norahsknits

Correction - Here's the location schedule for Saturday's Holidays in Old North Vintage & Handmade Sale I'll be in the conference room at 2700 North 14th St., on the east side of the street, instead of across the street. I hope folks will come into the building to find me!! Apparently there will be some ethnic food vendors, and Crown Candy Kitchen and LaMancha Coffee House will be open.  Holidays in Old North is happening THIS Saturday from 11am - 4pm! Santa and Magic House will be located inside Prosperity Connection at 2707 N 14th Street. Thanks to our vendors and our generous sponsors, Crown Candy, Commerce Bank and the Regional Arts Commission, photos with Santa will be 100% free once again! Ignite Theater Company  will be bringing their youth performers to put on a short show at  11:30am i n the Parks Building - you won’t want to miss this! Vendors will be located inside the Parks Building at 2720 N 14th, Central Print at 2624 N 14th, and the

Norah's Knits should be stationed at 2701 North 14th Street, one block south of Crown Candy Kitchen. Vendors will be spread out in several storefronts near the corner at 2700 North 14th. Here's a link to the event info: Holidays in Old North 2016 (Facebook) Should be a really fun event! (PS - Norah's Knits takes credit cards)

Came across a few photos that I don't think I have published here before - so I'm sharing them!! Yarn from the Weavers Guild of St. Louis study group event in Sept. 2016 - dyeing yarn Black alpaca shawl that was displayed at the WGSL event at the University City Public Library in April 2016, layered with another recent shawl in blue wool, and just showing in the upper right corner, a crocheted scarf in a dark multi.  I love the colors of these two shawls and "doily" (aka table mat) together; this one might have been published here earlier.   Another shot of two scarves, same pattern, showing the difference between two yarns, both lovely to work with.  

I'm donating a few items for the Silent Auction at the DeSales Community Housing Corp.'s Night Out for Neighborhoods on November 9th, 2016: Two hand-crocheted evening bags (lined, with magnetic closures): A hand-knit shawl, and a hand-knit scarf (made of Noro brand yarn from Japan): Noro yarn is really fun to work with because of the lovely colors!  And here is the shawl:

Norah's Knits will be at the Holidays in Old North sale this year, on Saturday, December 10th, 2016 from 11 am to 4 pm. This is a fun event with lots of different vendors at many price points. Crown Candy Kitchen and LaMancha Coffee House are open too, for those who are hungry/thirsty! I really enjoy this sale, and I love visiting Old North St. Louis.

Here's the lovely postcard for the 34th Annual Weavers Guild of St. Louis sale: I'll have items in the sale - shawls and wraps - some of the ones shown in prior posts! If you love hand-made items, this is the sale for you. It's also the only place I know of where a lot of (really pretty) handspun and hand-dyed yarn is available for purchase. Many of our members are spinners as well as weavers and artists in other fiber arts. For more info, go here:   weaversguildstl.org/34th annual

Here are a few more pics of items being blocked. I expect to have most of these recently-completed items in the WGSL sale. The yarn on the bottom left item in the first photo is Berroco Boboli lace, and the crescent shawl at the top of the photo is Queensland Uluru (discontinued, I think - no animal fiber, nice colors & texture). In the 2nd photo above, the top item is a "scrap" shawl in a crescent shape, and the bottom item is Pattons Classic Wool, about 2 1/2 balls.  I also got started on the project I blogged about earlier (July 27, 2016) - working the same design in several different undyed yarns. Here is the start of a scarf using the Brooklyn Tweed lace-weight yarn. I'm placing a bead on each edging point, using a fine crochet hook to place the bead on the end stitch. The yarn has a really nice feel and body, soft but springy to work with.

Blocking a few more items this morning. The light-colored scarf is a lace-weight yarn, alpaca, silk and some cashmere, held double. (Manos del Uruguay Lace Multi) The darker shawl is a sock-weight yarn. (Madelintosh Merino Light) Both items have a leaf motif knitted in. Size 9 US needles for both. Both yarns are very soft to the touch. The bag on the left side of the photo contains more items waiting to be blocked.

The Weavers Guild Sale is October 21 and 22 this year. I've started blocking a few items for the sale. The photo below is of a crocheted table mat ("doily") on top of two knitted shawls. The shawls are crescent-shaped, with Old Shale lace patterning. Here's a link with more info about the sale, which is an annual event:   WGSL 2016 Sale

Wild Bird Rehabilitation  is holding its annual Trivia Night on Saturday, November 12, 2016. I just selected several items to donate for their silent auction at the event. The organization is a rescue center for injured, ill and orphaned songbirds. Here's a pic - although once again you must excuse the mess in the background! The top two items (both scarves) are crocheted; the bottom one (green) is knitted. The striped scarf is a crochet pattern of mine that I have made many times . The light green knitted item is a pattern I call my "Angel Wing" shawl. The small pink scarf (a triangle kerchief shape) is a crochet experiment but it turned out well, I think.

I have three special skeins of yarn, and am contemplating some sort of project to compare them by knitting similar items from each of them. The skein on the left is hand-spun, lace-weight mohair from Tajikistan (purchased on-line from Clothroads ). Approximately 400 yards, two-ply. The middle one is a slightly heavier 2-ply Suri Alpaca yarn from Alpacas d'Auxvasse , which is located here in Missouri. Approximately 300 yards. I purchased this yarn at Knitorious here in town. Both of those have a nice lustre. The third one, on the right, is something I just ordered from Brooklyn Tweed , and is laceweight Rambouillet Wool, grown in Wyoming, dyed in Maine (though from the color it could be undyed). 440 yards, two-ply. This yarn has a matte texture. I may use one of the patterns shown in the photo below. Pardon the mess on the edges of the pic - this was a quick shot to submit for an exhibit for the Weavers Guild of St. Louis .

