Victorian Knitalong

Just thought I'd drop a quick note to say hello to all. I am very excited about this knitalong and the book! I was eagerly awaiting its publication, and it has lived up to my expectations and then some. I want to make so many of its projects! I will be starting with the Curved Shawl, using some Alpaca With a Twist Fino I already have, in Ruby Slipper, so it'll be almost the same as what's pictured in the book. But I am already scouring my extensive laceweight stash to plan future projects LOL. I look forward to starting with you all in January.

Is anyone interested in a blog button for this knitalong? I love to play with digital imaging and just whipped up a button for myself without really thinking about it, then realized that others might like to use it too. If so, go ahead and copy it to your servers. If not, that's fine, too! Here's what I came up with:

Posted by Catherine at 04:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I realize not everybody celebrates Thanksgiving but I do ;^> In fact I am leaving in a few minutes for my sisters house so....

If your name is on the blogroll to the right you have permissions to author a post and are officially joined up. If your name is *not* on the blogroll I haven't added you yet. I will I promise. The names with a ** before them are linked to this webpage because blogroll insists you have a blog [foolish program] so if you feel like exploring your fellow bloggers main sites go ahead and click. If you do have a blog and your name is prefaced by **send me an email at elka underscore knits at mac dot com and I will fix it when I return on Monday.

On sign ups~ make sure when you leave your comment you also leave an email. I cannot sign up "Jane in TN" because she posted as anonomous and therefore I have no email to send her a user name and password. Plus MT requires a email address for password retrieval. Please drop me another note Jane either in comments or via the email address given in last paragraph. We all look forward to meeting you.

I will probably write a mini tutorial for the Welcome Page of your MT posting page. My hand got cramped writing it out yesterday and I was reduced to copy and pasting from previous replies! Until then feel free to post [or try to post] and send me any questions so that I can help you make this a smooth process. The bogging part that is.... the knitting well that's on all of us

On Comments~ if your comment does not show up it is because it most often times needs to be approved. I have found in my past blog that even people with permissions [the web site owner and my friend Prudence who do all the techie stuff] could not leave comments without my approval. The same was true for my leaving comments on their blogs. This is so that I can delete all the porn and gambling and viagra type of comments. It is not personal. Anyway I am going on vacation so I cannot approve comments at the moment. Which is good because I am signing people up as I approve their comments and that way there is a slim chance that I miss somebody.

AH Go click on Betty and Colette~ they both have lovely shawls recently completed on their blogs. We are so lucky to have such talented and experienced lace knitters amongst us.

Elka

Posted by Elka at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I was really excited to find this KAL. I decided to start a project to take on my 2 day Thanksgiving trip. Thought about the fichu on p118, but decided it might not work visiting with family. So tonight I swatched and started the Scarf with the striped border on p80. I am doing it with Wagtail Yarns- 100% fine kid mohair yarn in gold. Since the label doesn't have a needle size and guage listed on it, I used 7's first to try and get gauge and came out 4.5" for 18 sts. I was at a knitting group and they suggested I try a size 5 next. Wouldn't you know it, this time I was too short on my measurement. So I went straight to the size 6. Only have 2 repeats of the first border done and it seems like it will be fine. Since the skein only has 410 yards and the pattern calls for 400 yards, I may be cutting out a couple of the repeats on the center of the scarf. Would hate to run out of yarn on the second border.

Thinking this is the perfect "trip knitting". Will have to wait till the Jan. start date for something more detailed.
I'll let you know how much knitting gets done while watching the Macy's parade and visiting with family.

Valerie

Posted by Valerie at 04:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Oh I am so excited about this KAL and have been working hard on getting some great goodies for all the participants! Guess what? We have a shop sponsor. All members who sign up by Jan 7th will receive a coupon for free shipping from Knit Purl home of the Ab Fantabulous Silk Cloud. Silk Cloud, for those not in the know, is a handpainted silk mohair laceweight yarn that is marginally thinner than KSH and has a greater silk content. Even better than that it has 100yds more per hank than KSH for a piddly dollar more. All those patterns calling for 3 hanks of KSH can be made with 2 hanks of handpainted Silk Cloud~ you save $ on yarn and will get free shipping to boot! Can you beat that? Oh yeah I can... I picked up some hanks to give away in the monthly drawings ;^>

In other exciting news~ it never really ends trust me ~ today I spoke to a long time lace knitter who is raiding her stash for give aways. CASHMERE people. 100% Cashmere. Plus she is gonna break her own rule of never posting to a blog ever and is typing up some tutorials for us. Yipieee.

But the best news of all~ we are up to 14 participants so far. I look forward to meeting all of you whom I do not know yet and most especially to all of the wonderful lace knitting we will be creating together

Elka

PS Anne left a note in the comments about another Victorian Knitting Today lace along and as soon as I find my missing link to button I will link to there AND Knit Purl so that you may join both knitalongs [if you wish] and start creating your shopping wish list. X-mas is coming after all and I know all of our families will give us a wee bit of mad money for yarn..... please please please all I want for Xmas is lace yarn money VBG

Posted by Elka at 06:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I fell in love with almost all of the patterns from Jane Sowerby's 'Victorian Lace Today' and decided I couldn't possibly be the only person to have done so. Therefore I am starting a knit~along for the book. Now I have never done a knit~along before so hopefully I cover all of the important stuff in this initial posting:

1> When does knitting officially start?
Jan 1st, 2007 to accomodate those who need to get the book, yarn and holidays over with but you don't have to start then. Start whenever you like. This will be a place to show off your handiwork and get help if needed.

2> Do I have to knit a certain pattern?
Pick anything from the book. Anything at all and you can join.

3> When does the knit~ along end?
Hey I am all against deadlines. Finish when you want. There are, after all, 39 patterns that I am counting to pick from. Probably more since I did a quick look see. You don't have to knit just one!

4> Do I have to have my own blog?
Nope. Sign up and you can blog here. If you do have a blog I will link to your blog but you will get a user name and password to access this site for uploading photos and talking about your progress.

5> Requisite drawings: It seems as if one cannot have a knit~along without prizes so I will draw a name from a hat at the end of each month and send out a pressie. You don't have to finish first or knit the most or anything like that. Just join and hey your entered into the drawing. Ummm I kinda expect you to be participating as in posting

6> Sounds good~ how do I join?
Leave a comment and I will reply with user name and password plus address to access this site on Movable type. I will be gone from Weds morning to Sunday night for Thankgiving so if I don't reply right away thats why. And you can join anytime you want. Even if the start day has passed.

Is there anything I forgot? Let me know and hey sign ups are open!

Posted by Elka at 02:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (33) | TrackBacks (0)

This is a test

Posted by liz at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)