl :D !

Northern Lights Update:

I had a phone call this week from Coldwater Collaborative, the LYS where I ordered the buttons for my NLC.   I was so excited, thinking that the buttons finally came in!  Unfortunately, the owner said that, although her button shipment came, my particular buttons were on back order (oh well, at least they haven’t been discontinued!!!)  So, I am STILL waiting for the chance to wear my beloved NLC!

HOWEVER, my friend Renay (she of the broken foot) managed to finish hers this week, and wore it to a luncheon event we both attended – voila!

Doesn’t it look fabulous!  Note the contrasting button bands – sigh.  Too wonderful!  This sweater is evidently already the object of much covetousness in her office. 

Renay also had a predicament that she solved in a particularly knitterly way – her broken foot has a cast on it, but her toes are uncovered at the end.  Given that it is between 0 and 20 degrees around here, she can hardly leave her toes bare –so she knit a sort of toe snuggy to cover her poor freezing tootsies!

So clever! 

How to Sew on Beads:

BTW, I should share an idea about how to sew on all those many beads!  I used a long length of sewing thread, and starting at the first bead in the row, I wove the end in, gently spiraling around and through some of the “floats” on the back of the yoke, along the same row where the beads were sewn.  When I reached the location of the first bead, I made a little loop and pulled the thread through on the back of where the bead would go to make a knot, and then sewed through the bead 5 times.  (I usually sew through the holes of buttons 7 times for good luck, but 7 seemed like overkill for my tiny crystal beads!)  Then, with the thread at the back, I made another little loop and pulled the thread through it to make another “knot”, and then gently spiraled the needle through to the location of the next bead.  Remember, you need to yoke to be able to stretch, so you can’t pull the thread really tight between beads or the yoke will lose its flexibility and stretchiness. 

See the little zigs of thread?  That is part of the spiral of thread between two beads.  This method worked really well, and also saved me from having to tie on and tie off a new thread for every single bead; this will lessen the risk of those little thread ends wiggling loose over the years as well, as there are far less of them!

Project 3 – The Princess Bride Mittens

I’ve started in on the Princess Bride Mittens (whee – another project that caught my eye immediately when I bought KOTOTW, considering the freezing climate here!)

I'm having a blast knitting these; the yarn, Filatura di Crosa Maxime, is wonderful to work with.  Soft and spongy/springy, it is turning out really easy to make a nice and smooth fabric, even though for the fair isle pattern that makes up most of the mitten, there are 3 colors in some of the rows (!).  I am also really liking the gold yarn, Filatura di Crosa “New Smoking.”  My scant experience with metallic yarns has been that they are kinda scratchy.  However, this one is soft, which is wonderful!  This is also the first project in which I am using the EXACT yarn and colors recommended in the book.  It is such a pleasure to be able to make something that looks just like the picture!  My wonder-nephew was very impressed.

I am knitting these on two circulars, rather than on 5 dpn’s; I like to make my socks this way, and find it goes faster.  I am also knitting these inside-out; this way, the “floats” are carried on the outside of the circumference of the knitting, which makes them longer, and will make them looser and less likely to “pull” in the fabric, than if I knitted them to the inside.

 

Here is my first attempt:

 

I was surprised at how quickly these were going – 2 or 3 evenings, and the first one was all done!   (Part of that speed has to do with the fact that, to me, projects like this are un-put-down-able - I get a real "just let's do one more repeat" thing going, and before I know it, it is past midnight...) 

However, when I tried the completed mitten on, I discovered that, in fact, it was just too narrow for my wide hand (I am just big-boned, I guess.  Comes with the territory when you are 6 feet tall.)  So, I had to decide what to do; I didn’t want to go up another needle size, because I really liked the density of the fabric on these needles (I’m using 3’s, because I knit so tightly).  So, then, should I increase a whole 8 stitch pattern repeat on both the front and back?  Would that make it too wide?  On the other hand, if I increase less, then the pattern won’t be continuous all the way around, but will “break” at the sides of the mittens, which I don’t want.  Should I increase gradually at the sides, working in the new pattern stitches as I go?  Or should I do all the increasing down near the top of the cuff?

