Thursday, July 29, 2010

8 Squares!

Hi, knitters!

Thanks for the great effort so far on the blanket - I'm so excited to share the first 8 squares, roughly laid out on my dining room table! Woot! It was so hard to sit through the whole night knowing they were in my bag and not sneaking a peek...

I'm thrilled with the way they look so far - the two light pinks are more distinct knit up than they seemed in the ball, so that's great. I'm still planning on shopping for a different color for the borders, as the strawberry pink is just too orange. I may make it out Sunday. I'll keep you posted.

I will be out of town next week, leaving Wednesday, so if you're still working on your square, don't worry about delivering it till the week after next. It worked pretty well this week hanging my red bag on my chair and having people drop in their finished pieces... felt a little like valentines day back in grade school tho! We'll go for the same thing when I get back, and maybe I'll try sitting a little farther from Angelica...

As always, thanks for your work on this. I know she will love it.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Update

Hello, all!

It's come to my attention that we have some busy little bees in the group, and some of you are finishing up your squares already. Way to go! If you want to bring them Thursday, I'll have an extra big bag, and you can make a handoff while pretending to admire my new coztea, premiering this week on my McAlisters tumbler :) or maybe pass it below the table, or fold it in quarters and tuck it in a brown paper bag, or leave it in a secret place and make me a map with an x marking the spot! Oooh!

Really, I don't know that we've aroused any suspicious yet, so just get them to me as discretely as you can, and all will be well.

Happy Knitting!

Jes

Friday, July 23, 2010

One Block Down...


Hello all,

Just wanted to share the block I finished today. It did grow a little when I soaked it, so please do keep in mind that we don't want these going over 12 inches after a good soak. Angelica will likely wash the blanket, and we don't want it to lose it's shape. So, once again, err on the side of small as you knit!

I'll post pictures of the blocks as I get them back from you all. It's going to be beautiful!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

ABP Squares

Oh, and a reminder that work on squares should be completed at home, rather than at knit night, unless Angelica hasn't arrived yet. This is meant to be a surprise, and she's prone to asking about everybody's work. So keep your ABP on the DL!

The Blanket Begins in Earnest

Hi Everybody,

What a great turnout tonight! The Angelica's Blanket Project (code name: ABP) is off and rolling. A few notes...

If I told you tonight that the gauge was 8.5 per inch, it was me being overtired and trying too hard to get things right. Sorry. The gauge is 4.5 st. per inch. If you do the math on the swatch recommendation I also gave you (18 st x 24 rows = 4 inches) that's pretty obvious. Somehow I was dividing 18 by 4, and coming up with 8.5. Go, brain, go.

I studied art, not math. Woops.

Also, please note that there is a crochet border in your directions, and you should NOT be doing the border. I will put the borders on in the contrast color once the squares are complete. Please do SOAK and BLOCK your squares to 12 x 12, and weave in your ends. As you are knitting, remember it's easy to block it a little larger, but difficult to block it smaller, so if your gauge isn't perfect (and whose is???) err on the side of a little under 12 inches as you knit.

I would appreciate getting these back as soon as possible to begin assembly; by August 12 would be great. If you can't complete your square by August 19, we may not be able to complete the blanket before Angelica is off to be married. Again, I do have some volunteers willing to make multiple squares, so just let me know and I'll re-assign yours.

Also, the little pattern squares I handed out are the only way I'm tracking who did what, so please plan on returning them with your finished piece! If you haven't done so already, please write your name somewhere on the paper, and hold on to it until your square is complete.

The good news? There are 19 balls of yarn currently out to be knit into squares. That means there's one lonely pink ball left, just waiting to be claimed and knit. If you didn't get yours yet, or know somebody who would like to do one, let me know ASAP. Otherwise I do have plenty of volunteers willing to make 2, and I'll farm it out next week.

Thanks so much, everybody, for your dedication and enthusiasm about this project! Can't wait to see your finished blocks :)

Happy Knitting,

Jes

Monday, July 19, 2010

Colors are Here

The border color is a little more orange than I'd like, but I think the others will look great. I may shop around a bit and see what I can find while everybody's working on their squares.