I'm having a busy summer (understatement), but have been having fun with some randomly purchased yarn. This is Feza Glitz, rayon and metallic, knit on the bias. The eyelet rows are also random, though I have made several similar scarves with more of a pattern to the eyelets. I'm enjoying working with this yarn - it has a cotton-y feel. Also pictured is a copy of Hand Woven magazine which arrived in yesterday's mail.

Thought I would post a photo of the finished object I was working on earlier in the week - the prior post showed what looked like a pile of yarn, I think. Here's the finished shawl, not yet blocked (and a quick photo) --- As I said, scrap yarn projects like this are fun to knit, at least to me. I work all the tied ends to one side, so one side has a deconstructed look.

I got started on a simple "scrap" shawl over the weekend, am just finishing it up with edging. Here's how it looked this morning: These scrap yarn projects are fun because the yarn changes every 4 yards or so (depending on how long you make the lengths of yarn that are tied together). Also, you can remember the original items as the different yarns are knitted up. I keep all my partial balls of yarn, and any scraps longer than a yard or so.

The Weavers Guild of St. Louis has been seeking prizes for two events this year - our 90th Anniversary Guild Challenge and a monthly "Show and Share" at our meetings. I'm pasting it info on the challenge at the end of this post. Both are being organized by WGSL member and expert weaver Julie McClure.  Knitorious , the yarn store at Watson Road and Bradley here in the City, has donated 3 cones of weaving yarn as prizes for the Challenge. They are linen and linen/cotton from Louet North America, which Knitorious will be stocking. I will be turning these over to Julie for prizes. The pure linen is labeled "wet spun" for aficionados. I also took a pic of a few recently finished items. Both are crocheted. I expect the scarf to end up as a gift for one of my nieces.  90 th Anniversary Guild Challenge – Show Your Stuff! For the 2016 Guild Challenge, let’s celebrate our 90 th anniversary by showing the wide variety of fiber arts our members

From my front yard last week - love the blue color - in fact, I seem to be focused on blue recently . . .

I'm blocking the small shawl made with Malabrigo laceweight (subject of April 6th post) and another one that is more of a scarf size. Both of these were knit using a variation on the technique I talked about in the Feb. 23 post. Here's a shot of the shawl using the Malabrigo (it's the bottom one - the top one is a kid mohair/silk blend with a touch of sparkle): I purchased some glass beads a while ago, have been using some of them recently. These were strung on the yarn using a beading needle, then crocheted on as part of the edging.

A view of the knitting on my kitchen table this morning. The blue scarf is the one I'm wearing today, made of Plymouth Yarn Linaza, color Robin Egg. The actual color is a little more aqua-ish than it appears in the photo. The red yarn on the needles is from Lucci Yarn and is a lace-weight. The blue-ish pink yarn is from Black Bunny Fibers, just finished a shawlette out of it, which is waiting to be blocked.

Started a small shawl for myself, using some Malabrigo merino/silk yarn that was a Christmas present. The yarn is lovely. Laceweight. (ps - I would rotate the top pic if I could figure out how.)

TIMELESS FIBERS 2016 An exhibition that celebrates the 90th Anniversary of the Weavers' Guild of St. Louis, showing current work of guild artists and featuring a digital presentation of the history of the second oldest Weavers' Guild in the nation. Opening Reception April 2nd, 2 - 4 pm in the auditorium at the University City Public Library - open to the public. Exhibit will be open in The Gallery (upstairs) during library hours,  April 2 - 29, 2016.  WGSL Timeless Fibers on Facebook I've submitted a few items for the exhibit, don't know yet whether they will be accepted, but here's a photo --- please excuse the clutter around the items, this was intended to just be a quick shot. The three shawls are, left to right:  commercially spun Alpaca, handspun Alpaca (by a fellow WGSL member), and hand-spun mohair from Tajikistan (Cloth Roads' website).  

* Updated this post 2-24-2016 - see additional reference at the end of the post! Washed and laid out to dry - not pin-blocked, but this should work ok. The rectangular item is dark brown alpaca in the center, with a wool-blend crocheted edging. The body pattern is the Japanese Feather lace stitch. The yarn was a Christmas present, so I am planning to keep it. The other item (a shawl/scarf) was made using a new technique for the body (the blue yarn), then adding an saw-tooth edging with mixed scrap yarns pieced together in approximately 3 yd. lengths. The upper edge of the shawl (at bottom in the photo) was crocheted using the same scrap yarns - five rows of half-double crochet.  The technique for the body of the shawl is similar to that for this shawl:   http://www.interweavestore.com/potters-shawl-pattern  - the body is worked from the center back neck and increases on the edges by 3 stitches per row. I was trying out the technique to see if it would work for some expensive

This Saturday, January 30, 2016, 9:30 am to noon, is our Destash Bash! Bring your checkbook and/or cash.  Items will include yarn and fiber, magazines, books, equipment, and related craft tools.   The beautiful  Just our Yarn  skeins of Almaza and Aziza yarns will also be available for sale.  This event is open to the public, so bring your friends & relatives too!!   WEAVERS' GUILD OF ST. LOUIS  MEETING WHEN: Saturday, JANUARY 30, 2016 9:30 WGSL members and guests early shopping 10:00-noon Sale open to all WHERE: Brentwood Community Center – Multipurpose Room B WHAT: Member’s De-stash Bash