A much belated thing or two...

Oh, my! I got so good about blogging on Wednesday nights that I sort of assumed on Thursday morning that I'd done it, and then things got hectic! (We'll get back to that...)

This week at Stitch n' Bitch:

Madeline made an appearance with not one, but TWO completed sweaters! Check out the fabulous buttons on this one! Plus, that I-cord edging that I still haven't found a project to try out for myself! I like it. Combined with Katharine's diligent progress, It almost makes me want to knit a fingering weight sweater. Almost.

Here's the other one, with a very happy Madeline inside:

Clara is sticking her tongue out in this picture, which makes me smile. Madeline is hard at work on yet another sweater (this one, however, is baby-sized, and should move a lot quicker for that reason.)

Speaking of Clara:

Look at the size of that Tube! It grows ever so much longer. Maybe she should suspend it from the ceiling and use it as a Tube of silence. Maybe it's a sleeping Tube. Maybe it's a top down sock for a particularly tall person. It could even be a carrier for a great many cats. It could be a Tube trap for assorted mythical creatures. It's up to us to guess, I suppose.

Aaaand look what we have here, ladies and gentlemen! A sweater that surely, by now, has sleeve progress, as this picture is a few days old. Katharine is making record time on this sweater, it will definitely get some wear before too much longer!

Check out the crochet stitch pattern on Lena's blanket! I know it looks like a scarf right now, but it's not. It's a blanket- the beginnings of a blanket!

 Here's a yet-to-be-determined project and some ever -so -diligent crochet chain stitch practice (practice makes perfect! I read somewhere that it takes the average person 300 hours of doing something in order to become a master- like drawing, or playing the violin. There's no reason 300 hours of chain stitch would be any different, but I doubt I'd make it to 5 before I started second guessing the merit of mastering it.)

Here's a Halloween doggy sweater for Megan's new puppy. She seemed to be aware that most dogs do not enjoy sweaters, and seemed also not to care. We'll see if her puppy stops wiggling long enough for her to snap some pictures in costume!

Look! A foot! and Jordan's Ridiculously Organized bag of yarn for her sister's granny square blanket. I should have taken a picture of my yarn bag for comparison. Also, you can see my toes in this picture- which reminds me that this week is a very important week- Halloween on Wednesday means it's Halloween sock week! I started with toe socks featuring skulls and roses, and then today was black and white striped witchy socks! Whatever will tomorrow bring...Halloween is the best time of the year for sock shopping. But I digress...

This is what Jordan's sister's blanket will look like when it's done. I don't think the colors are quite right, judging by the yellow of the carpet. It's still really awesome though! That's one lucky sister. The good thing about granny square projects, though, is how portable they are. As soon as she fills her bag up with squares, she can just empty it out and start over until there's enough- no lugging around a big old blanket!

And then there's silly old me- as if knitting wasn't weird enough:

I'm making yarn! I know it looks like I know what I'm doing in this picture, but I promise I don't. I keep dropping the spindle because such thin yarn requires quite a lot of twist. I'm working on it, though. 300 hours, like I said. I'm still stalled on my sweater because I haven't had time to sit down in a quiet place and do the math to figure out what the appropriate increase pattern is. Math is hard. Maybe tomorrow. I have been just as hard pressed for knitting time as I have for blogging time!

And now, a story:

Aric and I visited Iowa State University over the weekend, because they were holding an event for prospective graduate engineering students. I drove. We were nearly there, when I spied a Joann Fabrics sign right next to a Michael's sign, right next to a Target sign, so I did a little happy dance and got off the highway...Bought some fabric, and something truly fabulous that I will show you all on Tuesday. When we were pulling up the ramp to get back on the highway, we were stopped in a line of cars because a police man was at the top of the ramp, stopped with his flashers on, and blocking traffic. I thought there was an accident or something, so we waited. All of the sudden, ten or so police cars drove by on the (empty, because the ramp was blocked) highway- followed by exactly two black SUVs with tinted windows, and eight white SUVs. Behind that, were two large luxury busses ( I don't know what the word for them is- the kind that look like RVs, but they're not...) The not-RVs were followed by an additional eight white SUVs, two black SUVs, and a bunch more police cars with flashing lights. Following up this parade were two more police cars, blocking traffic so that nobody could get into the caravan.

