Yes! Suna Knits!

Groovy Knitting Groove

2012-01-23T18:01:00.000-06:00

I guess I am back in my knitting groove at last. I now would rather be working on one of my projects than reading or playing a relaxing game. Whew. And because of that, I actually made something in a reasonable amount of time!

I finished the Paintbrush Lace Cowl on Thursday or Friday, and blocked it Saturday. I rinsed it in human hair conditioner, which had the double advantage of softening the Silken Straw yarn and making the whole thing smell good. The cowl feels marvelous, which is good since it goes right against my extra sensitive neck. Here’s a picture of it before blocking:

Pre-blocked cowl

And here it is afterward. Isn’t that a nice pattern? I can imagine it in a mohair lace yarn being a very fine rectangular wrap. The pattern is so pleasant to knit that it would be a nice relaxing project.

The colors look funky, but at least you can see the pattern.

When I wear it it’s quite attractive, but you sure can’t see the pattern! I have no idea how I am supposed to arrange it on me. Oh well, it’s a fashion statement. Now I have to go find brown clothing to wear with it. I sure did enjoy that project, though. I am glad Jody suggested it.

Dressed rather warmly for the weather. And no, I did not knit the sweater. I get asked that a lot.

Now I am working with the multi-colored yarn I’d intended to use to make gloves. Instead I am making a nicer, more sophisticated set of fingerless mitts than the previous ones. The pattern is called Susie’s Reading Mitts, so it must be for me. It’s going quite well. I love doing a picot edging, and I like the simple lace enhancements. Mostly, though, I sure to like the yarn and the tweedy effect it makes. The little bit o’ cashmere in the yarn makes me purr (internally) with pleasure. And the tweediness is so subtle.

Susie's Reading Mitts. Colors are more warm in real life.

I also like having a thumb gusset and a bit of a thumb. That will keep me a lot warmer, I predict. I do like mitts, so that I can use my phone at a moment’s notice.

That reminds me, I am going over to a woman I know from the UU church to help her make a mitten with thumbs that come off so her child can text in the frigid north of Illinois. When I lived there (1980-1996 if you are keeping track), I didn’t want to take off my Thinsulate gloves for anything. I knitted a lot of sweaters at that time, but wore store-bought gloves mostly. I have been promised wine, so I am not sure how well I will do with figuring out patterns, but we’ll see…

Oh yes, to complete my report on my current projects, I should report on the scarf I am working on during choral rehearsals and such. I think it’s really pretty. When I got halfway through the colors on the self-striping yarn, I realized that I’d end up with a sort of short scarf. So, off I went with my very patient younger son to the yarn shop, intending to get another skein of each color of Knitshit’sFreia. But, sadly, they were out of the Metal Earth colorway. One of the other ones looks pretty good with the reddish main color as well, so I just got another color. I am not sure if I will use all of the additional skeins—I might end up with a much-too-long scarf! Here’s it’s progress:

Easy scarf that looks good.

While I happened to be at Hill Country Weavers, I decided to pick up enough worsted weight yarn to (gasp) make a garment. I was really taken with a pattern in the latest Vogue Knitting, #12 Drape Front Sweater. It’s very simple and mostly stockinette rectangles, but the front has a half twist in it, which looks really nice in a drapey yarn.

I ended up getting something close to what the pattern calls for, an alpaca from Misti Alpaca called Best of Nature Worsted. It is gray (the color is called Rockies) but just slightly mottled. It is dyed with “natural ingredients,” apparently blue corn. I hope the promise of an interesting garment will keep me working on this and that the subtle variations help keep me interested. I am really looking forward to at least making a swatch of this stuff, but those cashmere-blend mitts are holding my interest!

Thanks to all of you still reading, and thanks to those of you posting your knitting stuff on Facebook, too. I enjoy hearing from you, however I hear from you!

Why Yes, I Have Been Knitting! And Planning!

2012-01-14T21:31:00.000-06:00

I am getting a bit more back into my old knitting rhythm, though I am also still playing word games online, too. I can't help it...I love word games. I find it interesting that I win most Words with Friends games and lose most Scrabble games online. I can't figure out why I am good at one and not the other, but I still enjoy the mental challenge...but I also have been knitting.

When I am sitting in Unitarian meetings and various choir rehearsals (mark your calendars for February 19 if you are local! Texas Choral Consort will present Out of Israel, a fun presentation including lice, flies and other plagues), I have been working on the K1P1 scarf. It's looking really nice and the color changes are very lovely. I will give you a picture next time. Gotta save something for the future.

When I am not doing something that requires a lot of other thought, I am working on the absolutely beautiful Paintbrush Lace Cowl pattern that I got the yarn for when I was shopping with Jody. Two different Alchemy yarns--Silken Straw and Haiku. I sure am enjoying the feel of that silk and mohair gliding through my fingers, and I am also really enjoying the pattern. It is easy to follow but makes a cool effect. It has lace and cables, but neither are overly difficult. Just a pleasant thing to knit. I am beginning to wish I had more yarn. I probably only have enough to do 4 pattern repeats (though the pattern calls for 5). Here's how it looks now, with Scrunchy the Pug inspecting it:

Scrunchy sez, "This is intruding on my space."

I have been thinking about how nice the mohair scarf I got for Yule feels. Maybe I will make a scarf or stole out of one of the skeins of alpaca lace yarn I have, using the Paintbrush lace pattern. That would feel soooo good. And it would also not be so hard I would get discouraged again.I think that will be a nice thing to work on while doing the other, simpler projects I have in mind (gloves, mittens, etc.).

I realized I didn't post the earlier photo I took of the project, showing the two yarns involved.

Paintbrush Lace Cowl, pattern, and a bit of a view of the yarns that are knit together in my version

I found out today that the most elderly student I ever had in my knitting classes had passed away. She was a lovely woman with so many stories, and a kind listening ear. She was also very, very funny. It was so hard for her to knit, since her hands shook, but she kept at it, and always had questions and wanted to learn more. One of the nicest things about teaching was meeting so many interesting people and hearing their stories.

That ending brings me to a new beginning. I asked if it was OK, and sort of got permission to start a knitting group where I am working now. I hope to get to know some of the people there better, and satisfy my urge to teach people to knit or crochet. We'll see if it goes over well or not--I think about 8 people expressed interest, which is great! Of course, I didn't ask permission correctly, even though I tried to. Oh well, I made it over 4 months before getting into trouble over anything at the new job, which is considerably better than my record at the last "real" job I had. But wait, I am not looking backward anymore. I am living in the present! Right now! And right now I want to enjoy some more zen knitting...you all go knit or read or enjoy the moment in some way that has meaning for you now, OK?

Knitting Inspirations

2012-01-08T14:42:00.000-06:00

Not only did I actually go to a genuine LYS the Friday before New Year's, but I also got some other new yarn in the past week, one as a gift. I have been trying to knit from my very copious stash this past year or so, since I have been in the throes of my "knitting identity crisis," but like the ones I mentioned yesterday, these "spoke" to me (or showed up!).

I have been wondering if I'd ever get to write this blog post, though--ever had one of those days when technology hates you? Well, all of my various technologies for getting photos onto blog posts broke this morning, and I got a bit frustrated. Finally I found a cable, dealt with some issues on the phone and the computer, and was able to copy all my recent photos onto my computer. WHEW! Still not sure why I can't upload photos to Facebook today, but I will live. I can at least blog now!

First I wanted to show you this very interesting yarn that I found when Jody and I were shopping. I know it looks like a bit of a mess, but I saw it knitted up and woven (that was lovely!) and I really liked the tweedy effect it made. The yarn is called Mericash Thousand Colors and it is from Punta Yarns in Uruguay. Of course, it is no longer being made, sigh. It's a merino cashmere blend with 3 strands that each change colors. My plans for this are to knit it tightly and make myself a pair of warm gloves. I LOVE my very old cashmere fingerless gloves, so I predict I will like these.

Mericash Thousand Colors

And look, I found PhotoShop so I could crop pictures.

Next is yarn I ordered from the blog's old friend Ray Whiting at Knitivity. I was really intrigued by both of these. The one on top I am totally in love with. The colors are so subtle and muted. I realize I am on a real tear with hand coverings, but I really, really want to make another pair of mitts in this. I have a simple pattern with cute edgings in mind. I may have enough left over to make a matching hat and/or headband, too. The bottom skein reminds me of blue and white china, even though it has pale orange or cream color in it. It will probably be socks, if I ever get back to those. I am suddenly getting holes in my socks, some newer ones. No moth signs, but it makes me hesitant to make more.

Sock Yarn from Knitivity

And next is yarn I received as a Yule gift from my friend Diana, who went to Ireland and thought of me when she saw this yarn there. As you can see, it's a boucle yarn, in a lovely reddish purple-y color. It feels oh so soft. I wish I knew what the yardage was, because there is a pattern in Vogue Knitting this month for a very simple sweater with a twisted front that would look cool in this knitted very loosely--it would be more of an overlay than a sweater. I may have to get one of those things that measures how much yarn you have! I think this is a goodly amount, since it is thin yarn and tightly wound. it's surely enough to make a very simple shawl that would showcase the yarn.

Lovely Irish Mohair

Diana also sent me a really lovely mohair scarf or wrap that was hand knit in County Clare near the Burren, one of my favorite spots on earth. I love the very simple pattern used.On larger needles, this could be done in the boucle.

Scarf I got as a gift.

So, these are all the things that are inspiring my knitting these days. Now I need to write one more blog post and I can knit! It is SO nice to finally have a relaxing weekend.

Mismatched Mitts

2012-01-07T23:45:00.000-06:00

My friend Mary in North Carolina works in a very cold office in a UU church. She asked if I could make her a pair of mitts after she saw the pair I made Leigh for Christmas. She said it could be wild colors, since UUs love her tie dye. So, I found the balls of Poems yarn I had been trying to make a vest out of (it was coming out way to small BEFORE I gained my recent pounds). Since this yarn changes colors, I figured I better not use cables, so I made the trusty pattern linked right here in this blog. The first one came out quite nice, as this blurry photo taken in the RV shows.

First Mitt

As I made the second one, I realized it was going to bear very little resemblance to the first one, in color. I seriously considered making another mitt from a second ball of yarn, but then I asked people on Facebook, and they began to say not to worry--mismatched is cool now.

I asked Mary, and her daughter seconded that opinion. So, here's the second one.

Second Mitt

They came out quite warm, though I think they'd have been warmer if I put in a gusset. Maybe next time I make this pattern I will do that.

I sent the finished ones off to her a couple of days ago. I sure hope she likes the sophisticated mismatched effect!

Both mitts, in focus, and a view of the wine fridge

I decided I liked the self striping stuff again, so I got two balls of yarn at Hill Country Weavers when my old knitting friend Jody came to visit, one a semi-solid and one really nice stripes in the colors of rocks. This yarn is from Knitwhits, called Freia sport. I love it--single ply, hand-dyed wool.

I started one of those easy K1P1 scarves with this yarn, since I need something very easy to knit during 6 weeks of choral rehearsals coming up. So far it is red and gray, but the gray will be changing!

Very simple scarf in very nice yarn

It was really fun to go shopping with Jody again. She is quite the enabler. She was intent on getting Jared Flood yarn, while I wandered around trying to not buy stuff. However, when I saw this one ball of yarn, it just had to go home with me. It looks like it is liquid metal--a very cool roving surrounded by a mesh. I believe the shade I got is silver with red mesh, but it looks purple. This stuff is absolutely amazing. It weighs practically nothing. It's Sublime Yarns Lustrous Extra Fine Merino Wool DK and wow, it is most unique.

I had just gotten the Vampire Knits book by Kathy Pendry on my Kindle and remembered there were cabled mitts in there. I wanted a pair after making Leigh's. In between the vampire trivia and famous vampire quizzes (quite the snooze for me), there are some rather nice patterns. My only complaint about these "pulse warmers" is not in the actual product, but that there are no charts for the cable pattern. It would have been easier to knit fast with a chart. Also, it was knitted flat. Ick.I did a fine job mattress stitching the first one together, but I sure would rather make them in the round.

Here are a couple of photos of the yarn and the finished first mitt. Still working on the second one.

Yarn and project. You can't see how slinky and shiny this stuff is

This is a little overly flashed, but you can see it looks a little metallic.

The yarn looks somewhat between these two images.I have some yarn and another knitted item I did not make to show you, so I will try to blog again tomorrow. Oh sure, two posts in two days???

I actually made something!

2011-12-26T22:15:00.000-06:00

I have been totally free of knitting mojo. Too many unpleasant things have been cropping into my head when I knit. So I took a pretty big break. I did carry knitting around wherever I went, though. Every so often I would knit a few rows on the shawl using two complementary sock yarn colors, and think how nice it would be to wear it. Then I would stop again.

Shawl made from two complementary sock yarns, each knitted from the opposite side.

At some point in the fall, Leigh asked for a pair of leg warmers. So, I found what looked to be an easy enough pattern, Waterlily Leg Warmers. To make sure the pattern would work, I got some inexpensive worsted weight yarn, two skeins of Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool. Well, I have now made four projects with that yarn and I STILL have half a skein left. I need to move on!

Here are the leg warmers as I was working on them. I am in the RV somewhere, because I recognize that upholstery! Oh yeah, in case I haven't mentioned it, we have an RV, of all things, Ursula, and I blog about that a lot. Feel free to visit Ursula Lumbers!

Leg Warmer on me!

Here are the completed leg warmers. I realize this picture is not very pretty, but I have not gotten a photo of them on her.

Obviously I should have cropped this.

So, when I finished this, I still had a lot of yarn. So I decided to surprise Leigh with hand warmers to match the leg warmers. I would knit them really hard whenever we were going to the ranch or farm, then forget about them at home, because Words with Friends is too enticing.

Just before Christmas, I managed to finish the last couple of rounds. What I did was cut the number of stitches by a third, and only put in one cable pattern (there are three on the leg warmers). I knit back and forth to create the thumb holes. I should have started back and forthing on an odd row, because I ended up having to do the cables on a purl row. Well, I can fix that next time. It was easy to just improvise a pattern based on the leg warmers, though. They came out quite cute and made a nice Christmas gift!

Happy with hand warmers.

I single crocheted an edging around the thumb openings, too.

Tuba Boy (Kynan) looked at all the yarn and had left and mentioned that he did not have a warm hat. I knew I could make one pretty quickly, so I went to find a really simple ribbed pattern. Sure enough, I found the extremely popular Hat Fit for a Boyfriend. It also made a hat fit for a son! It came out rather short when I made it following the instructions--the original was made for a fellow with no hair, and my kids, they have hair. Once I made it longer, it looked great! I finished it on Christmas Eve as the kids were serenading Lee's dad with the blues.

A warm head means warm musical tone.

Lee's dad is not doing real well, health-wise. It was a hard Christmas, with my dad gone and Lee's dad so sick. But he is holding on...has a new tractor and cows about to calve. He has to hang on for them! He remarked more than once how warm Kynan's hat looked. I asked if he would like one and he said, "Oh yes, I would." So I started knitting fast and furious. There's nothing like a request from the father-in-law to get back your knitting mojo! By the time Christmas dinner was done, the second hat was finished!

Looking very modern in his beanie.

This will help him in the biting wind out on the farm. Lee's dad is a warm weather person--he thrives in heat. Long-time readers will remember I made him socks a few years ago.

Speaking of socks. I keep making holes in mine. Makes me sad. Either I have a moth or they are showing their age. Makes me not want to knit more socks, too.

I was asked by a friend to make her some hand warmers, so maybe I will have another post for the new year. Things ARE better for me, in many ways. Just need to work on knitting happiness.

Moving on to Something New

2011-07-24T18:46:00.000-05:00

I could not get myself motivated to knit much on the little blanket, so no photo of it. I spend a lot of my time this week thinking of knitting, reading about knitting and mostly not knitting.

But tonight I am going to start knitting a two-color shawl with these two yarns:

Two sock yarns, which won't rotate for me. Blogger keeps "helpfully" changing the orientation.

I think the two colors will go together fairly well, since they both have brown in common. We'll see. I am using some pattern "suggestions" I got from Ray at Knitivity. These are two of his blog special yarns, the top one from a year ago, and the bottom from March.

I'll get to work on it and let you know how it's coming along later in the week. I predict it will either look cool or awful. In any case, it will mostly go with brown stuff.

Crocheting Mitered Squares

2011-07-18T18:37:00.003-05:00

I started on the knitted throw (baby blanket size) made with organic cotton over the weekend, but encountered a sudden lack of desire to knit. Instead, I read a lot and did a little crochet project.

Someone had asked me on Facebook, in the comments on the finished mitered square blanket project, whether it could be possible to get the same effect with crochet. I have crocheted a lot of squares in my day, but never mitered squares, so I messed around with my yarn and the lovely crochet hook I always carry in my knitting basket. The results do, I think convey the same effect.

Two squares of mitered crochet.

If you are interested in how I did the ones in the picture, building the squares from the outside in so that you can build each square on the next, and how I’d go on to complete a larger project in crochet, here are abbreviated instructions.

Crochet Mitered Squares

Use this technique to make mitered squares with self-striping yarn. You can change colors as you wish if you choose to make your own stripes.

First Square
Ch 42 (last two chains count as first sc in next row).
Sc in third chain and next 18 sts, skip 2 chains, sc 19. Ch 2, turn.
Sc 17, skip 2 sc, sc 18. Ch 2 (counts as first sc in next row), turn.
Sc 16, skip 2 sc, sc 17. Ch 2 (counts as first sc in next row), turn.
Sc 15, skip 2 sc, sc 16. Ch 2 (counts as first sc in next row), turn.
Repeat this pattern, with one fewer sc on each side of the skipped sts until the last row:
Skip 2 sc, sc, fasten off if changing colors.

Remaining Squares on First Row
From where you ended off with first square, ch2, pick up 19 sts across edge of previous square, ch 22.
Complete square as with first.

First Square, Second and Subsequent Rows
Chain 20, 20 sc in top of first sqare on previous row. Complete as with first row squares.

All Other Squares
Attach yarn where previous square ended. Chain 2, ch2, sc 18 sts across edge of previous square, skip two sc, sc 19 across top of next square in the row below.

Make a square or rectangle as large as you want, combining colors however you’d like. It’s easy to mimic quilt patterns, for example, using these squares.

More Resources for Your Perusal

There are plenty of ways to make mitered squares in crochet. I found some that you might want to use to make up your own blanket or other project. Just substitute a self-striping yarn to get the kind of effect in my sample. My taste would run to using thinner yarn and smaller hooks to get a more blended effect. Leftover sock yarn can be crocheted as wel as knitted, you know! It would make a nice sturdy vest fabric in crochet.

A way to make them starting from one corner and making larger and larger rows.
One very similar to what I made, but with nicer photos.
Soemone did some interesting variants on the square linked above.
A commercial pattern from Bernat. It has solid squares, which shows how the texture can also be interesting.
A tawashi (Japanese scrubbie to be made in a sturdy acrylic). It sould be good practice.
And now, for the most wonderful example, check out this beautiful shawl!! It’s the same technique, just with varied square sizes.

Marble Mitered Square Blanket, Finished

2011-07-15T15:16:00.006-05:00

My posting bonanza continues! First, I am both happy and sad to report that I finished the mitered square blankie project last night, other than neatening up the ends on the back. I got some Fray Check stuff last weekend, so I will work on that this evening in the RV. Then I can leave it there as a blanket for guests and a throw for when it gets cold. Of course with over 30 days of temperatures over 100F I wonder if it will ever cool off again.

Finished blanket, resting.

I had a hard time getting a photo of the whole thing, and probably didn’t choose a very scenic spot, since you can see my huge stack of knitting magazines and my suitcase packed with stuff for the weekend. Well, whose house is perfect? Not mine, I assure you.

As you can see, it is as long as a king size bed is wide. I just looked it up, and that is 76 inches. Hooray, that is long enough to be a blanket, and is actually the length of a twin mattress! When I finished it, my friend Martha and I picked it up, and it was pretty heavy, too. A substantial product for nearly three months of work! It has been quite a healing project for me. I managed to finish something and it looks OK.

I took a few close-up pictures while I had the nice light last night. First, here are two good close-ups of the corners.

A corner!

Another corner!

The only little bit I dislike about the corner square feature is that two of them have the central decrease going the “wrong” way. I think that’s not a bad thing, especially since those are two dark corners. I guess I took photos of the “good” corners, subconsciously not wanting to focus on the others.

And just for fun, here’s a picture of some of the squares in the middle. I do find them cheerful!

Hoping this close-up gives you a good idea of what the stitches look like.

Just as a reminder, the yarn is James C. Brett Marble DK, though it would be fine in the chunky version, too. The pattern is this one that I put up on Ravelry and is also linked in the left column of this blog.

I am ready to cast on the small throw using interesting textured yarn that matches my home color scheme this evening. I may try to wind the hanks into balls if I have time before we leave for the campground tonight; otherwise, I will just do it by hand. I remember how!

Two Posts Because I Took a Picture

2011-07-14T18:34:00.001-05:00

When I got home today, I looked at what I had knitted, and realized the light was good. So, I squished the ole blankie around and took a picture of the borders that are finished. I think they look pretty darned good. The purple border is set up to be far from all the purple squares, in some attempt at balancing all those 14 vaguely related colors.

Three borders and two little squares!

I have to say that I find it sorta cute. I now want to make a zillion blankies!

On the other hand, I wound up some yarn I really love this afternoon after work. I think it may be this really incredibly simple wrap thing I saw on a free website. It's just 3x3 ribbing, 18" long and 35" wide. I think I can do that without a printed pattern. I'll give it as a gift. Maybe to poor Carolyn, who is still waiting for a beautiful lace shawl I can't finish.

I have also made a plan to make a shawl as a gift using my friend Ray's idea for a two-skein shawl. Well, it's pretty much the same as that kerchief triangular shawl I made out of two Noro sock yarn skeins a few years ago, but with colors that blend. (Click that link, then click "kerchief" and you can find pictures of that project.) So, if I can find the pattern I got in the mail with my last order from him...I will make that as well. Yeah, that will keep me busy on my weekend of camping. It can be a gift, too. Maybe I will make both and see which one Carolyn likes. Gosh, hope she doesn't read this (HA, highly unlikely).

