theraineysisters knitting and so much more

February 4, 2008

From Susan — One for You and One for Me

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — lv2knit @ 12:36 am

My Roslin is complete and blocking at this very moment.  It seems like only yesterday I was sitting in a coffee shop with a hoodless hoodie in my lap, sipping lattes and wishing I was done.  Hey, that WAS yesterday!  Yeah, I had ripped back the hood a bit, but plundered on.  I really wanted this thing to get wrapped up, so every obstacle was met with determination; every painful part of the process breached (i.e., sewing down the hems :)). 

Here is my baby blocking:

Very hard to get a good shot.

An unblocked “Lettie” shot:

And the namesake:

I quickly started something new because I am an obsessed knitter 😉 — I plan on making a few small things before starting the next “big” thing!  It is a scarf which I have named The Merci Scarf because I am making it as a thank you:

The yarn is drop dead soft: it is Cascade Autunno in Desert Shade (Color #34918, 98 yds/50 gms, 100% Fine Merino).  I had never heard of it, but it is very soft with gentle variegation and a ragwool effect.  I had trouble finding a stitch that would work because of the ragwool coloring — too much going on for many stitch patterns.  I am using a seed rib as follows:

The Merci Scarf (multiple of 4x + 3 sts)
I am using US Size 8 needles and 35 sts

Row 1: *k3, p1* rep betw * * to last 3 sts, k3
Row 2: k1, p1, *k3, p1* rep betw * * to last st, k1

It is mindless and perfect for a scarf because it does not curl and is reversible. 

When Rossie is dry, I’ll slap her back onto Lettie for better pics.

PS1 — AND one for Regina, another Roslin finisher!

Congratulations, Regina!

PS2: I thought I was done, but seeing Regina’s picture reminded me that I need to add the little sleeve pocket, which I planned on doing after I blocked it 🙂

January 29, 2008

From Susan — There’s a Hood in my Future

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — lv2knit @ 12:45 am

It is amazing to me that this pattern is working!  I know I should trust the designer 😉 , but even though the number cruncher is moi, I was not very trusting.  So the fact that it is working makes me very happy.

I have about 2.5 more inches of raglan shaping to do and then the hood.  I hope to be blocking by this weekend, which means there is no way I’ll be blocking by this weekend!  My self imposed “deadlines” rarely mean anything at all, except minor to major disappointment…

 Roslin004.jpg picture by lv2knit

I have been hauling this thing to work and getting a row or two done on break.  It’s a lot to drag around, but the knitting is mindless and fun!!

PS: The temperature is supposed to drop 45 degrees between now and tomorrow, with 50 below wind chill — even WE [Minnesotans] can’t believe it’s happening to us!

PS2: The windchill is only 34 below — positively balmy compared to -50!  I am 3″ into the hood!  Maybe I’ll be wearing this bad boy next week…

January 27, 2008

From Susan — Going Topless

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — lv2knit @ 11:51 am

Not me!  That would send screaming hordes running through the streets in horror!  No, it’s ROSLIN that’s topless– at least for the moment ;):

RoslinHoodie1-27-08.jpg picture by lv2knit

I joined the three main pieces and now it seems HUGE.  You have the widest portion of both sleeves joined to the widest portion of the front and back.  It seems like a lot of knitting at once!  You decrease 8 sts every other row, which helps fairly quickly.  Once you get to the neck, you go straight up to the hood and then, finito, Bandito.  I did try it on, which looked a bit ridiculous: like an extremely rustic ballgown for the Oscars, and it looks like it will fit.  Yay!

My Roslin has quite a way to go, but here is another finished Roslin from our German knitting friend, Joanna (aka, Asinek on Ravelry) — Guten Tag, Joanna!!

AsineksRoslin2.jpg picture by lv2knit

AsineksRoslin1.jpg picture by lv2knit

She used very fine merino sock yarn.  It amazes me that people can use all these different yarns and come up with a finished Rossie!  Thanks for sharing!

