Completed Projects Archives - Page 3 of 35 - theraineysisters theraineysisters

December 1, 2010

From Sally — Needing Some Shelter

Filed under: Raglan Turtleneck — surly @ 1:48 pm

It’s December 1st and we were under a tornado warning earlier today. Say what? It’s been windy and rainy and the temperature has dropped twenty degrees since I woke up this morning. In other words, a perfect day to stay home and knit. I’ve gone back to my husband’s Shelter sweater because Christmas is fast approaching and — please sit down before continuing — my 19-year-old son just asked me to knit him a sweater for Christmas. And he spontaneously told me that all his friends “love” the gloves I made him two years ago.

The slightest suggestion that someone actually wants any of my knitting sends me straight to a yarn store, so as soon as I finish my husband’s turtleneck, I’ll try to start and finish my son’s before the holidays.

In the meantime, back to doing raglan shaping. Why — even after having gotten rid of 90+ stitches — do the rows still go so slowly? Here are some progress shots.

Comments (15)

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.

Comments (5)

October 20, 2010

From Sally — Gimme Shelter

Filed under: Raglan Turtleneck — surly @ 2:22 pm

My poor sister has been bearing the blogging burden while I’ve been traveling. Sadly, I haven’t done much knitting but I do have a new project in the works, which I’ll share today.

I am still working on Eala Bhan, but I wanted something that was a faster knit and required a bit less concentration. Enter my husband. Despite having received a lovely sweater last Christmas, he began dropping hints about wanting a blue turtleneck. It was sad. He even hounded my sister to knit one for him. Then, in a great coming together of needs and wants, Jared Flood’s new line of yarn, Shelter, hit the stores. I could buy new yarn with no guilt whatsoever. So I did.

Brooklyn Tweed’s Shelter is a lovely new yarn. It’s worsted weight and the wool comes from sheep raised in Wyoming. The yarn itself is spun in the historic mill town of Harrisville, New Hampshire. At first glance, this is a very traditional looking yarn, but the depth of color and softness are wonderful surprises. There were two blues to choose from: Faded Quilt or Almanac. My husband chose Almanac.

I played around and swatched a bit before deciding on a traditional raglan (worked completely in the round) with vertical lines of garter to add texture. I’ve barely started, but even so I can see this grow as I knit with it, unlike Eala Bhan.

Note: A reader asked: “I have been swatching with Shelter too. It says it works for size 7,8, or 9 needles. Which one did you end up using? My gauge is right with the 8 but it feels rather loose for worsted weight. My button jar color is great.” I tend to go down a needle size on most yarns. I swatched on both a 6 and a 7. I thought the 7 felt a little loose, but that’s the gauge my husband liked better and so that’s the needle I used. I wet blocked the swatches, and there was a nice “bloom” to the yarn that made it feel tighter. I liked the swatch done on the 7 much better after I blocked it. So, if you haven’t soaked your swatch, you might do that to see which you prefer.

PS from Susan: “He even hounded my sister to knit one for him.” It’s true. Every time I spoke to him on the phone, he asked how I was doing on his blue turtleneck. No way, Mattie! I don’t feel like knitting for my own husband, why would I knit for someone else’s!!!

Comments (11)

September 10, 2010

From Susan — $225 … $170 … $5 … -$22!!

Filed under: Leyfi,Updates — lv2knit @ 3:42 pm

I’m a mathematical genius! How do you make a sweater with yarn that costs $225 and end up making money?? Here’s Susan’s creative math:

Tahki Tinka (100% merino): $9/skein x 14 = $125, plus
Filatura di Crosa Superior (70% cashmere,30% silk): $25/skein x 4 = $100
Total = $225

$225 minus Webs regular discount = $170
$170 minus generous Webs Gift Card = $70
$70 minus $65 unexpected monetary windfall = $5
$5 PLUS 3 unused skins of Tinka ($9 x 3 = $27-5 = $22) = I made $22!!!!!!! Yay!!

At least, that’s how I see it 😉 .

The sweater that gave me such a fabulous return on investment is Leyfi by Romi Hill featured in the Fall 2010 Interweave Knits. This sweater grabbed me right away and looked like it would be a- fun to knit and b- easy to wear. Both statements proved to be TRUE.