I must say I do appreciate all of you who are reading this, since I was such a dud blogger for a year or so. Thanks for all the Facebook likes. You can 1+ it on Google Plus as well. I do like comments here, as well. It's fun to have conversations!

Hey, Two Borders!

2011-07-14T15:17:00.001-05:00

I have been meaning to share a photo of the mitered square blankie with two borders, and keep falling asleep at night instead. I know you have been waiting and waiting to see it, so here we go—I am quite satisfied that the blues coordinate so well. If you can’t tell, the second border has purples in it and the first one has green.

Look, there are two borders!

I must sheepishly admit that I finished the first top border already, INCLUDING the little squares, and I cast on to the last one before I could get a photo. Silly me. I will have the last border done tonight, I hope. I’m going to knit like crazy, since I was so tired that I did not knit a stitch last night.

I guess I will have to investigate why the heck I have been so tired lately. I know the 500-page document I have just put together tires me out—lots of small print and details. That’s what I get for choosing technical writing as a career path—or letting it choose me.

Good news is that the next place we are going to visit with Ursula the RV has wireless Internet, so I should be able to blog from the Live Oak Ridge park.

I will take along with me the yarn I got not long ago to make a small lap blanket. Then I do not know what I want to work on. I have seen lots of sweaters and such that I like but none I am dying to make. I have a vision of a curtain for the kitchen door or window with beads in it that will shine in the light. I will think about that for a while. Maybe I can swatch something. I have some yarns I really want to knit with, but no project I am dying to make. I am still trying to avoid the pressure of making anything fancy, I am afraid.

Here Is the Border

2011-07-07T07:41:00.000-05:00

OK, I did it. I finished the first border while there was still enough light to get a photo of it. Wow, what a difference a border makes! I think the edging really ties the whole thing together. I got a lot of nice comments on Facebook, too.

The next long border also has blue in it--it's the blue and purple colorway. The left short border will the all purples and the final one is the one with some greens in it.

What I am going to do is leave the ends open, which will result in an area in each corner where I can insert 4 more mitered squares. Those will be dark blue, maroon, pink and brown--the four most intense colors. I figure that will tie in the intense bits, and look pretty interesting. I just hope I can remember that and don't just go ahead and pick up across the edges of the long borders. Now that I have written it down, I have hope.

Must run off to work now, and I hope you all have good days.

A Little Preview

2011-07-05T22:30:00.000-05:00

I didn't manage to finish binding off the first border tonight. Wow have I been tired, plus lots of issues at home, just the normal stuff, doncha know. But here is what the first border looks like, sitting on the bed and rather rumpled. Doesn't that make you want to see more of it, less rumpled?

That's the border, at the top.

Oh of course it does. Perhaps I will be home and knitting more tomorrow and get that border done! It goes fast. It's not that I was dealing with a constantly crashing Words with Friends application or anything. No, not me.

I will go, since my sarcasm-0-meter is really going off.

Congratulations! It's a Rectangle!

2011-07-04T22:27:00.000-05:00

We spent the Independence Day weekend at the Farm visiting ELAB's dad and his nephew, who was also there. I got to spend a good amount of time in the air conditioning, so the blanket got worked on quite a bit.

And yes, I finished the final square of the main part!

Mitered square blankie on an old trailer with a very old door behind it.

There it is, in its 9x14 glory. The bottom right pink square was the last one I did. I like the way it fades from subtle to bright and back to subtle.

Since that photo was taken yesterday, I have done one of the borders except for binding it off. I picked up stitches along the long edge closest to the front of the picture, in the colorway that is mostly blues with a little green. I did a long side first, since I want the borders the same height, and I didn't want to start with a short one and make it thicker than one skein of yarn would make on a longer side. I needn't have worried. I made 12 garter stitch ridges along the long side and still have a bit of yarn left. 12 just looked good to me.

I will tell you all about my plans for the borders tomorrow, when I take a picture of the first finished border. I have an idea that I think will look good for finishing the project.

And yes, I also worked on the socks. I got 3 inches into the leg of the first sock and can't decide how I want to finish it. I thought of a folded cuff, of a folded lacy border, and of a hemmed top. In the end, I may just do twisted ribbing, because twisted stitches look good in the Summer Sox yarn, judging from the heel flap. I will have to get a picture of that, too!

Why Yes, I AM Still Working on the Same Project

2011-06-26T14:32:00.000-05:00

One thing about the combination of not having a lot of knitting time and working on a large project is that you don't have many new and exciting topics to blog about, especially if you are no longer totally fascinated by every issue of every knitting magazine that comes out.

However let me talk about something other than mitered squares briefly. I did enjoy the new Knitty, and especially liked the Lingerie socks with the pretty lace patterning and Undercurrent sweater. It looks like it would be nice and casual to wear with jeans. And I still own some Silk Garden from back when I had a yarn shop to go to! I keep faithfully reading all my knitting magazines, though. I just don't feel like making anything.I need people to knit with I guess, but can't bring myself to go out any more than I already do. So it's my own fault!

8x14 Mitered Square Blankie

Here's how far I am on the Mitered Square Blankie. I realized in my brilliance that of COURSE I had to make it 14 rows long! I had 14 colors! This way each row will start with a different color. Doesn't it look lovely all dappled in the sun?

Here is a labeled photo so you can see how I made it and what the plan is. Yes, I know my PowerPoint skills are awesome. I can really label stuff.

I think, once I add borders, it will be quite blanket-esque.

I went over to Ravelry to see if anyone was doing variations on it, and I saw one that is pretty neat, by a user named Som Som. I don't have permission to show a picture, so go look at it and click the middle photo. You can see how she varied the direction the squares go, starting in the center. It is a nice, subtle effect. There's another one in bright solids by Fudgey, in a yarn that looks like it would be nice to knit with, too. Another person finished one but didn't post a photo. She commented that a solid color combined with mitered squares means every mistake really shows up. That's why I like self striping yarns for this technique. I'd like to try it in one of the Noro variants some time.

OK, back to knitting. I have three more done on the last row!

I Have a Good Excuse!

2011-06-19T21:18:00.000-05:00

My hope was to use this weekend's relaxing camping outing to get the last row of the mitered square blanket done and start on the extra row to make it wider. But, I did not get very far--I worked on four squares (hope to get a bit more done after I blog and play Words with Friends). But, as the post title says, I have a good excuse!

It got up to 106 degrees F this weekend. That is 41C. And we spent the hottest part of the day without air conditioning. That is not conducive to working on a 100% acrylic twin-size blanket. I ended up soaking myself with water from the "outdoor shower" feature on Ursula the RV then sitting in the gale-force winds that were blowing and letting myself cool by evaporation. And while trying not to faint, I did work on my new cotton socks.

Classic Elite Summer Sox Socks Start

I think these will be great to wear with my Topsiders or running shoes. But I will be trying to finish that blanket before concentrating on these!

Wow, it was hot over the weekend, and I had some pretty terrible heat exhaustion symptoms. I turn all read and get faint, then I sweat in huge quantities. Luckily we figured out how to get the air conditioning to work again, but I actually felt too bad to knit. I didn't know that was possible! I got a lot doing today as we came home, though. I WILL finish that blanket.

Another Blog

My husband and I (mostly me so far) have started a blog to keep track of what we learn and where we go with Ursula the RV. You are welcome to check it out, if you are interested in where I am going and what I am doing on so many weekends this summer! Check out Lumbering along with Ursula!

Some More Yarn

2011-06-15T20:03:00.000-05:00

I've really, really cut down on my yarn buying for the last year and a half. Not having a conveniently located yarn shop to hang out in helps, but I have also been consciously trying to use up what I have rather than buy more--it's about time I did that.

But yes, what you see is some new yarn. I keep getting tempted by the yarn my friend Ray at Knitivity makes--I like how the socks come out with his colors--they go with lots of things and wear well. You know I like him and his yarn from all the posts the past few years!

Recently I was thinking how I need more dark socks--most of my yarn is bright and perky. I wanted yarn to match my current mood, ha ha. And Ray was having a deal where you would get a free pattern if you ordered something, so I got one of his classic colorways, After Hours. I was happy to see patterns for a shawl he designed, the Two Ball Shawl, and a really interesting stitch design he came up with--one I'd like to do something with at some point.

I've bought a few skeins from Ray this year, and I think that's about it other than the few things I showed you last month or the month before. So I think I am doing well. I have so much beautiful yarn--I will just find stuff to make with it. Of course, with all the blogging and working lately...when will I knit? Oh, now that I am back at it, I will find the time. And I will keep it simple--I am no longer of the mindset that I am as creative or innovative as those people whose blogs I used to read all the time--I think I'd been trying to "keep up with the Joneses" or something.

I have a few skeins of sock yarn just sitting around, including the one in the picture. I just enjoy looking at yarn--especially in all the colors I wear, which this one is perfect for!

Oh Happy Day

2011-06-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

Why am I so happy? Well, I am baking bread. But also, I finally got INTO blogger so I can post again! How frustrating it was to finally want to blog again, then have Blogger not let me access my blog! It was strange--I used the right password (I could get into gmail just fine) but I was thwarted. It's fixed now, though. Woo!

Toe-up socks with 2x2 rib. The beauty is in the yarn!

I am also sorta happy that I finished this pair of socks--The only reason they took a while is that I only worked on them in the car. And the only reason I am just sorta happy is that I really enjoyed working with this yarn. Since there were no repeats I never knew what color was coming up, so it was fun to see what order the colors showed up in. They are mostly green and yellow, but every other color makes an appearance, as well. I will get a lot of wear out of these, I know.

Once again, the yarn is Creatively Dyed Yarn Calypso, which is 100% merino. I will NOT let anyone wash it in the washer! They were made toe-up using figure-8 cast on of 14 stitches. I used Wendy Johnson's toe-up flat heel construction. There was no special cast off. I just did it loosely and it came out fine.

Perhaps this photo is upside down. In any case, it's the mitered square blankie after 12 rows,

I tried to get an aerial view of the blanket at this point, but this is the best I could do. I have decided I have enough leftovers of each color to make it one row wider, so I think it will end up being 9x14 before I finally start putting on the borders. I think the borders will pull the colors together nicely.

So I was wondering what I would do with the final product, which will be big enough to sleep under or cover a single bed. So, we went and bought a recreational vehicle to house it in. Don't you think that's a good idea? OK, so if you actually know me in real life, you will know that an intense mid-life crisis, combined with some unexpected funds, led ELAB and me to purchase a used motorhome. Mostly ELAB. The photo above was taken on our first purely recreational trip in the behemoth...err. Ursula.

Ursula sits in a lovely wooded setting. Sorta hard to get there, but nice once we got her parked!

That's Ursula Ultrasport above. She is a 2005 model, so not all perfect, but she is pretty nice--certainly nicer than anything I ever expected to own. The real reason to get it was that ELAB's dad is going to need a lot of treatment for his bladder cancer, and there is not space to stay in his trailer. So, we needed a place to stay extended periods (no hotels in the Yorktown, Texas vicinity). ELAB's nephew also brings a bus down, so it turns into a little compound at times.

Krause Springs, Spicewood, Texas

But, since I work on a contract basis and can't really go on long vacations, it is nice to have a way to go explore the area around Austin on weekends. The place we were last weekend is just an hour from our house. This place is a private park, with huge cypress trees and over 30 springs. Just beautiful (though full on Saturday nights). No matter how hot or dry it is, this place is cool and wet! Now I hope we get to go more places and perhaps go with friends. I am thinking of turning my old personal blog into a chronicle of our adventures with Ursula. I can keep track of all the things that break and go wrong, as well as share photos of how pretty or ugly the places we go are. I'll let you know if I do that. I'll try to stick to knitting here.

As for knitting plans, I hope to get a knitting group going again, from the students in my church class. There were just so many icky things the past couple of months that I couldn't get the energy. In addition to dad dying, my stepmom being hospitalized multiple times, and ELAB's dad's illness, I have had a sudden job change (back where I said I would never go again...for the third time) and more stuff I just won't go into. I am hoping things are settling down and I can knit!

I started what I hope will be a pair of summer socks now that the colorful ones are done. I am using the Summer Sox yarn in a self-striping colorway. It's mostly cotton. Will be a nice change, and quick. That's to work on when I am not finishing the mitered square blankie! I'm hoping to teach knitting or crochet to the house guest we have this summer, one of Tuba Boy's college friends. All the visiting and resident kids are the highlight of the summer.So many recent high school grads and college kids home for the summer coming in and out of the place!

Still Enjoying Those Squares

2011-05-08T18:13:00.000-05:00

Happy May Day, Mother's Day in the US, and birthday to anyone I've missed on Facebook.

I have 9 rows of mitered squares completed, so I modeled the blanket in progress on my precious car, Ethel (I got her during my haitus--she's a 2011 MINI Cooper Clubman-S and a ton of fun to drive). I am really finding it relaxing to work on this project, and even though I am seeing a few other things I'd like to work on, I'm find just sitting around and working on this, even though that 100% acrylic yarn can be HOT sitting in a huge pile on my lap!

I am through with the bright colors and cycling back to the pastels for the next three rows at least. I will see how long it ends up being then, and decide whether to make it longer or to start the borders at that point. As you can see, I have two colors, the lilac and green, that go all the way across the blanket now. It may look better if I make it long enough to complete the pink squares all the way across. Any ideas or comments?

I am up to the gusset in the socks, which I only work on at music rehearsals and when I need a portable project. It's very pretty, and I will share when I am finished with the heel.

I am feeling a little better, even though this is a day I usually mourn the loss of my mother in 1984, and I am remembering my poor dad, who's been gone a month. But the family cheers me up at the moment, after a few trying weeks/months. College is out of session, so Tuba Boy is back home with his happy mandolin. And he got a JOB, which warms a mother's heart. Both boys made me nice cards, and the Girlfriend of Beccano (yes, she's still around, and got a full scholarship to a nearby college for next year) made me a lovely angel food cake. These cakes are a challenge, so I am so happy this one worked out! Beccano is going to the local community college to study music management while he rocks out. He still has a lot of hair.

I'd write more--I have more topics, ha ha, but it's time for the dinner prepared for me by my spouse. Ahh, Mother's Day is good.

Simple Can Be Good

2011-04-29T18:44:00.000-05:00

I got me some new yarn in the mail. As if I have time to knit anything else while working on that big ole blanket! But I saw this stuff and really wanted to make something out of it--it is Sprout by Classic Elite and it's 100% organic cotton. It's very light and has a fun texture. Plus it comes in these beautiful colors, which just happen to go very well in my home decor scheme. I got this from Kaleidoscope Yarns, which was the first place I ever bought yarn online, many years ago. I got free shipping and a free pattern for a baby blanket, which is what I intend to make, only I'll use it as a small throw.

The pattern is pretty much "knit in garter stitch and change colors every other row until you are out of yarn," with the addition of leaving a fringe on the edges. Very simple. Some would say mind-numbingly so.

But, I don't say that. I am going through a phase where simple knitting feels good. I like building those easy mitered squares in the color-changing yarn. And I have a feeling I will like knitting a nice rectangle with this lovely textured yarn, too. And why not? Just because you CAN knit complex things doesn't mean you always have to. Knitting is not a race, as I tell students, nor is it a competition. My wish for all knitters is that they make projects that bring them joy and pleasure.

I was making so many complex things in the last few years that it was beginning to feel like a job, and I felt pressure (mostly internal, I assure you--no past knitting associates need get upset) to do better and better--to knit fancier projects in fancier yarn. I was being pretty hard on myself when I failed--like when I tried ten times to get that lace shawl to transition to the next level, or when my Shetland shawl self-destructed and I fell apart. Why do that to myself? I like knitting. I like using knitting to zone out and meditate. So, why not make some projects in garter stitch? It can be fun, and the results can be beautiful--I think this color combination will make for beautiful stripes.

And I am making a sock when I need to do something portable. It is toe up, and with NO patterning on the foot. Just knitting. But look at this yarn! Whoa! It's Creatively Dyed Calypso, with 15 different colors that don't repeat regularly. Stockinette is what looks best with a yarn like this.

I'll probably do a simple rib for the legs. And I will enjoy it, especially since I also, on a whim, got two new types of size 0 needles to see if I like them. One's Kinki Ambari circular bamboo needles. They have a very flexible, clear cable and the bamboo is very, very nice. Haven't started using it yet (thus you see the old Hiya Hiyas in the photo--my Knitpicks size 0s broke when I um, accidentally whacked them in the hospital). The other ones are little teeny Addi Lace turbos. I hadn't tried the little ones yet. I will use those on my other socks in progress, shown here with broken needle and started many months ago:

It's Cookie A's Devon, in Fleece Artist Somoko. I started these last July, then went into knitting hiatus, so there has not been much progress. My bad. Can't do anything with them at all with THOSE needles, anyway! If I get a hankering to do something with yarn overs, I can switch to these, though.

(Ignore the Foo Fighters CD and mosquito repellent in the photo. I didn't style much. We can't find where all the mosquitoes are coming from in our house, but I am SICK of them, I tell you.)

I did want to share one more simple knitting idea for any of you who also want to see what you can do creatively with garter or stockinette stitch. One of the members of an email list I am on but am a bad ole lurker for send the link to this blog post from Annekata. It shows experiments the blogger has done knitting with sewing thread. Doesn't it look ethereal and different? And all it takes is simple stitches--it's the material that is interesting!

OK, I blogged again. I am so proud. Now I think I shall knit.

Blanket Notes and Synchronicity

2011-04-27T18:23:00.000-05:00

I realized something when I was showing my students how to do the mitered squares last night. I realized that, in garter stitch, to get a nice edge by slipping the first stitch, you need to do the yarn like you would switching from purl to knit in seed stitch or ribbing--after you slip the first stitch, move the yarn between that stitch and the second one rather than behind the slipped stitch. You want it to look like what you see in the image at left.

When you are doing stockinette stitch (K one row and P the next), the yarn is already in the back when you slip the stitch, so this is not an issue. With garter stitch, you need to move the yarn.

There is another way to do it, which is to move the yarn to the front then slip the LAST stitch on each row. It's easier to remember to do it right this way, or so I am told.

Anyway, I have revised yesterday's post and the PDF to have information on how to hold the yarn when you slip the stitches. If you see anything else that needs to be added, just let me know.

Printing Patterns

Also, people have said they have trouble printing the blog post with the pattern in it. Here is how I print blog posts from others: I select all the text and images, then I open Microsoft Word and paste all the content into a new document. I can then tweak the font, margins, etc., to my liking, and print it. Hope this helps! Of course, I don't mind emailing the PDFof the mitered square blanket pattern to anyone who asks. And a lot of people have! How nice!

Something Else

I thought I'd show you part of a nice gift I received from my Canadian friend Ramona (who you will note has also not been blogging as much lately). It really helped to lift my spirits as I get used to life without my Dad. But, the story of the gift is what is so cool, and why I truly love the Internet.

It turns out that, unbeknown to me, Ramona had friended my spouse on Facebook and asked him what I liked. That had explained why the unexpected package in the mail smelled so wonderful--it was full of rose scented soap. What was not explained was the return address--it wasn't from my friend. The return address was only a couple of blocks away from the house where I had spent my really wonderful childhood, in Gainesville, Florida (very far from Toronto). I tried to figure out what old neighbor might still live there!

When I opened the package, I saw so many wonderful things, including the ceramic mug shaped like a ball of yarn and luscious hand-spun yarn that you see here. These were made by a very talented ceramicist, soap maker and fiber artist, who sells on Etsy and knew Ramona from another friend...insert Twilight Zone music. Yes, Haldechick lives where I lived over 40 years ago, and sees my old playhouse and the amazing camellias and azaleas my dad planted nearly every day when she walks her dog! When I told her what happened, she sent me a lovely email, and when I told my knitting friends in Gainesville (and I am there because my high school friend and fellow knitter Kelli invited me!) they invited her to join their Facebook group of local knitters. What a wonderful set of sychronicities! I get goosebumps thinking about what a small world I really live in.

When I start to feel alone or isolated, I realize what a wide net of friendship I have cast via my online activities. I have so many wonderful knitting friends from blogs and Ravelry. I have hundreds of friends around the world from my job at the nonprofit organization. And so many of my relatives, plus my old friends from high school, college, grad school and my early jobs are still in touch thanks to Facebook! And to be honest, I am pretty sure I stay in touch better with my local friends via Facebook than any other way--we have lots of fun.

So I am happy with the Internet, and truly thankful for ALL of the kind words and thoughts I have received over the past few weeks.

Mitered Square Blanket Pattern

2011-04-26T15:02:00.002-05:00

I got a lot of requests for the pattern for the blanket I am working on. So, I tried to write this out in a format that my beginning knitting students might also be able to use. There is probably far more detail here than an experienced knitter needs, but you can skip any part that's completely obvious to you!

Here are generic instructions for making a rectangle out of mitered squares. You can choose the yarn, colors and arrangement of squares to suit your taste. The photo at left shows a blanket made of worsted weight squares arranged in a 4-patch pattern with solids and variegated yarns. Extra technique explanations are given so the pattern can be used with new or beginning knitters.

Materials and Gauge: Any weight of yarn that you want to use. This project can consist of small squares from sock yarn, up to large squares from a bulky weight. Use something you have a lot of. You can use solids, self-striping or other types of yarn, and can use one color or multiples.

Needles: Use needles that give you a nice, solid garter stitch with the yarn you choose. I’d recommend for the average knitter, size 2 or 3 needles in fingering, 4 or 5 in sport, 5 or 6 in DK, 6-8 in worsted, and 8-10 in bulky weight. Use what you think looks good. You can use straight or circular needles.

Abbreviations and Techniques:

K = knit

K3tog = Knit three together OR any double decrease that appeals to you. I like [sl1, k2tog, PSSO (pass slipped stitch over)] and [Sl 2 tog as if to knit, K1, PSSO]. For a uniform look, pick one decrease style and stick with it.

Sl = Slip: move the next stitch to the right needle without knitting it. Be sure to move the yarn between the first and second stitch. This creates an easy edge for picking up stitches.

Pick up = Picking up stitches means to build a new row of loops on the edge of a piece of knitting. Usually, if you have slipped the first stitch of each row, you can create one stitch for each loop along the side. To do this, put the needle under the edge loop, wrap yarn around it, and bring it up, creating a stitch. Do this for each look. To get started, double the yarn for 2-3 inches and bring up the first look with from the loop this created, then for the first two or three stitches you pick up, use both pieces of yarn to anchor it. You can weave the rest in later.