I decided to go ahead and increase a full 8 stitch pattern repeat on both the front and the back of the mitten, making the circumference 80, rather than 64 stitches.  Although these will make the mittens pretty roomy, I think that will actually be a nice thing; I don’t’ like to wear mittens form-fitting, like gloves.  I will also need to lengthen a bit because my fingers are so long, I think.

I also decided to do the increasing right above the cuff, rather than gradually, because when I lay my hand flat, the width increases so markedly from the wrist.  Instead of increasing just 4 stitches on the first plain purple row above the cuff to make 64 stitches, I increased 14 on that row; and then increased 6 on the next row, working these increased stitches right into the pattern repeat.

This morning I unraveled a bit more; I had put the thumb hole up higher, but when I tried the mitten on it seemed too high.  So I redid it, and now we'll see how this one fits, once the top decreases are done!  (I will have to start them earlier, because my mitten is wider...)

Another thing that really helps when knitting these, is to keep the various colors of yarn "stacked" on each row the same way.  As I knit along picking up the various colors of yarn, I keep the purple on top, the blue in the middle, and the navy at the bottom.  The floats line up really nicely when you do it this way, and your balls of yarn don't twist around each other and drive you nuts with tangling.

Here is what the back looks like; this also gives you an idea of how the floats come out when you knit these inside out, as they form a concentric circle bigger than the front of the fabric and are thus looser...

I wish I could go dig in and finish this mitten right now, but unfortunately, I have to do some work this weekend, and then some SERIOUS studying for the Real Estate Specialist Certification exam; which is sort of a mini-bar exam to prove you are a skilled real estate lawyer.  It is really cutting into my evening and weekend time - ARRGGHH!!!  I will be SOOOO glad when I walk out of the test at noon on Saturday, February 27 – I bet I’ll feel light as a feather, when that weight has been lifted from my shoulders.  I know I need to study, though; the bar association handed out 17 sample questions this week, and I got 4 wrong.  I will need to do better than that to pass!

Here are the tomes I need to memorize – Eeeeuuuuwww!  My son took one look and said, “So… this is why you always tell me not to go to law school, huh…”.  Yup. Well, one good reason, anyway.  Luckily for me, these books are all 3-ring binders and lay flat when you open them; AND, I can knit stockinette or garter stitch without looking while I study.  So, since the current KOTOTW project is the Princess Bride Mittens (more on those later), which are HARDLY the kind of knitting I can do without looking, I’ve been working on some more basic projects:

This is the Port Chester Cowl, a free pattern available on the Lion Brand website.  It is knitted out of 4 skeins of Amazing, a wool/acrylic blend, held 2 strands together.  Very simple to knit, and the yarn has beautiful color gradations, and is cozy and soft, a pleasure to wear.  I’ve been so grateful to have it during some unusually cold days, even for Minnesota, and people seem to really like it (funny how the simplest projects can garner so many compliments!)  This falls into the category that my sis and I would call “Too Easy to Knit”.  (I had a cookbook called “Too Busy to Cook” once, and we called it “Too Easy to Cook” because the recipes were so extremely basic; like, “Cook 1 pound of spaghetti noodles and warm a jar of spaghetti sauce, then combine.”  Well, duh…)

I’m also working on a very simple garter stitch jacket, knit side to side, that I bought from this great yarn store in Santa Fe, New Mexico called Miriam’s Well a couple of years ago.  The yarn is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, and I just love the way it feels, silky and warm, very soft and rich.  The color is a sort of mix of black and maroon.  I bought a lighter shade, sort of persimmon, for a scarf to go with it, and bought this hand-dyed cotton skirt while I was there to complete the outfit.  I only knit on this project when I have something else to do (reading, a bunch of DVDs to watch), or while commuting and listening to books on tape.  Some people would find making yards and yards of garter stitch fabric torturously boring, but it is very soothing to me as long as my mind is occupied by a book or a movie.    

