This wonderful lady has volunteered to moderate our Ravelry group Knit Along and is doing a superlative job at it! We wanted to introduce her to you all here but if you hop over to the discussion in the Peace Fleece Lovers group you can chat with her, and lots of other awesome people, directly! Here's a picture of her in the first sweater she ever knit... do you recognize the yarn? Looks like Baghdad Blue and Chickie Masla to us.Margot, a reformed computer programmer with a BS in Computer Science, traded bits for knits by becoming a Knitting Pattern Technical Editor. She knit her first sweater with Peace Fleece yarn nearly 10 years ago and has been a self-appointed Peace Fleece Evangelist ever since. As a founder of the non-profit organization Local Motion, Margot advocates for safe non-motorized transportation opportunities for a clean and healthy community. When not poring over patterns or knitting, Margot bicycles, kayaks, and leads a dance team steeped in the English tradition of Rapper. Margot lives on a vegetable farm in Vermont with the farmer, two cats, and a yarn-stealing English Shepherd.
Josephine Curry Hagerty Hard to believe that we are catching up with the rest of you through none other than a blog. Thank you to the younger generation in our office as they birth us, knicking and screaming, into the world of social media.
I am by my Irish genetics a born storyteller and I hope to use this site as a kind of cozy living room or cool forest clearing where you may sit down, listen for a while, add to the story if you like, then gently rise and move on to the rest of your day.
When I was a young boy, my grandmother Josephine was standing with me on the rocks by my ancestral home looking out over the ocean and telling me a story. It was, I thought, an extraordinary one so I asked her "Nana, is that true?" The wind was blowing her white hair around as she turned and fixed me with her bright blue eyes.
"True, what do care if it is true? Truth has never fared me well."
She died not long after that special time and I never knew exactly what she meant. But as I grew older I learned more about her life and the history of our ancestors in Ireland and I began to understand some of what she may have wanted me to know. Intermixed with the tales will be information that you hopefully will find helpful, stuff about friends with whom we work in disparate parts of the world and those just across the field and over the fence. We are constantly working with them to make better yarn and knitting products for you. If we create a light feeling about our blog, perhaps you might feel comfortable not only telling us what things we are doing right but more importantly suggesting how we do things better. Thanks for dropping by. We look forward to your joining us on this journey wherever it may take us. Old Friend Knit along on Ravelry
Our baptisim to social media is our Peace Fleece Knit Along starting on August 1. Please visit Peace Fleece Lovers at Ravelry to read more about the details.
The Old Friend Pullover is written for worsted weight but for those of you that want to use the lighter dk, please see below the addendum that the author Peg Richard wrote especially for this KAL. Thank you Peg!
"Hi Peter, I think that it will be fairly easy to modify the Old Friend Pullover to fit the stitch gauge for sports weight yarn. The sportsweight diamond pullover I designed oh so many years ago actually has almost the same shape. It has a different style rib, but the measurements and shape are similar, so here is how I have combined the directions from the two sweater patterns to create the Old Friend Pullover in lighter yarn. The important thing is to create shapes that match the measurements given on the back of the pattern so that it will have the correct proportion when sewn together. Lighter weight yarn modifications for the Old Friend Pullover: Gauge: 9.5 st. over 2 inches Needles: #5 and #7 Front: With smaller needles cast on 96, 104, 110 stitches. Work in k1p1 ribbing for 6 rows. Change to larger needles. When front measures 22 (23, 24) inches from the bottom edge, begin neck decreases. Knit 33 (38, 39 stitches) attach another ball of yarn, bind off 30 (30, 33 stitches) knit 33, (38, 39 stitches. Continue working in stockinette stitches on both sides at once. Decrease 1 st. each side of neck edge every other row 5 times. When front measures 25, 27, 28 inches from the bottom, bind off the remaining stitches. Back: Work as front until the back measures 23 1/2, 24 1/2, 25 1/2 inches from the bottom edge and begin neck decreases: knit 33 (38, 39) stitches, attach another ball of yarn, bind off 30 (30, 33) stitches, knit 33 (38, 39) stitches. Continue working in stockinette stitch on both sides at once. Decrease 1 stitch each side of the neck opening every other row 5 times. When back measures 25, 27, 28 stitches from the bottom, bind off all remaining stitches. Sleeves: With larger needles cast on 44 (48, 52) stitches. Work in stockinette stitch increasing one stitch each side every 5th row 21(23, 25) for a total of 90 (100, 110 stitches.) When sleeve measures 18 (19, 10) inches, bind off all stitches. Finishing: Follow directions for the Old Friend Pullover finishing. Use a smaller size crochet hook if the finishing crochet stitches look too loose. Nice to hear from you again, My best to Marty, Peg"
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