First Square

Cast on 41 stitches.

Row 1 (wrong side): K across

Row 2 (Right side): Sl 1, K 18, K3tog, K19

Row 3: Sl 1, K across

Row 4: Sl1, K17, K3tog, K18

Row 5: Repeat row 3

Row 6: Sl1, K16, k3tog, K17

Repeat the pattern you see in rows 2-6. Slip one, knit to the center 3 stitches, knit those together and knit to the end, then Slip one and knit on the back side. Eventually you will have just 3 stitches. Knit them together and fasten off (if you are using one color, there is no need to fasten off).

Rest of First Row

Pick up 21 stitches, starting where you left off the previous square and going down, toward where the k3tog of the first square started (this will keep them all going the same direction—see illustration at the end). The last stitch will be in the corner. Cast on 20 stitches using the knitted cast-on method.

Row 1: K across

Rows 2 and forward: Same as for first square.

Repeat this square until your blanket is as wide as you want it to be.

Second and Subsequent Rows

First Square: Cast on 20 then pick up 21 sts in the loops on the top right square. Start in the corner. Repeat mitered square instructions from the first square.

Rest of row: Pick up 20 stitches down the side of the square you just finished. Pick up ONE stich in the center between the two squares you are working off. Pick up 20 more stitches across the square in the previous row. Repeat mitered square instructions.

Keep building rows of squares until the blanket is the size you want it to be.

Border

It looks nice to finish these projects with a garter stitch border. I usually pick up one stitch per loop across the top and knit in garter stitch for at least an inch in a color that coordinates with the project. Then I repeat at the bottom (you will be picking up from your cast on, but the knitted cast on makes loops it is pretty easy to pick up from. When you are finished with that, pick up across the border, the squares and the other border for each side.

Another option is to do it like a log cabin quilt and do the top, then a side, then the bottom, then the other side, picking up from each border you add as well as the squares.

Finishing

Weave in ends. If you do this neatly, the back will be nearly as pretty as the front.

This picture shows a blanket in progress. It is made with a DK weight self-striping yarn (James C. Brett Marble) in a variety of colorways, creating diagonal stripes from the squares.

Note that you don’t have to start with 41 stitches. Any odd number that works for you is fine. The idea is to slip the first stitch on each row and knit the center three stitches together on right-side rows while knitting the rest in garter stitch. By increasing or decreasing the number of stitches you start with, you will have larger or smaller squares. You can really be creative with sizes and colors of squares.

PS: I can send you a PDF of the instructions if you leave your email address in the comments. I won't publish it, so no one else will see your address!

Another Year.

2011-04-24T17:02:00.000-05:00

I've been a bit of a hermit, taking a cue from my spouse, I guess. Knitting was not bringing me pleasure, so I sorta stopped. I did a lot of singing with Funkatonic, the rock band at our UU church, and hanging out with my family, who have been very kind and patient with me. I've done a lot of internal work and feel a lot better about lots of things these days. Feels good.

I've needed the additional strength. A few weeks after a really lovely 80th birthday party, my dad was in a really awful auto accident, and passed away after two weeks in intensive care. I spent a lot of time in North Carolina, and while sitting by his side or in the waiting room, I finished a pair of socks.

I called these Farewell socks, as they kept me centered while I said farewell to Dad.

I finished the second sock during the week we spent there for his memorial and all the unpleasant business details afterward. My brother and I did really well and held up each other--ELAB and the kids were also really helpful. I got to see many of my relatives, some of whom I had not seen in many years, and that was comforting.

I got some really lovely cards and Facebook messages from knitting friends, and if you were one of them, know how much your thoughts meant to me. I have a story to share about kind knitting friends, too--maybe next post.

Since I have been back, I have wanted to work on something that doesn't tax my brain. I am still a little fuzzy. So, I decided to take all that Marble yarn I bought last year, supplemented with additional colors I got, and make another mitered square blanket.

I am just making diagonal lines with each color of yarn. These are smaller squares than the last one, and thinner yarn, so I will have more squares. When I am done with the squares (I think it will be 8x10), I should have a lot of yarn left over for thicker borders. All nice garter stitch and easy picking up of each square's foundations from previous squares.

I have also been teaching a knitting class as part of the adult classes at the UU church. I had really, really missed teaching knitting, though it has been a challenge, since all the issues with Dad took up the first 4 weeks. Maybe I will get another chance later.

Thanks for reading, if there's anyone still here. I will see if I can pick up blogging again.

Alive

2010-10-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

If there are any readers still out there, I am alive. I am just not knitting much any more. Working on the same two socks I was last time I posted, and still baffled as to how to get the shawl to move forward.

Events have just made knitting painful for me, so I am taking a break. I am enjoying my fish tank, laughing at and with Beccano and his sweet girlfriend, chaperoning for marching band, and spending time with my spouse.

Also I am singing a lot. Finally a rock star. Well, sorta.

Socking It to Me

2010-07-12T10:31:00.000-05:00

Perhaps I am getting back into the knitting a bit. I moved along on the plain pair of socks I am making and started a patterned pair--getting braver again!

I must have measured poorly on my previous socks, as I tried to write down when to start the gusset on a toe-up pair to make the sock fit just right. I ended up making the gusset at least a half to 3/4 of an inch too soon. Gee, can't I even get a basic sock right? The good news is that I now have memorized the number 6, as in six inches to starting the gusset. OK. Six. Got it. More good news is that I just made the gusset longer and the heel a bit deeper as a consequence, and by gosh, the sock fits just fine.

My incredibly white leg wearing the foot portion of a sock in Trekking XXL

I am really, really liking this colorway. It really looks like smoldering embers to me, so it fits with the Flaming Desire theme of the socks I showed last entry. I'm now working my way up the leg in a 3x1 rib, which I like because it looks more stockinette like but does hug the leg more than a plain stockinette leg does. Thus, it will sag less when I wear it, and I do plan to wear these nice, utilitarian sockies.

I guess the next pair I am working on also fits in with the theme of heat. I am using some really lovely yarn. It is Fleece Artist Somoko, which is a blend of wool, mohair and silk, in a colorway called "Sun."

Beginning of Devon sock pattern in Fleece Artist Somoko.

This sock is top-down, and comes from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book, a pattern called Devon, which has yarn-overs on every row. This will be my third pair of socks from this book. I am enjoying going through the book very much. Cookie A says that this pattern works in both solid and variegated yarns, which is why I picked this yarn. Also, it's just plain cheerful. I had almost chosen a more subtle green peppercorn skein, when the happiness of this hank called out to me. While I did once make a sock with some yellow in it, this will definitely be my first orange-yellow one. I am wearing more colors like this lately, so I think in the fall this one will actually get some use. I'll find something good for that other yarn.

I am finding it fun to limit myself to the yarn I have on hand. I have so much sock yarn that it's not exactly horrible to have to choose from what is already there. I'm trying to slowly use up all my workhorse yarns (the Opals and Trekkings and such) and intersperse them with the exotics and hand-dyed ones. This Somoko is definitely exotic. It feels very different from the Trekking in nice sturdy wool and nylon. Having a plain and a fancy sock to work on is perfect--I get lots done on the easy one while riding in the car with my son as he improves his driving, waiting for seats in restaurants, etc., and the complex one keeps my mind of the violent scenes in the Angel television series that Lee and I are now watching every single episode of, thanks to our friend Kira selling it to us.

Perhaps NEXT weekend will be the "get that shawl going again" weekend! Thanks to all who commented on the last post in person, on Facebook or by email. It's nice to hear from you.

Knitting Hiatus

2010-07-07T11:14:00.000-05:00

I have been having a hard time with knitting. Every time I knit I start missing people I'll probably not get to see again any time soon, and it saddens me. On the other hand, I am glad to have moved to a different place in my head, and enjoying more time with my family--it's been so much fun having both boys at home this summer. When I am not working, we have done a lot of fun stuff. One, I am teaching Beccano to drive (parent-led course). That leads to a lot of bonding. We are almost done, too! Two, we cleaned the heck out of my 55-gallon aquarium and are making it a much happier home for fishies. That is taking a while, but fish have lived there a whole month now without dying! And three (the big one) we re-did our kitchen! If you want to see the pictures, going from "before" to "after," go here. Here's the aquarium.

Aquarium before fish and before I put in more plants.

I have tried twice to get back on track with the shawl I am working on. I made a mistake on a transition row between patterns and just can't get the row right. I have ripped and ripped, and ripping double decreases leads to more issues. My plan, when I have a few hours to myself, is to put a marker between each repeat next time. And just stop and count EVERY repeat until I get that row right. Then I should be able to move on. But, I feel pretty incompetent to not be able to knit a perfectly straightforward pattern.

I did finish two pairs of socks since we last interacted. Here are the Flaming Desire socks and the Bruce socks that I finished.

Flaming Desire Socks in Pagewood Farm yarn.

Note that the tops differ. I like the one with more flame points, but not enough to re-knit them.

I have a picture of these on my feet, but it's on my other camera. These are Knitivity sock yarn.

Also, I have finished a pair that I hadn't even shown the start on. These are ankle socks in Panda Soy. I like the yarn a lot, though it likes to unravel itself and you have to take care to not split it. The fabric is really soft and has a wonderful feel. I look forward to wearing them next time I wear shoes that socks go with.

I need a better photo, but you get the idea. Generic toe-up socks, ankle length.

Yes, you read me right. I am not wearing socks this summer. I don't even want to LOOK at stuff I knitted. The only thing I have worn is my red cotton top that looks so nice you can't tell it was hand-made.

Don't worry. I'll be back to knitting and loving it again at some point. I've taken little breaks a couple of other times in my life. 18 years ago when I had small children, for example, I did a lot of needlepoint. Right now I am playing Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. That is totally NOT productive, and I don't recommend it.

I've started another simple pair of socks in some interesting Trekking yarn. It's a prototype of a colorway called Autumn Fire.

It is knitting up very pretty--mostly gray but with lovely spots of red and purple. I will try to show it when I have more to show.

I'd love to hear from any readers still hanging around. I have been getting a lot of spam comments, and I sure wish Blogger would block those!

Little to Say

2010-05-19T08:52:00.000-05:00

It's been hard to write anything for a couple of weeks. All I am doing on the shawl is trying to rip back three very long rows (I started a new section while chatting with friends, and mis-counted, but didn't realize it until the next pattern row). I have had very little energy to engage in that--I need really good light, so I can't do it in the evenings, either.

I have worked some on the Flaming Desire sock, so some day it may get done.

But, I have had a lot of rehearsals, meetings, and events in the evenings. Plus I am teaching the young son to drive a stick shift, which takes a while. Work is great, and I am glad I have it and my great colleagues, but it's been extra, extra busy.

I will get back to a knitting groove soon, I am sure.

Since I don't have much interesting to say about knitting, anyway, taking a break won't be a disaster. I've realized lately that I am either too controversial and irritate people, or so boring that even I don't want to read my own posts.

I will leave you with non-knitting content. Lee gave me this CD and DVD combo for a Mother's Day gift. In it, James Taylor and Carole King perform live songs from their 1971 albums, which happen to be the first two albums I ever owned. The original back-up musicians even appear with them! If you want to know what was good about 1970s music, check into this!

So. How's That Shawl Going?

2010-05-02T20:31:00.000-05:00

Well, blog-reading friends, I've let you down this week, but I worked so much this week that there was no time for luxuries like typing about knitting, and few minutes for actual knitting. I am really loving my job now that I have lots of work and really fun challenges, but sometimes it WILL cut into those hobbies!

But look here! I actually have been working on the Vernal Equinox whenever I have a few minutes. I've spent some really pleasant time sitting on our front porch, watching the birds and seeing what new colors will come up in the Jojoland Melody yarn. So, here is where I am:

Vernal Equinox in Progress

It sort of looks like one of those candy citrus slices, doesn't it? It's too big to stretch out completely, even on the really long circular needle, but you can get the idea. I am halfway through Clue 5 at this point. I've been through two purples and am in the second green section, but I do hope some blue shows up in that skein, somewhere!

I tried to stretch it out a bit and get a close-up so you can see the pattern a little better, but really, like most lace shawls, it won't be spectacular until it gets blocked.

A Little Closer View

I have been truly enjoying knitting this shawl. I like the yarn a lot better than I thought I would, and I am finding the clear acrylic Knitpicks needles make laceweight easier to manipulate, at least for me. I am not struggling with the double decreases as much as I did on the Aeolian or the red one that died. The plastic grabs just enough that I can pull on it and get the needles securely through two stitches without dropping any. OK, I have dropped one stitch so far. Not bad.

I also started a crochet project, my next charity blanket. Here is one of the squares:


Crochet Motif

The photo is rather washed out, since I took it with the Blackberry, but you can see it looks like a little flower in a square. I am using that bunch of Marble yarn in different colors to make the motifs, which I will edge in black single crochet when I am done. The James C. Brett Marble yarn is nice to work with, especially considering it's 100% acrylic. I can see why so many people I know have used the chunky version for sweaters.

The pattern for the crochet motif came from the book Under Cover: 60 Afghans to Knit and Crochet, which has no author--it's one of those Sixth and Spring collections. The pattern is called Harlequin Diamonds. I got it at Half Price Books, so look for it in used book stores. Well, look! You can get it from Amazon.com after all. There are more than a couple of reasonable and interesting afghan patterns in this book. A lot of them you just have to use your imagination and picture them in nicer yarns and more subtle colors. I'm good at that--I am also good at imagining houses without the weird decorating choices the current owners made, too.

That's about all the knitting (and crocheting) news I have right now. Because I am trying to teach my son to drive (manual transmission, so it's slow), I was thinking I wouldn't get back to my Monday knitting friends for a while, but, assuming it starts up again soon, I will be able to start coming again, because I will be able to do it on Wednesday. Of course, that means no Wednesday knitting. I am going to have to resign myself to fewer fun knitting nights than I used to have if my work continues to be so busy, but I can still read blogs and people's Facebook updates, which helps. I don't want to become a hermit.

Once again, thanks for all the comments on my comment-reply post. Please ask questions, because answering them gives me some fun fodder for blogging.

Here.

2010-04-28T15:54:00.000-05:00

Quick note! I am here, and have been knitting as much as I can, but it's been an intensive week at work, so no blogging time in the evenings. I am into Clue 5 on my Vernal Equinox shawl though, and its beauty cheers me up when I do get a chance to relax. I'll have a photo of it and a crochet project, I hope tomorrow?? We'll see.

Thanks for all the comments on the previous blog post. If you haven't read them, you will find them educational, so perhaps you might want to check out the comments. That might make up for me not being able to write!

Responding to Comments

2010-04-22T09:35:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while a blogger needs to respond to comments. Today's the day for me! At some point recently, someone asked me a question and I said I'd answer it in a later blog post, but now I can't find the darned comment. If you asked me something and I said I'd answer it later, but I didn't, remind me. Sigh. Poor old brain.

But the last bunch of comments I read made me want to expand. First, I had to chuckle a bit when John-Francis pointed out that the Aeolean shawl was NOT restful. It was extra not-restful for him, and I totally gave up on the nupps, myself. But I did love touching that alpaca yarn, and I certainly had a feeling of accomplishment when it was through! There's definitely some knitting that is more relaxing than other knitting. So, that point is well taken. I do like it that now I find SOME lace knitting relaxing. Why? I have to think just enough that the pattern distracts me from whatever busy-ness is going on in my mind. That is a good thing sometimes. No doubt we all have times when the voices in our heads are overly persistent. "Do this, do that, pay this, budget for that, plan for this..."

Since I have no illustration today, here's a gratuitous photo of my Aeolian.

Johanna agreed with me that perhaps one reason so many people have taken up knitting in recent times is its relaxing nature. I also think the social aspect has a lot to do with it. Knitting is a positive, healthy and relatively non-controversial hobby that can be shared with many different ages and persuasions of people. It helps you see that you have things in common with such a wide variety of people. anything that brings others together in these times of divisiveness is a fine thing in my book.

And Cindy wondered if people tend to stick with the craft they learned first. I had to really think back to remember whether I learned to knit or crochet first. I know I crocheted more when I was a child and teen, but you know what? I did learn to knit before I learned to crochet. I think my mother taught me to knit, using her rudimentary skills, to shut me up one day. I am positive my grandmother taught me to crochet not long after. My love of multicolored items made crocheting those granny squares so much more enticing than the boring expanses of one-color knitting, in my Child Suna mind.

But wait, before any of those things I learned to embroider. For years my first crewel project hung in the family kitchen. I wish that hadn't gotten lost. I think I did a cross stitch (stamped) when I was in first grade. Wow, I just HAD to keep my hands busy as a child. But I really don't embroider any more. I stopped when I first needed glasses, I think (late 20s).

So, y'all--do you go back to your first love in crafts? Is it like comfort food, only with fiber? If you quilted first, is that your favorite thing to do when stressed or in need of relaxation?

Also, Kerry--can you send me a Ravelry link to your shawl in the Melody so I can look at it?

Thanks, commentators, for getting me thinking.

Vernal Equinox Progress

2010-04-21T12:13:00.010-05:00

I thought you might like to see a glimpse of how the Vernal Equinox Surprise shawl is coming along. As of last night I was in the middle of Clue 3. I think it's very pretty, and am doing OK on it! On Monday I even managed to knit six rows in the middle of a knitting group. Amazing power of concentration, huh.

Vernal Equinox Surprise in Progress

I think the way the Jojoland Melody yarn slowly transitions from color to color is quite graceful. I had worried it wouldn't show up well in laceweight, but I think it does. Sorry about the garish red pillow background, but the tan part doesn't show up well against the new couch. The old denim one made such a nice background, but hurt my back!

Knitting a shawl is so comforting, so relaxing, so pleasant. Such a nice contrast to the local, national and international news. No wonder so many people have taken up knitting the past few years! Glad I have my yarn stockpile.

Making Something with Homespun

2010-04-20T20:55:00.000-05:00

I haven't shared this pretty yarn yet, and I should have. My friend Deana has recently begun spinning, a lot, and is getting better and better at it. I love watching her feet and hands working to make genuine yarn out of globs of fiber. This stuff was the February colorway, I think, at Yarnorama, plus some really pretty rust colored roving that I don't know where she got it. After she spun it she gave it to me, since it's more "my colors."

Yarnorama Fleece and Rust-Colored Fleece Spun by Deana

Two skeins are the two yarns plied together, and one single-ply one is the plain rust yarn while the other is the Yarnorama colorway. I have no idea if this makes any sense. I am not good at talking about handspun stuff.

Deana and I have both been pondering what to do with this yarn once I set it (it's been sitting in the bathroom waiting for me to do that--it's plied, at least the two skeins with both colors in them--but it needs to be "set"). Well, today I think I found my answer!

Good ole Brooklyn Tweed has come up with another simple but useful pattern and I think it would look nice in the handspun. It's Jared Flood's new Romney Kerchief pattern. This is a very simple triangle shawlette with just rows of purl interrupting stockinette to create the patterning. It's nice because I can make the thing as big as your limited yarn will let you make it.

I love it when I need inspiration and it shows up like that!

Ordered Something

2010-04-19T14:20:00.001-05:00

I've actually made good progress on the Vernal Equinox Surprise shawl. Of course, they go faster in the beginning when there are fewer stitches per row! But, I've gotten through the large number of double decreases in Clues 1 and 2, and am now in the pretty pattern that makes up Clue 3.

Honestly, I thought I would never get out of the "tan" section of the yarn, which is what came up first. It completely matches my couch, too, so I will need to find another surface to take an in-progress photo on. But, now it's turning purple and quite lovely.

I am glad I am using the KnitPicks clear plastic needles due to their excellently sharp points, but the see-through aspect can make grabbing the right bits for decreasing a little challenging. It's OK--I am having fun and that's what counts.

Also fun is the fact that I finally got around to redeeming a gift certificate I got from my choir director to thank me for a donation I'd made to the music program (my old laptop). She'd consulted the other knitter in the choir (who, sadly, no longer reads blogs or does Facebook, just posts to some group on Ravelry, so she won't read how thankful I am) and got the suggestion to give a certificate to The Unique Sheep site. That's interesting, because I had never bought any of their yarn before, but had been reading about their really cool stuff and wanted to check them out! How fortuitous!

Pewter Earth Colorway, from the Unique Sheep Website.

I ordered two colorways of their Gradiance collection, in sock weight. The laceweights looked more fun, because you get more colors, but, like I have mentioned, I really don't need more shawls. I got the Pewter Earth (seen above) and Hurricane Meadow colorways. (See all the colors here, and let the drooling begin.) For the yarn bases, I got one in their yarn with bamboo (Sushi Socks) and one in their yarn with tencel (Tinsel Toes) in it, just because I wanted to try some new base yarns.

These yarns are certainly something to look forward to and I am having fun thinking of socks to make using these colors. No doubt they will be sort of plain! I will want to let the colors shine.

This will have to do as blog fodder until I can get a photo of the shawl. Work is hard so there isn't much time to make things to show you!

PS (added April 20): I got an email from my blogging friend Dragonfly, who let me know that the photo above, from the Unique Sheep website, is actually a photo she took of her own yarn that she used to make the Evenstar shawl. Apparently their original sample's colors weren't really true. Now, how about that for a small world? I borrow a picture, and it's really my online friend's picture! I love the Internet. And am impressed that out of all those colorways, she and I chose the same one.

Started Something!

2010-04-17T17:56:00.000-05:00

It was a busy week for me with not much knitting time, but I did make some progress on the Flaming Desire sock. I am approaching the heel now.

But today my friend Carolyn came by to pick out yarn and a pattern for her special birthday gift. I told her I'd like to make her a shawl, since I make myself so many that I really don't need another one. We had fun looking at all my laceweight yarn and looking at some online, too.

She eventually picked out this yarn:

Jojoland Harmony, Colorway 06, Rainbow

I am happy to work with this yarn at last! Maybe my bad luck with laceweight will change, too. I am trying out using US size 4 needles, which are bigger than I used on my last couple of laceweight projects. We'll see if I like it slightly more airy.

