Christmas Gifts: Some Made Out of Wool Sweaters

I'm still working on Christmas gifts a week before the big day.  I'm gifting two wraps:  foliage wrap and the cabled capelet.  I taught classes for both and I hope my class members finished their projects.  Most seemed to enjoy learning to knit cables without a cable needle.  I'm also giving my Italian Moped Cap to a very special person, my 16 year old granddaughter.  BTW, I have sold quite a few copies of my moped cap pattern and am eager to see some finished projects on Ravelry.


I'm also making some scarves, hats and cowls, of course.


I decided to begin making use of the wool sweaters that I purchased at the Salvation Army last month.  I've been asking people what color their kitchens are and have been trying to find wool sweaters in the right colors.  My plan is to make felted oven mitts and potholders first, and then move on to other projects, such as felted slippers or handbags.  


Here is what you do to make the potholders.

1. For felting, 100% wool is best.  Look at the label closely and ensure the garment is not washable.
2. I looked in several Salvation Army and Goodwill stores and found that the more upscale the neighborhood, the more likely you can find wool.  99% of the sweaters are acrylic or cotton and neither will felt.  Sweaters with 3 - 7 stitches per inch will work better than those with a fine gauge.
3. Once you buy some sweaters, be cautious where you store them, as you don't want moths in your knitted goods or stash.  If it's winter, you may be able to store them in a garage or shed.  If not, consider putting them in a large, airtight plastic bag until ready to use them.
4. Make a paper "pattern" using your own oven mitts or potholders to judge the size.  Be sure to make your pattern a LOT larger to allow for shrinkage in the felting process.  Your fabric can shrink 25 - 30% or more.  It's better to make your pieces too large rather than too small.
5. Lay your sweater flat, pin your pattern to a single thickness and cut.  For the oven mitt you will need four thicknesses.  For potholders you will need two.
6. For potholders, pin the two pieces together with right sides facing.  Using your sewing machine, sew the pieces together on three sides with a 1/4 " seam.  Turn the potholders right-side out, turn in the raw edges on the 4th side and pin.  Machine stitch.
7. For an oven mitt, pin the pieces together so that your finished product will have right sides on the inside and outside of the mitt.  Machine stitch around all edges except the bottom.  Turn right-side out.  Stitch all around the bottom (two thicknesses).
8. Felting:  Use a top-loading washing machine.  Fill the machine with hot water, a drop of detergent, and an old pair of jeans (to help the felting process).
   Run the machine without using the rinse cycle.  Turn it back to the start of the cycle as needed.  Now is the important part.  Keep checking your pieces to see how they are felting.  This is a bit uncomfortable since you have used very hot water, but important.  Felting will likely take from 15 to 45 minutes, but fabrics will felt at different speeds, so this is not an exact science.
   When your pieces have felted as much as you like, take them from the machine and hand rinse in cold water.  Blot with towels to make them as dry as possible.  Stretch the pieces as needed and leave them to air dry.
9. When dry, sew an unfelted bottom (cuff) to the oven mitt.  The ribbing from the same sweater works well.  BTW, I find that the fabric is so thick that I need to hand sew this part, first the inside and then the outside.  

This is one kitchen set and I will post more later.

A Lot of Running!

Today I ran the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Marathon.  I really love this marathon and have run it ten times now.  Why do I love it?  Well, Harrisburg feels like my home town since I worked there for 27 years.  In the early years I ran along the river at lunch time.  19th and 20th century officials preserved the land along the river to ensure it would never be an ugly industrial area.  Instead it's a beautiful park.  During later years, when my job began to interfere with a lunchtime run,  I ran at 6 am.  Most of the year it is dark at the hour and as I ran I would watch the day emerge.


Since I have now run 97 marathons, including one in each of our 50 states, people often ask me what my favorite marathon is.  I've never answered, "Harrisburg," preferring to mention Big Sur or other marathons with equally beautiful scenery.  But today I realized that my favorite is indeed Harrisburg.


BTW, I ran pretty well, although it was a struggle.  I ran 4:42, which is an hour and 15 minutes off my PR, but after all, I'm older now and I don't expect to see a PR again.  Today's time was good enough for a 2nd place age group award.


