Red Earth Knitting

Comment Lingers on and another baby blanket

2010-11-16T11:15:00.000-08:00

Comment by Norah Gaughin

Comment refuses to be done. I am sick of it. If I didn't want to wear it so badly (next summer, of course by now), I would toss it. (It was frogged out of the uber-expensive Berroco Bonsai because that yarn sucks and is way too heavy for a summer top.) I reknit using Caron Spa (hey, I was broke after the damn Bonsai) in taupe color. After a shitload of assembling various smaller pieces, and edging miles of surfaces, I washed it and lightly blocked it (too much acrylic to apply heat to it) and hung it up to finish drying hoping that gravity would make the stupid garter stitch border lay down and play nice. (It still flips up at the front point despite frogging it and picking up the stitches around the point with a larger needle.) But a more aggregious problem has reared its head: the armholes are too long -- the entire side of my bra is showing, you can practically read the label.

Theory: cheap yarn is stretching from the weight of the long heavy front apron and pulling the whole thing down, or cheap yarn row gauge has bit me in the ass. Checked the pattern, it is knit by the vertical inch, so I should have gotten my 8" armhole, instead of my 11" armhole. Also, the armhole was showing a little too much of my armpit roll, so the armhole shaping needed tweaking.

What to do? This thing took several evenings in front of the television to assemble together and add edging. I carefully pulled out the neck and armhole edging, then undid the side seams just enough to be able to get to the armhole bindoffs. Unravelled from the top the front and back separately, and am presently reknitting, adding 3" before binding off for the armhole, and doing the armhole shaping decreases every other row instead of every row in the hopes that it will better hide the aforementioned armpit rolls. Time will tell. I'll probably end up with armholes sized to fit a 5-year old. Sigh.

Diagonal Baby Blanket

While I was cooling off from hating Comment, I dashed off another Diagonal baby blanket for fertile friends.

Laced Leaves

2010-11-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

Finally finished Laced Leaves using the Berroco Bonsai that I originally ~~invested in~~ bought for Comment. It took forever to sew on 8 buttons with backers (clear plastic on the wrong side). It's a little snug, but that also stretches out the lace and it's really pretty. Only drawback is the buttons. I upsized them to 1/2", but that's still not enough, they're popping out. Sigh. Maybe I'll pretend I want to wear it unbuttoned at the bottom. Or pin the darn thing closed, lol.

Catching Up

2010-10-31T11:59:00.000-07:00

Whew, I thought I'd get back in the groove of posting once my boys were back in school, but no such luck! Here are some finished projects that I never got around to blogging about.

Princess Squares Blanket (for a Prince!)

Princess Squares Blanket was knit for a neighbor with a new baby boy, using ALL STASH yarn! Yay! And that is why the color pattern is not, um, uniform, because I ran out of the old discontinued cotton-ease baby blue color. It's a design feature. All the latest babys are rocking it. Lol. The pattern was published in Vogue Knitting Fall 2010.

Another Summerbelle

Another hockey mom who works for a bank in Dallas as their PR director asked if I would knit something for a charity auction they were holding. So, I did some stash-diving and came up with enough of this yellow Plymouth Jeannee cotton yarn to make a Summerbelle in the 1-2 year old size range. This is an absolutely lousy picture, it was a cloudy day and I had to drop it in the mail that day so I rushed.

Penguin Hat

In that same envelope went this penguin hat for her son. The short version of the story is, the dad was transferred to OKC with his company, but their Dallas house hadn't sold, so the son and Dad moved to OKC while the mom stayed in Dallas waiting for the house to sell. Then, the Dad gets offered an even better job in Dallas, and now the family is all under the same roof again. The son is now playing for the Dallas Penguins, so I made this for him out of stash yarns in the Dallas Penguin team colors. Those are iron-on letters from Hancock's.

I still have three other projects going, the Giraffe Jacket, which is getting ready for it's separating zipper, and the Laced Leaves cardigan, which is going to get it's buttons, and the aforementioned Comment top, which is being reknit in Caron Spa, a bamboo/acrylic blend, and is now out of season. :(

Comment Continues to Confound

2010-09-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

Came to a skidding halt again on Comment by Nora Gaughan (Berroco Vol. 6). (The previous halt was due to the old nemesis, Gauge.) The yarn, Berroco Bonsai, actually arrived mid-July, but I was wrapped up in other stuff and couldn't get to it. Now, I'm in a hurry to finish it because it's a summer tank and it's still warm and I could get one wearing out of it before Fall and, oh yeah, I'm chomping at the bit to start Fall stuff, but I can't. I hate it. I like the pattern, it looks cool and breezy, but the yarn is anything but cool and breezy.

It's 97% bamboo and 3% nylon which you think would be nice and cool, but it's a tape yarn and it just doesn't feel like a summer yarn, it feels heavy and potentially sweat-inducing. This is a pic of the finished fabric before I rip it out (dammit). This yarn was a splurge, so tossing it back into the stash is not an option, financial guilt demands it be used and used now.

Enter Laced Leaves. I think the openwork will be beautiful in the gold Bonsai. I might be griping in a week about how heavy the Bonsai makes the ribbing. And yes, I feel like I have the attention span of a gnat. Because I'm starting on this instead of driving to the LYS for a linen/cotton blend to make Comment with. I'm bad. Very bad.

Fall is in the air!

2010-08-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

Well, you can tell by my scarce posts that I have busy with the kids this summer. Today was the start of the school year, and I think we're all excited to get back into the routine. Some of us more than others. ;) I can see bare branches at the top of the cottonwood trees behind my house, they are always the first to lose their leaves. And, my yard is littered with leaves, but my Sycamores constantly drop leaves and bark, so that's not exactly an indicator. I have one more summer top to finish, then it may be time to move on to summer knitting!

Finally finished the #10 Lace Dress from Knit Simple Magazine:

I ended up starting on #4's, then switching to #5's on the two middle charts, to #6's on the 4th chart, and to #7's on the stockinette. I also worked two sizes because I wanted it for a tunic and it flared out huge in my size. I made the smallest size up to the stockinette, then switched to the 38" bust by increasing every RS row until I had the recommended stitches.

I really like it, I'm just scared to wear it because it's a nightmare to block now that it's assembled! Ha.

Crop Sleeve Raglan

2010-07-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

I'm still working on the lace dress, but here is a pic of a finished sweater, it's the #9 Crop Sleeve Raglan by Gayle Bunn from Knit N' Style magazine, August 2005.

#10 Lace Dress Continues to Confound

2010-07-20T07:12:00.000-07:00

I have been knitting and frogging and knitting and frogging #10 Lace Dress
by Sandi Prosser from Knit Simple Magazine, Spring/Summer 2010. What is the problem, you might ask? Gauge, that old gotcha. You wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal on an A-line dress, but boy has it caused some serious frayed yarn. You see, my substitute yarn, Universal Yarns Summer Linen that I purchased from Herrschner's, is giving me some funky gauge problems. In stockinette, I get the 21st/4" gauge on #7s. But on Chart #1's horseshoe lace, I ended up with a tent. I figured out that the tent-edness (to coin a word) had two contributing factors: gauge and the size I chose. I had to use #4's to get the 22st/4" gauge listed for the lace pattern, but the bottom width for my usual size was still too much. So, I changed to the smallest size on #4 needles, and I was happy with the bottom hem width. No problem, I'll just figure out how to change needles or add increases after I get to the waist, which is evidently not going to be anytime soon. However, after I finished Chart #1 (2-1/2 repeats) and Chart #2 (5-3/4 repeats), I did a sanity check and held it up to make sure it was going to fit. It did not. Chart #2's gauge ended up being 24sts/4". So, I ripped back to the start of Chart #2, and changed to #5's, which is working nicely. At this rate, I shall have to change to #6's for Chart #3, and #7's for Chart #4, which would leave me just peachy for the stockinette bodice at 21st/4" on #7s. I knew this dress would take awhile, but it's killing my summer knitting and I have yarn on the way for another summer top.

Ah, the stress of incoming yarn!

CeCe and Leaf Yoke Tank

2010-07-13T08:28:00.000-07:00

I am so behind in posts, that I am just going to post pictures of the two sweaters that I've finished, CeCe by ChicKnits, and Leaf Yoke Tank from Knit.1 magazine, Spring/Summer 2009.

Leaf Yoke Tank was knit in Pegasus, a yarn I bought from Elann. It's okay, but it arrived darker than what it looked like in the picture. All in all, nice yarn, not something I would have picked had I seen it in person. I'm a little unhappy with the hem, it's folded over and sewn in place, kinda bulky around the hips and takes forever to dry. Tip: when the pattern tells you to mark the row where the hem will be attached, run a lifeline through those stitches so that they're easier to find when you're working on the wrong side.

CeCe will probably be worn to a frazzle, it's loose, comfy, and the yarn, I Love This Cotton from Hobby Lobby, is very soft and cuddly, although it does pill a bit.

I am now working on a tank/tunic/dress thing that I'm adapting, having trouble meeting both the stockinette gauge and the lace gauge with my chosen yarn. It's called #10 Lace Dress from Knit Simple magazine Spring/Summer 2010.

Henley Tank

2010-05-13T07:34:00.000-07:00

In another fit of stash reduction (amazing how motivating cleaning out closets to renovate is), I made this Henley Tank (scroll halfway down) from Interweave Knits Summer 2009 completely out of leftovers from other projects.

The pink is Tahki Cotton Classic, white is Plymouth Jeannee, green is Knitpicks Shine and the blue is Omega Sinfonia! The waffle weave pattern was easy to memorize, and I like the placket construction.

The only changes I made were to lengthen it 1", increase armhole depth 1" to allow layering, and I used a crochet hook to continue the blue accent yarn around the top corners of the neckline because it bugged me leaving 1" of pink space.

Striped Diagonal Baby Blanket

2010-04-27T06:04:00.000-07:00

Don't you hate it when the best-laid plains go awry? I needed a baby gift, had some nice cotton yarn in the stash, and, according to this pattern, I should have had enough to make it. Wrong. I only had half. So, I went stash diving and found two more colors to use and bought another skein of the white. The result is a little bi-polar, but I'm pretending it's some sort of post-modernistic expression. blah blah.

I'm a semi-finalist in the Michael's/Lion Brand Contest!

2010-04-21T11:51:00.000-07:00

Just one problem: I don't have it anymore, I made this for my father, who passed away. I'll have to call my stepmom and see if she still has it!

UPDATE: Drove to Tulsa Saturday and got the blanket (and had a nice visit with D') and spent $70 to send it UPS insured to arrive by Thursday. Woo hoo!

UPDATE: Received blanket back in the mail from Lion Brand 7/12/2010 with no explanation as to who won the contest or how I placed. Really, really, weird.

Several FOs

2010-04-19T19:47:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe I haven't posted in over a month! I have several finished objects to report. The one I am most proud of is Summerbelle, a pattern I have for sale on Ravelry and on my website.

I received a birth notice from a couple that we see only occasionally, but they are friends of family and we have helped them buy and sell their last two houses. I had completely forgotten that she was expecting. I searched and searched for something "girlie" to knit her, and couldn't find a pattern that matched what I envisioned. So, I made one. It took an Excel spreadsheet to calculate the decrease placements, so it was both an intellectual exercise and the chance to knit something pink and lacy, which doesn't happen often for a mother of two boys.

