Speedy Knitting February 19, 2008

Recently there was a knitting contest in a shopping mall in Minnesota.  Knitters came from far and wide to participate.  The winner hails from the Shetland Islands in the far north of Scotland.  Hazel Tindall won the title easily, for the third time, with a record number of 262 stitches knit in 3 minutes.  Have a look at this article in the Shetland News.

In Annie Modesitt’s recent Newsletter she said that she entered the contest but her count was only a mere 170 stitches in 3 minutes.

 Just out of curiousity, I might test my speed – I suspect it will be a very low double digit number.

Completion of the Lime Green Waist Coat

 At last, thanks to encouragement from Bettina, I have finished the lime green waistcoat.  I added the I-cord trim and did a pressing. 

I still have some of that lime green yarn which I like so much so now I will have to think of what else to make with it.

Knitting aside, my news is mostly about music – lots of recorder playing.  And reading – The Year of the Lion by Gerald Hanley, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.  And a chance meeting with an old friend, Brigid Mayes, from Bhutan days.  Oh, and an email from ex-Nairobi New Zealand friends now working on an assignment in Bhutan  In Nairobi we did a lot of Scottish Country Dancing with these friends.  Now I am delighted to hear that there is a Scottish Country Dance group in Bhutan.  What fun.

For our time in Bhutan, I had brought trunks full of rug weaving yarn and I wove many rugs on my Glimakra loom.  Alas, I wasn’t in to handspinning and I did not have a source of knitting wool.  I tried knitting with the local acrylic but that was decidedly unsatisfactory.  Thanks to the Online Guild and the intervening years there are so many more textile activities I would like to pursue there if I ever had the chance to go back.