Friday, May 11, 2007

Stealth Knitting 101

How to knit a stealth project:

1. Define your intended knitting project.
a. Who is it for?
b. Is there a specific purpose for the item?
c. What is your timeline?

2. Evaluate your materials.
a. What's in your stash (or your LYS) ?
b. What is your target color and gauge?
c. inventory your needles

3. Establish your plan of attack
a. Recruit help as needed
b. Divide materials and assign sections
c. Hope for or create a decoy

4. Execute knitting order
a. Everybody knit!
b. Everybody graft!
c. Block and pray.

You see, Hannah and Dan are getting married this weekend. Hannah is like, my best friend and Dan is - my ex-husband.
Since they are "running away to Vegas" and Hannah was supposed to be with us this weekend for the BobaKnit Retreat, as my room mate no less (ahem!), I decided that we had to be with her in spirit and that I would like to knit something for her. A shawl! She could wear it during the ceremony and it would be beautiful! But wait... it is in less than two weeks! I can't knit a shawl that fast!!! Wait,... "Hey Jeni, what if we knit a shawl for her together? What if we recruit some help, each knit a section, and then graft it together?" Would it work?

Enter the Fearless Five.
Able to knit large objects in a single- well maybe a couple- sessions
With needles at the ready they tackle projects with courage and skill
They are

Jeni
Cookie
Kristi

Margit
Me

Of course we have challenges. Have you ever combined several different pieces of lace and grafted them in pattern?
Yeah, I hadn't either, but somehow we had to do it because I had bought the yarn and was committed to doing this for Hannah.

So while Cookie and Kristi were doing this in Margit's back yard, Margit, Jeni and I were dividing up the yarn inside. Then Cookie went to Chicago, took yarn and pattern with her and we all stayed around here and got started knitting. We all made pretty good progress and within about a week everyone was done with their sections, of course we had to occasionally lie and distract Hannah so that she didn't know what we were up to.


Cookie had finished hers and got it back to us and in the meantime we had the bridal shower for Hannah and distracted her with more knitting and felting goodness. She has no idea what we are up to!

We got started with the grafting. That's a lot of Kitchener stitch.


There were 7 pieces total that had to be grafted together, we got together and passed pieces around while it slowly grew and came together.


I blocked it.
It looks great!

Tonight we gave it to Hannah.


It looks beautiful!

Tomorrow? Bobaknit Retreat!!!!!! Woot!

14 comments:

Jo at Celtic Memory Yarns said...

Incredible! What a marvellous example of cooperative knitting. Wouldn't have thought it could be done (how on earth did you get parity of GAUGE?) But you did it. And it looks stunning.

You are a winner. In several ways.

Now don't forget Round 7 of Sock Madness...!

Pikku- Kettu said...

What a wonderful idea! And such a beautiful finished piece. I almost can't believe it. :)

LaLa said...

That looks great!

Shadkitty said...

That's beautiful!! What a sweet and wonderful idea. :) The result is just as lovely.

Jean said...

I'm so impressed you pulled this off! I love it when a hairbrained scheme comes together so beautifully. The shawl is gorgeous! You guys are wonderful, generous and thoughtful friends.

hannahbeekuhns said...

cindy ~ first and foremost, my wonderful best friend in the whole world & my knitting sensei!!! i canNOT believe you did this & recruited the masters of knitting! GENIUS! jeni, margit, dr. kristi, and cookie!! i canNOT believe you made me cry!! i canNOT believe i was sobbing when i opened up the package. i was so shocked .. it is utterly beautiful and fits me perfectly! how did you all know this? well, i am child size. :) the colors are amazing - i had no idea that you all loved me so much to pull this shit off. no wonder NO ONE wanted to hang out with me. AWESOME excuses. HOLY shit balls! i am so touched by your love and everyone involved as well. i'm going to wear this sat night with honor and will be so proud to know that my splendid gfs did this for me and will be there in spirit.

pamipoo said...

Cindy How wonderful! Hannah will have a keepsake to treasure and the color is just perfect. I cant wait to see it up close.I'll be taking lots of pictures.

Shrinkie said...

Cindy, wow! You are one highly evolved chick and a fabulous friend to boot! beautiful job on the shawl.

Abigail said...

How beautiful! You guys rock. :)

(I was wondering how you were all going to knit a shawl together. That's a brilliant solution!)

Romi said...

Now that is *totally* cool! It looks great. :)

Anonymous said...

I couldn't believe you guys pulled it off! It is really beautiful. The seaming is flawless, the knitting meticulous, and the love priceless.

Hannah gets emotional a lot but you guys really got her bawling!!

Cindy, you have indeed written the book on "How to knit a stealth project."

(formerly) no-blog-rachel said...

So cool! And so beautiful. Cindy, does it concern your loved ones how very devious you can be???

Teenuh said...

How fun to see the pics! I am glad it worked out, what a nice gift for the crazy and wonderful Hannah!

lill4my said...

awesome idea cindi, and the shawl is just absolutely gorgeous!!!!