theraineysisters knitting and so much more

December 28, 2008

From The Rainey Sisters — Wrapping Up Another Year of Knitting

Filed under: Completed Projects,Sweetheart Glovelets — Both Sisters @ 2:35 pm

From Both
It’s been a great year, but too short — where did 2008 go?  The holidays have been crazy busy, but have afforded a bit of knitting time as well.  Here are some updates…

From Sally
Susan has had a more productive holiday knitting season than I have.  My ambitious plans to knit many many pairs of gloves were dashed when my de Quervain’s started to act up again.  I think it was knitting a pair of gloves for my son out of some sock yarn that is 50% cotton and 50% wool.  My hands have never liked knitting with cotton, which is why I rarely use cotton yarn.  Knitting on tiny needles with a deadline was just.not.good.  His were the only gloves I was able to finish before Christmas.  I’m back to sleeping in my splints.  The good news is that knitting with wool yarn doesn’t seem to be bothering me.  To be on the safe side, though, I’m limiting the amount of time I spend knitting.  I don’t want to have to give it up entirely for several months as I had to earlier this year.

As for the gloves I knit for my son — he likes them!  He wanted something colorful and a bit wild.  He picked the yarn out himself (from my vast stash).  (I’m giving you multiple photos to make up for only having one project. Pathetic, n’est-ce pas?).  Without further ado:

 

Is it just me or do his gloves look like they belong to a sock monkey?  Susan says, yes!

Here’s one shot of the gloves I’m making for my daughter. I’m using Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Chocolate. It’s a deep, lovely brown but difficult to photograph. The pattern is Knotty Gloves by Julia Mueller. In a rare act of conformity, I only made one change to the pattern.

As written, when you get to the top of the hand you’re supposed to start with the index finger and then work your way to the little finger. Because the little finger typically sits slightly lower on the hand than the other fingers, I did the little finger first. Then I knit three plain rounds before doing the other fingers. I just find gloves fit better if I account for little finger’s position.

From Susan
I did some gift knitting and am happy to report modest success.  Remember the Fetching Glovelets for lil daughter in school colors?

She LOVED them — I mean loved them big time!  Woo Hoo!  A home run with these.  She said they are the best thing I ever made for her!  And she wants a pair of Fetching Glovelets for her best friend.  Feels pretty good.  I also gave my SIL and niece a pair and they loved them, too.

Jena picked out yarn — cheap yarn from my stash, so I whipped up the pair for her little friend last evening (these are such a quick knit!):


Bernat Denim Style and US 7 needles

I made a pair of glovelets for my older daughter, also.  Her reaction was difficult to gauge — I think she liked them (?).  They are a hybrid of the Sweetheart Glovelets from The Rainey Sisters and the Plum Blossom Gloves from Joanna Ryan.  They are knit from one skein of Misti Alpaca Worsted (!?!!) on size 2.25 mm needles.  They are soft as butter.


Black is impossible to see!

Here are the original gloves, which I plan on making some time in the New Year:


Plum Blossom Gloves by Joanna Ryan

I also have been working on another “Ripple Me This” bag from Fall 2008 Knitters as a class sample.  I love the colors for this bag.  I used Ella Rae Toast and Ecru (2 skeins each).  The yarn is that natural sheep color that reminds me of the sweaters from Peru.

I made the rippled handles this time and thought they turned out pretty cute:

Ella Rae felts with a boucle appearance which I find attractive.  When this lil sucker dries, I’ll sew on the handles.  I had absolutely no yarn leftover! 

Another pic with handles!

PS from Susan — one of the most unusual gifts I received this year was a copy of the 1978 movie, Halloween with Jamie Lee Curtis.  Notable for the KNIT-tastic scene where she stabs Mike Myers with a knitting needle in the neck!  My kind of heroine!

That’s it from us.  We hope to get in a lot more knitting before the New Year!

December 10, 2008

From Susan — Cough, Cough

Filed under: Baby Cables and Big Ones too — lv2knit @ 11:29 am

I am home sick for the second day.  Ugh!    I hate being sick, and I hate the guilt of missing work and getting so far behind!  My knitting is suffering, too, because I slept so much yesterday! 

But being home this morning allowed me to see a lovely sight that I usually miss: the dawning of the day:

The streak of red across the sky was actually much more intense.  And, you can see that we are getting a white Christmas this year!

And here is our small attempt at getting into the holiday spirit:

I have been knitting a bit here and there, though this project seems to be moving slowly.


