August Reader Who Knits: Julie Dietz

It's the third Wednesday of the month, which means it's time to meet our Reader Who Knits.  DestiKNITters, meet Julie Dietz!

Julie, what are you working on right now?  

Currently, I’m working on hats using up leftover yarn.  I donate them to our Community Christmas project – several of the local organizations which provide assistance to families at Christmas time started pooling their efforts and resources a few years ago, and we do one, huge Christmas project which serves close to 1,000 families.  Families get PJs, underwear, gifts, wrapping paper, blankets, and personal care products for all the children, and food for Christmas dinner.  Hand-knit hats are a popular thing at the event, so…I’ll be busy with this from now until early December.

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?   

I have two:

1. When I started knitting again in grad school,  my first BIG project was the Vogue World Map Sweater.  I didn’t know enough to know it was supposed to be difficult, so…..I just jumped in and made it for my mom.  My daughter has it now – classic late 80s, oversized sweater she loves.
2. Dale “Lillehammer” sweater for my husband.

What feels like the worst knitting mistake/foible/wrong choice you’ve ever made?  Hmmm…..other than accidentally washing and felting said Lillehammer sweater last summer?   I haven’t had any MAJOR disasters.  But….I’ve learned to listen to potential recipients, and not try to convince them they’ll love something I’ve made for them when they have tried to tell me all along that they wouldn’t.

Straight needles or circular?  

Circular all the way!

Metal or wood needles?  

Depends.  If the yarn is “sticky” I prefer metal, and if I’m trying to knit fast, I generally prefer metal.  But I have to admit I love my rosewood circulars for almost everything.

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?  

White.

Coffee or tea?  

Coffee in the morning. Tea the rest of the day (Earl Grey, of course!).

What’s your favorite Allie novel?  

The Firefighter’s Match

What are you reading now? 

Health Behavior and Health Education:  Theory, Research and Practice.   Sorry – I’m prepping a graduate course in health behavior theory at the moment, so I don’t have much time to read for pleasure.  I AM listening to the Complete Works of Sherlock Holmes in the car.

Do you have a favorite knitting character from a book, movie, or television show?  Mrs. Weasley from the Harry Potter books, and Miss Marple!

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store

The Yarn Studio

2 E Main St.

Casey, IL  62460

www.the-yarn-studio.com

As her prize for being featured, Julie chose a copy of The Lawman's Oklahoma Sweetheart for herself, a copy of The Firefighter's Match for her friend, and a ten-hank package of Cascade 220 in Dark Plum (thanks to our friends at Cascade Yarns!).  If you'd like to be featured as a Reader Who Knits (or Crochets), email me at allie@alliepleiter.com

The nice folks at the FCC ask me to tell you this post contains affiliate links.

April Reader Who Knits: Marci Bailey

It's time to meet another fellow knitter who knows the value of a good read! DestiKNITters, meet Marci Bailey.

Marci, are you working on right now?

I’m getting toward the end of my Hitofude sweater in Miss Babs Katahdin. It’s a great pattern – an easily memorized lace repeat with some extra skills like provisional cast on and three-needle bind off. The rows are so long now that each takes 20 minutes!

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?

Definitely my recent La Scala sweater; I’m wearing it in the picture. It was 14 months on size 1 needles. Two colors, each with two strands held together and intarsia on the knit and purl sides. I don’t think I’ll embark on another sweater with intarsia on the purl side again.

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

Like most knitters, convincing myself that a gauge swatch is “close enough.” Close enough is not good enough when it comes to a hand knit sweater gauge. I have a sleeveless cotton sweater in my closet that is gigantic and waiting to be unraveled and knit again.

Straight needles or circular?

Circular, no question.

Metal or wood needles?

Metal.

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate?

I’ll take a side of dark chocolate with my metal circs!

Coffee or tea?

Coffee, always decaf, with a square of dark chocolate.

What’s your favorite Allie novel?

Family Lessons. Always love a strong female character and happy ending for children.

What are you reading now?

Dirty Love by Andre Dubus. I recently read House of Sand and Fog and saw him speak at our town library. I bought the book there, and he autographed it. His writing shows beautiful attention to detail, and he was quite an engaging speaker. I also learned he wrote a short essay about learning to knit, featured in the anthology, Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting. 

