So, it has been a few months, and I apologize.
But, How is your knitting coming along? I hope it is going well.
Recently, I was with my knitting group and I was asked how I came into my knitting; my response was "By knitting through the Almanac".
Knitting through Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac, has been such a great experience. I know the year is not over yet, but I am confident that I will be finishing it.
I left off in February, which included baby leggings, a matching jacket and bonnet, a pot holder, and a square shawl. The pot holder is a chunky double acrylic wool blend yarn from Lion Brand, and let me say, it gets used. I wear the square shawl, and with this project came a happy mistake. Elizabeth tells you to increase at each corner by doing a yarn over, knit one, yarn over. I performed my yarn overs, not above the knit one but over the previous yarn over. This creates a parabola! More recently, I have been playing with the idea and making complex curved increases. Then the baby set was adorable. The leggings came out for a toddler while the jacket and bonnet were perfect for a true baby. The leggings were given to one young mother, while the jacket and bonnet were given to a first time grandmother friend of mine.
March is the only month I did not complete, which is ok because I love the pattern.
April was the afghan month and boy what an afghan. A friend of mine gave me two bags of lopi yarn, all in different colors and all beautiful. So with the lopi and some other chunky yarn that I had in my stock, I knit 24 squares, from the center. Then I grafted all the squares together, and finished it by knitting a sideways border all around it. Our summer was warm, so it was quietly packed under my bed till the fall. Only a short time into the fall now and already some nice naps have been had under the fine blanket. This was also the final project my grandmother saw completed.
It was in May that she passed away. Memorial Day 2015, my 93 year old grandmother passed away. Now, she did not teach me to knit, but she did teach me to crochet, and to appreciate the things we have. Growing up during the depression she did not have a lot, but it was more than my grandfather had. She told me that her family never went hungry, but that my grandfathers' did. As for knitting, it was the month of mittens, in which I only got one pair done. I think Elizabeth would have understood the circumstances though.
June was hat month, and boy did I knit hats! I knit all the patterns she had in the Almanac, and then I worked on some patterns from Knitting Without Tears. Now, I realize I have forgotten another pivotal moment to this year: When I Started Spinning!
I began spinning a few months prior to that on a drop spindle. I spun wool, and silk, and linen, and cotton, and, well, anything I could twist. In June, I visited relatives in New Hampshire and on the way there I stopped at the beautiful Harrisville Studios. I bought some wool there and also mohair, both of which I began to spin. By this time I have a heavy weight spindle, a medium weight, and a super light weight one. The heavy one I attempted flax on, but moved to the medium weight. Wool, I like on my heavy weighted one, and cotton and silk are perfect on my home made super light weighted one.
July was pi shawl month. I was excited. This pattern was why I bought the book in the first place. I had bought a silk and mohair blend yarn and found it an excellent suit for the project. I cast on and knitted, then increased, then knitted, then increase, and so on until I got to the end of three skeins and said enough. Then I began knitting a sideways border around the whole thing in hand spun mohair. Next came the blocking of the shawl, and my gosh, I love it. At the same time, I knitted a wedding veil out of a silk linen blend, which was a wedding gift to a dear friend of mine. This pattern I virtually made up, but it was based on the concept of a Pharoese shawl.
August came and went with more hats, I'm sorry Elizabeth, but I didn't get that chapter at all.
September came with no nether garments and ended with nether garments. Knitted Long Johns were the project for September. I loved this project. I know the idea seems rather odd but, knit them and you will love them.
Now it is October and I am knitting an in-between-season sweater, again not one of Elizabeth's, but I think she would approve. Details with pictures to come.
Happy Knitting!
ONO

February Project: Started

So the bitter cold, snow filled, month of February has started here in the tundra which is now the greater Western New York Area. And what do you all think I do to compensate for the weather? I knit of course.
February, according to Elizabeth Zimmerman, is baby month. To begin with, she is not having any babies, nor am I, nor do I know anyone who has recently. So I am knitting for the sake of knitting, and honestly could there be a better reason to knit?
First she has a pattern for a double knit pot holder as the gauge swatch and a double knitted baby blanket as the actual project. I only knitted the pot holder, but may I say it was quite fun and fast and I rather like the finished pot holder. I made it out of left over Lions Brand chunky wool ease.

If I do knit it into a blanket any baby's bottom or knees would much appreciate it as the chunky yarn and double knitted factor make it supper plush.
Following this in the month of February is a square shawl. I am in the middle of that, more news to follow.
Along with the shawl I am now working on the Baby sweater. I have begun it but am only on the first set of increases to it. But, I can assure you that I am loving it because it is a top down little thing that's going to be adorable in a sky blue and pale pink.
Happy Knitting to All!

