A month of months

I am still sick and coughing. Also, I went to KAFF on Friday.

I took Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's class "Knitting For Speed and Efficiency" on the recommendation of a coworker. it was amazing, and I highly recommend taking it. SPM is an engaging, hilarious, and encouraging lecturer and teacher.

There was history (did you know knitting was invented in the Middle East, which is why knitting is right to left?) and technique, specifically lever knitting, which is what I wanted to learn.

I took notes, and suddenly am too tired to transcribe them here. I think I will fold them up and stuff them in with my knitting patterns to discover them in surprise at some future date.

ETA:
Vendors of note:
Una's Wooly Walkers - punch needle rug hooking, which will be my retirement hobby
JaMpdx - absolutely adorable porcelain
Eugene Textiles Center - there's a textiles center in Eugene?!?
Apples to Oranges - a yarn store in Silverton with an extensive array of Cascade Yarns and reasonable prices
Graces Cases Designs - very practical knitting organizers and bags
Creative with Clay - irresistible mugs and ceramics with knitted textures


ETA:
I'm cleaning off my desk, finally! I'm therefore transcribing my notes!

Canadians knit 10sts per minute faster on average than Americans

There are three kinds of knitting: picking, throwing, and lever
There are two kinds of knitters: knitting for money vs. not

In picking, knit stitch is the easy stitch to make, and the needle picks up the yarn.
In throwing, knit and purl stitches are easy to make, and the hand moves the yarn. The left arm and hand supports the weight of the work.

The things you knit are dependent on the technique you use, ie knitting all in one piece vs. knitting front, back, and sleeves and then seaming.

Knitting is right to left and was invented int he MIddle East 1000 years ago.

For production knitting:
- sit up straight
- elbows at 90°
- hands palm up in a "C" shape

Digit hierarchy - tension your yarn on stupid fingers and hold needles in smart fingers

In the past, one would use a center pull skein - one day's worth of yarn - on an s-hook hanging from belt

Find a way to keep your project handy - in your car, desk, purse.

Have a variety of projects to work on at one time - easy, medium, hard, fine and chunky
***hard projects prevent dementia***

A makkin is another thing to use instead of a knitting belt, and if one was made for you, it would be along the same lines as a mix tape.

Courses = rows
Wales = vertical line of stitches

I got a high five from SPM when, after calculating my stitches per minute, gave my result with a decimal point - 23.3. :)${\displaystyle 0.{\overline {3}}}$

The sweater is done! The stand-in sweater was promptly stuffed in the donation box! I really want to knit something on big needles with no cables now! And I have a new camera that takes pictures in which you can see stitch definition!

If you are on ravelry, you can see more of it here.

It's a pattern from the first of Vogue Knitting's vintage reprint books "Knitting in Vogue" called Round-Necked Cable Cardigan from 1951.  After an arduous search for a heathered light blue yarn (why is light blue so rarely a heather-y color?), I settled on Jamieson's Double Knitting in Sky Blue and for the trim used Prussian Blue. I went down one needle size on both the ribbing and body.

This is the second time I've made this sweater - the first one wore out, and I liked it so much and it went with so many things already in my wardrobe, that I had to make it again.  The first one was on even smaller needles. Maybe by the time this one wears out, I'll be able to find yarn with the correct gauge. And I'll be 63.

And my knitting basket is almost empty for the first time in probably a decade! I just need to mend some gloves and then it will be truly empty!*

* I think I'm using the exclamation points to make up for not getting the same sense of relief as after I finished my replacement brown cardigan.

Footnote: My hair (which you can't really see) is in a "messy bun" based on instructions in the Babes In Hairland book.  It's really easy, however the style in the book is for shorter hair.  I used almost the entire box of bobby pins.

I can't tell you how glad I am this is done.  I love it!  I've been working on it pretty steadily even though I: 1) hate cables and 2) had many other things to do.  And of course, just as I finished, the weather got warmer.

The pattern I used was a previous cardigan I picked up at a thrift store, debating all the while because it was "expensive" for a thrift store sweater, which I then wore out because I loved it so much.  It was originally Banana Republic that someone had felted a little bit, and I added the front button band and neckline bow from the Tri-Stitch Cable Sweater in "A Stitch In Time" by Susan Crawford.

You can see a teensy bit of the skirt I recently made (and love, too!) in the pic, too.