a ChicKnits Runway Presentation
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courtesy of Berroco

For your cabin fever eyes, if you are wailing in the single digit wind chill like Chicago...

Berroco USA

has beat the punch and posted their preview of their Spring offerings!

I saw several of their new yarns yesterday (Wwoah!)and ended up with their Pamphlet #217 "Today's Classics" which includes a pattern called *Josie* which I was on the verge of writing myself.

I saw a similar sweater on Oak St (Chicago's Rodeo Drive!?) last year and liked the new use of the Slip Stitch which is what made me LOVE (here's where I gush for all of you keeping count!!!!!!!) Shaker Rib so much. It travels on top of reverse Stockinette and is very architectural. I think the model should be wearing a smaller size because it should be more form fitting.

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Berroco Spring Trends Article

Comments (2)

Hands across the Ocean Edition

Monday Morning Mirth

It takes two to make a thing go right!
iT TAKES 2 to make it Outta SIght!

----- Original Message -----
From: "Theresa -" (spellingtuesday@hotmail.com)
To: "Bonne Marie-" (bonne@chicknits.com)
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2003 9:15 AM
Subject: Goin' to the frog pond...

I was thinking of heading to the frog pond today... how's your
Sunday looking? What I've got here is all the way to the yoke knitted Mission Falls 1824 Wool that wound up being just waaay too big. It was a pattern from Interweave Winter 2000/2001. I thought it was (even though I was making it with the right gauge and a size M... argh...) but when I took it off the needles this morning I found out it _really_ was. Huge. I do believe I'm going to do a Ribby Cardie or a Ribby Pullover with it instead.
:O)
Theresa

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From: "Bonne Marie Burns" (Chicago)
To: "Theresa -" (Norway)
Subject: Re: Goin' to the frog pond...
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 09:50:53 -0600

Theresa,

As we say in CHicagaaa, I'm witcha, I'll go too! I have a Bartlett Dark Brown Wool Knee length monstrosity which if I do not nip it in the bud right now, will end up resembling a personal Mobile Home because it is so stiff and weird.

I also have several pieces of a Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece Cardie that I just don't know what I was thinking...

Shall we synchronize our watches, it is 9:53 here - you call the hit time...

:) :) :)

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Theresa: Lessee... what time zone are you in? Are you one hour behind EST? That would make us 7 hours apart... uhm... I was supervising a teenager and her younger sister making tacos for dinner. (Mostly to make sure they didn't use the knives on each other.) I'm thinking I can begin at 6:30pm here which would be 11:30 am your time if the above holds true. heheheee...

I have a before picture... I'll go get that posted now.

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Bonne: I'm doing it right now!!!

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Theresa: I've gotten almost all of the body done ... startin' on the arms next...

;o)

This really helps...

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Bonne: HEY!
Actually it's helping me do my laundry!!!

PS-I'm listening to BustaRhymes while I'm doing this...

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Theresa: Okay. What are you doin' in that picture, precisely. My curiosity is piqued.

(We're watching a Norwegian movie from 1970 called Olsenbanden og Dynamitt-Harry.)

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Bonne: I'm using my ball winder to Frog the piece - it puts it into ball form. Then I'll use my swift to make skeins. Then I'll wash it.

Eminem is now doing a duet with Dr. Dre and I'm on to the Lavender Cotton Fleece Cardie.



This was really hard to do because both sleeves were done.

BUT I hated it...

So here we go!!!!

Here's the part where I put it up into skeins...

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Theresa: Yippee!

My arm's about to give out, but I've done all but one of the sleeves.

I want those accessories ! And a pair of blue fuzzy slippers! ;O)

(And some sunshine!)

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Bonne: I'M DONE!!!

Even though one of the lavender balls went flying off the winder across the room and I had a mini-panic moment, it's all wound!



Thanks for the rippin' good time, Theresa! I never would've had the courage to re-work that lavender thing - they've both been sitting around since 2000...

Time to go - I'm going to lose the blue fuzzy slippers and go work out! Stay warm - :)

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From: "Theresa -" (spellingtuesday@hotmail.com)
To: "Bonne" (bonnemarie@core.com)
Subject: Re: Last rippin gasp
Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 1:08 PM -0600

Congratulations!