Leyfi by Romi Hill in Tahki Tinka and Filatura di Crosa Superior

The design is truly ingenious. As you work the sweater from the top down you are amazed at how Romi put it together, enlarging the leaves to widen the yoke. I used the same yarn as Romi: it is luxurious, butter soft, heavenly…which makes me worry about pilling. Time will tell.

MODS:
I did make a couple of changes to the sleeves: Romi’s design does not include any sleeve shaping — they stay the same width to the wrist and have a bell shape. I did decrease 20 sts along the length of the sleeve.

Also, I did not finish off the leaf patten as described. I did not do Chart D at the end of the sleeves. Instead I finished Chart C after Round 6 and then started 6 rnds of stockinette (it would also work to knit to Round 8 and then do the stockinette). I increased at the center point on Rounds 1 and 3 of the st st (knit to center st, YO, k1, YO and then twisted the YOs on the following rnd). On rnd 5 and the bind off round I did a central dbl dec. I got a very nice point to the sleeve.

At the bottom hem, I bound off using MY stretchy bind off (not Jeny’s!): k1, (k1, YO holding yarn across needle to back, pass two sts over YO) repeat within ( ) to end of row. Otherwise, it did not have any “give” and just seemed too restrictive.

Grade:
Pattern: A
Yarns: A
Fit: A

I do think many of the new, bulky yarns would work very well and cost less…though, could they cost less than a minus $22??!!?

Comments (10)

September 4, 2010

From Susan — Sparkles [The Clown] Likes it Big Time

Filed under: Updates,Zephyr Sequined Shawlette — lv2knit @ 9:02 am

I love Sally’s Luiza Shawl and hope to make one as well. Hmmm. Let’s see. How many shawls/shawlettes are in my queue…? Let’s not dwell on THAT.

Especially since I just finished one of them: the Zephyr Shawl by Lauren Scarpo! This is the shawlette that I wrote about earlier that came in a kit, purchased at The Yarn Garage. This was a quick and somewhat annoying little knit. Only annoying until I got used to the yarn and switched to bamboo needles (to go with the bamboo and silk yarn).

I was able to add 9 of the 10 rows of an additional 6th repeat — this was great because it made the shawl larger and I did not end up wasting this treasure of a yarn! I did not have enough sequined yarn for the fancy bind off in the pattern, but I wanted the bound off edge to have some heft, so I used Jeny’s Incredibly Stretchy Bind Off. It did work very well for my purposes, creating a full bodied, stretchy edge for the shawl.

Zephyr Shawl, Great Adirondack Yarns

It goes really well with a couple of outfits I own and will make them seem a little bit newer — a definite plus since my wardrobe is “old and shabby” at best and “rag bag” at worst. It also is hard to capture the color of the shawl and the sparkle of the sequins, but I hope you get the idea.

Was it worth the $89?? No, but I am! 😉

Have a wonderful last blast of “summer” before we embark on the new school year.

Comments (9)

August 30, 2010

From Sally — Letting Go

Filed under: Back Story,Luiza — surly @ 3:24 pm

As Susan mentioned the other day, I just took my baby to college. (Fortunately, he doesn’t read our blog so I can call him my baby without his knowing.) We are now officially a bi-coastal family: Sterling is ensconced at Reed College in Portland, Oregon and we, of course, are in Washington, DC. It was much harder to leave him than I had expected. I know that we’ll adjust and if he is happy, we will be, too. Perhaps what is hard is the feeling that there may never be a coming home to DC to stay. Nora loves Colorado and I suspect that Sterling will feel very much at home on the west coast. We’ll see.

Here are a couple of pictures of his first encounter with the Pacific (at Cannon Beach).

Finally, a last shot just before I left town (then back to knitting, I swear):

Le sigh.

I’m also “letting go” of my most recent knitting project, which is a shawl I knit specifically for charity. The charity is The National Inclusion Project. The shawl is Luiza, designed by Jane Araujo. Mine will be auctioned in October as part of the Project’s Champions Gala.

I had trouble getting good photographs of this shawl — not just the color but the beauty of the lace work. But here are a few. (The last shot is probably the most true to color.)

