Dumaguete Knitting School

Dumaguete Knitting School
Originally uploaded by Suzie Rozie.

Donna and I have enjoyed knitting together. She has spent the last year knitting and crocheting all kinds of clever pieces, and we're just putting finishing touches to the volume of information she has gained for herself. It's fun. She's not only knitting on double pointeds and circulars now, but today, she's doing her first Fair Isle knitting. There will be no stopping her now!

In the meantime, I finished the second take on my prototype baby sweater, knitted in the round and requiring no sewing, and I think I'm closer this second time than I was the first. Donna and I both critiqued this edition, and we agree that I need to make the neck opening larger (Donna suggested a packet along the raglan sleeve - oh, I like that idea) and I need to knit an inch or less, instead of 1-1/2 inches, after I join the sleeves to the body before I start my decreases. The distance between the underarm and the shoulder is just too great when I knit a full 1-1/2 inches before I begin the raglan decreases.

I'm using Jackie Fee's take on Elizabeth Zimmerman's percentage method for making sweaters, with the idea that once I get a solid prototype, I can knock these little beauties out quickly and help build a stash of layette items for our Lydia Circle project for young mothers. Once I get this basic pattern set, I can then add cables, color work, lacy effects, or whatever else might occur to me.

I could knit forever. I'm beginning my second year of my second retirement now, and it suits me to a T! Yippee! I'm heading to my even more-senior years with my knitting bag and my sewing machine in tow!