When we got home I planned to work on Liam's sweater vest, but took a nice nap instead.  On tap for tonight and tomorrow - finish the sweater vest and head to IKEA to buy furniture for Clay's new (following the flood) office.  I was dumb enough :-) to re-carpet the rooms and now I will buy furniture.

Here I am during the last mile.

Finished Objects (FOs) and Unfinished Objects (UFOs)

I previously posted the designer's photo of the Noni Clematis Bag.  I'm happy to say that mine is now an FO.


I used colors quite similar to those of the original, although I customized other things about the bag.  (I say this only because Kathy (Colonial Yarn Shop) looks askance at the practice of copying the pattern colors.  She prefers to find different yarns and color schemes.)  I lined the bag in fabric that I love.  It is a floral print with colors that coordinate with the bag.  I think it looks great.


The knitting and felting part of this project was a piece of cake.  The rest, however, was a pain.  Here is a shot of the bag prior to felting.  Note the dollar bill to show how huge it was.  I think it was 3' X 3'.

And - all of the following needed to be done to actually finish the project.

• I bought some plastic mesh to make the bag more solid and proceeded to sew it into the bag.  Now this was really hard, because the mesh is non-flexible and the thread couldn't show on the outside.  I made good use of needle-nosed pliers and a thimble.
• I knitted and felted the vine and the clematis flowers.  Nothing hard about this and the clematis pattern is clever and fun to knit.
• I followed the on-line directions to make the lining, adding two good-sized pockets.  The lining was a pain!!  I don't really like the method (one piece of material) and for a future bag, I might piece it together instead.  It is very difficult to size it with the Noni-prescribed method, and I constructed it twice to get it close to correct.
• When I looked at the vine and flowers I realized that they all had to be sewn on.  I tried to convince myself I could use glue, but knew better.   But - before I began sewing, I realized that I needed to remove (unsew) the plastic mesh.
• With the flowers and vine sewn on and the plastic mesh back where it belonged, I needed to sew in the lining.  But first, I had to figure out the magnetic snap.  Since the lining is thin and you cannot have the snap showing on the outside of the bag, I consulted YouTube.  I still had to go back to Joann's for advice where a helpful associate told me to use iron-on interfacing.

It's finally done and I'm very happy with the results.

If you click on the picture, you can see a larger view of the lining.

I also finished my hat for Debbie in Anchorage.  She is my new friend who treated Clay and me to a wonderful dinner and great conversation at her home.  I sent her the hat and she called me immediately to say how much she loves it.  I asked her if the weather has been cold enough to wear it.  She said, "Are you kidding?  It was 18° when I went to work this morning!"  I hope to have a good picture of Debbie in her hat, but this will need to suffice.  The colors in the hat are beautiful (Cascade Jazz), but you cannot tell in the picture because of the orange shirt and the Ukrainian flag in the background.

I am currently working on a green sweater vest for Liam, using Sirdar #1784 pattern and Cascade 220 Superwash Sport color #1950.  I have yarn to begin making projects for late winter classes at Colonial.  Two of the projects are Ysolda's cabled beret and Knitty.com's Commuter Gloves.  More on these in a later post.

Wedding Plans

Some people plan their wedding for more than a year and some don't.


A couple months ago Clay was approached about photographing a wedding the day after the Baltimore Marathon - a Sunday.  It was one of Clay's elite runners who happens to live in Oregon, but he and his fiance grew up in southern Pennsylvania and had lately begun planning their wedding.


Shooting a wedding the day after the marathon meant adding another hectic day onto a week of hectic days.  Sunday would start in Baltimore long before the sun was up; Clay would take athletes to the airport - two trips - before 7 am.  After that we would head to the Sunday market, drive home to York, quickly get gussied up, and then drive to Lancaster where we would spend six hours shooting, arriving back home around 10 pm.


I think we decided to do it because the bride and groom were marathon runners.


I spoke to the groom on the telephone and a few weeks later spoke to the bride.  She said she would think about things and get back to me.  I actually heard from her seven days before the wedding date, and I'm not sure what the back-up plan was . . .


Anyway, it all worked out and the wedding was very nice.  The bridesmaids were dressed in an unusual color set, but definitely appropriate for autumn.  The groomsmen were in sport jackets and casual pants.


