Hard to believe March has almost slipped away on me.  I went to the Baskets of Yarn retreat in Boone, NC March 5th through 9th. I had a WONDERFUL time.  It is just fabulous to spend five days immersed in fibery goodness, with good friends. I took almost zero photos, so have little visual to share. I took classes on Spinning and Polymer Clay and knitting a cabled aran Ipod case (not done online casinoyet) from the wonderfully talented Sue Dial. My big project for the weekend (6 hours of class) was the February Lady Sweater, taught by Lisa Kartus.  My yarn choice was out-0f-stock, but I was happy with the alternative choice of Mission Falls 1824 cotton in Saffron Spice Whirl.  Except I do find knitting on the cotton wearisome. This is my first top-down raglan sweater, which is exciting.  Once I understood what the pattern designer Pamela Wynne meant by ‘mark’ a stitch (Lisa explained all for us), I got the raglan increasing going fine.  I also like the way Lisa explained the m1 left and m1 right–always knit into the shorter leg!

I also took a 2 hour class from Lisa on different ways to join yarn, learning the Russian Join and Lisa’s way to spit splice yarn.  Man, she frays the yarn for a spit splice down to the fibers! Beyond just unwinding the plies. I must admit, it works, and you do get faster at it. I’ve been using it on my latest project (more on that another day).

I taught my 2 socks-at-a-time-toe-up class in 2 days, using worsted weight Jojoland Rhythm yarn.  I had twelve students at once, but seemed to juggle my attention enough to keep them all mostly happy! I even офис обзавеждане gave them a reprieve and did not make them knit homework by doing a sample heel on Saturday rather than the actual sock heels.

Other than classes, we had an evening of Yarn Tasting Luxury fibers, such as cashmere and silk and Louet Mooiraman amplifier (bison, bamboo and cashmere), a evening of crafters’ boutique,  a chair massage and then a fun relaxing Spa Day of knitting, polymer clay (made buttons for my February Lady Sweater), eating out, shopping at the local and a full body massage. Aaaahhhhh. I also shopped at the local yarn shop in Boone (Laura’s Yarn-Tastic) and picked up some Miss Babs sock yarn (indie dyer from Tennesse).

Then on the drive home (yes, it was a round-about-route) Monday, I ventured over to Asheville and visited Yarn Paradise in Asheville.  I got a serious Koigu fix there, picking up several full skeins, and then a bunch of mill ends that were partial skeins of 1/2 to 1-3/4 ounces. Socks and scarves in the plan. I ate lunch (ham, apple and brie sandwich and green pea soup) at a lovely English tea room called Chelsea’s.  More aaaahhhhh!

Here are the last three 6″ swatches I have knit for the blanket donations at the Basket of Yarn retreat.  All are based on stitch patterns in 450 Knitting Stitches: Volume 2 (The Harmony Guides)

Lattice stitch, page 20:

Moss Slip Stitch II in two colors, page 35. This one ended up being quite thick with the slip stitches every other stitch, and has a tendency to bias. It might work as a potholder, but I don’t think I’ll use it for a dishcloth or blanket square again:

Eiffel Tower stitch, page 36:

In the past week , I have been whipping out more 6″ swatches for donation to the Baskets of Yarn retreat this coming weekend, where we will be sewing the swatches into blankets to donate to charity.  I played around with a number of dishcloth patterns, then started swatching interesting patterns in my stitch dictionaries. Today, I’ll share the three latest I’ve knit from free dishcloth patterns. For most of these I cast on anywhere from 21 to 25 stitches to get “about” a 6″ square end result.

First up, the completed Bee Stitch Cloth, downsized to a 6″ square (should have cast on a few less stitches):

Next, the Open Star Dishcloth, again downsized. I didn’t cast on quite enough stitchs for this one, so when it ended up a bit too small, I added a round of single crochet in the purple to get it closer to the 6″ square.

This is the Three and One Checked Cloth pattern, and I think it turned out quite well. I plan to knit this one again. The pattern was easily memorized and doesn’t need edge stitches to lie flat.

Here are the last of the hats I knit for donation at the Baskets of Yarn retreat (starts in 3 days, woot!).

First I knit  the Knit Hat with Flaps featured on Knit & Crochet Today! tv show on PBS using the recommended yarn, Moda Dea Tweedle Dee in shades of gray called “Thunder”:

Next, I knit the same pattern using Di.ve’ Autunno yarn, which is a bulky instead of the chunky/super-bulky like the Tweedle Dee. I also knit in the round with magic loop, which meant I had to reduced the pattern by the two seam stitches. I aslo added more rows of garter stitch around the cuff/brim of the hat. And I thought a slightly more delicate i-cord was in order, so switched from 4 stitches to 3 on the i-cord.

I have 2 more complete balls of this yarn, plus about 3/4’s of a ball, so I can make something more. The color variations worked out well on the hat.