A.C. Moore's in-store knitting and crochet party.

Saturday Jan. 28th, the knitting and crochet party was a fun event, lasted 4 hours at this large Rockville, MD. arts and crafts store. Mr, a middle- aged gay male got to teach an elderly lady how to cast on and do several rows of garter stitch. before then, she had never knit in her life,I believe.
So many people who have never knitted in their lives, seem to immediately gravitate to fun fur or fuzzy type fashion yarns without realizing that those yarns are too difficult for beginners.

So Itold this woman not to buy her fancy crinkly, fuzzy yarn and got her into off-white bulky Lion brand yarn, all the better to see her first knit stitches. In a hour an or so I got her actually knitting rows of garter stitches on her own.

I am glad that she will take an actual beginner's knitting class with an experienced teacher.

I can get someoned started but can't even correct my own dropped stitches.

still ripping my stuff out and starting over if my project isn'yt too far advanced, if advanced, I get help to ccorrect my mistakes.

Enough blogging for today, need to get a hair cut go for a hike and do a candle project.

knit some more of that basketweave scarf later on tonight.

basketweave scarf, need to learn how to correct knitting mistakes on my own, A.C. Moore's in-store knitting and crocheting party

the 12 inches of my friend's basketweave scarf was wonderful but getting bogged down in too many knitting errors when knitted too fast or when tired.
So the kind owner of Knit and Stitch had a suggestion that I do the middle 3 feet in garter stitch and the last foot in basketweave. I may do that in order to knit this scarf faster, so I started the continued midsection of the same scarf in garter stitch.

Total finished length to be 5 ft. roughly 400 or so rows, done around 70 or so.
I will try doing a few rows a day in order to get some additional progress.
Must get this scarf project done so I can stop talking about this same basketweave scarf. And into my dear friend's hands by the end of November, 2006 for his birthday. Or his Christmas present.

Come February 22nd, I will start a beginning sweater class called "My First Sweater" knitting a baby-sized sweater with buttons and with minimal shaping. Cutting my teeth a little on increasing and decreasing which of course is "old hat" to most knitters out there who've knitted for a while.

I having another scarf project going so that when one knitting project gets errors in need of help, there is always at least one project error-free and in good shape to knit to fall back on.

I really need a class in making deliberate knitting mistakes and having to straighten them out. Am always too dependent on more experienced knitters to bail me out.

Tomorrow, Saturday January 28th, there is a knitting or crocheting party at a local arts and crafts store in Rockville, Maryland called A.C. Moore. There will be instruction in knitting, crocheting. using a kid's knitting machine, etc.

charity scaves finished, on to other projects, first sweater class, candle

Got the second of two scarves mailed off to Food and Friends. On to working more intently on my friend's basketweave scarf. that will keep me occupied knitwise until February 22nd. I need to get get on with his scarf, I have done 65 rows out of roughly 425 rows to eventually equal, if my math is right, roughly 5 feet (or roughly 60 inches) in length.

Then, I will start a 4- part class called "My First Sweater" at Knit + Stitch, a Bethesda, Maryland yarn store where I go to get my knitting errors undone as well as buy yarn and patterns.

This class will involve knitting a baby sweater with buttons following a pattern provided by the teacher. I will bring my needles or use the store's needles and use the store's yarn.

I had a dream about making a candle out of left over chunks of wax.

That goes to make a solid embedded candle. Put a candle into a larger mold, packing it around with wax chunks and pouring melted wax through it all to make a larger candle with chunks evenly embedded inside the outer edges.

So, I plan to make such a candle.

Knit + Stitch = Bliss a yarn store in Bethesda, Maryland, Yarns International of Bethesda, my charitable knitting

A fun yarn store in Bethesda, Maryland (a Montgomery County town and suburb bordering on Chevy Chase, Friendship Heights and very near DC )

This place is fun because of the variety of yarn, knitting needles (got a size 36 (47 inch-long) circular Addi needle for afghans, blankets or other knittings with large holes) knitting and felting books and magazines, knitting kits, etc. Plenty of knitting books and magazines, a little book on felting, on knitting folk-style handbags based on designs from different countries, etc.