So, I will continue to plug away on Topless so she will not be topless for long. 

PS to Lorraine: you will always be an honorary Rainey sister because of who you are!  Maybe if we had designed the Fetching glovelets it would be a different story!

January 11, 2008

From Susan — Say It Isn’t So!!

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — lv2knit @ 12:34 am

I know it’s crazy, but tonight I went to knitting group WITHOUT MY KNITTING!!!  I left my Roslin sleeve in the knitting basket next to my chair!  Horrors!  So there I sat at Panera’s feeling naked and bereft.  Friend Kim let me start a pair of mittens for her: these.  They are the classic Mitered Mittens from Elizabeth Zimmermann.  Kim had yarn leftover from a lovely scarf — an extremely soft baby llama or alpaca (?).  After a little whining, I did get an inch or so done.  I may need to make me some of these! 🙂  They are really cute when they get started.

After rushing home for my Thursday night fix of !!NEW!! Grey’s Anatomy, I did knit on my sleeve:

Sleeve-2.jpg picture by lv2knit
The pink running thread is for counting rows: every 6 row increases

I have a way to go here!  I did have to re-start this: my first attempt was too big — I have such delicate wrists, you know ;).  But it goes fast and is very mindless — exactly what I need right now.  Tonight is ‘weekend eve’ so I may stay up a little later and catch up on the knitting I missed!

January 6, 2008

From Susan — Remantled Roslin

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — lv2knit @ 10:58 am

I just finished up the last touches of dismanteling and remanteling my Roslin.  I chronicled the entire disemboweling in pictures and none of them turned out, but I feel the need to include some pictorial evidence of my entrails travails (entrails — get it?: disembowel…oh, never mind!)!  The pictures could not be retaken because these were one-time photo opportunities.

Per Surly’s request, here is a crappy picture of Rossie before I took a scalpel to her:

RoslinRemodel009.jpg picture by lv2knit

The surgery required removing the ribbing and grafting on the newly knitted bottom portion (knitted like the original pattern this time ;)).  I know a lot of people hate to do grafting (aka Kitchener stitch) and would rather give up knitting than graft 268 sts!  It does not bother me, which proves I’m an oddball. 

Here I slipped a smaller needle through the row I wished to keep — everything below will be removed (the color in the picture is absolutely horrid!):

RoslinRemodel010.jpg picture by lv2knit

The above white marker was used to mark the center stitch.  I had to make absolutely sure that I grafted center stitch to center stitch.  In the next picture you can see that I snipped the yarn of the row below the row on the needle and pulled it out all the way around — this picture is both ugly and blurry!!:

RoslinRemodel013.jpg picture by lv2knit

Here, I’m grafting the new bottom half to the old top half.  I started at the center front stitch but left enough tail to graft back the other direction (from the center out to both sides).  I did not bother doing that on the back.  On the back I worked from right to left across the entire back.

RoslinRemodel018.jpg picture by lv2knit

 Here is the finished job (the color is much closer to true):

 Roslin1-6-08.jpg picture by lv2knit

The last step was to attach the top of the kangaroo pocket.  I counted rows, centered the stitches again and “sewed” it to the sweater — a close up:

Roslin1-06-082.jpg picture by lv2knit

The back:

RoslinRemodelBack.jpg picture by lv2knit

And a close up showing the back grafting line:

RoslinRemodelBackCropped.jpg picture by lv2knit

I think it turned out as expected and will improve with blocking, when I get to that point down the road.  The only difficulty was due to the tendency of shetland wool to stick to itself — the grafting yarn and the sts were trying to “become one” as I went along!

Will it fit better?  Will it look better on me?  Who knows (and who cares!!)?  I’m not about to reknit the bottom a third time, so it will have to work! 

Now it is on to the sleeves — which means a trip to the yarn store for knitting needles — can you believe I don’t have the Size 5’s I need?!?  Bummer! ;)  In the meantime, I have picked up Lyra again, so the time is well spent. 

