theraineysisters knitting and so much more

October 13, 2008

From Susan — A Brief Post and a Recipe for Nirvana

Filed under: Homage,Presto Chango — lv2knit @ 11:22 pm

Hi, remember me?  I’m Susan Rainey of The Rainey Sisters.  I share a blog with my sister, Sally.  We love to knit, talk about knitting, and share our passion for knitting with each other and our cyber-friends.  You would not know it from my recent lack of blogging, so I thought I would clue you in!

Fall is hitting us hard this evening — it may get down to 38 degrees tonight!  Fall means wearing sweaters so let’s get out there and crank out a few sweaters, peeps!

Do you recall this lovely vintage garment?  It was knit by my mom many years ago.  I am trying to re-create the pattern.  I started this little fantasy project last year, but the sucker was too big.  Off it went into the “some day” bin.  Well, I dragged it back out recently.  It is a great mindless project — at least the basic stockinette part.  Not so mindless when I have to figure out the shaping and raglans, but that is down the road a piece.

MomsMohair.jpg Mom\'s Dressy Mohair Sweater picture by lv2knit

I am using Rowan Kidsilk Aura (75% kid mohair, 25% silk; 82 yds/25 gms).  It is the chunky version of Kidsilk Haze and it is fabulous!  Tres cher, aussi.  The color here is not accurate — it has a creamy beige undertone — a pinkish warmth.  I love it, love it, love it.  it needs to be knit at a fairly loose gauge to take advantage of its loft.  When knit too firmly, this color (Ivory 750) looks dirty.

This is probably closer to the true color:

I also want to share a gift with you.  I called my folks the other day and Dad was making homemade onion rings — my gawd, that sounded fantastic!  He sent me the recipe, and I tried them out.  These onion rings are the best I have ever had in my entire life.  They are truly daydream worthy!  I do not do a lot of frying and they make a total mess of your kitchen, but every once in a while, don’t we deserve a sinfully decadent experience?  Dad says this batter works great on seafood, too.  M-m-m-m-m-m-m 😉 !

Sonny Bryan’s Onion Rings

October 13, 2007

From Susan and Sally — Peeps on the Road

Filed under: Back Story,Homage — Both Sisters @ 1:53 pm

What a day I had!  It was peep-tastic!  Yesterday was the start of the Second Annual Yarn Shop Hop sponsored by seven local knitting stores:

Amazing Threads, Maple Grove
Coldwater Collaborative, Excelsior
Needlework Unlimited, Minneapolis

A Sheepy Yarn Shoppe, White Bear Lake
3 Kittens Needle Arts, St. Paul
The Yarnery, St. Paul
Zandys Yarns

We started north and worked our way to White Bear Lake, south through St. Paul, down to Burnsville, up through Minneapolis, west to Excelsior and back north to Maple Grove.  “We” consisted of several of my favorite knitting peeps: Kim (who drove — yay, Kim!), Mary, Roseanne, and Linda.  We had a ton of fun.  We received a small token at every stop and got to see/buy some great yarn and patterns. 

Did yours truly buy anything?  Mais oui, mes amies! 😉

First off, I need to back up and give a brief update on Loll.  It flopped.  My aforementioned peeps told me so on Thursday evening.  They gave it a definite thumbs down :(.  Good friends don’t let bad knitting happen.  The fringes are cute but the ribbed section was not up to our stringent standards — so it must go.

Loll-1.jpg picture by lv2knit

I will make the fringe into a hat…maybe.  With that decision made, I took the yarn back and bought this instead:

Tapestry.jpg picture by lv2knit

WOW!  Beautiful Rowan Tapestry (70% Wool 30% Soybean Approx. 131 yds/50g Weight: DK Gauge:  5.5 sts/1in Needle: US 6) in the color Lakeland — it looks like the ocean.  Sally already bought this same color.  I LOVE IT!!  I’m not sure yet what I will make, but it is fabulous yarn.

I also bought a couple of patterns — one for a vest and then this one for Lopi yarn:

LopiPattern.jpg picture by lv2knit

I think I have enough Lopi in my stash to make this — it takes ten skeins.  They had a shop sample knitted up and it really is a nice wearable sweater for Minnesota winters.

The other knitting update for me is that “Whisper,” which I was knitting in Kidsilk Haze Aura, is another major flop!  Oh yeah!  Yours truly is really cranking out the disasters.  Sally is turning out FO’s like hotcakes and I can’t even get anything started :(.  It looked just awful.  So, I ripped out that lil sucker and started something else. 

You may remember from a very early post, my mother knitted this many, many years ago:

MomsMohair.jpg Mom\'s Dressy Mohair Sweater picture by lv2knit

It is in mohair, much like La Gran, with a stitch at the hems and front bands that LOOKED like seed stitch until I looked more closely.  It is actually a slip stitch:

Start with an odd number of sts:
Rows 1 & 3 (RS): knit
Row 2: *k1, slip 1 as to purl with yarn at back (to the RS), repeat from * to last st, k1.
Row 4: k1, *k1, slip 1 as to purl with yarn at back, repeat from * to last 2 sts, k2.

I am going to knit a boxy jacket-style cardigan based on mom’s sweater and call it “Homage.”  I started it and have this so far:

Homage003.jpg picture by lv2knit

I love it.  I am knitting with yarn spun from clouds.  It is night and day compared to what it looked before.  I thought it was ugly, and now I am in love.  I am knitting with US 8’s instead of 6’s, which makes it looser and allows the light to filter through.  This is a wonderful and very easy stitch.  I will do about 6″ in this and then switch to stockinette, and do raglan-style sleeves.

Lyra is still a joy to work on, though I do not have the time to devote that I would like.  I am on the ~ the 50-ish roundout of 180.  Lots left!  Had a Lyra mishap and am now back to round 40.  BUMMER!!!!!  I had worked on it all day yesterday, too… 🙁

I am feeling much better about my knitting prospects.  Life is good!

P.S. From Sally

While Sue was out yarn hopping, I met a friend in Baltimore for lunch. I didn’t even realize that Stitches was taking place there until I drove by the venue.

I DIDN’T STOP!!!!

Aren’t you all impressed? (Don’t be. If I had been with a knitting friend I would have stopped on a dime.) I did stop at A Good Yarn. I ran in and bought yarn in less than five minutes. I’ll post about that later. I’m happy to see how Susan’s Aura is turning out since I have twenty skeins of it my own self.

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