January Project: Complete

January has come and gone and so has the Aran sweater project. Now my sweater fell short because I ran out of yarn to make sleeves, so I made a sweater vest.
On a trip to visit friends in New York City, and to see Death Becomes Her at the Metropolitan Museum, I was knitting on the train. And somewhere between Albany and New York City I ran into problems; I realized I was running out of yarn. I already had finished knitting the back as a raglan but who ever heard of a raglan sweater vest, so I had to figure out how to make the front fit into the shoulders on the back. I pondered for some ways on the train and realized if I made the front a V neck and continued the decreases from the front then I could make the front follow over the shoulder and make a drop shoulder seam in the back; which I did. I'm rather happy with the results except for one thing...It's far too large for me. Luckily I know one person who would appreciate this fine knitted Aran V-neck sweater vest and he shall receive it when next our paths meet.

P.S. I would like to say this is an authentic Aran sweater because there are variations in the cables. To all those half empty glass people who will see them as mistakes I say "No, those are character traits, choices on behalf of the sweater!"

Sweaters

Good Morning All,
Last night I spent far too long attempting to put together my first sweater for The Elizabeth Zimmerman Challenge. I mean between 10 different gauge swatches, attempting patterns, planning patterns on graph paper, I must have spent 6 or 7 hours just on that.
So this morning I woke up early, (I have a rehearsal for a concert...did I mention I sing?) and I started back on the sweater. Luckily I had found some patterns that I liked. In my gathering of resources I had found a book I rather liked. Now it is not Elizabeth Zimmerman, but I think she would be proud of me either way. It is an Aran sweater, that I will be knitting and I feel she would be proud in just that.
Now in The Knitters Almanac, Ms. Zimmerman discusses how to knit, but more importantly how to make it your own art form!
Today, a lot of people knit but they use some one else's patterns. The tradition of Aran knitting, and really any traditional needlecraft, not just knitting, is not given to you in a pattern but rather self created. In Aran knitting the patterns were passed down within a family, Italians have a different dialect in each region, the Irish have a different stitch for every family. Knitting to the Aran people was a way to express something. It was just a mixture of knits and purls.
So what I am saying to you is, KNIT! but, make your knitting your own and change the stitch pattern up, or change the sleeve, or the neck line. Trust me, you can do it!
Happy Knitting,
Old Niagara Outfitters

Elizabeth Zimmerman Challenge January

So today is January 2, 2015 in case you didn't know that. Here in Buffalo it is a little cold, but not terrible. It is just like every other winter I can recall to be honest, but aren't here to talk about the infamous Buffalo winters.

I can recall in the late summer months of 2014 friends of mine saying how they wanted to learn how to knit, maybe even get together some October evening with their first skein, a pair of knitting needles, and myself there to teach my group of friends how to knit. Well, October has passed, but again we are not here to talk about the great passing of time or the passing of New Years Resolutions. We are here to discuss a new project, or rather a group of projects!

Yesterday, January 1, 2015, I began what I have dubbed The Elizabeth Zimmerman Challenge. (this is when you comment, raise your hand, drop me a line, send me a telegram, etc. and ask Who is this Elizabeth Zimmerman?)

Well to answer your questions about this post...
Elizabeth Zimmerman was a wonderful knitter and author and spinner! She just so happened to have written a few books, but at the moment we are only concerned with one, The Knitter's Almanac.
Originally published in 1974, The Knitter's Almanac is a book with projects for each month of the year (how fitting since it is the beginning of January). Now I've added a link to Amazon just in case you don't already own a copy of the book; you can also get it on your Kindle.
Towards the end of December I thought, why not go through the Almanac?
So why not?
Her first project is an Aran sweater. I didn't know what exactly an Aran sweater was so I did some research...only after I started knitting.
To many people an Aran sweater may be more recognizable as a fisherman's sweater, or an Celtic sweater. They're commonly made from wool and have cables and bobbles and what not all over them. Now I must admit that while I love Ms. Zimmerman, I'm not all that fond of the way she wants you to make this first sweater by cutting it and inserting the sleeves, but well get there in a few weeks.
In the mean time I have my yarn, blue wool that I recycled from a sweater that my sister's boyfriend gave to me. I have acquired numerous, well 5 books from the library on Aran knits, and now it is up to me to figure out what stitch patterns to use. I have already started gauge swatches, 3 already, and still I don't have the right needles (sz 6 to be precise). Ms. Zimmerman gives very good advice on the swatch and that is to do it in stocking stitch, instead of your pattern stitch; just in case you don't like the pattern stitch she's chosen.
So next week, and every week here after, I will post my progress, hopefully with pictures too. But for today, think about your next project, instead of a resolution. You may start something you love and beginning forgetting something you don't.
Happy Knitting!
Old Niagara Outfitters