theraineysisters knitting and so much more

May 7, 2007

From Susan — From 8% to 2%

Filed under: Peacock Shawl -- Susan's,Uncategorized — lv2knit @ 6:29 pm

Now, don’t tell me NONE of you spotted the mistake on my Peacock Shawl!!  I’m sure you were trying to be nice and not say anything, but…

Mistake2.jpg
I changed the picture — no one could figure it out!

A misplaced yarnover, WAY-Y-Y back there!  The point of a lifeline is to make sure there are NO MISTAKES before the lifeline is placed!  I think it’s a really good idea to photograph these things — I did not the spot the mistake otherwise. However, once you know it’s there, what are ya gonna do?  Oh well, a few days knitting on this end and a glaring mistake averted — well worth it.

From Susan — Peacock Soars! Cough Cough

Filed under: Knitting Tips,Peacock Shawl -- Susan's — lv2knit @ 1:03 pm

I have been so busy admiring Surly’s beautiful knitting I have barely had time to do any of my own!  I have a done a little more on the Peacock Shawl:

PeacockYarn004.jpg

This is not the greatest picture but at least you can see the pattern emerging.  Sally assures me that blocking will cure all of its ills. 

Do you ever wonder as you knit a shawl how far along are you?  It is so hard to tell, especially when you have a shawl that starts with rows of 3 sts — to call that a row and count it against the end rows is absurd!  I have put together a tip sheet that shows how to figure out how much knitting you have done, relative to the entire shawl.  It is not heavy math (and I’m sure most of you have or could figure this out if you wanted to), but the tip sheet is included under Susan’s Gallery, nonetheless.  Using my How Much Shawl Have I Knitted So Far tipsheet, I calculated that I have done about 8% of the total shawl.  I don’t know if that is helpful information, or depressing!!

I am also plugging slowly away at my Mitered Tote — no new pics, but here is a picture of the most beautiful thing we have in our yard:

Appletree.jpg

This apple tree is so gorgeous — if it ever goes, we are sunk. 

Take care and enjoy the spring!

 

May 4, 2007

From Susan — Proud Clucker

Filed under: Back Story,Lace Tam and Scarf — lv2knit @ 2:46 pm

I am as proud as a mother hen!  Stephanie finished her Lace Tam and has some pictures on her blog.  I borrowed one to show here:

BlockingTam.jpg

It turned out so beautifully!  In way of reminder, Stephanie won the pattern and yarn during our Bloggiversary Contest in March.  Way to go, Stephanie!!!

May 3, 2007

From Susan — The Peacock Has Landed

Filed under: Peacock Shawl -- Susan's — lv2knit @ 11:09 pm

FINALLY!! And completely worth the wait.  The color is stunning and perfect for the Peacock Shawl — the picture does not do it justice.  I start tonight, mes amies!

PeacockYarn.jpg

I am loving this yarn, the color and the knitting.  I have 40 rows done — which sounds impressive, doesn’t it?  It’s about 4 square inches! 

PS:
I have not had the bleeding problem yet — bummed to hear about it :(.  Is there a way to set the color when you block it, like by adding some vinegar??  Any ideas/experience with this?

 

From Susan — Silk, Glorious Silk

Filed under: Vittadini Nicole 1 in Silk — lv2knit @ 12:43 pm

I am wearing the Vittadini Top today underneath a pale green linen shirt.  It is quite acceptable!  I may need to do more summer knitting — a cotton cardigan or something.  It is always air conditioned and it’s nice to wear knitting other than in the dead o’winter.

May 1, 2007

From Susan — Silk is Finis

Filed under: Back Story,Knitting Tips,Vittadini Nicole 1 in Silk — lv2knit @ 11:32 pm

I really like Japanese short rows!!  Like most knitters, I have never been fond of short rows.  I think they cause a tear in the space-time continuum that I like to think of as my lovely knitted fabric.  However, Japanese short rows do no such thing, when executed correctly.  They create a fabric with short row shaping and minimal short row ick (technical term!). 

SilkTopShortRows.jpg

We have posted this link before but it bears repeating: Nona Knits Japanese Short Rows.  Use it!  Good knitters do not let other good knitters do bad short rows ;).

Anyway, jump ahead a couple of days and the top is finshed:

SilkTop003.jpg

The color in the top picture is much truer — why is it so hard to get good pictures?  Why does it look so BEIGE in these pictures? 

