Miss Kalendar's Knitting Masters swatches are done.

Here you go - all of my swatches for my Knitting Masters Level 1. The first 15 (without #12) are shown on the blocking board. I am a blocking novice, so we'll see how this blocking turns out. I've still got all of the swatches on the board since I'm afraid to take them off.




Also featured in this post is something I've deemed the "ugly Charlie Brown hat" because, sweet God in heaven, would you look at it?




Anyway, here we are.....swatches all knitted, ends hidden, mostly all blocked.....Wow, am I really going to finish this? What scares me is not the questions I've still to answer or the essay I have to write - it's thinking about someone looking at and judging my swatches and possibly finding them too poor to pass. I've always been more or less the best knitter I know - so the idea that someone can tell me that I'm not good enough at this or that technique is upsetting.....especially if it means any re-knits. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.



All of these are knit in cascade 220 except the yellow, which is lionbrand wool. The blue I bought for the masters - the brown and yellow were in my teaching box (or scrap box, whatever you want to call it.)



I'm sort of excited about what the level 2 will want from me. So, I guess if I pass level 1, I will go ahead and order level 2. We'll see how that goes.



Also, the limenviolet sock marathon 09 starts on Feb 1st, and I am signed up with a modest goal of a pair a month or a pair of knee socks every two months. This may seem like a really small goal, but I only have 3 miles of sock yarn, so I don't really have enough to knit more socks than that.

Miss Kalendar goes on a finishing spree

So, here we see some of my most recent projects. There is a scarf for my hairdresser, some nautilis toys for my best-friend's daughter, a pair of thickwoodsman socks for my boyfriend, a pair of monkey socks for myself, and a button-up shrug that moves from a shrug to a stole.



I've always been a rectangular shawl/stole sort of girl, I don't generally like the triangular or pie shawl. But I am thinking of making an exception and trying out some EZ pie-shawl patterns or a pharosee shawl.....or even one of the nice not rectangular shawls from Victorian Knitting.



There is also a picture of Miss K, herself, looking partially maniacal as I contemplate more of my finishing. And because I was in the mood to get things off the needles....


I picked up the knitting masters level 1 again and actually tried my hand at blocking the 15 swatches that I'd knitted. I only have one more swatch and a hat to knit - and then some questions to answer and a short research essay to write. About now is when my SOs began asking me why I was doing this and why I was paying for the priveledge. My only reply is that I want to know that I could do it and I wanted to learn more about knitting. I feel like there are holes in my knowledge, and I want to fix them. I figured this would be a pretty comprehensive way to do that. Besides, if I am teaching knitting workshops and steampunk knitting groups, etc., I should have the skills and certification to back up my teaching. It's like knit-teaching street cred - beyond my ravelry projects and patterns.

So, enjoy the pictures. There will be pictures of the dreaded blocking soon!