theraineysisters knitting and so much more

August 25, 2007

From Susan — Happy Birthday to You….

Filed under: Back Story,Updates — lv2knit @ 5:18 pm

This weekend marks the 35th birthday of The Yarnery!  Woo Hoo!

Yarnery.jpg picture by lv2knit

They celebrated with a bit of fanfare.  Kim and I heard the word “freebie” and dashed right over!  I did take part in a small amount of stash enhancement.  I am not one to buy for the sake of buying; I do have specific projects in mind.

Purchases.jpg picture by lv2knit

The red is Cascade 220 in Ruby (color #9404) for the Chinese Lace Pullover.  As I said before, I see it in Chinese lacquer red and this is it.  This yarn is heavier than what is called for, which I will take advantage of by knitting a slightly smaller size (?).  We’ll see once the swatching begins*.  (The book I purchased just to have).

That darned Brooklyn Tweed dude sucked me into this! 

Hemlock.jpg picture by lv2knit

It’s a huge doily, turned into a feather and fan throw.  I could not help myself!  It is made using the very heavy weight Cascade Eco Wool and size 10-1/2 needles.  BT’s color is taupier than mine, which is more of an oatmeal shade (color#8016).  There were several colors that I liked so it was hard to choose.

We also received a free gift with purchase :):

FreeGift.jpg picture by lv2knit

Very cute thrummed mittens.  These should be fun to knit once winter draws nigh. 

So now the guilts are starting to set in.  It is very tempting to start one of these new projects.  I do have two whips in process, so I really should work on those… 😉

I still have 0% voice.  It was so funny on Thursday at Panera’s.  I went up to the counter to order.  My knitting peep, Linda, was at the counter already and spoke up for me, “She can’t talk.”  The guy says, “Oh, that’s no problem.  I know sign,” and starts doing sign language!  Linda and I just stared at the dude.  “She can’t TALK — but she CAN hear!!”  Jeez, we laughed!

And that brings me full circle to last Thursday’s post.  I really appreciate all of your kind words and encouragement.  Sharing this blog with Sally has helped me strive with my knitting and has exposed me to too many new projects, many great ideas and wonderful uber-cyber-friends.    

* I started swatching 🙁 — I’m so naughty!

August 23, 2007

From Susan — The Minnesota State Fair is HERE

Filed under: Back Story,Lace Tam and Scarf,Oregon Cardigan,Peacock Shawl -- Susan's,Updates — lv2knit @ 11:11 pm

OMG — check out this Big Guy from the Minnesota State Fair:

WhattaBoar.jpg picture by lv2knit

I’ll try not to boar you any longer!  I just had to go to the Fair today, come rain or shine (it was VERY rainy 🙁 ) and despite the fact that I was sick.  I had entered multiple knitted items in the fair and needed wanted to know how they did.  Attending on the first day is a ritual for me.

Okay.  I am just going to spill it, and you can decide for yourself if I am as big a pig as my friend here, but I entered ten things in the fair. They all received ribbons: 6 first place, 3 second place and 1 third. I also won the Sweepstakes. 

So, what did I enter?  Here are two items: My silk Diamond Fantasy Shawl and Camilla Gloves:

DFSandGloves.jpg picture by lv2knit
I entered the gloves last year and got 2nd place.  If you do not get a blue ribbon, you can re-enter the item. I should have quit while I was ahead ;).  I was extremely pleased that the shawl won something because I did not expect it at all.

I also put in the little lace top from Vogue Knitting that I made for my youngest daughter:

VogueLaceTop.jpg picture by lv2knit
She won’t even wear it, but at least it got a ribbon!

Next are a pair of socks I made right before the fair.  I wasn’t sure that they would win anything because so many very talented people knit socks…lots and lots of socks — they did get second place even though you can’t see the ribbon:

Socks.jpg picture by lv2knit
The pattern is from “More Sensational Socks” and they are knitted with Fortissima Socka Bamboo in Color 07 Ocean.

I also threw in one of my Lace Tams for the heck of it and was stunned it got a BLUE ribbon:

LaceTam.jpg picture by lv2knit
It is knit in Rowan Silk Wool DK.

I finally got the zipper sewn into Eris and it received a blue ribbon:

EriswithRibbon.jpg picture by lv2knitEris.jpg picture by lv2knit
I struggled mightily with the zipper pulls.  I cut off the ones that came with the zipper — perhaps an OOPS! — and then made 457 attempts at “pretty” zipper pulls.  It was crazy. I finally ended up using some beads I already had and attached them with wire wrapping.