Every time they passed an on-ramp, a car from the front of the line would block it, and a then join again at the back. When we got to Ames, they exited onto a new highway (we watched all this from the bridge over said highway)- and two cars stopped traffic on that highway so that it was empty for the caravan.

Aric and I resolved to Google when we got home, to figure out who the very important person was, blocking traffic and traveling exactly at the speed limit (Gah!).

Wanna Guess? You really only have two options.

It was Mitt Romney. He made a campaign stop in Ames, Iowa, while we were visiting the Applied Mathematical Sciences lab at Iowa State.

In other news: the bell tower there played the theme song from Mario at 11:00.

In lieu of other things

I forgot to bring my camera to Stitch n' Bitch this week. I even forgot to bring my back-up camera, and my phone was dead. Imagine! So I don't have updates to current yarn projects, but I do have some evidence of yarn-y awesomeness nonetheless, and her name is Clara:

It's a bird! It's a plane! No! It's the ever amazing Clara, who has attached a zillion handmade pom-poms to the ceiling of her bedroom! Makes my lousy glow-in-the-dark stars look completely lame. (Which really they are, because if you're supposed to be sleeping but your desk light is still on, and then you hear your mom coming to check on you and you turn off your light, and really quick jump in to bed, the glow in the dark stars betray you, because the ones around your desk are particularly charged and therefore extra glow-y....) Anyways. These pompoms show no signs of betrayal, so Clara is probably okay.

Meanwhile, you're going to have to take my word for what went on at Stitch n' Bitch because I have no pictorial evidence. Clara has extended her sock-thing past leg length (what it is now is anyone's guess...a very skinny sleeping bag, maybe? or maybe the statue of liberty's feet are particularly cold this winter). Mary is knitting experimental yarn things with yarn from Paris- she doesn't know what the yarn wants to be yet. I didn't pet it or look closely, but it looked pretty french from where I was. Katharine is making excellent progress on her sweater (more excellent than my progress, but we'll get to that), and Jordan (Whose last name I now know) has...drumroll please.... FINISHED THE LAST OF THE HEAD COVERS! Except that her dad has recently bought a new set of golf clubs. First, he is a crazy person, second, he apparently bought the golf clubs to match a golf shirt that she bought him, which is even more crazy, and third, he seems to be expecting obligatory matching golf club cozies for this set as well. Jordan is currently working on a hat, as well she should. Madeline skipped Stitch n' Bitch last night to watch the presidential debates, but she has promised us that she will be displaying not one, but two new sweaters! So I definitely have to remember my camera next week.

In yarn-bomb preparation news, I have completely forgotten to ask Dave if I can cover one of the pillars in the Hub with granny squares, on the six or more occasions I have seen him since the conception of that idea. Even, in fact, one occasion where he asked me if there was "anything else I could think of that I wanted to ask him"....I'll remember next time. Or the time after that.

There's this thing that's happened to me this week, and I'm not at all a fan of it, and I think that I might actually implode (or explode, really, any sort of thing like that) if this thing is not rectified soon. It's a very bad thing: I have not knit anything since Saturday. That makes three whole days with not so much as a single stitch knitted-that's how busy I've been. Even now, the only reason I have decided there is time to blog, is because I am procrastinating on writing a paper. Like I said, there might be some kind of implosion soon. I think the rush is almost over, though, and hopefully I'll get some knitting time this weekend. Hopefully.
So what did I do at Stitch n' Bitch this week then? Well I'm glad you asked. I worked on homework. There was stitching involved, though, and probably some bitching as well. I bound a little over half of my hand-printed books for printmaking class with a method called 'Japanese stab stitching'- which really is not a very accurate title, considering you pre-drill the holes. It's really more like a 'Japanese poke a needle through pre-existing holes to make fancy patterns stitching' My book is about a dog my family used to have named Tinkerbelle, and all of the silly/memorable things that she did. Well, some of the things, at least, because I couldn't make the book as long as I wanted. There are 18 copies, because there had to be enough for everyone in the class... The books are really massive projects, and they have been eating my knitting time alive, but I'm turning them in tomorrow, so maybe my knitting time will come back to me. Also the 'surprise' take-home-paper-test-thing that was assigned today and is due tomorrow is done, so bonus points for me!