T.

Theresa's BLOG: Bagatell: Knitting in Norway

Comments (17)

Exciting Moments of 2003: #4

Which one is most heart-stopping?
You decide...

A. I actually clean the House.

B. While cleaning around the back door, my vacuum sucks up an end of yarn from a really old 4oz. center pull skein of Red Heart wool. I think I'm moving really FAST and switch off the thing but before it stops, the vacuum has sucked up a good third of the skein around it's brush. I have to un-wind this by hand because I'm not going to lose even an inch of this stuff because in the House of ChicKnits Style, old Red Heart rules!

(HHmmm, why is this yarn by the back door? I've stacked old 4oz skeins of eBay wool to block the cold air invading my life. It's dirty any way so I make it earn room and board!)

C. I swear to never clean the house again because it's just darn unlucky...

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here's the HAPPY in Happy Good Luck!

Comments (5)

this is a couple of days early but it's
ChicKnits BLOG Two Year Anniversary!!!
So pleased to meet cha!

Deux Terribles Chapeau Heureux

Ne me blÃmez pas si vous devez
faire des centaines et des
centaines de ces derniers!

Yarn: 1 skein Lamb's Pride Worsted

Needles: 1 - 16" #6/4mm circular needles

1 - 16" #8/5mm circular needles

1 - set #8/5mm double points or another
#8/5mm circular if you prefer

Gauge: 16sts/16rows over 4"/10cm (not stretched over pattern)

Size: Medium (to fit 21")

PATTERN / Shaker Rib:
Row 1: *(K1b, P1) [K1b = Knit One Below: knit the stitch by inserting needle into the knit stitch from the row below, complete the knit wrap and lift both stitches off needle]

Repeat from * across

Row 2: P every stitch

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CO 84 stitches using #6/4mm circular needles. Join, being careful not to twist stitches.

Work 3 rows (K1, P1) rib across.

Change to larger needles and start Shaker pattern on next row.

Work in pattern for 5.25 inches, ending with a Row 1.

Next row: *(P14, place marker (pm)) - repeat from * across.
6 markers placed total.

Shaping will take place on the Row 1 of pattern for rest of hat as follows:

Row 1:*(Pattern up to 2 sts before marker, K2TOG), repeat from * across.
Row 2: *(P up to one stitch before marker, and then K that stitch) - repeat from * across.

Repeat these two rows until 6 stitches remain (use double pointed needles when necessary as cap gets smaller)

Cut yarn leaving a 4" tail and thread through remaining 6 stitches and pull tightly.

Weave in ends carefully and THE HAT WILL BE REVERSIBLE :)

I like the wrong side best but then again I like bad boys too...

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Hint: If wool bothers you, try wearing a lightweight polar fleece band under your wool hats.

Comments (11)

Landlord Bans Farm Animals?

Raise Some Yarn! Harvest when needed!

Remember THIS? I started working on this in November.

So far, until this week, the 2002-2003 Chicago Winter was quite mild. My knitting really follows the thermometer and this Jacket was just too warm to hold to work on.

But guess what? Dare I say, it's all good:
Clouding over. Prospects for some snow mainly southern sections. Clearing Thursday night with near 0® lows outlying areas.

This means I'll be plowing through some of those more bulky yarn things I started BEFORE.

Definition of BEFORE: still finishing or working for the second time on something that just didn't pan out. Something that's been lying about the workroom in pieces begging to be ripped or picked.

The Blue Boy Jacket is happening from yarn that was found on eBay. This Thick'n'Thin stuff was ripe and I couldn't wait to workit. But after I ripped out/washed all that yarn on Sunday with Theresa, when I picked up the Blue Boy, it just wasn't fresh. Since I frequently attend the school of hard knocks, it didn't occur to me to wash the skeins before I started.

So back in the barrel they go, and now, after an overnight flat layout on the blocking rug to dry them to dampness, they are on every door knob in the house! (I don't like to hang wet skeins - I thing it stretches the yarn too much to have the water *drain* from the bottom...)