Always, I am hungry for patterns for interesting knitwear and knitted acessories for men, (ski style headbands, scarves, hats, etc.) I am hungry for knitting books written by men regarding men's items. So little is written by men on the subject of knitting. I am interested in men's knitwear in these 3 different ways; (1) stylish with a fashionable twist to it, or (2) something unisex, or (3) something rugged and masculine looking meant for a man's V-shaped torso from broad shoulders, biceps and deep chest narrowing down to trim waistline.

Our church's arts and crafts store has knitted baby blankets, afghans, girl's and women's hats and scarves with the focus mainly on babies, kids, and women. I look to produce styles in scarves with colors either both gender can wear and also some that would have a largely male appeal as well. I am thinking of doing a blasket weave lap blanket in fisherman's off-white type color.

I am still mastering different styles in scarves, but feel it time to take a beginning sweater knitting class from Knit + Stitch (as this store is called in short). I want to knit my first little sweater, this a 4 part class, starting with the basics of knitting a swatch and learning gauge, reading patterns something I have never done while knitting scarves.

I know some of the abbreviations and knitting terms, but there is a lot to learn yet.

This store is great because the employees are required to know how to knit and they have gotten me out of a jam any number of time so that my friend's basket-weave scarf can progress properly, (on row 60 with 340 more to go to make apprx. 5 ft long) The store is open 7 days a week till 5 on Sundays, 5:30 the other days and til 7 or 8 on Thursdays. Classes in different aspects of knitting are taught right there.

My other favorite store is Yarns International in Bethesda, as none of their yarns are synthetic and make for upscale and fashionable, if pricey knitting.
Yarns International's class room is where I really got my best start on garter, stockinette and rib, my very first stitch patterns. Now I do basketweave stitch. plan to learn next seed, ridge and a bunch of other simple stitches and then on to cable stitches, etc.

I like however the less expensive yarns for my charitable knitting. So, I use the bulky acrylic yarns and large knitting needles in plain garter stitch for much faster knitting. So, I am using the yarns from kid's knitting kits I wanted to use up as the skeins are of much thicky yarn. Deadline is February 2nd, (I believe) to get these to Food and Friends (F & F)

Food and Friends is a charity that provides free meals to clients with debilitating illnesses such as HIV/AIDS etc. that rob them of the ability or energy to make their own complete meals.

F & F is accepting handknit scarves, handknit mittens, handknit hats, handmade afghans, with the emphasis on handmade and handknit winter items made at home by local knitters and crocheters, so the clients of F & F can receive useful handmade winter items as well as the regular free F & F food deliveries, an extra dose of heartfelt caring. One F & F client who got a handmade scarf was quoted as saying that she wore it around

(so I having donated a small child's size scarf I made) I am working on an adult-size scarf with 2 different colors in it, one off-white and one multi-colored, to use some more of my yarn stash. The many yarns ends will be woven in securely when I am done by splitting the fibers on the WS (wrong side) side of the scarf up inside the edges as I weave the ends through with a plastic sewing needle.

NIce article in the Friday Weekender Issue of the Washington Post about knitting, knitters and knitting groups in the Washington, DC metro area

I was thrilled to se a nice article about knitting, knitting groups knitters in knitting shops in the DC area.

I combed throughout the article to find reference to male knitters such as myself and pleased to find such. A male knitting group at Caribou Coffee was mentioned, a picture of a male knitter learning his first stitches (who came to Food and Friends with an armful of of blue wool to learn to knit a lap blanket for his girlfriend).


Well, need to get some fixings for tonight's meal and clean up the house a little.

Got bits and pieces of several knitting projects going, but had a bad cold for over a week, so I put my knitting on hold meanwhile, may start again soon.

There is a very shy male couple in our church, they are the only male couple there, so my best friend and I are trying to draw them out and get them to feel relaxed. My friend and I sit together as we have for years and months before this male couple showed up. so that it appears like there 2 male couples in the same service. He is married and I am gay single, but we hug, worship and take communion together. My friend and I would like to see more actual gay couples (male couples and female couples) in our church and I hope that eventually Joe and Ed will tell other gay couples that they are welcome in our church and that they will eventually show up.