theraineysisters knitting and so much more

March 28, 2009

From Sally — Hoarding Treasures

Filed under: Cathedral — surly @ 6:18 pm

I have a fairly good-sized yarn stash.  It’s not as large as the stashes of some knitters I know (I’m looking at you, Marsha), but it’s large enough that I could knit for many years without ever needing to buy more.  I will buy more, however; I fall in love easily.  Some yarn in my stash is so precious that I’m almost afraid to knit with it.  What if it’s not the absolutely perfect yarn for that project and the yarn is wasted?  What if the yarn, adored sometimes for years, isn’t as wonderful as I thought once I start knitting with it?  Could I stand the disappointment?  So my twenty skeins of pale pink Mulberry Silk wait patiently in a cubby, as do six skeins of handpainted silk that make me think of Egyptian Pharaohs, countless skeins of gorgeous Koigu, and a few other prizes.  

Along with those yarns, I’ve been carefully guarding 17 skeins of Jaeger Cashmina in a beautiful cinnamon brown crossed with bronze.  I bought it in Scotland, at the John Lewis department store in Edinburgh.  I had no idea what I was going to do with it.  I bought every skein they had in that color and dye lot.  Each skein came in its own little museum box.

 

See?  How could you not love it?   

In the past year or so, my grip on all of these yarns has loosened a bit.  I’ve come to realize that while it’s fine to keep some yarns just for admiring or loving, life is short and it’s a bit senseless to deprive oneself of knitting joy.  So, the Cashmina has come out to play. I found another Japanese pattern that I loved, and I decided that the Cashmina is perfect for it. It’s from the Let’s Knit Series 13. Here is the photo from the book.

I wanted to start it when I was supposed to be finishing my Bohus. I did let myself swatch, but managed to restrain myself until the Bohus was off the needles.

I finished the back this morning.

March 24, 2009

From Susan — Sleeves are Fun

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 9:40 pm

Sleeves are fun.  Going to the dentist is fun.  Tax time is fun.  You think I’m kidding, right?  Au contraire!!  My Ode to Joy sleeve is going fine: enough going on with the color changes and decreases to not be boring.  Last trip to the dentist, my youngest daughter got her braces off and looks grown up and gorgeous, and my taxes are organized and ready for the tax guy! 

I stopped by The Yarnery yesterday and picked up the latest Rowan Magazine (#45).  Quite beautiful!  It has a combination of Asian-inspired designs and hippy flashbacks.  The hippy stuff is not my taste.  Sally liked the cap-shawl inspired wrap with sleeves in Kidsilk Haze called Honeysuckle.

March 20, 2009

From Susan to Surly

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 8:55 am

OMG!  The Bohus is absolutely gorgeous!  Congratulations, and Happy Bloggiversary!  No fanfare this year, but we are both happy to have been blogging with you for the past three years! 🙂

March 19, 2009

From Sally — Lost in Translation

Filed under: Large Lace Collar — surly @ 1:32 pm

My Large Lace Collar is finally completely finished! It’s a beautiful pattern, beautiful yarn, but I’m a slow knitter. As much as I love my Bohus, I’ll be very happy to work on something else without a black cloud of guilt, merino, and angora hanging over my head.

I apologize in advance for the quality of today’s pictures. The lighting is not ideal for photography today. This is a soft, subtle project, which makes it even harder to capture properly. It gets a bit lost in translation. However, I’ll subject you to them anyway (even though you might be getting as tired of this project as I was).

A rare shot of an actual person in the sweater:

Here are some close up views of the hem and cuff:

For those of you who appreciate the technical details, here is a photo of the underarm. Look, ma, no seams! (Note the little white hairs; DNA from my little assistant.)

Here’s a photograph of the wrong side of the yoke for the more prurient knitters out there. (You know who you are.)

Finally, one last shot of the yoke.

So pretty. Le sigh.

March 17, 2009

From Susan — You May Already Be a Wiener

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 11:40 pm

I already AM a wiener!  I won a book tonight at the Knitters Guild meeting — it’s a really lovely book with some great patterns. 

Knitting Classic Style by you.
Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery

It has a little bit of everything: sweaters, vests, socks, gloves, wraps, styles for all ages, fair isle, lace, cables, beads.  There are several patterns that piqued my interest.  Woo Hoo!!