Way back in the day, when I still had knitting time, I finished the front and back of my sweater and stitched them together, and cast on for the sleeves....I knit six inches of sleeve before I realized that I was increasing much too quickly for anybody's good, despite my careful calculations to do what the pattern was telling me to do...so now when I sit down for the first time in 3 days (which will probably turn into 4 before I have time) to knit, I'll be ripping out six inches of sleeve, and resolving from now on, to do things my own way, if and especially when the pattern I'm supposedly following looks funny.

A 'Short' Answer.

Hello, internet world!

Sorry about the lack of blog last week. There was confusion. And unsureness. This program seems to think 'unsureness' is a word, but I am unsure. Just go with it. Katharine will be blogging next week, so that will be an exciting change of pace! Meanwhile, you're stuck with crazy old me!

This week at Stitch n' Bitch, many exciting things happened- but many exciting things often do.

Clara was working on a smaller, and closed counterpart to her big papa tube. It looked like a sock, so she tried it on. Best.Sock.Ever:

I should also mention that this device is crochet, not knitted. This girl is the whole package! Also, Madeline was quick to point out that she is dressed like a pirate. All she needs is a parrot. or an eye patch. or a peg leg. or, you know, all of the above. Halloween is coming up!

Speaking of Madeline, here is an almost finished cotton-wool sweater!:

second sleeve almost completely finished! We won't get to see it finished next week because she's ditching the booming metropolis of Kirksville for a visit to Albuquerque (which I did not spell correctly without spell check. Close, but no cigar...) but the week after that, certainly. I wonder what her next project will be! whatever it is, it will surely involve new and exciting yarn to pet!

Mary's pile of accent scarf is getting ever so much longer:

I love it! I love it all.


Check out Katharine's progress on her fingering weight cardigan!

It's knit with palette (which I might have told you) and I was informed this week that she did not swatch. The daredevil. It will be a lovely cardigan regardless, though. She has some bulky yarn lined up for a cowl in the future, in case she needs a break from all that fingering weight.

Katherine is making speedy progress on her Halloween costume (she's got the right idea. Start early.):

It also has a matching skirt. Not finished yet, but she has a whole month, so progress is being made!

Megan is making a table runner:

Check out that lace pattern! I hope it's not a terribly long table!

We had two new people join us at Stitch n' Bitch this week:

Bri, who is making a brightly colored scarf:

Fabulous! Mary showed her how to purl, so now we'll be expecting great things.

And I forgot to ask our other guest's name: She was invited by Katherine (Katherine, not to be confused with Katharine, or me- Kat... there are so very many...) and was learning to crochet: she seemed very intent on her learning:

I am still working on my rainbow sweater- a little over 2/3 done with the back. I had a hiccup where the stripes didn't match up (which makes absolutely no sense, but it's yarn, and it does what it wants)... I seem to be back on track now, though. Soon, I'll be starting sleeves! I also got a new shipment of yarn in a few days ago- two pairs of socks, and two extra balls of rainbow for the sweater, just in case.

Group Picture! Everybody do something with your face!

And quite a group it is!

Jordan came a little late, and I forgot to snap a picture, but she is working on finishing up that set of golf club covers... and her Dad asked her to make another set! The nerve! We agreed that there has to be an intervention. Things are getting out of hand. However, in anticipation of being done For Good with the golf club cozies, she is excited to be thinking about knitting things for herself! In her excitement, she asked me a dangerous question: What kinds of yarn are there?

We were talking about Knit Picks, and other yarns, and where to get them, and how we knew they would be soft. Jordan enjoys knitting with Simply soft, and was worried other yarn would be expensive. We talked a little about it, but it was near the end-half of the group had left for the night already, and so today's lesson (remember my knitting history lesson?) is about my experience with different types of yarn!