I was heading to St. Paul today anyway.  The Minnesota Knitters Guild annual Yarnover event is on April 12 this year (the website lists all of the instructors).  I am on the planning committee, and we meet today.  Yarnover will be held at Hopkins High School for the first time — it is a beautiful venue.  We are really excited about the program this year.

 

December 22, 2007

From Susan — A Roslin is Born!

Filed under: Lyra by Niebling,Plisse,Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — lv2knit @ 10:32 am

I am so excited — I started my own Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie!  I have been working on a fourth Hemlock Ring Throw (how many of those do you need ;)), so my “start” is just baby steps at the moment.

RoslinHoodie12-22-07.jpg picture by lv2knit
Not much to show yet!

I opted to use a different color than the original.  My main color is Simply Shetland Purple Heather (color #239).  This is one of those fabulous colors that is a heathery blend of many colors.  It is absolutely gorgeous and a color I have loved for years!  Sally’s original Roslin is on display at The Yarnery in St. Paul because I’ll be teaching it as a class this winter.  I thought I better actually make one before teaching it to others. :) 

To the shock and amazement of my Thursday knitting peeps (NOT ;)), I am doing my Roslin a little bit differently.  I love the garter rib at the bottom of Sally’s Tangled Yoke Cardigan/Pullover, so I am going to skip the kangaroo pocket and do the garter rib at the hem and sleeves.  It is a slow go for now but should speed up once I get to the stockinette in the round. 

This will be my ‘take a long’ project and then I will get back to Lyra for my ‘at home’ knitting.  I have not forsaken you, Lyra!!  I will get Lyra done, but because it is not an item that can be worn, I feel less urgency about it.  With winter here, I chose to focus on sweaters for my workplace wardrobe. 

I also pushed the snooze button on Plisse.  It was moving along slowly, but seems more like a spring fashion, so I feel less urgency about it, too.

Last night, I did finish my Hemlock, so now I can concentrate on getting on track with Ros.  I’m going to cheat and use an old photo — this Hemmie is identical to one that I finished!

Hemlock2004.jpg picture by lv2knit

And to top it all off, there is a lovely snow falling this morning:

NewSnow12-22-07002.jpg picture by lv2knit

It will be a White Christmas this year — something that has not always happened the last few years!  I hope you are on track for the holidays.

December 8, 2007

From Sally — At Long Last!

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie,Sally's Ballerina — surly @ 2:24 pm

 Ballerina is finished. It’s a good thing, too — I really wanted and needed it to be off the needles and in the finished pile. I’m not sure why knitting this drove me crazy or why it took so long. I knit the first half in a very short time period, but the second half just dragged like a bad movie. Oh, well.

I made a few minor changes in the pattern. Like Susan, I did an applied iCord at the bottom and along the neck band because I think it gives it a more finished look. It’s a lot of iCord by the time you go all the way around.

Now, when I finished all of the knitting I tried it on. I was, to say the least, underwhelmed. It was SO boxy that I felt like I was wearing a cardboard box. Cutting armholes in a cardboard box would have taken me a lot less time than I had spent on my poor Ballerina. But I knew from making Mermaid that the yarn would soften and the sweater would have more drape once it was drowned soaked and blocked. It worked. Yay! Here are the obligatory photos of Lucy wearing it. (I’m not sure I’m crazy about how the stripes look wider at the shoulder, but I don’t think there’s much I can do about it.)

I do like how it fits; it looks better on because of the way it moves. Therefore, I am actually — gasp — going to post a couple of photographs in which I’m modeling it. Warning: These are not great pictures. There’s a reason I take most of the photographs in the family although it was sweet of my husband to try. I did some serious cropping as well. Part of the problem was that the angle of the pictures made me look even shorter and stubbier than I am. I mean, I know I’m not the tallest Rainey Sister on the blog, but still. Okay. Takes deep breath. Here you go:

Edited to add: I always get nervous about yarn quantities when I work with kits. For those of you contemplating Ballerina, I did have plenty of yarn. I chose to make the S/M. I lengthened the sleeves by an inch or so and then also did the iCord, which uses a lot of yarn that would not have been accounted for by the designer. I have a full ball and a half of each color left over. (Falkenberg gives you enough yarn for the largest size.)

