The Story of my Hat

Last night, I attended the Toronto Knitters Guild meeting. Those are always fun and entertaining and I enjoy sharing knitting talk with passionate makers.

A few of us met for dinner beforehand at L'Espresso and one of the knitters showed us her fabulous hat! I made a joke about MY little hat- I'm sure hers took 300 hours to make and mine took 3!

My friends encouraged me to show the item during Show-and-Tell because the beginner knitters in the audience should see some simple works to inspire them.

So my little hat was featured during that segment of the meeting!

I used Lana Grande, a Peruvian Highland Wool distributed by Cascade Yarn. It didn't look that great in the ball but I had used that yarn before for a hat I gave away and it had worked out well so I bought this ball for half the price- yes, Kyle Vey of Vector Knits,  sometimes a good price influences me to buy a yarn.

The candy-cane effect of the yarn (white and grey) looked smashing as it was knit up!

I showed a trick for putting on a pompom.

Insert the two legs of the pompom on either side of the closure hole and run them through a large button. Tie a bow. This helps the pompom from flopping around.

My pompom is a fake fur one...I thought I was being ecological but my daughter who works in fashion in Paris said those are the worst!! Made of plastic, very bad for the environment. I should source out real fur from reputable companies that have their own fur farms and treat the animals in a  humane way.

Well, I am not getting a fur pompom from Louis Vuitton for my $6 hat!

Food for thought, though!

Visiting Verona

Roman bridge, Ponte Pietra

Verona's Adige river and Ponte Pietra

Some of my favourite scenes in Verona. I took those one evening while walking home.

Knitting In Italy

I am really excited about my next visit to Italy!! Ten friends and I are going to Verona and we'll be knitting!

Arena, Verona's Amphitheatre

We'll be mainly in Verona but will visit the Lessinia region, the Valpolicella region and Lake Garda.

Looking forward to it!

Forever Scraps- yarn and fabric

Back on New Years eve, I made a resolution and gave myself a time limit. No new yarn purchases. The challenge is to end on April 1. I find making several New Year's resolutions that end in a month's time or so, helps me to accomplish them! And also remember what they are...I mean who remembers 6 months in what they decided as a New Year's resolution?

To make this, I selected my colour palette,
pulled out my leftover fabric, paid close attention to value.

YARN: I reorganized the chest of drawers I have for my yarn, placing the thinner weights in the top drawer and the bulky and chunky yarns in the bottom drawer and the in-between weights in the middle.

I put together yarn bits of the same value and am making socks with those. They are so lovely. A little bit of everyone's socks in one pair!

I put aside all the half-knit projects; a sweater that had no sleeves, a sock that had no partner, a shawl too complicated to finish...and decided to make finishing them my goal.

I have been very good at doing that! (so proud). It isn't that hard after all!

FABRIC: I also decided to use up as much of my quilt fabric as possible. I just have lots of fabric and am tired of looking at the same colours and designs. Fabric, like fashion, gets dated. You have to use up your scraps and make room for the contemporary stuff- fun to buy and fun to use!

So I whipped this up.

finished size, approximately 30"x 40"

I posted it on my Instagram account, handle sandrareford if anyone wants to follow me there.

Fabric: batik, men's shirt fabric, recognizable K. Fasset,
quilters cotton from more than 10 years ago,
a cool new yellow...

I got so many "likes"!!

It is really pretty.

I am going to purchase the back fabric, a NEW fabric that's fun and exciting and helps motivate me to quilt it.

Make a goal and go for it!

Using Fabric Scraps

I love making scrap quilts.

When I teach, I impart the tricks I have learned over the years of experimenting with scraps to the students so they too can make a successful scrap quilt.

But that knowledge is compartmentalized ....in the quilt drawer. Whoever thought I could do the same with yarn!!

I have lots of 20 gram bits after making socks for the past years. Like with fabric, I just didn't want to throw those 'valuable' bits out. I also didn't want to do what many quilters do. That is bring a small piece of fabric (yarn) to the quilt store and buy $200 worth of fabric (yarn) to 'match' it so they can use their scraps! Makes no sense.

So I applied my knowledge of making scrap quilts and what do you know? It worked!

Medium values

I divided the yarn bits into the same VALUE groups- like I do with fabric.