Pre-blocking:

After blocking:

I knit this shawl using Merino Silk Lace fromSweet Georgia Yarns in the Blackberry colorway. I loved the yarn and I loved knitting this shawl. Once I figured out the method to the charts and translated a few idiosyncratic uses of terminology, it was a simple and quick knit. The pattern, including the border, was easy to memorize and just flowed very naturally. I plan to knit another for myself.

It’s a somewhat smaller shawl than I usually knit (the finished dimensions of mine are 30″ deep and 60″ across). It’s easy to enlarge, but alas I had only one skein of yarn. The original was designed for fingering weight; I used lace weight. I added additional pattern repeats (16 flowers total on each side), but would have added more if I’d had a second skein.

I hope Luiza finds a good home, and I hope that Sterling will be happy in his new one.

Comments (21)

August 23, 2010

From Susan — Love Among the Runes

Filed under: Brage (aka Dragon Sweater),Updates — lv2knit @ 7:38 pm

No, it’s not a spello! The word I wanted is ‘runes,’ as in the ancient Viking written characters.

Last spring I was working on a stealth project — stealth just because I wanted to keep it close to the vest. This sweater was a labor of love and an homage to a very talented designer: Elsebeth Lavold.

Elsebeth Lavold created a special design for her travelling exhibit “Knitting Along the Viking Trail.” The exhibit made its way to the Vesterheim Museum in Decorah, Iowa last fall and I was thrilled to travel there with good friend Kathy to see it (I posted about it here). The REAL reason I wanted to go was to see the Holy Grail of Lavold knitting in person: Brage (aka, The Dragon Sweater). I even called the Vesterheim ahead of time to make sure the “dragon sweater” was indeed part of the exhibit! I wanted to see it because I wanted to knit it.

There is no specific pattern for Brage. Part of the quest is making the pattern your own. When there, I was able to photograph it in some detail and get really up close and personal.

alt text

Dragon Back by you.

Several Ravelers have finished their own versions of Brage, one of whom is Dicksie. Her sweater was very inspiring and her notes extremely helpful.

The next step of the quest? Finding the right yarn. The original Brage was knit in a fairly large gauge (4.5 sts/inch) with very “wooly” yarn. I also think it had probably stretched out somewhat in its travels. I wanted to use something in a finer gauge. Because it was knit in a golden color, I kept seeing in that way in my mind’s eye, but decided to go a different direction. I finally chose Shepherd’s Wool by Stonehedge in color Berries. It is gorgeous 100% wool and butter soft. I used it for Alexandria, as well. I knit it using US 5’s for the ribbing and US 6’s for the body. I wanted it to be firmly knit to make the cables pop.

Many of the components for the design can be found in Lavold’s book, Viking Patterns for Knitting. The main cable, runes, and the head of the dragon are found there. There is a cool website that translates words into rune characters, which I used to create the name I placed on the front of my sweater: “lv2knit” — my knitting moniker! Lavold’s version says Brage.

The next step was putting the pieces together into a pattern that would fit moi. The actual knitting went smoothly. The last piece was the dragon itself, which is appliqued onto the front. No pattern for the dragon, but the photos and Dicksie’s notes served as a guide.

Here are all the pieces of the Brage puzzle put together:

Brage by Elsebeth Lavold; Rendered by Susan Rainey, Shepherd’s Wool in Berries

I grafted both shoulders (which I never do except in fair isle because sweaters need structure), so I added a strip of bias tape along the “seamline” on the inside for stability.

I used French knots to create the spine and added a bead the same color as the sweater to create the eye. I really had to putter with the sewing to get it the way I wanted!

This motif reminds me of a tattoo because of where it is placed on the shoulder! This was not in the Vikings Book, but a Raveler charted it (some corrections were necessary, so I recharted it). I placed my motif closer to the wrist because I did not want it in the crook of my elbow.

And here is a close up of my name. I did not use “Susan” because it looked too much like the English word, and I wanted it to be a bit more cryptic. I added two French knots for the “two” because there wasn’t a character for the number. Yes, I know the two dots are not in the correct place!

Besides the dragon, the fussiest part was getting the ribbing to work. I wanted it NOT to cinch in a lot, so I used a k2, p2 rib and decreased the 2 purls down to one on the last rib row (except at the main cable). The ribbing also had to line up with the main cable, which took some figuring.

