January Reader Who Knits: Liz Barringer-Smith

It's the third Wednesday of the month, so it's time to meet this month's Reader Who Knits.  DestiKNITters, say hello to Liz Barringer-Smith!

Liz, what's on your needles right now?

I’m making a simple lace scarf for a friend’s January birthday.

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?

That I sell my work in an art gallery in Columbus.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made?

Trying to do something that is too involved either pattern or time-wise because I am a busy working mom and I also breed labradoodles and teach Tai Chi so I my knitting needs to fit in with all the other stuff.

Straight needles or circular?

Straight

Metal or wood needles?

Bamboo

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?

Milk chocolate

Coffee or tea?

Both, coffee in the morning and tea the rest of the day.

What’s your favorite Allie novel?

Falling for the Fireman

What are you reading now?

Outlander

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store:

We don’t have one anymore and my mom buys WAY too much yarn so she gives me most of my yarn (lucky me!).

As a thank you for participating, Liz chose a copy of Mission of Hope for herself as well as ten hanks of Cascade 220 in Eggplant, and a friend receives The Lawman's Oklahoma Sweetheart.  If you'd like to be featured in Readers Who Knit, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com for details.

September Reader Who Knits: Kathleen Stamer

It's time to meet this month's Reader Who Knits! DestiKNITters, say hello to Kathleen Stamer.

Kathleen, what’s on your needles right now? 

A blanket from 60 Quick Baby Blankets called Pumpkin Patch, knit in stripes of autumnal orange. It is a perfect gender neutral color for the grandchild coming next March.

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment? 

The sweater I knit for my baby sister when I was sixteen and taking a knitting class in high school. It was my first sweater and I was really proud of it!

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made? 

The vest I made with chunky yarn. I found out through that project that I didn’t like chunky yarn for clothing items.

Straight or circular needles? 

Circular

Metal or wood needles? 

Metal

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate? 

Milk chocolate

Coffee or tea? 

Coffee

What’s your favorite Allie novel? 

Saved by the Fireman

What are you reading now? 

His Montana Homecoming by Jenna Mindel

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store: 

Common Threads
508 Broadway

Saratoga Springs, NY 21866
(518) 583-2548
commonthreadsaratoga.com

In thanks for her participation, Kathleen chose a copy of A Heart to Heal for herself and Saved by the Fireman for her friend.  Thanks to the awesome folks at Cascade Yarns, Kathleen also receives a nifty tote bag and ten hanks of Cascade 220 in the color "Puget Sound."

If you would like to be a featured Reader Who Knits, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com for an application.

February READERS WHO KNIT: Meet Sherry Letchford

In the past months I've featured authors who knit--but now we're turning the tables and meeting readers who knit! DestiKNITters, meet our first reader feature, Sherry Letchford:

Sherry, What’s on your needles right now? 
I'm knitting a prayer shawl for the hospital. [DestiKNITters, Sherry tells me she has logged over 12,000 hours making prayer shawls and baby hats for a local hospital--that's some impressive charity knitting!]

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?   

My son's baby afghan...I had to count each stitch and row but it was beautiful when it was done.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made? 

Some yarn I bought that was beautiful but kept tangling and knotting when I tried to knit with it.  I had to throw it away.

Straight or circular needles? 

Straight

Metal or wood needles? 

Both.  My smaller needles are metal and my larger ones are wood.

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?  

Definitely dark chocolate.

Coffee or tea? 

Neither

What’s your favorite Allie novel? 

The Fireman's Homecoming and 

Falling for the Fireman

What are you reading now?

A Midwinter's Tail: A Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly

Do you have a favorite knitting character from a book, movie, or television show? 

The TGIF (Thank Goodness Its Fiber) group from Molly MacRae's Haunted Yarn Mysteries

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store:  

We don't have one anywhere close, but I love STITCHES MIDWEST each year in Schaumburg, Illinois. I believe that is where I first met Allie.

Sherry gets some lovely prizes for being a DestiKNITions featured reader!  First, she gets some Allie books: Sherry chose The Firefighter's Match for herself and Saved by the Fireman for her friend.  Thanks to the lovely folks at Cascade Yarns, Sherry also gets ten hanks of Cascade 220--she chose Stratosphere Blue--and a nifty tote bag to hold all those goodies!