Front


Back

It’s a simple project and now I am just knitting in the round — Oh well.  It will get done when it gets done. 

Tomorrow evening is our annual knitting group Christmas party — an event I cannot miss!  So I am counting on being back to work tomorrow and trying to figure out what to bring.  Great friends, great food, and all knitting related. 

December 7, 2008

From Susan and Sally — Where art thou, Short Rows?

Filed under: Baby Cables and Big Ones too,Knitting Tips — Both Sisters @ 6:15 pm

We had a couple of questions about our Baby Cables project.  Alison asked about the position of our short row shaping, and Deirdre wanted to know more about the neck sizing.  Here goes!

First, why did we add short rows — the pattern does not call for them and the sweater looks great, so why bother?  When trying on the yoke during construction, the back neck clearly wanted to ride at least an inch higher than the front.  We were concerned that this would cause the sweater to pull up in back.  Short rows in a top down sweater need to be added before the split is made for the sleeves to add length to the back neck — adding short rows after the break for the sleeves will add length to the back body.  We wanted to complete the garter stitch section before doing the short rows so they would not disrupt the ridges. 

This diagram shows the placement of the short row turns.  We used Japanese Short Rows, which are described very well by NonaKnits.

And here are Susan’s short rows:

Deirdre asked about the size of the neck opening.  It is relatively large – and somewhat like a boatneck fit.   Susan made hers smaller relative to the size of the pattern by casting on the smallest number of sts and then adjusting the increases accordingly.  Some people like the openness of the neck and would not need to adjust.  By casting on in increments of 8 sts, you can adjust the neck opening as desired as long as you account for the difference in your increases.

From Susan: I did not get as far as I wanted to yesterday and today looks unlikely as well!  Bummer, but chores and holiday activities are cutting into my knitting time!

From Sally:  I am doing some stealth holiday knitting, but still hope to get the second sleeve finished in the next few days.

ETA: Jane asked about our doing short rows on the front. Just to clarify, the short rows are adding length to the back. The “x”s on the front show where the short rows ended — where the turns occur. The short rows are knit completely across the back but only partway across the front as indicated.  We hope the revised diagram is more helpful and descriptive.  Obviously, it only makes sense when you are working from the pattern.

December 5, 2008

From Susan and Sally — Fun with Baby

Filed under: Baby Cables and Big Ones too — Both Sisters @ 6:11 pm

We are having fun with Baby Cables and Big Ones Too from Ravelry!  Susan has to take the credit for finding this gem of a pattern, but Sally jumped right in and has almost completed hers.  It helped that she already had the exact yarn called for in the pattern (Jaeger Extra Fine Merino — a discontinued yarn; she had several colors to choose from, no less 😉 ).  Susan struggled to find just the right yarn and actually ended up knitting the entire yoke twice.

The designer of this creative and elegant pullover is Suvi from Finland.  The pattern sells for $6 on Ravelry and may be available via her blog (?).  The instructions are in English.

About the Sweater
The sweater is knit from the top down in the round. There are no seams. The yoke is done in garter and changes to stockinette for the body and sleeves. The sleeves are also knit in the round and have some garter stitch as well.

We did change a little bit of the pattern. Suvi instructs you to do the increases by using the backward loop cast on method on the purl rounds of the garter stitch yoke. We did our increases on the knit rounds of the garter because it is less visible. We also added some short rows to lower the front neckline in relation to the back.  Susan also added 2 sts to the sleeve WITH the cable to account for the compression on that sleeve vs the non-cabled sleeve (and then decreased 2 sts once the cable was complete).   There are no other accommodations for cables made in the pattern.

A word about the lowly “backward loop” increase method. Both of us have found uses for this lowly and unappreciated “make one” method recently. It is the increase of choice for garter stitch because it is virtually invisible when done on the right side of the garter fabric. It also works well when you need to make a lot of increases across a relatively small number of stitches: it does not draw yarn length from the nearby stitches, which can cause puckering. Who knew? This is an increase that people typically write off as the ugly stepchild, but it really does have some great uses.

Sally’s Baby Cables
This is a relatively fast knit. I started knitting it a few days before Thanksgiving, and only have one sleeve left to knit. I could have made it in light grey, but I have 20 skeins of Extra Fine Merino in that color and decided to save it for something that required more yarn. So, you ask, what color did I use? Well, if you are a long time reader of this blog you can probably make a good guess: red. It’s Jaeger’s EF Merino in Shade 920. Here are some shots of its progress from “necklace” to almost sweater. (The first photo is very true to color.)