My Peacock Shawl did very well and I was surprised and very pleased about that.  I know a lot of people knit fabulous shawls so I knew the competition would be tough:

PeacockShawl.jpg picture by lv2knit

The Modular Tote also did well:

ModularTote.jpg picture by lv2knit

Another total surprise was Ballerina.  I finished Ballerina last year but did not have a category to put it into, so I entered it this year in the plain knitting cardigan category.

Ballerina.jpg picture by lv2knit
You can see it also won the knitter’s Guild Award, but I have no idea how that is determined.  And I’m not sure what it means either! 

When I got into the building I started looking for my things and could not find Oregon anywhere.  It was not in any of the main knitting cases.  Sometimes they place knitting in odd places as part of a theme (i.e., Norwegian Sweaters with rosemaling, etc.), so I started searching high and low. I found Oregon between two gorgeous quilts:

OregonSweepstakes.jpg picture by lv2knit
Oregon surpassed all my expectations.  I was hoping it would do well because it was such a thorn in my side for so long and was so darned much work!!  I was beside myself!  It was thrilling to see those ribbons, I must admit.

I was equally thrilled to see that my dear friend, Kim, won a blue ribbon for her gorgeous Cats and Mice mini-afghan:

KimsBlankie.jpg picture by lv2knit
When I got there, the little cats were standing on their heads, so I asked them to flip it around — and they did!  I knew this darling blankie would do well.  I’m so proud of Kim.  It is an Alice or Jade (?) Starmore design.

I’m also VERY proud of my friend Linda who won second place for her cookies. 

LGsCookies.jpg picture by lv2knit 
She is a great cook and very deserving!  The only bummer was that my other friend did not get a ribbon for her ethnic bread, but she will try again next year.

Now, could I do a state fair post and leave out the infamous Sock Monkeys — au contraire, mes amies!  Our lil sock monkey fiend friend has been hard at work all year exploiting perfecting the sock monkey concept:

SockMonkeyChair.jpg picture by lv2knit
And perhaps more practical for you:

SockMonkeyHat.jpg picture by lv2knit

All in all a great time — until I got laryngitis.  I mentioned that I was sick and it did go into my chest/throat.  I hope this bout is shorter than last time (a full week!). 

I’m sure by now you are thoroughly bored, but are you as boared as this 1200 pounder?

Boar.jpg picture by lv2knit

And I know what you are thinking — yes, they are HUGE!!

August 22, 2007

From Sally — No Longer Just a Sleeve and That’s No Yoke

Filed under: Knitting Tips,Silver Belle — surly @ 1:26 pm

Does the fact that I am now shunning myself help? I thought not.

I finished the sleeve on my Silver Belle and have just started the yoke. The pattern tells you to cast on stitches for the front at the beginning of one row, work across, and then cast on the stitches for the back of the yoke at the beginning of the next row. Instead, I did a provisional cast on of the front stitches, worked across the sleeve, and then did a provisional cast on for the back at the end of the same row. (I also made sure that I started the yoke in sync with the cables on the sleeve; I wanted to make sure I was crossing all of the four-stitch cables on the same row.)

I did that because I wanted both the front and the back yoke to start on the same row. I also wanted to be able to do a three-needle bind off for the side seam there (using the live stitches after getting rid of the provisional cast on once I’m all finished with the knitting). It makes a cleaner, less bulky seam which I thought would be useful because this is relatively heavy yarn. (I’m using, in answer to some questions asked earlier, Debbie Bliss’s Cashmerino Aran to knit this. It was the yarn called for by the pattern and I even had it in my stash.)

I use a crocheted provisional cast on in which you crochet the stitches directly onto your needle with waste yarn. Here’s a poor photograph — it’s hard to take a picture with one hand while doing something.

Eunny Jang has some good directions for how to do it here; she even has photographs that are in focus. Imagine that! Scroll down to Invisible Crochet Cast On I. When using this technique for a provisional cast on, you use a nice smooth waste yarn and then start knitting with the project yarn.

Here is the sleeve with the crocheted provisional cast on stitches waiting to be knit. (In order to use the provisional cast on here, I have to break the yarn and start with new yarn at the beginning of the yoke.)

Here is the sleeve with the beginning of the yoke. Not much to see yet.

Finally, a close up of the front stitches and the provisional cast on.

August 17, 2007

From Sally — Do Not Ask for Whom the Belle Tolls . . .

Filed under: Silver Belle — surly @ 1:58 pm

Having finished one sleeve of Mermaid, I’ve now gone back to the Silver Belle cardigan designed by Debbie Bliss. I finished the peplum yesterday. I am making a size Medium, which is supposed to be 36″ around when buttoned. I was tempted by the Small, but at 32″ buttoned I decided I just couldn’t. Well, even though the top of my peplum measures the same as the schematic, it seems huge when I put it on. I suspect I could have knit the size Small and had it fit, even though I have a 34″ bust. Oh, well.

