theraineysisters knitting and so much more

October 13, 2008

From Susan — A Brief Post and a Recipe for Nirvana

Filed under: Homage,Presto Chango — lv2knit @ 11:22 pm

Hi, remember me?  I’m Susan Rainey of The Rainey Sisters.  I share a blog with my sister, Sally.  We love to knit, talk about knitting, and share our passion for knitting with each other and our cyber-friends.  You would not know it from my recent lack of blogging, so I thought I would clue you in!

Fall is hitting us hard this evening — it may get down to 38 degrees tonight!  Fall means wearing sweaters so let’s get out there and crank out a few sweaters, peeps!

Do you recall this lovely vintage garment?  It was knit by my mom many years ago.  I am trying to re-create the pattern.  I started this little fantasy project last year, but the sucker was too big.  Off it went into the “some day” bin.  Well, I dragged it back out recently.  It is a great mindless project — at least the basic stockinette part.  Not so mindless when I have to figure out the shaping and raglans, but that is down the road a piece.

MomsMohair.jpg Mom\'s Dressy Mohair Sweater picture by lv2knit

I am using Rowan Kidsilk Aura (75% kid mohair, 25% silk; 82 yds/25 gms).  It is the chunky version of Kidsilk Haze and it is fabulous!  Tres cher, aussi.  The color here is not accurate — it has a creamy beige undertone — a pinkish warmth.  I love it, love it, love it.  it needs to be knit at a fairly loose gauge to take advantage of its loft.  When knit too firmly, this color (Ivory 750) looks dirty.

This is probably closer to the true color:

I also want to share a gift with you.  I called my folks the other day and Dad was making homemade onion rings — my gawd, that sounded fantastic!  He sent me the recipe, and I tried them out.  These onion rings are the best I have ever had in my entire life.  They are truly daydream worthy!  I do not do a lot of frying and they make a total mess of your kitchen, but every once in a while, don’t we deserve a sinfully decadent experience?  Dad says this batter works great on seafood, too.  M-m-m-m-m-m-m 😉 !

Sonny Bryan’s Onion Rings

October 9, 2008

From Sally — Just a Quick Note

Filed under: Updates — surly @ 12:51 pm

A few of you asked about the pattern for the red socks that I mentioned in my post yesterday:

That is the Lace Cuff Anklet pattern from Hand Jive Knits (maker of Nature’s Palette yarns). They do not sell their patterns directly, but if you google you can find it (and others) easily online.

For those of you who liked the buttons I’m using on Butterfly: They aren’t sewn on yet. I just pinned them in place to get an idea of how they’d look. They’re handmade glass buttons I purchased years ago.

October 8, 2008

From Sally — Seeing Red

Filed under: Butterfly — surly @ 1:58 pm

Red is my favorite color. I’m drawn to it always. A pair of shoes. A dress. A shock of hair.

Perhaps even a few skeins of yarn.

I love to knit red socks.

Red gloves:

I could knit with nothing but the red yarn in my stash and be busy for a very long time.

Right now I’m working on Hanne Falkenberg’s Butterfly. In red. You knit with three shades of reddish yarn to produce one deep color. I had started this sweater a long time ago, but had stopped because the yarns were not labeled as to color and I wasn’t sure I was using them in the right order. I decided it didn’t matter what the directions said, but it did matter what I liked. So I started it over about two weeks ago to see if I preferred a different way of using the yarn. These were my two “swatches”:

Although it’s a bit difficult to see in that photograph, one is brighter with a more poppy-like color dominating. The other is darker, and that is the one I decided to keep knitting.

I’ve now finished the back, one front, and part of the other front. Here it is in progress:

September 2, 2008

From Susan — FOs to Avoid FOs?

Filed under: Back Story,Current Projects,Presto Chango — lv2knit @ 4:17 pm

I am definitely exhibiting avoidance behavior!  I started two small projects in the past couple of days.  I’m not sure if I am avoiding the Aran Wrap Cardigan or the immediate comparison of my slow progress to Sally’s. 

I wanted to make a sweater for a co-worker who is expecting in November.  I was thinking of making the Baby Peapod from Interweave but I had it confused with “Presto Chango.”  I like the idea of this sweater because you can make the front panel however you want so it will work for either a boy or a girl.  We know my work peep is expecting a boy, but I made the standard lacey panel to be ready for Baby #2 if it’s a girl AND to gauge the panel’s size.  I’ll make a more boyish, cabled panel also.  But what was I thinking with white ??