When I was at the point shown in the above photo, I decided it was too large in the body. It’s hard to tell in that picture, but trust me. When I tried it on, it looked like an A-line sweater despite the waist decreases I had done. So I ripped it back to the bottom of the cable that extends into the stockinette, accelerated my decreases, and added a few more. It fits me (and Lucy) much better now).

Susan’s Baby Cables
After a false start with stash yarn (don’t ask!), I started over with a beautiful shade of Cascade 220.  The weight called for is DK (5.5 sts/in) but Cascade 220 worsted can be knit at a tighter gauge, especially the Heathers which run a bit lighter weight.

I could not get a good picture — the color cannot be captured — but here is a better shot of the yarn:


Cascade 220 Heathers, Color #4009

I am not as far along as Surly, but I hope to make some progress this weekend.  There are people on Ravelry who finished this in 5 days!  Not me, I’m afraid 🙁 .  Also, my sweater will not end up as shaped as Sally’s — I may even keep a straight profile.  We will see when we get there!

December 2, 2008

From Susan — Mini Mitts

Filed under: Completed Projects — lv2knit @ 7:35 pm

I am marking time with another Fetching update!  These whip together so fast, and I really like them.  They aren’t very long, so they fit almost like sleeves that come down over your hand, which is a cute length.  This little pair will adorn my petite daughter with her petite pinkies.  Our school colors are dark blue and silver gray. 

I used Dolce again (another single skein FO, and free besides!) and Debbie Bliss Pure Bliss Silk, doubled, for the cast on and bind off.  Single silk was used to duplicate stitch the “Rebels” initials on the glovelets.  So, another small gift is complete.

PS — I enjoyed reading the comments on my previous post and got some great ideas.  Thanks!

November 24, 2008

From Susan — The Ripple Effect

Filed under: Completed Projects — lv2knit @ 8:25 pm

I guess you could say I like things that create waves!  Bad pun.  Here is my latest (and very small calibre) FO.  It is the “Ripple Me This” felted bag from Knitters Fall 2008.   There has not been much in Knitters lately (like the last 10 years 🙁 ) that has inspired me to pick up the needles, but I thought this bag was kind of cute.  I made this one for a class sample and used stash (aka leftover) yarn:


Nature Spun Worsted in Hurricane Seas and Limestone (2 skeins each)

The bag switches colors:


In the above picture, the two sides are shown sewn together before felting.  It is amazing how much knitting it takes to make even a small bag.  I’ve been working on it for the past week.

And during blocking:

It is a fun little project and it is a nice shape for a tote, so I would give it a thumbs up for stash busting and gifting.  I still need to actually sew the handles on so technically it isn’t quite done, but I will call it a [nearly] FO and close enough.

Are all of you ready for Thanksgiving?  I love Thanksgiving because all I do is drive one hour and fifteen minutes each way and then eat, eat, eat.   My beloved FIL still does the cooking even though he is 86 years old.  I love him dearly.  Wishing the best of holidays to you and yours!!

PS to Ellen, and others:  The cleaning is the worst!  However, it’s better than when my husband and I were “newly weds” (1st 5-6 years) when we would be running around so much at the last minute that 9 times out of ten he opened the door with a towel wrapped around his waist — I am not kidding!  And, we were often so late for weddings that half the time we walked in with the bride and her father, with people muttering, who the hell are those two? 

Ironically, I just received an issue of Knitters yesterday — I thought my subscription had lapsed, so when it arrived I was surprised, but I also felt a small pang of guilt since I have every single issue.  Maybe this was a sign.  So, I thought, I’ll give it one more chance.  If this issue has anything good, I’ll renew.                                       Sorry — no go 🙁 .

October 31, 2008

From Susan — Keeping My Promise

Filed under: Aran Wrap Cardigan — lv2knit @ 1:09 pm

In this time of campaign promises, here is one promise I promised myself I would keep.  I promised to post some pictures of me actually wearing my completed Aran Wrap.  I rarely pose for the blog in my FOs, but I made an exception in this case.  The Aran Wrap, with its unique construction, is one of those projects that could go either way: funky or weird, edgy or ridiculous, fashion forward or fashion faux pas.  I will let you be the judge, but I did feel that simply tossing the wrap onto Lettie would not tell the true story.

Here goes:

So don’t say I didn’t keep my campaign promises 🙂 — and we will soon be able to see who else keeps theirs.