If you'd like to be a featured reader, send an inquiry email to me at allie [at] alliepleiter [dot] com.

Woolly Wreath from The Village Yarn Shop - Day 3

Is it a scarf, a wreath, a beast?

I really do feel like I’m stitching up some sort of fuzzy animal.  Whenever I pull this out of my bag in public, people stop and ask questions.  Looks like an outrageous scarf, don’t you think?  It probably could be if I stopped here—which of course I won’t.  People are always astonished to find out I’m knitting a wreath.  Everybody wants pictures of the finished product.

As I said in my previous post, this is not as quick a project as you would think.  Because you work each stitch three times, it’s easy to miss a step.  I can't tell you how many times I finished a row with the wrong number of stitches!  Luckly, that is simple to remedy with a K2TOG because the true stitches are hidden behind all that loopy lushness.  The other thing I learned was to keep the finished product to my right, because my knitting needles kept getting caught in the loops if the thing was on my left.

It’s construction—rather than stitching—from here on in.  This makes me nervous.  Accomplished knitter that I am, many “crafts” elude me.  My parenting books sent me on a lot of speaking engagements to church mothers groups, and I’ve botched more MOPS Crafts than I care to admit.  And we will not discuss my track record with Play-Doh.

Next up, we build the frame.

Happy 4th Birthday Click-Thru Tour!

Here it is!  The annual tour of my favorite posts from the past year—enjoy!

Casting on the  Color Affection Shawl

The Squishy Satisfaction of the Smocked Slouch Hat

Knitting as Art and Warmth

Feeding Sheep in Monroe, WI

Packing Yarn on Vacations…and Other Things Only Knitters Understand

I Say it All the Time…Life is Like Knitting, Knitting is Like Life

I Came, I Knit, I Put it in the Dryer and Felted It

I’m in Missouri.  No, I’m in Kansas.  No, wait, I’m in Missouri again.

Stringing Beads

A Peachy Day in Atlanta

Nervous for the Dumbest of Reasons

Authors Who Knit:  Charlene Ann Baumbich

Here's hoping 2014 brings just as many fun, fiber-filled adventures!

October Authors Who Knit: Yours Truly!

Someone bugged me the other week that they didn’t know my own answers to the author feature questions I’m always asking other people.  Since I’ve got a book releasing November 1 (which may already be on the shelves in your local bookstore or supermarket), I decided to accept the challenge.  So this month, the “Author Who Knits” is...me.

What’s on your needles right now?
I’m currently working on the Mapes shawl from Lovin’ Knit, the KnitAlong from my visit to Atlanta.  It’s a lovely mix of stockinette and a decorative stitch that requires a little more attention.  

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?
There was a sock from FiberWild! in Galena, IL that really challenged me.  All kinds of cables and spiffy gussets and complicated patterns. It’s absolutely lovely, but it’s also absolutely lonely--I could never muster the courage to make the second.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made?
There was a blue sweater that I created using Elizabeth Zimmerman’s formula method.   Great in theory, not so great in execution.  The color was wrong, the fit was a poor choice, and we will not discuss what happened when it found its way into the dryer by mistake.  Let’s just call it a mercy killing.

Straight or circular needles?
I own dozens of needles, but I keep coming back to my KnitPicks harmony circulars.  They tuck nicely in the mesh bags I stash in my handbag so I’m never without knitting.

Metal or wood needles?
I seem to prefer wood, although I do love my Signature needles, which are almost like jewelry they are so beautifully made.

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?
Dark.  The darker, the better.

Coffee or tea?
Coffee!  Now that my doctor has asked me to cut back, it’s cold-brewed, low-acid, half-decaf, but it’s still coffee.  I treasure every drop now.

Have you written a knitting character? 
Several!  I manage to include a knitting character in about half my books--more in the Gordon Falls series since prayer shawls feature in the plots.  The shawls show up in all the books, but play a sweet role in the newest release, THE FIREFIGHTER’S MATCH.

What’s the last thing anyone would suspect about your most recent book?
That I discover new things about the characters with every book, and don’t plan it out in advance.  Violet Sharpton started out as a minor character, but she’s become rather beloved.  I never know quite how this sort of thing happens, but it’s one of the great pleasures of writing for me.  Authors are never really in charge.