The wedding was outdoors at a beautiful venue - the Landis Valley Museum.  The outdoor setting and wonderful weather allowed for interesting pre-ceremony photos.  The reception was in a barn-like building.


They pulled off a nice event in approximately two months, maybe a bit more.

Baltimore Marathon Was Today

The marathon was great and resulted in a new women's course record by Ukranian Olena Shurkhno and a reasonably good men's time.  A few pictures below.

Russian women and Ukranian Shurkhno (F26) before the race.

Dave "Frodo" Berdan on his way to PR of 2:21:19.

Shurkhno wins 2011 Baltimore Marathon with course record time.

Beginning of the 2011 marathon.

Stephen Muange wins 2011 Baltimore Marathon.

More interesting to me were observations of the people I interacted with this week/weekend.


In no particular order:

• The Russian/Ukranian women were quite pleased with the beer after their superb running.  Note that Shurkhno has three 32 oz beers at 11 am in the morning!!  Runners may want to take note of this apparently successful training regime.

• Carolyn and Steve were a tremendous help to Clay as always and are  competent at managing the athletes.
• The program of home-hosting athletes is a success.  The athletes love the special attention and comfortable surroundings and the families truly enjoy it.  The adults and the kids bond with the athletes and learn a bit about countries very different from the USA.  Paula Harmon, who coordinates the program for Clay, says that this is a highlight of the year.
• Corrigan Sports Enterprises focuses on customer satisfaction.  Participation in the various events has increased every year - 25,000 participants this year in spite of hefty race fees.  An example:  there was a problem with the number of shirts printed for one event.  All participants immediately received an email acknowledging the problem and stating how and when the race would resolve it.
• Clay is the elite athlete coordinator and is well loved by the athletes, their managers, and the families that host the athletes.  He is good at this.
• I had a nice conversation with Steve Nearman (journalist, race director, financial advisor, et al.)
• I meet interesting people every year at races.  This time:
• Derege:  A interesting Ethiopian who has lived in the US for many years.  He wrote and published a book about his father, who was killed in their homeland.  I am eager to read the English translation, and since it is not ready to be published, Derege asked me to give him full feedback on the readability.  His story sounded interesting enough that I suggested he contact Bob Edwards of Sirius/XM about appearing on his show.
• Mary:  A USA athlete from California who had a pretty serious conflict with another athlete; fortunately, they managed to stay away from each other.  Tonight Mary put some braids/dreadlocks in my hair.  Carolyn and I asked her to come to the marathon trials in Houston a day early to do the whole [braiding] job on both of us.  Imagine me with dreadlocks!!
• Hicham - a NYC guy who drove some athletes to Baltimore and then helped Clay a lot.  A truly nice person and I hope that we will keep in touch.
• Jim Adams, owner of the Falls Road Running Store, hosted Bill Rodgers - a very nice treat.  However, I was amazed that lots of regular runner types don't even know who he is.

That's it!

I'm Wired!

From now on, I'm wired.  I can email, text, Google, check the weather, Skype, or use a GPS - whenever I want to.  


I admit it; I love gadgets and technology.  I needed a Kindle even though I had a boatload of actual books queued up for me at home.  I transferred my running logs from paper to electronic, because the electronic version could give me charts, graphs, compilations, shoe mileage, mapped and measured routes, and all forms of analysis - none of which I need.  I got an iPod because they were cool, even though I never used it much.  I love reading about cameras and lenses and eventually buying new ones.  I love my Adobe Lightroom.  For knitting, the coolest thing ever was the invention of Ravelry, and the only thing ever wrong with it was, and is, that I can spend so much time on Ravelry that I use up valuable knitting time.  I love to learn new software, and I love when my software is upgraded.  


The only thing that competes with all of this is that I also love good value for my money - and all new technology becomes cheaper after awhile.


So, this week I finally broke down and got two new things:  a laptop and an iPhone.  I'm using my new laptop to write this post and I've preordered my iPhone 4S.


I'm in technology heaven.

Chicago Marathon

We flew to Chicago on Saturday to stay with close friends and cover the Chicago Marathon.  It was Indian summer, with temps in the high 70's and low humidity.  Our travel was uneventful.