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

When Dumbledore said he loved a good knitting pattern, I loved Dumbledore even more!

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store: 

My favorite local yarn store, Another Yarn in Winchester, MA, is in the process of relocating, because a burst pipe ruined the store and all the beautiful yarn. 

I like the funky vibe of: 

Yarns in the Farms

641 Hale Street

Beverly Farms, MA 01915

yarnsinthefarms.com 

It’s not really local, but whenever I travel through western Massachusetts, I tried to find an excuse to stop in at WEBS, because how can you drive by yarn nirvana without going in.

Marci chose a copy of The Doctor's Undoing for herself and A Heart to Heal for her friend.  Marci also gets 10 hanks of Cascade 220 in Silver Grey for being featured.  If you'd like to be in a future Readers Who Knit or Readers Who Crochet feature, email me at allie@alliepleiter.com for details.

June Readers Who Knit: Susan Lutz Kenyon

It’s time to meet our Readers Who Knit for June.  DestiKNITters, meet Susan Lutz Kenyon.

Susan tells me she crocheted this necklace!

Susan, what’s on your needles right now?

I just finished a jacket from Sally Melville’s book, The Purl Stitch.  Using size 13 needles I knit with one boucle yarn and one chenille together.  It was finished a while ago but when I went to sew it together, I noticed a mistake with one sleeve and had to re-knit it. 

What feels like your favorite/greatest knitting accomplishment?

Learning to knit.  I taught myself to crochet in 1967 and am a charter member of Crochet Guild of America.  In 2002 I decided to learn to knit because my aunt, who had knit for me, my children, and grandchildren, was in her 90s. I wanted to show her her legacy would go forward.  Continental knitting works best for me.

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

The first sweater I knit was, again, from a Sally Mellville book, The Knit Stitch.  I love the sweater but, according to the pattern, the right and left fronts are each a different length and each is different from the back length.  When I tell people this is the first sweater I knit, they usually say “oooooh” as that explains the uneven lengths.  I feel I should carry a picture of the pattern to show I knit it correctly but I just laugh.

Straight or circular needles?  

Circular

Metal or wood needles? 

Mostly metal but it depends on the yarn.

White chocolate, milk chocolate, or dark chocolate? 

White Chocolate

Coffee or tea? 

I drink decaf green tea every morning.  I do like decaf coffee once in a while.

What’s your favorite Allie novel? 

A Heart to Heal.  This book felt personal to me for several reasons.  I have a scar from my knee to my ankle on my left leg from a fire when I was three years old. When I was in elementary school, girls couldn’t wear slacks to school so I was teased.   Currently I knit and crochet for Project Linus servicing kids in crisis. I also started a prayer shawl group at my church.

What are you reading now? 

Girl Three by Tracy March and also All by My Selves by Jeff Dunham who is a very talented ventriloquist.

Do you have a favorite knitting character from a book, movie, or television show (Allie books not included)?

Casting Off by Nicole R. Dickson is a fiction story about a woman who goes to Ireland to research a book on Irish knitting.  The back of the book says it has “characters as complex and beautiful as the Irish sweaters at the heart of the story.”  I absolutely agree.

Give a shout out to your favorite local yarn store:

Three Bags Full

1927 Cherry Lane

Northbrook, IL

www.threebagsfullknittingstudio.com

(The store was featured in this DestiKNITions post if you’d like to know more)

Thanks to DestiKNITions and Cascade Yarns, Susan gets some nice goodies for being featured, including a copy of Saved by the Fireman, a Cascade Totebag, and ten hanks of Cascade 220 in Azalea.  Her friend gets a copy of Bluegrass Courtship, too.  

If you'd like to be featured, send an email to allie@alliepleiter.com for application information.

APRIL READERS WHO KNIT SWEEPSTAKES!

Big happy news...

Win books! Win yarn!  What could be better than that?

My new book, The Doctor's Undoing, has lots of knitting in it.  To celebrate its release, Love Inspired is taking the DestiKNITions Readers Who Knit Prize Package up a notch and national!  

Submit a photo of your knitting for a chance to win TEN Love Inspired Novels and TEN skeins of Cascade 220--an embarrassment  of knitting-reading riches!

Enter by clicking HERE

The sweepstakes ends April 20, so pop on over and enter today--because every DestiKNITter loves books and yarn.

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.