In between and among other projects, I knit another February sweater (aka Best Baby Sweater aka Sweater on Two Needles), this time in apple green Patons Silk Bamboo.
I make several modifications to mine:
1. Move buttonholes to 2 sts from edge (see my other version, “Baby Sweater on Two Needles”, to see why).
2. Used YO increases on first two increase rows to create eyelets: K4, K1, YO, K2, YO rep from * to * until 4 sts remain, K4.

3. Added matching eyelets on cuffs and hem: K 4 rows, eyelet row: K2, YO, K2tog, K1 rep from * to , end K3, K 3 rows, BO.
4. Lengthened sleeves: after the additional sts CO at underarm, work 9 pattern repeats then start cuffs.
Note: body length is usually 9 pattern repeats from underarm join.

Now, February Sweater needed a matching hat to complete the outfit. This time, instead of making my favorite Petal Hat, which I have rewritten for working in the round and make often for quick baby gifts for people I don't know as well, I decided that February Sweater needed a matching hat. So, I just took my Petal Hat pattern and substituted the February stitch pattern. Simple, right? Of course not. February Sweater is worked top down, Petal Hat worked bottom up. The pattern is just YOs and decreases, should be simple to reverse, right? Nope. No matter how I worked it, it did not match.
So, I designed another hat, top down, using the stitch pattern from February. The bindoff was a problem, I couldn't make it stretchy enough, then I remembered bookmarking Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bindoff. Works wonderfully! I didn't want to worry about copyright infringement, so instead of publishing this hat pattern, I just posted the directions for the hat here and on Ravelry:

A Cap For February
(You have to own a copy of the February sweater pattern for the lace pattern.)

US #6 dpns or circs
US #4 dpns or circs

CO 3 sts. Join to knit in the round, Knit into the front and back (Kfb) of each stitch. 6sts.
Purl one round.
Kfb one round. 12 sts.
P one round.
(K1, YO) repeat inside brackets one round. 24 sts.
P one round.
Kfb one round. 48 sts.
P one round.
K3, YO, (K2, YO) repeat inside brackets to last 3 sts, K2tog, K1, YO. 70 sts. (make sure you have 70 stitches here, make any adjustments on last 3 sts of this round.)
Begin Row 1 of Gull Wing stitch pattern as described in the February Sweater Pattern.
Do 8 total repeats of the stitch pattern.
CHANGE TO SIZE US#4 NEEDLES.
Do 2 more repeats of the stitch pattern.
P one row.
K one row.
P one row.
(K1, YO, K2tog) one round, end K1.
P one row.
K one row.
P one row.
Bind off using Jeny's Suprisingly Stretchy Bindoff, modified by only using knit stitches (no purls).

Giraffe Jacket is languishing for want of a zipper, which isn't much fun to sew in. I started a baby blanket instead. My friends are reproducing at an alarming rate.

FO: Little Coffee Bean Cardigan

2010-03-15T10:48:00.000-07:00

Well, in spite of the crazy spin that my life has taken recently, I've managed to finish a baby gift, the Little Coffee Bean Cardigan. It's a baby gift for a friend who just had her fourth boy (God help her). I used stash leftovers, Vanna's Choice in chocolate and linen. The buttons were even stash, found them in my mom's button jar. It was a quick and easy knit.
Made some modifications (of course):
1. Didn't do the eyelet increases at the raglan seams, just did regular paired increases for a boy's sweater.
2. Lengthened the sleeves to long sleeves: When sleeve measures 2-1/2” from armpit, dc one st each side of marker on every second round of the brown stripe until 24 stitches remain, continue until sleeve measures 6” from armpit.

I also used the jogless stripe method (which is why sleeve decreases must be on second round of color change, first round has the jog correction on the last stitch of the first round of the new color. There are several methods to do this, I wanted to hide the jog underneath the sleeve, so I knit the first round of the new color to the last stitch, then lifted the stitch below the last stitch onto the left needle and knit it together with the last stitch. It pulls the spiral up to look like the stripes are level.

Have decided that the debut of the Giraffe Jacket will have to wait until fall. I simply had zero time to work on it in the last month and everyone is now coming out with spring and summer patterns, so it will be ignored right now. The knitting is finished and it is washed and blocked. All it needs now are the zipper installed and the directions written up. Since this is Spring Break for my boys, I won't have the free time to do the write up until next week.

Now onto other knitting projects, I have on the needles the (Ravelry link) February Sweater or Best Baby Sweater or Sweater On Two Needles, whichever name you know. Have already knit this several times and it's a cute little girl gift for friends in Colorado expecting their first baby in May. Am using Patton's Silk Bamboo, it may be a little limp, but it will be soft for a baby.

The Whole World is Standing in Line to Stop My Knitting

2010-03-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Want me to do something for you? Get in freaking line!!!! I am positive that if I checked my horoscope, it would say, "no free time for you anytime soon, my dear." WTH?!

I am still managing to snatch 5 minutes here and there on my Giraffe Jacket, which would have been finished a month ago if my so-called life hadn't suddenly gone beserk. Drove to Fargo, ND for my son's hockey tournament for 5 days, and of course I'm thinking great chunks of knitting time in the car and at the hotel. Oh no, on the drive up the guys decided to wait and see the first period of the Canada hockey game, so we left after dark and the dome light "bugged the driver", and then when we got there the dry air freaked out my sinuses resulting in a constant splitting headache making it impossible to knit, then on drive home -- flu complete with alternating fever, chills, body aches, and complete fatigue. AAAAaaaah!

I am now well. But even if I do ignore chores or errands and sit down to knit, the Universe thinks, "Oh no, you don't!" and sends me an urgent phone call, sick child, broken household item, hockey practice, boy scout event, etc.

Calgon, take me away!!! (Two more travel hockey weekends and the season is done!!!!)

Lettuce Coat

2010-02-08T07:27:00.001-08:00

I finished my Lettuce Coat last Thursday, but have been too busy to blog it (of course, I did find time to mark it finished in Ravelry, for some reason I am a slave to keeping Ravelry up to date). It is a very comfy coat, and fits like a coat, meaning that from a side view, it's a little bulky, but the front split opening adds a suggestion of slimness on the front view.

It's knit from the top down with a provisional cast on at the shoulders which is then used to knit the fronts until they all merge under the arm. I had never knit a sweater this way and it was enjoyable because it kept my attention, waiting to see what comes next. However, I still dislike wrassling a sweater around in my lap, especially when you knit the whole body and then pick up stitches for the sleeves. I was worried that the weight of the coat would elongate the stitches at the shoulder seam, but they are holding nicely. Also, there are no buttonholes to knit, you attach I-cord loops as you trim the fronts in I-cord. The wooden buttons really accent it, I think. I was supposed to carry the I-cord all the way down into the Brioche rib, but it made the lower corners curl, so I removed it. The brioche rib is reversible and doesn't curl, and it creates a nice selvedge chain that can stand on it's own.

Here's the side view I was talking about. A little bulky in the waist, but it's still flattering. And warm!

This is a closeup of the Malabrigo Red Java colorway, I love how the colors range between pink, rust, brown, red and all shades in between.

Okay, no more cheating, I have to finish my Giraffe Jacket before spring!

Dogs and Knitting

2010-02-04T08:05:00.000-08:00

Does anyone else's dog think that your knitting bag is their personal pillow? Mine does this all the time. She's moved her bed closer to the bag to use it for a pillow!

Lettuce Coat Behaving So Far

2010-01-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

The (Ravelry link) Lettuce Coat is coming along nicely, although I really should rename it since I'm using reds instead of the lettuce green yarn. It's top-down construction, so you provisionally cast on for the back, knit down to the armholes, put those stitches on a holder, unpick the provisional cast on and knit the two fronts down to the armholes, then join the whole mess. The fabric no longer feels quite so floppy and the color changes in this yarn are just beautiful (although I'm partial to reds and browns anyway). The brioche rib has slowed me down quite a bit, not because it's a hard stitch. The YO next to a slipped stitch tend to trade places on the cord, and it's a lot of tugging to get them back up on the needle to knit them. Secondly, I discovered after a few rows of brioche rib that one ball of yarn has more of the lighter colors in it and it was really obvious, so I dropped it after a few rows and am now blending two balls of yarn. There's more light streaks on the ribbing than anywhere else in the sweater, but I had already knit the fronts, back, joined them all together and done the waist shaping before I discovered it, so of course I won't go back, ha. Just another reason to not favor top-down construction. I know I am going to be really aggravated when I'm knitting on the sleeves, but I've never done a pattern where you knit the sleeves by picking up stitches, so I was interested in trying the technique. Six inches of brioche rib done, 9 more to go! lol

Lettuce Coat angst

2010-01-16T09:13:00.001-08:00

I have cast on for the (Ravelry Link) Lettuce Coat from Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard. I scored the Malabrigo for it in the Red Java colorway (that I have admired for two years but could never afford) at a reasonable price at Webbs. I have only done about six rows, because I am uneasy. The gauge for this coat is 14 st / 4 in on #9 needles. Ball band says 16-20 st / 4 in on size 7-9 needles. I had to go up to a size 13 needle to get close to gauge. The holes are pretty big and I'm not sure that the fabric isn't too floppy for a coat. I swatched over and over, and I've stopped and measured gauge in several places and gone round and round. The problem is, I don't own a size 12 needle. Size 11 gives me 15st/in and size 13 gives me 13 st/in. Problem #2 is, there's a big jump in sizing, I'm a 39" bust, and the sizing is 40" or 43-1/2", which would be too big and bulky in this loose-spun yarn. So I'd rather fall short on gauge and get my size slightly larger than 40", rather than go down to an 11 and have to block the heck out of it. All I can hope for, I guess, is that this yarn will bloom after washing and fill in those big loop holes a bit. It is loosely spun, so should bloom. I know, I know, I should have washed the swatch.

Checked on Ravelry, everyone else used size 9 needles for their coats, and only one person mentioned having to block the heck out of it. So either they used the #9 and knit a larger size, or they have a very tight coat.

Checked on wiseneedle.com, they are saying it's 18 st / 4" on a #9, which makes me feel better using a #13 to get 14 st/ in.

Guess I'll blunder ahead and see what happens.

Zigzag Cowl

2010-01-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

Here's a little (Ravelry link) Zigzag Cowl that I whipped out while sitting at the rink. I really meant for it to last longer so that I'd have something to do, but ending up enjoying the pattern and was anxious to see how it would look. It has a picot cast on, then at the end you bindoff and turn the picot over and sew in place. I tried to think of a way to bind it off and sew it in place at the same time, but eventually realized it would leave a harder seam than binding off loosely and then using the bindoff chain to stitch it in place. Yarn used is Berroco Ultra Alpaca, which is soft and warm but will felt in the blink of an eye. If I gift this I'll have to enclose care instructions.

I passed!

2010-01-14T06:20:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo! Just received an e-mail confirmation that I passed Level 1 of TKGA's Master Hand Knitting course! Yeeeeeha!!

Second Time's a Charm

2010-01-08T11:29:00.000-08:00

Just dropped my TKGA Master Hand Knitting Level I resubmission in the mail. I dropped it in quickly before I could second-guess myself, like ripping off a band-aid. I didn't even watch the door close.

Hopefully, this is what they are looking for and I'll be done! I purposely haven't marked it as a finished project in Ravelry because I don't want to jinx it.