Once we picked the yarn, we decided to go on Ravelry and see what shawls other people had made with it. That was a great way to choose. You could easily see which patterns were messed up by the yarn's color changes and which were enhanced by it. I ruled out a couple of patterns, like Icarus and Swallowtail, because I just didn't want to do them again. Once was plenty, thanks. So, we settled on the Vernal Equinox Surprise pattern that was a popular knit-along last year. I remembered that a couple of people in my old knitting group had made it. I still see one of them, so I hope if I have an issue, Nancy will help me out! Hers was really pretty. It's a half-circle shawl with a lot of pattern changes, like most patterns that come out in "clues."

I hope I can handle it and that Carolyn will like it. It is good that I have two balls of the yarn, so I won't worry about running out! I started and think it looks good, though of course the first color in the skein was the least interesting one, tan. Hoping it gets more lively soon!

Sock It Again!

2010-04-11T15:23:00.000-05:00

Well, with that shawl out of the way (and THANK you for all the public and private comments on Litla Dimun--it's already my work-horse shawl and was perfect for a damp day today), I am trucking along on socks, waiting for a friend to pick a pattern for me to knit her a shawl.

Here is the first finished Flaming Desire sock:

Note the "interesting" crenelated top. For some reason, I did not cast on loosely enough, and it was trying to eat my calf, even though it's a smaller calf than it was a few months ago! So, I spent a couple of hours tediously un-doing the cast=on last night, and today I re-did it as a crenelated cast off. I figure it gives the effect of smoke from the flames of the pattern. Sure it does, yeah.

This is not the greatest photo, but I only have a few minutes between things to do, so my Blackberry came to my rescue once again. Wait until I get a photo of it on my foot or feet when the second one is done. MMM. The flame effect looks best from the front or back.

I'm really happy with the pattern. I even now like my weird heel effect. That's good, since I have to do the second one just like this one! With two pairs of socks, each with one complete, I vow to get something to finished object status this week. We'll see how that goes--lots going on in my non-knitting life, ya know!

Since I only had one sock picture, here's another nice flower. This is an ornamental cabbage blooming in a barrel filled with dianthus. I guess the cabbage will have to go in a week or two, but it certainly produced a grand finale!

A Simple Sock

2010-04-09T12:00:00.031-05:00

My sister asked me for black-and-white socks, so I looked around my stash and found some yarn I think fits the bill. I probably last shared a photo of this project, which I named Bruce, because I worked on it watching a Bruce Springsteen concert on TV, in December. I carried it around for a long time to work on when I needed something that didn't require a chart (like waiting in airports), but it went slowly. Then I took it off the needles because I needed a size 0 for some other project...that really slows a sock down. But, I did manage to finish the first of this pair last week.

This is my office, so you can deduce that I finished it while waiting for some software to crunch (I had a big project that had to churn away for a half hour). The yarn is from Knitivity as are many of my sock projects, and according to the label it was made in October 2008. I think it may be another one-off that didn't do what it was supposed to do for a named colorway, but I thought it looked cool. I like how it stripes.

The photo above was supposed to show how there is one rib that travels across the sock, but mostly you see a sideways Polycom phone and some fake flowers. Unfortunately, my little design element was so subtle that it didn't hardly show up at all! Because of that, sock #2 is going to just be a 2x2 rib standard toe-up sock. No bells and whistles. That's fine. They will be sturdy, comfy, and quite neutral for my sister's wardrobe that is also quite neutral.

I hope it will be fewer than four months before I show you the finished second sock. I'd sorta like to be done with this by her July birthday! (I could finish in a couple of days if I wasn't distracted by the more exciting orange socks!)

Last Litla Dimun Post!

2010-04-08T12:27:00.000-05:00

I got the menfolk to go outside and take photos of me in the Litla Dimun shawl last night, so I can finally show what it looks like as a shawl. After hearing that it looked like a pair of underwear, and worse, a diaper from the blocking photos, I figured I better post this...post-haste!

I really think it looks nice. Sturdy, yet floaty! Here's the back.

And just for fun, here is a close-up of the pattern. You can see how the garter stitch looks quite delicate after blocking, yet it's still plenty warm. I wish I'd brought it to work today, as we have a little chill in the air.

It was a beautiful early evening yesterday, and perfect weather for spinning around in your new shawl! Farewell, Litla Dimun--Suna will stop obsessively posting about you now!

Some of our flowers look particularly lovely while we were in the garden with the camera, so I will leave you with our Creme Brulee petunia and the new yellow wildflower that just opened.

That was nice, wasn't it? What interesting colors they now have in annuals. This next one is a perennial we planted last year, but this is its first bloom.

A sock will show up tomorrow. And maybe more flowers. I have been taking a LOT of flower photos, and so has Lee!

Blocking Litla Dimun Shawl

2010-04-06T21:22:00.000-05:00

Well, Litla Dimun is all finished, and I wore it to my knitting group yesterday, but I still don't have a photo of me wearing it. Dawn took some, but I am trying to be patient waiting to receive copies! To let you get an idea of how much nicer it looks blocked, here are a couple of blocking photos.

It has ended up very light and delicate, and looks much more like an actual shawl than it did while I was working on it.

I was touched when my friend Aggie said that the finished product was one of her favorite shawls...ever. It may not be spectacularly lacy or bead encrusted, but it is elegant and will be very warm.

I used some hair conditioner on it, and it does feel a bit softer, too. I promise to show you what it looks like ON someone soon.

Next I'll show you a finished sock. I finally finished one of the plain black-and-white socks I started for my sister in December. I'd take its needles off, which made it hard to work on for a while. Tomorrow or Thursday I'll show it to you. I had to work on it yesterday, because I'd left the Flaming Desire pattern at home when I went to Georgetown to knit. Sigh. I also tried to spin with my overly fancy drop spindle. I have some rather thick yarn. It is not worth showing off, for sure. I don't think spinning is going to be my thing.

Luckily I have some nice hand-spun yarn to play with soon, since Deana gave me some in a colorway she knows I liked better than she did. When I finish setting it, I will show you that, too. Wow, a lot of teasers. It's the best I can do after two long days of recording training materials. I am glad to work, but it does take away my way with words.

Odd Heel Flap Pattern and Some New Yarn

2010-04-04T11:16:00.001-05:00

http://Yesterday I said I'd share some new yarn I've gotten in the past week or so, and I will, but first I thought I'd share what I have been doing on my Flaming Desire socks. Here is a phone photo of the first completed leg, on my arm in a Starbucks where I was waiting for someone who never appeared.

Flaming Desire, by Anne Hanson at Knitspot.

I sure think the pattern is pretty. And I do think it looks like flames. I have discovered that my usually stretchy-enough cast-on is a bit tight. To remedy that, I am considering un-doing the cast-on and putting stitches back on the needles, then doing a more stretchy bind-off. I might do the crenelated one that puts the fun large picots on, like smoke rising from the flames. I would welcome any other suggestions for a fun top to the sock. No one ever sees the tops of my socks anyway, so goofy seems like it would be OK.

When I got to the heel flap, Anne Hanson had recommended doing a version where the slipped stitches are on the wrong side of the heel. I felt creative, so decided to slip the stitches with the yarn in the back, which puts a horizontal bar across the right side. I was hoping it would make an interesting texture. Here's a slightly blurred image of what it looks like:

Tweedy Heel Flap

I find it a nice, tweedy effect and oddly different. I am sure a sock knitter who looks at them will say, "Hey, what's going on with your heel?" I am not thinking any of them would say, "Ooh, I will try this on my next sock," since it isn't that attractive, in my humble opinion. I don't know if I'd do it on a lot of other pairs of socks, but at least it's a change from the more usual heel flap choices (I do like flapped heels--slip stitch heels I can just never get to look the same on each side and that bugs me).

And Now for the New Yarn

I got what I think is the last shipment from the Intention Yarns club I was in. Two shipments were combined into one, and as usual, the instructions for what to do with them have not arrived in my email, so I have no clue what I am supposed to do with the roving they sent or the 200 yards of worsted weight yarn. I didn't take a picture of the roving, which I believe you are supposed to make felted prayer beads out of, but it is lovely, and I think I will try to use my drop spindle to make some yarn from it, with the help of Deana or Dawn or Suzanne. Or anyone willing to help for that matter.

Here's the worsted weight yarn. It is called "Friendship," and is 50% alpaca, 30% merino and 20% silk. It feels heavenly, as you would predict, and really is a lovely, ethereal semi solid silver. I am thinking it wants to be fingerless mitts or a cabled hat. I saw a hat that my friend Ray designed that might be good in a lovely soft yarn (the Double Entendre hat on this page). But, I really need a hat with ear coverings...realizing most of them are not pretty--maybe a nice color would mitigate that.

I also got two new sock yarn colors from Knitivity. I ordered them so fast that I got the prototypes--go me. It's nice to be able to order new yarn again, though I am knitting so slowly these days that I have to slow down the acquisition! The first yarn I got is called "Equinox" and was based on a photo of a sunset. I also think it looks a bit like flames.

The second color is something I'm surprised he hadn't done before, being a Texas dyer, "Bluebonnets." I do already have a sock yarn in a bluebonnet colorway, but this one has more shadings of blue and green, and less white, so it looks more like actual bluebonnets (which, by the way, are incredibly beautiful this year in central Texas after the wet winter).

Both of these are in Ray's sturdy superwash wool/nylon yarn base that I think will make perfect basic socks to WEAR and not dwell on a fancy pattern with. Sigh, that reminds me I need to finish the other pair of socks I am working on, for my sister. They are in Knitivity yarn in a simple pattern. I think I'll finish the orange ones and crank those others out, too. What a good knitting citizen I am.

[Additional note: I did not know this at the time I was writing this blog post, but if you head off and buy something at Knitivity, and mention my name, I will get a discount on a future purchase. Of course, if you heard about them from someone else, mention them, and they will get a discount! Discounts are good.]

I'm off to block Litla Dimun, so perhaps the next post will have a real FO photo of that project.

A Lumpy Finished Object

2010-04-03T11:33:00.000-05:00

I took the Litla Dimun to a women's group meeting on Thursday and suddenly, I was finished with it! It really did go faster and faster toward the end there. Here's a picture of it in its unblocked, lumpen state:

Litla Dimun Shawl in Undyed American Shetland Wool.

After seeing how big it came out and looking at my picture, I decided that, even though I have enough yarn left over to do it, I am not going to add a border. I think the elegant simplicity of the borders and gusset lace is just enough. It is also going to be a great size to keep in the office to wear when the air conditioning has gone crazy on me.

I can't block this until tomorrow, since we may have overnight guests who will want to use the blocking surface...er...guest bed. That's OK, it will give me something else to blog about, right?

Tomorrow I will have some new yarn to show you. Blogger's photo uploader doesn't like me again, so I am not going to try to deal with the photos today!

I am happily back knitting on my Flaming Desire socks. I am enjoying how nice and big the chart is, and how quickly rows go. It's nice to get back to socks. I have so many socks I want to knit, especially one based on those Russian mitten patterns--I better get a move on! Plus, I am going to make a friend a special birthday shawl. OOOOOH, that will be fun.

Have a fun weekend, and enjoy your holiday if you are celebrating one of them this weekend!

A Review of Folk Shawls

2010-03-29T21:47:00.000-05:00

I did get a lot of knitting done over the weekend, but didn't manage to finish the Litla Dimun shawl. Since it was cast on at its longest point and is getting shorter and shorter as I go on, it feels like I was moving really fast! It was especially nice when I hit the two rows that decreased 16 stitches each, rather than just 4. I get the impression I'll actually finish that project in my lifetime!

Since I didn't finish the shawl over the weekend and since the bookstore didn't have Wendy Johnson's new book, like I'd hoped, I thought I could at least talk about the book I got the pattern from. I have had the Folk Shawls book, by Cheryl Oberle, quite a long time (it was published in 2000), but hadn't made anything from it until this project. That doesn't mean the book hasn't been used. I have read through it many times, dreaming about making one or more of the patterns, or thinking of ways to use ideas from them. The patterns are so clearly written that you can easily envision yourself working on them.

One reason I read it so many times is that there are examples of shawls from such a variety of traditions. Not only are there the expected British Isles, Ireland, Scandinavia, etc., represented, but there are Japanese, Spanish and even the Americas. I like some better than others, but the explanations of the traditions and techniques involved are all fascinating. The book makes a great introduction to techniques from around the world, and give you an idea of what you might like a lot, so you can head out and find more patterns in your favorite tradition.

That is one reason I chose a pattern from the Faroe Islands (which happens to be the first tradition focused on in Folk Shawls). I had read the patterns here and went out and made some Faroe style shawls in the past. I kept coming back to the Litla Dimun and Stora Dimun patterns, because they seemed more authentic (others I made are the modern versions that start on the small end and build, while these patterns are bottom up and have shoulder shaping).

If you don't have this book already, it's one I'd recommend adding to your library while it's still in print. Some of the shawls are huge masterpieces, but there are also some (which I give Ravelry links to so you can check them out), such as the Simple Garter Stitch Prairie Shawl and the Wool Peddler's Shawl (which many people I know have made), that are good introductions to knitting shawls or knitting lace.

By the way, the mittens blocked nicely and came out very soft. I look forward to wearing them.

I didn't get to go knit with friends this evening, due to my son having a band event (sometimes you have to do the ole family stuff), but I got my knitting need met by looking through this treasured book once again!

Wet Suna Mitts

2010-03-26T16:09:00.000-05:00

Well, hooray. I did finally finish the ethnic mittens. I don't know why it seems like it took so long--I only took three weeks, in the end. I think the fact that the two-handed knitting goes more slowly than regular knitting in the round just got to me. I always had to drop the yarn to wrap whenever there was a 5-stitch gap, and then make sure I didn't get the yarn twisted, so it seemed to go slowly. But, here they are. They are wet, because the instructions said to block them, which should explain the intense color.

Actually. Charlene Schurch says to block them inside out. I think that is to be sure the floats are well stretched out. So, here is what they actually look like right now:

They really don't look too bad on the inside. I find the ribbing is especially nice to look at inside out. I will give you a picture of the actual dried mittens on a hand once they are ready, but I had wanted to share their completed glory.

To summarize, these are sock pattern 21 from this book:
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The yarn is Ella Rae laceweight, which I got at Yarnorama. They have (or had last time I was there) a really nice assortment of this yarn. I made the large size, since the yarn is so fine. I am glad, because you get more pattern in the large size!

I do think that I would have had a more successful finished product if I had chosen more contrast. I really need to pay attention to that--perhaps I need to go buy one of those red lenses to look at yarn through, to make sure I have enough contrast. I had the same problem when I used to make quilts, too. I guess we all have our areas for growth, don't we?

I think when I finish the current socks, I may make a pair of socks using one of these patterns--since they are 64 and 72 stitches around, the mittens should easily translate into socks, don't you think? That's another reason to buy the book, even if you don't like mittens--the patterns are really striking and fun. Of course, I can always try more mittens. I guess, even in Texas, I could use a couple of pairs of mittens!

I am looking forward to working on my shawl and other socks for a bit, but still have the Anna Zilboorg book, with all the top-down mittens (and socks). But, hey, isn't it true that there are so, so many more patterns out there that we'd like to make than there is time to knit. Even during 5 weeks of no work, I didn't get very much knitting done--life does get in the way.

Happy knitting, every one.

Fond Farewell, and Welcome!

2010-03-25T18:06:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the bittersweet experience of attending a very nice farewell gathering for our friend Jen, who is moving to Michigan, as I have mentioned earlier. It was nice to see so many of her knitting friends at the very accommodating La Madeleine restaurant (the one near the outlet mall, locals--go there, they are nice!).

Everyone had fun catching up on projects and purchases, plus the restaurant was nice enough to let us serve a cake from outside the premises, so we got to have a farewell treat.

Dawn supervises the cake cutting. Jennifer did a good job.

Poor Jennifer hurt her knee in an accident too embarrassing to chronicle here, which will make moving a bit of a challenge. We can only hope that the fun collection of farewell presents and cards will make things a little easier for her.

Gifties, plus roses, a shawl in progress, and a foot.

So, perhaps not my best photographic effort. I'd put up more pictures, but Blogger's image uploader is not working right for me (they are working on it), so this will have to give you an idea.

It is so good that we have blogs, Facebook, email, etc., to keep in touch when people move away. It makes it feel less final. We can still share stories, finished object photos and questions about yarns. For all the ups and downs, it is great to have knitting friends, both near and far!

A lady in the restaurant came up and asked if people were knitting at the restaurant every week, and the attendees said yes, and invited her back. Isn't that the best, that there are always new people to see and get to know? I've learned something from everyone I have encountered in the knitting adventure world, that's for sure. So, welcome to the new lady--I hope she is there some week when I can come (sadly, it's too far for me to make it every week, due to having to rush off to choir practice many miles away). [I resisted an urge to make a joke for Pilar, so Pilar, imagine a joke here.]

I'd also like to welcome the 50th person to "follow" the blog on Blogger. I think it's a nice gesture of support to "follow" a blog you read, even if you don't read it on the Blogger interface. It lets the author know you're there (sometimes you fell all alone in the "blogosphere"). So hi there to JM, the newest follower! I admit that I read a lot of blogs, but I know there are so many others out there. Thanks to all of you who read and all of you who write--it's a good thing about the world that we can share our thoughts with others and get insight from what's going on with people we may never meet in person.

Well, my work starts back up tomorrow, so I had better finish that mitten. I just have to finish the top and do the thumb. Maybe tonight is its final night on the needles.

Yes! Suna Mitts!

2010-03-23T12:45:00.000-05:00

No, I didn't finish them, but I just thought the post title was funny. I did get a lot of mitten done yesterday. If I wasn't so fond of throwing balls to cute dogs I'd have gotten more done yesterday over at Dawn's, but I enjoy her cute doggies. It's always good to relax with friends and knit, and it's always fun to watch the spinners spinning. I am grateful for the space and time to knit.

But, anyway, to prove I am working along, here's the second mitten's progress:

Progress on Second Ethnic Mitten

I'm to the point where I really am ready to do something else, so I'm going to hunker down and try to get this project done in the next couple of days. I am sure you'd like to read about another project!

Tomorrow is the farewell gathering for our long-time knitting friend Jen. I will miss having her around, but am glad she has her blog, so I can keep up with her! I have what I hope is a good farewell gift for her. I wish I was as great at making cards as she is, but I can at least write something nice, right?

I'm looking forward to doing some knitting fun over the weekend--I'll finally hand over the Linus Blankie and maybe help some of the other ladies get started on knitting their own projects. I'd like to show them the pattern for the Nana's afghan that I fixed up for someone in 2008. It's easy and can be either solids or stripes. They seem sort of excited about it. I'd actually hoped to go on a retreat this weekend, but it got canceled. At least I have good backup plans!It's always good to have a Plan B. I am learning that a lot, lately.

An Old Project Revealed

2010-03-22T10:27:00.000-05:00

Finally, the Spring/Summer 2010 Knitty is out, so I can talk more about the socks I made last September. I talk about my friend Jodie, who designs lots of patterns and knitted a giant shawl last week, often, and I showed you some close-ups of this pattern when I was working on it, but because we had to wait until it was published, I could not show you my versions of the Twisted socks Jodie designed. Here are some pictures of the pair I test knitted:

My GOOD Twisted Sock.

As you may recall, I used the Knitivity sock yarn in the Koi colorway that I asked Ray to design for me.

The sock I messed up on, but from its good side

I love these socks, even though I messed up reading the instructions on the first pair. I kept that sock, because, hey, it shows that I helped with my suggestions to Jodie and the instructions are way better now (actually, she did a LOT of changing after I knitted my trial pair. Any good author revises a lot!

The colors are great, and the slipped stitches really work well on a brightly colored yarn like this. The pattern construction is a LOT of fun, so I highly recommend you sock knitters give this one a try. It's worth the effort to get the feed perfect!

Congratulations to Jodie for being persistent and continuing to submit patterns until she got one in! And many hopes for more publications. Don't you agree that supporting our friends is important? If you have a friend who has done something newsworthy, tell someone. It feels good.

I have to go concentrate on the other kinds of work I do for a bit, but I'll be back later! I got up past putting the thumb stitches on a holder on the second mitten yesterday, so who knows, I might actually get to finish my shawl soon.

More Grannies and a Fresh Look

2010-03-19T11:00:00.001-05:00

I know a lot of people read my blog posts on Facebook, so they don't see the actual blog. But I look at it fairly often. I'd realized that my personal blog's template had not changed since 2005, so I looked around the new Blogger template customization tool and found something very cheery for it. That made me feel like this blog had grown stale. I like the logo my husband made for me (those are my knitting hands!), but I wanted to make it less wide and have a bit of my personality in it.

So, I found a picture with pansies in it, which made me happy, because they are my favorite flower and I collect things with pansies on them--that was just ME (admittedly, I wish I could use one of my own pansy photos for the background, but I'll live). I messed around with templates until I found something with my colors that was actually legible (a couple possibilities got the Lee vote of disapproval for readability). I also added a feature, which is a list of my favorite blogs. It shows the ten most recently updated faves, though I may cut it down to 5 if I decide that makes the sidebar too long.

Enough with Blogger Talk...

I did want to share with you a photo of the granny squares I am working on now, since I realize I only showed you the 43-year-old afghan yesterday. Anyway, here are some of the ones I am doing in my spare time, in the colors of the mitered square afghan. I will edge each in some as-yet-undetermined solid color before putting them together.

Yesterday I enjoyed a break from knitting by reading the spring 2010 Internet Crochet. There were a couple of cardigans I'd actually consider knitting, but this one project, Forest Petals Shawl, really impressed me. I don't know if I would wear it, but I sure think it looks cool!

The photos in the magazine really show you how the Lorna's Laces yarn enhances the holey pattern, or click the link to see more. I like this magazine a lot--there were also a couple of nice afghan patterns that look fun. I don't feel like I'm being unfaithful to my knitting because I also like crochet (see Jen's post on that topic--look at all those grannies!). I know where my big loyalty lies. Speaking of which, it's back to the mittens!

Hidden Project

2010-03-18T13:08:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note: I was working on mitten #2 (the cuff is done!), I realized that I hadn't put one of my projects on Ravelry, and barely talked about it here.