P.S. from Sally:

My daughter and her boyfriend were into the Halloween spirit this year and carved these nice pumpkins.

And they put my poor little assistant into a costume.


So wrong, but so cute.

October 25, 2008

From Susan — The Wrap is a Wrap

Filed under: Aran Wrap Cardigan — lv2knit @ 1:41 pm

My Aran Wrap is finally done!  Woo Hoo!  It needs to finish drying, which will take several days: heavy yarn, very damp, multiple layers due to sleeves.  I promise that I will have someone take actual photos of me wearing the behemoth — without a bubble butt picture if I can help it 😉 .  When I have tried it on it fits like the pictures on Angela’s blog, though I am not 5′ tall and tres petite!

Here she is being blocked:

Yes, the Aran Wrap is a great big rectangle with sleeves, so why doesn’t it look like a great big rectangle with sleeves?  I’m not sure if my theory will work, but I was thinking that if I brought in the bottom edge, it might flair less over the derriere.   I wove a piece of waste yarn through the bottom edge to draw it in.

This was very difficult to block because it is such a strange garment and therefore does not follow standard sizing conventions.  I know how big I want normal sweaters to be, but this is different.   When wet, it was quite malleable — I could have made it much longer, much wider, whatever — but I really didn’t know what I wanted it to do!  I will have to wait and try it on and then decide if it needs adjustments.

Now, I have to check my queue for the next fun project.  I have an idea, but only time will tell!

PS in response to Alison’s question, “Now that you are finished, is there any other yarn you would have selected, I guess what I’m asking is the weight of the yarn. Do you feel like the heaviness of the sweater is needed to support the cables or would you have used a much lighter yarn.” 

The sweater is heavy, but not too heavy when it is on.  Like many coats/jackets, they do have some weight to them.  If you were to knit this in lighter yarn at the same gauge, it would be too loosely knit to hold the shape and provide ample stucture.  The yarn Sally and I chose actually had much more yardage per gm than the yarn used in Vogue, so we already substituted a lighter yarn — heaven knows how heavy the prototype is!

October 21, 2008

From Susan — A Teensy Post

Filed under: Presto Chango — lv2knit @ 7:32 pm

A couple of you asked me about the baby sweater I made.  It is called Presto Chango because you can button a new front on it at any time.  Very cute idea and the pattern is free!   I made some changes which are chronicled in our blog: primarily I thought there were too many bulky seams for a baby sweater.  The seams could easily be engineered out, so I did.

I am nearing the finish line on the Aran Wrap!  It is so heavy that it better be really, really, warm!  I am looking for some toggles to use as buttons.  I am going to use the natural holes created when making cables as the buttonholes.  I thought it would be nice to be able to hold the thing closed in a wind storm.

Speaking of storms, someone said something today that struck me as profound in this time of economic and social upheaval:

“Don’t wait for the storm to blow over — start dancing in the rain.” 

It sounds a little bit Pollyanna, but there is an element of truth to it.  Just don’t forget your umbrella…and pray there isn’t any lightning!

October 18, 2008

From Susan — Progress is Being Made!

Filed under: Aran Wrap Cardigan — lv2knit @ 10:46 am

To all of the naysayers (and you know who you are!), I am making some headway on the Aran Wrap.  It may be finished this week.  I don’t know what the deal was with those $##@@%^%^ sleeves, but it took 5 weeks for me to get them done 🙁 .  The peplum has 300 sts and seems like it is going faster:

I tried the lil sucker on and it seems to be working.  It fits just like the picture on Angela’s blog and should be a cute and warm fall/winter jacket.  I will probably need to do 3-3.5 repeats of the peplum instead of 2.5, in order to get to my derriere.  I picked up 16 fewer sts than called for so it would be symmetrical — the larger size has an exact number of repeats whereas the smaller size has an additional half repeat thrown in so the first cable is worked once more at the end of the row.  This creates the symmetry.  I maybe should have ADDED 16 sts, but too late now!  I am getting excited to get it done, which means it may actually happen!  Woo Hoo!

I know the Yarn Harlot does not need me linking to her to enlist readers ( 😉 ) but I am going to link to her post today called A Coffee Story.  I laughed out loud! 

The leaves are peaking right now so it is beautiful here.

PS to Alison: Here are some pictures from my morning walk with doggie to the river lot:


Our bench on the Mississippi

Views from the bench:

Walking home:

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