knitting is a hereditary disease

Saturday, February 16

Posted on 02/19/2008 by Barb | Comments (3)
Filed under : DIY, Food, Knitting

It was a great day for just hanging out with Andrea, balmy almost. We've had a pretty cold winter here (it was -5 degrees this morning, brrrr). But Saturday it actually got above freezing!! We (and I hardly dare whisper it) left our coats in the car while we shopped!

First, we went yarn shopping at Double Ewe, a yarn store near where Andrea lives that I had never been to. The owner, Kelly is very sweet and helpful. It’s a smaller shop but nice – go there if you get a chance.

This is the yarn I bought from Kelly. Today we have our after-work sit n’ knit, and I’m going to work on this. I love the colors, and the cleverness of the stow-away pocket design.

After Double Ewe, we headed for Mall of America – the 2008 Knit-Out was there last weekend. We watched a round of the speed knitting competition. The fastest person there did (I hope I’m remembering this correctly) 170 (stockinette??) stitches in 3 minutes. Andrea said the winner is someone famous ...?? Andrea (or someone), help me out here, please, who is she?

On the subject of speed knitting competitions, I saw in the August 2007 issue of Knit ‘n Style (given away at the Event) that Lisa Gentry completed 209 stockinette stitches in some competition, and does 2 stitches a second in garter stitch. That’s 120 stitches a minute ... 360 stitches in 3 minutes! That’s flyin’! I see she also broke the Guinness World Record “Fastest Crocheter” in 2005 … now, that’s being an over-achiever! She was apparently at the Knit-Out event but I didn’t see her.

And while at MOA we bought a little something for Steph ... I can't talk about that, though, in case she reads this post. So even though she's way out in Boston, we were hanging out with her, too, in spirit if not in fact!

Finally, we ended up over at my house cooking Andrea's vegetarian chili, which has now become my favorite chili recipe.

It was a really fine, fine day.

3 Comments

She's Annie Modesitt - author of several knitting books: Confessions of a Knitting Heretic and Romantic Handknits, and maybe others?

She's a huge proponent of combination knitting, which is how you knit, Mom. Check out her website about it: http://www.anniemodesitt.com/

- said andrea (02/19/2008, 10:46 AM)

Thank you for filling in the name, Andrea. You've told me before that my style (which I've never had a name for but know is different than the way most people knit) is called combination knitting. Thanks for filling in the blank. I AM going to check out her website!

- said Barb (02/19/2008, 10:46 AM)

Okay, I just visited Annie Modesitt's blog. http://www.modeknit.com/ I remembered correctly -- she won with 170 stitches in 3 minutes. She talks about it on her blog. Did you know she lives in St. Paul? She apparently moved here fairly recently. On her blog she asked if anyone had a copy of Sunday's Star Tribune... apparently it has something about her. Our recycling was picked up this morning, so I don't have it any more! Arghh. I would have loved the opportunity to make contact with her (since she's sort of a kindred spirit, what with the combination knitting and all).

- said Barb (02/19/2008, 10:46 AM)