Saturday, April 09, 2011

Kim is a Knitter, I am a Quilter

Kim and I suffer from a persistent stereotype: that she is a "quilter" and I am a "knitter." Indeed she does quilt and I do knit. But we couldn't have gotten this far without knowing how to do both. You need to be able to help people--and besides, all the crafts are fun. We both like to knit, crochet, and quilt.

I won't talk about her yarn stash, which is as big as mine. But that should clue you in that Kim always has a yarn project going.

When Kim knits, she tends to do it in the evenings at home while watching TV. She rarely brings her projects into the shop to show people. She is a close-to-the-vest kind of knitter. But today, just a little, I am going to force her out of her knitting closet.

For some reason, she tackles only large, crazy projects. I'll show you a few of them here.

The Crazy Huge Bag
Early on, when we first opened, along with a bunch of scarves, Kim made this felted bag. She wanted a very large bag, and in order to do that, she had to make it ginormous before felting. It was as big as a laundry bag, or maybe even a dress. After felting, it was still large.



Look how pretty the colors are close up:








Even the i-cord on the handle is colorful:


When we went to yarn market one year and Kim carried it, yarn-shop owners from all over the country stopped us in our tracks and remarked on how much knitting that bag took.

The Crazy, Huge Scarf

Kim has a penchant for Fair Isle. She loves working with yarn in both hands and says that it soothes her to do so. So she usually has a Fair-Isle project going. She has made several bags--this one:






(She thinks I should weave in the ends--for some reason, I haven't done it yet.)

And this bag, which she made with a beautiful lining and leather handles (and sewed in her own ends):


But the craziest Fair Isle project of them all was this year's Giant Scarf.

She made the Giant Scarf in the round on a 16" circular needle. It took 16 skeins of Noro Kureyon in many different colors:


It is very, very thick, and she will never be cold again.

The one side is a stripe...



the other, a checkerboard.




So what's Kim's next project? Rumor has it that she has taken home yarn and a pattern for another large felted purse.

Ask her what it is!