We took the train into the city to pick up our press credentials, visit the expo, and see people that we see infrequently.  Saturday evening we had dinner with Falmouth Matt and his friend who would run the marathon Sunday morning.


We stayed outside of the city for a couple nights with good friends.  It was great to see them.


Sunday was the marathon.  Luckily for the runners, especially those at the front of the field, it was cooler than it might have been.  That, coupled with the low humidity, allowed for some very fast times including a new men's course record.


Clay and I photographed from numerous locations, clocking about five miles of walking.  It was pretty easy to get around without ever really getting stuck within the perimeter of the runners.


Next up, Baltimore Marathon, which is Saturday, October 15.

Gary and his daughter, Brigid

Marilyn at sunrise in Chicago

Wheelchair racer speeds by spectators

Liliya Shobukhova with Dibaba and pack of men

Male leaders at halfway

Woodrow Wilson Half Marathon

We photographed this race on Sunday - a point-to-point race that begins at Mount Vernon Estate, VA, continues up the George Washington Memorial Parkway, crosses the Potomac River on the Woodrow Wilson Bridge and finishes at National Harbor, MD.  Steve Nearman is the event director and he and his committee have created an exciting and professional event, appealing to the regular runner and competitive at the front.  The race benefits six separate charities, making it more than just fun for the runners.

Clay and I have been the photographers both years and it is a fun day for us.  On the day of the 2010 race, the weather was perfect.  Sunday, however, was the first cold (slightly cold, but quite a change from previous months) day of the year.  At 5 am it was dark, windy, cold, and rainy.  By race start, however, the rain had stopped and the wind was less burdensome.  The sun even peeked out several times and created rainbows.  Riding the press truck (actually an expensive and beautiful Mercedes convertible donated by Mercedes-Benz of Alexandria) was great.

The race times were great, and both men and women had course records.  Four American men qualified for the Olympic Marathon Trials which are scheduled for January in Houston.

On our drive home we stopped at IKEA, where we will buy new furniture for Clay's basement office, which was flooded on September 8, after both Irene and Lee came through our town within four days of each other and dropped approximately 12-15 inches of rain.

Moses Kepkosgei wins the men's division with a event record of 1:02:37.

Bekelech Bedada wins the women's division with a record time of 1:12:44.

Four American men ran times fast enough for the Olympic Marathon Trials

Moses Kipkosgei runs by the Woodrow Wilson Bridge on his way to winning the race.  National Harbor is in background on right.

Wonderful finish line volunteers.

Michael Wardian finishing the race for 8th place among men.

Runners mug for photographer near mile 11.

Event director Steve Nearman focuses on doing good things for the community.  Here he poses with Brooke Curran who has raised more than $50,000 for charities through 2010 and has a goal of $50,000 more in 2011.  Her organization is called RunningBrooke.  Doreen Gentzler of NBC and honorary race chair is also pictured.

Amy McDonaugh, 34, of Irmo, SC, rounds a corner near the finish with a rainbow at her back on the way to winning the visually handicapped division in an amazing time of 1:24:00, for #5 among all women competitors.

Five Knitting Projects Isn't Too Many

Having finished all of the projects for classes I'm teaching this fall, I can now get back to some of the projects I have in progress or in my head.  My main project is the Clematis Shopping Bag by Noni.  I fell in love with this pattern as soon as I saw it and HAD to make it.  I'm using Cascade 220 for the main part of the bag, scrap yarn for the clematis vine, and Frog Tree Yarn for the clematis flowers.  Here is Noni's photo of the bag, and I'll post mine when finished, which should be soon.  Mine will look similar since I loved the colors used for the pattern.  The difference is that I bought a print fabric to make the lining. 

I've finished the main bag and felted it.  Still working on the accessories (flowers).






In August, we went to Alaska so that I could run a marathon - my 50th state!  Marathon evening, my new friend, Debbie Cropper, invited us to her home for dinner.  She is a great runner, a nice person, and a terrific cook.  While at her home she showed us numerous things that people have given her, which gave me the idea to make her a hat with flaps - perfect for Alaska weather.  I'm going to start that tonight, using a couple balls of Cascade Jazz that I had leftover when I made myself a sweater.  Since she had mentioned that her favorite colors are green and purple, she will love this, and it's a joy to knit for someone who is so obviously appreciative of gifts given to her.

