theraineysisters knitting and so much more

My third wee FO is my third wee Elefante…it turned out as cute as Number One.  I am so relieved!  If there was one cute Elefante and two daughters, it would not turn out well!

Of course it has to be in her school colors.    And the obligatory “butt shot:”

Cascade 220

And this picture is for Sally — we have the most gorgeous snow falling right now.  The grainy white specks are actually flakes (not the best photo!).  Maybe it will snow while you are here.

We’ve had fabulous snow for cross country skiing which is thrilling my DH to no end!  Yay!

PS — if you have not visited for a while, please scroll down to see Sally’s Bohus and to read about the event this week at the American Swedish Institute.

We got connected to the internet and cable today.  It’s been several weeks without.  I must admit that I have felt a bit disconnected from the world.  Some people feel better when they go without those connections, but I like to hear the news and watch a little TV while knitting.  So, I am back on the grid, People!!

PS to Penny: The Dumbo that I made was a major modification of an existing pattern called Elefante.  I changed the head, face, and ears the most.  I described the changes I made but really cannot provide a pattern for it.  He was a labor of love and is one of a kind.  I shared the “pattern” I used for the ears on Ravelry.  The hat and neck ruffle were done kind of freestyle!

PS to Others regarding Dumbo:

The ears were one of the easier mods — the curved trunk was no picnic!!  For the ears, I used a picture of Dumbo and traced the shape onto graph paper(shown on Ravelry as mentioned above).  I had to play around a bit, but it wasn’t too bad.  The really hard part was getting the eyes the way I wanted.  I tried EVERYTHING!  After dozens of tries (no exaggeration!), I embroidered closed eyes onto him:

I hated the way he looked.  It was not the look I was going after at all.  I finally stumbled onto some Amigurumi dolls and thought that maybe a combination of felt and embroidery would work.  I was much happier with the eyes…but something still wasn’t right!

The shape of the face was wrong.  So I took a long needle and yarn and pushed it through his temples to pull them in.  Much better!!

Yes, it is state fair time in Minnesota, which is bittersweet.  It means that fall really is here and summer is almost gone.  I love fall, but what the …??!!  Where did summer go?

Okay, stop ranting!  Kim and I went to the fair yesterday on a picture perfect day.  My dear hubby dropped us off!  The buses were set to start an hour later than usual and that would be well after the Creative Activities doors opened.  The only reason we were a tad late was because I had to use the restroom!  The traffic snafus caused by the transportation changes were the highlight of fair coverage on the evening news.

The first order of business was to hunt for our entries.

The first thing we spotted was my Moose River Cowl (this was made from yarn I won).  And congrats to Lucy for her blue ribbon sweater!

The next two items were next to each other in the case: Pravigan and my latest Plaid Squared Felted Bag.

Doesn’t it look like that rosette ribbon has been snipped off?

Then we eyeballed Kims’ gorgeous fair isle blanket which also won a blue:

After that we had to hunt a little for our other entries.  Here are Kim’s stunning hat and stranded scarf:

My Capture the Moment won a 2nd place ribbon and was kinda flopped into the case:

Our friend, “N,” also won a ribbon – her first time entering!!

Baby Bonnet did well, and is hiding in the garments section!!

Also hiding in Garments is a sad looking little pancake, my Fair Isle Long Hat:

The hats that don’t win ribbons get plopped onto sewing mannequins!  Here is how I see it!

We finally found Dumbo – so proud to see him with his second place ribbon!!

I also entered three items in the senior category:

Bonnie Esplie again won our Penelope Knitters award for a beautiful pair of gloves!

Kim and I volunteered at the MKG booth where we talked to fair goers about knitting and the guild.  A highlight for me was when my dear friend Lynn and her family found us at the MKG booth!!  We also dined on several healthy food choices: Corn Dogs, Mini Donuts, Fried Cheese Curds, ice cream cones, and Big Fat Bacon!!  It’s the Fair!!  You have to eat like that! 🙂

PS to Commenters: Unfortunately I don’t have all the details about Kim’s projects!!  She is Luckydogknits on Ravelry if you want to ask her about them or ask her to post them to her project page. 🙂

PS2 in response to Amy: Amy asked why I entered some items in the senior category instead of regular knitting.  There are several factors.  I entered Fading Point in seniors because I thought it would not do well against the level of competition in the regular knitting category – it would have been entered against shawls.  (Senior has three knitting lots: sweater, scarf, and not a sweater or a scarf, aka “other”!!!).  I entered my Ovale Decke shawl in the “other” lot.  I didn’t know what lot to enter my beaded Snowfall Hat in in the regular knitting.  I already had an entry in the colorwork hat lot so it would need to go elsewhere, but if they moved it into that lot it would have been disqualified because you can only enter one item per lot.  They had a couple of beading lots under seniors: beaded necklace and beaded “other.”  So Snowfall landed in Beaded Other and snagged a blue!!