When I was at the Gourmet Yarn Company the other day, Margaret asked me if I had finished it yet, and I told her it was going to have to wait until after the holidays. She asked if I had signed up for Level II yet, and I told her no, our group had decided that this course had pretty much sucked all of the fun out of knitting. But now I find myself wondering about the second level. I know I could do it, but I don't think I would have ever finished the first level had it not been for our Thursday group that worked on it all together. Looking back now, our agonizing over the seed stitch swatch is pretty funny, but it was all serious business at the time. Level II on my own would be a lonely business, but I'm curious about it...

Christmas thoughts of my mother

2010-01-04T07:04:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over, I finished most of my Christmas knitting, and for the things I simply ran out of time to do, I substituted another gift, so the stress is over. This Christmas was a bummer for me, not because I didn't enjoy watching my boys enjoy all the wonder of Christmas or because it's a lot of work, which I don't mind doing to make the holidays special. I really missed my mother this year.

I miss the anxiety and hard work and worrying and wondering involved in getting or making her a gift. I could have given her a stick of gum with a bow on it, and she would have exclaimed and fussed over it and admired it from all angles. She sewed and crafted, so she appreciated the time involved in making a homemade gift, but appreciated anything you gave her. She enjoyed a well-set 'fancy' table, and I make it a point to use her 'special' plates, silverware, crystal and linens for Christmas and Thanksgiving, even though it all has to washed by hand aferwards and the boys ask why don't we just eat at the kitchen table like always and why is the dining room only used twice a year.

Any new or unusual dish was first admired, then sampled, then discussed at length. A creative table centerpiece was a must, even though you eventually had to move it out of the way to make room for the food. She would cut the boy's ham into such small pieces that her own food was almost cold by the time she was finished. Yet, if the boys dropped food on the tablecloth or spilled their milk, she didn't bat an eye, she thought everything they did was wonderful.

My mom believed that anything worth doing was worth doing right, and a curtain fold that was misbehaving or a flower arrangement that had been whacked too many times with a whiffleball were very carefully set to right, even if it took hours and would be back in disarray on her next visit.

My mother absolutely hated the cold, yet she would have been sitting shivering right next to me at the boys' hockey games or any sport they chose to play.

My mother died from cancer when she was 64. She never got to retire, or see her grandchildren grow up. I never got to ask her a lot of things, because we never made it to the quiet time of life where you are no longer defined by jobs and children and home renovations and all the things you spend your early adult years chasing after. We never got to set down and talk about things, from her childhood, growing up, her parents, or anything. Towards the end she asked me if there was anything that I wanted to ask her, and I was so paralyzed from fear and exhausted from working full time, taking care of two small boys and driving back and forth to Norman to doctors and hospitals, that I just couldn't form a coherent thought. I should have asked her so many things, but I didn't.

Two days after she died, I was lying in bed about to drift off to sleep when I smelled her perfume. She was letting me know that she was alright. Sometimes I walk into my dining room and smell her perfume. I joke that she's just making sure that I'm taking care of her pretty things. I have a running list in my head of Things That I Should Have Done Differently while she was still alive. I know that if I were to show it to her, she would tell me that I did everything right and that I did the best that I could. As usual, I wouldn't believe her, but I'd feel better that she said it. I'll just have to ask her later.

Christmas Knitting

2009-12-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

Just finished blocking the second teacher's scarf. They turned out really well, and each has it's own character, due to the different yarn used. The pattern is Branching Out on knitty.com. These really were a fast knit. I'll bet you could knock one out in one day if you had a straight day of no interruptions. As it was, it took 2 or 3 nights of rink knitting for each.

I think the orange scarf is my favorite. Skye's teacher said her favorite color is orange, so I had bought a ball of Rowan Kidsilk Haze from The Gourmet Yarn Company. Knitty's pattern directions say, and I quote, "if this is your first lace project, the Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool is an excellent choice. It is extremely soft and light-weight, it does not split, it is easy to frog or tink if you make a mistake, and it has wonderful stitch definition. If you are a more experienced lace knitter, the Douceur et Soie makes a beautiful, feather-weight scarf." Well, I have knit lace before, have knit with the Silky Wool before and hated it, but the mohair turned out to be out of my league. Any pattern screwups could not be frogged without swearing and yarn breakage. So, in desperation, I went stashing diving (yay, me!) and came up with some leftover balls of Valley Yarns Southwick, which is a cotton/bamboo blend. Doubtfully, I combined the two together. It is wonderful! You get the soft, heavy cotton feel with a little mohair fizz for added luxury. It took two balls of Southwick and used about 75% of the Kidsilk Haze for 28 pattern repeats.

The white scarf is Elann Super Kydd (I had originally bought a package of three balls of it, one pink, one white, one blue for teacher's scarves and an extra, but the orange request threw that plan out the window). I didn't have any wool that was bright white and the cotton yarn was all 100% and too heavy, so I came up with a thin baby acrylic (Yarn Bee Baby Bee) that I had used for hats and was pretty soft and combined it with the Super Kydd. The result is nice. It has the light and lacy feel without the heaviness of the cotton. It's not quite as soft as the cotton/bamboo, but it's lacier feeling and still has the mohair fizz. I used probably about 50% of the Yarn Bee and 75% of the Super Kydd for 28 repeats.

I still have a blue and a pink ball of mohair that I may knock out last-minute Christmas gifts with, while the kids and I are home next week.

Elf Attire

2009-12-07T09:19:00.000-08:00

Finished the Elf Attire for my son's play this Thursday (with 3 days to spare, oh my!). The hat pattern is on the Lionbrand website, Santa Claus Hat.

The boots are Curly-Toed Elf Slippers from Weekend Knitting. I used stash yarn (yay!), one skein of Red Heart worked doubled on #15s, and one skein of Lion Brand Fun Fur worked tripled. Unknown red stash scrap for the tassels.

Wet Fingernail Polish and other Knitting Roadblocks

2009-12-05T09:54:00.000-08:00

Still plugging away on the kilt hose. One is completely finished with ends weaved in, the other is lacking 3 pattern repeats on the foot before toe decreases. I discovered yesterday that in my haste to fix a big problem and reknit the yarn laying in a tangled heap, (I failed to stop for the heel and did an extra 16 rows that had to be ripped back), when I did the heel flap I failed to add in the reinforcing thread, so now the heel feels floppy. I've gone too far forward, I've already turned the heel, picked up stitches and continued on the foot. I'll have to turn the sock wrong side out later and duplicate stitch the reinforcing thread in. I got the idea from Designs for Knitting Kilt Hose & Knickerbocker Stockings published by Schoolhouse Press. The author, Veronica Gainford, says you can go back and duplicate stitch the reinforcing thread on the wrong side of the sock, especially if you'd like to reinforce the sole but don't want to carry the thread across the top of the foot.

.With all of that going on, of course I've cast on for (Ravelry links) an Elf Hat and Slippers for my son's Christmas play next Thursday.

And I haven't even started the Christmas scarves and slippers.

So, with all of this going on, why am I pecking on the computer instead of knitting? Wet fingernail polish. Husband's office Christmas party is tonight at the Petroleum Club downtown. Now I remember why I stopped painting my nails -- decreased knitting time!

Stash-busting light-speed blanket

2009-11-22T13:58:00.000-08:00

Husband's coworkers in Florida had a baby two weeks ago, and I'm still plugging away on the kilt hose. Enter Cascading Colors Baby Blankie on the Lion Brand website. Two colors of yarn held together on size 15 needles. Finished in 8 hours total! Best of all, completely knit from stash, no purchase necessary. Woot!

Of course, I had to change it. The size 17 needles called for made really big holes since I wasn't using the fuzzy Lion Brand Jiffy called for, so dropped to size 15 needles and cast on 10 extra stitches. Almost wish I'd done another half repeat. Also added 3 rows of seed stitch at beginning and end, and two seed stitches along the size to tame curling.

Still Alive

2009-11-20T13:28:00.000-08:00

I'm still alive, just plugging away on a pair of kilt hose for a fellow piper. I ran out of yarn after buying up all the closeouts from SWAK in the City, now I'm buying the last 4 balls of it from Webbs. Hopefully I can come up with a heavier substitute should any more pipers want kilt hose, these size 0 needles are taking FOREVER! I would post a picture, but I didn't ask the pattern author's permission to sell items from her pattern because I really didn't intend to do this pattern, the recipient insisted on it. I am going to make up some swatches with a heavier yarn and different cables/patterns should this request come my way again.

I have lots of Christmas knitting and a baby blanket to do, hurry up hose!

Eastlake and Russian Grafting

2009-10-29T06:56:00.000-07:00

I just ran across this YouTube video on Russian Grafting and I am so excited to try it on my next pair of kilt hose. I don't like the way grafted toes look, probably because I'm not very good at it. I had the idea of knitting kilt hose top-down, then when you reach the toe, put half the stitches on a holder (the sole), and using the the toe-up method, form a toe pouch, then graft it back together on the sole. This Russian grafting video looks like exactly what I was thinking of, so I guess I'm not the first one to think of it!

Russian Grafting YouTube video

I also finished Eastlake, of course it took much longer than anticipated and there were, unfortunately, many errors in the pattern, some uncorrected despite the errata sheet that came with the pattern book. She also tried this weird neck extension thing that extends like straps from the front and meet together in the back that was a little different. (You can see the seam at the back neck in my photo.) Some Ravelers left it out completely, but I decided to try it. All in all I am very pleased with the way it turned out and I am sure I will wear it often!

FO: Radiating Star Blanket

2009-10-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

Finally blocked the Radiating Star Blanket, the eyelet edges curled terribly after washing. I wanted this to be something she could toss in the washer and dryer, but she's going to be unhappy with the way the edges curl. Maybe if it's folded after drying they'll flatten.

Since I didn’t use bulky yarn, I knit rows 1-94, then repeated rows 71-94, ending with row 95, then started the eyelet row. Next time, I would add two rows of garter after the eyelets to give weight to the edge.

Book Review: Seven Things That Can "Make or Break" a Sweater

2009-10-19T05:29:00.000-07:00

Just bought a new book, Seven Things That Can "Make or Break" a Sweater. At first I was a little disappointed, because it doesn't have any new, startling, who'd-a-thunk-it information that I didn't already know. But then, I realized, it's all the little things, tips, tricks, techniques, that I've learned along the way all compiled into one book, into one place. I sure wish I'd had this book when I was doing the Master Level Handknitting course, it answers a TON of questions that we looked up elsewhere. So, instead of trying to remember which book has the method for, say, increasing evenly across a row in ribbing, I can just pull out this book. Pretty neat.

I have about 200 irons in the fire right now, including T-shirt and Hoodie orders for our elementary, my youngest son's birthday, Halloween, and too many WIPs.

Oh, and I got a knitting job, a pair of kilt hose for a fellow piper! Yippee!

I'll try to take pics of the WIPs tomorrow. Too much to do today.

Radiating Star Blanket

2009-10-02T11:53:00.000-07:00

Cast on for the (Ravelry link) Radiating Star Blanket which I have absolutely no business doing given the other things I have on or planned for my needles. But it's nicely addictive, watching the pattern emerge. I do have a recipient in mind, our neighbors are expecting a new baby girl. I'm knitting on size 7 needles with 5 balls of Cotton Ease in apple green, which is my new favorite baby girl color. Pink gets old.