Why should I be ashamed that I am working on a granny square afghan? It's a charity project, after all, and it's using up the leftovers from the mitered square afghan. Some needy child will love its cheerful colors! I work on it when I don't have anything mindless and portable to take with me, so mainly it's been worked on in choir. I am just making squares until I run out of each color. Who knows how many little afghans I will actually end up with!

Sure, lots of people make fun of the humble granny square. After all, it's the first thing many people learn to crochet. Wait, first thing, did you say? Take a gander at this! Yes, it's true. I still own the first thing I ever crocheted (it's wool, which may explain why it hasn't disintegrated much). I was just a little kid, and my grandmother taught me how to make it. (This is one of two, count 'em, two really nice things I remember her doing for me--she was an interesting woman, but when she didn't like you, you could tell.)

My first completed project, circa 1965.

I talk about this project often when I get the chance to teach someone to knit or crochet. You can literally see my progress in the squares. The first few are rather large and floppy, but they get smaller and more even as I get the hang of what I am doing. Only a 9-year-old would have the confidence to go ahead and sew them all together, even though the squares aren't the same size! But Child Suna was right--there's no need to be ashamed of your "learning projects." It's good to save evidence of where you were, so you can be gauge where you ARE later. I am really glad I saved this.

Notice that the center square is much larger than the ones to its left and right!

I wish I'd saved my first piece of knitting. My mom had taught me the year before I learned to crochet. I made a sky blue blanket for a fashion doll. I distinctly remember that it had a hole in it, and that it got either bigger or smaller. But, the doll didn't care. For a few years, all I knew how to do was knit garter stitch, but I got one of those green "learn to knit" books and figured out purling, decreasing, etc., and was off and running in my teens.

But back to my crochet project. Really, what's wrong with some "comfort crochet" every so often? My friend Jen has been going crazy with granny squares lately, and it's been fun to see her joy in the combinations of colors she gets, and how quickly the projects work up. I remember that feeling so well from when I was young, making dozens of tote bags, pillows and blankets for everyone I knew.

I have to say that I, too, am looking forward to completing all the squares and seeing how I can arrange them in interesting ways. If I end up with enough for multiple child-sized blankets, I can even edge them in different colors and get a really different feel! So, whee! It will take a while, but eventually, I'll have something fun to play with, with no shame at all!

One Very Nice Mitten

2010-03-17T10:12:00.000-05:00

First, thank you for all the nice comments on Jodie's immense shawl! MMario is indeed, as John-Francis pointed out, a dude who knits, and we should support them whenever possible. And I do, believe me--I read plenty o' men's blogs from the "famous" ones like Brooklyn Tweed and Franklin Habit (who I even met once) to people I consider personal friends like Colin Andersson and Ray Whiting. I guess I should write a post about my favorite knitting dudes and their products and projects some time!

But wait, I was gonna blog about this:

The first of my Orange Ethnic Mittens is done. It took longer than I expected, because I keep doing other things, like tarot bags and cooking for the family (I am sure you will be jealous of the delicious organic liver and onions, baked sweet potatoes and steamed cauliflower we had last night--weird combo but good). But I digress, again...

The pattern is lots of fun to make, and I have a feeling these mittens will be like Cookie A socks for me--once you make one, you want to make the rest of the patterns in the book! I keep thinking of different color combinations and trying to decide which of the patterns I like the best. Then I thought of making matching socks. I should have enough yarn left over to make socks. But, before that, perhaps I should finish the other mitten, huh? Stop with the incessant blogging and go knit!

But wait, I did want to give a hint for anyone who wants to knit patterns from Mostly Mittens, by Charlene Schurch. On her charts, decreases are shown by the pattern rows getting smaller. I had a bit of trouble remembering where to decrease, so I drew symbols for SSK and K2tog on the edge stitches, where the decreases go, to remind me what to do. The other hint I have is to not forget to go back to the general guidelines for each section of the mitten when you start doing something different--there are useful guidelines in there! But don't worry, other than mis-counting every so often, I didn't find this pattern difficult at all. I encourage you to give these a try--they make great gifts if you live in Texas (I plan to wear mine at high school football games--I have needed some for the last 5 years--my gloves get chilly).

If you are so inclined, please think of me today, as I have a first interview for a REAL job, and those are very, very rare for technical writers/instructional designers in Austin. Having work to do will cut me back to my more normal blogging schedule again, but I promise to not do a big drought like I went through early in the year.

PS: I added the tarot bag to Ravelry, so if you make one, please link to this!

Could You Knit 2.7 Miles of Laceweight?

2010-03-16T10:31:00.001-05:00

Since I am waiting until my mitten is finished to share a photo of it (it's almost done!), I've decided to highlight someone else's masterpiece today.

My good friend Jodie in Ohio, for whom I have done some test knitting (you will spot her socks in the Knitty issue that comes out any day now), just finished some test knitting of her own, and whoa, that's some test knitting--2.7 miles of yarn (she counted: 4725 yards, 2.7 miles, and 4.3 km). Here's Arctic Tundra (blocking)!

Here are some words straight from her:

"Feel free to share on your blog. The designer is MMario on Ravelry. Amazingly talented designer and it was an absolute pleasure doing this test knit for him. The design is called Arctic Tundra and can be found at his yahoo groups "patterns in progress" page. I first heard about Mmario through your friend John-Francis."

Pretty amazing when your friends from different parts of your life interact after having encountered each other on the blog. Thanks to John-Francis for making this connection! It's for reasons like this that I continue to write about my experiences and the people I encounter. You never know when a creative or personal connection will be made.

Back to Arctic Tundra (shown above before blocking), I am boggled (or I boggle, not sure how to use that word other than as the name of a game) at how much knitting this project involved. Jodie is incredibly prolific, true, but this amazed me. She said it took her four months to do, but I happen to know she worked on a couple of other projects at the same time, because her designer brain never stops churning away. Of course, the project had some challenges, especially when it came to blocking. More from Jodie:

It annoys me that I couldn't get the angle of the star equal in the center when I was blocking--but it was just too big. I didn't have an extra inch of floor--and that was after I overran the blocking mats and started slipping blocking pins between the boards of my oak floor. An incredibly memorable project.

After seeing the pre-blocking and the blocking photos, I was interested in finding out what she was going to use this project for. Certainly you'd need to be a "person of height" to wear it as a shawl! But, she has a perfect use, the grand piano cozy! How elegant and Victorian!

I find it interesting how MMario named the patterns. Each has to do with something you would find in the tundra. The photo below shows the patterns Polestar and Snow,Nelson Island, Musk Ox, Lemmings on the Tundra, and Bear Claw Edge, for example.

I hope this inspires some of you to tackle this project when it's officially published, and if not, to dream big with your knitting! You never know what you can do until you try!

As for me, I think I'll finish up that first mitten today, if the mundane world of job searching, grocery shopping and rain watching doesn't take up too much time! I got a lot done last night at a knitting and spinning pajama party, so I'll have one potentially warm hand soon.

Silken Tarot Bag

2010-03-14T18:49:00.001-05:00

Today I finished Lee's tarot bag. I'd have been finished yesterday, but I decided to add a ruffly edge, so that was done today. Want to make one? Here's how!

Yarn: fine silk yarn, your choice. This is Tillie Thomas Voile de la Mer.
Needles: The smallest you have--you want a sturdy fabric. I used 000s. Yep, I did. You can use double pointeds or circulars, whichever you prefer.

First, measure your bag and do a gauge swatch so you can figure out how many stitches it will take to make the bag fit snugly (optional if you do not care for a snug fit.

Knit a rectangle in stockinette (K 1 row, P 1 row) the size of the bottom of the box your cards came in, or the deck itself. For mine, I knit a rectangle 28 stitches wide by 12 rows of stockinette.

Next, pick up and knit around the edges. I picked up 12 stitches along each narrow end, and 27 stitches along the cast-on edge, for 79 stitches. You will see why I wanted an odd number in a bit.

Knit two rounds. Then start a linen stitch section: *K1, sl 1 with yarn in front*

Because you have an odd number of stitches, the linen stitch pattern will naturally form (on alternate rows, the slipped stitch moves one stitch over, so it makes a pattern that appears woven:

I hope you can see it from the picture. For this bag, I did 12 rows of linen stitch, then 14 rows of plain knitting in the round. and repeated that three times, ending with another linen stitch section. That ended up being just a little longer than my cards, which is what I wanted. Yours might take more or less, or you might do more or less of each stitch pattern. It's up to you! I chose linen stitch because it is so sturdy and counter-acted the delicacy of the silk yarn.

When you think it's long enough, start the ribbing, which is K2, P2. I did about 1.5 inches of this.
Next do an eyelet round: *YO, K2tog, P2*
You will thread a crocheted chain, i-cord or ribbon length through these later.

Do another 1.5 inches or so of ribbing, to match the first part. You can bind off here OR add a ruffle by increasing one in every stitch around, and doing another inch or so of K4,P4 ribbing, then bind off. I liked the way it made the top of the bag blossom. I have also heard that it looks a big like a hot water bottle cover. You can decide for yourself!

Crochet a chain (I used a US size 8 crochet hook too old to have metric measurements on it) long enough to make a nice tie, or do 3-stitch i-cord for a similar length. I think I am actually going to go buy some velvet ribbon to use on this bag instead of the chain.

This was a fun project, and is a perfect little bag for your tarot cards. Or if you are geeky in another way, it would also hold a collection of multi-faceted dice. Or crystals, or beads, or whatever.

For a discussion on the best material to make tarot card bags out of, see the comments on the previous blog entry. Thanks to all who have made that discussion interesting! As you will see, there are lots of viewpoints on the topic! (I tend to put the ones I read with in cotton or silk bags, though some I don't use are wrapped in more sparkly stuff. I think I will also make some bags using 100% wool sock yarn, though.)

For now, back to the mittens.

PS: I added this to Ravelry, so you can list it among your projects if you wish!

Silky Smooth

2010-03-12T16:42:00.001-06:00

I thought I'd take a little break from moderating comments to show you a little project I started yesterday. I'd hoped to get it done quickly as a birthday gift for my husband, but it didn't work out that way. Still, I think he will like it!

I am making a little bag to store tarot cards in. The yarn is Tillie Thomas Voile de la Mer, which I had started a scarf with, but got bored with the pattern. Lee had asked for a silk bag, and this is as close as I could get with yarn I already had, silk and seaweed.

I started by knitting a stockinette rectangle the size of the bottom of the box his cards came in, then I picked up around the edges and started knitting in the round.I want the bag to be sturdy, so I am knitting on teeny 000 needles to get the stitches as small as Suna's loose knitting can get. I did a section in linen stitch, which looks very, very tight (reminds me of the time I knitted the instep of one of my tiger stripe socks under deep stress and I ended up making a tourniquet), then I did some stockinette and am back to linen stitch again, which is not quite so teeny. By making the number of stitches odd, I never have to switch the linen stitch around, so I just keep repeating K1, slip 1 with yarn in front, over and over.

My friend Tina came over yesterday afternoon before a tarot gathering at our house, and we sat on the porch and knitted and chatted. That probably loosened up the stitching. Thanks, Tina!

Lee likes the bag and the color. I think I will do a bit of ribbing with a section of yarn-overs to run an i-cord strand through at the top, followed by more ribbing. I'd put on a ruffle or beads, but am not sure if that would be manly enough. I'll ask him! He's such a calm, sweet and understanding spouse that he deserves maybe more than one storage bag!

It will be back to the mittens this weekend. I really appreciated all the feedback on them--lots of pros and cons to consider, but I'll finish them anyway.

PS: Please see the comments if you are interested in a discussion of tarot traditions.

What Do You Think about This?

2010-03-10T11:15:00.000-06:00

I wanted to show you the progress on the mitten I am knitting. It's the beautifully named (ha ha) Pattern 21 from Mostly Mittens, as I mentioned earlier in the week. Here is what it looks like now:

Mitten in Progress

My concern is that the colors are too close together, so they obscure the pattern. When I look at the photo, I think it looks fine. It is more subtle than it would have been in red and blue or something, but you can certainly see the design. Do you think it's good enough to keep going, or should I unravel the yarn and make socks?

I do think the next pair will be out of more contrasting yarns.

I am glad I switched to the "large" size of the mittens, since this Ella Rae Laceweight is really fine yarn. Right now, it fits great. I am enjoying working on the mittens, though wrapping every three stitches in the 5-stitch stretches sure slows me down, even when knitting with both hands. I guess there's no way to do fast stranded knitting! Or did I miss a hint somewhere?

I hope you are enjoying my daily posts while my work is still on hiatus. Lots of time to type now! Off I go to take my daily walk, have a tiny lunch, and knit!

Braved the Storm

2010-03-09T10:45:00.000-06:00

Last night was another fun Monday with knitting friends. It's becoming a very nice almost-weekly event to head over to Dawn's and knit and snack for a while!

This week we had three birthdays to celebrate, and we had quite a party. Kim got tiaras and wands for me, Suzanne and Aggie (March 5, 6, and 8). And I brought ice cream and Suzanne and Aggie each brought cakes. Even though I am on a diet, I had to eat some Italian Creme Cake from the wonderful Upper Crust Bakery in Austin. I will not pass up that kind of opportunity!

Yes, we stuck our wands in our shirts. We thought it looked "classy." I'm just glad that one day a year when I am older than Suzanne is over! She can't call me an old lady any more!

We all had a great time knitting and chatting, which is good, because a big rainstorm blew in, complete with very loud thunder and bright lightning. So, we stayed until it had passed. Like it used to be in the LYS, we certainly touched on some "interesting" topics. Laughter is the best medicine, and I am pretty sure we all went home feeling a lot better, no matter how we felt when we arrived!

The new mittens are going well. I am an inch or so into the patterning part, and am a little concerned that once again I picked yarns without enough contrast. I am going to keep going, though, and even if the yarns don't contrast enough, I'll wear them. I so have other yarn that definitely DOES contrast to try another pair with.

Oh, my sweet older son got me a knitting-related birthday gift, the Joy of Sox book. I did have a copy (at first I couldn't remember if I'd just looked at someone else's copy or had one), but I was impressed that he took the time to think of an appropriate gift, but also couldn't resist the pun.

So, hey, two posts in two days. Obviously I need to get back to that job hunting--still waiting for my other job to pick up again!

Making Mittens and Keeping Friends

2010-03-08T10:07:00.000-06:00

I think I told you that I got a couple of books on mittens recently. I really wanted to try a pair of festive ethnic mittens. I do have some yarn that I want to make mittens with, but of course, more yarn keeps creeping in.

Like this stuff here! I got it last week on another pilgrimage to Yarnorama in scenic (small) Paige, Texas.

Ella Rae Lace Merino

I went with Suzanne and Susan, so we definitely were on "Sue" name overload. Much of the fun on these trips is the conversation and camaraderie. It makes me almost (but not quite) want to learn to spin so I could go to the spinning Saturdays. We had a fun trip, and especially enjoying the farm animals. Susan is an expert, so it's fun to have her around. We saw this fine fellow at a really cool Brahma breeding facility, where there are these beautiful bull apartments, each with one spectacular bovine specimin.

Brahma Bull in eastern Williamson County, Texas

So, anyway, we met some nice folks in the knitting group there, and I saw that orange yarn above, which is the color of butternut squash and is a semi-solid, and chose the other one as a good contrast. I also got their yarn of the month colorway, which is definitely bright and happy:

Yarnorama sock yarn in "The A-Ha Moment" colorway.

My birthday gift to myself on Friday was a knitting day. I started a pair of mittens from this book, using the two new yarns:

Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Knitting Designs from Russia

by Charlene Schurch

The ones I am making are second from right on the bottom row. I cast on the medium size and knit through the cuff and about 6 rows into the pattern, but decided that using this laceweight yarn and 0 needles made it a bit snug. So last night I frogged it while I had a helpful older son visiting to help unwind one of the balls of yarn. But, before I frogged it, I took a photo so you can see how the colors work out (done with the phone camera, so not the best and NOT accurate):

Corrugated ribbing in Ella Rae Laceweight. Colors in earlier photo are more accurate.

I was having trouble going back and forth from the mitten guidelines to the chart, so I missed an instruction to knit the first row rather than rib it, so the new version is already better. Also, the rows are not numbered on the charts, and that bugs me a bit. It would keep me on track with the thumb and hand rows if they were numbered. The new version still isn't too big, just less snug. I look forward to knitting this along with my shawl. And luckily we got a new printer (ooh, ahh, color laser), so I was able to photocopy the chart for easier reading.

I was also going to talk about keeping friends. After the nice trip to Yarnorama, we went to a meeting of people from our old LYS, which closed shortly after I stopped dropping in there (no surprise, when a yarn shop stops ordering yarn and needles for over a year other than a couple of dribs and drabs, stops paying teachers, and no longer has any employees other than the owner, it's a hint). It was at a nice La Madeleine restaurant that let us use their meeting room. I guess when I said I was going I didn't realize all who would be there. But, I think I made it through the meet-up pretty well. Interestingly, the folks who de-friended me on Facebook and sent me the helpful email telling me how poorly my breakdown reflected on me were not there, so that helped. The other members of the LYS in crowd who hadn't asked how I was or checked in with me in over a month were quite friendly, so that helped my comfort level a lot. I was repeatedly told to "be a big girl," which somewhat got old, but, heck, it will be fine. It was nice to see how everyone was doing and catch up on news. I have nice knitting friends, including the ones who invited me to the meeting, which I really appreciated, and I'll just enjoy all of them! I will try to make another of those meetings at some point, though this week I am making my dear husband a nice meal before choir on Wednesday, so I won't be going out. Sometimes family comes first!

A little aside about being a big girl, for any of you who may have to deal with disliking how you or others are treated: it IS a sign of being a "big girl" or maturity, even, to take yourself out of situations that aren't good for you or where you feel uncomfortable. Yeah, in a job you have to be around whoever you are assigned to be around, but in optional activities, if people treat you or others unkindly or repeatedly show a lack of compassion, you can choose to be elsewhere! Life's too short to torture yourself! Surround yourself with love and friendship, because kind and generous people by far outnumber the sourpusses!

And on that note let me say that I look forward to our new Monday meetings at Dawn's house, and really enjoy the atmosphere of respect and support for all that is maintained there. I wish you all could join us! I am glad that Dawn, John Francis and others are stepping up to host meetings so the community that developed at the LYS is not lost.

4-Patch Mitered Square Blanket

2010-03-04T18:27:00.003-06:00

I finished the borders on this project, and since a couple of people asked me how I did it, I'll write it down here. It's not a "pattern," but just some guidelines: not my finest example of technical writing but if you are experienced with mitered squares, I think you can follow these guidelines.

I am very happy with how this came out. Actually, I am surprised it looks as nice as it does.

I used 4 solid colors and 12 variegated colors to create the 4-patch units. Each took less than one skein of Red Heart or equivalent worsted weight acrylic (this is a charity blanket, so it needs to be machine washable and dryable by non-knitters).

To make one yourself, pick your 4 solids and 12 variegateds and pair them up compatibly (I put a yarn with some green next to green, one with some gold next to gold, etc. To be honest, I put some that were sort of similar too close together, so avoid this.) You can draw a little diagram to remind you of your plan, or just wing it, which is what I did.

Each square is fairly big. I cast on 51 for the first square, knit a row, then next row K24, K3tog, K24.
From there on, knit every other row, and knit the three center stitches together on the next row. You will end up with a square. End with K3tog. You can use any double decrease; just be consistent. I actually used slip 2 as if to knit, K1, pass slipped stitches over. That gave the distinct ridge.

From then on, attach squares to each other. On the first row, you'll cast on 26 then pick up 25 on the side of the previous square. Knit the first row (wrong side) and do a double decrease on the center 3 sts of the next row (your decreases occur on the right sides). Eventually, you'll only have to cast on for the first square in a row, the rest you pick up. I picked the middle stitch up on the middle between the two squares. Does this make no sense? Pick up a book on mitered squares and follow those instructions! Your squares can be bigger or smaller, too.

Hint: using the knitted cast on produces a very nice loop that makes it easy to do the picking up of border stitches.

When your blankie is as big as you wanted (for me, it was 48 squares or 12 4-patch units), use one of the solids pick up stitches on one long edge and knit a 4 garter-stitch ridge border. Do the same with the other long side. Then pick up along the edge of the borders and short edge and do the same. You can't avoid having a solid/border intersection that's the same color on the long side, but you can easily do so on the short side if you plan your colors carefully. Look at how I did it. Of course, you can make the border wider, but I wouldn't make it narrower. You should have enough of the solid color if you made yours the size of mine.

I think you could make a very sophisticated version of this afghan using more sedate solids and nicer yarn. I might even make one for our family room in shades of denim, gold and dark red.

I will be proud to donate this afghan to Project Linus. Leftover variegated yarn is being turned into granny squares for another charity project. I'll put a solid border around them all and it should be cute.

Next, though, I look forward to using the nice Marble yarn to make a crocheted project. Before that, though, I am going to go back to my nice Shetland yarn and Litla Dimun!

References

Want to learn more about mitered squares? Look into publications on modular or domino knitting. Here are some titles:

Domino Knitting

by Vivian Høxbro

This is the first book on the topic I read. It has great practice potholders and such in it.
(whoa I pasted the info in from Ravelry and didn't know it would do the cover, too!)

Modular Knits

by Iris Schreier

Ah, Knitting Bringing Happiness Again!

2010-03-01T11:12:00.000-06:00

After feeling pretty bad about knitting for most of this year (exceptions have been the nice meetings our friend Dawn has hosted in her home!), I have finally started having more good knitting experiences. I know a lot of my lack of knitting enjoyment is my fault for being so hard on myself and for letting unkind comments get to me more than they should, but hey, being a sensitive person has its good and bad points, as any person like me will tell you!

So, let me share some good things! First, this lovely new yarn came in the mail last week. I wish the good camera could have taken the picture, but we can't find the battery charger--it is not where it is supposed to live! This colorway is supposed to match the patina on a photo of a statue someone sent my friend Ray at Knitivity. He did a great job in making a very subtle colorway. I can't wait to work with this yarn.