Veronik has done a lot of designing for Interweave Knits, and she has several designs that you would (might?) recognize:

So, it was a nice St. Patty’s Day!  Hope yours was great, too, and sober!

PS — the blog title refers to an old cartoon that was one of my favorites.  It shows a hot dog mailing an envelope that reads…yes, you guessed it, “You may already be a wiener!”

March 15, 2009

From Susan — Keep Your Focus!!

Filed under: Current Projects — lv2knit @ 1:31 pm

I am so at the point when interest fails!  Yes, you have heard it here before….the cry of waning interest!  Oh well.  But, “I’ll be back,” as Ahnold says!

Here is a status update on my Ode to Joy.  I do love it.  The colors make me happy.

Ode to Joy Front by you.

Ode to Joy Back by you.

Ode to Joy Upper back by you.

As we have mentioned before, the design is from Candace Eisner Strick’s Strickwear Merging Colors line.  There are several colorways from which to choose, and they are all stunning.  She has a number of different designs, also.  Her website is for wholesale sales only but your local knitting shop can order from her on your behalf (or check her list of distributors).  The pattern is very well written.

Yesterday a neighbor called with a “knitting emergency.”  My favorite kind!  She ran over with a confusing pattern question and I loved it!  I could blather about knitting for hours, so I thoroughly enjoyed it, plus I was able to help her. 

March 9, 2009

From Sally — The Sweater That Will Not Die . . .

Filed under: Large Lace Collar — surly @ 6:51 pm

Unlike my sister, I’m not a big fan of horror movies. Oh, I like some of them — but not the ones that are truly creepy. Not the ones that get under your skin. Not the ones that give you nightmares. And certainly not the ones that feature sharp weapons doing bad things.

Ahem. That was foreshadowing. Because sometimes a sharp weapon is just what you need when you’re dealing with The Undead.

Remember my Bohus?

I finished the first sleeve. I finished the body. I started the second sleeve. But somehow, prickling the back of my neck like the sound of a door opening when you think you’re alone, was the inescapable horror: it needed to be longer.

I made myself finish the second sleeve before I took action. I have enough singleton socks and gloves — not to mention a drawer stuffed with one-armed pullovers — to recognize my own limitations. So. I finished the second sleeve. The sweater still felt just slightly too short; I knew I’d be constantly tugging it down in the back. It would haunt me. So out came the big guns scissors.

Off came the bottom hem:

I ignored the shrieks of horror: “Where’s the rest of me?”

I put the fiend back on the needles, and Lucy is proudly wearing a new sash.

Stay tuned. The next time you see my Bohus, which I hope will be later this week, it will be finished. Of course, it was almost eighty degrees here yesterday, so I have NO idea when I’ll ever get to wear it.

Le sigh.

March 6, 2009

From Susan — I hate Knitting Socks, but….

Filed under: Completed Projects — lv2knit @ 12:54 pm

…I do on occasion.  I made these a while ago but did not post them because they were a gift.  So, upon whose tootsies do they reside?  None other than sister Surly!  They are quite small and fit Sally’s petite feet.

mingus socks by you.

The pattern is Mingus Socks from Cookie A.  The yarn is beautiful, but unfortunately I can’t remember what it is! 

Have a great weekend! 🙂

PS — and speaking of gifts and Cookie A, Sally ordered this for me!  Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks by Cookie A.

March 3, 2009

From Susan — Knitting Along

Filed under: Updates — Both Sisters @ 7:57 pm

My Ode to Joy is coming along nicely.  The back is done, and I started the second front.  That is all.

Okay, so we have hit a boring patch.  That always allows us to fill in with other crap explore new and exciting alternatives!  Here are some pun-tastic jokes to keep you laughing (or retching as the case may be) as you read the latest stock market reports:

1.  The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2.  I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3.  She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4.  A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5.  The butcher backed into the meat grinderand got a little behind in his work.

6.  No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

7.  A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8.  A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9.  Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10.  Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11.  A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

12.  Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

13.  Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, ‘You stay here, I’ll go on a head.’

14.  I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

15.  A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’

16.  A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’

17.  A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

18.  It’s not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.

19.  The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

20.  The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

21.  A backward poet writes inverse.

22.  In democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.

23.  When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

24.  Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Groan!    

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