Swatches

Here are the swatches, along with the names and numbers of those already selected. Send me an email if you want to reserve one, otherwise you can pick on Thursday.




11 - Susan


15 - Beth



27 - Kathy, 28 - Gerda


35 - Susan


41 - Buzz


46 - Joan, 48 - Robin


53 - Beth


56 - Candy, 57 - Dana, 60 - Reola

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Bad News First?

Ok, the bad news is that the colors we wanted weren't in stock, and by the time they let me know this, it was too late for me to get them in for Thursday. So I've made some substitutions and the yarn is scheduled to arrive on the 20th.

The good news, then, is that I can safely hand out yarn and we can discuss the pattern at the meeting on the 22nd, when Angelica is supposed to be out of town.

I'm sorry to have us behind schedule already, but i'm writing a note of disappointment to JimmyBeans for their failure to "ship the same day you order!" as stated on the website.

Anyway, happy knitting in the meantime (go, colorwork mittens??) and I'll see you all soon!


Jes

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Update

I've added patterns to the stack of available blanket square swatches I had Thursday. I will have them with me next week - I hope with yarn available, too. For those of you still up in the air about your block, I am happy to put together a 3 pack of options, but I will let you go through them next week first. For those who haven't chosen by next week I'll distribute the remaining patterns and go from there.

Yarn is on order and should ship today.

Beth mentioned that Angelica will be out of town the week after next. I think this will be the best time to plan the shower in earnest - we can talk out details in person and post our decisions here for further comment.

A word on gauge: the suggested gauge for all squares is 18 stitches by 24 rows = 4 inches in stockinette. Please make a swatch and check your gauge! If your gauge measures right but your square seems small, we can always block it out larger. If it seems too big, please go down a needle, as we can't block it smaller.

We will be adding a crochet border to the squares, which will help give them structure and hold them to the right size during washing and use.

Can't wait to get started - thanks everybody for helping!

Jes

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Cake

We have a couple of options for cakes for the shower.
Susan mentioned a McArthur's cake - yum.
Also, Cakes by Nette can do a knitting / Wedding theme cake.
They can do pretty much whatever we want so I googled to see some options.

Thoughts / comments....

cake936.jpg

basket-1.jpg

530518766.jpg



http://blog.pinkcakebox.com/surprise-knitting-birthday-cake-2009-02-14.htm

http://www.cakejournal.com/nggallery/page-2608/image/119

http://veganyumyum.com/2007/06/knit-night-cupcakes/

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Schedule

July 8 - choose/assign patterns & yarn
July 15 - receive pattern & yarn
August 12 (or before!) - finish squares
August 26 - possible shower day? need to figure this out...

Update and Plan

Hi Everybody,

I'm planning a trip to get yarn today, if possible, and order it tomorrow if I can't find it locally. I have printed and cut out the patterns, and will have a small packet of them at knit night this week. You may go through them and put your name on the one you want to do, and I will have the patterns for everybody for the square they want, along with their yarn, at next week's meeting. For those not in attendance, please let me know and I will try to arrange delivery, or worst case email you a file and info on the yarn, and you can purchase it on your own.

So far, I have the following people confirmed to help:

Chrystal
Beth
Joan
Margy
Susan
Shirley
Phyliss
Buzz
Reola
Robin
Linda
Candy
Dana

If you are not on this list, or know somebody not on it who wants to participate, please let me know asap! You can comment here, or email me at jescope at gmail dot com.

Thanks, everybody, for helping with this! It's going to be beautiful.

-jes

Friday, July 2, 2010

Getting Started

I thought we could create a place where we could discuss the project.

Several people thought it would be nice to create a blanket from the group. If we all create 1 square we will have a blanket made with love as a wonderful gift for the shower.

We thought shades of pink and white.
Sampler blanket.

Please let us know if you have comments or suggestions.