I adapted this pattern to avoid seams.   I have nothing against seams per se, but they are bulky in worsted weight yarn on a baby’s small sweater. 


Presto Chango in Berroco Comfort (2 skeins), Size 7 needles

My adaptations:
Cast on the stitch count for the full back and both sleeves using a provisional cast on. Work to the neck opening and add a ball of yarn to work the top of both fronts at once. Once the sleeves are done, place sleeve sts on four separate lengths of waste yarn: right sleeve front, right sleeve back, left sleeve front, left sleeve back. Now join the fronts and the back: knit across left front, back, right front. Knit back and forth across these three sections until proper length; decrease per directions before switching to seed stitch at bottom border. Graft sleeves together or use a 3-needle bind off — I grafted mine.

One More State Fair Story
I got a phone call from a man stating he was a Minnesota state fair official.  He said he needed to verify that “Lyra” was crocheted.  I told him it was knitted, not crocheted.  He said my ribbons would be confiscated because it was not crocheting.  I told him that the lot specifically included knitting, tatting, and crocheting, to which he responded, “Oh, then that’s okay.  That means you will also win a bottle of wine!”  Huh??!!  WTF?  A bottle of wine??  Then he said, “You can pick it up at _______’s [my neighbor’s] house.”   Man, he got me on that one!  Whew!  Anyway, he delivered a lovely bottle of wine and homemade bread to my house — I think to make up for the heart attack he gave me!   So, I made the Winecozy from Knitty.com for my crazy neighbor!

I used some yarn I had on hand.  I think it looks better in the picture than it does in person!


Another excuse to use my pom pon maker!!!

I’ll make the cabled baby panel tonight and then I’ll work on the Aran Wrap in earnest — and, have a better excuse for being so far behind Surly ! 😉

August 8, 2008

From Sally — Premature Blocking

Filed under: Paisley Long Shawl — surly @ 9:01 am

I’ve been nervous about my Paisley Shawl. Despite reader assurances that it “blocks long,” I had a few doubts. For one thing, when I finished the first half of the shawl it was 27 inches wide and only 18 or 19 inches long. When finished, the shawl is supposed to be about 77 inches long and 29 inches wide. I’ve knit a lot of shawls and I know how much lace blocks, but the proportions seemed odd to me. So, I did a “partial block” or “block as you go.” I briefly soaked what I had knit and then did a quickie block. (As you may recall, this shawl is started in the middle on a provisional cast on; I bound off the finished half but left the provisional cast on in place when I did this block.)

INSERT SIGH OF RELIEF HERE.

It will work. Here is the partial shawl on Lucy (yes, I know — she needs some clothes. Susan keeps telling me that.)

When I finish knitting the entire thing, I’ll do a more exacting block of the entire piece. At least I now know that the knitting is not in vain.

I’ve already undone the provisional cast on and placed the shawl back on the needles so I can knit the other half:

It’s going to look very odd as I continue knitting. One half will be blocked and the other half will be a shriveled mess.

In the meantime, Susan and I are both getting very excited about our fall projects. More on that soon.

July 30, 2008

From Sally — Where in the World Have I Been?

Filed under: Paisley Long Shawl,Sally's Ode to Joy — surly @ 2:59 pm

Whew. I’m back and I finally have a computer. We went on a long drive cross-country to see my parents, my daughter (and my little assistant), and my husband’s family. Too much driving — once was definitely enough. We did have some fun along the way.

That wasn’t the most exciting part of our trip. That honor goes to suddenly coming across a tractor trailer wheel lying on its side in our lane on Interstate 80 with a huge truck in the lane next to us and a ditch on the other side. More thrills in those few seconds than in my entire paragliding. Fortunately, our car was drivable, just barely, and we made it home. Le sigh.

On the road, we saw some famous people:

More important, my hands are feeling much better and I’ve been able to do some knitting. While on the trip, I finished one of the sleeves to my Ode to Joy short cardigan (aka the Bolero).

I’m feeling a little bit unmotivated to pick up the stitches for the other sleeve. I added about two inches of length to the sleeve by doing additional rows of each color sequence starting about three inches from the top of the sleeve. (You pick up and knit from the top down.) The first one was a slo-o-o-o-w knit and I think I’m associating working on it with spending hours upon hours in the car. I need to get over it and just do it.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. It’s a lovely piece and a relatively easy knit even though the lace is worked on both right and wrong side rows. You start in the middle of the shawl using a provisional cast on and then work your way to each end. I’m on the large set of “Paisley” patterns (on my first half of the shawl).