I am not thrilled with the top — it looks like you could buy it in a store for much less money and effort.  No one will think it’s silk, and I think the color should be prettier.  However, I do recommend the pattern if you are looking for a nice summer top.  It calls for 20 sts/4″ gauge which is very common, the pattern can be sized to any figure, and it is easy to do. 

SilkTop004.jpg

SilkTop005.jpg

Those of you who have been paying attention will notice the absence of bobbles (Mary M. will not be surprised!).  Yes, I have an active aversion to bobbles.  I had already decided to forego the bobbles on the back — I thought they would cause bumps that looked like tumors growing on my back in perfect alignment.  I got to the front and actually knitted the bobbles on the first section, but thought they were way too much effort for the result, so I did a bobblectomy.  I substituted some textured knitting instead.  Again, another reason to like this pattern for its adaptability.

The timing of this FO is great because I got an email today stating that my PEACOCK YARN IS IN THE MAIL AND WILL ARRIVE TOMORROW OR THE NEXT DAY.  Do you realize what this means!!??  I am mere hours away from starting the project of my [recent] dreams: many hours of aggravation and love to make a shawl I will never wear.  Heaven.

priest.jpgBless me Father, for…….

Okay, I’m not Catholic, but I have a confession.  I have never knit a lace shawl before — not in laceweight anyway.  The Peacock Feathers Shawl will be my first foray into the mysterious and scary world of actual laceweight lace knitting!  Whew.  I feel better clearing my conscience.  I did not realize it was my first until I started swatching some lace in preparation for the Peacock’s arrival.  It felt unfamiliar.  I racked my brains for a memory of knitting a lace shawl.  Lots of examples in DK+ came to mind, as well as some failed attempts at laceweight.  But no shawl.  Ever. 

So, this should be fun!

I am also slowly knitting along on the Mitered Tote — which is PERFECT mindless take-along knitting.  I will be totally content: work on lace at home and tote on the road.  My world is in order.

April 29, 2007

From Sally — Inside of Widdicombe Fair

Filed under: Knitting Tips,Widdicombe Fair — Sally @ 5:55 pm

I won’t steal Susan’s clever “skirt lifting” title, but Lisa asked me to show the inside of Widdicombe Fair. She was also wondering about some of the floats, which she thought looked as if they could be quite long. As a quick refresher, here is what the blanket looks like. (I’ve now finished the third out of five horse repeats.)

Some of the floats are quite long for fair isle. I think the longest is 17 stitches, but there are numerous others in the 10-13 range. My rule of thumb is to do nothing for any float up to 8 stitches. Eight is my cut off. At that point, I will “catch” the other color at some convenient point. For example, if I have a 9-stitch float, I will:

1. Try to convince myself that I should stretch my 8-stitch rule to include 9. I’m never successful.

2. Knit 4 or 5 stitches, catch the unused color, knit the remaining stitches.

What I try to be careful of is where I catch it. I don’t want to “stack up” those catch points on top of one another. So, if in the row below I also had a long float, I try to make sure I catch the next float one or two stitches apart from the first. I also don’t want that caught color to ever peek through, so I try to not catch it right above a color change. I’m probably thinking too much, but that is my nature.

If I have a really long float — such as the 17-stitch one in this blanket — I’ll catch the unused color twice.

Here is the inside of the blanket:

Someone asked about wedding shawls. I’ve been thinking a lot about that question, but I don’t have a great answer. I think it so depends upon what level of difficulty you would want to tackle and what shape shawl you want. For example, the Forest Path Stole that was published in Interweave Knits would make a beautiful wedding shawl if you wanted a rectangle. Heritage Knitting and Fiddlesticks both have some lovely patterns — but there are so many shawl patterns out there. I’m no expert.

What does everyone else think?

April 25, 2007

From Sally — Widdicombe Fair Update

Filed under: Widdicombe Fair — Sally @ 3:36 pm

I’m a procastinator by nature, so it’s gratifying to be this far along on a baby blanket when said baby is not due to appear until sometime in July. I’m not going to have much time to knit for the next few weeks, so I plan to focus on this blanket and therefore not feel panicked and behind when I suddenly realize it’s the end of June. I’ve finished two full pattern repeats (out of five) and have just started on the third.