So there it is. The quest is complete. And worth every minute of knitting, worth every mile of driving. I love this sweater. I really love this sweater! It fits like a dream. It’s soft and yet feels like “real wool” (which it is!).

Grade
Pattern: A+
Fit: A+
Yarn: A+

So my dragon tale comes to an end! I entered it in this year’s Minnesota State Fair and will see how it did in a couple of days. But no matter how it fares, I am truly happy with this project.

PS — Tiger is available if anyone is interested! 😉

Comments (63)

August 6, 2010

From Sally — Sweet Dreams

Filed under: Sleeping Baby's Castle Blanket,Updates — surly @ 11:08 am

Earlier this summer, I mentioned I was doing some stealth knitting. As I said in May, Danielle at Fibre Space in Alexandria, Virginia asked me to design a baby blanket for her Bundles of Joy Club. Club members have received their kits so I can now reveal my Sleeping Baby’s Castle Blanket.

Here is a close up of the central castle panel:

The yarn used is Lorna’s Laces Shepherd’s Worsted in a color that was custom dyed in limited quantities for this project. It’s lovely yarn to work with and it’s machine washable. I really liked the color. (The first photo of the entire blanket is truest to the actual color of the yarn used.)

This design is exclusive to Fibre Space until early next year. There are a limited number of kits for the project — in this one of a kind color called “Astro Baby” — which you can purchase here.

From Susan — I can attest to the fact that this is a beautiful blanket and a very well-written pattern…I test knit it for Surly! So, I have my very own that will be revealed when Sally is able to sell the pattern independently. It is called a baby blanket, but actually fits into the “home decor” category. I don’t have a baby in the house and I love the blanket as a throw. Mine knit up very quickly (one week) but I do not recommend doing this — I kind of blew out my arms knitting it so fast! But it could be done reasonably in 3-4 weeks. My knitting peeps love the design and cannot wait until the pattern is available — but why wait? If you love it, buy the kit now from Fibre Space and have it ready for Christmas!

Comments (23)

July 3, 2010

From Sally — String Theory

Filed under: Counterpane Blouse — surly @ 6:22 pm

Hello. Remember me? The other Rainey Sister? I haven’t posted much lately, for which I apologize. I haven’t been doing all that much knitting, and the major piece of knitting I was doing can’t be shared yet. But I do have a finished object to share: my Counterpane Blouse.

As you may remember, I was knitting it out of the specified yarn, Louet’s Euroflax Sport (100% linen). I was even knitting it in the Crabapple color way, just as it was shown in Interweave. (Hey, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?) Well, I will say again that I didn’t enjoy knitting with this yarn. I likened it to unwaxed dental floss. Twine or string if I was being kind. I’m used to my knitting looking fairly decent as I work on it, and I was dismayed at how horrible this looked while being knit. Many of you assured me, however, that it would soften and improve with washing and blocking and as usual you were right. The difference in drape and feel is pretty astonishing. So, I am much happier with this project than I was in the middle of it. I think it will be cute over jeans or cropped linen pants. (Lucy, as usual, eschews the pants.)

What else have I been doing today? Baking Monkey Bread for my son. I make a rich butter dough in my bread machine. After the first rising, I cut the dough into chunks, coat them in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, and toss them into my Monkey Bread mold to rise again. Then, just before baking, I pour a mixture of melted butter and brown sugar over the dough.

It’s a very low calorie food — for me — since he’s already eaten most of it. Ah, to have the metabolism of an 18-year-old boy.

Comments (12)

June 15, 2010

From Sally — Wishing My Sister a Happy Birthday!

Filed under: Back Story,Counterpane Blouse — surly @ 9:24 am

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUSAN!!!

Yes, my big sister celebrates her birthday today! Susan has always been my guardian angel and protector, my confidante, my best friend, and my favorite knitter.

Please join me in wishing her the happiest of birthdays. I wish we were off on some fabulous knitting jaunt together today, but we aren’t, Blanche.

As for knitting, I have had very little time to knit lately, and the time I have had has been devoted to my stealth knitting. I have managed to pick up my Counterpane Blouse here and there. This is a simple, quick knit. I should have finished it by now, but I haven’t. I like what I’ve got so far, and once it’s washed and blocked so that the yarn softens and the stitches even out, I think I’ll be happy with it. Here are some not-so-great progress shots.