A quick note on yarn weights. They go like this:
Bulky: is bulky...
Worsted: is average 'normal' yarn. A lot of sweaters are made with Worsted. Unless you're Katharine.
Fingering: one half the thickness of worsted. For shawls on the thicker-but-not-too thick side, and thin knits that could be accomplished with worsted as well. Holding two strands of fingering together will give you close to the same gauge as worsted.
Sock yarn: fingering weight yarn with a percentage of nylon in it. Nylon keeps your socks from getting holey. You can use sock yarn for things other than socks, I promise.
Lace weight: around one half the thickness of fingering weight yarn- this weight is good for wedding shawls and other very thin knits. Things knit with lace weight wool can still be surprisingly warm.


We'll start with animal fibers:

Firstly, and most obviously, Wool:

There's a million different types of wool, and some of it is best suited for carpets, while others are better for sweaters and hats. The most recognizable breed of sheep for garment yarn is the Merino, and its wool is very soft indeed. If you're going to knit something that will be next to your skin, Merino is a pretty safe bet. Softness can be affected by a number of things- if your wool is blended with something softer, then it will feel softer. Sock yarn can sometimes feel softer because there's a bit of nylon in it.
Also, if it is spun tightly, it might feel less soft than if it is spun loosely, and single ply yarns often feel softer as well, but are more likely to pill. There's a certain balance there, because the tighter it is spun, generally the more durable it is. If there's a micron number listed wherever you're buying your yarn, look for something under 30. Anything above that, most people find scratchy. A micron is a unit of measurement that is pretty standard for measuring the width of a single hair. Merino usually runs about 20 to 23, average.

Alpaca!!!

these guys are so cute. Also, they look silly when they're shorn. Alpaca yarn is very, very soft. Like, a lot. It has a bit more of a sheen to it than wool. It can't take the same beating that wool can, so I wouldn't use it for gloves. It tends to fuzz up, which is either very good, or very bad, depending on your project. If you want to make yourself a sweater that will make people want to hug you with a very strong magnetic pull, then Alpaca can do that job. It has a light halo of fuzz that will make you the softest person on the planet. It may pill a little, but you can cut off the pills, and they will stop after a few washes.  On the other hand, if you make a hat, it won't pill at all, because it's a hat, and hats don't rub against anything the way sweaters do. Alpaca can get as small as 10 microns, for those of you keeping score at home. It's pretty slippery to knit with, but not in a bad way. It's really just different. Awesome. It's important to swatch with alpaca because it is more likely to grow, shrink, or stretch than wool.

silk!

I've not shown you silk worms. You can look them up, if you like. They just look like caterpillars.
Silk is spun by silkworms, and is generally known for its drape, and its shine. Silk isn't especially warm, but if you want elegance, you've come to the right place, Unlike alpaca, it has an excellent stitch definition. It's very soft, but without the fuzzy halo. It can also increase the stitch definition of other fibers if it is blended with them. I like silk for shawls and wraps, but you can use it for anything you want to have excellent drape. I should also mention that the process by witch silk goes from those little white cocoons to yarn is some kind of voodoo of which I am not currently familiar. I had a friend who went to Japan and tried to explain it to me, but she didn't know yarn, and I didn't know silkworm-farming, so the whole thing ended with no knowledge gained. I've been told they unravel the silk in one long thread, but this sounds difficult.








Those are the major animal fibers, I think, so I'll move on to plants:

 Cotton! cotton is very practical, but a lot of people don't like to knit with it because it doesn't have elasticity. Things knit with cotton tend to sag, but if you account for that in your pattern, it's not a problem. It's extremely durable, and you can just throw it in the washing machine, unlike most other fibers. It may get a little fuzzy, but that depends on the yarn specifically. It has a pretty wide range of softness. I read an article in a spinning magazine earlier today about a woman who spun yarn out of cotton balls, which I believe is a crazy thing to do, but she did it anyways. One could make a light summer wrap out of cotton- drape wouldn't be an issue, and it would keep the sun off your shoulders without being too warm. Also, dishcloths, and face cloths.