My Raverly name:
Alliewriter

My favorite local yarn store:
As you can imagine, I have great relationships with several Chicago area stores, but my “home turf” is:
Knitche

5221 Main St  

Downers Grove, IL 60515

630-852-5648

www.Knitche.com

Hey, that was fun!  Next up, I cast on the Mapes shawl I mentioned earlier.  

Diana’s Aran Shawl from Three Black Sheep - Day 6

Code blue on the living room couch...

No, it’s not finished.  

I’d hoped it would be, but folks, this thing is a LOT of knitting.  Near as I can tell, it represents about six to eight hours of knitting per section, and my life rarely affords me that kind of down time these days.

But wait, I have news:

Last night--no exaggeration here--I executed the most complicated knitting rescue of my career.  And, yes, it was on this project.  

Here I was, happily knitting my way through the Daily Show and the Colbert Report--a nightly ritual for me--when I look down and see...it.

“It” being a botched cable no fewer than eight rows down.  I’d twisted the stitches the wrong way so that instead of a charming horseshoe cable, I had something that looked more like a lazy tangle. And no, it's not in this photo, so stop squinting.  Still it was, too blatant to ignore, no matter how hard I wanted to be able to stand up and show you a finished product this morning.

Rather than rip out ten painful rows, I attempted the brain-surgery of knitting: ripping down and reknitting a cable sequence while still inside the fabric.  It took both existing needles, a crochet hook, two dpns...and every brain cell I had.

Slowly, while employing all kinds of positive self-talk about my knitting prowess and the cooperative nature of good wool, I removed the eight involved stitches from the needle.  Then I carefully pulled out each of the eight stitches all the way down past the offending cable, which was ten rows (and two complicated cable rows) below.  I laid out each of the involved strands in row order behind my work.  

Luckily, because this was the actual cable, I was always dealing with knit stitches.  The tricky part came in reversing their order on the cable rows.  One at a time, I reordered the stitches using the cable needle and then pulled the strand back through to loop to make a knit stitch with my crochet hook.  Then I would remount the stitches on a spare dpn and start the process all over again with the next row.

The whole thing took me over an hour.  I’m not entirely sure I couldn’t have just ripped out and knit back those ten full rows in that hour, but I feel so very proud of my repair skills that I don’t regret taking this tact.  This is a photo of the actual restored cable.  Not perfect, but pretty darn close.  This is the Mt. Everest of fixing for me--a true achievement and a new level of skill that, quite frankly, I wasn’t sure I possessed.

This morning, I feel like I can do just about anything.

Will that entice me to clean my refrigerator?  Um, no.

The Happy Birthday 2012 Click-Thru Tour

Usually, I wait until January to post my favorite installments from each month of the previous year.  

Since we're at a lovely spot in between two projects--we'll travel to Nashville Tennessee next to make one of the year's most popular shawls--I thought now would be the perfect time to look back at all the fun we've had.  

Click on each of the titles below to revisit the post.  Enjoy!

January:  Um...yeah...about that...

February: Lonely mittens and lamps

March: When you say...”I'm knitting an alligator.”

April:  I got to write a knitting novel!

May: The Wonders of Wauwatosa

June: The Knitting Prize Patrol

July: “You Knit to Save Your Life”

August: Why Yarn is Like Pie

September: Columbus and Dublin Ohio

October: Top Ten Reasons Why I Knit on Airplanes

November: Survival Stitches?

December: Holy Moses, it worked!

Thanks for taking this journey with me, DestiKNITters.  I'm tickled that the audience for this blog has more than doubled in the last year.  Here's to a 2013 full of yarn adventures, new friends, delicious treats, and spiffy projects.  

And, just in case you were wondering, there are more books with knitting characters on their way to you next year! 

Alligator Scarf from Knitting Under the Influence of Nancy - Day 4

Rehabilitative Reptiles?

I’m astounded how “alive” this thing looks.  Every once in a while I think a dragon is in the making.  I have a feeling my little nephew will adore this once it’s done.   If I ever have the privilege of teaching a young boy to knit, this would definitely be my project of choice.

The only drawback is that this is a LOT of knitting.  I’m used to scarves whipping up quickly, and that’s not true of this one.  Maybe it’s all the increasing and binding off, but this takes time.   Not that time is a bad thing--in this case there is a clear pay-off so it feels worth it--but what I thought would be an easy project is taking some serious attention.  This scarf would be an excellent distraction project for a young knitter stuck with a broken leg, hospital stay, or long journey.  Rehabilitative reptiles?  Why not?

