Friday, February 15, 2008

Milestone

I have reached another milestone. No, it's not my birthday. I have accomplished one of my life goals.


I received news yesterday that I passed the third level of The Knitting Guild Association Master Hand Knitting Program!


This is what the reviewer said in her letter:

"The swatches are all well done, and I am impressed by the improvements in the entrelac and intarsia swatches in particular. They are two of the nicest examples I have seen, and the tail weaves in the intarsia swatch are excellent."


"Congratulations! You have successfully completed all of the requirements for the Master Hand Knitting Program. You are now a fully qualified Master Knitter...."


Willow is now a Master Knitter!
[Willow is also really frustrated with blogger because bad blogger won't show her spaces/rows between paragraphs. Does anyone else have this problem with blogger?]
This is the entrelac swatch the reviewer referred to. Entrelac used to be called the basket weave stitch, for obvious reasons.



Intarsia patterns require the knitter to switch out different colors (balls) of yarn for stitches without carrying the second strand of yarn behind the knitting. The most common way intarsia is used is in argyle socks.

You can imagine that with all the colors being switched around that there are a lot of yarn ends to be woven into the back of the knitted piece. The best way to do the weaving is to use the duplicate stitch. If the weaving is done carefully you can't even see where the ends are woven in.

Needless to say, I'm really excited! I have been working on this program for nearly eight years. It's true that I have lost my father, moved three times, married off three children, and gained a grandson during the eight years, so some years I haven't worked all that hard on it. It feels so very good to have finally finished what I started.

What's next?

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!

Now you can focus on being a grandma :)

jaeyde said...

WHEE!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

you've been working so hard for so long. I'm glad you finally were given the honor you deserve. :)

Mama Mia said...

Hooray! You're wonderful, mums!

Knitting Linguist said...

That's wonderful! Congratulations -- what a huge achievement! Should we call you Magistra now? :)

Sara at Come Away With Me said...

Willow, the grandest of congratulations to you on your new Master-ship of Knitting achievement. That's wonderful, and it's obvious you know what you are doing; though the language is Greek to me (!) I can see that the knitting is beautiful.

Bethany said...

I didn't even know you could be "official"! Congratulations!! You are an amazing knitter! Would you consider doing an actual tutorial on weaving in the ends? I know that may sound strange but I don't know how to do this well and I'd love to know step by step from you (that way I can ask you questions if I don't understand something!!). I am going to work on my book meme now! This week was crazy busy and so is this weekend!

Anonymous said...

Congrats - what an accomplishment!

Barbara said...

I am not surprised you won. As I keep saying you are the neatest knitter I have ever seen.
Congratulations.

Yes I often get tht no paragraph thing with blogger and other things.

Try typing in word and cutting and pasting.

Lovella ♥ said...

Wow Willow that work really is perfect. I wish you lived next door and maybe I'd take up knitting too.
You really are to be congratulated on such a long achievment.

Jane said...

Congratulations on achieving your master knitter award. Blogger drive me nuts sometimes with the spaces (I usually get too much of them)Sometimes I end up going into the post after I've published it in order to tidy it up a bit. Doesn't always work though! Jane x

Elizabeth said...

Well done!
It's super to feel one is really good at something - a great accomplishment.
your grandson will be proud of you!And I'm sure he will be the recipient of lots of lovely examples of your craft......

ellen b. said...

Congratulations again. I'm very impressed with your work. When I told my daugter about your accomplishments, she was wondering if you crochet...

Beatriz said...

Congratulations Willow! I'm so excited for your accomplishments coming to fruition and being officially recognized for your amazing talent!

Anonymous said...

Willow, you are a talented and persistent woman! Those samples you show look just beautiful. I'm going to pretend you didn't mention those books on my 'smarty pants' entry. Those cats don't need any encouragement!

Islandsparrow said...

Congratulations - I'm a novice knitter - I'm working on my first scarf. I have a little hole in it and I wish you were around to show me how to fix it...

:)

Lucky little grandson - he'll have lots of knitted outfits to wear.

roxie said...

Yayyyyy! Welcome to the club! Bravo, Willow! I knew you could do it, and what nice reviews! Now, are you going to mentor?

Your intarsia is STUNNING!

mehitabel said...

Congratulations on getting the certification! It's quite an accomplishment even without all the life events in between--all the more so with them! Your swatches are lovely and well deserve the praise from the reviewers!

Mary said...

Willow,

Congratulations!!! You are a great knitter and I always love seeing the photos of your projects. I'm so glad you were able to accomplish this goal. You must be PROUD and with good reason.

Blessings,
Mary

Tracy said...

Congrats on your masters degree! ;o) Your knitting is so fine and perfect! Enjoy your pro status ((HUGS))

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!
Hard but lovely work.

Heather said...

Congrats Willow. That's great. You do amazing work.
I haven't forgotten the book thingy. I'll post it soon.

Robin said...

I'm so impressed! Good job!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! My grandmother used to knit and taught me how when I was a child. Now I want to take it up again. Our son's school is teaching him knitting next week too. It's my first time on your blog, so I'm off to look at your other posts. Maybe I'll find some great tutorials? Or where to find good ones?