Linen: Slightly less used, and sometimes expensive. Knitting with linen is like knitting with grass. Once you wash it, though, it magically becomes soft. Then, it magically becomes softer every time you wash it after that. It can also sag, and has little elasticity, but so many people love the feeling of it that it doesn't matter. Its heaviness allows it to drape a little better too. It's good for cool, summer knits.

Bamboo!! A personal favorite of mine. Bamboo is naturally antimicrobial and 10 times more absorbent than cotton. It can be processed a lot of different ways, so the yarn can be anything, really. It's good for baby clothes because it's super soft and low maintenance (did I mention super soft?) It has a drape and sheen like silk, and a pretty great durability as well, in my experience. A bamboo-wool blend is very similar to a bamboo-silk blend.



The most important thing when knitting with a new fiber is to swatch it, to see how it will behave. Or, not, if you're adventurous. Also, If you're not sure how durable something might be, you can make a little mini-hank (or swatch) of it, and attach it to your key chain for a week or two, and see if it ages nicely.

I'm sorry if you knew all that already. Also, I ramble, I know. It was a lot longer than my history of knitting...I don't know if I meant for that to happen. Mostly, I just really like talking about fibers- and that was the short version! Blame Jordan. She asked me that dangerous question.

Just one last thing: I learned to spin yarn properly a few days ago! I though I couldn't do it, but it turns out I was just doing it wrong. So, there will be many hand spun projects in my future!

I don't know what to do with my face!

Hello again! It's me again this week, because Katharine has informed us that she needs time to prepare herself for the great task that is blogging. Also, she just got new yarn, so we should probably leave that girl alone so she has time to knit. She's made some progress on her thrummed mittens, and rightly so, because the weather is starting to turn!

After that, a sweater will be on its way, as well as some socks, and even a cowl! She is going to (and I'm making it blog-official so don't forget, Katharine!) bring the new yarn to show us next week. If everyone else brings some exciting yarn from their stash, we can all pet new yarn, and take pictures! I think my whole entire stash is a little too big for transport right now, and I'm sure I'm not alone (I hope I'm not alone. It keeps me from having to admit that I have a problem...) but I'll probably bring some highlights!

In other Very Exciting news, we have a new member!

This is Margaret (Margaret, I'm sorry if I've spelled your name wrong, I didn't think to ask how you spell it...that's how my cousin spells her name though, so I took a guess...) Margaret moved here recently from D.C. (which is cool! Also it is bigger than Kirksville...) and she works at A.T. Still. She is working on a very lovely looking scarf, whose stitch pattern makes it look like it's made of a bunch of little fans! How neat is that!


Madeline is making pretty epic progress on her sweater- It's the cotton/wool blend that felt more like cotton, so its blocking behavior was pretty questionable. I bet we're going to find out how blocking went soon, though, because it's nearly finished!

I am so excited about that stitch pattern! I can't wait to take the first finished-object picture of the new school year! I wish I had as much time to knit as Madeline does. I am working on that, though. Also, apparently this sweater has been officially played with by at least one of Madeline's dogs, so I'd say its an official part of the family now! I think I'd be rather upset with my dog if she tried to play with something I was knitting...although she's not a huge fan of chewing things up, so much as just taking them, and keeping anyone else from having them.

The ever-persistent Clara has begun winding yet another ball of fantastic fun fur in a new color. The rather unfortunate side effect of this is that she hasn't had time to make more progress on the Tube.

Look! a new furry necklace in a new color!

Mary is working on making her accent scarf even longer:

Look at that! We're going to start approaching Doctor Who scarf length here before too much longer!

Lena is making a hat:

That yarn looks like it will make a very warm hat indeed! Also, according to Lena, apparently the french toast muffins at the SUB are quite tasty. Trust me, there was much excitement.
 Jordan is plugging away on those golf club cozies- how many cozies make a set? Six, maybe? Or does it depend on the set? I don't know much about golf, but thanks to Jordan, I do know a thing or two about golf club cozies. At any rate, one's done, and another one started, so I'd say progress is definitely being made!