I've started my Giraffe Jacket design three times and have been unhappy with the results. So it's marinating in my mind, still.

I washed the John Anderson kilt hose, and, as promised in the pattern, they softened up beautifully. I was afraid they'd be stiff as a board. I may even have gotten a knitting job making kilt hose after a local pipe band member saw my hose at the Fair. We'll, see he hasn't called back.

State Fair Loot

2009-09-29T11:43:00.000-07:00

I was extraordiarily blessed at the State Fair. I won two first place ribbons with a Best of Show, and two second place ribbons!

FO: John Anderson's Kilt Hose

2009-09-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

I finished the kilt hose last night, ended up having to undo the bindoff on the first one because it wasn't matching the second one. I used the K2tog, pass stitch back to LH needle, repeat. Now they match, but I just tried one on this morning, and the bindoff is too tight. Sigh. These are toe-up socks knit very densly with worsted yarn on small needles and I'd really like for them to go away! Ha.

But, they are a Christmas present for my husband, so I'll spend another hour this morning ripping out the bindoff. I guess I'll do EZ's sewn castoff.

UPDATE: Ripped out the bindoff, did the sewn bindoff, worked beautifully. It uses the same amount of yarn as a regular bindoff, so if you need to rip something out, don't worry about running out of yarn.

EZ's Sewn Cast off from Knitting Without Tears:
Break yarn, leaving a tail about 4 times as long as the circumference of the sock. Thread a tapestry needle.

* sew forward (right to left) through two stitches as if to purl, leave the stitches on. Sew backward (left to right) through one stitch as if to knit and remove the stitch. (For the very first stitch only, after you go backwards through it, do not remove it, instead move it to be the last stitch on the final needle. It will then become the final stitch to be cast off. This gives a neater finish to the end of the round. )
Repeat from * until you run out of stitches. Work in tail on the inside of the sock and trim any excess.

The above directions were found here, but I couldn't find them on socknitters as it cites.

Had to un-friend a knitter on Facebook

2009-09-20T07:29:00.000-07:00

I am hoping to one day make my living in the fiber world. So I am always studying other people's work, reading their blogs and trying to learn all that I can. I admire the work of Annie Modesitt, read her blog, and "friended" her on Facebook and Twitter. (I have since discontinued Twitter, I don't like it). I soon learned, however, that in order to read her posts about her latest project, which is taking medieval pieces and re-interpreting them as knitted items, I was going to have to wade through a whole lot of liberal socialist crap that doesn't even make sense half the time. I perservered, ignored the posts that made me want to scream and just played nice. But then, she offended me beyond tolerance when she posted the so-called "survey" that 77% of Oklahoma high school graduates did not know who the first president was, and I could no longer be silent. But I was nice. I suggested politely that I wasn't sure that that was a real survey, and if it was, then possibly they only polled the one problem school district that we have that has a 50% dropout rate. I really said it like that, very nice. SHE DELETED MY POST!

I looked her up on Twitter, thinking that if she lived in California I would suggest that she wouldn't like being compared to Jay Leno's "Jaywalking" morons just because she lived in California, then discovered that her location is Tehran! Iran! She doesn't even live in this country, yet I'm wading through all her stupid opinions of how this country should be to get to the meager knitting content. I started to post something on her wall to that effect, then realized that she isn't interested in anyone's opinion but her own, and she also isn't interested in facts. I know she gloats over the number of followers that she has on Twitter, so I struck back in the only dignified way that I could. I "unfriended" her, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on Ravelry. I'm sure my one insignificant stat will not even be a blip on her radar, but I feel better.

I still like her knitting work, but she should keep her offensive political opinions to herself.

The 2009 Oklahoma State Fair was good to me!

2009-09-18T14:16:00.001-07:00

Michael Kors Cabled Tunic
1st Place - Knitted Sweater and Best in Show

Printed Silk Cardigan
1st Place - Knitted Cardigan

Prairie
2nd Place - Knitted Shell

Rhiannon Kilt Hose
2nd Place - Knitted socks

Thanks, Bette, for giving me your advice on entering!

I've been a bad, bad girl

2009-09-13T07:26:00.000-07:00

Yep, I caught this puppy on sale on Joanns.com. I paid $120, which is about $100 cheaper than buying one at Hancock's. I've been wanting one lately because I have this design idea for a sweater but I'm modifying the width of the saddle shoulder straps and I'm having trouble visualizing how this is all going to meet at the neck. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. (grin) It's also been motivation to restart the diet and exercise program, as I had to do a lot of fiddling with the dials to, er, conform to my measurements.

Have made great progress on the John Anderson's Kilt Hose, calf shaping is coming along nicely. This is a really nice pattern so far. The foot looks absolutely huge, but I tried it on and, embarassingly enough, it fits. My husband's foot is the same size as mine (can't believe I admitted that), so all is well. This has been a great portable project for taking to the rink during my boy's hockey practice.

John Anderson Kilt Hose

2009-09-07T08:10:00.001-07:00

The kilt hose for my husband's Christmas present are coming along nicely. The pattern is John Anderson's Kilt Hose, a free pattern.I used the toe-up method from Vogue Knitting Ultimate Sock Book, and the eye of partridge heel. Have just turned the heel and am now knitting the leg, which will be the long boring part, save for some increasing and shaping. And, of course, I still have to knit the second one. I attempted the two socks on one circ method, but got aggravated with all the manipulating, which is why I don't care for circularly-knit sweaters, too much wrasslin'!

Have done some more mental designing on the Giraffe sweater, I think I'm ready to dive in and start the sleeves to see how the charted pattern is going to turn out. I was supposed to enter this in the fair next weekend, I'm betting with everything else that I have going on that I don't make it. Sigh.

Scallop Edge Pullover, Part Deux

2009-08-31T06:24:00.000-07:00

BEFORE
The more times I tried on the Scallop Edge Pullover, the more I realized that I would never wear it because I hated the sleeves. Specifically, the way the sleeves revealed the rolls at my armpit (you know you have them). So on Sunday morning, I took the sleeves back out, repinned them much farther down in the armscye and stretched the bejeesus out of them to fit. Not only did it fix the unsightly underarm roll problem, it reduced the flare of the sleeve so it removed the 'wing effect.'

AFTER
I wore the sweater to my neighborhood presentation Sunday afternoon and loved it!

FO: Scallop Edge Pullover

2009-08-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

Finally finished the Scallop Edge Pullover. This was my first time to do picot edging and a buttoned placket. I think it turned out pretty well, the only mod I would make would be to make the sleeves one inch longer, they didn't attach to the armhole as far down as they were supposed to, and I didn't want to distort the edges to make it fit. Now I must go to the gym to tone my arms to wear this puppy. Ha.

Cast on for the kilt hose for my husband's Christmas present despite the fact that I bought yarn a month ago at Gourmet Yarn to design a sweater that I'd like to sell the pattern for. Oh, and I entered that same as-yet-formless sweater in the fair in an attempt to motivate myself past the fear of rejection and ridicule to finish it already. It's not working so far. However, I've already muffed the directions for the kilt hose and will have to rip back. P3TBL in worsted weight on size 1-1/2 needles really really stinks. So maybe I'll revisit the design sweater, it's to be a saddle shoulder, so if I knit the sleeves I'll be past the hard part. Of course, that's after I clean the house, walk the dog, workout, make a Power Point presentation for the neighborhood meeting that I'm conducting on Sunday, and get the boys to the rink before 5. Yeah, it'll happen.

Pining for Winter Knitting

2009-08-21T08:08:00.000-07:00

I just watched a Berroco video on slip-stitch knitting and I am dying to try it. I absolutely LOVE playing with color and finding new combinations, but I STINK at stranded knitting. I checked a book on slip-stitch knitting out of the library, but was uninspired by the patterns. Maybe I'll go on Amazon later and browse the knitting books.

The dilemma? I am a mostly-serial knitter. I have a few WIPs that I haven't worked on in awhile, a winter sweater that I ran out of yarn and money for, a really long scarf that I work on in between projects until I get bored with it again, and of course, my TKGA Master course that is languishing for want of a report on blocking. Present project is a summer sweater on size 3 needles which is taking FOREVER. The sleeves and back are done, and I've made it up to the waist shaping on the front, finally, which gives relief from endless miles of stockinette.

And, I confess, I placed an order from KnitPicks yesterday. But it's for a Christmas present for my husband, completely justifiable in my opinion. Never mind that I added on a few goodies to get the free shipping (blocking mat!).

I really should be cleaning house right now instead of pecking on the computer. ;)

First Day of School

2009-08-20T05:51:00.001-07:00

Today was the first day of school for my kids. This is the last year that they will attend the same school until my oldest is a senior in high school! Kinda sad.

Finally finished the back of the summer tee that I'm knitting, it's (Ravelry Link) Scalloped Edge Pullover from Knit Simple magazine Spring/Summer 2008, and it's taking far longer than I meant for it to. Probably because I'm having to knit on size 4 needles. I'm really ready to move on, but I still have the front to knit. It has some features that I'm interested in, it has a picot hem and I haven't done one of those yet, and a front placket that I'm interested in the construction of, so maybe this part will go faster.

I also sent in an entry for the State Fair, but I may have goofed it up, I had a letter returned the other day because of too little postage, and I think I used that same stamp for my entry. It never came back in the mail, so I don't know if they went ahead and delivered it or not. I swear, every year I intend to enter something in the fair and something always happens. Sigh.

Non-knitting weekend

2009-08-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

So far this weekend has been a bust for knitting. OKC is having their ice hockey travel team tryouts this weekend and not only has it been a nail-biter for the kids, but the Parents Causing Problems factor has reared its ugly head again. This year the Squirt team (ages 9 and 10) have a 3-time Stanley Cup champion as their coach, and we also have assembled some amazingly talented kids together who could easily play AA hockey (AAA is the best, then AA, A then B). We were an A team last year, so we are excited about the opportunity. However, Those Who Are No Longer In Control of the team are now trying their best to make everyone upset and miserable about this, because, of course, this team is about them, not about the kids. Sigh.

In REAL knitting news, I have managed to knit 6 pairs of mittens for charity. I still have a little matching yarn left but I'm sick of mittens, so I'm improvising a small scarf.

I'm still working on the TKGA Master course, have written my cover letter and typed up just the questions. I'll go back and write my answers when I have some quiet time (yeah, right!)

Still working on TKGA Master's Program

2009-08-02T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Jo-Ellyn sent out an e-mail detailing the wonderful progress she's made on her program and I realized that I've procrastinated myself into lagging behind now. So I spent yesterday afternoon making the labels for the tags. I ending up entering the data in MS Excel and mail-merging it in MS Publisher. Then last night I pulled out each swatch, tied the tags on, and looked for rust spots from my evidently-not-stainless-steel T-pins. I ended up pulling out 4 swatches for rust spots. The Tide-on-the-go stain pen didn't remove the spots, so this morning I used Whink on a Q-Tip to dab at the spots. Worked like a charm. I didn't re-wet the swatches (since I don't have STAINLESS STEEL T-PINS, argh, and it's Sunday so Hobby Lobby is closed), just dropped little water over each spot to remove the Whink. I'll check later and see if it bleaches out. Hell, I've spent more time trying to get the rust out than it would take to re-knit the things. But then I'd have to block...

Today I'll tackle finishing the hat. We don't have any hockey today, so I might actually get to hang around my own house for a change. Tomorrow, it's another week of hockey camp.

