theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Okay.  The post is not knitting.  It is about knitting!  I have a few FOs lurking in the background and will share one with you today.

First, though, I sure hope you had a nice holiday weekend.  Mine was very relaxing.  Except for when we discovered that the wedding invitations had the wrong address.  (Thank goodness it was my daughter’s fault, and not mine!).  With two weeks to go we had time to send out a correction.  Thank goodness we discovered it now!  What if we got to the day of the wedding and no one showed up!?!?!

Okay, back to knitting.  I just finished a large cowl/wrap: Moose River by Steven West.  My friends and I spotted it at StevenBe’s, tried it on and loved it.  What I really like about it is the fact that it is made with reversible cables.  Fun to knit!

I used the same yarn as Steven’s sample: Wexford Merino Silk from Three Irish Girls (240 yds/115 gms, 60% silk, 40% merino), in two colorways: Little Black Raincloud and Heathered Lilac (for the top and bottom ribbing).  Butter soft and beautiful.

The pattern recommends using a tubular cast on and bind off.  No problem, thought I.  I can do a beautiful tubular cast on in 1×1 ribbing.  The bind off was another story!  I used the technique described in Principles of Knitting, but should have done a bit of double knitting first (as shown here).  With almost 300 sts, you need to use multiple pieces of yarn, and there isn’t a good place to hide the ends with a reversible edge.   I may take off the last couple of rounds and try it again.

So, I got it all done and then couldn’t figure out how to wear the darn thing!  My friend, Mary, finished hers at the same time and L.O.V.E.S. it.  I think if I just wear it it will grow on me!.  But after spending $125 for the yarn and the book, and two weeks of knitting, I would expect to be a little more enthused!

PS from Susan: Purrl Gurrl mentioned this in her comment, “There are two knitted items I find have no purpose at all, cowls and sock yarn shawlettes. I find both annoying to wear and neither do anything to actually keep the wearer warm. Both are wastes of time and good yarn in my view.”

I love cowls and sock yarn shawls!  I wear them quite frequently.  I find them both warm and fashionable.  Scarves and shawlettes add color and style to my extremely drab wardrobe…and are being worn by Muggles everywhere, including my two fashionista daughters!

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Yes, we have used this picture before!!!  🙂

PS from Susan — What was I thinking?  I ate way-way-way too much.  🙁

I have an almost finished sweater: Burr, the same sweater Susan finished recently. I just need to weave in a few ends and sew on the buttons, and therein lies the problem.

I have buttons that I love with this yarn color. Here’s a photo when I was working on the button band and collar.

The problem, though, is that these glass buttons are as heavy as they are beautiful. Even when I sew them on with a small button to the inside for “balance,” they want to dangle or hang down a bit. If I button the sweater, they’ll be fine. But I know that I may not want to wear it buttoned every single moment. Here is another quickie photo of the buttons laid out on the (almost) finished piece.

I’ve experimented with other buttons, but I don’t love them the way I love the glass ones.

What to do?

PS from Susan — I had the same problem finding buttons.  I ordered some and they were too heavy.  I ended up with wooden buttons:

I do really like them now, but was disappointed at first because I had my heart set on something else…

My husband and I went out with my daughter and her fiance least evening.  Very lovely evening enhanced by the fact that she was WEARING HER SWEET DREAMS SHAWL!!  Oh, yeah, Baby!!  She said she wears it ALL THE TIME!!

She has now been elevated to full knit-worthy status!  Woo Hoo!

Probably lots!  When my almost-knitworthy daughter mentions that she thinks something is nice…well who can pass up a soaring compliment like that?

Laura saw my Sweet Dreams in the car before I took it to work and said she thought it was pretty.  Okay!!  What color?  Black she said.  Always black!  I asked if she wanted it lighter weight or heavier than the one I had, and she said heavier.