Comments (6)

Woah...

Now I get it!

Until about 8 hours ago I just didn't understand... Even though I knit a Point 5 Scarf and made the H2O Hat, I've avoided the Super-Bulky Craze with a passion.

1. Costs an arm and leg

2. Those big needles that go with that big yarn. Not smmmmoooth - really awkward to hold and use...

3. Makes me look like a tank.

Then I started really getting into this piece! This is vintage 70's yarn I got for pennies on eBay last Fall and I just couldn't resist.

So far, I've made part of one sleeve then stopped because I didn't know if I had enough yarn to make a whole sweater at the length I usually like for a jacket (23").

So, I started the body - I decided to do the whole body at the same time on a long circular #19 needle. Since I really don't think point 5 slub-type yarn is very hard wearing (altough it just about sliced my hands when I tried to break it by pulling), I used 3 strands of leftover black worsted weight yarn to make the bottom edge.

This became a 3" border of 1x1 seed stitch. It is very cool- a bobble like texture without the pain of bobbling. (This will likely be used again, oh yeah!) Then I attatched the Thick'n'Thin and just flew through it. This is the result of one episode of "CSI" and "Without a Trace". (Yeah, give me the Big *L* for keeping track of my knitting via TV Shows! Heh...)

I have 3" to go before I put it on hold and finish the sleeves to the underarm area. Then I'll join the body to the sleeves and finish it raglan style. It is loosely based on a pattern from "Big Wool" by Kim Hargreaves who has to be my FAVORITE designer of all.

Comments (9)

Stand-by 10: #1

When I hear the above phrase, a toggle switch is thrown in my brain. These words are always delivered via a tiny little earpiece cord plugged into a radio receiver on my belt. They arrive in a jetstream of verbiage: off-air programming slightly interrupted by the adrenaline enriched push of a director's voice over the top of it all. Most of the time, I hear just part of the Phrase, because a traffic light has changed and a wave of heavy traffic blasts by, or people are cheering, or sirens wailing...

How my ears can pick up this cue amid the sensory wall banging my brain is a miracle but it happens over and over. After that first switch is thrown, my whole body straightens up, feet firmly planted, arms wrapped around the camera, eyes as locked down as the lens that I focused a few seconds before.

I'm not sure that it's adrenaline that's spiking my skull; it seems different somehow. More fear factor mixed with glee...

This is the signal my day is going to end successfully if I can keep it together for the next three minutes. It's the X in the A to Z of the process I fly through every day. It's a hammer if things go wrong or a fine cross of completion in the marching list of some producer's rundown. Sometimes I know the producer; sometimes they and the director are thousand's of miles away. A Voice, a switch.

When I was standing knee-deep in NW Indiana snow yesterday, this phrase made me want to do cartwheels! I am Mobile Camera 10. I spent the previous 90 minutes chasing a wall of snow called Lake Effect by the weather wizards. Chicago was minus 5® and clear. Less than an hour away SE, a blinding storm closed tollways and highways for hours and dumped over 14" of snow on the area in record time.

Myself and a reporter raced through the barometric cul-de-sac called the Indiana Dunes, the land surrounding the narrow southern-most point of Lake Michigan. While other drivers were either stopped in their tracks or in a ditch, we were speeding along the most back of backroads, pulling off to talk to a plow-man, a shoveler, a man with a huge snow-blower.

The general grinning consensus from everyone we spoke with was, "Waddaya think? It's winter, it snows..." This answer is the main reason a Weather Chaser is almost the most despised assignment in the Electronic News Gathering (ENG) BIZ. You've heard it and maybe uttered it into a microphone yourself. This big DUH! is always delivered with a fair amount of sarcasm lightened with a smile. It's a Pie-in-the-Face all the same for me because: A. I know it's coming; B. I don't know when; C. I gotta try and get it.

I'll still be licking off my lips as I edit the video and pull the cable out into the snow drift for the inevitable Live Shot that will wrap around the taped report. When I'm standing in my hallway a couple hours later, a few pieces of crust might float off my brows to the floor with the dropped caps and jackets. Peace out.

Comments (6)