This is the dark value group.
Yes, even the pink ball

Even though there are many values in this ball
 there are many strands that are dark.
I notice that the purple and blue strands are
repeated in the other balls.
I see the orange is light but as a colour
it is complimentary to blue.
There is some orange in another ball in the group.
The purple is visible is several balls. It will work.

I am knitting two rounds with each colour therefore spreading the colours out, exactly how I would piece a scrap quilt. My hand knit socks are looking great!!

Keep in mind that quilter's cotton keeps going up in price. Make an effort to use what you have. It is really rewarding coming up with a solution!!

Typical Day

What is my typical day when I am in the south of Italy on holidays?

Well, I walk down to meet the fish guy early in the morning. He drives around to the smaller paese to sell fresh fish.

He often says hello to me through his van loud-speaker which always makes me laugh!

Then I walk down to the beach and as I do, enjoy the views.

I swim for a few hours. I actually think of nothing when I swim!

I meet up with friends. The older folk always like to tell stories of their interesting past. I am glad to listen and laugh with them.

I come back home and on the way I knock at Signora Rosa's house and ask if she has anything from her garden she wants to sell. I use that fresh produce for lunch.

She sometimes gives me a recipe suggestion- like today: grated Tropea onion with grated zucchini in a pan with some oil. Let it cook and reduce. Add zucchini flowers and cook till creamy texture. Add cooked pasta and mix well. Add a handful of grated cheese.

After lunch, I sew or sketch or record stories I heard at the beach. My balcony has an amazing view of the sea and a breeze which is much appreciated on hot afternoons. I sometimes go back to the beach.

In the early evening some locals gather near the only store in town. We sit outside and chat...think Dolce Gabbana ads... and I sometimes knit. We wave to friends in the passing cars. There is lots of laughter.

It's summer and I have no clock to run my day. It's un-thinking time. It's just ...being.

Knitting Beautiful Colours

The yarn I bought at the Frolic in Toronto before I left is fabulous!

It is hand-dyed. It goes from orange to purple is a slow progression. Most yarns I have seen have a colour transition that is too stark.

 I only bought one ball, 115 grams, so my project is small.

I made a cowl and had to undo it as it didn't go around my neck twice without choking me!

I had to rip it out. If you repeat rip it rip it rip it...kind of sounds like a frog sound. That is why knitters say they "frogged" a piece. So you see undoing work is part of knitting.

It took one week to make and ten minutes to undo!

Knitting while waiting for the train.
...on my way to Mantova.

I am starting again.

One Year Ago

Well, the year has passed...

An entire 365 days...

A birthday bouquet from my special friend

since my last birthday.

You may remember my bellezza project where I took a picture everyday for the year...

from birthday to birthday.

It was more difficult than I thought.

I got out of the habit (aren't we all creatures of habit!!) when my camera died in October finally succumbing to the salt water that got in the mechanism that summer. I was without a camera for one week and that threw me off my game.

I saw beautiful things every day but may not have photographed them- because they were fleeting things, or by the time I got the camera out the subject had passed or the photograph didn't do the subject justice.

I plan to make an iBook of all those photographs when I get back to Canada in the Fall.

There is beauty in every day.

World Wide Knit in Public

It is the official day of knitting in public!

A nice group of us met at 9 AM this morning at a local 'bar'.

We started with coffees and by noon we were onto "aperitivo".

As always lots of laughs!

There were some showing their work and others being inspired!

A few lessons happened!

People from different parts of the world that were in Verona on holidays stopped to see what we were doing and have a chat! England, New Zealand and United States.

This lady is from England. 

Even a bee stopped in!

A couple from the United States read about our event on-line and came equipped with yarn and needles!

Italy was the European country with the most locations registered. 27! Brava Italia!

Knitting Art

My daughter was passing by Roubaix, France, on her way to Antwerp this weekend. She knows I have been knitting lately and sent me these photos.

Wool War One
2014
Délit Maille
A war in wool made by 1000 hands
Silent and pathetic story of nine million
crushed tiny lives (translated from french)

She stopped in at La Piscine Museum. Amazing place she said!

For me, knitting is at a hobby level. My mom taught me how to knit when I was 6 years old. I returned to this craft for a few years when I was 20 and again starting 2 years ago.

Below are some of my recent knitting 'achievements'!

Glenna C. patterns

The three patterns above by Kate Atherley.
You can also find her patterns on Ravelry.

I have noticed in Italy that the quilting trend has been pushed aside to make room for knitting.