Knitivity Down Home Sock Yarn in Patina

And now for my happy fiber-related events. Saturday was the second meeting of the Linus Project group at my UU church. I had such a nice time watching the ladies work on paper piecing, and felt good that even I could help out, because I had done it before, back in my quilting days. I was diligently working on the last row of my Linus Blankie (halfway through the last row--just some borders after that!). But I was watching how Alice, the organizer, gently led everyone along with another experienced quilter, and I got such a warm feeling. Someone said that now she understood why they had quilting bees in the past times--some of these things you need help with! It reminded me of the joy I used to have at the LYS when I could help someone make progress with a project. On the way home, I realized I was genuinely happy, and it made me all teary. I felt a real upwelling of gratitude to Alice for starting the group and making so many contributions to my life in the past. She did so well at the meeting, knowing that between the first meeting and this one, her mom had died (the lady I am making my blankie as a tribute to). Such a strong, kind person.

As if that spontaneous outburst of happiness was not enough, yesterday I had another one. The wife of one of my former coworkers is a teacher, and she recommended I become Facebook friends with one of her colleagues, a high school science teacher in Austin. She said we'd have a lot in common, including knitting. Well, Leyla asked me a knitting question or two, then last week said she was having a lot of trouble with socks. She wondered if we could get together and talk about her sock issues. You know how much I miss helping people with knitting, so I was happy to do this, even though I never met her and didn't know her other than her online persona. Well, once we managed to find each other, we had the most entertaining visit! I hope I gave her some help with sock information, because I learned a whole lot from talking to her on other topics, like teaching, relationships, and marriage. She's really an admirable person, and I look forward to many more conversations with Leyla! I drove home in a very cheerful way, thinking about all sorts of topics she had brought up. Once I am finished blogging, I am writing a thank-you note to the friend who introduced us!

One reason the visit with my new friend was difficult was that I'd suggested we meet at the Gauge shop, since someone had recommended I go to their Sunday knitting group a week or two ago, but it was closed. That was a bummer. The website does say they are open 1-5 on Sundays, so I hope it was just a temporary thing. Local knitters have already lost one LYS, I don't want to see the next closest one go, too! Anyone local have the scoop?

Looking forward to getting together with friends later today and hoping to get more of those last few squares on the Mitered Square Linus Blankie done!

Reading about Knitting: Almost as Good as Knitting?

2010-02-22T14:31:00.000-06:00

I have no fun knitting photos to share, but I can report that I am on the last row of the Linus blankie. I got distracted from that by yet another project I can't share, because I am test knitting for my friend. The end product is really cute, so I hope to share it with you all soon. And it uses up sock yarn, another bonus! That project has so many instructions that I've had to only work on it at home for a while, but now I am in a long easy section, so I'll be able to tote it around and finish it. Sadly, nowhere to tote it, though, because our Monday knitting hostess is sick. Get well soon, Dawn!

The blankie has gotten so large that I can't really transport it. I can work on it while riding around in the truck with Lee, which is how I got a little bit done this week. I had to resort to true comfort crafting: I am making simple, traditional granny squares out of the leftovers from the mitered square blankie. I'll edge them all in black and figure out some creative arrangement for them whenever I finish, and I'll have a second Linus blankie!

I've been browsing afghan patterns looking for something to make out of all that Marble yarn I got a couple of weeks ago. I found a nice book at Half Price Books, called Under Cover: 60 Afghans to Knit and Crochet. There are a lot of ideas in it, using standard inexpensive yarns. I found a square that looks like a flower, a bit, in the center, then turns square, so I think I'll try that one.

I've enjoyed quite a bit of knitting reading this week, none of them new books, but ones I hadn't looked at yet, so they were new to me. I enjoyed the new Interweave Knits, and also got another oldie at Half Price Books, Men Who Knit and the Dogs Who Love Them. It has cute dog patterns and fun profiles of men who knitted a few years ago. Since my dog sweaters apparently will stay with the former LYS, I ought to make more at some point, for my future skinny short-haired dog (none of my current dogs need a sweater, even the pug).

The books that have really fascinated me are two books about mittens that were recently reprinted. Now, I have made mittens, but never kept them--they have all been gifts, and have all been standard ones from the Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (see photo above). I'd been admiring all the fancy mittens I've seen on other people's Ravelry pages and in some of the magazines, but hadn't decided what I wanted to make yet. So, I ordered two mitten books and thoroughly enjoyed looking through them while watching Winter Olympics. The books complement each other well, because one is all about mittens knitted from the cuff up, and the other is about knitting them from the top to the cuff!

Magnificent Mittens and Socks: The Beauty of Warm Hands and Feet,by knitting treasure Anna Zilboorg is so much fun to go through. Zilboorg's personality just shines through, and the photography is lovely. The socks she designed that are similar to her mittens are a great addition, making it quite worthwhile that they re-issued the book to include the socks. These mittens have spectacular patterning and amazingly fancy cuffs. They don't look like something a person living as a solitary in an isolated cabin would come up with! Her technique makes a lot of sense, and I look forward to making a pair of these, just for fun.

Mostly Mittens: Ethnic Designs from Russia, by Charlene Schurch (whose sock patterns you have seen me praise if you have read this blog for a long-ish time) has slightly less extravagant patterns, and they use the more standard cuff-up construction approach, but I love all the things she did with the traditional designs of the Komi people. I learned a lot about them in the book, which was an added bonus. Learning about different traditions is always fascinating to me. I will see what I think about her thumb techniques, but I know I will love making more than one of the fascinating patterns, which look way more complex than they actually are to knit. This is another book that was recently re-issued. I remember when both originally came out (because I am old), but I wasn't in a mitten-loving phase back then. I'd say Mostly Mittens is more practical, but both are so inspirational--and the designs could easily be translated into hats, bands on sweaters, etc., so I'd get them just as interesting stitch pattern references.

Finally, I want to encourage you to find the Knitting Traditions magazine put out by Piecework. This is more of a reference than a magazine, and has 43 projects that originally appeared in Piecework (which is a magazine that covers all kinds of hand-work). There are many lovely socks, and some particularly nice shawls, as well. And of course, there is at least one pair of ethnic mittens (Swedish). I enjoy the articles, because they talk about a technique used in the past, then share a modern version of the technique. I've learned a lot from these articles over the years.

So, that's Suna's book report. I need to go work on ye olde secret project for a while. By the way, I really appreciated all the comments on my last post--thank you, kind readers--and I do hope to visit Gauge one Sunday and knit there! I know a lot of my blogging friends are experiencing posting droughts, so it is not just me. But I thank you for your patience as I plow through a bit of a rough time.

Some Words

2010-02-09T10:20:00.006-06:00

I haven't had much energy or interest in posting. Still feeling a bit down about knitting and the world in general.

It does make me feel better to be working on this thing. I am now halfway finished with this Linus blankie, which I guess will be called a 4-Square Linus Blankie. Since it will be a rudimentary quilt pattern, I am now doing it in honor of Jackie, who passed away at 87 a couple of weeks ago, and was a wonderful quilter. I enjoy thinking of her, even as I knit with Red Heart, so I keep going.

The other thing that has kept me going is that some of the women I used to knit with have found a way to get together, and seem very keen to keep our group together, so we can share what we are doing with each other. We may get to meet in a restaurant in the future, but for now a generous soul has volunteered her house. Let me know if you are a knitting friend of mine who'd like to join us. I do hope I still have some knitting friends, any way.

I also had a chance to go to the lovely Yarnorama store in Paige, TX, to get some yarn (hadn't been yarn shopping in MONTHS) and to watch friends spinning. I got an offer for some help with using my drop spindle, but now I can't find my fiber. All I found was a wad of dog hair, which was not what I wanted to spin. Even if it is nice, long fluffy dog hair.

I did get some nice yarn. I got Marble acrylic yarn in 6 colors to make another charity blankie. That yarn is nice and soft and in such lovely self-striping colors. I want to crochet an afghan with flower shapes. I haven't crocheted in a while.

Also got some lovely sock yarn--two colors of Jitterbug (including VERY bright pink) and two colorways of new Regia Hand Dye effect. That stuff is so pretty (below is the bright colorway, but I also got two skeins of tan/brown for a shawl).

The other item I got was a very soft blend called Socrates, which has some alpaca in it, and it a lovely tweedy thing. All the colors were really intriguing, but I chose this grayish purple one, the colorway of "Dress Blues". I think it will make lovely patterned socks. My hand is in the picture because I was holding it near the window to get better light. It's been rainy here.

I guess I should show you Litla Dimun, which is taking a break so I can knit with that lovely inexpensive acrylic (ha ha). The photo is a close-up of the center. It's too big and awkward for a photo of the whole thing to be interesting. I am, though, about halfway finished--at the end of the first skein of yarn. Once I stop thinking so much about Jackie, I will go back to the shawl. And then maybe start back on socks and knit more like my old self. I just don't feel like my old self.

I am thinking not many folks are reading this any more, but thanks to those of you who are. I am working on a better self-image, which will make for more interesting and frequent content, I hope.

Trying New Things

2010-01-24T15:33:00.003-06:00

It's Sunday and I didn't write anything all week, so it must be time to say hello to whoever is out there reading. Not a great deal of knitting happened this week, thanks to having a lot of other stuff to do--and that is a good thing, of course! Much of my time has been spent doing things with my spiritual community, where we are looking for ways to connect outside of weekly services. So far, so good!

One of the things I have tried is a new group that meets at my church on Saturdays to create things for Project Linus. I haven't done any of that before, since I always have so many other projects to do, but since I am still feeling bad about offending people at the yarn shop and really missing the folks there, I can turn that energy into something positive. Seems to be a thing to do!

So, I went to the meeting and discovered that other than me, everyone else is a quilter. Oops. Yes, I certainly have made quilts (and have one unfinished waiting for me to find a place to put the sewing machine), but while I love choosing patterns and colors, I don't particularly love sewing. I stuck around, since I do like talking about quilts, and they invited me to stay. One woman said she'd bring knitting next time, since she envied the fact that I knitted during the meeting, and the others all said they'd like knitting workshops every so often. One or two even wanted to learn to knit. Hey, I like to teach knitting! So, maybe a new door is opening.

I started a project for a toddler size blanket. I found a few errant skeins of Red Heart worsted (100% non-natural fiber!) that I hadn't given away yet and figured I could make a mitered square blanket. Here are the first three squares:

I figure I will make a square a day, then work on my other stuff, until this is done. The yarn does feel a bit plastic-like, but it is not as horrible as my exaggerated memories make it. I even went and got a few more colors, since I need to make it 6 x 8 squares to approximate the right size. I'll keep using this yarn until it runs out, but think I will switch to good ole Vanna's Choice or one of the Caron acrylics that are a bit more supple in the future. Ah well, this will certainly be a sturdy, washable blanket and make a child happy.

The Litla Dimun shawl has made progress and is a lot bigger--it's just slow going. I love how it is constructed, though. I will wait until next week to share another photo of it, though. I am oddly enjoying the feel of the rough yarn.

I hope you are enjoying your winter knitting. Feel free to share any of your favorite charity knitting patterns. I have enough simple things memorized that I can do quite a few (ripple, granny square, etc.) but ideas are welcome.

A Nice Border on Litla Dimun

2010-01-17T20:43:00.003-06:00

It has been a bit of a roller coaster this week, with lots of good possibilities for future knitting fun, but not a lot of job action...who knows what is going on with potential employers who say they are sending email but aren't...or keep canceling phone calls. But, I am in no hurry, since I still like what I am doing and my fun and funky coworkers.

One thing that has kept me centered is that the Litla Dimun shawl has been going fine. I did make a couple of boo-boos, but this yarn is a little easier to un-knit than the previous stuff I was working with. The Shetland wool is really "sticky" and hard to unravel, which also means that the stitches that are off the needles don't go anywhere. I could just pull out the yarn and stick the parts that were still correct back on. They did not unravel further! So, here's to burly, rustic Shetland wool!

And here it is:

I am through the lace border around the shawl's bottom. From now on, there is lace just going up the back "gusset" area, with the rest of it garter stitch. There is some subtle decreasing going on that looks like it will nicely shape the shoulder area and make it stay on really well. What a nice, simple pattern.

I am happy that there are a lot fewer stitches on the needle now. The shawl should move along quite smartly from now on. And I will also get back to working on the two lovely pairs of socks I have going (speaking of socks, I was looking for something else and found a pair I only knitted one of, so old it isn't even in Ravelry--guess I better finish them!). It's just that, for some reason, that warm, "sheepy" yarn really comforts me.

Thanks to all who posted supportive comments, and I wish you all good knitting, friendship and fun!

Happy Dance on Someone Else's Account

2010-01-14T14:43:00.003-06:00

I found out today that the project I test knitted for my friend out of the Knitivity sock yarn in the Koi colorway will be in Knitty! Of course I can't share any more details, but I could not be more happy for my friend. I had fun technical editing the pattern--always nice to work on something on a topic I actually LIKE. I think you will enjoy the pattern as much as I did, so keep an eye out for it, though I am sure I will be providing a link as soon as I can!

More good news, I got two calls about jobs today. None long lasting, but I'd at least know when they begin and end. I think I could probably also keep doing some stuff for the folks I now work for (whom I like very much)--hope so--that job is independent contracting, so it could happen.

I am through the first section of the lace border on the Litla Dimun shawl, and I hope I can get more done this evening--been having lots of meetings in the evenings this week, and it won't let up soon. Most are meetings where knitting can be done, which is great! Plus, I have the advantage of working on a project that has shorter and shorter rows rather than longer and longer ones. Ahh.

PS: My coworker and I were looking at very sad images of Haiti before and after the earthquake. The docks were especially difficult to look at--they were there one day, not there the next. That can't make delivering aid easier. I hope all of us around the world can put aside our differences and help the innocent families in whatever ways we can.

Free to Blog (little knitting content)

2010-01-13T11:52:00.006-06:00

In a small amount of knitting news, I had a nice "knit and chat" with my friend Deana on Monday night, and got through all the plain knitting parts on my new, so-far intact Litla Dimun shawl. I have gotten through six rows of the lace border and it looks quite nice--a bit airy but should be warm and rustic looking. The yarn is so rough it actually CUT me, though, so I will be sure to wash it well!

I look forward to some good knitting times with my friends soon, and will tell you about it all when it comes. I hope to start going to the Saturday spinning days at Yarnorama, too, if they will let "just a knitter" participate! I have plans! A life!

And hey, thank you to those of you who wrote such kind comments on my last post, including the Facebook readers. The kind to unkind comment ratio was heartwarming, and I appreciate all the acceptance and understanding--I want to extend that to all of you AND to anyone else as well. We all have bad days and over-react sometimes, not just me! Like one of my friends said on Facebook, having gone through some rough patches with friends can make friendships stronger!

See, here I am looking happy in something I knitted. Thanks.

About Blogging

I was reading an old friend's knitting blog this morning, and it really hit home. Here's the post, if you'd like to check it out. She talks about blogging with boldness. In her blog, she quotes another blogger thus:

Instead of being hung up excessively on what others are going to think of me when I blog this, say that, do whatever, I can finally stand firm, not giving a rip if my well intentioned words are still twisted by someone with nothing better to do.

(Note that this blogger's perspective is much different from mine in many ways, but she makes a good point here.)

Even though this is my knitting blog, and not my political, religious or advocacy blog, I have still been very timid about saying what I think about things sometimes. I just want everyone to like me and everyone to get along, I guess. After all, peace IS one of my favorite non-knitting topics.

Still, I think I am doing my own self a disservice by not mentioning things like being hurt by unkind comments from people, or upset with bad service in a shop, or disappointed in a pattern...whatever. I am going to try from now on to be a little more forthcoming (no, not going out on the attack--just not omitting anything potentially controversial--after all, people still love the Yarn Harlot and she says things I think but would never say!)

What Made Me So Wimpy in Blogging in the First Place?

(No, I will not go into what made me so wimpy as an individual--lack of time and space there!) When I had been blogging a couple of years, in the personal blog that preceded this one and still exists for those who ask its address, I got a reader who had an agenda and began reading all kinds of hidden meanings, innuendos and messages in posts that I had never intended, or even thought possible. I went back in and addressed all these things, and today I don't think I'd do it. I think you can misinterpret almost anything if you try!

There are always people who are irritated with you in some way and looking for ways to interpret things you say negatively. You can't stop being yourself, saying what you think, or sharing your stories just because one or two people might not like it. Sure, you don't slander people or blatantly lie. But, you can share your perspective and do your best to treat others as you would like to be treated--and apologize if you screw up. Perhaps I go overboard apologizing (as in my last post), but I am not going to stop sharing with readers, either. That's my perspective.

Crushed Blossoms

2010-01-10T14:23:00.004-06:00

(Skip this blog post if you don't want to read about someone sad about how things have turned out and beating herself up for her flaws. I won't mind if you do.)

Yesterday may well go down as one of the worst days of my knitting life. For so many reasons, but primarily for this. I was at the LYS, and after chatting, having some banana bread and such, I reached into my knitting bag to pick up the Rosebud Shawl. I was pretty happy to have finished the center panel of rosebuds and got a start on the borders, with correctly placed markers to get the corners right. Then, I saw what you see below.

I don't know what did this. I have a couple of guesses--one marker was not a smooth, wonderful Entrelac marker, but was one with a dangle on it. The yarn had gotten caught in that, but when I removed the one strand in there, it seemed to be fine. This hole has at least three strands of broken yarn in it, more like something cut it. No clue what could have done it. One idea put forward was moths, but if that were the case, I would have seen it sooner--there was no hole the day before.

I was surprised and dismayed at how sad it made me to see that irreparable hole in the shawl. It flashed through my mind how many mistakes I had fixed in it, how hard it had been to unravel those rows and get the lace back on the needles, how carefully I'd had to re-attach the two dropped stitches that I had found. Through all those trials, I still was able to use my skills to keep the project going. But, there is nothing I can do to fix the hole, which was in the FIRST repeat of the lace pattern.

Worse is that I reacted really poorly when it was suggested that it was just knitting, nothing really important. My gut reaction was that, yes, it WAS something important to me. I now realize that I was so upset because knitting was pretty much the ONLY part of my life where I felt like I had a bit of a handle on things--that I was competent enough to control and have some mastery over.

As you may know, I have had to deal with a series of employment situations where no matter how good I worked, I had to leave and find something else. I'd really not expected the most recent one--no matter how well I have been doing or how much my coworkers like me, circumstances beyond my control reach out and bop me on the head. This has now happened 4 times since 2006. It's been the same with relationships--I'd trusted that my ex would take care of our family so that I could take the risk of being an at-home parent, and tried so hard to be a good wife and mother, even taking up my husband's hobbies and losing a bunch of weight. But still, I could not be someone else, and I was left to try to figure out another future. I had tried really hard to set up a safe environment in the job I had for over a decade, but again, I could not control things and protect myself and others, leaving me to try to figure out a new career in mid life.

These are the kind of thoughts that have been going on in my mind the past few months. That I am sort of adrift with no plan and no security and nothing I can do to help it. I am so glad I at least have my husband, who has employment and still does care about me--but I worry something could happen to him. Great. None of this has a thing to do with knitting, but when I lost control of that, all the sadness about all the other things welled up inside me. I really got upset, handled the huge rush of sadness very poorly, and now I figure I'll never be welcome at the yarn shop again.

I hadn't cried in months other than a bit when my son went off to college. I'd been trying very hard to remain optimistic and up-beat when I could, and neutral otherwise. Some folks can be sarcastic, snarky and pick at people for their flaws and others just chalk it up to "that's the way she/he is." I know that has never worked with me--any time I have let negative stuff slip out of me, I have paid for it and paid for it hard. This is no exception. I got all my pent-up stuff out of me yesterday!

I need to surround myself with people who can listen and understand that once in a great while I might get upset, who can accept apologies that are sincere, and who can try to understand when something really is important to me. So, I'll be moving on. I really AM sorry I over-reacted and upset people. No one wants to publicly embarrass themselves and upset others, or to lose any chance of friendship with people they like a lot. For me, it just confirms my already not-so-hot self image, to top it all off. But, it's not about me, really. I just don't want to make other people feel bad, so I am not happy with myself at all.

The reason I am sharing this stuff is that I want to once again apologize for not living up to my own standards, and to ask any local folks who read this and want to stay in touch to please be my Facebook or Ravelry friend and remain in contact. I'd love to do stuff with any of you who want to remain my friend!

And now, back to knitting, which helps keep me centered, and will always be my friend, even though unforeseen circumstances can cause knitting heartache!

Move on Breathe, and Regroup

Because of not being able to work on the project I'd thought I'd spend the weekend on, I did manage to finish one repeat of the Flaming Desire socks. This is a GREAT pattern, as far as I am concerned. It is hard enough to keep my interest, but easy enough to not need a huge amount of concentration. I think it will look more like flames once I have completed the second repeat. I still like the Pagewood Farm Chugiak yarn and will enjoy knitting up the other skeins I have. I am not a fanatic about it, but I like the stitch definition and the variety of semi-solid colorways.

After that rather overwhelmingly unpleasant experience with trying to re-start a hibernating project, I decided that I would not get back to work on the Maelstrom shawl, but instead start something comforting and more easy. You may remember that a few months ago I bought some naturally gray two-ply laceweight yarn from American Shetland sheep. I had thought of making a Faroese-style shawl from it, so I looked through my resources and picked the Litla Dimun (Ravelry link) shawl from the Folk Shawls book by Cheryl Oberle. This shawl starts out from the long edge and grows smaller. Thus, what you see is a bit of the long edge. So far, it is just garter stitch and some decreases. After 12 ridges, a lovely lace border begins. It feels good to work with the yarn, which is called Natural Shetland Rustic Lace. It is indeed rustic, crunchy, even. This is, of course, what you expect from Shetland yarn.

Depending on how big this shawl turns out to be, I might just add a border to the edge. It is a bit small when made to gauge, which I think is what I am doing. With size 4 needles I am getting about 4 stitches per inch.

I may not post much for a while--I am feeling pretty vulnerable, sad, and like maybe I am not really a part of the knitting community. I will continue to read other people's blogs and such. I enjoy hearing how others are doing too much to not read! Thankfully, my work does start again tomorrow, so that huge amount of stress and worry will lift.

Happy knitting and remember the Golden Rule.