Finished Lace Tank, Drops 107-8

2009-07-31T13:01:00.001-07:00

See what 3 hours a day sitting in an ice rink will get you. Finally finished the Lace Tank, it's Garnstudio's DROPS 107-8 Lace Tank. Since Drops yarn isn't available here, I used Lionbrand Cotton-Ease in taupe, 4 skeins.
Only got 20st/4” in st st on #4s, so made the smaller size to compensate. However, gauge changed drastically on the second chart pattern around the waist, so I had to frog back to the end of the first chart pattern and change to size 6 needles for that pattern, then returned to size 4s for the rest. It worked out great and I'm really pleased with the results.

I really like the neckline!

I am still working on the TKGA Master course, but I've got it in 'time-out' right now. Seems my stainless steel T-pins weren't stainless after all, and I've got to figure out how to remove rust dots from about 9 or 10 swatches. So it's being punished right now. I bought one of those Tide stain remover pens, but haven't worked up the nerve to try it yet. I'm also having more trouble coming up with a label format for the tags than I thought I would, I may have to do it in MS Publisher to get all the info stuffed onto the label. Oh, and I haven't finished knitting the hat, but it's pretty easy so far.

So, of course I've started another project, instead. It's the (Ravelry link)Scallop Edge Pullover from Knitsimple magazine, Spring/Summer 2008. I'm using Pattons Grace in a mellow, yellowy-orange apricot color on size 6 needles. Whipped out the little cap sleeves last night as my gauge swatch (grin, thank you, EZ). Noticed this morning knitting at the rink that I muffed the picot pattern, but I'll just change the body, also and call it a feature. I did *k1,YO,k2tog* instead of K1,*(YO, K2tog)*,K1. So I'll have fat picots, so what. Ha.

Drops 107-8 Lace Tank

2009-07-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

The lace tank is coming along nicely, for the second time. It's Drops 107-8 top with lace pattern. I couldn't make gauge with my chosen yarn, Lionbrand Cotton-ease in Taupe, so I cast on for the smaller size using size 4 needles. The tank has four different lace charts, but each chart has a short row repeat, so it's pretty easy for someone like me that has frequent interruptions in knitting (their names are Cael and Skyelar, lol). After the first chart was finished, I did a sanity check, and it fit around my hips nicely. After the second chart was done, I had a problem, gauge had changed by 2 stitches per inch! I ripped back down to the beginning of the second chart and changed to size 6 needles. Things are progressing nicely and it looks like it will go around me now without fitting like a girdle. After this chart is finished it becomes straight stockinette, so I may have to switch back to the 4s.

Went to the Knitty Committee meeting yesterday at the Village library. I haven't been able to go in about a year, it was nice to see old friends.

I am a little distracted, I read the Yarn Harlot's June 25th blog today, she is having trouble with a woman writing vicious and nasty things on her blog and can't seem to stop her. I really wish she'd posted the woman's name, possibly someone else is suffering from her hateful posts, and if enough people complained about her, her ISP would drop her. It's really sad how some people ruin things for everyone.

Blocked swatches 10-16

2009-07-14T08:26:00.001-07:00

Still working on the TKGA Master Handknitting Level 1 course. Finally got around to blocking swatches 10-16, I knit most of them a month ago.
Swatches 10, 11 and 12.

Swatches 13, 14, 15.

Swatch 16.

I just sold my first pattern!

2009-07-11T11:19:00.001-07:00

I just published and sold my first pattern on my website, redearthknitting.com. A whopping 3 people have bought one! lol. (Here's the link if you'd like to see it.) It's a tank that I knitted at the end of last summer and wrote the directions up for it, but just never got around to doing anything with it for two reasons. One, I had read a tirade from a designer about how if you submit a design to a magazine and they accept it, they then 'own' it and can sell it for whatever price they choose, and can even offer it as a freebie with the purchase of something else. But then, to try and sell patterns on my own, I'd have to set up a website and figure out the shopping cart and payment stuff, which sounded like a lot of work for someone who's too cheap to pay someone else to do it when they're perfectly intelligent enough to figure it out on their own (I used to do websites and lite programming as an engineer). But I finally caught a free hour last week to investigate and set it up (and of course, the first buyer couldn't get it to work and I had to figure out what was wrong), and now I'm a 'designer'!

FO: Valley Log Cabin Blanket

2009-07-06T09:48:00.001-07:00

I finally finished the Valley Log Cabin Blanket. It's a gift for a friend's new grandbaby. I used an I-cord bindoff to give the edges a nice finish. It took me two weeks to make, but during that two weeks I travelled for 4 days, and spent my 4th of July holiday showing houses to an out-of-town buyer. Uninterrupted, this blanket could probably be finished in just over a week.

Now on to more fun things! But I really should destash some more...

Log Cabin blanket dragging on...

2009-07-03T08:36:00.001-07:00

I have finished the fun part of the Valley Log Cabin Blanket, knitting all the different rectangles going in different directions. Now I'm adding the border, which I swear is taking forever, probably because I have another summer tank that I want to start on and this blanket just won't go away! Here's a pic of it with 3 of the blue borders finished:

And here's a pic of the I-cord bindoff border. Since you add on the borders one side at a time, you have to leave the last 3 sts of the I-cord bindoff on hold until you've added the next side. When you're ready to bindoff the next side, then you pick up stitches along the right edge of the new side as you bring the I-cord up around the corner to bindoff the new side.

Log Cabin Blanket almost done

2009-06-29T11:49:00.000-07:00

Here's the Log Cabin Blanket with the 4 'granny squares' sewn together. The pattern suggested using a slip-stitch crochet seam to join the squares, but I'm not very proficient at crochet and wasn't happy with the results, so I just used good ol' mattress stitch. Now I just need to knit on the borders on all the sides and I'm done. Woo hoo!

Prairie is finished!

2009-06-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

Prairie is finished, I decided not to do the neck and armhole finishing because it would have made them too small, and they aren't curling, anyway. I think I'll like it, we'll see this weekend in Lake Tahoe! Woo hoo!

A Study of I-Cord Bindoff

2009-06-16T07:13:00.001-07:00

Been nosin' around the internet for techniques for an I-cord bindoff for my Log Cabin Blanket. There are various ways to do it. They all agree that after you are through knitting, you cast on 3 sts (or however many you want, depending on the thickness of the cord that you desire) at the beginning of the row using backward loop e, chain or knitted cast on. You knit 2 stitches (or all of the new stitches except for the last one), then perform a decrease with the last new stitch and the first stitch of the main piece. How you perform the decrease dramatically affects the look of the cord:

This one from Knitty.com uses K2TBL. I like the look of it, but the thought of doing K2TBL for the 12-foot circumference of a blanket makes me want to run screaming into the street naked. Okay, not naked.

This one from wikiknitting.com uses K2tog. I don't like the zigzag ridge at the bottom of it.

This one from Knitpick's website uses SKP, I like this one the best and plan to use it.

So here are the directions that I plan to use. At the beginning of the bindoff row, cast on 3 stitches using cable cast on. Knit 2 stitches. SKP (Slip one, Knit one, pass slipped stitch over). Slip the last 3 worked stitches back to the left hand needle and repeat. I haven't worked out yet how to end the cord. Each side of the blanket is knitted separately. I think I'll have to leave the last 3 stitches live, add on the next side, pick up stitches along the edge of the new side, and possibly continue on around the corner. We'll see when we get there.

Oh, and here's a picture of the first square of the blanket. Went really fast.

Prairie is still languishing on top of the dryer, I may not have time to finish it before we leave for Lake Tahoe, I have appointments all day today and we leave tomorrow.

Log Cabin Baby Blanket

2009-06-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

My husband's best friend in high school just became a grandfather. That rates a baby blanket, not just some quickie cap and sweater. I found several with techniques that interested me, but finally settled on the Valley Log Cabin Blanket in the interest of finishing the thing sometime before the little nipper graduates preschool. And of course, it was going to be a throw-in-the-washer and generally mistreat it sort of yarn. Vanna's Choice didn't have enough bright colors, so I settled on Caron's Simply Soft Brites in 7 colors bright enough to interest any baby that's been plopped down on it so that mother can go pee and get a cup of coffee. It's constructed of four panels with 14 strips in each panel. Here's 7 strips done in about 2 hours:

Should be good airplane knitting next Wednesday.

Have also made great progress on the Master HandKnitting Level I, finished up through swatch 15 and wrote up the pattern for it. All that's left now knitting-wise is to knit swatch 16, which is color work and not my strong suit, and the project hat. Then it's answering questions and writing a little report.

What has happened to Prairie, you may ask? She's languishing in unfinished sweater land. Front and Back are knit, blocked and dried, just need some kid-free time to figure out the crochet trim around the neck and armholes.

Knitting Progress

2009-06-11T14:22:00.000-07:00

Since being essentially stymied by knitting mishaps the last couple of months, I have now managed to ACCOMPLISH something. The front and back of Prairie are now knitted and are drying (yarn faded somewhat, no longer that Aegean blue, but more sky blue now). Still plenty of finishing to do on it (must investigate crocheted crab stitch), but should be finished in time to take on vacation next Wednesday to ACTUALLY WEAR. Woo hoo!

Met with the girls today to work on the TKGA Master Handknitter Level 1 course. Am now on swatch 13, breezed right through the lace swatches already. We may fool around and finish this program by the end of summer!

Going to be going to South Lake Tahoe next week for Terry's stepdad's family reunion. Have never been, so of course have Googled yarn stores, one store in Lake Tahoe, 9 others in surrounding towns. Should be good shopping.

Educational Yarn

2009-06-03T13:55:00.000-07:00

I was running out of my pale pink yarn for the Master's program and stopped by Gourmet Yarn and bought two more skeins of the Cascade 220 I'm using. When I walked in with the telltale Gourmet Yarn bag my husband, who knows I'm trying to de-stash by knitting for charity, looked at it and raised an eyebrow. I defended myself with, "it's for my Master's program, I ran out." To which he replied, "Oh, it's EDUCATIONAL yarn, huh?"

Prairie almost thrown out on the prairie

2009-06-03T08:31:00.000-07:00

Finished the front, the double decreases look a little wonky, but it was that or huge armholes. I washed the front piece in Knit Wash that I bought at Hancock Fabric's and set it out to block. That's when the pain started. That thing grew and grew until it was absolutely huge. It could have wrapped around myself twice. I was so disapointed. So I set it on the top of the washer and went on to do other things. Changed it's status in Ravelry to frogged, added my 'angry' pic to it to designate it as a TOAD, put the needle back in the case and threw away the directions. Came back to it later and held it up to myself, and all of a sudden it wasn't huge anymore. Guess it contracted as it dried. I'm going to go ahead and knit the back (after going back into Ravelry and fixing that, and making new copies of the pattern after my kids dumped a wet paper towel on top of them in the trash).

I've also finally taken pics of my blocked swatches for the TKGA Master Handknitter Level 1 course. I have more finished, but ran out of blocking pins last night.

Sorry for the crappy pictures, it's cloudy today in OKC.