Other KOTOTW and Nicky Happenings:

Nicky forwarded a very nice story about a friend and fan of hers, Judi Kauffman, whose friend Jamie knitted  the Edwardian Lace Coat (the cover sweater on KOTOTW) for her!  Judi and Jamie have been friends for over 30 years, and Judi commemorated this generous act of friendship and love in her scrapbook.  You can see the article, and a picture of the beautiful Edwardian Coat knitted by Jamie, here:

Nicky Epstein's Clasps and Buttons:

Nicky has designed a great line of buttons and clasps with JHB!  They should be appearing in your LYS soon, if they haven’t already.  Or, you can buy them directly by just clicking the links I've provided above!

* * * * *

Well, onward, once more into the… Kitchen!  Where yea, verily, at the table shall I sit and study until such time as my brain can taketh in no more; at which time I shall repair into the living room with dachshunds, mitten et. al.; and knit until I shall sleepeth. 

 

Xoxoxo, Mar

Who is the Hallo-winner? Plus, a Present From Nicky to Gilda's Club, and Us!

Halloween Yarny Goodness Giveaway Winner!

Well, it is ABOUT TIME I got back here to tell you all who won our Halloween Yarny Goodness Giveaway!

(OOOH, the suspense is killing me!)

And, the winner is:

Marion!

Marion's favorite Halloween candies from childhood:

 - "Big Hunk," and

 - large red licorice ropes.

(Big Hunk!  MWAH HAH!!! -- I, of course, immediately thought of Hugh Jackman... But, upon further reflection, I seem to recall there was a candy bar when we were younger that was wrapped in silver, and sort of big and chunky, with raisins and maybe nuts in it...)

Congratulations, Marion!  Please send me your snail mail address at [email protected], and I will send your your yummy so-soft GGH Savanna Yarn!

*  *  *  *  *

So, as you probably noted from the comments, our big favorite candy was Smarties (6 votes) followed by Candy Corn and Heath Bars (with 2 votes each).  It was great to hear the names of candy I haven't thought of in years, like Now & Later, and Necco wafers - funny how you can still taste those candies so vividly, and picture the wrappers.  I wonder if childhood memories are just more intense (or if I was a candy fanatic?)

My own favorite candy would have to be 1,000 Grand bars (WHOO HOO, KateBee and I think alike on that).  (I'm CRAZY about white chocolate, but that generally is more of an Easter thing.... although WHY they don't make white chocolate Halloween ghosts, I have NO idea!) 

I naturally gravitate to anything that combines caramel and chocolate, though, so Twix, Rolos, Snickers, Milk Duds, any or all of those made me totally happy and smiley when I found them in my Halloween night's candy haul.  (Not so much Three Musketeers bars, though -- that light brown foamy part just seemed downright suspicious to me.) 

I also had (and still have!) a big weakness for chewy fruity things, like Starburst, or those fruit Toosie Rolls, Mambas, or Gummy Bears (the real kind, Haribo from Germany).  Or those old-fashioned caramels with the white fondant in the middle - yum! 

OOOH, or Pearson's Nut Rolls, salty and sweet.  It is the 100th anniversary of the Pearson Nut Roll, made right here in the Twin Cities.  I occasionally have one for lunch -- I've convinced myself that they are health food, as they are covered in peanuts.  :D

So, where do we line up with other folks, when it comes to favorite Halloween candy?  I was listening to Minnesota Public Radio on the way to work last Friday, and the commentator mentioned that Bon Appetit Magazine's on-site blog had entries on the best and worst Halloween candies of all time.

Their top 3 favorites were:

1)  Krackel bars;

2) Reeses Peanut Butter Pumpkins (must not sell these in my geographic area...); and

3) Take Five Bars.  (I think these were invented after my childhood was long gone; I understand they involve some combination of chocolate, caramel, and pretzels...  might be worth investigating.)