I’ve also found it’s a real conversation starter.  After all, how many times in life do you run across someone knitting an alligator?  Socks you see everywhere, scarves, too, but an alligator?   That’s going to make a spectator come up and ask you about your knitting.  Of course, I just love an opening like that. I’ve been chatting up the virtues of “fibergators” all week.  Fun galore (or is that fun gatore?)!

I’ve slogged through the first half of the 12-bump back, and now it’s time for the second half.  It won’t be loads of fun, but then after that I get to see how the tail’s made.  

I won’t promise there won’t be tail-gating jokes...you know how bad I can get with those puns...

Knit Along: Schmetterling Shawl from Mia Bella - Day 1

Shawl love...

It’s hard to go wrong when you start with a beautiful yarn. The camera is simply not doing the Ella rae Lace Merino’s colorway any justice--it’s a lovely turquoise  with yellow, green and teals dancing through it.   Add Adrienne Ku’s lovely lace pattern that shows it off, and things just go from good to great.  Especially with lace, you know you are on to a good pattern when it looks good even before you block it.  

This design has what I consider to be an optimum density balance--not so lacy that it’s only good for adornment (i.e. it won’t keep your bare shoulders warm in the air conditioning), but not so sturdy that you feel you ought to be walking beside a Conestoga wagon.  The yarn is light enough to be delicate, but no so frail as to become a tangle-fest when you wind it into a ball or--heaven forbid--have to frog a couple of rows because you were too busy watching Castle to pay attention to what you were doing.  Not that I’d know that or anything...

And it’s a shawl.  And oh, you know I love shawls.  I always have.  It’s a good thing they’re “in” now, because I’m sure I’m stubborn enough to still wear them if ever they go out of style.  Keep that eccentricity up long enough, and I’ll become that weird tall lady down the block.  You know the kind--the one your Mom tells you to stay away from.  

“Sure, I’ll buy her books but let’s not go so far as to invite that looney to dinner.  She’s one of those creative types. An art-eest.  Wears shawls.”

Why yes, I wear shawls.  All the time.  So watch what you say....

...or you’ll end up in one of my books.

CHICAGO'S NORTH SHORE: Evanston, IL

Sure, I’m a sucker for adventure.  I’m entertained by the shiny new thing (translation: iPad) and an exotic flavor of cupcake (bacon?), but my visit to Evanston reminded me I’ve been remiss in my praise of the basic.

Basic is good.  Basic is dependable.  Basic is very much a necessity in our topsy-turvy too-complicated world.

Evanston feels basic to me, mostly because I spent my college years there.  No coed can afford to be much of a foodie--the fact that has built Ramen noodles’ success for most of my adult life.  No, my Evanston gastric memories are of the good ol’ comfort kind:  pasta from Dave’s Italian Kitchen and Buffalo Joe’s burgers--exquisite not in their novelty, but their flawless execution of life’s beloved staples.

This is true of today’s local yarn shop:

CloseKnit

531 Davis St. 

Evanston, IL 60201

847-328-6760

www.closeknitevanston.com

You’d drive past it if it weren’t for the clever little piece of yarn-bombing on the tree out front. A sturdy little storefront moved over last May from its former location.  While it has a depth of stock that would do any establishment proud--two walls of floor-to-ceiling yarn--it’s not a show-off of a store.  “I want customers to see the yarn, and I want them to find a yarn to suit whatever project they have in mind” owner Lucie Sinkler says, declaring that she’s arranged everything with the practical needs of her customer in mind.

I was particularly impressed with her class philosophy.  CloseKnit’s classes are essentially “group therapy”--arranged by schedule rather than skill or project.  You sign up and get whatever help you need on whatever you want to be working on, period.  No competition with the gal next to you working on the same mittens, no “who got to row 20 first or who did a better job on their cables”--just helpful camaraderie between a group of knitters who are each pursuing their own goals.  I love that thoughtful, practical distinction.