I immediately stopped at my LYS and bought a skein of Malabrigo Sock in Black, Color 195.  It seemed to have a heftier feel to it than some other sock yarns.  I have been puttering around with it for the last couple of weeks.

And here is fall in some of its glory — taken last weekend in my backyard:

I did find out that my Sweet Dreams sold for $40.  I was kind of disappointed, but what can you do?  The money went to a good cause, no matter how much it was.

P.S. from Sally — Thank you so much for your concern and comments about Hurricane Sandy.  We were fortunate; Washington, DC didn’t see the kind of widespread destruction seen in other parts of the east coast.  We had hours of high winds and lots of rain, but we never lost power and life for us is back to normal.  Both Susan and I are thinking of those in the worst hit areas, especially New York and New Jersey.

PPS from Susan — Two Things: darling daughter stopped by and I gave her the shawl.  She said, “I will wear this…now!”  Yay!  And thank you for your comments about the lowball bid on my Sweet Dreams.  Even though the bid seemed relatively low, I received MANY compliments from fellow employees.  I did not feel like the shawl was under appreciated by any means.

I feel like I must be the last knitter on earth to figure this out,  but I do think the potential is there to change my knitting life forever!  Hyperbole?!?  You bet!

What am I talking about?  The best kept [knitting] secret of all time: the bottom up contiguous sleeve.  Yes.  A fitted sleeve knit in one piece with the body from the bottom up.  Others have tried it.  Others have succeeded.  But this is a first for moi.

Let me just say for the record that I don’t have a problem with seams.  They have their place and I am comfortable doing them.  But, that said, I hate sewing sleeve caps into the armscye.  Just hate it.   Many designers have glommed onto the fact that people do not like seams: there are many top down sweaters out there right now to prove it.  But there are still many bottom up designs that are worked in pieces to achieve the look of the set in sleeve.

Recently, Jared Flood introduced a new series of patterns, one of which really caught both Sally’s and my attention: Burr by Veronik Avery.  It is knit bottom up in pieces.  Could it be converted to bottom up contiguous?  I had to know.

The answer.  Yes.

Burr knit in Rowan Tweed, Color Reeth

Look at the beautiful set in sleeve!  And it fits me perfectly!  It is still wet and blocking, but I was too excited to wait to share it with my knitting peeps.

I love the beautiful details in this sweater: the YOs on the front and back, the gorgeous collar, and the inverted “V” ribbing details on the hems of the body and sleeves.  I did make major modifications though to achieve my goal of seamless, fitted sleeve:

1 – work both fronts and the back in one piece (I also made some other small changes in my set up)
2 – work to the armhole
3 – work sleeves in the round to the underarm
4 – join all pieces (leaving live sts at the underarm of both the sleeves and the body — ‘bound off’ sts in pattern) and start all shaping as needed (for this step, I graphed out all of the pieces onto graph paper to figure out my shaping)
5 – at the top of the sleeve cap (which was 2 inches wide at that point = 12 sts), stop knitting the sleeve and instead work the fronts and back as separate pieces for 1 inch each (and add short row shaping for the shoulder) — I added a ‘make 1’ to the fronts and back at the edge next to the sleeve cap for the seaming in Step 7
6 – join shoulders using 3-needle bind off
7 – graft the sleeve cap sts to the front and back extensions
8 – graft underarm sts

The picture below shows the work in progress after Step 5 is complete:

I am thrilled with the results and will share additional photos when it is dry and I have buttons.  This easy to do method is just one way that people eliminate the seam on sleeve caps.  I have experimented with other ideas for doing this and will try them out in the future.

This is another reason I love knitting — even after doing this for over 45 years, there is still so much to learn!!  Yowza!!

Lettie LOVES going to work with me.  She loves the hubbub and the people.  But most of all, she loves being noticed.

Uh, I don’t have the heart to tell her that NO ONE IS LOOKING!!!  Oh well.  She can have her brief moment in the “sun.”  I took my shawl in today for the silent auction.  I know it sold, but I don’t know what the final bid ended up being.  I’ll update this if I hear.