Prairie cabling error found at 11pm

2009-05-30T08:48:00.000-07:00

I actually got to sit down in my own home on my own couch to watch TV and knit after eating a home-cooked supper last night. Wonders will never cease. I worked on Prairie and got to the point where you're to divide the fronts for the straps (it's a tank) and got distracted watching Leno's last night on the Tonite Show. When Conan O'Bryan made his appearance and I lost all interest, I started looking at Prairie to place stitch markers where the front neckline dividing decreases will be and found an error. A glaring error:

Did you see it? Look closer:

Yep, here it is in all it's uncrossed glory, a cable crossing left instead of right:

This will cost me 8 rows of ripping back and while keeping track of where I'm at in the armhole decreases. Grrr!

SSK is an ugly stitch

2009-05-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

Well, the newness of Facebook is starting to wear off and I'm now returning attention to my other online interests.

I'm still working with Jo Ellyn Wheeler and Carolyn Faircloth on the TKGA Master course. Today we worked on the three swatches concerning decreasing. And I learned something that amazed me. I mean, really. I just sat there staring at it. I knit almost exclusively sweaters, which require shaping, a lot of it. I had vaguely heard of the term 'full-fashioned' but had yet to knit a pattern requiring it. Usually, your right-hand side of the garment decrease is an SSK (slip knit-wise, slip-knitwise, return both to left needle and knit the 2 together through the back loops), and the left-hand side is K2tog. These two are supposed to mirror each other but seldom do. Enter full-fashioned. This is the opposite, i.e. K2tog is on the right-hand side, SSK on the left. The regular way produces a vertical line up the side of the garment. Full-fashioned produces a series of 'slashes' pointing outwards at each decrease. Okay, to each his own.

Here's the part that amazed me. K2tog on the right-hand side MIRRORS K2tog on the left. I am NOT KIDDING. As soon as I take pics of my swatches, I'll point it out. Try it and see, I'll never do that ugly SSK again!

Also OTN, Prairie from Anny Blatt Timeless Classics from the Knit Collection.

Vacation Knitting

2009-05-09T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well, the husband and I are driving to Dallas tonight to catch a plane tomorrow morning for 5 kid-free days in Jamaica! Woo hoo! Naturally, I have a cold. But the most important packing consideration for the trip is, of course, what knitting project or projects to take. I'm still in stash-busting mode, so I'm going to take that cheap, er inexpensive, acqua Sinfonia yarn and make a (silk purse out of a sow's ear) tank out of it, working in pieces.

Digression: everytime I get seduced to the dark side of knitting from the top down, I am reminded why I don't like that method. Sure the collar and yoke are fun, and it's exciting dividing for the arms and body. But after that the thrill is gone and you're left slogging through miles of knitting and having to constantly rearrange a huge mass of knitting in your lap. No fun and not very portable. And the stitches at the underarms stretch out forcing you to pick up more stitches than called for on the sleeves to hide the holes and then figure out how to decrease them away. End of rant.

So, back to the tank. I am knitting Prairie out of Anny Blatt Timeless Classics from the Knit Collection (I added the pattern to Ravelry, but there's no picture, since I'm not sure of the copyright violation of scanning in the picture published with it, although I've seen others on Ravelry do it). I bought this book when I first started knitting, but was so intimidated by it that it's sat on the shelf ever since. Anny, you're going down. I will conquer a pattern from you or die trying. Okay, not DIE, but the desperation of forcing two sticks and string into something beautiful sometimes approaches that emotion.

And what of the Master Level Handknitting course, have I flaked out on that as well? No, sir, I have finished swatches 4-6 and when I laid them out side by side, noticed swatch 5 was much shorter than the other two, due to the fact that I missed an increase. I'll have to completely redo it, so it's going into Time Out until I get back.

Master Hand-Knitting Level 1

2009-04-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

Went to my group today, have decided to accept swatch #3 as is after having to purl clockwise to get rid of the extra holes. Started swatch #1. Realized my edge stitches on ribbing are crap. Managed to fix it by purling last st clockwise, knitting first st TBL, continuing on for a couple of stitches and then giving the edge a nice vertical tug. Seems to be working. Will continue on to increasing and the garter ending.

Dallas/Fort Worth Fiber Festival

2009-04-26T07:51:00.000-07:00

Managed to slip off from hockey games down in Dallas yesterday to attend the DFW Fiber Festival. It was held at the convention center in Addison, TX a 'burb of Dallas. There were so many beautiful yarns there, as well as projects, books, button, funny knitting t-shirts, and friendly smiling faces. My boys had hockey games and my husband was out of town, so there was no hope for taking a class. The yarns from Brooks Farm Yarn Lancaster, TX were absolutely breathtaking, and pretty reasonably priced for hand-dyed. I will definitely try to attend again next year and hopefully sign up for some classes.

Seamless Top Down Raglan has Earned a Time-Out!

2009-04-23T05:50:00.001-07:00

Having so much trouble with the seamless top-down raglan. After trying two other top-down patterns and finally realizing that their formulas broke down with bulky yarn (the Incredible Custom-Fit Raglan and one other that I have since forgotten), I turned to Barbara Walker's Knitting From the Top Down. So far Barbara has not steered me wrong. What's giving me fits is the yarn, or lack of enough.

History of the yarn Shortage

You see, there I was, innocently shopping at Sealed With a Kiss in Guthrie, I don't remember how I managed to dodge the family long enough to make a break for it. I was walking by the closeout area when I was reeled in by some gorgeous multi-color yarn. But it was bulky gauge, and I'm a rather tall, wide-shouldered person and bulky yarn only looks good on non-bulky people. Plus it was on closeout, all sales final, only two skeins. But it was pretty. Then I saw the new Twinkle book, Big City Knits, and saw the cute Best Friend Jacket. I checked the yarn amount. I could just squeak by and make that jacket with the closeout yarn. Kicking myself, I bought it. Got home, opened up the book to thumb through the other patterns, and out pops a slip of paper. ERRATA. Yarn amounts for the BF Jacket and others are WAY SHORT. Screwed.

So that's how I ended up with this yarn, that has tried to be a jacket, a scarf, and is now trying to be a seamless raglan yoke with a contrasting color yarn for the lower sleeves and lower sweater body. It's just not cooperating. Pics later.

Master Knitter in Training

2009-04-16T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today I mustered my courage and went to the new Master Knitter meeting that's to be weekly from 1-3 on Thursdays. This meeting I should be able to stick to since my kids will be occupied at school and no sporting events are held at that time. I met up with Jo Ellyn Wheeler and Carolyn Faircloth downtown over Java Dave's. I really expected to be totally lost and out of my element, but Jo Ellyn and Carolyn quickly put me at ease. Unfortunately I didn't read ahead on the TKGA website and brought the wrong yarn and needles. Plan to be prepared next time. Evidently, the scoop is that you should knit your Swatch #3 first, because if you can't get rid of the holes in your seed stitch and have to go down a needle size or two, you'd have to reknit your other swatches because all must be on the same yarn and needle size.

FO: Gull-wing Baby Sweater and Hat

2009-04-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

Yep, knittin' for a baby again, one of the husband's co-workers and a real estate customer of mine. This is a quick little sweater to knit, it has various names, Best Baby Sweater, February Sweater, Two-Needle Baby Sweater. It's by Elizabeth Zimmermann, so you know it's good stuff. Variations include lengthening the arms by one inch, and adding the decorative eyelet in the collar, cuffs and sleeves. I was unhappy with the yoke increases, so made them a "feature" by using yarnovers instead. Added them midway in the cuffs and sleeves by K1, *K1, YO, K2TOG* across. The hat is the former Petal Baby Hat which is now named Ripple Eyelet Baby Hat. I've already rewritten this hat for working in the round on two circs, would like to also change the stitch pattern to the gull-wing pattern, but one is a ten-stitch repeat and the other is seven, so it'll take some tinkering to rework the crown decreases and I'd rather be on to other things. Someday.

Oh, and I did I mention that this was STASHED Knitpicks Shine yarn? Woo hoo!

FO: Shetland Shorty using STASHED yarn!

2009-04-07T07:53:00.000-07:00

Here's the finished Shetland Shorty, a freebie pattern from Knitty. I resolved to only use stashed yarn for awhile because I really need to pare down the closet space it's taking up. I used Patton's Brilliant on a #6 needle and it turned out nicely. I ran out of yarn, looked all over town for it, concluded that it was discontinued, then found 1 ball of it in a closeout rack at Hancock's for $2! Must have been meant to be. I did still run out of yarn before doing the armhole edgings, but I've decided I like the lace edge better anyway.

FO: Teddy Cardigan and Silly Little Hat

2009-03-30T20:15:00.000-07:00

What's the fun of having a baby if you can't dress him/her funny while they're helpless to do anything about it? This is the Teddy Cardigan from Lion Brand, and the hat is the Child's Ear Hat with Tassels.

Knit seamless with grafting the underarms. Could have tweaked the raglan seams some more, but after ripping and reknitting them 3 times, decided to give them to the baby before he graduated high school. Enough said.

Okay, so I bought yarn..

2009-03-25T06:41:00.000-07:00

But, it's not my fault, honestly, a baby made me do it! Some friends of ours were made unexpected grandparents the other day, and all I can say is that I hope that that situation doesn't happen to us with our boys, but if it does, I hope we handle it with the grace and practical determination and acceptance that our friends have shown.

But on to the knitting. I cast on for Lion Brand's free Teddy Cardigan last night. It calls for Vanna's Choice Baby yarn, which I went to 4 different stores looking for. Hint: Hobby Lobby, Joann's and Hancocks do not carry it. Michael's has limited colors, and after finally getting to see the ballband and realizing it's not fingering weight, it's the same weight as regular Vanna's Choice, I quickly made a couple of color substitutions and ran with it. But here's the part that ties in with my resolution to not be a mindless sheep when knitting (tee hee). I am going to convert the pattern to a seamless raglan using Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system out of The Opinionated Knitter. I figure I'll learn a bit, and if I really screw it up, it's just a wee cardigan after all. I'm making the 6-12 months size, since it's March and the baby won't be needing a sweater in the summer.

Knitting from the Stash

2009-03-17T07:33:00.001-07:00

The good news: I haven't bought any yarn lately. The bad news: the reason the yarn stash exists is because I couldn't figure out what to do with it when I bought it in the first place, and so moved on. Fickle, I know. And for a person who likes, no, needs to complete one thing before starting another, it's been bugging me for awhile. So I'm using Ravelry to come up with uses for it. The flip-top mittens I'm working on are from stashed Lionbrand Cashmere Blend (I'm going to have a ball leftover, which I'm now stressed about, I was trying to use it all up). It's a conspiracy, I'm sure of it.

The lace ribbon scarf has another 12" added to it, but since it's supposed to be 80" long when finished, it's going to be a "knit in between projects" project because it gets boring.

I have come up with ideas for the odd leftover balls, I have a book of knitted toys (have to hide them from my youngest, his bed looks like a stuffed animal rescue farm already) that I could knit for charity, there's baby items for charity, mittens, hats, you name it.

We'll see how long I can take this, lacy spring things are calling me...

Magical Flip Top Mittens

2009-03-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

One Magical Flip Top Mitten down, one to go. I think these will come in handy next hockey season. The inside is like a fingerless glove, with an outer mitten that flips back out of the way when you want to use your fingers. Yarn used is Lion Brand Cashmere Blend in black. I used slightly more than one ball for one mitten.

