theraineysisters knitting and so much more

November 26, 2010

From Susan — “Christmas Knitting” by Franklin Habit

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 5:19 pm

This is really cute and very timely!  It made me laugh!

Christmas Knitting by Franklin Habit

I do not know how to insert a YouTube video directly into a post — technically challenged!

November 25, 2010

From the Two of Us — Happy Thanksgiving!

Filed under: Updates — Both Sisters @ 10:03 am

We are both spending the day with family, across the many miles.  And, no, the turkey pictured did not fall out of Susan’s tree onto the dinner table!

Enjoy some quiet knitting time this weekend!

November 21, 2010

From Susan — Turkey Day

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 12:56 pm

I hate to “step on” my own post, but I have to share these pics!  Do any of you need a turkey for Thanksgiving?  Come on over!

I woke up today to a city of ice — it drizzled all night in below freezing temps.  While on the phone to Surly (of course! 😉 ), I noticed a whirl in my peripheral vision — the turkeys had descended!   We have been overrun with turkeys in our community, and in our neighborhood specifically.  We have a huge crabapple tree that holds its fruit throughout the winter, and the turkeys have found it.

They look like vultures and are WAY too big for the tree!!  Yikes!

From Susan — LV2KNIT

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 12:32 am

My knitting moniker is taken from my license plate — or vice versa (chicken and egg?).  But, I think of my blog name and Ravelry name as a big part of my identity.  Recently I renewed my license tabs.   To my surprise, I received a shiny new gift from the state:

They are so pretty!  The letters are flat, though — they used to be raised.  I suppose it is to save money.  I like ’em!!

November 18, 2010

From Susan — Quick Update from Sleeve Island

Filed under: Eala Bhan — lv2knit @ 1:02 am

After my Eala Bhan sweater body and collar dried, I sewed the collar on.  It fit perfectly into its slot and when I tried on the sweater, sans sleeves, it fit me, too!   I did add an i-cord bead around the outside edge of the collar.

I am halfway done with one sleeve and getting completely bored.  The more bored I get, the slower I knit!  I may have to take a mini-break from this and knit up something small to break through the monotony.  I have a few ideas already! 😉 

A mini-break does not mean that I am abandoning my Eala Bhan, but knitting should not feel like work.  My EZ Green Sweater is all sleeves, too, so I am really stranded on sleeve island!

November 13, 2010

From Both of Us — Sitting Around Knitting Bahn Bahns

Filed under: Eala Bhan,Updates — Both Sisters @ 12:25 pm

We have not written much about our respective Eala Bhans. Early on, we kind of made a pact that we would knit this project in tandem and not post individually, on the off chance that one of us would speed ahead of the other. In reality, of course we knit at different paces: we have different amounts of time to spend, life and work and other projects intervene. But right now we are pretty darn close to each other, so we will post!  (Note from Sally:  No, we are not all that close.  Susan is waaaaaay ahead of me.  But that’s fine.)

The Yarn
The yarn is lovely.  The feel of it, the wooliness of it, the depth of the color.  It gets an A+!

When you take colorwork classes from Alice St@rmore, she presents you with a small white box which holds a sample of every yarn color.  Of course, her color cards are required to identify the name of the color in question:

The Pattern
The Eala Bhan pattern is crazy detailed.  For the collar, Susan had to move between three pieces of paper to track every row!  It is easy to see that the sheer magnitude of pattern itself could turn off many knitters.  But it is also very beautiful.  Sally thinks it might be too dressy to wear often, but Susan thinks it will be a great work sweater.

Progress
We knit the fronts and back in one piece, knowing full well that this would be a slow go.  What we did NOT anticipate was how slow the back would be once you made the split at the armholes!  We thought we would breeze along after leaving the fronts behind, but it felt even slower!  The fronts themselves were speedy quick.


Susan’s Eala Bhan Blocking


The collar

Susan is ready to start knitting the sleeves.

From Sally:  I am  NOT ready to start knitting the sleeves.  I have finished one front.  Mine is not yet blocked, and I hope it looks as nice as Susan’s does after the blocking.  Here are a couple of my slower progress pictures.

Sally’s Eala Bhan before the split for the arms (the color is very true here)

Sally’s Eala Bhan with just the left front finished (unblocked)

Weather
And here is what Susan woke up to this morning: snow-flavored rain!

