Knot Knecessarily Known Knitting

Insouciant people with pointy sticks. What's not to like? Debbie Radtke & her famous hedgehog. Besides the Market and the classes, there are plenty of other activities at STITCHES South. Part of the fun is the chance to bump into famous knitters, such as Nicky Epstein or Debbie Radtke. There is lots of opportunities for networking and discovering the latest new and awesome products coming to a yarn store near you. I especially enjoyed the Friday night Pajama Party, which is held after the Fashion Show and Banquet. This is a great chance to hang out with other knitters, and you never know who will be there. One of the great moments this year was Benjamin Levisay standing up to an over-zealous security guard who felt that the party was too noisy. I'm not sure the guard was savvy. After all, he wanted 200 knitters (mostly women) with pointy sticks to be quiet. Perhaps he is not yet married and, therefore, did not have the worldly experience necessary to accurately asse...

One of my favorite things about STITCHES is the opportunity to take classes. This year I took three. On Thursday afternoon I took Shannon Okey's "Get Published" class. Shannon is the genius behind Cooperative Press, who have published such great books as Alasdair Post-Quinn's Extreme Double Knitting . Shannon is definitely an extrovert. She gave a thorough handout and explained the pros and cons and options of self-publishing. Very helpful! On Saturday I took Susanna Hansson's "Bohus Stickning" class. Thank you to Pam who advised me to take this class. This is an all-day class and possibly the one for which Susanna is best known. She has an extensive personal collection of garments produced by the Bohus Stickning (1939-1969). This class was a great opportunity to learn not just the techniques but also the social history. If you have any interest in economic history or women's studies, this class is very much worth your time. The class fee of $25 ...

I'm hard-pressed to decide which is the more delightful weekend of the year -- STITCHES South or Dragon*con? This year STITCHES South was as wonderful as ever. I started off with the Opening Day Presentation. There were lots of interesting ideas from Laura Bryant, Anna Zilboorg, and Rick Mondragon. But I think my favorite was Myra Woods' very interesting butterfly-sleeve sweater worked both in crochet and knitting. It will be in the summer issue of Knitter's magazine, I believe. As you all know, I don't knit other people's patterns very often, but this one looks intriguing enough. Myra and I share a strong interest in shaping, and the sleeves in her design are very interesting. While I try to limit my shopping, I did find some great things in the Market. As usual, not a lot of yarn. My stash is already pretty good, plus I have spinning stash. (And remember, I have three alpaca fleeces in the spinning stash.) I was very happy to see Karen Poulakos Fiberarts S...

Benjamin Levisay, CEO of XRX, Inc.; Whit Robbins, founder and chair emerita, Atlanta Knitting Guild; Governor Nathan Deal (R); Marian Rose, president, Atlanta Knitting Guild; Jolie Elder, president, North Georgia Knitting Guild photo credit Alana Joyner, Governor's Photographer What can I say? This has been an amazing and unexpected experience. There is also something wonderful about how things come back around -- that I was president of Atlanta Knitting Guild during the first STITCHES South and now I'm president of North Georgia Knitting Guild this particular year. So many thanks go out to Benjamin Levisay and Marian Rose, who really have done the bulk of the work on this. It was a delight to have guild founder Whit Robbins along. I'm only sorry Jenny Lee, who founded North Georgia Knitting Guild, doesn't live in the area anymore; because it would be wonderful and appropriate for her to have been included. It was not an easy thing to decide what to wear today....

This final video shows you how to Kitchener graft garter stitch. Most people learn Kitchener stitch just enough to graft sock toes closed in stockinette. Garter stitch is trickier, because one side of the graft is knit and the other side is purl. I like to think this video will make it easier for you to seam your Tetra beautifully with a graft. You might also be able to seam your Tetra instead with a combination of mattress stitch and garter stitch seam, similar to what you might do on a Baby Surprise Jacket. Whatever you decide to do, try to avoid a seam that would be thick or that would take fabric into a seam allowance. The fun of a Tetra is that you can fold it into lots of other shapes. I suspect it will fold less easily and be less comfortable to sit upon if you have thick seams in your blanket.

This second video also deals with the selvedge. Changing colors every other row (i.e. every right-side row) is a common knitting technique. Not only can you make stripes without breaking the yarn and weaving in lots of ends, but you can also blend two similar colorways of different dye lots when you are using hand painted yarns. Since there are two strands, you have a choice of which way to move your yarns when you change color. In this video, I show you both options. Choose what you like best. Tomorrow: How to graft garter stitch.

The Tetra Stadium Blanket isn't a terribly difficult knit. After all, most of it is garter stitch. This means you can knit on it throughout the sport season, and have your blanket finished and ready for the post season. While you can make it in more than two colors, the two color style is perfect for incorporating the colors of your team. This is a good gift knit, provided you have the time and don't mind the yarn commitment. You can give it to a man who starts each day with ESPN, or you can make it in baby colors and give it to new parents. This first video is how to work what Fleegle has called a vertical lifeline. Basically, you trap a piece of waste yarn, or a circular needle, or a cable from an interchangeable needle in your yarn as you turn to knit back. Tomorrow: How to change colors every other row (i.e. every right-side row).

The genesis of design ideas can be a strange thing. While the final success is the published blanket at right, the path to completion was not quick. The initial idea dates back to the summer of 2009, when I was trying to come up with an original pattern for Christmas in July at The Whole Nine Yarns. This was shortly after the inaugural STITCHES South, which had featured Elise Duvekot, but also shortly after Sophia died and while Scenter was in the cardiac ICU. It also wasn't long after my stint as Atlanta Knitting Guild president, so I was getting back into the swing of working on my own ideas instead of guiding the guild. I still had thoughts of knit one below patterns in my head after STITCHES. I liked how the column pattern made vertical stripes by knitting back and forth. I started to think about making a scarf that would alternate horizontal and vertical stripes in blocks. The idea for Tetra came, in fact, in the cardiac ICU. I don't recall now which visit it w...

Benjamin Levisay, CEO of XRX, Inc, has already done a fabulous job getting this information out to knitters all across our country. Governor Nathan Deal will be issuing an executive proclamation recognizing the knitters and crocheters of Georgia. As part of that proclamation, he will be naming Saturday April 14, 2012 as statewide knitting and crochet day. There will be a rally on the Capitol steps that day from 11 AM until 2 PM. As current president of North Georgia Knitting Guild and a past president of Atlanta Knitting Guild, I am overjoyed to see the knitters and crocheters of our community being recognized in this way. We know historically that knitters have contributed to their communities in times of need. Very often, knitters have been asked to make garments for soldiers at war. In the past it has been socks, but in our century it has been helmet liners. We make stoma covers, chemo caps, and preemie baby clothes that are distributed in our hospitals. We make scarves to ...