I also took a group picture- I apparently was very thorough, and made Jordan nervous... she didn't know what to do for the picture, which led to the title of this very blog post- I think she did alright though:

"I don't know what to do with my face!"

everybody's faces look thoroughly occupied with their knitting, so all is well!

I finished the front of my sweater while we were gathered:

Rainbows are cool! I used just over 2 balls of yarn, although I really didn't want to go over 2... I was about to start the back of the sweater, but I realized that all my other balls of yarn are wound backwards! Instead of the colors going purple, blue, green, pink, aqua, they go aqua, pink, green, blue, purple! I guess I'm not an expert on yarn factories (other than that they are magical places and if I had to choose one place to live for the rest of my life, it would probably be a yarn factory...) but I'm a little confused at them for winding some balls one way and some backwards. Regardless, I have realized that I'm going to need more yarn to finish this project, especially if I'm going to make the stripes in the sleeves match each other like I am for the front and the back. That's been ordered today (along with more yarn. I won't admit I have a problem. ) but in the meantime, I need to work on getting the back of the sweater's stripes to match up with the front, which is proving to be a task in itself. I really want this to be done before it starts getting too cold out! I need a defense against the Kirksville winter!

Next week's blog will include a discussion on improvisational knitting tools, and little things knitters do that most other people wouldn't do. We talked a little about it this week as we were leaving, because I told a story about using a crochet hook as a cable needle, with most pleasing results. Also, I'd like to let you all know that I found a cable needle under my pillow today while I was looking for my glasses...I bet that doesn't happen to non-knitters...

By next week's blog I mean the next time I blog- unless Katharine would like to blog about it- if Katharine is blogging next week. You and I will both find out together- it's all rather confusing.

Dear Kaylin (and everyone, but especially Kaylin): if you would like to see pictures of a cute baby wearing a cute knitted thing, you should go to the yarn harlot blog, because there is a cute baby waiting for you there. I think it was the post on September 18th. That blog post makes me want to go make friends with the people that eat breakfast at the same time I do in the dining hall every morning. They have a baby. It too, is very cute, but I have not witnessed it wearing any knitted things.

About yarn

Well, this is new. I usually get really excited to read the Stitch n' Bitch blog post- and, if such a thing is possible, now I'm even more excited to write it! And so...without further ado...

This week at Stitch n' Bitch, the theme seemed to be new projects: Katharine has begun thrumming her second mitten:

Check that out! Progress is being made!

And while she's working on that, she's waiting on a whole bunch of yarn to come from KnitPicks! There will be a new sweater, new socks, and lots of other stuff too! We will be informed of the colors and types of yarn next week when it gets here. I get so excited about new yarn- even when it's not mine! (More on that later. Yarn is very exciting stuff.) Clara was hard at work balling her new eyelash yarn so that it can be added to the tube:

The ball is getting bigger!

That stuff seems to be rather unruly, but she worked hard the whole time! I'm sure its contribution to the tube will be well worth her efforts. Mary is making an accent scarf, that is more or less just something that this yarn wanted to be:

Check out that cable! And such a pretty color.

Mary also gave Clara a lesson on sleeping during class in high school. The key is that you have to be able to get away with it! I'm pretty sure the key to all good things in life is not getting caught.

 While I was admiring the progress that Aric was making on his scarf, Mary commented that the stigma that the world puts on male knitters is so unfortunate. Come on world! It wasn't always that way. During the Renaissance, workers were divided into guilds according to what they did: there was a woodworker's guild, a stone carver's guild, a weaver's guild, and even a knitting guild! Of course, that was back when women weren't allowed to work, so only men were allowed to knit. They mostly knit woolen stockings to combat the cold winters. It didn't take long for women to start knitting too, but that doesn't mean men stopped- If a man wanted a sweater, he could make his own!
I did some research because I was curious, and it looks like it was around the 1940s that knitting became strictly feminine. Girls were taught how to knit in school until the 1980s, and the rest is history :) Speaking of men who knit, here's one right now!

Scarf progress!