Bon Appetit listed the following as the top 3 least favorites:

1)  Smarties (really?  They must not have spoken to the REAL experts when they did their polling, obviously);

2)  Candy Corn (again, really?  Then again, I once ate enough candy corn to get really, really sick, which seems to have forever quashed my own desire for that particular sweet); and

3)  Circus peanuts (you remember, sort of like big orange stale marshmallow-type things- I have to agree with them there, bleccchhh...)

A REALLY GOOD Consolation Prize!

For those folks out there who haven't won anything yet - never fear.  There will be more giveaways, because life should be full of fun stuff that comes in the mail and cheers you up, IMHO.

And besides - here is a gift from Nicky!

Gilda's Club Hat Pattern

I mentioned to Nicky that my friend, Eva, a wonderful woman, role model, and heroine of mine (who also happens to be a breast cancer survivor) is on the board of our local Gilda's Club chapter.  Gilda's Club   is an organization founded by Joanna Bull, M.A., M.F.C.C. (along with Gene Wilder and Joel Siegel) in honor of Gilda Radner, the comedian and actress best known for her work on Saturday Night Live, with whom Ms. Bull worked as a cancer psychotherapist during the comedian's illness.  

The Gilda's Club mission is to create welcoming communities of free emotional and social support for everyone living with cancer - men, women, teens and children - along with their families and friends. 

The local chapter here in Minneapolis is trying to do fundraising to open a Clubhouse in our city; but due to the economy, the fundraising is going a bit more slowly than expected.  The funds will probably be available to open a clubhouse sometime in 2010. 

I thought, wouldn't it be nice if our First Thursdays Knitting Group tried to mobilize other Twin Cities knitters to create chemo caps and shawls, so that when the Gilda's Clubhouse opens, there will be a supply already on hand? 

I mentioned this to Nicky, and she offered to design a free chemo hat pattern especially for Gilda's Club!  (How great is THAT???  Thank you, Divine Ms. E!) 

Cute, huh!  The hat pictured is knitted out of Berroco Comfort (the same yarn as used for Han Riyo, the dragon in KOTOTW, BTW.  I really liked working with this yarn; it is extremely high-quality acrylic, non-allergenic, soft and radiant.  I made a hat and matching shawl, which we gave away at a recent Gilda's Club benefit in the silent auction.  Here is Eva herself, cute as a button, modeling these:

And a close-up of the shawl (which is simply a repeat of the hat stitch pattern with garter stitch edges):

 

We are having brochures printed up to deliver to local Twin Cities yarn stores, and our First Thursdays Group knitted up samples of the hats for the stores to display by the brochures.  In the meantime, however, I thought you guys might like to have this great free pattern, too! 

If you wish, you could maybe knit one of these caps for your local Gilda's Club, if there is one in you area, or for hospitals, hospices or other cancer support organizations; there seems to be a constant need for good-looking and soft chemo caps!  Or, you could make one for yourself (as they are pretty cute -- I think I will be making one in a warm wool soon, as I seem to be losing a hat at the rate of one per week lately... oi.)

BTW, the brochure is designed by Kim Bowden, one of the First Thursdays knitters who is also a very talented artist and designer.  She is also working on a logo for the KOTOTW Knitathon -- I am going to try to figure out how to incorporate it into the banner for this Blog, as well as on the Yahoo Group page, and a "button" to use to identify a Ravelry KOTOTW Group. 

But for now, the full extent of my technical knowledge is to offer a link to a free download of the hat here:

Download the Gilda's Club Chemo Cap Pattern

For those of you who have joined the KOTOTWKnitathon Yahoo Group, I'll put this hat pattern in the general file there, too.

Enjoy!

*  *  *  *  *

There are just 3 more days until I take off for my cruise!  2 more work days to get everything calmed down enough that I can be TOTALLY OUT OF TOUCH for a whole week!  (When you work as a lawyer, this is RARELY possible, unfortunately.  But since I'm going to be on a boat on the ocean, I've decided not ot bring the laptop, and to declare myself unreachable, so I can enjoy a real vacation without legal interruptions!)

I can't wait to tell you all about it!