theraineysisters knitting and so much more

This time of year, I tend to make little silly projects. They can be knit or crochet. Here are a few recent examples that may inspire you to get some holiday cheer going!

This is a little Christmas gnome. It is Day One of the annual Drops Christmas Calendar. Drops “drops” a new free pattern every day throughout December. I have followed them for the past few years. All past years can be found on Ravelry.

This is the Gingerbread Love Potholder, also from the Drops Christmas Calendar. Knit in worsted weight yarn, it goes rather quickly. I used wool because I am not going to actually use it for food!! This same pattern is available in socks, mitts, a sweater and would easily translate into a hat, headband, or cowl.

This quick little project would make a cute hostess gift. I took Grandma’s Favorite Dishcloth and reworked it into stripes. I included my notes about how to do it on my Ravelry project page. The small bowls are from a great gift shop in Maple Grove MN called Good Things. Walking in there was an invitation that said, TAKE MY MONEY!!! 🙂

Another Drops design! This “Holiday Swirls” spiral crochet coaster or potholder is really quick. However, I could not make heads or tails out of the Drops chart!! I searched “two color crochet spiral” and found a simple video that walked me through it. I added the tapering and describe it on my Ravelry project page.

There’s still time to make any one of these!!

I love a fair isle hat and Alison Rendall does not disappoint. She is responsible for the wildly popular Buggiflooer Beanie from a couple of years ago. I absolutely loved her hat design called Yoxie. The dramatic colors really called my name. I was unsure about the pale blue and cream colored sections, but decided to trust her for the most part. The blue and cream add a lot!! I did a lot of adjusting to correct the jog, which you can see in this photo:

I changed the crown coloration quite a bit. I added more blue to make it look more like that section of the body. I love the final look of it but apparently the state fair judges were less impressed! It got 4th place.
I am sorry we have not been posting much lately. Call it the fall doldrums and political fatigue! I’ll try to do better!

Greetings from the missing Rainey Sisters! We are here. We are alive. We are knitting.

I did attend the state fair this year and did enter some knitting. It was not the best year I’ve ever had. I did win a few ribbons, one of which was blue. It was for this little sweater I made for a good friend who is also a knitter. It had to be special and I wanted a blue ribbon on it to attach to the gift.

The pattern is called Alouette, designed by Lisa Chemery. She also designed Entrechat, my favorite sweater for baby girls and Elevenses, my favorite sweater for baby boys. I decided I needed to jazz this up if I wanted the blue ribbon, so I added the embroidered roses. I was very pleased to get the blue!

When I made my Geddy Tee, I designed a knitted granny square for those “knit-only” crafters out there. I just added the FREE pattern to Ravelry so others can knit their own tee. It is not a perfect substitute for the crocheted version, but it does work in this particular situation. I hope some of you try it!!

This is the knitted version:

This is the crocheted version:

This is not an ox-free zone! Musk ox, that is! Surly gifted me a skein of qiviut from one of her recent arctic journeys. I couldn’t decide what to make at first, but thought a small scarf would check all the boxes: a. be visible when worn, b. use all of the yarn, c. not “wear out” like mitts, d. feel good against the skin.  I have made so may Sophies that I wanted something a little different.  I found Scarf No. 4 designed by My Favorite Things.  A simple stitch pattern with a Sophie vibe.  The increases are worked every 4 instead of every 8 rows, but this pairs perfectly with the 1×1 ribbing.  Pretty ingenious actually. I twisted the ribbing for improved appearance. I, of course, used my continuous i-cord cast on and i-cord edges instead of what the pattern called for.

The scarf turned out extremely well. It is very soft and quite a classic! Merci, Surly!!

After making my recent Rose Coaster Bouquet, I showed it around to my crafting peeps. One of them said that pansies would be really cute on the coaster. I agreed! I dove in immediately! After all, I had placed crocheted pansies on my Sophie Scarf, so I knew I had a nice pansy pattern.

Once I started, though, I realized that the Sophie pansies were too small, so I had to adapt it to be larger. I sewed them on, and really liked the coaster, but the flat pansies do not work for a “bouquet.” Oh well.

But, it looks like I only crochet! This little project was just too cute and too fun to pass by. It is a pattern that is available on Ravelry, called Rose Bouquet Coaster. It’s only two bucks!!

It looks like a cute little bouquet of crocheted roses…but, wait! It unfurls to reveal a cute coaster!

I sent off Surly’s yarn and squares for her own Geddy Tee.

Her main color is Malabrigo Rios Denim.

I have also been playing around with a knitted granny square.  I wanted to teach the Geddy Tee as a class, but many of my knitting friends don’t crochet.  I checked out Ravelry and found a square by Barb Salpekar that I used as a starting point for my version.  I’m pretty happy with it.  I will share it initially with people who sign up for the class, but I’ll probably put it up on Ravelry at some point.

Here are the two squares (the left one is knitted):

Not perfect, but close enough!!  Happy cro-knitting!!

PS to Marina:  I did use Betty Salpekar’s pattern for my initial inspiration and asked her if I could adapt it.  She is credited in the pattern I came up with, as well.  My square is quite different than hers and will be published for free after the Geddy Tee class I’m teaching gets started.  I will announce when it is available in the next couple of weeks.

When this pattern dropped, I was the first in line to buy!  I fell in love with this cutie: Geddy Tee.  I love crocheting, especially granny squares.  This top takes 4-6 squares, and are super easy to do.  The pattern itself is well-written and straightforward.

I wanted a denim blue for my main color, but then this darker blue spoke to me.  I should have stuck with my first choice, but forged ahead (I was unable to exchange the yarn).  I had trouble coming up with the perfect color choice for the squares until I landed on this.

I think this is the cutest tee I’ve ever made.  I absolutely love it.

Sister Surly wants to make this, too, but doesn’t crochet.  I bought the lighter denim for her and will do the squares.  I will share the squares that I come up with…I will have square envy!!  😉

And if you didn’t already, you still have time to favorite my Aal Ower Toorie!!

PS to Chloe: You might be able to enlist a crocheting friend to make the squares.  Like I said, they are quite basic to do.

Ah, the tortured title strikes again!  My latest FO is chockful of ribbing, from top to extended bottom.  It is the world famous Anker, my version being based on the Anker Summer Shirt.  Petiteknit has put out multiple iterations of this sweater, and it is extremely popular.  I knit this out of Noro Silk Garden Sock Solo, color S82 Kawasaki.  The yarn is VERY thick and thin.  So much so that most patterns I tried just did not work.  That is why I settled on the very simple Anker.

It’s a great sweater.  Obviously, I added long sleeves.   I had so much yarn!!  The only problem is that it says spring, but is too warm for spring/summer.  Oh, well!!