Here it is. Doesn’t it look huge?

I’ve also started on the first sleeve/yoke. It also seems “big.” Part of that is because I have very small wrists. This sleeve starts out fairly wide in order to accommodate the two drunken cables. I started the sleeve with the number of stitches for the Small, but that only reduces the circumference by about half an inch or so. At 11″ around, it’s big. It occurred to me later that I could have reduced the number of stitches in the center Trinity portion and then tried to adjust for that at the top of the sleeve, but it’s not worth it to go back.

One change I did make was to start the second cable on row ten of the chart, so that the cables mirror each other. She didn’t write the pattern that way, but I didn’t want the cables to be moving in unison. I think it looks better if they “reflect” each other.

August 9, 2007

From Sally — Silver Belle, Silver Belle

Filed under: Silver Belle — surly @ 4:20 pm

This is a quickie post from the airport in Charlotte, NC before I step out into the lovely 100+ degree weather.

I am almost finished with the peplum on my Debbie Bliss Silver Belle from the new Vogue. (Mine, of course, is pink not silver.) Here’s a quick photo from this morning:

Here is another shot. On the peplum, you can see the two lovely shawl pins from Romi. Aren’t they gorgeous? I can’t wait to use them.

From Susan: The pins are gorgeous, and I’m quite envious!  I really love the pink peplum.  I was hoping I wouldn’t because my knitting queue is so l-l-l-o-o-o-n-n-n-g-g-g!! 🙂

August 4, 2007

From Sally — In the Pink

Filed under: Silver Belle — surly @ 4:36 pm

I like pink yarn and I cannot lie
You other knitters can’t deny

(Sorry. I’ve been watching too many concert videos.)

But it’s true. I love pink yarn and I buy a lot of it. I pulled together some of the pinks from my stash just to show you.

Sadly, that is not all of the pink yarn in my stash; it’s just what was most easily accessible. Although I included in that photograph my Cap Shawl and my “pink pouf,” the truth is that I tend to mostly collect pink yarn but I hardly ever knit it. For some reason I get very particular about patterns for pink yarn. I have no idea why.

Anyway, I received my 25th Anniversary Vogue in the mail the other day and found the perfect pattern to use up my 18 skeins of pale pink Cashmerino Aran. (Quick aside: my mailed copy of the magazine was defective. Halfway through, the ink started to fade away. At first I thought it was purposeful: the issue did have a silver/gray them. When the ink completely disappeared, I realized I had a problem. It’s a great issue, though, so I went out and bought a second one.)

I am knitting Silver Belle designed by Debbie Bliss, one of the “cover” sweaters whose pattern is downloadable as a PDF. Here’s what it looks like:

It’s a bit of slow go at the beginning. The size medium, which I’m knitting, starts out with over 400 stitches in the peplum. There are a few especially slow rows, where I have 40+ cables to cross. At my sister’s suggestion, I am cabling without a cable needle, which does speed things up. (For a great explanation of how to do that, including helpful photographs, visit Wendy Knits. I could explain it in my own words, but why bother when someone else has already done such a great job?)

Here’s where I am on my Silver Belle:

In one of those rare stash miracles, I even have the perfect buttons for it (there is a perfect pink color match in real life in the mother of pearl that isn’t quite captured by the camera):

July 5, 2007

From Susan — Final Fantasy

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 9:51 pm

Before I launch into my latest FO, I’d like to ask this question: “What do you all know that I don’t?”  I mean, do I have two months to live and no one bothered to tell me?  I am trying to figure out why everyone is being so darn NICE to me!!  First, Romi sends me a beautiful pin and then a lovely package arrives in the mail.  Michelle sent me this array of “knitting nirvana” to thank me for a very small favor (and I do mean miniscule!!):

DFS020.jpg

The yarn is soft and luscious just like vanilla ice cream and the other items are absolute great FUN!!  Thank you, Michelle — you are knit-tastic!  Wow 😉 😉 😉

On to the knitting portion of this blog… 

The Diamond Fantasy Shawl is a fait accomplis.  I finished it Monday, but needed to block and photograph it, which adds time to the blogging process!

Here it is in its unblocked, crinkly, ugly duckling stage:

DFS009.jpg

Being blocked:

DFS013.jpg

Don’t you just love the built-in edging?  That’s why I like this pattern.  And now she’s back on Lettie for the final viewing:

DFS014.jpg

The finished shawl ended up being 68″ by 34″ which isn’t too bad.  I started with ~450 yards of worsted weight silk of unknown origin and now have something to show for it.  I feel pretty good about that.

