Saturday, our knitting group met at Sara's house. What fun!
Sara has a new house and what better way to celebrate than to open it up for a group of knitters. We brought food and our current projects. There was also some show and tell.
I fixed olive spread and used a mitten cookie cutter to make open-face mitten sandwiches. Love those that salty olive spread!
Olive - Nut Spread
Combine 6 oz. cream cheese, softened, and 1/2 c. mayonnaise in a medium bowl and mix well. Add 2 T. liquid from salad olives and a dash of ground black pepper. Mix, then fold in 1/2 c. chopped pecans and 1 c. finely chopped salad olives. Store in a container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. Spread on white, French, sourdough bread or crackers.
Recipe Notes: I didn't use nuts due to one of our members having a nut allergy. I think adding minced onion would be good, too. Since a block of cream cheese is 8 oz. and the recipe calls for only 6, I increased the other ingredients accordingly so not to have 2 oz. left over.
Now, back to Sara and her house. You might remember me mentioning Sara in past posts. She is a multi- talented young woman. Glassmaker, potter, and knitter extraordinaire. Her house offers plenty of space to support her creative pastimes. She has set up one room to play with clay, another room as her glass space, and her knitting is stored away in areas of two rooms. Still another room shows off her Cincinnati Reds memorabilia. Sara is a huge Reds fan!
Guess what's outside???? A swimming pool! I can see poolside knitting in her future.
Sara is in her twenties and so accomplished. She is a knitter with a capital "K". Her favorite thing to knit? Lace. Hands down. She LOVES to knit lace. I'm a lucky recipient of one of her shawls. She turns them out fast as lightning.
For Christmas, Sara knit a shawl for her mother, and Diana knit a shawl/scarf for Sara. How they kept it a secret from one another, I don't know.
Sara knit the Holbrook Shawl for Diana. GORGEOUS!!!! Absolutely beautiful! What a rich shade of blue.
Diana knit Leftie for Sara. This pattern gets its name because it is a good project to use up leftovers. This is such a super sharp looking scarf/shawlette! The black background makes the bright colors really pop.
As you can plainly see, the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree. Both Sara and Diana are very skilled with sharp pointy sticks.
There were other sights to be seen yesterday.
Marsha had on these ruby slippers. Aren't they cute?!? They look almost like repurposed sweaters - especially the roses.
Merry finished this special pair of socks to wear on Valentine's Day.
I am teaching a cabled scarf class at Main Street Yarns Tuesday night. I'm woefully behind in my knitting for the class. I finished this one but am just getting started on the second scarf.
There will be two scarf patterns offered for the class. Beginner cablers will love the Reversible Cable Neck Warp & Scarf by Churchmouse Yarns and Teas. This is a very easy pattern and looks great on. With one large button, it makes a terrifically warm neck wrap. You don't knit a buttonhole. You sew the button on one side and then the button will fit through any hole made where the cables cross. This pattern also uses stitch methods to make very nice looking edges. Very smooth. Here's the one I just finished. I knit it using 2 skeins of Pure Alpaca (knit double stranded) on a size 10 needle. Those with more experience can choose the Cabled Scarf from A Year in Scarves. I'm starting on mine tonight and hope to get at least a few inches knit before Tuesday night. Come join me!