A visit to the FROG POND

2009-03-06T06:21:00.000-08:00

Well, despite successfully blocking the Sideways Spencer and beginning the finishing on it, here's one last pic before it visits the frog pond (rip it, rip it):

It had too many things wrong with it to continue. The main thing was that the armholes were too tight. Second, was that despite blocking it to measurements, there was no way that you could add 3" of overlapping ribbing down each front and get the 40" measurement described in the sizing. I am nowhere near 40" in the chest, and I would have been popping the buttons off trying to close it. Combine that with uncomfortable armholes, and it was a show-stopper.

Now, normally, I would forge ahead, finish the sweater, then promptly stick it in the back of my closet to await the next donation call from a local charity (somewhere there's a charity worker thinking, "Man, I wish that chick would quit sending us these ugly sweaters"). But I have reached a turning point in knitting. It's no longer about quantity, it's about quality. I frogged half a mitten the other day because I didn't like how the cast on looked. Today, I'm frogging an entire sweater. Soon, I may work up the nerve to frog a sweater I finished last year that I hate wearing because the shawl collar is too heavy and pulls the sweater down (I didn't give that one to charity, that was EXPENSIVE yarn!).

Also, I bought a new book, Custom Knits by Wendy Bernard (author of the blog Knit and Tonic), and she is basically saying the same thing, stop making sweaters that don't fit, knit from the top down. However, I may be too much of a follower to do that, I get inspired by other's designs, converting them to top down might kill the joy. Although, wasting 3 weeks of your life on a sweater that doesn't deliver is a real bummer, too.

I think it's time to regroup. Instead of spinning my wheels churning out sweaters, it's time to do some stash reduction and knit some things for charity. I have a lot of odd balls of leftover yarn and I'm running out of space. Hopefully the next post will show items that are for someone else. And that I actually like!

PS- I survived frogging the sweater, although I confess to self-medicating with a cookie afterward.

Began Lace Ribbon Scarf and hate the needles

2009-02-23T06:31:00.000-08:00

Well, it was back to Dallas this last weekend for Squirt (9-11 year old) quarter finals in youth hockey. They won all their games and advance to the semi-finals in Dallas next weekend, meaning I will miss the Stitch-n-Puck at the Blazers game next Friday night. Wah!

The Sideways Spencer is now too large to tote around, so started the Lace Ribbon Scarf on the Kollage square circular needles in size 3. Yarn I'm using is J. Knits Creative Hand-Dyed Superwash Me Light yarn in Washington DC colorway (screaming coral). I had a lot of trouble with the needles, coaxing the YOs back onto the needle from the cable was a tedious process. The Kollage needles have a rough join, at least my pair does when compared to the Addi Turbos. I think I'll either knit this onto an Addi set, or go buy a cheap set of straight metal sock-length needles or I'll never finish this. And the square needle, while a nice idea, means you practically have to line up the flat sizes of the needles when you're trying to dig into a K2tog or SSK. So, these were a poor choice for lace knitting, as far as I'm concerned, but I'm still willing to give them a try on other projects, if the store will let me feel the join before I buy another pair of them (ha).

The Knitting Gods have farted in my general direction

2009-02-17T09:47:00.000-08:00

The Knitting Gods have farted in my general direction (to paraphrase Monty Python). I just returned from our 4-day trip to St. Louis for a hockey tournament. Now, you'd think that being gone from home for 4 days and living in a hotel, where there's no office, no phones to answer, no cooking, no laundry to wash or dog hair to vacuum off the kitchen floor, would practically guarantee long stretches of knitting time. So I planned for this. (Okay schemed would be a better word.) I wouldn't want to (gasp!) run out of knitting, so not only did I take ALL the yarn for the Sideways Spencer, I convinced myself that I'd get so much done on the Spencer that it would no longer be portable (since it's knit side-to-side all in one piece) and that I really needed a Backup Project to take to the rink with me. So I managed to squeeze in a trip to Gourmet Yarn during my Leaving Town Errands Run and bought J. Knits Superwash me Light Sock Yarn in the Washington DC colorway (shrieking salmon pink) to knit the Lace Ribbon Scarf on Knitty by Veronik Avery. I mean, a scarf is the ultimate portable project, next to socks, right? I even moved the Lace Ribbon Scarf from the queue to cast-on status in Ravelry.

As usual, stuff always takes longer than I think it will. Incorporating the sleeve
increases into the lace pattern took some thought and fiddling. Then, the pattern tells you that you HAVE to end on row 48 of the pattern before casting on for the body and your sleeve will be 16". Liars! 18-1/2" is my sleeve length, which just means I'll have to shorten the ribbing on the cuff when it's added later, I'm not stopping now!

Of course, you Knitting Police out there (you know who you are) are smirking and nodding wisely, muttering "She didn't meet Row Gauge with that yarn she substituted." If I meet row gauge it's a complete freaking accident. Patterns are usually written with lengths in inches specified instead of number of rows worked for poor knitting wretches like me. I'm convinced that the only person who ever met stitch AND row gauge on any project was the proverbial "little old lady from Pasadena, who only drove the car on Sundays to church" because she spent the REST OF HER TIME trying to meet both stitch and row gauge. Enough said.

And no, I didn't even START the damn scarf and Ravelry won't let me move it back to the queue, so it sits there, mocking me. Dammit.

Center Cable V-neck Sweater Finished but too small

2009-02-09T09:26:00.001-08:00

Well, I'm bummed. This is the Center Cable V-neck Sweater by Treva Durham in November 2008 - January 2009's Cast on magazine. The sweater is finished, I like it and think I would wear it, but the armholes are too small. I had noticed in the directions that the arm scye shaping was a little different than usual, but forged on ahead. Usually for the arm scye you bind off 3 or so stitches on each side, then another two or so stitches each side, and then start decreasing. This pattern you only bind off 3 st each side and then start decreasing, making a narrower arm scye that evidently my "healthy" armpits can't squeeze into. Oh well, onto the Sideways Spencer!

Crazy Guilty Gleeful

2009-02-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Sale Sale! I've been a bad, bad girl. The Gourmet Yarn Co. had all their Berroco yarn on sale for 25% off! Isn't it beautiful? It's for the Sideways Spencer by Annie Modesitt. Now, of course, I'm ready to kick the poor Center Cable V-Neck Sweater to the curb and start the Spencer. How fickle am I. Luckily I knit the sleeves and back first, so at least I'm knitting the most enjoyable part of the sweater now, saved the best for last like dessert.

Ljod - finished and wearable!

2009-02-04T13:44:00.001-08:00

It's finished and it's actually wearable. A little snug around the middle, but still flattering. It's Ljod, from Elsebeth Lavold's Viking Knits books. I really wish it had a diagram, I had to really stretch the waist to make it fit, yet the shoulders fit great and the hem is actually so big it ruffles a little, which I think is intended.

Procrastination

2009-01-29T15:00:00.000-08:00

Last evening during hockey practice, (my son's, not mine ;P) I finished the sleeves for Ljod, my current project. Ljod is supposed to be knit with Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, which I have used before and didn't care for. I used Rowan Felted Tweed in Dragon colorway instead. Other than the yarn not matching the picture on the internet (it showed more blue flecks than it really has), I like the yarn. Ljod is from Elsebeth Lavold Viking Knits, from which I have had more than one knitting disaster, but the patterns are just so dern beautiful that I keep trying. Ljod has turned out beautifully, except the waist. There's a lot of shaping on the waist, but no diagram, so I didn't realize until I turned out a cardigan front the width of dental floss (okay, so I exaggerate...) that I was in trouble again. Ended up measuring my waist and blocking all the pieces until they screamed for mercy. So WHAT if the loopholes around the waist are the size of Cheerios. HA.

I washed and blocked the sleeves last night and they dried overnight. So what did I do today? Balanced the checkbook, cleaned the house, went to the store, beat the dog (just kidding), in other words everything BUT stitch this thing together. Maybe tomorrow.

In the meantime I've cast on for the center-cable V-neck sweater from November 2008 Cast-on. I couldn't just sit idle last night while Ljod was drying, could I?

Skye sweater (Amy pattern from Debbie Bliss)

2009-01-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

Don't tell my son, but he's wearing a chick sweater. I absolutely loved the Amy pattern by Debbie Bliss in KidKnits, so I 'masculinized' it using navy and cream yarn and renamed it "Skye" in his honor in case he was looking over my shoulder when I'm on Ravelry. Which is a lot. Turned out really great. It went straight to the closet, where it hasn't seen the light of day yet.

Yarn used was Reynolds Kids from Webbs, which will have to be dry-cleaned, but oh well. The navy stripe in the white ribbing is actually stockinette as is the first white row immediately following. This gets rid of the color "blips" you get on the purl stitches where the other color peeks through. Don't look too closely at the neck, I screwed up the center decreases in the beginning but perservered on instead of a) ripping back 10 rows or b) trying to ladder down through all those decreases without losing my sanity. Oh, and it was meant to be a Christmas gift, but I finished it on New Year's Eve.

Sweater for Hugga T

2008-12-05T08:50:00.001-08:00

My son received a “Hugga T. Bear” teddy bear from Integris Baptist Hospital when he had his adenoids removed. Despite tons of other stuffed animals, this one remains his favorite. Hugga T.’s original shirt became bedraggled, so here’s a new sweater for him.

Sweater for Hugga T

Liam Repaired

2008-12-03T11:32:00.003-08:00

Well, here it is, after two solid hours and 6 AA batteries of sweater shaving. Not too bad.

Thanks so much to everyone who responded and commiserated. It's still a cute sweater. I will probably pass out the first time I see spaghetti sauce dribbled down the front of it, but hey, it was a labor of love. (grin)

Liam - Finished and Just About Ruined

2008-11-29T11:35:00.001-08:00

I am sick to my stomach after taking this sweater out of the dryer. It's Liam from Debbie Bliss Kids Knits, and it's about a month and a half's worth of work. Ruined. Almost. I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece, because, being a kid's sweater I wanted it to be wash and wear, but not as warm as superwash wool would be. Boy am I disappointed. See how the black faded over the white? It's now a black and GRAY sweater. See how badly it pilled all over? It's going to take some serious time with a sweater shaver to remove those. OH, and it's a Christmas present, so I don't have another MONTH AND A HALF to donate. I will post another picture of it after it's depilled, I'm still determined to save it since it's for Christmas. It's for my son, so he won't mind it being black and gray, at least the design still shows up.

FO: Devan

2008-11-22T08:41:00.000-08:00

Finished a little quickie baby gift, it's Devan on knitty.com. It was a quick knit in self-striping sock yarn, Lana Grossa Meilenweit 100 Fantasy on the front and Dale of Norway Baby Ull for the back. More Pics on Ravelry, ID RedEarthKnitting.

FO: Printed Silk Cardigan

2008-11-06T09:05:00.000-08:00

Whew! It's finished! You'd think I'd learn to read ahead before starting a project, these sleeves are ALL 1x1 ribbing. They took longer to knit than the entire two fronts and back! However it was a good project, I learned the Tubular Cast On from knitty.com, and the sewn cast on.

Help Me I've Started Another WIP

2008-10-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

So I started this cute little dog sweater, thinking that poor chihuaha next door was certainly going to need a sweater soon. Then I realized that Christmas is coming so I'd better cast on for my sons' presents and started Liam by Debbie Bliss. But then it was time to go on vacation to Curacao (pronounced keer'-a-sow and is a different place than Caracas), and who could possibly take a heavy wool sweater to knit on the beach? Not I! So I cast on for the Printed Silk Cardigan from Interweave Knits that I've been meaning to get to all summer. So now I have the back and 1/2 the front done on the dog sweater, the front done on Liam, and 3/4 the back done on the Printed Silk Cardigan. And now that I'm home, which one to pick up next?! Argh!

Slippery Socks from Knitty.com - one done!

2008-09-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

These are Slippery socks from Knitty.com. Yarn used was one ball of Opal in the "Feeling" colorway. Directions are for DPNs but I used two #1 circs instead. Here's some pics of sock number one. I seem to have hardly used any yarn from the ball at all, so I may attempt to match up the color bands. However, the red stripe seems to vary a lot in the spacing, it seems to be longer than the other color bands sometimes, so we'll see. If I end up doing too much frogging then the mismatch will be 'a feature'.

FO: Vogue Knitting #05 Criss-Cross Front Top

2008-08-24T15:08:00.000-07:00

It's finished and I really like it, except the armholes are a little snug, even after blocking. I used Ella Rae Silkience yarn in a kind of raspberry color. This is a clever pattern that you knit in pieces. You knit the back, the left front (with a hole in it), and then you knit the right front up to the same level as the hole, pass a few stitches through, and then finish knitting them together. However, I wanted to be sure that the neck decreases on both sides matched, so I knit them simultaneously on one long circular needle. All was well until I got to the finishing. I failed to anticipate the problem of crocheting an edging consisting of one pass around doing sc, and then another pass around doing 5 dc, when said edging has to squeeze through the same 1" hole 4 times! I finally unwound a ball into a long hank so that I could pull it through the hole on each pass around.

In Progress: #05 Twist Top

2008-08-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

Making good progress on the #05 Short Sleeve Top from Vogue Knitting Spring/Summer 2005. The back is finished, and I'm knitting the fronts simultaneously since you have to slip one side through the other and it would be heavy to have a finished side hanging from the pass-through hole while you're knitting the other side. I'm using Ella Rae Silkience from Webbs, the gauge is too small for this pattern so I'm knitting a larger size and planning for the silk to "grow" after washing. Hopefully I haven't overplanned it!

Finished: #03 Cabled Tank

2008-08-13T08:26:00.000-07:00

Wow! A new sweater to wear made in one week! I've obviously spent A LOT of time at the hockey rink this past week. My boys tried out and were accepted on the hockey travel team, I am now the official hockey mom of two of the cutest OKC Junior Blazers. Since they are both going to be practicing twice a week at different times, Mom is going to get some serious quality knitting time at the rink.

Made some changes to this pattern, because Vogue Knitting Magazine Spring/Summer 2007 listed this pattern as having two cables on reverse stockinette background. However, the back is done in wide ribbing, and the front was all in stockinette. So, I added a purl stitch on either side of the cables and moved the two cables away from the center by 2 stitches so that the purl stitches didn't interfere with the neck shaping. The single-crochet edging really helps to keep the piece from curling, however, my crocheting skills are not good and I'm unhappy with how wiggly the edges look. The yarn is Needful Yarns Kim, which is a cotton chain yarn. It's still a little stiff and scratchy after washing, but I still like the sweater.

Finished the last baby gift! Best Baby Sweater and Petal Hat

2008-08-06T08:12:00.000-07:00

Whew! My friends are officially on notice to quit procreating so that I can get back to my regularly scheduled knitting.

Finished the Best Baby Sweater by Elizabeth Zimmermann, in Vogue Knitting American Collection and other books, and my old standby, the Petal Hat. Notes on the sweater, use a row gauge to keep track of buttonholes, when you do the math they occur on rows 3, 19,35,51,67 and 83. The arm length is a little short, so instead do 9 pattern repeats before the garter edging, and I also did 9 repeats for the body and ended up with pretty even buttonhole spacing.

FO: Baby Poonam

2008-07-09T14:14:00.001-07:00

This little sweater, Baby Poonam, was easy and fun to knit. I've never picked up stitches to knit the arms top to bottom before, but it looks nice and was easy to sew up. My LYS, The Gourmet Yarn Co., didn't carry the Berroco Comfort DK, so I used Plymouth Dream Baby DK instead. I ended up making another in Berroco Touche, which turned out nice although I had to go down 2 needle sizes to get gauge.

Top left sweater and beanie is Berroco Touche, bottom right is in Plymouth Dreambaby.

Hat pattern is #57 Baby Cable Beanie by SweaterBabe.

Easy and fun to knit, turns out really cute! I changed the front ribbing band, I like for cables to flow out of the ribbing rather than do a purl row and then start the cables from nowhere. I also changed the button band ribbing, if you start with P1, then K2,P2 across and end with P1, then when you pick up sts on either side the P column goes away and you’re left with nice neat columns of ribbing next to the pickup. Here’s how I changed the bottom cable start next to the ribbing:

WS Increase Row (knit onto larger needle)
Textured Pattern Panel P next 11 st while incr 3 st evenly P-wise, PM (14 sts)(3 added)
Cable A inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K1, (P2,K2)twice, PM (10 sts)(1 added)
Cable B P2, inc K-wise in next 2 sts, K2, inc K-wise in next 2 sts, K2, P4, K1, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K3, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K5, P2, PM (32 sts)(6 added)
Cable A (K2,P2) 2 times, inc 1 st K-wise in next st, K1, PM (10 sts) (1 added)
Textured Pattern Panel inc P-wise in all 7 sts (14 sts)(7 added)

FO: Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell

2008-07-09T14:08:00.000-07:00

Knit on the way to/from Grand Lake Colorado over the 4th of July week, this tank was pretty easy until I got to the lace shoulders. Finally went into the town of Grand Lake to the coffee shop and used their free wi-fi to search for errata. I knew I wasn't crazy! The lace pattern is printed wrong in the magazine (IK Summer 2007), here's the correction. I used Plymouth Fantasy Naturale, which is 100% cotton instead of the cotton/micro blend called for in the pattern. It's a little heavy, but the lace looks great! I also wish I'd made one size smaller so that it would not be quite so big at the waist.

FO Bejewelled Tank

2008-06-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

Finally finished the Bejewelled Tank. It was worth the frogging and cursing, it's now one of my favorite summer sweaters. I designed this tank myself, I may post the pattern someday if anyone is interested. It's knit in Valley Yarns Southwick, which is a cotton/bamboo blend, so it's nice and soft.

The Tank is Ticking Me Off!

2008-05-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well, once again I've dipped my toe into the design pool and gotten it bitten off. I am trying to design a tank that has some beading at the hem, shaping through the waist, then gradually sloping sides (that don't show my bra) up to a rounded neck with beads. The rounded neck with beads is kicking my butt. I've tinked it twice already, beads flying everywhere. Because of the bead placement and general concentration this is taking, this project is Alone Knitting (no kids), thus it isn't getting much attention on Memorial Day Weekend.

So in the meantime, I've started another Rambling Rows Afghan (the medium-size), I have three friends all expecting babies in August: two boys and a girl.

FO: Tunic Vest #35 VK Fall 2006

2008-04-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

It's finished, and I think I'm going to enjoy wearing it NEXT FALL! Argh, this took longer than I planned (as usual!). Well, okay, I still need to sew two buttons on it and crochet the button loops, but the knitting is done...

FO - Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson

2008-04-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

It's finished! I've already worn it a couple of times and received compliments on it, so I guess I didn't do too badly on it. I substituted yarn, which threw off my row gauge, and I ended up having to stuff the sleeves into armscyes that were 2 inches too long (you have to end the neckline on a certain row because of the center pattern). Oh well, it's done, I like it and I'm on to other things, whoopee!

Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson

2008-03-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm not progressing as fast as I would have liked, but I think I'm going to like this sweater. The yarn, Plymouth Jeannee, is really soft and comfortable.

I may have downloaded the free Berroco bunny pattern that just came out in time for Easter...

Stuck in scarf hell

2008-02-21T05:45:00.001-08:00

The boys have asked for scarves. I made Skye an atrociously-striped one out of stashed woolease. He loves it, since he picked the colors. Am now making Cael an OU scarf out of stashed Woolease. Boring! I want to start my Shaped Pullover by Natalie Wilson (see pic at left). I bought Plymouth Jeannee in white for it at Gourmet Yarn last week and I am DYING to start it! Sigh.

Zipper Installation - Central Park Hoodie

2008-02-14T07:50:00.000-08:00

Step 1. - Whipstitch a grograin ribbon as backing to give the zipper something firm to rest on. It helps stabilize the edge so that your zipper doesn't rip out and ruin your knitting. (2-3 hours).

Step 2. - Pin the zipper in place to the ribbon, check/admire alignment, then whipstitch the edge of the zipper to the ribbon. (1-1/2 hours) Woo hoo!

Central Park Hoodie -- 99.9% Finished

2008-02-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

The Central Park Hoodie is knitted and sewn up. All that's left now, is, well, er, um....THE ZIPPER. I have never sewn in a zipper before and I'm afraid. Very afraid. In fact, a year or so ago I actually knit Samus on knitty.com and quit during the I-cord finishing because I knew the zipper was coming up next and I was unhappy with the way my picked-up stitches looked along the Saxon braid at the bottom AND I didn't care for the yarn (so many excuses...) so I just chucked the whole thing. If this zipper messes up three weeks worth of knitting so help me I'll....Anyway, pics below. The pics turned out really purple, for some reason, so I had to adjust the color back to barn red. So no, I DON'T have lime green shag carpet, it's just my feeble attempt at color correction.

WIP - Central Park Hoodie

2008-02-06T14:09:00.000-08:00

I started the Central Park Hoodie during a soccer tournament in Kansas City. I'm using the recommended yarn, Takhi Donegal Tweed in Barn Red. I really like it, and I'm not much of a tweed person. Anyway, back to the tournament: 5 hours in the car up and back plus KIPing in the lobby after supper (we lost, by the way, but my son still managed to score 3 goals, yay Cael!). I managed to knit almost all of the back on that long weekend. I have since finished all pieces and am now following the alternate directions (pick up and knit all around both fronts and hood, rather than each side separately) for the front ribbing. Progress on the ribbing is SLOW....

Bought the zipper, some grosgrain ribbon and thread today. I've never sewn in a zipper before, we'll see whether I do it or someone else does (grin). I plan to use these two helpful links:
sewing in zippers from the Knitlist, and Chicknit's zipper tutorial. Wish me luck!

FO: Michael Kors Cabled Tunic

2008-01-25T06:45:00.000-08:00

Woo hoo! I finished the Michael Kors Cabled Tunic, didn't run out of yarn, the darn thing actually fits, and I am a happy camper!

Modifications made:

Used Elizabeth Zimmermann's technique for rounding the squared-off bindoff edges of a neckline (dec last stitch on previous row before bindoff then bindoff one less on the bindoff row, it rounds out the square "jog" from one bindoff row to the next).

Fudged the recommended number of stitches for the cowl to let the twisted knit stitches line up with the knit stitches of the ribbing (probably more trouble than it was worth since the cowl hides it, anyway. But I know it's there. :)

Used recommended needle size for first 4" of cowl neck, then increased one needle size to 5", another to 5.75", another until the 6-1/2" were reached. This increases the ending diameter of the neckline so that it has room to fold over without being tight. My neck rolls over nicely and doesn't try to crawl back up.

Caston the CPH last weekend during a soccer tournament in Kansas City. Finished most of the back during the 5 hours up and back. Now that's quality knitting time! :)