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by Kimberly Williams Our August meeting started with a talk show aspect with the Zoom hosts welcoming attendees, reminding people that we can’t see their Star Wars jammies, pondering whether there are Hamilton jammies, and mostly helping people enter the raffle. Whoa! Over 100 people wanted to attend our meeting this month. We’re sorry to those of you who missed it live, but we are pleased as punch for the attention (and we've upgraded our plan to allow more of you in). The member tip portion included a new segment this month, entitled “Things Anna Wished She Knew Earlier”. For the first one, Anna showed us how the legs of our stitches should sit on the needle. The right leg goes in front of the needle. Our themed tip this month was how not to twist your stitches when joining them in the round. Anna highly advises laying your needle on a flat surface, even if that means getting up from your cozy spot on the sofa. Once laid flat, you can follow the bottom of the cast on edge and keep it on the inside of the circular needles. You can also knit one, or two, rows flat before joining in the round, which gives you more fabric and makes it easier to see any twists. Remember those running stitch markers Anna showed us a couple of months ago? You can use that same method to help keep your cast on straight or even count your cast on as you go. This may be especially useful in brioche. The mind blowing tip this time comes from Alicia Yballa, who pointed us towards a Carlos and Arne video. If you have joined in the round and as you knit you find a twist, keep going until you get to the last stitch. While carefully holding your needle tips, untwist your work and move the twist over the left needle tip. Now that twist is hidden in a way no one will ever see. Lorilee Beltman joined us from Seattle to present her technique, vertical stranded colorwork, for Puddletown’s first ever hands-on lesson. This style has been her personal knitting playground since 2008. First, she gave us a tour of her studio and showed us samples of vertical stranded colorwork (VSC). Unlike other colorwork such as fair isle or mosaic, the contrast color in VSC only exists in that one column of the knitting. It’s an easy way to modify seed stitch or garter stitch to give a pattern your very own flare without losing much stretch. Lorilee focused on cables with us in the hands-on tutorial of her presentation. She was a great teacher, allowing time for us to practice and demonstrating for three different styles of knitting. The main thing to keep in mind was the main color leads and the contrast follows. Also, take the time in the beginning to manage the spaghetti of contrast colors with butterfly knots or chip clips.  She gave us a code for a free copy of her hat, Colors that Climb Sampler—watch the video again to get it (or email us). I’m excited to try it and practice holding the main color in my left hand (Continental style).  Once again several people sent in pictures of their finished projects for the virtual show and tell.
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