In other news, Astrid finished her beautiful Roslin and kindly let us show it to you — what a fantastic job!  She used Jamieson Spindrift & DK in Peacock (Color 258) as her main color and most of the same colors for the fair isle inset.  To accommodate gauge, she knitted the size small to achieve a finished size medium. 

Astrid1.jpg picture by lv2knit

Astrid2.jpg picture by lv2knit

AstridInset.jpg picture by lv2knit

Astrid, we are so proud of your Peacock Roslin!  Thanks for sharing!

 

December 6, 2007

From Susan and Sally — Roslin is Complete

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — Both Sisters @ 9:28 am

This is a momentous occasion for us!  Michaela finished her Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie!  It is a fantastic feeling to see that someone actually used our pattern — wow!

Here are some pictures from Michaela’s blog:

MichaelaRoslin3.jpg picture by lv2knit

MichaelaRoslin.jpg picture by lv2knit

MichaelaRoslin2.jpg picture by lv2knit

MichaelaRoslin4.jpg picture by lv2knit

Beautiful!  It certainly doesn’t hurt that Michaela is a superb knitter.  She used Rowan Yorkshire Tweed 4 Ply — colors 277, 271, 283, 269, 267, 270.  We’re not sure what she did to adapt the fair isle band to accommodate the different yarn. 

Here is a message Susan received from Michaela on Ravelry:

Hi, Susan and Sally! I finished my Roslin Hoodie last week and I really do LOVE it!  It was so much fun to knit with this easy to follow pattern, the yarn I used is wonderful and it fits perfectly.  I wear it and wear it — it’s my favorite sweater at the moment!  Thanks again for sharing this wonderful pattern!  I hope you’ll like my version of your design!

With kind regards from Germany — Michaela

We love it, Michaela, and thank you so much for the wonderful testimonial.  It makes it all worth while.

From Susan:
This reminds me of an incident years ago at Stitches (when it was here in the Twin Cities).  I was wearing a sweater I had made from a pattern in Knitters.  It wasn’t my favorite sweater, but one of my only summer sweaters.  The designer was at Stitches and practically tackled me as I walked through the Market.  “OMG, you made my sweater!!”  She would not let me leave — she kind of stalked me!  Now I know how exactly how she felt!!

Real, live joke of the day:
My youngest daughter got her spacers put in for braces yesterday, so of course her teeth are killing her.  She got up this morning and said her teeth hurt so much during the night that they woke her up.  My husband said, “I know what time you woke up.”  She asked, “What time?” 

“Tooth hurty!”

December 5, 2007

From Susan and Sally — Our Boo Boo of the Month

Filed under: Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie,Uncategorized — Both Sisters @ 8:17 pm

Astrid, our unofficial Roslin guinea pig ;), found another small error in the Roslin Hoodie pattern.  On page 6, Row 26 of the hood shaping instructs you to knit to the end of the row, but at that point you will be purling — it should read “purl to end of row.”   The pattern link and the errata page have been updated.

This means that Astrid is almost done with her hoodie — woo hoo!!!

November 27, 2007

From Susan and Sally — Ruh Roh!!

Filed under: Free Patterns from The Rainey Sisters,Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie — Both Sisters @ 11:48 am

Scooby-Doo-tv-06.jpg picture by lv2knit
“Ruh roh, reveryrody!!”

We must now admit to imperfection!  Darn it!  There is an error in the Roslin Hoodie pattern for the Size Small.  Please check out the Roslin Errata link for the corrections.  The Roslin Fair Isle Hoodie pattern has also been revised with the corrections.  We hope that none of you suffered irreparable mental trauma due to the incorrect math calculations in the pattern ;)!

Thank you for letting us know about the errors as you find them so others will be saved!

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