Front view:

DFS015.jpg

And, with the gorgeous shawl pin!

DFS017.jpg

I think it’s wonderful!  I wish the camera captured the sheen of the silk yarn.  I am really glad I read blogs because that’s how I got hooked up with this pattern.  Bloggers rock 😉 !!

PS – Cindy mentioned the lovely photograph of the fireworks — my daughter took that picture.  I thought it looked very professional!

PPS — Sally, please come back!  I need my blogging partner!  I know everyone is tired of reading a single sister — it isn’t called The Rainey Sisters for nuthin’.

 

June 28, 2007

From Susan — On Mermaid and DFS

Filed under: Sally's Mermaid,Updates — lv2knit @ 10:58 pm

I’ve been trying to get this done quickly — it’s a smaller project that I will wear often, so I’m trying to stay focused all the way to the finish line.

DFS6-28-07006.jpg

I also want to weigh in on the Mermaid/soft yarn discussion.  I found that my Mermaid softened up a bit when wet blocked, but I agree with Barb Outside Boston: garments can be TOO soft.  I have used some great, soft yarns, but they don’t hold their shape and sometimes pill.  That’s what I like about real shetland wool.  It keeps its shape and wears like iron.  I always wear something underneath so what difference does it make?  I love the feel of real wool.  Now that’s not to say that I don’t like merino or Cascade 220.  They are real wool and soft, so they are great to work with and wear.  But I still love that shetland wool, my friends!!

June 25, 2007

From Susan — Sorry to Step!!

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 11:58 pm

Sorry to step on your post, Surly, but I have a new project to introduce and a great pattern. I can’t wait to see the picture of your Mermaid tomorrow!

First, though, I want to thank all of you for your wonderful comments about the Peacock Shawl. I felt very warmed by your generous and thoughtful praise.

Back to the present!! My next small project is the Diamond Fantasy Shawl/Scarf by Sivia Harding. Many of you are familiar with this pattern, but it is fairly new to me. I was looking for something for some handpainted silk that Sally generously willed to me from her stash (and I did offer it back to her when she was here — honest!!).

Diamondfantasy.jpg

The yarn is 100% handpainted silk in teal and lavendar/purple; approx. yardage is 450 yds.; worsted to heavy DK in weight. I am using a US 10 needle. The pattern calls for fingering weight yarn, but says sport will also work. Sivia thought the heavier silk would work fine — perhaps yielding a medium sized shawl. I love the yarn and the pattern. I like the fact that the edging is built in as you go. This pattern reminds me of the Hemp for Knitting Ponchette I made last year, but a little dressier.

Sivia does not follow pattern writing convention completely — i.e, her charts are kind of different, but you can certainly figure it out. She includes written and charted versions.

I was supposed to be working on Kauni, but knitting is my hobby and I do it for fun — and this seemed more fun at the moment!

June 19, 2007

From Susan — Lace Style

Filed under: Lace Style Cardigan — lv2knit @ 5:30 pm

I have been out of touch with the world the last few days!  Between soccer, work, and life in general I just have not had the time to write — or anything of interest to write about!

I have also been a bit neglectful of some of my knitting projects of late.  This was brought to my attention by Astrid who commented a couple of days ago about the Lace Style Cardigan.  She had to make a few corrections/changes to the pattern and was thoughtful enough to share them with me.  She did not want me to struggle as she had when and if I got back to this project.  Here are her comments:

A belated Happy Birthday, Susan. What a great present [Plisse]. With that and the Kauni, I don’t blame you for being distracted. When (if?) you do get back to the Lace Style cardigan, I have some comments. (Mine is currently being blocked and awaiting final assembly.) First, there is a mistake in the pattern. Also, the collar could use some revising. The mistake is on the armhole shaping for the left and right fronts. Actually, I spent some time figuring out the pattern repeats so that I could work the fronts and back as one piece up to the armholes because I hate seaming. But that is irrelevant. When you get to the armhole shaping for the fronts, after the initial bindoff, the pattern says to decrease 1 st at each end of row 3 times. It should really be decrease 1 st at armhole side 3 times, as is obvious from the resulting stitch count. I was also not pleased with the way the collar came out when I followed the directions to resume the partial feather and fan pattern, so I changed it and worked the entire 18 collar sts in garter stitch. I also thought it looked better with the 3-needle bindoff at the center back of the collar on the public side rather than on the under side of the collar.

Astrid was also kind enough to share a photograph and allow me to share it with all of you:

CA7MMLRV.jpg

What a wonderful, comfy summer cardigan!  I am re-inspired, My Peeps!  But I just started some other small things and the other big thing and the other big thing needs to be ordered…aaargggggggggghhhh!!  Too little time! 😉

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