His first scarf is coming along nicely- Did he mention he is using the Norwegian purl? It's this clever little twist thing you do so that you can hold the yarn at the back for knitting as well as purling, instead of switching it back and fourth. He says he knows some physics friends who knit, but let's see if we can get them to come to Stitch n' Bitch!

Meanwhile, Jordan has informed us that she will be doing yet another set of golf club cozies (covers? I don't think a golf club necessarily needs to be cozy...) for her very lucky father. That man must collect golf clubs the way I collect yarn! I think Jordan's the one that needs to knit things for herself now!

Look at that smile! Despite knitting the same thing again and again!

At least this set is supposed to be his Christmas present. One less thing to worry about!

I've been hard at work on my rainbow sweater. I'm very worried that I won't have enough yarn, but on the other hand, I've never not been very worried that I won't have enough yarn- and I think it might be too early to tell at this point. I'm also lucky to be able to work on it during at least one class every day. Jordan and I discussed an idea that came to me while I was there- I have a plan for my rainbow sweater. Last week, Madeline posted the picture I took of my sweater progress next to my fabulously decorated hot chocolate from Costa Rican- well, it turned out to be really good hot chocolate, so I'm going to make a weekly thing out of it- to go and get hot chocolate there, and take a hipster picture of it next to my sweater progress. This way, I'll have a week by week account of the growth of my sweater! The very last picture will be when I finish the sweater, and I'll be wearing it while drinking my hot chocolate! It'll be cold enough for that, by the time I finish. I like this plan very much.

I'm having a very hard time not starting other projects right now- I know my sweater will never get done if I do. I have all this yarn and it's just staring at me...waiting to be something warm and toasty.

I did something bad the other day. I was on Ravelry, and I clicked on one of the ads. You should never click on yarn ads unless you have miraculous amounts of money in your yarn budget to spend. But I clicked anyways. here's where I went: http://shop.nerdgirlyarns.com/ And it was magnificent! All the yarn colors she sells are colorways inspired by nerdy TV shows and movies! There are some Monty Python yarn colors- my favorite is the red and white one called 'it's just a harmless little bunny'- and there are some Firefly yarns (yayy!). Mostly and very importantly, there are a whole lot of Doctor Who yarns! Colors for every Doctor, a lot of the companions, a selection of different sonic screwdriver colorways, and....drumroll... A TARDIS color! TARDIS blue. The very best blue of all. I am keeping myself from buying some until I finish the rainbow sweater. The last thing I need right now is more yarn to distract me...

So! How'd I do? I tend to ramble a little when I start having conversations with myself, which is basically exactly what a blog is.  A conversation with yourself that involves pictures.

Is this thing on?

Well, Stitch N Bitch has seen a lot of change since May.  First off, we started meeting again, that's been going well.  We switched our meeting days to meet at 7pm on Tuesdays (still in the SUB HUB-come join us).  We lost some members (we're looking at you Kaylin) and gained some.  Finally, we're going to work on a rotating blogger plan.  I'd say I'll keep you posted but hopefully we all will.

Our first meeting was quite exciting, there were firemen, sirens and mass hysteria!  OK, that last bit was an exaggeration.  There was a fire drill in the SUB and I panicked a little bit when I couldn't find everyone post evacuation.

Lena & Mary knit right through the fire emergency.

Luckily, it just took a bit of wandering around the outside of the SUB to find our crew comfortably knitting on the grass.  Apparently, I just missed Sweet Nothings finishing up their practice just behind our knitting circle!  Darn the luck!

I did make it in time to catch up on everyone's summer vacation report.  Mary & Clara both agree that while their summer was relaxing their dog had the most enjoyable time.  Kat stayed in Kirksville (what bravery!) and worked for JBA and on arty things.  I was around, mostly working, but with some fun having!  The rest of the night proved to be less excited than watching the firemen wander around on Franklin with axes but it sure was wonderful to see everyone again!

On Friday Kaylin arrived all the way from Murray, KY to visit for the long weekend & of course to knit.  Everyone who stayed in Kirksville for the weekend met up at Costa Rican Coffee to knit away a good portion of a drizzly Saturday afternoon.  There was delicious food, hot drinks and great conversation.  

Clara impressed everyone with her tube!  Even me, though I look furious in the background!