I’m making my shawl out of Wagtail’s 4-ply Fine Kid Mohair in Midnight Red (100 grams equals 410 yards). It’s a beautiful yarn with a nice sheen, but now that I am working on it I’m a little concerned that the color is very close to the Zephyr I used for my Peacock Shawl.

I do wonder how my shawl, which looks even more shrunken and misshapen then most unblocked lace, will ever resemble the beautiful model. Let’s cross our fingers.

P.S.Tangled Yoke: Someone asked about the bobbles on The Tangled Yoke. I’m not sure I understood your question — there are only bobbles at each end of the design as you go around the yoke. There aren’t bobbles elsewhere in the cables.

May 11, 2008

From Susan — Knitting 101

Filed under: Back Story,Susan's Mitered Cardigan — lv2knit @ 11:43 am

Today we will have a knitting lesson for all of you new knitters just starting out: when the pattern instructs you to cast on “x” stitches, cast on that number of stitches.  Any more or any fewer will cause problems and issues later on.  The stitch count requires three things: 1) knowing how many to cast on, 2) casting on that exact number, and 3) being able to count.  All three must take place simultaneously for accurate stitch count to occur.

homer.jpg homer simpson image by allybarton
DOH!!

Okay — so I can’t count!  No wait, I think I did count correctly, but was aiming for the wrong number.  Oh, well.  Whatever the reason, I ended up with 72 sts across the top of my sleeve instead of 78. 

What a doh!  This is a bit of set back as I will need to rip out the entire mitered portion of the sleeve .  Bummer.  This is the kind of thing that often relegates WIPs to UFOs…

Response to Twinsetellen: Her suggestion: “If you are going to lengthen it anyway, could you just lengthen and keep widening to the right stitch count?”  This is a great idea, but I would still need to redo a sleeve — it would just be the first one I did instead of the second one.  Darn those pesky sleeves!  They kinda hafta match!

May 10, 2008

From Susan — Knitting is Still Part of my Daily Lifestyle

Filed under: Back Story,Susan's Mitered Cardigan — lv2knit @ 10:53 am

It may not appear to be — since our blog has been knitting free for a while now — but, knitting is still an important part of my “activities of daily living.”  ADLs , for the non-healthcare folks out there, means what people need to do each day to function in a normal capacity :). 

Before I get into a knitting update, let me just announce that I am a winner!!  I won Closeknitfriends’ bloggiversary contest!  Woo Hoo to me and nannie nannie boo-boo to you!   Here is what I won:

My Winnings

It’s a felt-a-something kit: with feltable yarn, fun fur and beads for accent, all in a cute knitting-related basket!  Very cute!  Thanks, and I am honored to win!

Now on to the knitting!  I have been working on a stealth knitting project that is nothing fancy and not my design, but is a gift of sorts to be revealed at a later date.  Because that has taken up a lot of my knitting time, I have not made much progress on my Mitered Cardigan.  I did finish one sleeve and discovered it was too short.  No problem — I anticipated that I may have to adjust the length:

Mitered Sleeve

The length for me needs to be 25″ from very top to very bottom.  I will finish off the cuff with applied i-cord.  The other sleeve is finished to the point of adding the sleeve cap.  I am thinking I should knit that cap next and then figure out the adjustments to the other.  It’s not a lot of knitting!  I could finish the sleeves easily this weekend, but then there is a lot of finishing left to do. 

I really wish I had had this jacket done when I was in New York with Surly.  It would go great with jeans and I would have been able to wear some knitting, plus it would have been perfect given the weather.  Sally wore her Mermaid while we did our knitting shop round-about and got so many compliments!  “Oh, did you knit that?” “Why, yes, I did.”  “It’s lovely!”   PS: I enjoyed reading all of your comments about our trip.

Shepherd’s Harvest Sheep and Wool Festival is being held this weekend.  Last year I worked the MKG booth for a couple of hours and wandered aimlessly for a couple of more.  It was really fun and a great way to connect with the creators of our favorite past-time — the sheep and alpaca who make our knitting possible!  I may go for a bit tomorrow morning.

April 27, 2008

From Susan — No Bites, Except Pie

Filed under: Susan's Mitered Cardigan — lv2knit @ 10:12 am

Well, I stood around hoping that something new would bite me in the a**, but nothing did!  So I am back to the old Mitered Cardigan. 

You may recall that I am changing this into a more traditional jacket style, with set in sleeves.  I had originally thought that I would simply shape the garter stitch sleeve from the pattern.  I kept thinking about it and decided to try to miter it somehow while still ending up with a fitted sleeve.