I just finished one of the most beautiful shawls ever — in FOUR days!  It is a stunning crescent-shaped beauty called Sweet Dreams by Boo Knits on Ravelry.  It was quick to knit, easy to block, with lots of visual bang for the buck.

I used Madelinetosh Merino Light in color Golden Hickory.  The shawl can easily be sized up or down in both width and depth.  The Victorian looking points are created with the picot bind off and by just pinning the long points.

The downside is that Sweet Dreams is only available in a ~$15 e-book.  The GOOD news is that another Boo Knits design, called Out of Darkness, is almost identical (wish I had known that before buying the e-book…).  It shows it in laceweight, but believe me — it would also work in fingering weight (Sweet Dreams can be knit in laceweight or fingering weight).

I made the smallest size, but could have done the medium.  I am placing this into our silent auction at work and wanted to make sure I could get it done in time, having no idea that it would go so fast!

PS – the job report is in and unemployment is down.  I already had an inkling: my last two knitting classes have filled…the economy must be doing better!

PSS – Edited to add one more picture from niece Nora’s wedding (taken by a fellow wedding guest!):

Hey, folks!  It has been a while!  I am currently in full autumn mode.  John and I went on one [last?] boat ride last night and the changing leaves tell the tale:

Here is one of my favorite homes along the river:

From the river…

Close Up View

You expect to see Snow White and her Seven Little Friends pop out!

I have been doing a little knitting and none of it is getting me very far.  I did finally finish my Vintage Mood vest — it is blocking/drying as we speak.  I will add some pictures when it is wearable and on Lettie.  It is a bit disappointing.  Sally and I each started a new cardigan that we will unveil shortly and I am knitting a shawlette for our annual Silent Auction at work.  I didn’t think I had time, but the shawl is actually moving along pretty quickly.

I thought I might share a project that I finished, entered into the MN  state fair, but never really wrote about (except here).  I am referring to my Niebling doily, Gloxiniaeflora.

Gloxiniaeflora by Herbert Niebling

This was a long, difficult journey!  I thought it would progress like my Lotus Flower from last year, my mindless knitting project that I could take anywhere!   Oh no.  Not this one.  It was a bear.

1. I used tiny thread, size 30 DMC Cebelia Crochet Coton

2. I used tiny needles: size 000

3. the sts were very difficult to manage

For example: 
The little flower thingies are made by working 12 sts thus:  slip 6 sts as to purl.  K6.  Pass the 6 slipped sts over the 6 sts just worked.

Okay.  Go to your knitting basket, take out some stockinette knitting and try this.  On any yarn.  It does not work.  Or at least it did not work for me.  There is not enough slack in the sts to get them to pass over the 6 knitted sts!  And my thread was so thin, I was sure it would break.  So, I tinked the row back and then the row prior because there was no way I was going to take it off the needles.

On the row before the ‘slip-k6-pass’ mish-mash I worked the 12 sts as follows: [k1, yo] x 5, k7…sometimes I did [k1, yo] x 6, k6 depending on my mood.  In any case, when I got to the pattern st in question, I dropped the yo’s as I slipped the sts and therefore had more yarn to work with.  The sts passed over quite easily.

I also had to go out and buy Addi Lace needles.  Regular Addis, even at size 000, were too blunt to do even the simplest k2tog.  Anyway, it took forever and I was very glad when it was all done.

I was very pleased to win the sweepstakes because it felt like I had really earned it with this one!  The table linen judges are extremely generous in their praise and their points, so it was very nice to read their comments.

At the fair…

I starched this baby at about 50% (50-50 starch to water) and blocked it on my styrofoam board.  I love this delicate little creature and marvel at the genius that is Herbert Niebling.  I never tire of knitting his designs and will end up the little old lady whose house has every surface covered with useless doilies!