Kat captured the feel of the gathering & her stripey, cabley rainbow sweater.

It was just a wonderful weekend.  We hung out with friends, stuffed ourselves with gluten free blueberry cake and watched so much BBC we may have developed accents for part of Sunday!

Sadly, we did not recreate this moment, no matter how much Bella begged!

Yesterday we had our 3rd meeting of the semester (wow already)!  Katherine was kind enough to bring some delicious oatmeal caramel bars, I even brought one home for Mr. Nash, who was quite impressed.

Jordan II showed off the amount of hair she can grow in a summer.  Cute!

Jordan is making great progress on a crocheted blanket (and growing hair) to keep her warm in her big kid apartment this winter.  Katherine has started on her second of her maybe not so doomed thrummed mittens.  Clara continued her tube, it might well be a house cozy soon.  Kat is working on the third starting of her rainbow sweater--I forgot to snap a photo of the progress, I owe you!  Aric is plugging away on a scarf.  Mary has been experimenting with linen blend but it has not yet revealed its final destiny.  I've been working on making a not your boyfriend's sweater while debating the merits of doing so in a wool/cotton blend!

Typical and exciting all at the same time!

All good things

Greetings! It's time for a long awaited blog post! 

Let's review what's been happening in SnB land. 

In April, Madeline and I met up with Allison in Columbia to attend an event hosted by Hillcreek Yarn Shoppe. I believe it was called a trunk show or something like that, though really it was just knitting and good food at Les Bourgeois Winery. 

Madeline and Allison knitting up a storm

Blurry shot of other knitters

We had a great time looking at yarn and chatting with other knitters. I spent some time working on the socks shown below that I'm STILL working on, thanks to a missing size 1 needle that was recently tracked down in the Nash household.

By the hammer of Thor, I will finish you!!!

At the last SnB meeting of the year, Clara showed off some of her new projects. Check out those adorable vegetable earrings. I'm so proud of how her creativity shines even brighter now that she can knit on double pointed needles.

 She also brought Gerard, her handknit pencil. Yeah, she's the coolest kid I know.

In non-knitting news, Jordan III showed off her AMAZING BALD HEAD. She shaved it for St. Baldrick's, a charity that funds research to help find cures for childhood cancer. Everyone kept rubbing her head for good luck. 

In other news, I GRADUATED! Here I am with my favorite set of Nashes. Yes, that's a small smile on  John's face. 

I know, you're thinking, "Awwwwww!"
"Awwwwww" indeed! 

Graduating has been a strange thing. I'll be leaving Kirksville and SnB behind. But I'm leaving you in very good hands! Madeline, Katherine, and Kat will be taking over blogging responsibilities. I am extremely confident that this group of ladies will do a fantastic job with the blog. And hopefully together they'll be able to post more than once a month. 

I've spent a long time writing this blog post in my head, wondering what I would say about my SnB experience. I've taken so long, in fact, that I'm finally finishing it in a hotel room in Kansas on my way to Colorado for the field season (I won't be more specific, on the off chance someone is planning a time-sensitive kidnapping). What I would like to say is that my time with Stitch 'n Bitch completely shaped my college experience. I began attending meetings my sophomore year when I was down in the dumps, so to speak. Meeting the lively members of SnB at the time (Madeline, Alex and Jordan I) brought me out of my slump in a supportive, hilarious environment. I might not have been able to control all of the things happening in my life, but I could control where I would be on Thursday nights: the HUB of the SUB. My knitting skills drastically improved too, which was a bonus. Over the past three years I have valued my time at SnB more than I can really describe. Thinking of all the people I have taught to knit is a great source of pride, as is this blog. I enjoy scrolling through past posts and remembering all of the hilarious moments I've shared with fellow group members. I have forged friendships that for once I am certain will stand the test of time and space (they're bigger on the inside!! AMIRIGHT fellow Whovians!?!?). I will be lucky if I can find a similar group of knitters who can tolerate my theatrics for as long as my fellow Stitch 'n Bitchers have. I've threatened to Skype in on a meeting or two next year, if they'll have me.