Today (besides being Valentines Day, of course) is our
mid-Madrona catch-our-breath day (it is also laundry day, but I digress…). 

Sarah and I had “Baltic Braids and Bobbles” with Nancy Bush
all day Thursday – 6 hours of concentrated knitting as we learned and practiced
different Estonian braids and finally the fat little nupps (I am a bobble fan,
as we all know, so these charming puffs were a special treat!).  The techniques are ingenious – and ones that
are best passed on by demonstration (patient, patient, patient demonstration by
Nancy Bush who is a master knitter and a fine teacher).  The results are bold, architectural 3-D braids
and twists that lie on the top of stockinette like iced flourishes on the
fanciest-shmanshiest wedding cakes.  They
are like ceramics: dramatic in the heavy worsted weight yarn we used or
delicate in the amazingly fine gauge the Estonians use in gloves and socks.

We finished the day with a sampler tube (I don’t think I
mentioned that we labored over these brain-twisting, finger-foiling techniques in the round on double-pointed needles!).  At a finer gauge, it could have been a
wristlet or cuff, of course.  It did make
a rather impressive arm-band – the young woman next to me modeled it that way.  Could make a knitter look a bit tough!  We conjectured that it might fit a man’s
ankle – and the term “manklet” was coined (we were a mite loopy by the end of
the day!).  But Sarah and I found another
practical use: