I Knit, Therefore I Blog

Last of the Holiday Knitting

2012-01-08T20:39:00.002-06:00

The blocking rectangle is a neckwarmer/scarf.

It got five of those little brown buttons to go along with the 5 buttonholes along the end that you can't see. The recipient loved it. The yarn is a particulary soft merino given to me by Terri Minkin.

The blue hat and mittens were for a little boy named Ethan. They are all the same yarns--a wool aran weight stranded with some acrylic dk--except that the hat has some floofy yarn stranded along. I can't remember what it is. I had given him an earflap hat 2 years ago and last year his mom asked me for another one because it covered his neck well. It only took a year. I hope he managed to keep warm last winter.

The remanining knitting is OPK which falls into the category of holiday knitting. OPK stands for Other People (who don't have blog)'s Knitting.

Laura made me the red clogs. They are the famous Fiber Trends' felted clogs pattern. She sent them to me to felt to my own size. I did this with her a few years ago. As you can surmise, the first picture is pre-felting. The second picture is after one run-through with a load of laundry. I was happy with the high amount of shrinkage on the first try. I'll keep putting them through until they are ready to wear.

This whale flap hat was made by Sue. Now that's good knitting. Even though I'm modeling it (because I like to try on hats), it is for Sue's sister, Laura (lousy with Lauras lately). The earflap is lined with supersoft polar fleece. Aaaaah.

Sprite Collar

2012-01-05T20:40:00.000-06:00

I am very happy with this puckery Packery cowl. It is a much altered version of the pattern, Sprite Collar by Lynn DT Hershberger from KnitCircus #16 Winter 2011-12. I added a lot of repeats and just went straight from beginning to end for about 12 inches. I am hemming and hawing about whether or not to block it. I kind of like the reverse side, too. I also just completed another one on which I followed the pattern, so you'll get to see it done right also.

I'm still getting over the trauma from when KnitCircus went from print format to become an e-zine. However, I know where this one is, unlike printed items that I may or may not be able to lay my hands on at any given moment. And bonus!--the cat can't access it (like my opened original Harmony stitch pattern book upon which the cat yakked recently). It is also a good value in that it is FREE to read. If you decide to make one of the patterns, it is one price for all of the patterns. You can also get a paid pattern collection subscription, which is what I have. Whenever a new issue comes out, I get an e-mail with the link and an e-mail with the patterns attachment. I've gone through a lot of computers in the last 2 or 3 years, and haven't managed to bring all my files along. I had been saving the pattern download on my hard drive and deleting it from my e-mail, but since I have g-mail, my space is basically unlimited, so I am also going to save all the issues there as well as on my hard drive (yes, I know about backups--plumbingwise, trafficwise, and datawise. I only regularly participate in the first 2). I was living in the past where you have to keep cleaning out your e-mail because you keep running out of space.
Every single issue has wonderful patterns, both fanciful ones and practical ones. Can't beat that.

Post Title

2012-01-02T21:27:00.002-06:00

I've been meaning to get around to this. Sorry about that. I am just going to throw a bunch of pictures up on here and talk about them. If you are looking for the deeper meaning, I can lay that out right up front. It's "Kathy likes potching around with yarn." To answer the musical question: That's how deep is my love.

The yellow pictures are of a prototype for a hot/cold gel pack cover. I keep these gel pack thingies in the freezer and I use them for aches and pains instead of ice. It's not as great a discovery as the day they allowed ibuprofen to be sold over the counter and my menstrual cramps were finally tolerable, no. But, they do work pretty well. There is one size that won't stay in a towel which means it won't stay on my ankle or wherever else. I needed to sew myself a couple of covers. Seeing as how I don't seem to sew anymore, I decided to knit! Plus, there are some gorgeous cablely designs on Ravelry of hot water bottle covers for more inspiration. I tried lots of different things for the shoulders and the bind off on the bottom, but it is the side edges where I experimented the most. I wanted the sides to be firm enough to keep the gel pack from sliding around or mooshing up. Overall, the gauge was a little too tight and the cozy a tad small. This is Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece from my stash.

I learned a number of things, then went ahead with my holiday plan. I bought some more gel packs from the chiropractor and made cozies to cover them for my achy breaky friends and fambly. Did I use what I learned and come out with a pattern or formula of some kind? Guess. At the last minute, I ended up giving the prototype to my friend Steve's mom. She's a knitter, so I can only laugh when I think about her looking this over and wondering what the hell I was thinking. Yet, it looks ok, it's washable, and it functions well. Actually, I'm waiting to hear about how well they function, because I don't have one.

Left to right: pink--Beth-2 strands of 75/25 sock yarn, green--Kurt-Blue Sky Cotton, Last 2 for Julie and Joe-Chevrons=acrylic, Red=TLC Cotton Plus

I have several other goodies, including opk (other people's knitting) that I will be posting in the days to come.

Look out!

Interloper!

Knitwear in Action

2011-11-23T17:29:00.001-06:00

Chambered Nautilus Hat and an unblogged shorty scarf, Lola (non-knitter) and Lynne in Madison on the 19th.

Various

2011-11-22T18:33:00.001-06:00

Pattern below: Norwegian Fisherman's Mittens by Eva Skulbru Eriksen. In the wash right now. Will either go to the VA holiday party or Occupy Milwaukee if they come out man-size. If not, we'll see then. Kureyon, 2 balls, with various small windings left over. I followed the advice of another Raveler and made the thumb both narrower and shorter. Otherwise, as per the pattern except that I made one cuff-up and the second top-down in order to make sure the fingertips would match. The ruler is about 6 inches (15 cm).

Terri Minkin, America's Next Top Hand Model

Pattern below: Striped Sprite by Lynn Hershberger (ColorJoy). I was hot to make this as soon as I saw it in the new issue of KnitCircus. Just look at the first picture in the pattern link! So Seussian, so chevronic, so clown, so spritely. Of course I'm not making it as in the pattern. I don't want it to actually touch my neck, leastways, not the front of my neck, near the Adam's apple. Instead, I am going for a slouchy pouchy look. I have about 5 or six inches done now. The yellow yarn is creamy smooth merino that I got in our Knitting Camp swap this summer. Shepherd's wool by Stonehenge Fiber Mill, Michigan, USA. It matches the Cascade 220 Superwash perfectly by gauge and compensates manages to negate the tiny bit of scratch that the 220 has. Thank you to whomever brought that to Knitting Camp. Lynn Hershberger the designer, got back to me right away when I discovered that KnitCircus had made a small error in the pattern. Check out her other pattern in her Ravelry Store.

Pattern below: Not Yet. This is another of my own, probably to be incomplete, designs. It's inspired by the Chambered Nautilus hat that I recently knit and a pair of socks I saw on Ravelry that I may never find again. I've been looking. If anything comes of it, I'll blog about it.

Pattern below: Yes and no. This hat started out as this: From Russia, with Love: Cable Balaclava by Nikol Lohr. But then, I don't know, I decided to make it a hat. Maybe it seemed too scratchy for under someone's chin and touching their face. It really is quite nice and thick and springy. I used thick Kureyon--looking it up . . . didn't have the label anymore . . . Hmm. It's not in Ravelry's yarn list. I like it. This will be a warm hat. I think it was called Big Kureyon, but it's not as big as what they are calling Big Kureyon now.

Swirling Gauntlets FO and Twisting Hat WIP

2011-11-06T18:34:00.000-06:00

I have had this pattern in my Ravelry queue just about forever. Swirling Gauntlets by Susanna IC I had some fresh yarn burning a hole in my pocket. It is Sugar Bunny, a new yarn from KnitPicks. They are calling it a limited edition. The color is called Platinum, but in some lights it looks like Putty or Sidewalk. It knits up just fine, though. I like it. I don't ADORE it, but I do like it. It's 80% merino and 20% angora. I can't resist angora. The gauntlets, including my modifications took one ball with about 2-3 yards left over.

Oopsie! I knew I had made the mistake, but I kept redoing that row and still couldn't get it. So I finished the whole repeat in the hope that it would look ok anyway.

Nope, couldn't live with it.

Figured it out the next day.

Nice fit.

Modifications: 1. This is not the thumb called for in the pattern. The original only has an opening and no sheath for your thumb. I added my usual 15 stitch gusset, though it was 16 this time because of the 2x2 rib. If you put it where the original thumb stitches are in the pattern, the design will pull too far toward your thumb. You have to move it about 4 stitches further away from the front/top/back of the hand. On the first I used my latest favorite way to increase stitches--knitting into the stitche below a la what's her name, but it didn't work out because of the rib. I went back to the lifted bar increase on the second mitt. looks better. You are viewing the second mitt.

2. Number of stitches cast on. The pattern called for 52. I cast on 56, or 1 extra ribbing repeat. Because of my mistake with the cabling, I was able to see that 52 were a little tight and that adding some to the palm side would not alter the appearance of the design.

3. Needles. I knit the cuffs on either end with size 3 needles (loose knitter here), but I knit the cable section with a size 4 because of the cable. I don't think it would have hurt to go up still another size there. Quite a bit of opportunity for upsizing.

4. I forgot.

This is another hat for the V.A. holiday party that's coming up next month. THe yarn is Plymouth Boku and it comes from a swap. There's one more skein, but I think I'm going to have to go into it to finish the hat. The pattern is Cables That Don't Cable Hat by K Yarns.

Twirly Hat Done, also baby pic

2011-10-29T14:58:00.000-05:00

Chambered Nautilus Tam. Wearable in different ways.

Smooth

It's reversible. I intended the ridgier side to be the display side, but the people I showed it to liked the smoother side better.

Ridgy

She of the great profile is my best friend at work for many years, Kerri.

Ridgy

This is Jillian. She is Kerri's daughter.

Smooth

Lastly, little Layla--31 days old wearing her Aviatrix cap. There is quite a bit of hat leftover in the back.

Not Flat Enough (along with my stomach)

2011-10-16T12:32:00.000-05:00

This was the second major attempt. Frankly, the 3rd is looking the same despite the addition of more short rows.. The pattern says it'll block out. Obviously, I am skeptical.

Chambered Nautilus by Elizabeth Zimmermann

2011-10-15T00:09:00.000-05:00

Layla's Hat

Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash
Pattern: Aviatrix Baby Hat by Justine Turner
Size: second smallest

I have the button chosen. Maybe I'll take another snapshot when I have it sewn on.

Gorgeous yarn! Still.

2011-10-08T15:11:00.000-05:00

Little Layla's Sacque

2011-09-26T22:53:00.000-05:00

Here is the baby sacque I've been making for the young Miss Petersen, now approaching the ripe old age of 5 (days).
     Yes, that is colorwork. I broke my ban on colorwork. Don't get excited, it doesn't mean I'll be whipping out any 38 color Fair Isle vests or Norwegian ski sweaters.
     Some people may be familiar with my mixed feelings about the color pink. But you see, it was on sale. Giralte's Beads was going out of business and there, on a shelf, cowering from all the vulgar, garish colors of Cascade 220 superwash, were the 3 pink heathery puffs and 1 green heathery puff. What was I supposed to do? Ignore them? Don't be crass.   I still have one and a half balls of pink left and maybe one third of the green.
      The sleeves are leg o'mutton, meaning the top part is puffed and the bottom part is straight. Hard to tell from the picture. Knitters familiar with top-down sweater knitting may understand the need to bring in the bulk more dramatically (got sick of trying to taper because I made the arms too wide).   It could turn out really cute.
     The bottom is hemmed with a side-load drawstring. It took me a day or two to get the string just right. I wanted it to lay flat and not curl, yet be polished. I am pleased with what I produced. I'm not sure I love the hem and the wide drawstring combination. It's a little bulky, but it does achieve the look and function that I wanted.
      It's just swell and I like it a lot. Do you know what else is swell?  Blogger. I think it's letting me indent! They changed the interface. It's 1. about time and 2. A lot easier to use.

Finally, I have proof that I have been to the gym and that the kids who work behind the counter get bored.

Poor Teddy

2011-08-26T19:13:00.005-05:00

Last night I was sitting on the couch knitting and computing by the open windows and enjoying a nice breeze when I began to smell skunk. Suddenly, it was so powerful that it was beyond skunk. It was thick and burning and chemical and, Quick, Shut all the windows! When I went to the front door to let the cat in, I couldn't stand the air and had to close the door right away. I put a fan in the window, blowing out, gathered my computer and phone, shut myself up in the bedroom and called it a night at 8:30.

You've probably guessed by now that Teddy got skunked. I thought the usage of the word "skunked" only applied to cribbage, but no, it's like Pepe le Peu in reverse. The skunk is the offended party, rather than the cat, at least at first. I did let Teddy in this morning to eat, but then he had to be shooed out again. Geez, what an acrid, horrible stench. The air outside was fairly fresh and sweet. The odor was emanating from an elongated orange puff down at floor level.

After due diligence in internet research I determined to bathe him in peroxide and baking soda with a little dish soap. Teddy is 16 years old and I've had him since he was 6 weeks. I never once gave him a bath. Until today. I gave him 2 baths today in the back yard.

He's still not dry from the second, but I have faith that he'll be passing tolerable now. I didn't capture the worst bath moments because, well, I was busy (giving the cat a bath). Here he is calming down after bath number one. He looked much angrier after the second bath!

Poor Teddy.

Gloves! Soft, fuzzy gloves!

2011-08-14T22:40:00.004-05:00

It's not that easy to take a picture of your own hand. I did not figure out how to take a pic of both of them. Just not that ambitious. Not even ambitious enough to have subjects in all of my sentences. Or is "sentences" more proper?

These really could be called camp gloves because the pattern is by Sue and the yarn is from the 2011 knitting camp yarn swap courtesy of JPKnits (blog link on sidebar). Furthermore, the pattern is from KnitCircus, the print version, on which 2 of our campers worked. The gloves fit beautifully and I'm ready for winter.

Pattern: Offhand Gloves by Susan Iding Size small.

Yarn: Louisa Harding Kimono Angora, between sport and fingering, 70% angora, 30% merino, color #2, held double, 2.5 balls.

A few words about the yarn. It's soft. Its smooth. It's yummy. It's angora. Angora. Ahhh. Angora breathes pleasure right into my soul. I've got 2.5 balls left.

More hats.

The first I made awhile back. It doesn't fit right. It looks awesome, but the top is too tight. I'd like a do-over. I'm going to frog it. I want to replicate the look, but improve the fit. Maybe I'll use a pattern.

On the second I did use a pattern. Short Rows Sideways Hat by Kristi Porter. I whipped this baby out super fast. It was one of the quickest knits I've ever done. If using this yarn the next time I'd might subtract a few stitches to make it more beanie length or add some to make it more of a folding over length. But the way it is will be fine. It will fit a big papa bear just right if he or she has a bigger head than mine or it will fit a baby bear with the brim folded up.

A few words about this yarn. It is the same that I used in an earlier hat, but I identified it incorrectly. This is actually Zwerger Garn Opal Luftpolsterwolle.

Another Another Post

2011-08-09T13:17:00.011-05:00

Remember the monster from the last post? I'll give you a sec to go take a look.

Sue thought it could have gone either way, so we put the action to the word. Right there at Panera in Mequon, I turned that rear into another front. I ripped it a new one. This is Gork. The other side is Brenda.

Or vice versa. If you think that was easy for the inimitable Sue, you are wrong. How she suffers for my art.

Henry almost remained armless as a design feature, but after much deliberation, the idea of arms was embraced. I learned a new skill--dreadlocks. This hair is the end (except for the purple), of the yarn that Sue and I dyed and she spun, back in the heady, but not army, days of 2006 or so.

If Mick Jagger could knit:

This sock is opk--other people's knitting. In this case it is also opd--other people's dyeing. 'Tis the work of the inimitable Sue. As bright as the colors look, they are even brighter and purer in real life, a master work of the dyepot.

An overdue credit: The monsters are take-offs of some designed by Rebecca Danger. This is her book, The Big Book of Knitted Monsters. Beth has gotten permission from Ms. Danger for us to use her designs for the shelter. We are still waiting to see if the program is a success.

So long, Brenda-Gork. Go make magic.

Another Post

2011-07-31T14:27:00.015-05:00

Summer Fun with Teddy W.

Below is (my version of) the Oslo Walk shawl by Susanna IC from the Winter 2010 issue of Interweave Knits. It is Fearless Fibers yarn from Etsy from a little ways back. The color is raspberry, but in real life it's raspberrier. Nonetheless, this picture by the incomparable Terri Minkin shows the texture and beads off beautifully. Not only that, the angle is perfection, making me look thin and postureific. (From now on, I wish to have all my portraits made by the incomparable Terri Minkin standing on a couch.)

The first 25 rows of lace are ok. There are more than several mistakes, but the pattern has been achieved. The last 9 rows of the lace are very bollixed up. There was a jog in the lace chart that I was unable to understand or even knit rotely. Blogger is trying to tell me that "rotely" is not a word. Silly Blogger. After frogging a number of times, I had to be content with knitting that would hold together. Stitch counts, especially within pattern repeats, were out the window. Since blocking, I have found only 1 dropped stitch and only 1 instance of extreme holeyness that had to be repaired. I did my own thing on the plain section. This is a gift for the last person besides the 2 dudes that I hadn't knit for at what I guess I can now call "my old job". She is a professional soprano on the side. I am picturing her with her nordic good looks singing with the shawl artfully draped upon her good self.

Next up: Ballet School Dropout Footies by Lady Lungdoc, owner and operator of the Purl This blog. (See sidebar.)

I changed the angle of the taper to make them v-necks, rather than scoop-necks. I went down on the number of stitches cast on by 4 and changed everything to accomodate that. I was hoping to make them most invisible. It really was unnecessary and they'd fit better if I hadn't done that. I am planning for a little shrinkage in length, so that ought to help. Invisibility would have been better approached with a color of yarn more akin to the color of me. Ms. Lungdoc used normal sock yarn, but I've used Esprit, which is a knock-off of Cascade Fixation. Come to think of it, I think the toe tips actually are made of Cascade Fixation. This is not a design feature. This is an in-my-shoe so it doesn't matter if I run out of yarn feature. The other one matches.

The monster is now a faceful, nameless blob.

Awaiting deployment

The following hat will eventually go to the VA for a holiday party later this year. Some of the ladies in my Monday night knitting group are collecting warm things for the vets. The photo insists on being sideways. Will you kind of tilt your head, please? The hat is made with a yarn from Zitron that I can't seem to find on Ravelry. It's self-striping, 100% wool and 4 ply, but with an unspun, felted texture. It is almost square in cross-section. The incomparable Terri Minkin gave this to me for my knitting club. However, the students were unable knit with it because they kept breaking it. I've got enough for another hat at least.

This hat is knit top-down and I actually used a pattern: Dylan's Beanie by Wooly Wormhead. I was worried that the hat wouldn't pull in at the bottom because that's happened more than once in my career. So for the last 5 rows I twisted all the knit stitches. It pulls in just fine and probably would have anyway, but I do like the way it looks.

Wait, wait! I just remembered--my new hatstand!

It was fun going into Sally Beauty Supply and saying, "Yes, I'm looking for a head, please."

Monster

2011-07-23T20:32:00.005-05:00

Here's a monster guy whom I am knitting for a friend's son who has been knitting for a shelter so that every child who comes in will have at least one toy or buddy or whatever. He's created a poem that goes with each one explaining that the monster is feeling lonely. He gives each one a name which goes in the poem. He's got a few of us doing this.

I had made 2 earlier ones, but this one seems the softest and most cuddly. I think it looks bigger in the picture. It's about 8.5 inches or 21.5 centimeters tall, not including legs and ears. It's an old stash yarn called Rainbow from Cascade. It's a cotton boucle with a nylon (I suppose nylon) binder thread. It's as soft as all get out. Not to worry, it will be getting a face, but I'm not done thinking about it yet.

This is for Laura, she who encouraged the blogging and then enabled it by providing the I-Phone. Thanks, hon.

The Rest of the Story of Rosa's Blanket.

2010-06-22T18:04:00.011-05:00

First let me apologize for the unpictured and uncredited squares. Sixty different people contributed: Theresa, Terri, Lynne, Margie, Jennifer, Beth, Cherie, Diane, Lauren, Rosa, Bev, Nola, and I. We used Lion Brand Fisherman's yarn. There are 25 twelve inch (30 cm.) blocks arranged in a five by five square. Theresa and I carefully whip-stitched all the seams. But that isn't the real story.

The real story is a tale told mostly in pictures.

This is the square that never was. It is not in the quilt. I don't think I've ever worked as hard on a piece of knitting as on that. That's why I'm making you look at it. It is what became of the little pyramid from several posts back. It stubbornly remains lettuce despite the concerted efforts of the best minds in modern ~~medicine~~ knitting. I think a frog ate it. I don't want to see it ever again. It'll suck me into trying to perfect it again. Let's leave that to cooler heads.

Knitter unknown. Sorry.Knitter unknown. Knitter unknown. I knitted this one to replace the square which shall not be named.

Center gets the square. This kooky kewl square was used as the very center of the blanket. Knitted by Lauren.

Knitter unknown. Memory like a sieve, anybody?

Assembly.

Teddy was into it.

The last two sections are combined.

The first peek at it as a single piece.

Both kitties wanted to pose with it, but neither wanted to be seen posing. Here is Musette,

and you all know Teddy.

Finito.

Ten Things I Didn't Know about Myself

2010-06-11T15:54:00.010-05:00

Wait . . . Have I got that title right? Close enough.

1. I am a perfectionist.

2. I don't like to take off the shrink wrap that comes on new appliances and other items. One day down the road I will be able to take it off and have the washer or other object look great even though I didn't actually keep it nice.

3. I shared a bedroom with my grandma while I was in sixth through twelfth grade. It was there I learned how to sew and how to put on a bra.

4. Grandma taught me also that you should use clean rags for kotex and if you want to get rid of a tapeworm you begin by sitting on a bucket. I did for a time do the first, but have never had occasion to try the second.

5. My other grandma taught me how to iron. I don't iron my clothes anymore. I go to work with them wrinkled. It's a look. It's interesting that neither grandma taught me that ironing is the one thing that really makes your sewing look professional.

6. I gained 15 pounds every time I seriously tried to quit smoking, but failed. It didn't go away when I started again.

7. I don't smoke anymore now. I only managed to quit by doing it gradually. It took more than two years.

8. I love vests. I have several batches of stash yarn that I bought to make myself a vest.

9. I can't figure out how to knit a Clapotis. It strains my tiny, little pea-sized brain.

10. I like wearing plaid, especially shorts.

11. I don't wear sweaters much. They are too hot to wear except at home.

12. The last time I wrote 10 things about myself I could only think of seven, so now you have to suffer through 13.

13. I'm a joy to have around. Ask anybody.

I will now pass on the award that prompted the list to 10 other beautiful bloggers to perhaps tell us 10 things about themselves. No obligations.

Stash Amassed Beyond Life Expectancy

Batty's Adventures in Spooky Knitting

Daniel Mount's Garden Journal

Great Towering Textiles

Random Meanderings

Knitting into Divinity
Knitter's Journey

MollieBee's Attic

AngelKnits

Purl This

Quickie Post on The Secret Project

2010-06-09T21:58:00.008-05:00

Our Monday night knitters have a remarkable member. She's like our sister who's way smarter, much more talented, light years cuter, and waaay younger than everybody else. On top of all that, she's kind and generous. We all love her. Her name is Rosa. She just got married on Saturday and we got to dance at her wedding! We made her and her hubby an Aran type afghan as a surprise. There will be more about that in the next post. Here are several of the squares before seaming. Please forgive me and inform me of the makers of the ones I've forgotten or miscredited.

by Diane (?) by Terri (?)

by Jennifer

by Lynne

by Rosa herself (Aren't we sly?)

Rebus

2010-06-07T21:48:00.005-05:00

From the Latin "by things" -A riddle where pictures and/or symbols represent words or syllables through sound or synonym.

KNITTING CAMP

2010-06-01T17:19:00.012-05:00

4th Annual Alt Knitting Camp

July 12-14, 2010

Devil's Lake State Park

Baraboo, Wisconsin

Don't look at me

2010-05-14T17:21:00.007-05:00

I didn't knit this; Laura did. It will be a Classic Lines Cardigan when it's done. The pattern is from KnitPicks, but I don't know about the yarns. Laura is my cousin. We used to take baths together, but we stopped when we both couldn't fit in the tub at the same time. Just kidding. We stopped after Y2K because of the hot water shortage. Still kidding. Laura flew to Milwaukee and stayed a week to take care of me after my ticker tinkering. She did a bang up good job. I didn't knit these; Rosa and Diane from Monday nights did. The wool is Lion Brand Fisherman's yarn.

I didn't knit this; Elizabeth Sable did, and in her awesomeness, she gave it to meeee! The yarn is Rowan Tapestry. It is not itchy. Does it look familiar? I didn't knit this either; Laura did. Now it is a wrap residing in California. All it needs is buttons(not sure where) . The yarn is a Zitron mohair yarn called Prisma. I made something out of the same yarn in the same colorway. I bought it on a trip to visit Laura. It was on sale--big surprise.

Blahging

2010-05-10T21:36:00.003-05:00

The thing about not feeling like blogging is not feeling like blogging about not blogging. I want everybody to know that I am doing just fine. I am going back to work on May 17. My level of feeling crummy is about up to the level I was at before I had surgery except that I am much more tired when I pour myself into bed at night.

I have been exercising (walking) on my own quite a bit, with the exception of a bad day here and there. I had my first cardiac rehabilitation class today. It's really just exercise with a heart monitor on and nurses who check your blood pressure. I rode a stationary bike and I also "rode" a hand bike and I walked the treadmill, all at very easy settings. We did a few arm things with light weights. This was the only non-cardio thing. It all took less than an hour. I think I could go harder, but I'm trying not to second-guess the nurses.

I am just fine. Please don't worry. Thank you for checking in. I love you, man!

Kathy Kathy Kathy again

2010-04-08T16:20:00.002-05:00

I'm OK! Wheee!

Still in the hospital, but if the levels of this that and the other are good, I will go home tomorrow. I am being well taken-care of and feel greatly loved. Thank you so much.

Ticker Trouble

2010-03-22T20:52:00.003-05:00

I've got a hole in my heart, literally, not figuratively. It's a congenital defect, that I've always known about, but I didn't realize that it affected me much at all except for the inability to do very strenuous exercise. As it got worse over the years, I thought that I couldn't mow the grass all in one day or run for the bus because I let myself get more than a little out of shape. Not so, it turns out. I don't feel any different than I did 3 or 4 months ago, but it is nice to not feel like I've squandered my good health because I'm tired a lot or lazy because I dread things like going on vacation because of all the walking.

I'm going to go get it fixed next week. The doctors call it a "repair." It turns out that sucker is huge. It goes from 3.2 to 3.5 centimeters! I don't quite get how it is that I'm alive at all when you consider that the diameter of an average garden hose, at 5/8 inches, is about half the size of my hole. I'm having heart surgery on Wednesday, the 31st of March. Here's a link that explains what I've got: Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) It's supposed to take about 6 months for my heart to shrink down to normal size and finish remodeling itself. I'm supposed to have all the energy in the world. I'm cynical about that, but we'll see. I'll do my best to use the situation as a catapault into a much more active life style. I will try to knit stranded knitting holding a yarn ball in each hand. I'll burn twice the calories!

I'll be in the hospital a few days and then off work for around 4 weeks. It's pretty amazing what doctors can do through just a couple of small incisions. I won't have to heal any bones, like say, my sternum. That's why the recovery is so short. Of course, I'll have to see to believe it, but with an efficient heart I should be able to heal more quickly than before, right?

Things are battened down pretty well on this end. I just laid in 5 boxes of kitty litter. I'm trying to get the house fit for company. I've made extra keys. My uncle will come to take me home from the hospital and stay a couple of days. He has promised soup. I've requested no noodles. Then my cousin in crime is taking a whole week off work and is coming out from California to

spend it with me. There will be knitting. We are both looking forward to it.

If you have any advice about any of this, lay it on me.

What has become of them.

2010-03-21T15:19:00.003-05:00

The whitish crepe-like affair illustrated below is what became of the little pyramid from an earlier post. After much and much and then some more rippage, followed by multiple froggings, I have what I would like to think is a square for an afghan. It's very overworked and overwrought and, I am admitting, somewhat circular. It's journey to completion is not over. The next step will be wet blocking. Then we'll see.

This next project has grown on me. I started it quite a while ago. It's somewheres in the blog archives. I set it aside (euphemistically speaking) because I thought it was uggggggggg-ly! I unearthed it and dusted it off a few weeks ago. I added about 4 more inches all the way around. The last rounds I bought more yarn for, just to get closing colors. I'm happy with the size and the ending. I have plenty more Peaches N Sugar N Cream in the stash, but trying to get colors next to each other that are pleasing takes a toll on us sensitive types. It is perfectly baby blanket sized and has the right feeling of weightiness. I have 2 possible candidates for giftees, but a whole lot of ends still to weave. They are on the other side. Here is my main project right now. I want to finish by March 29th, hence the near monogamy. Guess what it is. Nope, not a set of willy warmers nor banana keepers. They are in fact socks. When people see me knitting and ask what I am knitting/crocheting, I enjoy telling them that it's the other sock, which it is. The pattern is Spring Forward from Knitty. I've been wanting to make this pattern since I saw a pair knit up in person by the great mystery, the most reluctant blogger of all, Seiding. This pair is really a pair, not 2 different designs in the same yarn. That decision is because these socks are not for me. They are for my best work friend, for whom I have never knit. The yarn came first, then the pattern. I chose this yarn because I think it will go with her eyes. It is KnitPicks Imagination, which has 5o% merino wool, 25% alpaca, 25% nylon. It's nice and soft and just a leetle fuzzy. I'm hoping it wears well. The color is Looking Glass, but doesn't match the picture on the site very well. I don't think it will go as well with my friend's eyes, but it's still rilly, rilly pretty. I'm not mad. I have more and would like to make a scarf and hat and maybe fingerless gloves.

Sale on Apples

2010-03-21T10:50:00.004-05:00

or Clean up in aisle 3.

One day at the food co-op

Slight Miscalculation

2010-01-17T07:40:00.003-06:00

How long and how far would you knit before accepting that it really isn't going to flatten out, even with blocking?

Him Again

2009-12-26T10:11:00.009-06:00

He's very a photogenic youngster. He was given up for adoption to the courier (dad of the prospective parent) yesterday, along with his dossier which you can see in the background. It's hard to see the horns, but they're there. I doubt if all the hair will stay in, but most of it should. Remind me how much I don't like making toys the next time want to I start one. Wait, too late! Lookit! At least this one doesn't call for hair. It calls for 13 colors, but never fear, Sue is here! And I suppose these could be considered toys. They were made for an old library school buddy/colleague because she saw me knitting socks at a meeting a couple of years ago. Since then I've been urging her to take up knitting again, but I finally gave in and promised to knit her a pair of socks. Thar they blow. Though you may not need one, here's the pattern: Tiny Socks This hat and these wristwarmers are some more holiday knitting. The pattern for the hat is Le Parisienne Beret by the Sock Pixie aka Caroline Dlugy-Hegwer. I think the hat pattern makes a better beanie than a beret, but your mileage may vary. I do love her hat designs. I've also knit her Jewel Baby hat. She should think about changing her name to Caroline-Dlugy Headwear. The wristwarmers have no pattern. I used 4 repeats of the chevron stitch from the hat and I may have deducted 2 stitches per repeat. I made all the thumb gusset increases at the outside center of the thumb to mimic the chevron. Chevronically, it was better than not doing that, but not much. I tried to knit the cast off ribbing in pattern and it was a bear, but not worth it. I didnt get the shaped edge I wanted. The second hand, I did plain. Characteristically, I haven't finished my last bit of holiday knitting. It's still on the needles.

Yarniness

2009-12-09T21:10:00.004-06:00

I bought this yarn last month at the Sow's Ear in Verona, WI where Sue and I went on a little jaunt. The top is Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool for a pair of socks because I shrunk my old ones. The purple stuff is School House Press Unspun Icelandic. There are 4 rounds of 300 yards. It's about 20-22 stitches per inch. I'm thinking vest, which surprised Sue not at all. The soda was delicious.
This is not her. This is Elizabeth. Look at her beautiful vest. Sue reports that she is happy to have been yarn browsing while the cameras were out.

That Guy

2009-12-06T13:00:00.006-06:00

I made a lot of progress for a while. I had mucho trouble getting the arms positioned correctly. I decided it was time to be satisfied with what I had. I tried a number of things to make the claws and got nowhere, but then John, the crocheter from Saturday morning knitting, figured out how I could do the claws. I read a few online tutorials about how to sew on doll hair. The next thing to do was to trim it. I didn't like it. Then I split each piece of yarn in half. This resulted in a slightly curly, full afro. I suppose that would have been ok, except that the yarn is all falling apart and gets all over and doesn't stop coming off in little piles. That yarn was Cascade 220 superwash. Now I've borrowed some black sock yarn from Lauren from Monday night knitting. That will be thin, but still hold together. When I remove the old hair and add the new, I'll just have the face and horns.

I will blog again.

2009-12-01T21:17:00.002-06:00

Soon. I swear. Well, I don't swear on my blog, but I promise.

Unsung Knits for an Unsung Man

2009-10-30T19:02:00.005-05:00

This is my friend Jerry. He just had a big birthday. Here he is at Lambeau Field modeling knitwear. I'm sure you can guess by the amateurish embroidery that I made this mitt. I made another one, too. Unfortunately that one says, YRREY. I got a little excited when I got to the last letter and forgot I was going backwards. I'm pretty sure he's wearing that one, too. It just didn't show in the picture because maybe he's scratching or something. I believe that thing around his neck is what we used to call a transister radio. I had an avocado green one when I was in 6th grade. They are a precursor to the I-Pod and maybe even the cell phone.

I splurged on the yarn. It's Berroco Blackstone Tweed. It's got a felted quality and I enjoyed working with it. The pattern is Knucks from Knitty. I can't remember what I did, but I tweaked the pattern a little because of gauge and so the palm fits a bit oddly. Maybe it's because it's my first top down pair of gloves. I made the fingers a bit longer. You only need the ends of your fingers to poke out. Well, frankly, I usually only put thumbs in wristwarmers, not fingers. Maybe I'll go even longer next time. It gets cold here, baby!

I Had a Dream

2009-10-25T07:58:00.004-05:00

Last night I had a dream that I was working on a sock and had finally gotten to the point of trying it on to see how close to the heel I was. Well, there was a big ole hole at the ball of the foot. Bare naked skin was shining through. I was very upset and said to my Grandma Schultz, "This is the first time knitting has ever made me cry." And I cried. Of course there was other weird stuff and jumping around, but as we say in the teaching reading biz, that was the main idea.

It was nice to see Grandma Schultz again. I guess I was thinking about her because at work we had been talking about learning to cook and sew. She moved in with us when I was about 9 or 10, I think. We shared a bedroom and she had an ancient electric White machine in a cabinet with a knee control. That was a great machine. It had 4 drawers and one whole drawer was all buttons, wonderful buttons, which I've been using over the years. This is not a picture of the actual machine. I found this pic on the Internet. Our cabinet did not have a curve and was a different shade of brown. It also had a light bulb in a little cover. I think the one pictured here is a treadle model. Ours looked something like this, but I don't know about the belt. It seems like I remember a belt, but I don't remember it ever breaking or needing replacement.

Grandma was a consumate saver and maker-doer. Afterall, the first half of her childhood was spent on a farm and she was a single parent for a while during the other Depression. (Sometime ask me about what I used for my period at first and how to get rid of a tapeworm.) The button collection has now dwindled alarmingly. I try to replenish it, but it isn't the same.

I say it with pride that I get some of my make do-itiveness from her. Some people see this as fearless creativity. Once I had wanted some little black boot type shoes (read 1980's) and couldn't afford them, but I found a pair that was black leather except that they had large, army green canvas sections that I would probably like now. So I bought them and took a big magic marker and colored the canvas sections black. I had some friends who thought this was highly creative. I don't know about that, but I did get the shoes that I wanted.

Faceless, Armless Wild Thing

2009-10-17T11:30:00.002-05:00

Wild Thing in progress. The toes/claws were an interesting structural problem, but I am satisfied with them now. Here is the crocheted original. I did try to do it in crochet, but let's just say that as crotchety as I am, I am still a better knitter than crocheter. I am very worried that I made the head too small. It looks smaller in real life. Once I start putting hair and features on it, it will be too late. I have to decide today if I will knit another head and slip it over this head to get more size. I couldn't stand it if this thing was just off enough to look like a cheap imitation. This picture was taken by Trini of Saturday Morning at Alterra Knitting and e-mailed from her cell phone. Thanks, Trini!

The Wild Thing's intended turns 1 tomorrow. Time, she is a-wastin'.

Stuff

2009-09-27T15:52:00.008-05:00

I figured out what was wrong with Blogger. There was a hitherto unnoticed box that had somehow become unchecked in the picture importation window.

These socks developed this. It must have been a laundry accident. Now I just have to find the leftover yarn . . .

These Norwegian House Slippers fascinate me. The second one is sewn now, but they still need felting. I went big on the needle. We'll see what happens. I'm pretty sure they're not going to fit me. I'll probably make myself some, too.

Here's the second skein of Knitting Notions Superwash sock yarn in the color wildflowers and what it's becoming: a Lacy Baktus. (You may recall that I made a mohairy Baktus last January or so.) The combination of yarn and pattern are working here. It didn't even take 22 tries! Now here's an interesting question for me. Why am I compelled to immediately knit this even though I just knit another skein of it? I have so many other likely candidates.

I finished these. Seiding and Elizabeth saw me working on them at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. I decided to give them to my hairdresser, Annie. I was foolish enough to ask her if she thought one was shorter than the other. In essence, I unfinished these. I took them back and will lengthen the shortie as much as I can given the small amount of remaining yarn. The cable is supposed to line up along the outer edge of the hand, not the center. They do this better on Annie. The lumpy wrist is due to my watch. The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Angora. (60% Angora, 20% wool, 20% nylon)

Speaking of Annie, here's what she did to me. Well, she didn't mess it up like that or force me to take a badly lit picture, but she did give me purple highlights. Really purple. I love it.

No Pictures on Blogger

2009-09-23T17:06:00.002-05:00

Well I tried to post the other day and the pictures wouldn't upload. Today the button that you press to upload the pictures doesn't even work. So Hello, Howdedoo, etc.

It's hot at work, even when it's nice outside.

I did some knitting.

I had trouble with it.

I am doing more knitting. I am having trouble with that too.

It is better with pictures, isn't it?

Back in the Bloggle again

2009-09-03T16:24:00.008-05:00

At this point in the socks. I decided that the shafts were too wide. So I dropped columns of stitches down to just above the heel (a bit further than the picture shows) and brought them back up with my new favorite crochet hook (Bates 2.0 mm) and I created ribbing at the back center of both socks in order to cinch them in a bit. The truth is that I did it once, didn't like it, dropped down and brought the stitches back up in stockinette, knit another inch, changed my mind and dropped down again for the ribbing. Here's an interesting nugget: Making ribbing this way produces a tight, even ribbing. The cuff is mostly 1x1 ribbing, but the knits are twisted and the back of the cuff is consistent with the ribbing that runs up the back of the shaft. I did a 2 stitch knit ridge surrounded by 2 purls right above the diamond motif. I wish I would have surrounded it by only one purl stitch. Then it would be smoother, yet more prominent. By the way, I like the pooling. There was no pooling on the feet and I was disappointed, but now I am satisfied because it is there, but it's not all crazy and dramatic.Here's a picture of the latest unwrapped short row heel I've tried. It's called the Sherman Heel. (one tutorial)(the original tutorial) I am proud of myself for figuring this out, because I had to combine the 2 tutorials to understand it. Our minds all work so differently. Despite my trouble with the directions, it's actually the easiest short row heel in my opinion so far. Here's my tutorial: Make short rows without wraps. When you get to the increase point and are returning, slip the stitch before the gap (knitwise on the knit side). Pull up the stitch below the first stitch on the left needle. Knit or purl that stitch with the slipped stitch. Turn. Do not slip. Repeat. Ignore the part about wrapping the 1st 1 or two stitches and ignore the term, "encroachment," unless it works for you. I added 6 stitches gradually to the bottom of the foot started at about 2 inches before the heel; then I knit the heel on 42 stitches. I hope this compensates for the possiblilitlity that Mr. Williams has high arches. Here's how the design on the sides of the foot turned out. Handsome picture of the side of the leg design. Ta Da! And ironic that the paper that horned in on the photo shoot is my teaching license, because have I mentioned that Mr. Williams is my former principal? He is one of the best people I've ever known and I sure as hell hope he likes his socks. Secondarily, I hope they fit him. Thirdarily, I hope he wears them once in a while or gives them to his wife. Details

Pattern: Well, you know, a little of this, a little of that. 72 stitches, toe-up, Sherman Heel.

Yarn: Knitting Notions Superwash Sock Yarn. (I did have enough yarn. The yarn I ordered before I knew that, matches perfectly. I hate to say that I always have enough, because saying so could jinx it, but I always have enough yarn.) Color: Wildflowers, but for Mr. Williams, let's

just let him think the colors are his college frat colors and are not flowery at all.

Needles: Mostly magic loop, some 2 needle circular and some dpn work. Size: Foot & cuff, 2.25 mm, Shaft, 2.5 mm.

Endless Socks

2009-08-23T13:06:00.005-05:00

The endless socks have heels now. I only had to make three and a half heels to get two. I'm streamlining my process. In the meantime, I've ordered more yarn and the dyeist is going to see if she has any old stuff left because the new batches of this dyelot are much lighter. The dark purple especially looks not dark at all. These are very special socks and I can't have the leg being short. I also can't have them in "femmy" colors, so we'll see what the mail brings.

There are a lot more things planted on the hill. I'll take pictures in some little while when more plants are established. LLD, I did plant one periwinkle. I didn't know that it put down more roots as it goes. That is just what is needed. If it does well, I'll put in more next year. It is a greenish-yellow leaved variety.

50 Grams of Laceweight

2009-08-22T16:51:00.002-05:00

I wound it myself.

JAALA!!!!

2009-08-09T21:45:00.008-05:00

This is Jaala. Sing with me: "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?" Aside from walking in beauty like the night, she is good designer and a really good knitting camper. She designed the sweater she is wearing. I think I might knit it. I'm going to get the pattern from KnitCircus magazine which will be delivered right to my door any day now. It's full of other nice designs to knit. It's a good magazine. She and Elizabeth(sidebar) publish KnitCircus. Ask for it at your LYS or go here to see the patterns and to order a copy or subscribe. Here's Jaala's blog.

I accidentally left Jaala's name off the list of campers even though we caravaned and arrived at knitting camp together, even though we had a shouted conversation through an open window at park headquarters while she was outside in her car and I was inside on line with 30 people. Even though she let me have the short chair. Shame on me.

I love you, Jaala.

Aced the Test

2009-08-08T11:29:00.003-05:00

My friend Bev is a knitting designer. She asked me to test knit a simple but beautiful hat, or maybe I asked her if she'd allow me. The pattern is very well written. She made the stranded colorwork easy. It's called the All-American Baby Hat and it's availble for $4.00 in Bev's Etsy Shop or from Ravelry where she is known as knittersjourney. Not having a baby head handy, I photographed it on some laundry. Here is her blog post about the hat with nice pictures.

Isn't it cute?

I made a shawl.

2009-08-07T16:43:00.007-05:00

I started this last summer. I know I had it at Alt. Schmores Knitting Camp '08. I finished it right before Alt. Schmores Knitting Camp '09. It is two skeins of Suri Alpaca. I don't know the name anymore. It just reached. I probably could have done one more row because I had about a foot left over. The shawl is designed to tie around the shoulders at chest level to keep you warm and have your hands free. It's a copy of a gray one I remember from years ago that my roommate, Gwen, gave me. At least she gave it to me for a few months, but then she moved and she wanted it back. I had no choice but to knit my own 20-some years later.

I got back from knitting camp this week. The company was terrific--smart and funny, the food was sehr yummy, we found the best campsite ever, and even the weather was perfect. I saw a lot of these butterflies, but this is the one I saw first:

I neglected to take a picture of everybody. I won't torture anybody by posting her picture since I can't torture everybody. You should come next year, at least for the day. You don't have to actually camp. Think of it as a day in the park with knitting. A knitting picnic.

MollieBees, Elizabeth, Sue, Helen, Christy, Janice, Sheryl, and Jen, thanks for the memories and the treats including 3 kinds of marshmallows.

Glove Love and the GIANT UFO

2009-07-26T16:49:00.017-05:00

This glove had been making trouble for months in the ~~pile o'crap~~ important knitting paraphernalia on my ~~couch~~ ~~glorified futon~~ knitting area. It's mate was there, too. I think they would meet furtively somewheres in the fluidity of the mass that is my well-organized, systematic storage facility. There they would snicker like Beavus and Butthead and hatch diabolical plots, pitting yarn against yarn. I'm sure they were high fiving on the one hand and and high zeroing on the other over acts of sabotage such as what you see pictured here. I expect my yarn to be tangle free now that those 2 miscreants have been put in their place, the top shelf of the hall closet.

I received the black yarn in a swap with my Monday night knitters last December. I've got an oatmealy color of it also, perhaps 2 balls. I've got most of one of the black balls left. It's got some angora in it, which provides the nice halo which I can see (and feel) and you can't. Well, maybe you can see it a little. It's got other natural fibers in it, maybe silk and definitely wool. It has a felted feel, but actually it's got 2 plies. It knits in an aran gauge. Sooner or later I'll come across the other balls that still have labels. No gloves fit better than gloves you practically knitted directly onto your hand. They are plain stockinette.

How to Knit a Glove

I used my basic method where I knit the cuff then a couple of plain rows where I increase 1-4 stitches for the palm. Then I increase 1 for the thumb gusset and put markers on either side of the increase. After that I increase at both markers every other row or so until the gusset is 15 stitches, then I knit straight until I think the level of the knitting has reached the big valley between the thumb and index finger. Then I put the thumb stitches aside and forge on. Of the fingers, you have to knit the baby finger first because its valley is 2 rows lower than the other valleys. With this yarn I needed 13 stitches for the Baby, 14 for the Weakling, and 15 each for the Tall Man, Pointer and Thumb. I used approximately 10-12 of the live stitches for each finger and picked up and cast on evenly on sides between the fingers. In order to close up gaps I had to pick up more than the necessary number of stitches, so I decreased gently to get the right fit. I didn't know in advance how many stitches I'd need until after doing the pinky. From there I could estimate, but trying on was the key. Closing the fingers was a little more difficult for me to get the exact right length. I had to be willing to rip and reknit those last few stitches, which I was, but it was only on a few stitches. The decreasing there is all done in the last 2 rows before stringing the remaining stitches and pulling up tight. Figuring out that the finger doesn't need to be carefully tapered has saved me a good deal of knitting angst.

I call this my method, but I read it somewhere else first. I don't know where. It is probably an amalgam of patterns. I just hope I get a lot of use out of them before I lose one. But when I do, since it is ambidextrous, it will make a pair with any singleton I have, most of which are lefts.

As I go to press, the picture of the pair of gloves is vertical. It's not supposed to be. Perhaps it will have fixed itself by the time you visit.

The Hill: Grass and weeds subtracted, rocks added. I have erosional thinking. I played around with this hill for years, trying to get things to take over the grass. Now I've hired a neighbor. My tweezer method wasn't very effective, but we'll see about the sledgehammer method. Now it's a race to get it all planted, but I can't decide what to plant. I might hire a woman I've met who is a landscape designer to plan the space. There are some ground covery things planted at the bottom toward the side with the phlox (the big green strip). They are starting to fill out, just a bit. It's been raining everywhere but here for a few weeks now. See how dry the ground is?

Cat added for scale.

First a Kitty

2009-07-21T23:43:00.007-05:00

Musette. That's not her tail, it's a mushed up kitty pi. That makes a total of 3 knitted items in which she is nesting. The red thing, knitted by the illustrious Laura, is a sweater which I've altered but still need to reknit the button band. Hi Laura. The rainbow thing is the circular blanket. This had to happen. All the little packages finally got the upper hand. It was like the scene in the first Harry Potter where all the letters are shooting in through the fireplace and the mail chute and flapping around trying to get attention. I need to tie a needle gauge to it.Oy. I'm working on this now. It's going to be a stole. The pattern is Swing Stitch from Barbara Walker #2, p. 264. I spent a good 2.5 hours knitting tonight only to end up having knit one more row than when I had picked it up. Counting Fail. Lifeline Win! The lurid green highlights are due to having messed with the color values to get the knitting to be this shade of purple. I think it's pretty accurate. It's interesting that the color of the unaltered picture was pretty close to the pictures in the online stores. Maybe I'll get another skein after all.These are finished. I finally located the original pattern! I had to have help from the Patterns forum on Ravelry. They are called Rise and Shine socks. The author is Tikru who blogs at Made By Myself. Forgive me for posting so many pictures of them. I love them so. I'm working on another pair. If I don't watch myself carefully I'll frog the plain one and reknit it as a Rise and Shine sock. Maybe I'll make the zigzags further apart.

I'm invited to a wedding, but I need your help. Chicken, fish, or vegetarian?

All spinny & twisty like my brain

2009-07-02T19:37:00.004-05:00

You were right. It's a wine cozy. Here it is almost dry after felting. It was knit in stripes of two yarns. The green is KnitPicks Wool of the Andes. The rest is a variegated color of Paton's Classic Merino. Speaking of which, the pattern is from that company, designed for that yarn. What a coincidence. It's fun and easy to follow a pattern. The bottom is undergoing a procedure in, of all places the refrigerator. It came out much more like a bowl than a plate. I snipped the edges and now I'm trying to squash it flat beneath a big tub of peanut butter. There is not a lot of hope, but there is some. I did not use a pattern for the bottom. I'm in love with another very cool pattern. It's the Ten-Stitch Twist by Frankie Brown. It is a sequel to her Ten-Stitch Blanket. She is also the designer behind the Mop Top Mascot of the previous post and of another small project I have nearly finished. I am having a Frankie Fest. Here is Frankie Brown's Designs Page on Ravelry. I am knitting in Mochi Plus that I bought at the Knitting Knook (formerly French Knots II). The pictures show one skein's worth. I have 5. It's very photogenic. The first picture shows the ridge that I've knit in on purpose as a design feature. The other picture of it shows what I had considered the back, but Bev (on sidebar) considers it the front. Reversibility: Win.

Not too proud

2009-06-28T22:31:00.016-05:00

We interrupt our normal knitting to bring you a couple of quickies. I use the term, "quickies," loosely here because they took much longer than they should have. Here is something you may not know about me, and you may not like it. I'm not proud, not too proud to crochet. I knew sooner or later Amigurumi was/were gonna get me. This is the one: Mop Top Mascots (regular link). A friend's granddaughter is going away to her first overnight for 2 weeks camp tomorrow and it is also her and her sister's double birthday party. They've appeared here before.

Emma, who is now 10, needed a camp buddy. Voila! It only took me almost all day.
Emma says it's a boy and it's name is Bobo. Naturally, I had to finish it at the party and Emma was quite interested so we looked at the others in the Ravelry gallery. She has dubbed the race, Funkies.

I used Sugar & Cream & Peaches and Fun Fur. Now if you think it is hard to knit with fun fur, you are correct. But let's give a what ever we give people to show we appreciate and respect their accomplishments (maybe a Huzzah?) to our sisters in crochet, because crocheting fun fur is much harder than knitting with it.

When Bobo was finally finished, Sophie, the now 4-year old, who copies Emma fiercely, appeared with something I had forgotten about. I sort of remember crocheting the gold lame* sweater directly onto the pig at an earlier gathering. Sophie was probably an infant, if she even existed. I am most impressed and amused by the teeny tiny arms. Plus, I got to hear this yelled today: "Sophie, put the sweater on the pig!" Now there's a novel sentence. I also crocheted a swimsuit onto a bear. It turned out to look like underpants. Actually, they may have been underpants, but Emma was young enough to be embarassed by that and called them swimming trunks. Don't despair! Despair not! Knitting is here also. And sewing. Sewing with repurposing. I suppose it was willful of me to cut up a shirt about which I actually have gotten compliments, but it actually matched the yarn. You may be familiar with the yarn. It's that orchid colored bulky cotton I've got. There were things in my fabric stash that kind of matched it, but not well.
It's somewhere between pink and lavender. To be honest (it's not like I'm lying), I didn't like that shirt because anyway it looked old lady or something. Shut up, I know. I borrowed the top from a free dress pattern, which I'm not linking because I changed it so much. I wanted an opening in the front because I thought I'd be using a shirt with buttons and then the dress would button all the way from the top to the bottom. But before I even finished knitting, after it was too late to frog (another time), I decided it was too small. Therefore, I closed the buttonholes in the bodice and butted the front bands together and sewed them with a mattress stitch so they'd line up properly. I also cut off the button bands from the blouse and sewed it shut. Using a shirt was a fabulous idea, mainly because it's already hemmed. If I were to make another, I'd knit some sort of border that would hold better than plain ribbing in cotton. I would like it to have a horizontal orientation in order to hide the sewing better. I would have preferred to have sewn above where I attached the skirt to make the seam allowance lay flatter. I didn't because I thought the line of stitching would ruin the look of the ribs. I had thought the ribbing would be better because it would stretch. That's wrong for cotton, exactly wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.Sophie likes the dress. She carried it around for quite a while before donning it. I think she wanted to give equal time to the dress that Aunt Janie gave her. It's driving me crazy that the edging on the arm front is curling under. I steamed it and it was laying fine. It's happening because Sophie keeps moving her arms. Why can't these children just stay still! I learned some new things on these 2 projects. One was the magic ring, which is a crochet technique for making a holeless circle center. It doesn't start with a slipknot, so you don't get the lump. I think I've seen something similar used in knitting. I tried to invent it, but I was married to the slipknot. I also learned that stuffing toys with waste yarn doesn't mean you have to chop it up or save up little bits for years until you get enough. It means you can take acrylic yarn and pull it out of the skein and just mush it in. Not only do you get rid of some of that acrylic stash, but you can use a color similar to your project, so it won't show; it's much easier to handle than the polyfil and likely equally enviromentally evil. Win, win, win.

**Sorry, I don't know how to make an accent mark.

So far, so good

2009-06-24T21:51:00.003-05:00

This sock has a nice texture. I copied a pattern from Ravelry. I'll link it when I finish the socks. The inside, which is smooth of course, feels so nice that it's still on my toes a half an hour after taking the picture. Never mind that it's 10 p.m. and 89 degrees outside. It's not 89 degrees inside, thank goodness.

I'm wondering how it would be to rent a car with air conditioning for the summer. There's nothing wrong with the car I have now except for the lack of a/c. It's 16 years old and so I probably should be worried that it's not long for this world, but as I've said, there's nothing wrong with it. Well, it could use an oil change and the muffler's starting to get a bit loud, and there are some cosmetic issues, but that's it. Do I tempt fate? Hope not!

The next project is in keeping with the green theme of '08 and '09. It looks like a sweater sleeve. I'm not saying whether it is or isn't. The round thing in the next picture goes with it.

The Knitting of the Green

2009-06-13T22:26:00.004-05:00

Green has never been a favorite colorofmine. (<--sesame seed under the space bar, fixed now) I most often go for reds and blues. Yet I find that the last several things I've knit have had at least a little green. First there is the new washcloth I've made myself.
Next is the yarn for a secret project. 100% bamboo, 250 yards/100 grams.

Here is the greenest soaker ever made. This is vintage wool. The texture is verry, verry springy.

Madison Man to Run Grueling Marathon

2009-06-10T00:23:00.002-05:00

He is a survivor of cancer and is running on behalf of Gilda's Club in Madison. Read about it on Molly Bee's Attic. Thanks.

Irish Hiking Floozie--brown

2009-05-31T18:55:00.010-05:00

As a fundraiser each classroom at my school and the staff is compiling a basket for silent auction at our school picnic. This year the staff's theme is relaxation. I wanted to knit something. I tried soda can cozies, but my heart wasn't in it. Then I came across a UFO. I had begun a pair of felted slippers from the book, Knit 2 Together (Rav link) I had finished one and the sole of the 2nd. I know that I stopped because I had a bit of trouble with the number of stitches to pick up and plus also I got distracted, too. So I finished them last week, but of course they turned out kind of different from each other, since I couldn't quite remember the modifications I had made on the first one. For once, my photo shows them to be much nicer than they are. Since they look somewhat woggity, imagine how bad they really are. I'm going to throw them in the washer and dryer a few times more and then at least maybe I can get them down to my size.I went back to the thought of a soda cozy with the some of the leftover wool from the slippers. It was Boku, which I thought would look very nice in cables, but cables would not work very well for a soda can/beer bottle cozy. I knew there would be wine in the basket and just one cozy seems enough for a wine gift, but soda cozies ought to come in sets. Bonus. I hiked off into Irish Hiking territory where so many have hiked before. It's a nice, smoodgy looking cable, but simple. It would be good insulation without needing to be felted. After only (for me) a small amount of experimentation, I settled on double stranding the yarn and casting on 48 stitches. I thought it was a nice fabric and I didn't rip out and start over one last time when I wondered if one strand with 60 stitches would be better. Are you proud of me? At some point, I realized I would probably not be able to find the other 1 or 2 skeins of brown Boku that I have in stash. That's when I thought that for the neck I'd better increase to 60 stitches and switch to a single strand. I had already decided to rib that section in the hope that it would pull in, which it did, but not that much. Therefore I made eyelets and a short I-cord to pull the top snug. I had not constructed a bottom, thinking that I would pick up all around the edge and knit one on later.I had already learned from my experimentation with soda cozies that it was easier to make the bottom flat if you added it after making the sides.

I remembered a some felt I had made out of a piece that I was making for a vest that I had abandoned when I kept having counting problems. (Counting=The hardest part of knitting) The colors would be perfect. Just like my father before me, I knew that it would come in handy some day! I cut out a circle and marked my centers and quarters and pin basted with plastic safety pin stitch markers because who the hell knows where the real safety pins are, then sewed it up using embroidery floss, all six strands. I would have used yarn, and I did save just enough, but this yarn is a single and not strong enough for this function. A contrasting yarn would have been nice also, but I didn't have any good colors to hand. I used quarter inch stitches and allowed the knit edge to flatten on the felted base. I wanted to sew a bit in from the edge because I didn't think it would be wise to sew right on the cut edge even though this base is very densely felted. It only took a few minutes. I am quite pleased with the finished object. No doubt that it is the last minute, but it is done!

I'm not much of a wine drinker, so here it is being modeled by a half a jar of 3-year old dry roasted peanuts that I found behind a lot of stuff in the cupboard that is probably just as old or older. It will look better with a wine bottle to hold up the neck. The Irish Hiking Floozie is quite a fun project. I think it's quite handsome. Why I want to make another one, I can't say for sure. Why don't I want to knit sweaters like other people?

Danny--A soaker is what hippies use for cloth diaper covers. The wool breathes yet
acts as a moisture barrier (I guess).

More of the knitwear clad baby currently known as Little Prince

2009-05-27T21:09:00.004-05:00

A little bitty picture of a little bitty prince with one of the soakers that Lynne knit and his mumma .

Upgraded soaker post

2009-05-26T18:39:00.006-05:00

No, the soaker is not upgraded; this is a repost. Riposte?
Here we have a picture of Madison's Little Prince. This little prince is the grandson of my friend, Kathy, the elder. (She told me to call her that. I think it's an honorific.) My friend Lynne and I knitted him a few soakers while he was in the works. Well, I only made one, but I did make the one in the picture. His grandma e-mailed it to me so I could see some knitting in action. I think Kathy knit him the sweater he is wearing. I think that because I saw her knitting one just like that. As you can tell, Little Prince lives in a party house. He and his brother, Medium Prince, are two of the most personable fellows you'll ever meet. Little Prince actually has his own blog, which his parents keep up. It's full of wonderful pictures and videos of this guy. I'm a fan of Big
Prince, Medium Prince, Mama Prince, and of course, Little Prince.
He's the perfect knitwear model and so's his brother. I mean, c'mon, lookit this:

Hello, KnitCircus? It's not like there's any shortage of babies and pre-schoolers in Madison, but I'm partial. Naturally, I can't really volunteer them, but I can put in a request if I'm asked.

Ecco Alpha appeal

2009-05-13T16:43:00.003-05:00

Sounds like part of the Greek alphabet, but it's actually the name of the brand and model line of the brown shoes in the previous post. If anybody knows where I can get any more of those in size 38, please, by all means, speak up. The last several pairs were from EBay, but the line has been out of production so long, that even those are nigh impossible to find. I've tried having them resoled, but they aren't the same at all. I have a black pair too, but the bottom layer of the sole has begun peeling. That's how they go. The brown ones are starting to feel a little mushy. This may be the end of the love affair between my impossible to please feet and the Ecco Alpha shoe. All of the Alphas had a fine green line along the edge of the sole, that I could have done without, but I wasn't in love with the cosmetics. It is the soul of the sole and the fit. I can wear them many days in a row. There were also more sandally sandals, oxfords, chukka boots and I think clogs as well. The one pictured is the fisherperson sandal, though the upper is a redesign of a previous Alpha fisherperson. Ecco called it a fisherman sandal, but of course, they were wrong. I've had them all except for the boot and the clog.

Pairity Reached

2009-05-06T23:00:00.005-05:00

Socks and flowers

2009-04-25T23:15:00.007-05:00

That's no good. If you think I might live with that by kind of mooshing it into my shoe because it'll kind of meld in eventually, you are wrong. A good blog name occurred to me whilst working on these, The Frog Blog.

Ahh, that's better! Once again, I've lost track on how many times I've knit the heel on a pair of socks. I used short rows every time, but not the same short rows. Here is the tutorial for my new favorite as seen below: Naked short row heels (unwrapped)

Of course now the trick will be to make the shaft fit properly. As a means to that end, I've knit the several rows after the heel without any increases or decreases. I used knits and purls to simulate the pattern. I've also decided to only knit 5 pattern repeats around and knit what would have been the center back repeat in 1x1 ribbing. I'm still undecided about which size needle to use. I'll probably compromise and choose the 2.25 which is the middle size of all the sizes in this sock.

Here is the last pair of socks I knit. I don't have Second Sock Syndrome. Really. I have everything else, but not that. Incidentally, the red ones have the naked short row heel that I linked above.

And for the gardeners: There are some very unusual flowers blooming on my little hill even though I haven't seen any dandelions yet. What are these? The purple ones look like some kind of mum, judging by the leaves, but they're drastically out of season if that is true. I wasn't thinking and I cropped out most of the leaves, but you can see one peeking out from behind a brown leaf at that right of the picture. The flower's closed in the picture, but when they open they are daisy-like and about 1 inch across with a bright yellow center. The white flower is a little closed. It has a bell shape and a large yellow center. The bloom is about 1.25 to 1.5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide. The foliage is fuzzy and you can just see a second stem beginning on the right.

Quick!! Look before I frog

2009-04-20T23:08:00.003-05:00

Top view

It's just plain too tight where leg meets foot. It fits ok, but the material gets too strained going over the heel in the putting on and removal. It wouldn't last long enough. Therefore I will frog past the heel, redo that (5th time for that pesky heel. The last time I knit the heel was the only time I forgot to put some extra stitches in.) and then the leg. I can't promise I'll keep the same stitch pattern, even though I think it looks pretty nifty, the way the ribs stand out make my leg look octagonal. I guess that doesn't show as much in the pictures, but it's quite prominent. I wouldn't put it past myself to frog all the way, because the toe doesn't fit right. I don't want to do that, but I just might. Now that I think about it, I could frog the foot rather than the leg and knit down. I wonder if that will play havoc with the pattern.

The innards are pretty groovy, too. (I'm out of superlatives. That's a clue that I might not be an optimist.)

In this picture you can see one of the 2-stitch stockinette ribs where I added a center purl to expand the leg a touch. I also went up a needle size. Overall, the fabric is pretty stiff. I did try to knit the toe more tightly on purpose. It was a mistake. I have the belief that the sock will last longer if you do. On the other hand, the fabric does not want to conform to my foot because it's too dense and rigid. I've started the second sock with a different stitch pattern and the fabric is much more malleable. (My best picture of knitting ever. Not retouched at all.)

I like this sock too much to not rip out and reknit.

Exlanations

2009-04-16T15:36:00.008-05:00

of revious ost. Um, the p key is sticky. Nevermind that!
The black camera bag is from my original digital camera. I don't know where that one is now, but it took great ictures. Some of the pictures in the earliest blog posts were taken with it. The big roblem it had was that it ate batteries. I was recharging them, but that didn't work very well. This may be why someone gave me the camera for free, along with the case & other accoutrements. So I had the case lying around (hoing that the beginning of this sentence has the camera case lounging and not me) and I decided to kee my new camera in it. Hence, losing the camera.

icture number two: the blue thing. I got the darker blue yarn at my lys closing sale and was insired to make a skirt. (The lighter blue is stash cotton I used just for the waist band in order to conserve yarn). I'd like something breezy that I can wear all summer long. I also got this pattern at the sale. This is called Ashley and it's actually made with two colors of sport weight linen and my yarn is worsted cotton. That can't stop me! The blue yarn is fairly slipery. I love the skirt, but I'm not sure I want to make that one. There are other nice ones on Ravelry. I may not make the skirt at all. The problem of what to wear under it remains and that could cancel out the breeze anyhow. This may merely have been simly a minor brush with startitis.

Great. Now Blogger isn't accepting ictures. I'd better ublish this before I lose it also.

Lost a lot of text, posting anyway

2009-04-14T21:50:00.007-05:00

1. How to lose your new camera

That's easy! Put it in one of these:

?). And in the interests of equal time, the Passover Seders I attended were great. The 2nd night, the whole group re-enacted the exodus from Egypt with scripts and costumes as written by a 10-year old. It was tremendous.

Be Careful What You Ask for

2009-04-05T16:14:00.005-05:00

Here I am on a plain ol' Sunday not knitting very much because I have clown thumb,* when I saw this post on Batty's blog. I have stolen it nearly word for word.

Paying it Forward
Today, I saw something on Batty's blog who saw it on That Crafty Bitch's blog, and I really like the idea. Check this out... a chance to win something handcrafted... by me! The first five (cinq) (cinco) (fu:nf)(5) people to respond to this post will get something made by me.This offer does have some restrictions and limitations so please read carefully:

1. I make no guarantees that you will like what I make. (No refunds… no exchanges!!!!)

2. What I create will be just for you, with love from me.

3. It'll be done this year (2009) and stands a good chance of being mailed this year.

4. I will not give you any clue what it's going to be. It will be something made in the real world and not something cyber. It may be weird or beautiful. It may be cheap and crappy or costly and exquisite. I may even create something totally unbelievable and surprise you!! Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!

5. I reserve the right to do something extremely strange. (Moss-covered, three-handled, family gredunza, Morty Moot Mope, or bacon anyone?)

6. In return, all you need to do is post this text into a note/post of your own and make 5 things for the first 5 to respond to it. If fewer than 5 respond, I'll do it anyway. If zero respond, I'm not doing it.

7. I'll contact you for your mailing address, so we don't all get spammed. No spam! It'll be fun!

**Clown Thumb=a mostly unexplained swelling of the thumb, analogous to Clown Tongue
P.S. You don't really have to make a blog post and make 5 things, too. I'm not that strict.

Washed my needle

2009-03-29T18:01:00.005-05:00

See how clean it is?

Yes, I do see that my keyboard could use what my Aunt June calls the once over.

This is what I decided to do with the too small sock. I know it looks like some of my overworked knitting where I frog and reknit all over the place, but it's actually a pattern. I thought I ought to make one from the Six Sox Knit Along since I joined it more than 6 months ago. The pattern is called The Best of Both Worlds, or BOBW. I haven't read the whole pattern, but so far it seems like it's just starting in the middle exactly as I've thought about doing it myself. You can see the reddish yarn of the provisional cast on. I was hoping it would be more exciting, but I'm not dissatisfied. I cast on 72 instead of 64, decreased down to 68 using the gusset, and I worked a pattern on the part of the cast on rows that would become the instep. Here's a link to the Six Sox Knit Along. N You have to join in order to access the patterns. A new pattern is put out every other month. Members can post about patterns as much as they like, but must post only two pictures for each design, one of the sock(s) in progress and one of the completed socks. Some of the designs are fairly plain or fairly odd, but a lot of them are really clever or pretty. You can see most or all of them on Ravelry. N

Bloggy Good News

2009-03-27T21:51:00.009-05:00

I bought a New Camera!!! And it works! Woo Hoo! Accurate colors! What a treat. It was cheaper than my last crummy one even.

And here are the Packer socks all done. I've actually worn them once already.

The yarn is ArtYarns Ultramerino. Here's a big novelty: I paid full price for it at the 2nd most expensive local yarn store because the Packer colors are such a hot seller. The pattern is called Bloody Mary. I didn't name it. Here it is on Ravelry. I love how the colors land on the original. The colors on mine didn't change as often, but I do like them.

And pictured below I present a flop. I was really enjoying the yarn and the pattern. It only took 2 evenings to get this far. I really should have tried it on sooner. I can't get it over my heel. Now the question is what to do next. Add some stitches to the pattern; get bigger needles? I haven't had this happen before. I must be knitting the yarn too tightly. It's 40% cotton, 40% wool, 13% fake, 7% elastic. The seven percent solution works for me about as well as it did for Sherlock.

Norberta

2009-03-09T21:26:00.005-05:00

I'm still knitting, but I've lost my camera (again). That's why I haven't been posting. I did take some pictures of my last finished object at work using a work camera last week. Happily, it's a much better camera than mine. I can't even complain that the color isn't right. I finally found the time to e-mail the photos to myself today. It's been cuckoo at work. I have to keep changing all my appointments and driving all over town because of work stuff. My car is starting to feel like it's falling apart. It doesn't seem like it's the potholes. We've got another bumper crop this year. The car is 2 years older than the cats and the cats are starting to show their age. I love my cats. I like how they drape themselves on me when I compute. I don't like when they can't find a good spot, though. The kneading of and the getting hooked in cloth of the claws and the standing on the precise painful spot on the hip bone--that I hate. Really, really hate. Fickle, moi?

So this is my Norberta. Actually, it's our youngest Harry Potter fan's Norberta because it was her birthday present. If you go and visit the Norbertas on Ravelry, you will see that many other knitters complained about how hard the sewing up was. That was true for me also. The arms and legs were especially hard to position. I think I may have omitted a step on the legs that would have made them more leggish and easier to attach, but I like them anyway. By the time I got to attaching the legs I was done reading the pattern. It was the home stretch. The only big modification I made was the tail. I'm not sure why, but the original was really short, more of a squib than a tail. Maybe I misread the pattern. It was the classic case of knowing that something isn't right, yet going ahead and trying to "trust the process" but having to frog and reknit even though you've got the body stuffed and the chassis nearly complete. The new tail could have been upturned somewhat to lay better, but even I wasn't about to redo it again. Hey, it's not easy to frog 2 strands of boucle from the cast-on edge. (It helps if you read the last line as Rodney Dangerfield.) If I make another Norberta, I would try to remember to add a couple of extra rows to the head because the undercarriage is knit in garter stitch, which makes it a little too long for the nose. That's why Norberta's neck glands look swollen.

Norberta takes over the planet.

Hear her roar.

A little scoliosis won't deter Norberta!

No real dragon has a body like a model. Models are actually freaks of nature. And the skin? Please, it's all air-brushed.

I love myself because I am green enough and fat enough and crusty enough. I love myself because I am green enough, and fat enough, and crusty enough. I love myself because I am gre . . .

Dirty Post

2009-02-27T19:22:00.006-06:00

BACTERIA IS DIRTY AND DIRT IS BACTERIA-Y

Dirt.

Bacteria.

Link about dirt and bacteria: USDA

Ethan's Hat On

2009-02-26T18:27:00.003-06:00

You may remember this hat. It is knit with 2 strands of sock yarn. One of the 2 was the green that I couldn't locate for the Devan Sweater. It was in this hat on this baby's head. I was very pleased to see him wearing it and enjoying it (back in December). Here he is, happily displaying his head. It's the grown-ups who keep seeming to misplace it--and his nose, his eyes, his teeth, various other parts, and his mamma.

It's putting on the jacket and leaving that he isn't thrilled about.

Nothing to show for it

2009-02-17T23:43:00.003-06:00

Thank you all for the many comments on the Baktus scarf. It warms the cockles o' me little heart, it does. Maybe that's why I have a heart murmur, from the cockles. I'm sorry I don't have any pictures on this entry. I wanted to get some sort of rhythm going here, so I thought I should post even though I don't have pics. I guess I'm using the rhythm method.

Well, I've been knitting a lot and a lot more, but frogging it. I am trying to knit a secret sock design of mine that has colorwork. I've tried Fair Isle and mosaic and something I unvented. Each was a little better than the last, but not good enough. Last night and tonight I worked on mastering duplicate stitch. I'm not thrilled with that either, but I think it's the best of the lot, only if I choose duplicate stitch I can't go with my original design. Yeah, I use the phrase, "original design," as if it were important. It's really just an idea. It's an idea I like a lot and I've become quite frustrated about it.

Colorwork-- Bah!

Here's Something: Baktus

2009-02-08T09:19:00.004-06:00

This is the pattern: Baktus by Strikkelise. I was inspired to knit it by JP Knits' Baktus in Kureyon sock. JP is one of our knitting camp campers. I used Zitron Prisma that I bought at a nice yarn shop in Bakersfield, CA when I was on vacation. Laura and I hit three yarn shops there. I liked all of them. Laura even signed up to take private spinning lessons there. (LYS rant: Why does a town the 5th of the size of Milwaukee have 3 good yarn shops, but we can only have 5 altogether, of which 2 definitely suck?) Thank you, Sue, for modeling. If she had known she'd be pressed into service, she would have worn makeup. Me, I don't think she needs it. Do you also notice her lovely sweater? She made that.

Baktus is a quick and satisfying knit. It can be made with any yarn and makes excellent to-go knitting. It has an understated elegance. Take a look at some of the ones on Ravelry. The hook is that you knit from end to end increasing until the halfway point of your amount of yarn, then decreasing. I'd like to go again with a totally different yarn. I'm thinking about some of the Kureyon sock that I have.

Like I always say: Mohair, not less.

The Smarf

2009-02-06T11:47:00.004-06:00

Today our lovely model is sporting The Smarf with matching hat. The Smarf is an original creation by Lynne. The Smarf keeps the young person's neck and hands both warm, yet leaves the hands free when needed. Best of all, The Smarf can't get lost like mittens. It can get lost like a scarf, but not like mittens Brava, Lynne, Brava!

Knitted Baby Quilt part Hat

2009-02-01T13:01:00.013-06:00

Here's the whole thing all at once laying (lying, looing?) on a snow bank. As usual, I'm unhappy with the pictures' quality, but at the same time I still appreciate them for being pictures. The full picture here has the best color because the blue doesn't look aquatic.

Details, details:
Pattern: All but two of the stitch patterns came from the new version of the Harmony stitch guides. Why I seem to have to have these even though I have most of the old ones, I don't know. The image is courtesy of the folks over at Amazon who are nice enough to share their images. At least, I think they are. They certainly could make the pictures uncopyable if they wanted. Right? The stitch patterns that didn't emanate from there are the "E" and the one located at 3,2 reading down and across. The "E" stands for Evan.

Modus Operandi: I used size US 7 needles or maybe 6. I just can't remember. I chose stitch patterns on the basis of whether I could get them to fit in about 24 to 31 stitches. I added garter stitch selvedges to those that couldn't make 30 to 31 on their own. I made some 31 because I wanted even selvedges. I knit until each block was square, which I determined by folding the corner diagonally up to the needle. I then crocheted 1 row of single crochet around each block to help square them up. After that is when I decided the piece was too small and added another row of single crochet, but in the blue. I had thoughts of employing what a quilter would call sashing between the blocks by going back to the yellow and knitting another stitch pattern. However, after the 2 grueling rows of crochet I put the kybosh on that piece of brilliance. Yeah, I don't feel like looking up how to spell kybosh. Enlighten us, o wise in the ways of English somebody. Or not.

I worried for a long time about how to attach the squares. I Internetted what I could on the subject. In the end, after taking it for a vacation in California during which time I didn't work on it, but got help in choosing the locations and orientation of each square from a bonnie red-haired lass--Hi, Bonnie!--I ended up doing a mattress stitch. It worked excellently with the crocheted edges. I highly recommend it.

Next, in blue, I added a row of single crochet, a row of that taller than single crochet crochet and maybe a third row with that second thing. But it still looked skimpy. I crocheted more, but things started getting tight. Way tight. Off that came and I picked up and knit in yellow about 8 rows in two by two ribbing with a cable twist at each end of the stockinette. I believe you can make it out on one or two of the blocks pictures. Then I knit a blue row plain and bound off. I've been weaving ends in ever since. Incidentally, I'm splitting the ends in two and that's making it easier and quicker to weave, though my Monday Night Knitters think I'm making more work for myself. I think I counted about 8 ends left to go. Maybe during the Superbowl.

Last of all, clearly it needs blocking. That it does. Indoubitedlbyly. Indeed.

Yarn: A giant skein of Bernat Handicrafter cotton in one of the colonial colors seen earlier in the blog posts provided the yellow. The blue is Peaches and Sugar and creame. Either one or both--I don't know. I used a partial and part of a full skein which were acquired at different times. In fact here's the remainder of the second ball. Ididn't realize it was still attached when I grabbed the blanket out of the car and carried it over to the snow bank to catch the last of the light. I got almost there when I felt the tug. I had to free it from the garbage cart. The Bernat is less pilly than the Creme. It seems a little smoother and even. I liked it quite a bit, but they don't generally sell it around here.

And now, the cuteness, that is 3-year olds. Recognize the hat?

Kofu, Sophie

Last of all of the last, I took the couple leftover yards of yarn from Sophie's jester hat and crocheted it into a thick string to give to her. The hat and the string were in the car for several days before I had a chance to give them to Sophie. In the meantime, I went to Trader Joes 2 weeks in a row. Guess what I found in the parking lot on my way into the store the last time. You can see that it didn't snow, but it had to have gotten run over multiple times. That is some resilient yarn.

Knitted Baby Quilt Part 12

2009-02-01T12:04:00.016-06:00

Took me awhile to get these pictures in here and balanced. I'm going to quick publish before something goes wrong. I'll put the explanation in a separate post.

Alpaca-Silk scarf.

2009-01-18T13:23:00.004-06:00

This is finally done. It hasn't been a year, but I've worked on it many, many hours in many different stitch patterns because of indecisiveness. Actually, if it still rolls after I take it off of the blocking board, I may knit on some more edge stitches. I only did two for the garter stitch selvage. Two is not enough. Alpaca-silk is descriptive and it is also the name of the yarn by Blue Sky Alpacas. It's nice; I like it. 150 yards a pop, sportweight. Stitch pattern shot. "Little and large diamonds" from the newer version of the Harmony knitting stitch pattern books. I did enjoy the knitting of this pattern.

Texture shot.

Problem: ran out of blocking board.

Solution: cardboard box from digital television converter.

By the way, I find that keeping the "blocking board" completely folded makes it much easier to use because the unwieldiness becomes wieldiness and the pins don't poke out the back. It's only too bad I can't fold it the long way also. Some day I am going to tackle my blocking board issues for real. It may be to buy a new cardboard cutting board, but covering it with clear plastic before using it so that I don't get it all warped and extra double unwieldy from the wet blockees and squirtdowns. *Note: I did notice the 2 scallops and repinned and rewetted those parts.

A quickie Jester Hat (Ravelry link) courtesy of Elizabeth Morrison. I only used her pattern for the decreases and top doodad because I had fewer stitches to get size, but I should have used it for the beginning as well because I made it a tad short. It's a very heavy weight vintage yarn from Brunswick--the yarn company, not the province nor the old Brunswick either.

I have pictures of the recipient wearing the hat before washing and blocking to stretch length. I'll add them to my next post. It will be about the yellow (and now also blue) cotton baby blanket sampler. I'm working on the outside borders. **Another note: I mean the stretching and blocking of the hat, not the recipient.

Phrase of the day: Seen on a sign hanging above and just to the left of the exit point of the Mitchell Field airport security gauntlet.

Recombobulation Area

Happy Birthday and It Fits!

2008-12-26T12:47:00.003-06:00

Welcome, William! December 24, 2008. Healthy, whole, and well-loved. William's dad, my Andy, modeling the Devan sweater while getting me online. Congratulations!

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year Everybody.

Love,

Kathy Kathy Kathy

Snow Stash

2008-12-22T15:18:00.007-06:00

Eight days and I still let it slip by (maybe . . . I think.)

This is the snow we've been enjoying. This morning I felt a little throb of relief when I saw that the temp had risen to 0 degrees(or -18C). Now it's up to 5. Hip, Hip, Hooray! And how does zero degrees feel? It hurts. Here's how the snow looks as of this a.m. These pictures are for you, my fellow norths, but especially for fschmom's boy, in case he is still interested.

Street view out front window--blurry patches are "kitty prints."The promenade to the front steps. I don't know what the N stands for, but it seems to be stuck to the window

The snowbanks on either side of the little walk that goes out to the street are nearly up to my hips. Nope, I'm not that tall, so let's say 28-30 inches or 70 cm. See the snow at the end of that little walk? It's probably about half that high. It's a foreshortened picture. This is what happens when the plows come through and make another pass. You can't wait for the plowing to stop because then it gets really high, thick, and it'll be all chunky and packed from the plowing and very hard to move. A foot is really not too bad. I have to clomb over that to get to my ride. Clomb is not a typo. It's kind of charming to watch somebody, especially if that somebody is wearing nice clothes, negotiate a bank that is a mixture of great lumps of ice and giant fragile lumps of snow that appear identical, all held together by quicksand. Clomb is the right word. If I shovel it down to the pavement, somebody always parks directly in front of it. Yeah-no, I don't do my own shoveling. Silly.

Here's the area between the houses out my back door looking toward the street. My back door is the one I use mostly. You can see how the snow is already turning to ice. There's nothing you can do about it because as more melts from the sides of it and from the roof, the meltwater collects there and refreezes. The same thing happens on the path through the back yard to the garage, but not as badly. To get a decent picture of that path, I'd have had to actually step outside the door. You can surmise why that is unpictured.

If I weren't such a lazy A, I'd get on over to the beach to see what the wind and below zero temperatures have done with Lake Michigan and snap some pics for you. It's a sad thing when the local news outlets are too busy covering I don't know the heck what, to run a few pictures of the sun glinting off wild ice sculptures. I didn't find anything good online, or I'd link you.

A few inches of snow is predicted for tomorrow. I am scheduled to fly out to Bakersfield, California tomorrow at 5 p.m. We'll see.

I did it write!

2008-12-13T08:37:00.014-06:00

Here are pictures of the completed Devan. It looks even cuter in real life. It turned out. I think it should work well for the cooler part of the year in Bakersfield. I blocked it and the fabric is fairly smooth and light. I see that after I let it rest for several days that it needs to be reblocked because the seams are not laying flat.

DETAILS

Pattern: Devan by Holli Yeoh

Yarns: Main=Hundertwasser by Opal, color: 897 Silver Spiral, though I fail to see silver; Trim=Essential by KnitPicks, color: grass

Needles: Main: 3.0 mm, Trim: 2.5 mm

Modifications: I made the body and the sleeves an inch longer. Then I added the trim at the hem after seaming all in one go rather than at the start of each piece.

Notes: I knit the sleeves in the round. I only decreased one stitch so that I could use the other extra one as a centering point for the tapering increases. The seaming was hard, especially on the shoulders where there was decreasing because the edges were not firm. I suppose this is true for most seaming?? It worked fine when I went another stitch further inland. Maybe I should consider going in 2 stitches when the stitch count change is at the ends of rows.

And here is my newest WIP courtesy of the most gigantic, perfectly formed skein of yarn I've ever found. A 14 ounce/400 gram skein of cotton. It was 6 bucks and there were others as well, but only one in this color, which is the one I wanted right then. The color is called cornhusk. It turns out that I like it better than Sugar and Peaches. I was expending a gift card and 50% off coupon at JoAnn's. The 50% came off some very shiny, very red pleather I bought for table cloths. It was even called pleather. Did I mention that I had a birthday yesterday? I turned EGADS! Gulp, gulp, gulp, 50. (Gulp.) I'm not trying to complain, it's just that I'm so da*n surprised.

Here is another WIP that arose courtesy of yarn that I could not resist. It is a wool/mohair sock yarn will that is becomimg wristwarmers. I got the yarn here . It was a good Thanksgiving sale. Naturally, there was only one (50 gram) skein of that, --not enough for a pair of socks. Pink and grey together without purple or blue is a favorite color scheme of mine, despite the fact that I've been eschewing pink for 25 years. Maybe now that I'm 50, and I don't mind when people call me a girl, I can be more accepting of the pink. This is called Leili sock. It's by the Unique Sheep--er, THE Unique Sheep, since in the table of contents, you will find The Unique Sheep under T.

Finally, under Lost Knitwear News, I've lost one of my Paris night wristwarmers. The write one. I wear them over my ladies' leather gloves. That side's ladies' leather glove is also lost. I'm going to call JoAnn's, but I don't have much hope. The best that can be said is that it's an excuse to make an order from handpaintedyarn.com. You wanna go in on that with me, Sue?

I'm doing it rong

2008-12-05T21:17:00.007-06:00

When I seamed the front to the back at the shoulder the correct way the second time, I considered that that could be a hint. I considered, and then I went back to un-three-needle-binding again in order to seam the front on the "wrong" way with the reverse stockinette side to the outside. Not a believer in divine intervention and/or my unconscious am I apparently. I chose this route because I thought the color changes on the reverse looked more mellow, more subtle. The difference isn't great, but it wouldn't make any more work, nor would it take any fudging. The picture is just to show you the difference. The shoulders are not yet seamed there.

I stubbornly went ahead and joined both shoulders with the reverse stockinette showing. I carefully basted and then sewed the side seams. I picked up and worked the bottom border. I picked up and worked the neckband and button band. I basted the sleeves to the sleeve holes. It became hard to figure out if the sweater was inside out or rightside out. Then I went to bed. I got up and went to work. I had a busy day at work. I stopped at Target on the way home. I spent a ton of money. I ran into one of the kids from school there. I had a 2-3 minute conersation with her and she introduced me to her brother and sister. Her step mother was 3 feet away waiting in a line of which she was the only member, but she never turned and acknowledged me. I got the feeling she (the girl) didn't rate. The other kids weren't faring too much better maybe. They looked a little disheveled. Creepy, huh? Poor kid, stuck with a frickin' nutjob/very angry person--I couldn't tell which. I suppose it's very angry person. Sigh. I know this student can really (really, really) get on a person's nerves, but this woman's behavior was embarassing.

At some point in the car going to Target or coming home from Target I realized my mistake on the sweater. I resolved that despite the amount of time and effort involved ( Oh S! I forgot to turn in my time and effort report for November again.) I would pick it all apart and reseam the way the pattern is written. It would involve reknitting the bottom border. Still, it can't be good feng shui to leave a sweater all jumbled up like that, can it? On the other hand, I only just now remembered about the neck and button bands. Those were nerve-wracking. Now I'm undecided again.

By the way, I did frog and reknit the back. Here it is in stripes. In other knitting news, there isn't any. There isn't any unless you count the 2 hours I just spent at DBNY looking at all the luscious yarns and going back and forth to Ravelry to see how people are using them and how the colorways look. What a magnificent waste of time.

2 FOs and a WIP

2008-11-29T09:20:00.003-06:00

The headwear is for my friend Bev's 50th birthday 50 hat/mitten/glovetribution to her favorite children's charity. I'm not sure where it is, but it's a school somewhere in the beleaguered part of Milwaukee. I normally wouldn't contribute to a private school, especially in Milwaukee because of our public school dollars draining out to "choice" schools, but this is for Bev. I know that the students of that school surely need warm things, too. Don't look too closely at the photo of the hat. It'll hurt your eyes because it's a combination of blurry and blending yarn. Despite that, it's accurate, so I put it on anyway. This was a stash yarn.

The ski band is not from stash yarn, though I had it as a WIP long enough that it may qualify as stash. I suppose the leftovers do. It's 2 finer pink yarns from my school stash held together to achieve a nudge over aran weight I'd say. I believe they're both acrylics. Only one yarn had any leftover. I think it turned out just loverly. It looks like a wedding band, no, not the kind that sings. (I sometimes have to defend against puns that form without permission in my mind.)

Here's the pattern:
Cast on 20 stitches.
Odd number rows: Knit 5, purl 2, knit 6, purl 2, knit 5.
Even number rows: Knit 7, purl 6, knit 7.
Every now and then on an odd row: Cross 3 over 3 on the center 6 stitches. (You know, like a cable.) Always cross them in the same direction.
Seam the ends together any way you like when you think the band is the correct circumference. I don't recommend using a provisional cast on and then trying to kitchener the ends together unless you know how to do that in garter stitch, and purls, and knits. You don't want an unhappy ending like this.

The WIP is the back of a baby sweater for my upcoming grandson.* The front is striped in the colors you see between the green. The green is the trim and back color. I am about 1/4 of the way through the armhole. I will be running out of green yarn shortly. (Drat! Another one--this one's at least a little funny. It's not that far off from a Tom Swiftie.)

It's Essential sock yarn from KnitPicks. I am adding the Fair Isle sections to use less green yarn, just in case. You see, I've never run out of yarn on a project before. I didn't use as much less as I thought I would. But then, just before I placed another (fairly rare) KnitPicks order, I "remembered" I had a full skein in addition to the large partial I've been using; It would only be a matter of a deep stash dive to find it. I thought about adding a skein of this to it. But then I reasoned, why add to my stash? "I have way too much yarn already!!!!" shouted that voice in my head. So I didn't add in that ginormous 50 gram skein of really nice, soft, sheeny yarn.

Sometime yesterday I remembered that I've made a pair of infant socks and used it double stranded in 2 previous hats. So, no, I don't have any more. Incidentally, I only remembered when I actually saw one of the hats being worn by its recipient. Now the question is what to do about it. Frog and reknit the back in alternating green stripes with the front colors, rather than Fair Isle? Try to find some other green fingering yarn in my stash that is close enough? (which, indeed, I have, but it is not superwash) Order some from KnitPicks? Try and beg for some on Ravelry and the Knitty board? Go to the LYS and buy some that I will decide later doesn't work?

*Sort of.

I don't have Startitis

2008-11-10T22:12:00.010-06:00

This is a post of an odd number different topics or is it a number of odd topics?

Startitis is what many Internet knitters call it when you start a lot, but don't finish a lot of projects. I think the condition (for it's not a disease) is more properly called Stopitis. After all, if all those projects you started got finished, there would be no need to talk about starting too many projects. It's not the starting that's the issue. It's the stopping--not to be confused with stripping, stropping, or shopping. Hi, I'm Kathy Kathy Kathy and I have Stopitis and I have Stopitis and I have Stopitis.

Latest new project: Packer socks. I broke down and bought the expensive Artyarns sock yarn at Ruhama's. It's not their most expensive sock yarn, but I think it may be the most I ever paid for socks with the exception of some Koigu I bought in Sun Prairie on my way to the last Last Saturday Knitting in Madison. (I only bought 2 of those!) Here's a picture of the Packer socks in progress. I may knit them only during football games. I got the stitch pattern from Ravelry. I can't for the life of me remember the name of the pattern, so I can't give you a link. I was very impressed by the way the yarn pooled in the pattern stitch, which is really just a 3 x 2 rib with a slipped stitch and a twisted stitch in the knits. It's early yet for my socks, but they just may do it. See the white bars? That's hopeful. The original yarn in the pattern was a 3 color variegate of red, black and white. It looked all checkery and poolish. There weren't a lot of examples, but not all of them demonstrated the same effects. I'll get back to you when I find the pattern again.

And yes, I have started keeping my dpn's in a shoe. Don't ask me why, because I don't know. It just seems to work for now.

The latest finished baby object is a set that includes a jumper (American jumper=sleeveless dress to be worn with a blouse under it) and two slippers. Let's look at those first. Unfortunately, they came out different sizes in the same needles and yarn. The second one was quite a bit smaller even though I consciously (thought I) tried to knit more loosely. After less than the usual amount of pondering, I decided to knit another one. I figured if I knit a third one it would match one of the others. I was hoping to match the larger of the two, but I didn't bother trying to loosen my gauge anymore and I didn't dare change needle size. That would have been tempting those sweetly malicious knitting sprites. That reminds me of a little story from work today. A child pointed out to me that a piece of electronics had the word "Sprite" on it. "But that is a kind of soda," he said. Well I told him it was a word with other meanings as well. For instance it is a small creature like a fairy or pixie or brownie who dances in the woods. "Hmm . . .," said he. By the time I started in on how a sprite might also refer to a water creature I could tell he just wanted to escape. I promise I did not say"might also refer to." I managed to overexplain without any fancy vocabulary. It's probably a good thing I managed to stop before I started to tell about a color of Cotton Fleece yarn by Brown Sheep called Sprite. OK, so it's spelled differently. I can't help it if the Brown Sheep Yarn Company has an Old Englyshe affectatione.
I think you can see that slipper number 3 turned out smallish. But this was not the end of the journey. There was felting still to do. These are before pictures. Here is the before of the jumper.

I was expecting shrinkage of about 2 inches in length on the jumper because, people, if I may call you people, and even if I mayn't, I had done a swatch, measured it, washed it and remeasured it. No brag, just fack. OK, brag and fact. I don't know why the most pleasantly proportioned and beautifully balanced items insist on appearing wonky in my photographs. Let me assure you that the hem was even.

Here is the after.

I got it right on the dress though not the slippers. I washed all three and the big one ended up matching one of the little ones in size. Go figure. I sewed white buttons on the booties as one would see on a man's dress shirt. Those are straps, not thumbs.

Technically, I don't think this was a felted project since the yarn is 95 percent cotton, but it did shrink nicely. It went through the washer and the dryer. It needed a small amount of defuzzing, but I know from my swatch and from the lint screen that it defuzzed quite a bit in that first wash. I'd say the texture now is between a sweater and a towel. I'd wear it. This yarn was one of my earlier stash purchases and was my first from the fabulous Little Knits. I've got a lot left. I think I might have to consider it for some sort of luxury drying item, like a handknit bath mat. It would be an excellent blanket, but I don't have that much.

Jumper set details

Pattern: Rainbow Dress by Georgie Hallam I managed to make the top smaller on my own before I saw that there was a smaller version. Really a fun, quick, eminently customizable pattern to knit.

Yarn: Cascade Rainbow. 2 skeins and maybe a titch of a 3rd.

Hee Hee Hee

2008-11-04T15:03:00.003-06:00

This one goes to Nancy from work's first grandchild born Sunday at 1 a.m. It's a girl. Ava.

The hat and sweater together only used one ball of Lana Grossa Something or Other Sock yarn. The collar and cuffs are out of Paton's Kroy Socks, which I find that I like very much. I used a free top-down pattern from the web to get the number of stitches to cast on and where to put the markers. I knit quite a bit before I decided that it really was too big. Then I ripped and started over. Originally I know I cast on 90. I went down to 78 and that was just right, except maybe I'd change the sleeve stitches from 8 to 10. I had trouble with the collar. It just wouldn't lay right. So I snipped a stitch, pulled the old one off, and reknit it from the neckline using a two by two by two basket pattern. The original was stockinette with a wide garter border. I used size 2 needles. Gauge? Maybe 8 per inch; I don't know exactly, but the sweater came out as about a 6 month size. I will make this again. In fact, that's why I put the needle size and number of cast on stitches in this post.

More baby stuff done

2008-10-10T17:19:00.008-05:00

First there was this. (Link) Now there is this.

Pattern: Red, Set, Go by Jill Eaton from the book Monkeysuits. The only real alteration I made was to knit the hat in stockinette except for about an inc and a half around the face. I did put the sleeves on upside down because I think arms go that way, but it does show the lumps from double increases in seed stitch. I knit them in the round. The seams that I do have are extremely bulky. I am assuming that the yarn called for would be more stretchy and squishable even though it knit to this big gauge.

Yarn: Idena Big Sport Cotton

Needles: size 7 US

It doesn't seem like the hat could ever fit a human being, but I hope to find out if it did. I might make it again. The picture in the book is mighty, mighty adorable.

I made the buttons too, because they had nothing that worked at the most local local yarn shop. I'm sick of hauling ass all over town for buttons. I took the polymer clay bead class this summer from Lynne Bergschultz just for this type of occasion. I'm not saying these are the best match either, but as separate objects, they are pretty. I should have polished them a little, though. Do you like how you can see my fingerprints?

There's this, too.

2008-09-30T22:45:00.003-05:00

Musette, the cat of whom it is impossible to take a decent picture, is also enjoying the kitty pi bed.

And here's the blanket I've recently finished. It needs blocking and end weaving, but I must say, I like it. It's after the OpArt pattern on the Fall, 2008 Knitty. The center is different because I started out making a simple log cabin, but as some of you may know, I can't resist any design that swirls, twirls, turns, or spirals. Uncharacteristic of my mad photography skills, it doesn't look any better in person, but that is the fault of the yarn, not the pattern. The yarn is a hundred percent acrylic fake mohair. Oxymoron. It sure is soft, but I don't know how well it'll hold up. It's not strong like real mohair. I loved this yarn and I've had it for awhile. It's Red Heart Harmony held doubled on 5.5 mm needles. I've got more. I bought it in some sort of daze when I somehow forgot that I won't even buy or wear clothes that aren't 100% cotton or other natural fiber. This has been my policy for like, 30 years--not exaggerating. I should have held it tripled.

Pi Retry

2008-09-28T09:24:00.006-05:00

Bake in a hot oven (425 deg.) for 50-55 minutes.

Pi is done when ear pops out.

Kitty with Cat

2008-09-15T16:31:00.002-05:00

Teddy napping on Kitty Pi number 2. I only had to hold him down on it for a minute or so. When I let go he stayed. This is a first. He did feel compelled to knead and mash down the whole front edge first, but it's a start.

In baby knitting news, I've got a couple, two three things started, but nothing's going that well. I've got 3 babies due in October and one in November all unknitted for. I'd better get going on something. I've got 2 projects that I felt at one time would definitely be completed, but now one seems too ambitious and the other seems too ugly. I did finish a couple of bibs, but they are actually for babies for whom I've already completed my knitting.

In random knitting news, I've made a very good short row heel on a purse sock. (Purse sock=simple sock kept in purse for unexpected knitting opportunities) It only took me 2 tries. The first try I did in public and seriously almost made it, but screwed up on the 2nd to last purl pick up. What seems to work for me is two things. One is that I always pick up the wraps/work the stitch from the public side. The second is how the stitch is wrapped. It's wrapped twice and each must be wrapped from both sides. So for the first wrap I've been bringing the yarn around the stitch and then pulling it between the needles to the opposite side of the knitting and for the second wrap I've been bringing the yarn between the needles to the opposite side of the work before I bring the yarn around the stitch. It's what works for me.

I got a new purse/bag from E-Bay and finally knit a little case for my cell phone that stays on the strap. I was actually able to answer the phone before it went to voice mail when it rang today.

I'm about to post this with just one picture and no links because of my experience yesterday losing my finely crafted, potentially prize-winning post yesterday. If it works I'll at least have this. Then maybe I'll add links and some more pics.

See this post?

2008-09-14T13:08:00.001-05:00

See this post with the many pictures, laborious puns, and researched links? Yah, neither do I. Let me know if you find it. Thanks. K.

Ravelympics 0-( No medal for me

2008-08-26T00:46:00.004-05:00

This is the WIP I decided to wrangle for my event in the Ravelympics. It is now about 14 inches (35 cm) long, but I failed to medal because I set it aside to do 3 ad hoc projects. This knitting has been interrupted to bring you the felted teddy bear in that I posted 2 times ago and now two hats. The brown one is for Bev's 50 hats project. It's actually using the yarn from earlier incarnations of this scarf. The purple hat has a recipient, but he or she must remain secret.

Brown Hat details:

Pattern: Claudia Hat by M.J. Kim
Yarn: Main yarn is Alpaca Silk by Blue Sky (50/50); held with 2 strands of lace weight alpaca.

Gauge: a bit tight, should have been 5.5--It's a trifle small for me, but it will fit somebody important.

Needles: 2.75?

Remarks: The cable pattern was hard, but I did manage it. I took it on mostly for the cable experience. To be sure, I know how to make cables, but I've never done so many, so close together, that crossed different ways. I don't recommend it at this gauge with triple stranding. The ribs show so well because the knit stitches are twisted on every row with a background of reverse stockinette. The color in the sink picture is fairly accurate. This is a very soft, but sturdy hat. The only modifications I made were on the crown shaping where I went to decreasing every other row sooner than the pattern called for and cinched the top at 12 stitches instead of 6. I made these changes because some of the pictures on Ravelry looked pointy to me.

Purple Hat details:

Pattern: Top Down Bonnet with (out) Anime Character by Adrian Bizilia from Hello Yarn

Yarn: KnitPicks Elegance (or maybe Ambrosia)

Gauge: I don't know, maybe 6 spi, maybe 5.5

Needle: U.S. 4, I-cord on US 2
Remarks: There are over 400 of these in the Ravelry projects gallery. The pattern appealed to me because it covers the whole head and has ties. I am an admirer of what I think of as little Swedish caps, made out of sewn fabric usually. I did find a couple nice patterns for something more like that, but I thought they swooped down too far on the forehead. I didn't want to take a chance that the mother would think that looked goofy.

This pattern is very, very simple. I barely needed to refer to it once I understood the construction. The modifications I did are pictured. Instead of a garter stitch border all the way around, I only did that on the front. I put in a ribbing in the back because many of the ones pictured on Ravelry fit loosely in the back. I copied this idea from another Raveler. From the same Raveler, I got the idea to use the picot bind off on the front. Incidentally, the pattern runs small. I made the child size to get a 1 year size. I admit that I didn't worry about gauge, though.

The yarn is soft and should be very warm for it's weight. Just plain adorable. I've already started another one, this time in sock yarn.

Paula's Idea

2008-08-20T17:33:00.003-05:00

And your little bear, t o o o o o o o o !

2008-08-18T15:06:00.020-05:00

I made this to go with my cousin's baby's sweater set. I knit for 2 evenings, then felted. Pretty quick for me. It turned out pretty well I think despite my usual sort of trials and tribulations. It was a small hit at the party, anyway.

Before:

I was worried I had made too thin a fabric. But I reasoned that the looser the knit, the better it felts. Well, "reasoned" isn't exactly the word. "Hoped," is the better word for what I call my thought process there. I even duplicate stitched and otherwise added more yarn to areas that I didn't want pull in too much, like the nose.

During:

Oh, oh! The polyfill is both coming out and getting felted into the fabric, not allowing it to close. Furthermore, it's expanded and the arms and legs are turning into clubs and the head isn't shrinking as much as the body. I made it large to start with as I wanted it to look like a baby, but this is ridiculous. I think it's because I stuffed it harder in order to keep the nose sticking out.

Time for drastic action: You may want to stop reading if you don't want to know where teddy bears come from.

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Modesty forbids me from showing you even more. It looks like it would unravel here but it didn't because it actually was felted together with the polyfill. The loose yarn you see is actually an end that I had left on the inside. And here's some advice for you: Do what you can to avoid hauling out wet poly from inside a wet bear. I debated about whether to sew up the back. In the end (in the end, ha ha) I left it open. I was unable to unstuff the arms because they were stuffed and sewn on separately.
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So I threw it back in the wash with the deep navy thriftstore sweater (in the before pics) that I was also felting and the several of my clothes that I thought could take being vigorously agitated though X cycles in hot water, namely, some of my white things--or should I say some of my blueish things? Are you impressed with my common sense? Moving right along . . .
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Here is young Mr. Bear upon removal the next morning from the dryer: Apparently somebody played Gotchyer Nose with him during the night and made off with said nose. Doesn't look very promising does it? And that's his ARM, he's not happy to see us! You people. Despite misgivings about being able to embroider an acceptable bear face, especially in deference to the concept of matching eyes, it turned out ok.

After:

Felted Bear

Details:

Pattern: Now there's an idear.

Yarn: Vintage Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride worsted from Elizabeth (thank you, young lady), light heathery gray, most of one skein.

Needles: 6mm/US 10.

Scarf: random Opal stash yarn

He can't quite sit up by himself because of the gigantic big head and the gigantic big arms.

Such a face! Do you see how his eyes almost match? Pretty good.

Baby Set Finito

2008-08-17T00:56:00.010-05:00

Yarn: Socks that Rock medium weight in the color, Downpour; about 1.75 skeins--I don't know what happened with the color in the photo. There is no greenish cast to this yarn. Sorry about that. The color is correct in the pictures from 2 posts back.

Size: I was shooting for 6 months to 1 year. Most people think it looks big. The baby is due in October and I figure he will be big. His dad is well over 6 feet tall and strong like ox.

Needles: 2.75 mm/US 2, combination of circular and dpns

Sweater Pattern: Combination of Joelle Hoverson's Placket Sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts and Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system. I used the measurements and the decreases for the raglan from Hoverson. I was proud of how I managed the placket. I picked up 5 stitches from between the 6 stitches at the edge and held them to the back. I knitted a couple rows in stockinette for a smooth placket bottom before I switched to garter. The waist band rib is a 2x2 garter rib (row 1:k2,p2; row 2; knit). The sleeve cuffs are 2x2 simple ribbing and I extended this toward the elbow by adding more and more plain rows between ribbing rows. I added a couple of long short rows in the upper back a la EZ.

Hat Pattern: Jewel by Sock Pixie. Thanks to S. Pixie's excellent instructions, I actually managed to count the decreases correctly without stitch markers. I used 11 little mitered squares. Again, I probably made the hat too big. What can I say? I'm surprised there aren't more of these in the Ravelry gallery. This hat has a beautiful shape though I had trouble laying it out for the photo. The mitered squares will flatter many types of yarn. I'd make one for myself if I wore hats that squish a person's hair. The pattern is such that even though it is written at 7 stitches per inch, I think it would work with any yarn up to worsted so long as you knit the strip of mitered squares until you reach the desired head circumference, pick up the stitches in a multiple of 10 and make a reasonable guess as to the length to knit before beginning the crown shaping. Kudos to Sock Pixie on this elegant design. It is elegant in both the scientific and artistic senses.

Sock Pattern: None. Worked toe-up on 32 stitches. Short row heels from memory. I'm getting better at short row heels. Seiding should be proud. She helped me learn. Of course it's easier on 16 stitches than on 30 or 36.

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All in all this has been a great knit. I am glad I finished the sweater 3 times because I can be satisfied with the end result knowing that I've explored my limitations and the characteristics of the yarn and pattern. Tomorrow is the shower. I'll go to my lbs (local bookstore) and pick up a sweet little storybook of some kind to throw in the box and I'm good to go! I hope there will be good food at the shower. No matter what, I expect cake, but if the mom to be's mother is involved, I am looking forward to a Polish food extravaganza.

Tutorial Fail

2008-08-16T11:12:00.020-05:00

I was going to make a little tutorial for you here. A simple one, just for the entertainment value and to practice in case I ever want to tackle technique. The most difficult thing for me in knitting is the counting. I speak true, friends. I've tried a number of things including hash marks, safety pins, stitch markers, those little barrel row counters, etc. I have a row counter bracelet on order from Etsy even as we speak (write, type, read, peruse, or as my grandpa would say, squawk). I don't think I'm alone because over the years I've seen a number of posters ask for tips on keeping track of stitch patterns and/or rows.

I was inspired by a friend's long ago suggestion on how to keep track of ingredients in cooking. Put a spoon on the counter for every cup of flour to be added. Then remove a spoon every time you add a cup. Frankly, I thought this was ridiculous, though it works for her. Even so, I've never forgotten it and have been trying to improve on it mentally, in the same way that I work mental arithmetic while driving (myself crazy).

I am aware that this candy idea isn't original to me, but I was enjoying myself so much I thought you might like to see the pictures.

Candy Counting Technique (For the Kountry folc: Kandy Kounting Tekhnikue)
to count Rows and 2 different Stitch Alterations that don't occur every row such as increases, decreases, or stitch patterns ON TWO objects being knitted to be identical, such as sleeves or socks.

What you need: Some candy that comes in many small pieces, like Skittles, M & M's or chocolate covered strawberries (small being relative). I had a jackpot find when my pharmacy moved. Retro candy. Snaps. Anybody remember Snaps? They came in a red box. They are black licorice with the texture of shoe leather coated with some sort of hard pastel sugar that resembles housepaint. Now they come in a bag, but you have to be careful. Because of that, sometimes they are fresh and not tough enough. I like them to have slightly less chewiness than beef jerky. You also need a flat, relatively clean surface.

1. Place a candy on the step, table, chair arm or other convenient, cat/child/other scavenger free surface every time you complete a row. If you have an alteration on that row such as a new stitch pattern, a decrease, or an increase, place a candy above the first piece. In the photo you can see I've completed one row which in my case had a k2, p2 pattern, then 2 plain rows.

In the next picture I've completed another plain row.

2. When you have a row with a second type of stitch alteration, add a candy below the piece for that row when the row is complete. In my case, the row in question is an increase row. My picture shows five rows completed. The first row and the fifth row had stitch alterations. Now I need to remember that a candy above my line of candies means that I did a k2, p2 and that a candy below the line means I increased.
I could keep knitting on this sleeve, but I want to get both done at close to the same time. (This is a lie of omission. While it is true that I want to finish both sleeves more or less at once, the real reason it's time to switch to the other sleeve is that I want to eat the candy. It's bad form to drool on your gift knitting. Calling Mr. Pavlov!)

3. Now for the good part! Pick up your second sleeve and begin knitting by reading your line of candy from left to right, in just the order you built it (not backwards as was my first inclination). The superimposed pink piece over the first candy is telling me that the first row of sock 2 must be worked as k2, p2. Once you've finished that row, eat the candy! Not all of it! Just the candy for the first row. Geez. What do you need maybe? A tutorial?

So why is this a Fail Tutorial? This is a Fail Tutorial (not to be confused with a faille tutorial, which would be about sewing with fancy fabric) because the day after shooting, a cap came off one of my teeth while I was eating some nice pineapple upside-down cake. I have to attribute the Dentistry Fail to the Snaps.

Sequencing Activity

2008-07-31T11:21:00.004-05:00

Can you put these pictures in order?

Unfortunately you are correct. What gave it away? The wiggly-tiggly unraveled yarn or the fact that I asked the question?

I made this

2008-07-30T15:15:00.007-05:00

It was for a fellow teacher's surprise 50th birthday party which was July 22nd. That was the same day as knitting camp started, so I couldn't go. I did wrap it and drop it off ahead of time. I knit it in less than a week. I believe the pattern is called Seafoam. I've seen it in a number of stitch dictionaries, but there is a well-written version by Ali Green here. I didn't have the 2 edge stitches in the one I used, but I can't find now.

Pattern: Seafoam stitch

Yarns: Opal Hundertwasser and very pale blue vintage Red Heart baby wool double stranded.

Needle: Size 7 US

Size: 65 x 9 inches

I like how double stranding and combining with another yarn softened the self-stripiness of the Hundertwasser. I was just crazy about finding this yarn for a good price when it came out. I bought five, but now I'm not as excited about it. This actually was my favored colorway of the ones I had. I would have liked socks from it. I do have enough left for a small pair of socks. Maybe enough for Amy of the small feet or for some kid. I destashed 2 others and that leaves 2. One is pretty similar to this one. I can't remember the other and I don't see it in my Ravelry stash. I either knitted it up, or it escaped or I imagined it, albeit poorly.

Gourmet S'Mores & Knitting Camp 2008 .

2008-07-29T00:15:00.017-05:00

A good time was had by me at this year's knitting camp. I can't speak for "All." I was told by Nola from Monday night knitting to take lots of pictures. Here they are.

The weather was great.

Breakfast morphed into lunch. We had lots of sausage. There is talk of naming our camp Sausage Camp. (Okay, that was just me.) There were 3 kinds, 4 if you count weenies. You never sausage food.

This, in particular was delicious. Elizabeth cooked it. I think everybody had seconds. Some of us had thirds. Of course I'm not talking about the salad part. Elizabeth worked her tail off, by the way. She also carted my ass, did the shopping, provided lodging, cooked more food for us and made the coffee.

Making S'Mores on night number one. You can tell it's the first night because the S'More making started before the fire was truly mellow enough. The S'Mores were gourmet because there were regular grahams, chocolate grahams, peanut butter cookies, Hershey bars OR fancier chocolate. Yes, I tried the peanut butter cookie s'more! Note: Choose a cookie with a mid to high degree of structual integrity. I think Oreos show promise.

The accommodations were accommodating. There was another tent, too. That does'nt look rite with to m's.

Knitting happened.

So did the weaving in of ends on a crochet project, though I don't believe the actual crocheting occurred at camp. If more crocheting was this nice, more of us would like it better.

I thought the yarn swap was pretty big. This by the way, is only part one. JPKnits came later, bearing mohair.

I'm up for doing it again next year. But if I win the lottery, we're going to the Washington House Inn or some such place. They've got fireplaces for the s'mores. I know I can win. I just need to buy a ticket once in a while.

Blanket Blockery

2008-07-16T11:38:00.003-05:00

The red pins are push pins. I bought a lot of little packs of them once when I saw them very cheap. They were my great idea for blocking because T-Pins were too expensive and hard to push in and sewing pins hurt the heck out of my fingers. They didn't work on the blanket because they are too short to stay in. The blanket is pretty thick. I'm hoping they will work on a thinner project. Worsted weight maybe not, but lace I think.

Here is the blocking process illustrated.

1. I lowered the water level in the washer and washed this on the slowest wringer speed in warm. I let it spin and then put it in the dryer with a few other dry clothes (leftover from my last load) for about 10 minutes.

2. I pinned it out using all but about 6 of the pins you see on the pin holder.

3. It pinned out to 39 X 37.25 inches.

4. Enjoy staring at and examining your knitted object for a while. Try not to obsess about imperfections.

5. See how nicely it folded up. When I unpinned it the edges pulled in a little. I'd say the final measurements are approximately 35 X 37. Perfect size, I think.

6. Prepare for giving it away by putting it somewhere cat hair free until the time comes.

One done, one started

2008-07-14T10:45:00.003-05:00

The Bliss Baby Blanket is done. I haven't blocked it yet. I'm still unsure of the wisdom of trying that. The yarn is a very heavy pure cotton. I lost track of the skein count, but this baby must weigh nearly two pounds. I'm guessing that I used approx 8 100 gram skeins. That's 800 grams divided by 454, equals nearly 2 pounds. I don't even know if I want to get it wet. Who knows how long it will take to dry. I suppose I should get off my rear and do it today though since the humidity is at a living level. Now where did I put the million boxes of pins with heads I bought for blocking?

Baby Bliss Blanket by Melissa J. Goodale

Yarn: Idena Cotton Big Sport, 100 yards per 100 grams. Color 187 (Orchid, I say)

Needle: Boye Needle Master US No. 7 (Yes I AM a loose knitter)

Gauge in Pattern: 14.5 st to 4 inches

Mods:

1. I added an edge of single crochet to even out the lumps that the corners of the segments were making and to make the edge stronger. The cast on edge was partly just a single strand of yarn because I cast on my version of the e-wrap cast-on because I read somebody's account on Ravelry who said they didn't like the way a long-tail cast-on looked. I think this mod was pretty successful.

2. About halfway through I decided to slip every first stitch of the rectangles. This cut down on bulk and made the rectangle edges smoother. See if you can tell from the picture. The cast-on/cast-off edges are oriented side to side in the photo.

I have started (yet) another project. Sorry for the blurry pic, but this one has the yarn included. I am double stranding Opal Hundertwasser with some of my dwindling stash of beloved vintage baby yarn. You may remember this yarn from here. I really adore how it's turning out. The self stripiness does not detract at all. Nay, it actually contributes. This project has a deadline which is incidentally the first day of knitting camp next week, July 22. It is for a work friend who is turning 50. There is a surprise party that night and I want to drop this off ahead of time. She has very sharp and sparkly baby blue eyes. I spent a good 1 or 2 weeks messing around trying to settle on a yarn and a pattern. Finally I am happy with this and I don't think I'll have any trouble finishing it on time. Except for one little thing . . .

Tendonitis! In my left arm. I've had it for about 2-3 months now. At first I barely noticed it, there was just a twinge now and then when I was lifting or holding something heavy. Now it hurts a lot more frequently, especially when I lift anything at all, even an empty coffee cup. I am icing it and I may start some ibuprofen after I'm done with the antiviral (long story involving clown tongue). I don't think that knitting is responsible. If it gets worse, I may have to quit knitting for a while after I finish the seafoam scarf, or at least reconfigure how I hold the yarn.

Stitch-N-Pitch Milwaukee

2008-07-10T22:38:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was the 2nd annual Stitch-N-Pitch at Miller Park in Milwaukee. The Brewers hosted and were hosed by the Colorado Rockies. Allow me to introduce my charming dinner companions, Lil and Shirley. We had steak--tube steaks. Yes, Shirley had a dog with mustard and relish, while Grandma Lil and I each had brats with everything on them. We had a lovely time, but the ladies were not happy with the scoreboard. I didn't pay the game as much attention as I should have because I was hell-bent on finishing this, my 10 x 10 swatch for an afghan later to be auctioned to benefit Brewers' charities. I didn't quite get there. We all got a bag with a free ball of yarn. I liked the yarn I had very much, but it had many, many breaks and weak spots and I had to keep spit splicing it. Poor Grandma Lil and Shirley. I think they may have thought it was disgusting. I suppose it truly was.

Dude, where's my car?

To top off the evening, we lost the car. It took quite a while to find. There we were, the wandering Jews. Eventually, I had to park the ladies and go off on my own to where I thought it was. I made the decision about whether they should stay back or come. Shirley's hip was getting bad, so I left them. They had road barricades to lean on and a spot out of the traffic.Idiotic of me not to have brought the keys, now wasn't it? So I had to go back to the ladies, repark them some place where the car would be able to reach them and they could maybe sit down, return to the car and drive it over to finally pick them up. When I got back there were great big rescue dudes on bicycles talking to them. When I pulled up and got out of the car I got the dirtiest, withering, you low piece of scum look from one of them I've ever had in my entire life for abandoning my two old ladies at a bike rack. Talk about fumbling. I couldn't figure out how to get the doors unlocked and tried to make jokes. They weren't having it.

You can't imagine how guilty I feel. It's worse now than when it happened. But I got them home safely and we all have a new story to tell.

Care for a My Chai?

2008-07-02T14:35:00.015-05:00

I've been meaning to do this for a while. I've had the ingredients gathered for about a week. I waited til noon today when after a week of the most marvelously pleasant weather, it looked like this:

As I felt the humidity build in the house I chopped the cinnamon and I explored cardamom in it's pod state.

I didn't think to visit an oriental import shop, so unfortunately, the tea I bought when I couldn't find any decent loose tea for less than 25 bucks a pound is "cut tea." I knew that would be smaller once I got it out of the teabags, but I didn't think it would be this fine. I did not figure out a way to preserve the fabric of the teabags for re-use. I know this stuff is too fine to bother with a tea ball or one of those tea spoons that clap shut around the tea, but is it too fine to put into the water and let it sink to the bottom? If anybody has a method of making teabags, please share it with me. I am considering buying some of those round coffee filters and using those. They seem thinner than the #2 cone filters that I have around.

Progress reports

2008-07-02T14:21:00.007-05:00

1. The Bliss Blanket. I think one more repeat, which is 2 rows of diamonds.

2. The girls in their nightgowns. The nightgowns are NOT too big. I'm sorry. But I know Emma's is cozy. I got so excited when I had my camera out and she woke up from the chair, stood up with her doll and made a huge yawn. I got it! I managed to hold the camera still and snapped it. But right when the perfect photo appeared on the screen so did some message about a door being open. I had managed to pop open the battery/memory card door when I squeezed the shutter. As I learned in German class, Das ist aber schade. As I learned in French class, C'est la vie. As I learned from the radio, Que sera, sera.

Least, but last of all, these have been various lacy scarf beginnings and now they are socks . . . maybe. I definitely know they're for a work friend who's turning 50 this summer.

Yellow Flannel

2008-06-27T08:58:00.014-05:00

Yellow flannel with blue butterflies and pink flowers. I've set aside knitting the Bliss Blanket and knitting in public in order to do some sewing I've been putting off for a long time, a long, long time. I have sewing stashes just like I have a kintting stash. My sewing stashes include fabric, of course, zippers, buttons, ribbons, interfacing, thread, machine needles, etc. Within fabric, the flannel stash by itself is impressive. I love flannel. Who could've seen that one coming, eh? This yellow stuff was chosen specifically for this project. I won't delve very deeply into details because this is a knitting, not a sewing blog. I used a pattern for both of these because the prototype non-patterned number I made for the American Girls doll didn't work out under the arms. Now I know how to do that. I undo my sewing a lot, just like my knitting. Fewer sewing operations than knitting operations are undoable. Flowing from that fact, I have had to learn how to sew minuscule, yet sturdy seams, etc.
These are for my 2 honorary nieces Emma and Sophie. They both have their birthdays around now. Emma is 9 and Sophie is 3. Back when Emma was maybe 2 I made her a plain, flannel nightgown and it turned into her favorite. Sophie now wears it. So it was time to make new ones. My main mistake was to make them match, because when Emma outgrows hers and passes it down to Sophie, Sophie will already have had one just like it. That's no fun. At least it wouldn't be for me.

Ready for wrapping

Emma's neckline ................................Both have this hem

Sophie's neckline (back.)

I did use a tiny bit of yarn for the button loop. Voila! ~ Knitting related info: Oops, it was crocheting. Close enough.

Button Loop

Pattern: None--Yarn was too thick to make the classic button loop

Yarn: Elann Esprit, 91m/ 100 yds (relaxed) - 186 yds (stretched), 97% cotton, 3% elastane, blue

Needle: an embroidery sharp--has anybody seen my betweens?

Baby Blanket Begun~Bliss!

2008-06-22T13:39:00.005-05:00

I've suddenly got a bunch of babies coming up and knowing already that at least one of them is female, I figured I could make a good heavy baby blanket out of the orchid colored Idena Big Cotton sport that's been tearing a hole in my knitting pocket ever since I got it. So I Ravelried a ton of baby blankets and fell in love with this pattern. Bliss Blanket by Melissa J. Goodale. It looks fabulous in variegated yarn which this isn't, but it does show stitch definition very well. Speaking of stitch definition, this is not just plain entrelac. (I almost said "simple entrelac," but I had a problem, so I guess that disqualifies the term, "simple.") It is knit with a stitch pattern that someone on Ravelry said was a mistake rib.

I mentioned that I had a problem. I misread the instructions and was picking up the wrong number of stitches. I should have realized it immediately but it took me until the second tier of the second repeat to finally decide that I was doing something wrong. Even then I might've kept going if there had been something better on TV. It was getting late so I decided to wait until the next day to make a decision because, hey, I figured I was dopier than normal and also I was not as willing to rip as I usually am because this is even more successful than I'd hoped. I wondered what would happen if I changed up the design and started knitting across all the rectangles untill one whole row would reach across the entire blanket diagonally. Then the entrelac I'd already knit would be a border and I'd add the entrelac back onto the other end for the other border. If I didn't like that or couldn't figure out how to do it, I could rip back just that part.

Picture number two shows the beginning of that on the lower left. Eh. Not so much--though this is the back of the work and it does look a little bit better on the front. I got on the Ravelry pattern forum and asked the question about how many pick-ups I should be making. Tow people responded that I had been doing it wrong. At least one wasn't a cat saying "Ur doin it rong." But one was the designer herself!!! Heart, heart, heart. She said to keep going and I'm going to. Thank you Stick Chick.

Meme of Reading

2008-05-31T12:33:00.002-05:00

I haven't given up knitting. I've got some things going, namely, 2 different pairs of stretchy socks and a sparkly string bag. I don't have anything to report, but maybe you'll enjoy the list of books below. Perhaps it will remind you of some of the ones you may have been meaning to read.

The top 106 books most often marked as "unread" by LibraryThing’s users. As in, they sit on the shelf to make you look smart or well-rounded. Bold the ones you've read, make red the ones you read for school, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish. Italicize AND make red the ones you started for school and didn't finish.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Anna Karenina
Crime and Punishment
Catch-22
One Hundred Years of Solitude (1 of my all-time faves)
Wuthering Heights
The Silmarillion
Life of Pi : a novel
The Name of the Rose
Don Quixote
Moby Dick
Ulysses
Madame Bovary
The Odyssey
Pride and Prejudice
Jane Eyre
The Tale of Two Cities
The Brothers Karamazov
Guns, Germs, and Steel: the fates of human societies
War and Peace (I got pretty far before I lost the thread.)
Vanity Fair
The Time Traveler’s Wife
The Iliad
Emma
The Blind Assassin
The Kite Runner
Mrs. Dalloway
Great Expectations
American Gods
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Atlas Shrugged
Reading Lolita in Tehran : a memoir in books
Memoirs of a Geisha
Middlesex
Quicksilver
Wicked : the life and times of the wicked witch of the west
The Canterbury Tales
The Historian : a novel
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Love in the Time of Cholera
Brave New World
The Fountainhead
Foucault’s Pendulum
Middlemarch
Frankenstein
The Count of Monte Cristo
Dracula
A Clockwork Orange
Anansi Boys
The Once and Future King
The Grapes of Wrath
The Poisonwood Bible : a novel
1984
Angels & Demons
The Inferno
The Satanic Verses
Sense and Sensibility
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mansfield Park
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
To the Lighthouse
Tess of the D’Urbervilles
Oliver Twist
Gulliver’s Travels
Les Misérables
The Corrections
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Dune
The Prince (A chapter or two.)
The Sound and the Fury
Angela’s Ashes : a memoir
The God of Small Things (Own it.)
A People’s History of the United States : 1492-present (Own it.)
Cryptonomicon
Neverwhere
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Short History of Nearly Everything
Dubliners
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Beloved
Slaughterhouse-five
The Scarlet Letter
Eats, Shoots & Leaves
The Mists of Avalon
Oryx and Crake : a novel
Collapse : how societies choose to fail or succeed .)
Cloud Atlas
The Confusion
Lolita
Persuasion
Northanger Abbey
The Catcher in the Rye
On the Road
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Freakonomics : a rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance : an inquiry into values
The Aeneid
Watership Down
Gravity’s Rainbow
The Hobbit
In Cold Blood : a true account of a multiple murder and its consequences
White Teeth
Treasure Island
David Copperfield
The Three Musketeers

2008-05-23T22:41:00.003-05:00

Hat #1 for Bev of Knitter's Journey's birthday. It's the big 5-0. She wants to give 50 hats and pairs of mittens to charity. The yarns are a combination of Monarch Knit Paint Series - color Amethyst & Coral Jewels purchased from littleknits.com and KnitPicks Palette in a heathered greenHat #2 is a combination of the same yarns as above plus purple Brown Sheep Nature Spun sport from early stash. Hat #3 (not pictured) is actually a fuzzy pink headband with one cable that I began to demonstrate cabling to my knitting students. It is in progress. We have until December to complete the 50. At last count she had 12 and it didn't include my hat #2.