This picture shows the bottom portion of the sleeve:

I did a provisional cast on all the way around.  The top edge will be “unsprung” and the sleeve cap knitted up from there.  The two side edges (sleeve “seam”) will be joined using a 3-needle bind off.  To get the sleeve shaping (wider at underam — narrower at wrist) I used short row shaping.  To finish off the bottom edge, I will add an applied i-cord edge.

The short row shaping acted just like standard sleeve increases on a regular sleeve — though I was going upside down and backwards to get there!

The cap is knitted straight for 1-2 inches — allowing for length adjustment — and then the cap shaping starts.  I used Actual Size Graph paper to plot out the cap shaping.  I did knit the first sleeve cap and it was a disaster — my gauge paper was off.  I will re-measure my gauge, adjust the shaping, and reknit the very top of the cap.  It’s not a lot of knitting.  If the sleeve ends up too short, I can pick up from the bottom and add some garter stitch OR reknit the sleeve cap with more straight knitting before the shaping.  Either way, I have a fix for the sleeve length.  It’s all about gauge baby — that elusive little minx!

On a non-knitting note:

Yesterday a friend of mine took two of us on a surprise excursion.  She told us months ago to “save the day” as a play date — no other explanation given!  We met at 10 am and she drove us to Stillwater, Minnesota — a beautiful little river town that is CUTE, CUTE, CUTE!!  She had signed us up for a pie making class at The Chef’s Gallery Shop with the “pie guy” — John Michael Lerma.  He has won many pie baking contests and appears regularly on the cooking network. 

 

John Michael is absolutely delightful and does he know pies! 

There were 20 of us in the class.  We broke into groups and each made one of the following pies:

As the pies were either baking or chilling, he gave a pie crust clinic, and then we got to taste all six pies!  OMG!!  The Vidalia Onion Pie was the best and is his signature creation.  He will be on Martha Stewart in May to share it!  It was a fantastic day and something so fun and unexpected.

PS to Rudee: I would definitely serve this as a side dish or light brunch entree.  It would go great with a salad and crusty French baguette!

PS2 to Peggy: Uh, maybe ice sour cream (?). 

April 20, 2008

From Susan — Shaping Up

Filed under: Knitting Tips,Susan's Mitered Cardigan — lv2knit @ 12:05 pm

I thought I would share a knitting tip that some of you asked about in reference to the Mitered Cardigan I am currently working on — it is still progressing at a snail’s pace (if a small, slimey, armless snail could knit ;)). 

This information can be applied to any knitting project as long as you create graph paper in the appropriate gauge. I use the Actual Size Graph Paper generator.  I know there are others but this one is the best one I have found.  It will allow you to create graph paper of any ratio.

Basically, you draw out the shape you want on the graph paper and then fudge around with the knit shaping to create it.  By “fudging” I mean that the sequencing should make sense to you as a knitter.  For instance, instead of “bind off 5 sts, 3 sts, 4 sts” I would make it “bind off 5 sts, 4 sts, 3 sts” to create the shape, even though either might work with your diagram.

The illustration on the left shows the general sketch for the neck and armhole shaping I used for the Mitered Cardigan.  The red line shows the shaping I was going for and the blue line shows how to recreate the shaping with knitting.  The graph paper shown is not to scale, but gives you the idea.

The picture on the right shows how the final piece matches up with the drawing.  When you use this technique, the knitted piece should follow your outline exactly as long as you use the correct gauge on your graph paper.  It is really cool!

Shaping Diagram

In the case of the Mitered Cardigan, I needed to cast on additional sts to create the shaping, due to the direction of the knitting — shown with yellow arrows.  This is not typical.  Usually, you will be binding off/decreasing sts to create your shaping — the principle is still the same. 

How did I know what the shaping should be in the first place?  For the armhole, I knew the overall width of the body and the width I needed at the shoulders.  The difference between those two numbers had to go!  The neckline is a standard jewel neck: 3-3.5 inches lower than the back.  I made it the same width as the neck in the original pattern (8″ total — 4″ each side). 

If creating your own pattern from scratch, start with some basic knitting books or design books that show the standard dimensions of various necklines and sleeve applications.  Or use other patterns you have liked as a starting point.  That is what I plan to do for the sleeve cap on this sweater: I have a sleeve cap that fits really well so I am using it as the basis of the sleeve shaping. 

I am sure there are various software packages that do this for you, but I am cheap and have not felt the need to invest in it yet!  The “free” graph paper has served me very well over the years. 

I am working on the sleeve right now and will post a picture when it is done — it looks pretty crazy in its current state!

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