I'll probably use the flap hat pattern from Knitty.com.  It's funny that this pattern shows someone on the beach in Florida and I'm making it for winter in Alaska.





















My daughter-in-law has been planning her family holiday card and wants me to make a vest for Liam to wear.  I bought the yarn and will start this soon.  I'm using a nice cable pattern I found in my LYS.

And in the summer I nearly finished the Hexagon Petal Tee from the Spring issue of Interweave knits.  It's a fun project knitted in modules (hexagons).  It's different from anything I've ever knitted before.  I did finish all of the hexagons, but still need to do quite a bit of edging.  Not sure I'll get to it before Spring, now that it's autumn in Pennsylvania.

And many years ago, I started a lace scarf.  It was my first lace project and a huge struggle for me.  I knit half of it, but left it to hibernate.  I will get back to it someday.

And, BTW, here is my blue jean cowl, finished, and modeled by Kathy, who has been in two of my knitting classes.

A Day With Thomas

If you're lucky enough to have young children in your life, consider taking them to ride on Thomas the Train.  Apparently there are some 45 locations in USA and Canada.

This morning we picked up Liam and Seamus at "school" later than planned, realizing that we would need to move along quickly to arrive in Strasburg on time.  Clay went to Liam's room and I headed to get Seamus, only to find out that his class was "out for a walk around the block" in some unknown (to me) location.  Figuring Liam would know, we all jumped in the car.  Liam wasn't certain, but eyed his brother's class three blocks away.  "He recognized Miss Lisa's jacket."

We arrived just in time to quickly get our tickets and visit the porta potties - necessary with pre-schoolers - and get onto the train.  The kids enjoyed it a lot. 

After the train ride we visited Sir Topham Hatt, rode on several more small trains, and had a picnic on a bench.  The kids rode on cranky cars, got tattoos, and played with small model trains.  The Thomas staff were all kid-friendly.  There were lots of opportunities to spend more money on shirts, souvenirs, photos, and we mostly resisted.

Both kids fell asleep on the ride back for some well-needed rest.

Panther Invitational XC for Middle School Kids

When Bob Weikert asks you to do something, you say, "yes."  So when he asked me to stop by to photograph a kids' cross country meet on September 19, I agreed.  400 shots later, I finished.  It was a nice day, cloudy, but not cold and the kids were nervous.  Some kids raced, really raced.  Some just ran.  And a few cried in the finisher chutes.


The meet is organized by the York Road Runners Club, specifically Bob with lots of additional YRRC volunteers, and I am now one of them.  Wellspan/York Hospital is the sponsor.  It's great to see so many kids out there and physically fit.  Running is a great habit to start so young.

Girls' Start

Boys' Start

Tonight's projects are:  1) Finish my blue jean cowl and 2) Get ready to teach two classes tomorrow:  Italian Moped Cap and Foliage Wrap.  Here is a pic of this versatile wrap.  The big leaves can be worn at the top, bottom, or sides.

Multi-Tasking or Knitting While Doing Anything

Got up this morning and did a quick (short) run and then Clay and I went to time and photograph a race, the Sasquatch Preservation Trail Run, a race to benefit the Farm & Natural Lands Trust of York County.  It was a first year race and had almost 300 hundred people, which pleased Sean Kenny and his race committee.  

This photo is about a minute after our local Patriot shot off the cannon.

After lunch at Central Market, Clay and I planned to ride on the Rail Trail, but by then it was raining (again).  We changed our plans and went to Planet Fitness, or PF as we call it.  Clay rode 16 miles, but I knitted 12 rounds on my Riveting Cowl.  OK, I only exercised my hands and one arm since I'm a "thrower."  But that's what I felt like doing - and I did run this morning.

Tonight we are going to see the York Revolution baseball game - yay, more knitting time.

BTW, I love the Kollage Riveting yarn which is made of recycled blue jeans, and the pattern, My Kind of Saturday, is great.  It's a very simple 12 row/4 stitch lace pattern which is easy memorize.  This will be a nice class for beginning lace knitters.