Inspired by M-D

I made this linen hand towel as a birthday present for my youngest brother, Craig. It is a take off on the Mason-Dixon towel, using the same format but a different pattern for the squares. You can find my source in Barbara Walker's A Treasury of Knitting Patterns on page 19.
Doesn't the towel look perfect in their old fashioned bathroom? It is in the newer part of the house from about 1840.

Oscar

This is my darling baby boy. Oscar, Bert, Pookie. He answers - or doesn't - to many names. He really isn't such a baby. He is finally growing up at age four. But he is the youngest and will always be my baby. I love this picture. You can see how sweet and vulnerable he is. Of course, he is a real trickster too. He was more or less raised by Moose & sometimes he acts way too much like a whippet. His high pitched bark is enough to scare away bats & mosquitos.
Oscar and Dogwood had the same father. His mother was the #1 coursing deerhound the years Dogwood was #2. Oscar is a field champion and loves coursing. I hope to get back to some lure trials this autumn. Oscar is fast, nimble and runs like a maniac.

I may not be a fast knitter

but I spend a great deal of time knitting. These are the Jo Sharp Picot Socks I began on Thursday evening. I love the look and especially the color. I have to be careful to not buy this color every time I see it.





These are the second pair of socks I knit. I used the free toe-up pattern from Elann and a couple of their self patterning sock yarns - Puzzle & Colori. They are not two different sizes, it is a trick of perspective. I gave them to my sister, Annie, for Christmas 2004 and finished them this past (2006) Spring.



Another free pattern, this one is from Knitting Pure & Simple. Their patterns are well written and very sensible. This is another color I have to be careful about because I buy it so often in different yarns. This baby hoodie is made from 220 but my Bombshell is almost exactly the same color, only in a merino & linen blend.


Mimi knit her baby sweater from a KP&S pattern too. She is taking it to Taiwan to give to her interpreter. Mimi travels to China and Taiwan several times a year. She is my most faithful Sunday morning Yarn Church attendee. She finished the sweater today, so next week I should be able to get a picture of it blocked and ready to be worn by her friend's baby.

Sock Wars!

Check it out. I'm in & ready to kill.

Knitting for babies

I enjoy knitting baby sweaters even though there are no babies in my life. The sweaters usually spend some time at TYL as samples. Then they get packed up and sent to afghans for Afghans. Knitting baby sweaters gives me the chance to make much fancier sweaters than I would ever want to wear. Knitting for myself involves what feels like acres of stockinette since I favor fairly plain clothes. I thought I would share some of my baby sweaters knit over the past year or so.










This is from Rowan Baby and a more demonic pattern I would be hard pressed to find. Why does anyone write a pattern for a raglan sleeve sweater and call for it to be knit flat in pieces? It is a pretty sweater though.

This is from an excellent book - Knitting for Baby - by Melanie Falick & Kristin Nicholas. It is cabled on both the back and front and was a blast to make. Melanie from TYL made a sleeveless version.

This last one is in Knitter's Almanac by the absolute knitting goddess, Elizabeth Zimmermann. I have made several versions of this sweater and never tire of it. I plan to make another one soon.



More photos of more baby sweaters to come shortly.

Meet Maggie

This is Maggie. She works at World of Mirth next door to The Yarn Lounge. World of Mirth is the best toy store ever - great for all ages. On her breaks, Maggie comes to TYL. She is an ultra-talented and creative person.


Knitting is only one of the ways she finds to express herself. She made these needle tops. She is looking for good, long knitting needles with no tops so the ones she adds won't be so heavy. Does anyone have any leads?

Moose!

Meet Moose! He is the enforcer of the family. It comes naturally to him because he is a Whippet. His mother, Miss Kitty, was known as the Police Whippet in her younger days. Maybe Annie will send me some pictures of Kitty. Anyway, he is always the first to remind me when it is Kibble O'Clock - usually an hour early. When I have been away he gives me a hard time and wants to know exactly where I have been. He is the perfect bed dog & almost never tries to push me out of the bed. Moose is an excellent athlete but never finished his field championship because I dropped out of the competition. He has never quite forgiven me. Just like his larger house mates, he loves comfortable beds and furniture. Expect to see more of the Moosemaster.

