Knitting Up North

Cinxia from Knitty.com

We have a friend visiting from Memphis this week so our house is a little crazy.  I’m feeling very scattered and disorganized as I try to get everything done.  The visitor is a high school friend of my husband’s; they’ve been having a wonderful time catching up and telling stories.  Today, they’re out on the Big Lake, hopefully catching some fish for our dinner.  I’m hoping to throw it on the grill with lots of dill and lemon.  Mmmm…

Last night the visitor got some tree sap on his t-shirt while unloading the truck.  The problem is that I have no idea how to get tree sap out of cotton.  My suggestion was to pour boiling water over it to see if that would wash it out.  Does anyone have any suggestions? 

As for knitting, I finished my Cinxia sweater.  I’ll probably have more photos to show from that, but the photos are on my hubby’s camera and I didn’t get a chance to download them last night. 

Pattern – Cinxia (the Roman Goddess of Marriage) from Knitty. 

Yarn – Cascade Rustica – a linen wool combination.  I absolutely love this yarn.  It has wonderful drape and was very nice to work with.  It also blocks like an absolute dream. 

Needles – Size 7 (US) circular needle.  I think I used a 40" needle except for when I was doing the sleeves. 

Modifications – I made this several inches longer than the pattern called for since I thought it looked a little short in the photos.  I cast on for a small, but knit to the measurements for a medium for the body.  The arms were simply unfooled around with.  I’m debating about what kind of closure I would like.  Right now I’m using a decorative pin to close it.  Although I might look for a Scandinavian hook and clasp closure.  I didn’t add a button hole so if I added a large button I think I would make an I-cord loop to go around the button. 

I am crazy happy about the way this sweater turned out. 

"No, there is no time.  Let me  sum up."

Hi, my name is Jess and I am a Knitter. 

I’m also a wife, a mom, a full time employee, a spinner and… well, probably a lot of other descriptives.  Most of what you’ll see on this blog will be knitting, although I may throw in bits and pieces of the other parts of my life as well.  You should know that although I work for the Duluth News Tribune, I am not a writer.  Therefore, I may make some errors in my writing. 

I also have some pretty strong biases when it comes to knitting.  First of all, I believe in buying from my Local Yarn Stores (LYS for short).  I think we have some phenomenal stores in our area.  They are incredibly helpful and I’ve never gotten bad service at any of them.  Although I will occasionally buy online, I try to keep these purchases to things that the LYS just don’t carry.  My second bias is that I’m a bit of a yarn snob.  OK, maybe a big yarn snob.  I prefer natural fibers, mostly wool.  Life is too short to knit with crummy acrylic yarn. 

If you’ve got stories about interesting crafts, links to fun sites or fabulous knitting patterns, send them my way.  I’ll be happy to feature them in this blog.  In the meantime, check out some of my favorite blogs.