Rosebud Re-Blossoms

2010-01-06T11:14:00.003-06:00

I know, the suspense was killing you, except for maybe Susan, who I told yesterday at the yarn shop. Anyway, the project I am resurrecting is the Rosebud Shawl from Heirloom Knitting. I apparently started this project in June 2007. I took the photo below in October, so I think I was going slowly even back then:

The photo shows the center panel of the shawl and the yarn I am using, which is Makalu Yarns Fine Wool Cashmere, a very close cousin of the Jade Sapphire wool/cashmere laceweight yarn. It is soft and thin. And bouncy. Really feels good, and looks like it will stretch out a LOT when blocked. This is definitely one of those lace projects that will look pretty yucky until it is blocked!

So, why has this project been sitting in a bag since October 2007? Why do good projects go dormant? For me there is usually a good reason, and for this project there were multiples. First, I got engaged and all excited about knitting a shawl for my upcoming wedding. That makes sense. Second, I was using one of the original Addi Turbo Lace needles to do the project. It was a bit too sticky for the yarn and everything kept bunching up. But worse, the brass needle smelled AWFUL. Whenever I worked on the project, I kept smelling this bad metallic smell, and after I worked on it, my hands continued to smell funky even after I washed them. And third, the yarn is so squishy that I had issues doing some of the stitches, including, oddly enough, K2tog.

So, I decided to make a few changes when I re-started, and that included immediately switching to my KnitPicks Illusion needles for the knitting. That has taken care of the smell and the flow of the knitting. And I figured out that if I tug on the stitches, the K2togs go more smoothly. So, that's better, at least.

But wow, it can be a pain in the brain to re-start an old project. I had quite a few frustrations getting re-acquainted with the pattern. First, I started knitting away, only to realize that I was knitting 4 border stitches that weren't really there. I was knitting squares that were just part of the border of the illustration, but not in the pattern. That made me have to rip out 4 rows that included slip 1, K2tog, PSSO. Those are a real bear to undo. Then the yarn itself got tangled, due to the outer end crawling in and twining up with the inner part of the skein. The way this yarn sticks to itself, well, it got all sticky, so I spent a bit of time straightening all THAT out. Sigh.

Yesterday, due to not having any WORK to do, I was at the yarn shop "helping" the owner deal with a virus (it's in quotes because I did not actually fix it)and knitting away with the correct pattern and my happy new needles, when I stretched it out to look at how nice it will be blocked. There, many rows down was a free stitch, waving at me. This happens to me nearly every time I un-do rows of lace with double decreases--I tend to miss one putting them back on. And I don't notice, because my stitch counts are right. I quickly did some weaving and fixing and it looked OK. Then, oh no! I saw ANOTHER one! So, there is an area of the shawl with some extra yarn in it. I tried to duplicate stitch to make sure plenty of yarn is in there holding those stitches where they should be. At least the stickiness of the yarn will help in this case--once I block it, I am betting it will glue together forever and not come loose again. Of course, I spent quite a bit of time checking for additional little darlings sticking up, all unattached. I remember the same thing happened on the Aeolian after I had to take out a bunch of rows. Grr.

I must remember to check carefully after I do the last row to be sure everything is where it should be! Un-knitting in laceweight is not my best skill, apparently. So, I am trying very hard to not mess up any more. I have just 3 more repeats and the center square will be finished. I look forward to the next section, which is a gorgeous lace border. I do love these Shetland-style patterns!

Well, I will now wander off into the cold and see what's up at the yarn shop. I have applied for all the jobs I can find, and if someone needs me, they can call!

When I Concentrate...

2010-01-04T12:39:00.006-06:00

...I can finish a pair of socks! Yes, I knitted the whole second Angee sock over the weekend. I did not diverge to anything else until I was done with it. And look how nice the socks look in the sun (appreciate this picture, because it is COLD outside).
It also looks nice in the shade. You can see the variations in the yarn a little better in this photo, I think. And wouldn't you know it, I finally got to where I could go through a whole bunch of pattern rows without moving my marker, which considerably sped up finishing these. I hate having to stop to move the see-through tape so I don't get lost in the instructions on complex projects like these. It ruins my knitting rhythm. On the other hand, these socks are worth it. Navy blue socks go with jeans, so these will get a LOT of wear, I predict. I hope the Chugiak yarn is as sturdy as it appears!

Now that these are done, I am going to cast on the Flaming Desire socks, using this same Pagewood Farms Chugiak in the reddish orange "Fruit Freeze" colorway I bought just a few weeks ago.

Speaking of buying yarn, the LYS is having a sale. Right now there is not much for me to buy there, but I saw some handspun that they'd had a long time ago sneak back on the shelves. I didn't let it sit there long. I wish they'd gotten some more of this vendor's yarn--it is spunky. I think I will make some of my favorite fingerless mitts for myself out of it. That will happen when I make those alpaca gloves--AFTER the next project. Sorry for the quality of this photo, but I got lazy and took it on my phone.

You may be wondering what I am going to knit next that is not socks. Well, I will go back to last year's resolution and work on finishing a previously unfinished project. Which one? Well, answering that will give me something to blog about tomorrow, won't it!

New Year's Greetings with Socks

2010-01-01T15:26:00.003-06:00

New Year's greetings to all of you! I rang in the year at a small gathering of friends, most of whom I had been with to ring in 2000, so it was interesting to think of all the changes we had been through. I am lucky that I still have my knitting, my constant companion, to keep me on an even keel. I know many of you find knitting a real help in your life--it keeps us from ever being bored, it calms us in times of stress, and most important, for me at least, it provides us with a way to meet new people and make some wonderful new friends. So, to start the year I would like to thank everyone who is hanging in there and reading this blog for being there. I am glad to know many of you in person, and I feel like I have gotten to know many of the rest of you through your own blogs, Ravelry, Facebook, e-mail, etc. Our connections with others are precious, and I think it's pretty cool that an "old-fashioned" thing like knitting cam combine with new technologies to bring people closer. I will keep knitting on, hoping it leads to some small measure of peace and understanding among people everywhere!

Oh, and I finished an Angee sock. Look how pretty it is hanging on a red wall in our media room. I think these are going to be a wonderful pair once the other one is done.

The pattern is not bad to do, but it is one of those where you need to have the chart in front of you at all times, so I can't work on this as quickly as I would like--there are lots of places where I knit where I can't hold on to my pattern easily!

On the other hand, I can knit these socks for my sister just about anywhere, even though I think I am going to add a little twist to the leg. I'll show it to you when there is more of it. At least I got a photo of the sock in progress, finally. I've named the socks "Bruce" because I was watching Bruce Springsteen on a TV program while doing the heel, as you can see.

I am liking the yarn a lot. It is definitely black for the most part, but I like the white and tan striping. I hope it is what my sister is looking for. If not, I will certainly take them! These are not in your face or overly exciting, but they are nice, interesting socks. I will enjoy finishing them.
Well, I am from the southern part of the US (Gainesville, Florida), so I have to go cook some black-eyed peas, collard greens and cornbread, because that is what we eat on New Year's Day. I will help Lee take down the Christmas decor and other holiday stuff, too. Then, I'm going to start that second Angee. If I can get another sock done this weekend (and that should be quite possible), THEN I will start another project...probably those gloves I mentioned. Then I have to figure out whether a Shetland shawl or a sweater I've been wanting to make for a long time is next...stay tuned.

Let's hope for better times for all of us.

Bella Belleza!

2009-12-29T16:19:00.003-06:00

I figure if I keep posting every day someone will eventually comment (though I did get a comment on Ravelry, so I guess that counts). Since I took it off the blocking pins and did the three-needle bind-off on the shoulders, it's time to share. So glad to finish something for me this month.

Anyway, I am really happy with how this project came out. It looks as nice as the sample at Kid-n-Ewe! This picture shows that even with my recently added poundage, it's pretty flattering.
Here's the front, which will look a lot better once I put a button on it (I am using a pin on it right now). The vest is very, very light and airy now that it is stretched out, so I need to probably put a lighter button on than I thought yesterday, like something hollow or from light-weight wood. And definitely a backing button will be needed!

On the above photo, I hope you can see the scalloped border. It's subtle, but nice. The rest of the vest has a traveling 3x3 rib pattern. It's just enough to be interesting but not so much that it detracts from the thick-and-thin yarn.

You can really see how airy Belleza blocked out in the back photo. The light parts are where the yarn is really thin. It's pretty. I also like the length of the vest, which is lucky--I was not at all convinced that would work out! And the yarn was very, very enjoyable to knit with. I think it would make a lovely simple triangular shawl or a scarf in a simple pattern.

This close-up gives you a bit of a better idea of the color, now that it is dry, and how pretty the stitches are. It is such a hard to describe color. It is definitely "green" but an interesting bronze-ish tinge makes it interesting. I have a feeling that this particular item will get worn a lot, in all four seasons.

I guess I had better zip along on the socks so I will have something else to blog about soon. I do have a video to share, so maybe that will show up soon!

Belleza Blocking (Wow 2 Posts in a Day)

2009-12-28T16:43:00.004-06:00

I guess I should have waited to blog. First, things are better and I will have some work to do the rest of the week. I am now waiting for the twitching muscle in my shoulder to realize that I am not a-wallow in worry now--it has been making knitting a challenge.

But it did not prevent me from finishing the Belleza vest to the point where I needed to block it. The instructions said to block before attaching the shoulders, so Beccano and I collaborated to wet it and stretch it out to the correct dimensions. I am grateful that it stretched, because it sure looked short and lumpy before I blocked it.

You can tell Beccano helped, because as he was pinning, he suddenly ran to pick up a paper and scissors and said, "It's a monster, Mom!" And sure enough, when he added the face and claws, there it was!

By the way, I later stretched the back and fronts out a bit more so they'd be the right size.

Beccano also took a nice close-up of how the thick-and-thin yarn looks in its pattern. I like this because it is sparkly from the water. The photos don't show how pretty the color of the yarn looks, because it is wet. I can't wait to finish the shoulders with a three-needle bind-off and get a button for the vest. I hope I can find something bronze and celtic.

Right now I am going to work on putting a crochet edging on that purple long vest I made a while back and see if I can do something with its shoulders. Then I'll work on my two pairs of socks, though I think gloves out of my two-color alpaca yarn may get started!

Trudging...

2009-12-28T11:11:00.004-06:00

If you are a celebrator, I hope you had a good Christmas weekend. If not, I hope you have been happily knitting away at something!

I had a freelance indexing thing last week that made me not want to look at the screen much, hence no blogging. Besides, who wants to read about how worried I am that my work hasn't picked up again yet. No clue how the bills will get paid, but something always works out.

I am actually almost finished knitting the Belleza vest, and I have to block it before putting it together. Should have a finished photo of that soon! I hope it stretches out when blocked. Otherwise, it's beautiful.

The navy Angee socks are going slowly, since I can only work on them when I can concentrate. But they are pretty. I started a pair for my sister, who wanted black and white socks. I found some Knitivity sock yarn that is mostly black and white--I think it was a "mistake" version of his Doberman colorway with much less brown, but I am not sure because for some reason it's not in my Ravelry listing. I am doing a simple toe up ribbed sock, though I may make one rib travel, for fun, when I get to the leg. I got a lot of that done last week waiting at the driver's license place to get my son's permit.

I got no yarn for Christmas, so nothing to show after the bounty of my last post. That was plenty, though! Maybe things will perk up and I will have something to show you next post, or more interesting commentary. I am not at my creative peak right now.

Got Me Some Yarn

2009-12-17T14:59:00.005-06:00

It is amusing that the day after I ordered a bunch of yarn I got told there was no more work for me for a while. I don't believe in such things, really, but if I did, I would think I jinxed myself for thinking, "Well, we are both employed this holiday season, so for once I can treat myself." but, I could not undo the Loopy Ewe order, so I will just enjoy it. And besides, some of this yarn is from other sources!

This first one certainly cheered me up when it arrived. It's Dream in Color Starry in my favorite of their colorways, Pansy Golightly. I also have a skein of their laceweight "Baby." I'd sure like to use one of those to make the Bitterroot shawl I talked about in the last blog entry. Since I did get two skeins of the Starry, though, I could make a larger Shetland-style shawl that glistened from that. Mmm. I do know I love the colorway so much that I want to make something large from it.

Here's another color that I fell for. These are very saturated colors--it's all blue with purple and green overdyed in it somehow. It's from Fiberphile Alchemy and appears to be on the same base as Smooshy--it's called Squooshy, which is a hint, huh. I think these colors (called Pacifica) are subtle enough that you might be able to knit socks in a complicated stitch pattern out of it and the colors not detract from the patterning. This is all good, since I have a LOT of such socks on my To Knit list! There's that whole Cookie A book, for example!

I got this skein specifically to knit one of Cookie's patterns. The colorway is called Passion Flower and is exactly the purple of the flowers on that vine. A bluish purple but not quite violet, nor grape exactly. It's a perfect semi-solid for one of the Sock Innovation patterns, or one of the other highly textures ones I've been wanting to make! this completes my Loopy Ewe order, so you can see I didn't go totally bonkers over it.

Next is a skein I got at the LYS, which had been sitting there a while looking at me. I do have some red semi-solid socks (plain ones that I am actually wearing right now!), but this Pagewood Farm Chugiak is a orangey red, and my others are on the blue-red side. I wanted something fiery. I guess in the back of my mind, I knew I was going to run into the perfect pattern for that yarn. Because, lo and behold, while browsing Ravelry this morning (which I can do, since I am not working!) I saw this pattern, Flaming Desire by good ole Anne Hansen, who I believe wrote the first sock pattern I ever knitted. Go look at it and then come back and agree with me that it is a really fun-looking pattern. Nice big motif, multiple sizes--yep!

And by the way, the yarn above is more orange-ish than it appears in the photo. I made it a bit orange, but could not quite get it to appear accurate on my computer screen. Just take my word for it that the Fruit Freeze colorway really does look like fire. If it weren't for having to make black-and-white socks for my sister, these would start soon!

Now, to take a break from skeins of yarn, I did finally take a picture of the Angee sock in progress. It is blurry on one side because I took the picture of it on my arm. But, I think you can see how nice the color looks and how intriguing the pattern repeat is. It just squiggles and wiggles around, going here and there. These will be some fine socks, and I guess if I don't have a lot of work and spend my days at the Division of Motor Vehicles trying to get Beccano's driving permit taken care of, they will be done soon.

But wait, I have one more skein of yarn. Last night was the holiday gathering at the LYS, and while a lot of the regulars weren't there (late notice on the festivities), we had a nice crowd, and enough folks to make a sock yarn exchange fun. I started out with some Plymouth Sockatta that I already own a skein of, so was thrilled to have someone "steal" it so I could get this. I am amused because last year I ended up with pink and gray yarn, too. But, this is from a vendor I'd never tried before (but did see on someone else's blog today), Scout's Swag. It's the regular twisty base yarn a lot of dyers use, and 100% superwash merino. It is called Rowing Home and says it is inspired by Winslow Homer. OK, I believe that, though not sure what painting of his it goes with!

The Belleza vest is cranking along. I am almost finished with the first skein of yarn, but I noted that the armholes are only 9" and use fewer stitches than the body of the vest, so I think I will end up with a bit of yarn to spare. I find that I lose count, even though all I am doing is counting to 3 over and over. This makes me laugh, but I am using the excuse that the textured yarn makes telling whether you are looking at a knit or a purl on the previous row rather difficult. I also really ought to stop trying to knit and read music at the same time. The choir director will appreciate it, too.

More from me soon--it is nice to have a bit more time to blog these days! Thanks for reading!

Purple Passion

2009-12-14T20:50:00.004-06:00

Good for me. I finished the sparkly purple gloves for college student Tuba Boy (who got his report card and has an A average!). He certainly is secure in his masculinity. He plans to take them on his ski or snow trip to Colorado this week. I also got him some waterproof gloves, don't worry. I know how snow is!

As you can see, he is fond of the gloves. The photo is a little scary, but you can see that the gloves came out quite stripey and happy!

One thing about my kids is that they like to pose for the camera. So glad I gave them good self esteem, or that they just came out that way! I do think the Berroco Sox Metallic is a good glove choice. You can see its sparkles better!

I finished these on Saturday at the LYS, where I bought another skein of Pagewood Farms Chugiak in an orangey-red color. I'll show you a photo next time. I think it will look good on a Cookie A sock, which I am still determined to make more of.

Speaking of which, you know that period when I had no socks on the needles couldn't last long, and sure enough, once the gloves were done I felt like I could start more socks. I am using the Navy color of Chugiak to do the Angee (Ravelry link) socks from Sock Innovation. Ah, good thing I went and looked for that link, because I saw that there was errata for the pattern, and I fixed it on my pattern! See, blogging is useful for the blogger, too. I HAVE to remember to check for errata before I blithely start knitting things!

I just started the socks and have done the ribbing and set-up rows, but am enjoying the yarn a lot. Well, except for the fact that dark blue yarn is sure hard to see what you are doing on. It shows up fine once I have done it, but definitely is more of a challenge than lighter yarn would be. The yarn looks just like nice, dark denim, very snappy.

I mailed the mitts away and was resting on my laurels, relieved that I had no more "obligation" knitting to do for a while. I was looking forward for a week or so of blissfully working on the Belleza vest and the Angee socks, when I got a message from my sister, hinting that she wanted socks for Christmas. Um, it is December 14. But, I haven't made her any in a while, so I asked what color, yet pointing out that any socks would show up AFTER Christmas. She has requested black and white. Um, whee. But, I perked up when I realized I just bought that ball of very interesting German sock yarn with the slow color changes, the Zauberball. That could be fun. So, I'm up for some sisterly knitting after all. I'll make sure to pick a simple pattern so it can be my "portable" sock work.

By the way, the Belleza vest is coming along well. I am into the second pattern and thinking I will have enough yarn, so it's quite stress-free at this point. Just lovely yarn making lovely textures. I can't complain about it at all!

One more thing--love the new Knitty. At the slow rate I am going, I doubt I will knit anything from it any time soon, but the sweaters all look fun. If I made anything, though, it would be Zora. That is one fine cardigan in some fine (literally) yarn. I was also impressed by the Bitterroot shawl from Romi. I would love to make that one. Yeah, we'll see. I am working so much that my production is way down. But, then, knitting is fun, not a race. And I am still enjoying it!

More Mitts!

2009-12-11T09:19:00.003-06:00

While not the most exciting knitting on earth, I must say these mitts knit up fast and nice! I wore these for quite a while last night and really like how they warm my hands but don't interfere with anything I am doing. Even the little bit of thumb on my spiral mitts bugs me after a while, so I think I will work on more variants of this and even make me and Lee some.

This is the last of the set for my friend's grandchildren, and will go off to south Texas in the mail tomorrow. I used yarn that I made another pair of mitts -- Dashing from Knitty -- from a few years ago. I gave those away and can't even remember to whom. I hope they liked them. Guess I should make some to KEEP.

And since I have very little knitting content to share, here's another random photo, of a cool caterpiller we found on the front porch:

Well, I think it is cool.

Toys

2009-12-07T17:19:00.002-06:00

As much as I like to knit and crochet, I never got to like making toys much. Mine never look as cute as the ones in the pictures. I envy people who make cute "things" out of their craft, like Jennifer, who makes food and stuff.

If my mom were still alive, I'd see if she would crochet me this toy turtle. It is so cute. I love its face and its little turtle outfit. I wonder when you get too old to receive toys as holiday gifts? Sometimes I really miss my mom, though my step-mother has always been great with little treats (I hope she gets me nothing this year--she's had a broken arm and hurt leg).

I don't think anyone's getting a toy this year at my house. Beccano got a bass, which he plays on, but not with. Tuba Boy's getting an iPod, which he will play, but not play with. And I am afraid the couch Lee and I were going to get has morphed into a hot water heater.

I'll get my spirit back as I work on gifts for others. And I did send off a knitted gift to a Yule exchange partner today. I hope it makes the recipient happy!

Back to dreaming about toy turtles!

More Gift Knitting

2009-12-06T18:47:00.004-06:00

As much as I wanted to make Belleza bigger this week (and I did work on it some, as you can see in this photo by Cindy, taken at the LYS on Wednesday), I knew I had to get my knitting for others done, so I managed to concentrate on that this weekend.

You can see that I am wearing that fun "Shag" triangles scarf I made year before last, too. And keeping the yarn in the nice bag Jennifer knitted for me. Awww, knitting friends.

So, here are the latest, another pair of the Textured Thumbless Mitts, first of two pairs I am making for a friend's grandchildren (a teen and pre-teen). I love the yarn I found, which was hanging around in my stash from an old sock of the month club I was in. The yarn is either black or extremely dark purple, with little bits of lighter purples in it that may just be lighter bits of the same color. I think the yarn will work for either a boy or a girl.

The ones I am working on now are blue, purple and white worsted, ones I already made some mitts for someone else from a year or two ago. I figure this will also be unisex, but different enough that one will appeal to one grandchild and the other will appeal to the other grandchild. I'll let them or their grandmother pick!

Heh, knitting the same pattern three times is one way to make it look like my pattern is popular on Ravelry! Ha ha! I also think I will crochet around the edges of the thumb opening on this pair. I think it will thicken it a bit and give it a more finished appearance. I added that to the pattern instructions.

And since I have been decidedly less than inspired with my blog content lately, I figure a photo of my good ole pug, Scrunchy, would liven the blog up a bit. Beccano loves to take pictures of him, though, to me, he looks pretty much the same in every picture. But he's a lovable feller. Just sheds a lot. At least it's short, not like the other two dogs!

I'll go knit some more now. I got Tuba Boy his last couple of little h0liday gifts today, and since Lee and I are mostly buying each other a new couch this year, I don't have to shop a lot. I feel quite festive, though. For the first time in a long time, I am not panicked over paying for things. So, whatever you're celebrating this season: enjoy your family and friends and don't stress over decorating, buying and doing (unless that is what you LIKE).

Errata for Belleza Vest Pattern

2009-12-01T15:57:00.005-06:00

I've corresponded with the author of the Belleza Vest pattern, Diane Martini, and she agreed with me that there is an issue with the chart for the Welting Fantastic pattern.

However, the written-out version is fine, so if you make the vest, just use the written-out version and all will be well. It's a short repeat, so it's not a pain or anything!

If you have a copy of the pattern and want to fix the chart, just switch where there are 2 K stitches for 3 K stitches and vice versa EXCEPT in the first repeat, which is on the right of the pattern. That part is correct and matches the written-out version.