Class Night

Began my Jo Sharp picot edge socks in the recommended Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette. Think it is one of the first times I have actually used the yarn specified in a pattern but I love the feel. I'd better because these are going to be hand wash only socks. I am using my brand new Knit Picks dpns. Finally decent metal dpns!



Last night was class night at TYL for both Sangeeta and me. Here she is with Megan teaching her how to make a cable.






Carolina has taken several classes with me. This time she is my only student. Here she is in her first Santa Hat from Handknit Holidays by Melanie Falick. Doesn't she look like the perfect elf? Carolina knows every '80s artist and song. Usually she can even tell you what the album cover looked like.

I love my new camera, It is a Canon Power Shot A530. 5.0 megapixels, 4x optical zoom. It has more bells and whistles than I understand but is simple enough for me to manage to take a picture.

Lights! Camera! Dogwood!

My camera came today so, of course, I took pictures of the dogs. To spare you some of my learning curve I will only post one. Please meet my darling Dogwood. #1 Hound of my heart. He is an 8 year old Scottish Deerhound. The picture shows him hard at one of his favorite activities - resting on my bed. He had an illustrious athletic career as a champion lure courser. He was the #2 Deerhound in the country in 2000 & 2001. He has also been a frequent artist's model. I will show pictures of both activities as I find them. He is an honorable hound with a rather serious personality. It does amuse him to stick out his paw to interfere with a human trying to pass him when he is lying down. He is a big guy, about 33" (1m) at the shoulder and weighs 105 pounds. He only sleeps with me when there is bad lightning and thunder.

Knit Night

The last Tuesday of the month is always Knit Night at The Yarn Lounge. The picture is of Anna (left) being helped by Melanie to begin the linen dish towel from Mason-Dixon Knitting. Lucky Melanie works at TYL full time.
Stewart served Krispy Kreme donut holes at Sangeeta's request.
There was a good turn out for Knit Night considering it is the middle of the summer. I finished the most recent baby sweater and worked on a linen towel. Pictures to come when the camera arrives.


This magazine has some great patterns for Big Girls - too bad it requires some math on my part. I bought it anyway. Think I will make the picot edged socks.




This last picture is me (pre-hair cut) with my new Lexie Barnes Lady B in Makiko fabric bag. It was the perfect splurge. Everything about it feels good and it holds plenty of knitting and books.

Waiting for my camera

My camera was just shipped today - so much for Amazon telling me it would ship in 24 hours. Consequently, my posts are going to dwell on the past or depend on others' photos for the next week.
This hat is one of the first things I knit when I was once again seized with the knitting addiction. It is Coronet from Knitty & is actually a pale celadon color. I used some 100% alpaca from Elann. The hat stretched with wearing and I later fulled it to make it fit better.

Our geeky Saturday

The beautiful Sangeeta and I met at The Yarn Lounge to work on our blogs together. She showed me how to put links in the sidebar, how to post pictures and the html for making links in the text. Wow!


Then I decided I needed some knitting content so here is a pair of mittens from the afghans for Afghans pattern. I dyed the colors using kool-aid® blended to look as much as natural dyes as possible. I should have a picture - but I don't - of the blue ribbon the mittens won at last year's Virginia Fall Fiber Festival. I don't normally knit quite such complex patterns. When I get my digital camera, I promise to show a better detail.

Fitt knits and Knit fits

I have been on a knitting spree for the past 3 years. I knit a long time ago but put my needles down for 20 years. It is now time to start my blog. What better way to start than with some bad puns on my name - Cate Fitt. Pictures to come as soon as my camera arrives.
Pictures of the hounds & my knitting projects mostly.