Sally and I just returned from Knitting Camp.  I don’t have time for a full report, but I did want to share an FO that was part of the Camp experience!  The contest this year was At the Circus, or something like that.  Several of us went all in with elephants, including moi.  I adore Dumbo and knew right from the start that I wanted to knit him.  Who doesn’t cry when his momma is behind bars for protecting the little guy??

He stands just under six inches.  He started off with the body from Elefante – of which I have knit several.  I changed his trunk, eyes, head shape and of course, the ears!!  The eyes about did me in, but I like how he turned out.  I added a hat and ruffle to finish out his circus costume!  The competition this year was fierce, so he didn’t win, but I love him anyway. 🙂

Check out The Rainey Sisters Tip of the Week!

PS to All: Thanks for the nice comments!  The winning entries were absolutely BEYOND!  The winner knitted an entire clown suit from head to toe.  She gave a little speech and then said, “The question we should be asking is NOT how many clowns can fit in a car, but how many cars can fit in a clown!”  She proceeded to pull several TINY hand-knit cars from the sleeve of her costume!  Another person had a small knitted ballerina doing an actual high wire act!  It was crazy!!

PS to Julie – nothing really written “on my pattern” to share, but I did place a reenactment of my ear pattern on my Ravelry pattern page.  Cannot guarantee its accuracy, but it is close!

Not too much is holier than this FO!! When knitting peep and friend Kim and I went to Knitters Camp last summer, we fell in love with the Swiss Cheese Scarf (free pattern on Ravelry) made by a fellow Camper. So much so that we made a pit stop at The Yarnery on the way back through town to buy a skein of Kauni EQ (Rainbow) yarn. Kim started hers and finished it a lot sooner than I. But here mine is, in its subtle glory:

And in a slightly different pose:

Do you like to do buttonholes? Well this puppy has 171 buttonholes and 48 notches. If you HATE buttonholes, make this scarf. They will not bother you at all by the end!!

I must admit that I am not impressed with the traditional buttonhole of old:

Row 1: bind off “X” sts (in this case, 10)
Row 2: cast on “X” sts using backward loop method

These BH’s are usually kind of sloppy with a large loopy edge on one side. I experimented with a LOT of options and fell back on my standard for larger BHs: the one-row buttonhole, made as follows (for 10-stitch BH):

Note: Back and front mean as they face you, no matter if you are on the right or wrong side (back is the side facing away from you and front is the side toward you).
Step 1:
Work to BH, yarn forward, sl next st as to purl, place yarn @ back and leave it there; *Sl next st from LH needle to RH needle. Pass the first slipped st over it (counts as 1 bound off st). Repeat from * 9 more times more (not using yarn to knit the sts, just passing the sts over). Slip the last bound off st to left needle and turn work.

Step 2:
With yarn to back, cable cast on 11 sts, but on the last st, pass working yarn to front between sts 10 and 11 and then place st 11 on the LH needle; turn work.

Step 3:
With yarn in back, slip the first st on the LH needle to the RH needle; pass the extra cast on st over it to close the buttonhole. Continue to end of row.

Repeat 170 more times and voila!!

Close Up of Buttonholes

I also slightly felted my scarf. Did I felt it enough? Did I felt it too much? I guess that is a matter of opinion. I do love the way it looks and how much it softened up, so I am very happy with it.

Swiss Cheese Scarf
Ravelry Project Page
NOTE: My Ravelry Page has all the details about how I accommodated the 74-stitches and my one-row buttonhole.

Kauni EQ, one 150 gram skein
Needle: US 4
Stitch Count: 74 sts
Finished Size: 10×60 inches, after felting
Grade: A+ for the smile it puts on my face when I look at it! 🙂

PS: 2muchfun asked why I chose to felt my scarf. Kauni is thin, fingering weight yarn and a bit uneven. Like Daniel Cleaver says to Bridget Jones (about her tiny skirt), I wanted to fatten it up a bit. It plumped up the yarn and filled in the spaces where the yarn was thinner. You can see from the photos that I did not felt it enough to lose the stitch definition.

PPS: Mary asked how I “lightly felted” my scarf. Basically, you felt wool by washing it. I placed it in the machine and washed it on a hot/cold setting twice. I checked it often to make sure it did not fully felt. I kind of thought it might because it is such a “wooly” wool. I consider something “fully” felted when you cannot see (or can barely discern) the individual stitches. I have lightly felted many things in the past…notably my baby Elefante:

Elefante