Here are two photos of the work so far. (Am I the only knitter who doesn’t like to let others see unblocked fair isle?) The first photo is of the side with the steek. I alternate my steek colors in a “speckled” way; I know some knitters alternate them as stripes.

Here’s the non-steek side, which shows a bit more of the pattern.

I don’t repeat myself as a knitter that often, especially with something like fair isle. It is interesting (at least to me) how quickly my brain and fingers remembered this pattern, even though it’s been several years since I knit it. It makes the knitting go fairly quickly; I’m hoping I don’t get bored even more quickly than usual.

I’m knitting this on a 24″ circular needle — a 32″ would definitely be too long. I decided to use my 3.25 mm Addi Lace needles out of curiosity. They work very well; I was afraid the yarn would feel too sticky on the tips but it doesn’t seem to.

April 23, 2007

From Susan — Where am I?

Filed under: Back Story,Vittadini Nicole 1 in Silk — lv2knit @ 7:38 am

When you have too many things on your needles, it really is hard to see progress, n’est-ce pas?  Because I didn’t get much knitting done on Saturday, I felt that life owed me a good knitting day yesterday — and I did get a little bit done on a few things.

I got a start on the Mitered Felted Tote.  I am on the second square — and that’s after starting each square 2-3 times!  I didn’t like my cast on, didn’t like my pick up, etc.  Now that I’ve got those details settled, this should go forward rather than backward.  I love the colors and love the yarn.

MiteredFeltedTote.jpg

I also promised a friend that I would help her with her Baby Dale Lady Bug sweater:

LadyBugSweater.jpg

These things are absolutely adorable but the patterns are very hard to decipher.  They leave a lot to the imagination OR assume you have made them before and understand their construction.  I have never made one, but have finished many (I used to do finishing for a shop, but NO LONGER DO — no inquiries, please!!).  They are so cute and so much work.  I did have a brainstorm: I should make two of these now, one for each daughter, and then just pull them out when the grandchildren start arriving in 10+ (please, pretty please, no sooner than that, please!) years.

And, I have about ten inches on the silk Vittadini top.  If I was really smart, I’d be putting all my knitting time into that basket because I’ll be able to wear it soon.  But no one has ever accused me of being really smart ;). 

P.S. From Sally — Have you been wondering where I am? (crickets)

I’ve been in Boulder, Colorado, helping my daughter find a place to live next year. I just got back and haven’t had too much time knit this week. I’ll try to post tomorrow about where I am on Widdicombe Fair.

PPS from Susan — I re-posted my Free Knitted Beaded Amulet Bag Pattern

April 19, 2007

From Susan — A Little Vittadini, Please

Filed under: Vittadini Nicole 1 in Silk — lv2knit @ 11:30 pm

My brain has been marinating the last three days in computer training — egads!!  I’m in a total vegetative state. 

One nice break in the computer action is that I took my lil silk top along for the ride.  The other night I had to rip the whole thing out.  It was 5″ too big around and the knitting was sloppy.  It did not look good at all — so much for gauge swatches (“We don’t need no stinkin’ swatches!”).  I also did not like the stockinette hem — the roll thing was not attractive.  So, I started over and opted for 4×4 ribbing instead.  I went down a few sts and a needle size and I think it’s going to be fine.  It is hard to tell from the picture but it is kind of pretty in person.  The silk has a lovely sheen.  I also like the hardiness of this yarn.  I ripped it out twice so far and it looks like new.  It is much easier to knit on the smaller needles so this has become a great carry around project.

Vittadini.jpg
Vittadini Pattern Book 27 (Nicole 1, adapted) in Mulberry Silk, US size 6 needles

I’m still debating about my bigger, at-home project.  I started swatching a lace jacket from the recent issue of Knitter’s but it may not be “the one.”  There is always the alluring Bohus to think about!

Tonight was Knit Night.  Kind of a small group tonight, but great just the same.  Several of my peeps are making dishcloths with a US state on them — out of Sugar ‘n Cream.  Here is the link for the patterns.  They are kind of cute. 

Tomorrow afternoon Meg Swanson will be hanging out at the Yarnery from about 2-4 pm.  She’s in town for Yarnover, which is on Saturday.  I’m really looking forward to it, but I have a lot to do to get ready.

 

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