You might find the newest trend here, but you’ll more likely find a good quality fiber at a good price.  There’s a lot to be said for that kind of no-nonsense focus.  Here are some projects to peek at:

Our Knit Along from CloseKnit is the Davis Street Shawl.  It fits the store:  a quality basic designed to get lots of use.  Done up in two balls of any fuzzy worsted weight yarn, this smaller-sized shawl can go over the shoulders or double around as a cowl.  Not a big fan of picot bind-offs, I was delighted to know this pattern works the border into each row rather than throw the full weight of a complicated finish at you once you’re done.

Another of Lucie’s patterns, the Doggie Button Baby Sweater, again takes a basic garter stitch and pairs two Regia wool blends (1 ball of the longer variegation color change and 2 balls of the short variegation color change) for a bit of snazzy style.  Of course, nothing’s stopping you from adapting it to a Kitty Button Baby Sweater, or Chicky, or even Panda for that matter.  I'll never tell.

My personal favorite of the basic-yet-versatile projects was the En Pointe Pullover from the Spring 2011 edition of Interweave Knits.  Four balls of Cascade Kid Seta Noir lace-weight mohair knit up to a drapey, billowy dream of comfort.

Need something a bit smaller?  Head straight for the Pippa Hat accented with Fluribunda Flower Accent from Sublime #656.  It takes two balls of Sublime Lustrous Extra Fine Merino DK and sports a lot of style.  Pair it with another two balls to make the Furla Scarf, and you’ll weather Chicago’s killer winter in warm and spiffy style.

Personally, I always like to follow a good yarn shopping experience with a good cupcake.  And lucky for you, I know just the place:

Tiny Dog Cupcake

616 Davis Street

Evanston, IL 60201

847-563-8680

www.tinydogcupcake.com


I seriously regret that I was not here on a Saturday or Sunday morning to try out the “Famous Cupcake Brunch” with must-sample flavors like maple bacon and “cupttatas” (which is what happens when a cupcake and a frittata get together) in flavors like spinach and cheese.  Throw in free coffee and wifi and I can’t imagine a better way to start a weekend day.

Cupcakes know no such bounds, however, and I sampled several on my weekday afternoon visit.  I loved that the cupcakes came in regular, “big dog,” and “tiny” sizes perfect for tasting multiple flavors.  The chocolate silk is as good as it sounds, but the lemon was outstanding (yes, really, I loved a non-chocolate flavor!).  The salty caramel was good, too, but the first two were my favorites.  Add some really fine coffee to round out the experience...and like most cupcake joints, this is a very fun place to people-watch.


In addition to my two fave eating establishments mentioned earlier, there are two other Evanston institutions not to be missed:

Blind Faith Cafe

525 Dempster St

Evanston, IL 60201

847-328-6875

blindfaithcafe.com

Even before healthy food was in style, Blind Faith Cafe was showing us how we ought to be eating.  This is no place to choke down nutrition...everything I’ve ever had here was delicious.  Vegetarians and those who favor gluten-free (no meat on this menu, kiddos) have been flocking to this place since I was...well, a lot younger than I am now, and there’s a reason for Blind Faith’s long, strong reputation.  I saw many online raves for the French Toast Flambe (my remembered fave), and I don’t know why I’m always shocked at the outstanding deserts--maybe because I associate delicious with “bad for you.”  Nope, everything about this place is good for you. Michael Pollan would eat here---and probably has. Hey, if even the carnivores are raving when they consent to eat here, you know it’s worth a visit.

When’s the last time you found yourself in a really good fabric store?  If for you it’s been years (like it has been for me), you owe yourself a trip to:

Vogue Fabrics

718-732 Main Street
Evanston, Illinois 60202
847-864-9600

http://www.voguefabricsstore.com

Long the go-to haunt for costume construction from my theater-major days, Vogue is probably one of the last great brick-and-mortar fabric stores around.  Evanston is their flagship store, and you could easily kill and entire day wandering their stock to touch and feel all the fabric-y goodness.  I can’t shop for yarn and fabric on the internet--I’ve got to TOUCH the stuff, and this place is perfect for tactile shoppers like me.  I love their slogan:  “Enabling Fabraholics since 1945.”  They even offer group tours!  The remnant room was always my favorite hangout...some true bargains to be had in there.


There you have it...a fiber-filled frolic on Chicago’s North Shore.  Old home week for me, new adventures for you!

Up next, we tackle the lovely, lacy shawl from Highland Park's Mia Bella.