the knitting buzz

blocking boards

Just wanted to share.

Blocking  boards are essential for lace knitting.  When it comes to blocking boards, I am partial to the Ohio Table Pads Sew EZ Pad. 

These blocking boards are durable, have grid markings for ease of measuring and insuring straight blocking lines, it handles pinning beautifully, drys quickly and folds for easy storage behind a door or headboard.  I also use it to dry any of my other handknits, works great for sweaters too,

I have had my Sew EZ blocking board for over 8 years. It gets used several times a month and has shown little to no wear.  

I love it & am a total fan of this spectacular product.  Did I mention you can iron on it too?

I am pleased to say that I recently bought my second blocking board, to make it easier to block my long rectangle shawls/wraps. With one blocking board it was easy to use on top of a mattress. But with two, I need to move my blocking to the floor or to a table top & arms of chairs, (arm chairs because my table is not quite long enough). 

I personally like using a table top to block, over the floor, but my largest table is outside.  While blocking outside works for now (depending on the forecast, of course). Come winter, I will need to get a little more creative or just use the floor (this can be tricky with a "helpful" three year old, if you know what I mean).

I actually enjoy blocking, not just because my work turns from a rumpled heap of knitting to a beautiful knitted lace creation, kind of like a catapillar to a butterfly. I enjoy it because the blocking board makes it so easy.... no pun intended......really. 

So easy....  SewEZ ....sorry about that.... 

The pattern above is my Amalfi Mesh Lace Wrap which is now available for purchase thru Knitting Buzz Designs on Ravelry.com.  Amalfi has three shapes (wrap, infinity cowl & scarf) and is written in fingering weight and lace weight for all three sizes.  All kinds of possiblities!  Enjoy!!

Have fun blocking and happy knitting!

then there were three

It all started with some beautiful lace yarn (isn't that always the story). The beautiful yarn was Divine Lace from Grinning Gargoyle. Divine is a 50/50 Silk/Merino with 750 yards, 100 grams. The 750 yards was more than I needed for a scarf and not enough for a shawl or wrap.

So I decided on an Infinity Cowl with a mesh lace feel. I love the mesh trend and have had alot of fun with it this Spring.

The infinity cowl in lace is very light and airy and the perfect accessory to wear year round. I do love how delicate the lace weight yarn is in this mesh lace style.  Here it is as a WIP.

It can easily be wrapped twice for a long trendy look.

And it can easily be wrapped three times for additional coverage or warmth. 

I liked working on this project so much, that it got me to thinking (always dangerous). I bet it would look good in a hand dyed fingering weight yarn.  I just happened to have (of course) some Miss Babs Shiruku which would be perfect for a scarf. Shiruku is a fingering weight of 70% Fine Superwash Merino & 30% Cultivated Silk..... so lovely.

So that's what happened and it made a beautiful scarf.

And even better, finished and blocked. The color is called Heirloom and it reminds me of the tomato's at the Farmers Market. Yum!

 

Then it happened again .......

I love my wraps...... and what could be better than a mesh lace wrap.  Not that I needed any encouragement, but I happened to have some Handmaiden Mini Maiden that I had wound for another project last year, but in the end had changed my mind ....... I have been dying to knit with it and it seemed that there was no reason that it wouldn't make the perfect mesh lace wrap. 

Then there were three....   

 

 

The color of the Mini Maiden is Ebony, its tones of browns, purples and copper.  I know I will get alot of use out of it. 

I will make all three patterns available as one pattern on Ravelry.com in both lace  and fingering weight yarn.   I will work on the pdf and hopefully get it published this weekend.

morning buns

While visiting San Francisco last year, a customer gave me a travel tip to check out the Morning Buns at Tartine.  I am grateful that I took up the suggestion, becasue Tartine's Morning Buns were heaven, as well as the delicious quiche and robust coffee that I had that morning.

So why am I bringing up Tartine's Morning Buns now???

I will explain....

I just received a Williams-Sonoma catalog in the mail.  Always a treat!

The front of the catalog was full of "must haves" for outdoor dining ....which I truly love.  Beautiful plates & glasses, adorable table linens and anything for the grill always has my attention.

So lets just say I was fully engaged. Loved the farmers market vegtable plates, the asparagus motif serving platter (couldn't find a picture online to share, but trust me, it was so cute) and intrigued by the asparagus grilling basket.

 

 

  

In my humble opinion, just can't have too much grilled asparagus or tomatoes for that matter. Forgive me, I digress....

 

Then.......... toward the back of the catalog...... lots of yummy looking food offerings that could be ordered frozen, etc. 

And yes...... there they were..... my beloved morning buns.  I nearly squealed. 

 

Fond memories of San Francisco on a plate.

I will definitely be ordering these soon.  My mouth is watering just thinking about it.