November 4, 2010

From Sally — So Many Ways to Be Surly

Filed under: Back Story,Raglan Turtleneck — surly @ 2:46 pm

I received a surprise present in the mail yesterday from my big sister. Well, I knew I was getting something — Susan couldn’t resist telling me that much. But I had no idea what it was until I opened the box. I should warn you that it is not knitting related except in the most tangential way (which I will explain in a moment). I should also explain that one of my many nicknames is “Surly.” The reasons for this are lost in the mists of time. (That’s my story at least.) But it’s true. The nickname mostly has to do with our little brother but we’ll leave it at that.

Anyway my sister found some items with my “name” on them and she sent them to me.


I had coffee this morning in my mug. Apparently, Surly is a well-known microbrewery, but not being a beer drinker I’d never heard of them. They had obviously, however, heard of me.

Thanks, Susan! (Oh: the tangential knitting connection is that surly is my username on Ravelry.)

As for knitting, I’ve been juggling three projects: the blue husband turtleneck (the sweater is blue, not the husband), Eala Bhan, and a new project that I’ll talk about next time. Millie asked the following questions about the turtleneck:

Which of the pictures of the yarn is closest to the true color? The skeins of yarn look quite dark while the started-sweater has a lighter color with more depth. Both that color and the pattern look very nice, and I am waiting anxiously to see how the rest of the sweater works up.

I’m having a hard time getting this color to show up accurately in my photos. It’s close to a very dark denim blue — l don’t think I’ve quite captured it yet to be honest.

I would like to spark a discussion on this – how do other knitters determine what gauge a particular yarn will work up based on information on the yardage. I go more on yardage than on the suggested needle size on a label. I looked at Shelter and when I see that that 50 gm ball of wool is 140 yds, I immediately translate that into 280 yds in a 100 gm ball of wool but to me a worsted weight 100 gm ball would normally be in the range of 210, 220, or 223, depending on whether it was Plymouth Galway, Cascade 220, or Patons Classic Merino. For me these work up well at 5 sts per inch. . . . It seems to me that 280 yds in a 100 gm skein would probably work up at a dk gauge. How do other knitters look at yardage and use it to determine how much yarn to buy and what gauge will the yarn work up at?

I also generally go by yardage per weight rather than suggested needle size, especially if I am trying to use a different yarn than a pattern calls for. But it definitely is trial and error. Some fibers are heavier than others and so you will automatically get lower yardage per skein. The Shelter yarn that I am using for this project has a certain lightness and loft to it, which means that it knits up “bigger” than its yardage might suggest. Another example would be Jaeger’s Chamonix yarn. It has 119 yards per 50 gram skein but it knits up at 14 stitches per four inches. It’s very light for its bulk. Cotton, on the other hand, is often heavier than wool. When in doubt, I swatch even though I hate swatching.

The other day, while knitting and watching TV, I somehow purled two stitches in a row on the husband sweater. That was a mistake, which I’ve marked with the tip of a tapestry needle. I know it’s hard to see, but basically I purled where I should have knitted.

Fortunately, it wasn’t all that far back. I quickly laddered my way down and then back up. It just goes to show that even the simplest pattern requires occasional moments of attention.

November 2, 2010

From Susan — Sleeve Circling the Drain

Filed under: EZ Green Sweater,Updates — lv2knit @ 9:08 pm

One thing great about knitting is that you can usually rip it out and fix it.  The bad thing about knitting is ripping it out and fixing it. 

I made a few mods to the sleeve for fit and construction.  One thing I wanted was to finish the gusset decreases before I started the sleeve shaping — I did not want the increases and decreases to collide (been there, done that — did not like the look!).

I also did not want the sleeve to narrow quite as drastically.  In the first version, I did my sleeve decreases every 6 rounds — now I am starting with the every 8 round decreases.  This will mean that the sleeve stays wider where my arm is fat wider and get narrow where my arm tapers to the wrist.  Duh.

So, I spent most of my weekend knitting time reknitting and figuring.  That’s okay 🙁 .  I had nuthin’ better to do…

Eala Bhan is also progressing.  I have about 6 inches above the armhole split.  Yay!!

PS: How many Trick-or-Treaters did you have?  We had ONE.  Uno.  Singleton.  Not a duo.  I am now forced to eat all of the leftover Snickers before they go stale.

PS2: Today (Wednesday) I am wearing one of my “new” outfits, made a few weekends ago — made to go with my Sunrise Circle.  And it does!!

image

November 1, 2010

From Susan — Knitting My Fingers to the Bone

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 12:05 am

Literally!! 😉

Knitting as Graphic Art!!  Happy Halloween!

Thanks for the link, Kim!

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