I am assuming Diane will let Brooks Farm know about the mistake and get future printings fixed.

PS: I am still really, really enjoying the pattern and the Brooks Farm Ellie yarn!

Hello! I Am Back!

2009-11-30T18:22:00.005-06:00

Have you been pining for exciting posts from me? Or are you like me and a bit overwhelmed and not realizing which blogs are AWOL and which are not.

My Excuses

I have been knitting, quite a bit, since you heard from me last, but a lot has gone on in ye olde real life that has made it hard to take the time to blog. Work got even more intense than usual, there were a bunch of meetings, and then, sadly, my sister-in-law, whom I had never met, passed away the week before Thanksgiving. I spent most of that week consoling my husband and figuring out what to do. Then we rented the RV we'd planned to rent anyway over Thanksgiving a few days early and set off for Alamogordo, NM, where his sister had lived. Being in an RV meant I could do a lot of knitting, but of course, spending lots of time with the family (and managing to cram in a whole week of work while driving and in early mornings) meant no blogging time!

I will say that knitting helps with the stress of being an introvert and meeting a large number of new people. It also passes time well when you have no one to talk to because no one knows you! And some of my projects got folks talking!

What I Worked On

Happy news: I managed to knit that entire Harry Potter scarf in just two weeks (other than the fringe, which I dawdled on until last night). Between the long ride at Kid 'n Ewe and the long trip to New Mexico, I conquered that boring knitting without going crazy. As you can see, it's a BIG and wide one. I hope its recipient enjoys it. I know I brought some holiday stress relief to the friend who had planned to try to knit it!

Once that was done, I got on a finishing kick and finished up those socks in the Inspiration yarn. I immediately started wearing them, so I never got around to taking a glamor shot of them. Suffice to say, they are soft, comfortable and practical. They go with most of my clothing, so I predict that they will get a lot of wear (unlike, say, those shiny silver ones).

OK, I hope you are sitting down. When I finished those, I did NOT start a new pair of socks. Yes, shocked readers, that is right. For the first time in years and years I have zero socks on the needles. Now, there is yarn and needles waiting to start my next socks, so there will be some soon, but nope, I didn't start them!

Instead, I started on a project for my dear college student son. Last spring he had asked for shiny purple gloves, and I'd ordered the yarn for them at that time. I had sort of hoped he would forget, but a few weeks ago, he asked about them again...so, I figured since I'd be seeing him over Thanksgiving and could measure his fingers, now would be the time to work on them. As you can see, I finished one glove. I ended up knitting the glove pattern from Not Just Socks, which I had made before. However, it came out huge when I went up to a size 1 needle. In fact, using size 0 the gloves are definitely sized for a man's hand.

I guess that the previous pair I made (which aren't on Ravelry, so I can't check) I must have used 000s, because they fit perfectly. (Hey, I have a photo taken on my New Mexico trip of me wearing those, so here they are.)

The shiny purple glove brought great amusement to teens we visited, but Tuba Boy proved to them that real men DO wear purple sparkles! So...I am finished with one glove, and they fit his fingers perfectly. I coped very well with having to knit half of it twice, since it gave me stuff to do on the trip. Now, on the second glove, I am ready to start the pinkie, but I am totally distracted by the next project!

I couldn't help it...I had to start the Belleza vest pattern I got with the Ellie yarn from Brooks Farm at Kid 'n Ewe. It is so beautiful...not copper, but bronze. And it feels wonderful. Silk and wool is one of my favorite combinations. It is endlessly fascinating to me how the thick and thin parts create different textures. Where it is all thin, the yarn is see-through, but where it is thick, it's very puffy. It's fun. I was surprised that no one had put the pattern in Ravelry but went ahead and added it. I seem to be on a run of knitting the only version anyone ever makes of things. I'm the only one who made those patterned gauntlets from Knitter's, and have only just become one of two people to make the Bridget cardigan. Huh.

Anyway, I don't have a photo of the Belleza project yet, since I haven't done enough repeats to make it look like anything (it's knit in one piece from the bottom up, so I am knitting long rows), but that will give you something to look forward to next time. Which will be soon, honest.

PS

To my friends on whose blogs I usually comment: I will be back reading soon! I will read every word!

Annual Kid 'n Ewe Report

2009-11-15T12:52:00.008-06:00

It's November again, and that means the Kid 'n Ewe festival is going on at the Kendall County Fairgrounds in Boerne, Texas. I would hate to miss the chance to buy yarn from local alpaca ranchers and other Texas vendors, so I was quite relieved to realize my tarot workshop was last weekend, not this weekend! Whew, no conflict.

The original plan this year was to go with friends Tina and Deana, but Tina had to stay home and watch her gall bladder surgery incision heal. So, Deana and I met up at the LYS, tossed a coin to decide who drove, and set off on our trip.

I would have been glad to drive, but was relieved that Deana had to, mainly because I am knitting an immense and not-too-exciting project. I agreed to help out my church friend Alyssa out with her Christmas knitting. I feel for her, because she has a toddler and is pregnant, and I remember being in that spot. She is knitting all sorts of dishcloths and such for gifts, and wanted to give one relative a Harry Potter scarf. Then she realized how much knitting that would be. So, I said I'd do it. Using Vanna's Choice 100% acrylic yarn (verdict: less awful than Red Heart). 6 skeins of it. I have to knit 11 stripes of 22 rows each, 70 stitches per round. All circular stockinette. At least changing colors keeps me awake. The 5 hours in the car yesterday helped a lot, and I am almost halfway through (the photo shows what it looked like Friday night, before the long car ride). I will be eternally grateful to Deana for driving!

We had a nice chat and enjoyed what passes for lovely fall scenery in Texas. It was nice that recent rains has actually put water in the lakes, rivers and streams, too. And of course we enjoyed the festival itself!

We enjoyed meeting lots of vendors. I told the Plain & Fancy Wool Co. people thank you personally for finding that additional yarn for finishing my Bridget sweater, and I also bought some more of their stuff, a variegated blue. I keep thinking I would like to make a cardigan like the rainbow one, only smaller and short-sleeved. And maybe in linen stitch instead of garter. MMM, I love linen stitch. We'll see. In any case I got FOUR skeins, so I'd have enough yarn!

I got some neat alpaca, just one skein, but I loved the colorway so I had to get it. It's from Windmill Crest Farms in Seguin, and they spun brown and gray alpaca together. The gray looks quite bluish next to the brown. I want to make a pair of warm gloves from it--there is a pattern in the new Interweave Knits Holiday Gifts magazine that I would like to use, if I can get gauge. (And may I interrupt to say I was shocked to find the magazine was $14.99!)

Another random thing I bought was two skeins of brushed suri alpaca that looks a lot like Kidsilk Haze. I just got an urge to make a white thing. A lacy white thing. We will see when that comes up. Must stop knitting for other people, first, and I have not mentioned that I got asked to make two more pairs of mitts for someone's grandkids. And of course I will, because the grandmother is a sweet old friend.

And a visit to Kid 'n Ewe would NOT be complete without drooling at the Brooks Farm booth. Goodness gracious, I love their yarn. I came very close to buying 6 skeins of Acero sock-weight yarn to make a mitered diamond jacket. But, i just got this one skein of sock yarn, which happens to coordinate with one that I already have...could make a shawl...well, it IS very pretty.

I also got four skeins of a yarn called Ellie, which is 50/50 silk and wool. It's labeled a DK weight, but is thick and thin. They had a vest sample that I really loved. So, I got the pattern and enough yarn to make it. And the yarn. You cannot tell how pretty this color is from the photo. It is green, but with brownish tinges. It looks like copper that has a nice patina on it. I just can't WAIT to work with this stuff. I am really excited by the prospect of making the nice vest. Drool.

Yow, I do get a lot of ideas every year at Kid 'n Ewe! I also saw friends, and that is good.

Oh yeah, while Deana was buying the prettiest batt of wool/silk/etc. I ever saw, I got a necklace. I have misplaced the card from the girl who made it, but she also had drop spindles painted with dragons and other celtic stuff. I really like how the clasp is part of the design on the necklace. And it will go with LOTS of stuff.

ADDED: I found the card for Sally Ball, who made the necklace. Her stuff can be found at www.yorkieslave.etsy.com and she has fiber, spindles, etc.

Textured Thumbless Mitts Pattern

2009-11-10T08:59:00.007-06:00

As promised, here is the pattern for the mitts I made. I hope you enjoy them. If you make them, please link to the pattern on Ravelry, so it will look like someone knits my patterns.

Textured Thumbless Mitts

©2009 by Sue Ann Kendall
Soft and warm unisex mitts using a variety of interesting textures. A good beginning pattern for knit and purl patterns and knitting in the round.
Materials:
One skein worsted weight yarn (4 oz. skein will make two pairs). I used Malabrigo worsted in the colorway "Hummingbird," which has smaller skeins, and I still didn't use all the skein.

US size 6 circular needles, or size to get 6 stitches per inch. This is most easily done using magic loop or two circular technique.

Abbreviations:
k = knit
p = purl
st/sts = stitch/stitches
* repeat material between asterisks

Seed stitch (even number of stitches, worked in the round):
Row 1: *k1,p1*
Row 2: *p1,k1*

Stockinette stitch (worked in the round):
Row 1: knit across

Moss stitch (even number of stitches, worked in the round):
Row1-2: *k1,p1*
Row3-4: *p1,k1*

Linen Stitch (even number of stitches, worked back and forth):
Row 1 Slip 1, p across.
Row 2: Slip 1 (as if to purl), *Slip 1 with yarn in front, k1* until last two sts; k2.
Row 3: Slip 1, p across.
Row 4: Slip 1, *k1, slip 1 with yarn in front,* until last st, k1.

Mitts (make two!):
Cuff

Cast on 34 sts.(40 for larger size). join for knitting in the round, being careful to not twist stitches. (You can divide the yarn among 3 or 4 double points or use Magic Loop, which is how I do it.)
Work in Seed st for 7 rows.
Work in Stockinette st for 14 rows .
Start with Moss stitch, and repeat the pattern rows 4 times (16 rows), ending with row 4.
Purl one row.

Hand

Begin working back and forth. This creates the opening for the thumb.
Work 16 rows in linen stitch, ending on Row 3.
Rejoin for circular knitting and KNIT Row 4 from the front of the mitts.
Purl one row.
Work 4 rows in Stockinette st and then 4 more rows in Seed st.
Bind off loosely in Seed st. If you knit tightly, consider using a larger needle to bind off.

Finishing:
Weave in the ends, and you are done! Optionally, you could single crochet around the thumb hole. I've done that on some of the later ones I made.

Mitts and More Mitts

2009-11-08T15:57:00.003-06:00

Another week of not a lot of knitting due to that darn work. But, that pays for yarn, so no real complaints!

I did manage to finish those fingerless mitts I was working on last week. Here they are.

It is hard to believe they are made from the same two skeins of yarn, isn't it? At least on the second one you can see the fair isle pattern a lot better. I still haven't managed to block them, so they are a bit wrinkly.

There was a good bit of yarn left. Enough for at least one more using the same main and secondary color, probably enough for two if I switched. I may well try a third one and see if it blended with either lefty or righty, then decide to make it a left or right based on that. Or, I can give these to some eccentric friend or family member who likes to wear fraternal knitted items! These are quite pleasant to make, and would be nice in any bulky yarn combination, I'm sure.

I was surprised to see that I am the only person who has made this pattern on Ravelry! I guess I am a pioneer.

The next photo you see is what I worked on yesterday at the yarn shop and finished today. It's fingerless mitts with no thumb, just a slit. You could make these flat and sew them up (and I did make one pair like that a while back), but I did them in the round. I based these on a pattern I saw online, but I have changed the length, the stitch patterns and how it is constructed, so I think it would be safe to share the pattern when I am done with the second one.

The yarn is some yummy Malabrigo in the colorway "Hummingbird" that I got at Yarnorama in Paige a while back. I bought 4 skeins of it and 4 skeins of a dark color that I was thinking of making a two-color cardigan with, but I think I can spare this skein for a favorite teen who loved this color. The lovely hand model is Lee.

I just used a variety of my favorite knit and purl patterns, plus my favorite linen stitch on the hand portion. This would be a good project to familiarize a newish knitter with knitting in the round and doing simple patterning. It would also be a great stash buster for quick gifts!

After this project, I have some gifts to get moving on, which should be fun. I may have a lot more mitts in my future, too. Kids like them!

And finally, since I keep changing how I look, here's yet another photo of my head. I got most of my hair cut off, because it had been dyed so much that it was not happy, and the length was just not good for my fine hair. It's much happier now. We did our best to put a streak in the front, which will continue to grow out with my new gray streak in the front of my head. It's my hope that I can stop dyeing my hair and just enjoy how I actually look from now on. we will see how long that lasts, of course.

Starting and Finishing

2009-11-01T18:24:00.005-06:00

Finally I had a bit more time to knit this week, even with 12-hour work days. I was thrilled to finish the Vilai socks. It was pretty nerve-wracking there for a while, because I could see holes in my skin of yarn toward the end. I had no idea if there would be enough yarn to finish them. But, as you can see, there was. I had I guess two yards left (I originally estimated three, but two is more like it).

You can see that these are really nice socks. They came out a bit large--I would suggest anyone using the Glam Grrl yarn consider a sock designed for sport weight, not fingering weight. I am happy with the shiny aspect, though!

I think these are worth another photo! If you can't see all the patterning, click to see the enlarged photo. You can see the silver shining on my legs. Oooh, ahhh. With these socks, I honestly don't care if I get a lot of wear out of them. They were just so much fun to knit. I really loved the pattern and the chart. It was just hard enough to be engaging but easy enough to enjoy working on while watching RV and stuff. I recommend this pattern highly! And you can bet that my next complex socks will be from the Sock Innovation Book. I actually think I am making the next pattern in the book, Angee. It's going to be in navy blue Pagewood Farms sock yarn--not so thick!

I also finished another sock, the first in the pair of plain socks that I work on when I am unable to concentrate. These just FEEL great. It's just merino sock yarn, but it sure feels good, and is incredibly easy to knit with. It's from Intention Yarns (made by Lime & Violet) and is called Simplicity. I like simple socks with a plain foot and a 2x2 rib top, so they fit with the name and intention of the yarn! I am having a dickens of a time with the second sock. First, I started the gusset (they are toe-up) and realized I had switched from doing the increases on one side to the other. So, I ribbed all that off and did it right. Then I started the heel and managed to get it quite off center. So, I get to re-do that, too. Good thing I am liking that yarn, huh.

And finally, I decided I wanted to so something fun. I think I already mentioned that I found this pattern in the Fall 2009 Knitter's Magazine that used yarn I already had. I decided to go ahead and make those, just for fun. The pattern is called Wave Gauntlets, and is quite simple. Kits up fast in the bulky yarn. When I only went down two sizes of needles, they still seemed pretty big, so I went down four sized. This way the end of the gauntlet is still fairly wide, but the part on my hand fits well.

Since it's a two-color pattern, I need to block it to see it in its best light, but the photo at least shows the waves. In person, it just looks like colorful globs. I guess the yarns don't contrast enough. And I was not real happy that the thumb ended up such a different color. I guess we will just have to see what colors happen to pop up in the second one. They certainly won't be identical twins. Looking at the yarn, I may be able to get a second pair out of the yarn, and make another pair to give away.

We had a fun Halloween at the yarn shop. Cindy did a lot of face painting, and lots of us (even me) ended up either very lovely or very scary, whichever we desired. She is quite an artist. Oh, what the heck, here's a photo of me. It is intended to go with my fortune teller outfit.

Everyone looked beautiful in their ensembles!

One thing that I regret about becoming so valuable at work is that I have to work long hours some days, so I miss out on Wednesday knitting. And next week I have to go to a work dinner, so I'll miss it again. I miss the camaraderie and the relaxing conversations! I have a tarot workshop next Saturday, so I may not be able to hit the yarn shop next Saturday, and I do believe the wonderful Kid-n-Ewe is the next Saturday after that. I hope I can round up someone willing to go with me (most of the group events these day's don't include me--my fault for not being around much, I am sure!)

Hmm, leaving my post on a whiny note--sorry 'bout that!It looks like I have another set of mitts for a teen to knit, then I think I want to make a scarf with the handspun Jody gave me a few weeks ago. Who knows what else.

Andromeda Unveiled

2009-10-25T14:58:00.003-05:00

Finally I have had time to process my photos and show you how the Andromeda shawl came out. I have had a busy few days, but I am sure you've had plenty of other blogs to read, huh? So, here is the artsy shot of Andromeda resting on some ginger plants. I am relieved that I can see the patterning here! It's really different to see a shawl with such clear geometric patterns. I am grateful for the suggestion to make this one!

You can see from this photo that it is nto huge, but at least it does work as a shawl. In fact, I wore it yesterday to the yarn shop and today to church, and it manages to stay on, even though it's small. It looks great with a black or navy shirt.

Here you can not only see how I am doing in my project of growing out my hair, but also how it just barely manages to wrap around my arms. It does, though, add a bit of warmth to my shoulders, which are perfect for late autumn days in Texas! The snowflake on the shirt is definitely wishful thinking!

My son was very patient and kept taking photos as I tried out different ways of wearing the shawl. It does a good job as a very cheerful head-scarf, doesn't it? I was having such a bad hair day today that I almost tried this look while out shopping, but didn't want the Muslim women thinking I was making fun of them. (Our outlet mall always has lots of women in hijab, saris, and other colorful ethnic attire! I especially like the Indian families where the older women are dressed very traditionally, the middle-aged women have a few nods to tradition and the younger girls look like everyone else at their high school. I guess I am a big fan of honoring your heritage, whatever it is!)

Anyway, I am pleased with the way this came out, and equally pleased that I have a LOT of the yarn left. I will be able to make another very large shawl out of what I have left, so I will think about what that might be for a future project. I think next is a solid colored Shetland or Faroese one.

But to be honest, I don't have anything I am just dying to make right now. I guess I will just hope I can finish those lovely silver socks (I am on the heel of the second one) without running out of yarn, then make the arm warmers from the Rowan bulky yarn. I certainly have plenty of projects lined up, so I will just pick one when the socks are done.

I have been so busy the past week or so with evening activities and such, that I haven't gotten much blog reading in, so hi to those of you I usually greet on your blogs--I will catch up soon! And thanks to those of you who commented last time or sent me email. I am glad you are here.

I am a Video Blogger

2009-10-19T21:46:00.004-05:00

In an effort to cheer myself up (oh has it been a hard day, plus I am worried about my dad, who's had a death in the family AND has a wife with a badly broken arm), I think I will post my first video blog, courtesy of my fun iPod Nano that Lee got me.

It's the locally famous Pilar showing her latest piece of knitting (in the background, Susan and John Francis provide their usual "commentary"):

I hope to show you some other projects by the people I run into, and I hope you enjoy the little vignettes! And doesn't Pilar look great in those stockings? She has a perky hat to go with it, too.

And here's one more little preview. This is Andromeda, blocking! It was teeny, weeny, tiny when it came off the needles. Like the size of a bandanna. Tomorrow I hope to show you the finished product, which is at least the size of a large scarf!

I hope someone is here reading--not a lot of comments lately, but then, I haven't been a sterling conversationalist, myself. But, at least I have a knitting problem to stew on, and those are less horrible than family issues: I have a feeling I do not have enough silver yarn to finish the Vilai socks. Oops. I will see if I can find more on Ravelry or something!

Peace and Quiet

2009-10-18T10:32:00.003-05:00

I haven't gotten too much done this week. Lots of activities and even when I was at the yarn shop, I was so busy helping folks and doing other stuff, that not much knitting got done. That's OK. I really get a lot out of helping other people, and well, the chatting and laughing part is quite nice, too.

I am almost done with one of the plain ribbed socks I am working on. That comes from a lot of riding in buses with high school band kids! Speaking of which, since I have no knitting content, indulge me and look at the kids in their marching contest yesterday. See how many hearts, bows, presents and such you can spot. My son is one of the ones making the cymbal crashes, and playing the marimba in the front.

I have been really proud of these kids. A few weeks ago, this program totally stunk. You couldn't tell what they were doing, and they came in last at a competition. Last weekend they won a competition with the highest score of any school, and yesterday, what is in the video, they got a "1" (best you can) in the scholastic competition that is what they practice for all fall. People told the director it's the best band this school has had, which is amazing considering that some of the kids really could not figure out what they were doing not too many weeks ago.

Today I should have a lot of knitting time. I plan to FINISH that Andromeda shawl. By writing it down I am making it HAPPEN. I keep putting it off. So, look forward to seeing a small but pretty finished object in the next post!

The latest Vogue Knitting showed up today. I actually saw a couple of do-able projects, including one with lots of mitered squares that looked so fun. Who knows if it would look good on my petite round-ish frame, but it looks fun. There is also a cardigan that starts out with a cable in the back, then grows sideways on each side from that beginning. It looks like a me kind of project. I love unusual construction.

OK,off to really DO that knitting.

Stealth Project

2009-10-12T14:20:00.002-05:00

I snuck a quick project in while taking a break between Vilai socks, the mitts for my son's friend. I really like how they came out:

I did it all mostly while talking or riding in buses to band events, so they aren't perfect. For example, I forgot to make a left and right mitt. All the cables are the same. But, they are very warm, and I should know, since I tested out the first one at a rather nippy band competition Saturday night.

Again, the yarn for this was GGH Magica, which is a 100% wool with two plys very loosely spun together. As you can see, it fits at least one teen's hand, so I hope the recipient isn't too much bigger!

Tonight I'll get back to the Silver Vilai and start the second sock!

It was a pretty good knitting weekend, cool and rainy. Plus, all the other things I had planned to do fell through, so I got in a lot of yarn shop time. It helped that Saturday's competition was quite late, so it wasn't an "all band all the time weekend." It is good to be back in the swing of things without so many other tasks interrupting my knitting friends. There was a yarn crawl going on this weekend, so the shop was open on a rare Sunday. A few of us regulars gathered and got quite tickled over some of our conversations. Most fun was trying to find balls of yarn that matched particular parts of human anatomy. You had to be there, I guess. I also enjoyed meeting some new folks who were yarn crawling--always a bonus!

Oh yeah, the other good thing about the cool weather is I get to wear all my fun knits. I trotted out the rainbow cardigan and Bridget!