theraineysisters knitting and so much more

September 24, 2010

From Both of Us — Drowning in New Yarn!

Filed under: Back Story,Eala Bhan — Both Sisters @ 1:46 pm

Lost Weekend
We weren’t drinking, but we were knitting…and eating…and watching an eclectic assortment of Colin Firth movies.   And we do mean eclectic and we do mean Colin Firth — all Colin, most of the time ;).  Let’s just say that Mr. Darcy has a checkered film past — some good, some only watchable for the close ups.

When we could pry ourselves away from the DVDs we checked out the local yarn stores.  We started off at Fibre Space (and returned later to the scene of the crime) and hit many a store after that.  On Monday, having run out of films, we made a quick trip to Mount Vernon to stroll through the gorgeous scenery and learn more about our first president.  Susan had been there before but said it felt new again.  That’s what happens when you have no memory!

On one of our visits to Fibre Space, the store was hosting a trunk show for the glorious hand dyed yarns of Miss Babs.  This picture shows us with “Miss Babs herself.  She allowed us to drape her in her wares — I think it is because we helped her reach her retirement goal!!

Here’s Susan’s yarn (Sally bought the Smooch colored silk for Susan as a belated birthday present 🙂 ).  The yarn on the left is called Tierno, Baby Alpaca and Silk, in the color ‘Beach Glass.’  The pink is100% mulberry silk in laceweight (1250 yards!).

Sally’s yarn from Miss Babs was also (big surprise) a color from the pink family.  It’s silk lace weight in the color Shiraz.

Sally also picked up a sweater’s worth of a fingering weight yarn called Canopy (alpaca, merino, and bamboo) in Sarsaparilla (with accent colors in Canopy and some other yarns) for a project she’s wanted to undertake for a long time.  More on that once it’s been started, but here’s a preview of the yarn colors.

We checked out a great new shop called Looped Yarn Works just off Dupont Circle.  This bright, airy, cutely decorated shop has cozy nooks in which to knit and lots of very nice yarn!  Sally took a few photos with her iPhone, most of which were blurry, but here’s one.

On Sunday we made an emergency needle run to Knit and Stitch — in Bethesda, MD.   The people could not have been nicer.  When we got there we noticed a treasure trove of Hanne Falkenberg kits.   Upon further inspection, we realized that they had a Hanne F. trunk show in progress!!  Woo Hoo!   We were able to try on several great designs: Gloria and Plisse to name a couple.   The Gloria Jacket is one of the most flattering designs we have seen.  It looked good on both of us even with our size disparity.

Before the weekend started, we each received our copies of the new (and improved?) Aran Knitting, AND yarn for the newest design straight from the source herself.

Now, back to knitting!

September 15, 2010

From Susan — 10 – 9 – 8 – 7…

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 11:54 pm

The countdown has begun!  I will launch at 1010 tomorrow and meet up with Surly around 2pm.  Then watch out, DC, The Rainey Sisters will be on the loose!! 

Houston, we have a problem: a serious yarn shortage in the DC area….

September 14, 2010

From Susan — Countdown to 500 Hats!

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 1:48 pm

It certainly feels that way.  When I am between large projects I usually take a breather with a few quick knits.  I can’t get through a day without knitting, but I am not yet prepared to embark on the next big thing.  Plus, my knitting group is donating hats to charity this fall.

So, I knit hats — three this week!   The Quincy I already shared, a very basic hat too basic to share and this one: The Tuscan Leaves Hat by Nina Machlin.   This is a very nice hat pattern!  I love the way the leaves meander slowly next to each other.  It is NOT charted, but I had no trouble reading it row by row.

Here are the pictures of Nina’s Hats, which show the hat in its entirety:

I did not have a model, nor do I own a “head” so my pictures are flat and not that good:



I used Ella Rae Worsted Weight Wool.  When finished, the hat looked so tiny that it seemed like it would not fit a soul, but it did block nicely.  I would make this again.  It is so pretty and unique.

There may be a gap in our blogging:  I will be heading east to visit Surly on Thursday!  Yay!

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??!!?

September 7, 2010

From Susan — Quincy Resurrected and Dissected

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 11:17 pm

Hello, fellow knitting peeps.  Today was the first day of school for DD the Younger.   She has three years left of high school.  She just got her learner’s permit.  Pray for us.  Pray for us all.

I have a small FO to share — another Quincy Hat by Jared Flood.   I made several of these last year and enjoyed making them enough to do another — it’s a great take-along project.  Our knitting group is knitting hats for charity this year, so I am knitting hats. 


Quincy Hat by Jared Flood in Katia Azteca (128 yds of a 197 yd skein), US Size 10 Needles

The hat is started as a long, garter stitch strip with built-in i-cord along each edge.  Last year, I ran into several people who had difficulty trying to set up the grafting for the center back (I told them to go ask Jared…well, I told them and then I showed them 🙂 ).

You need to graft the first and last three sts as stockinette and the middle sts in garter stitch.  In order to do this correctly, you need to reposition all the built-in i-cord sts to look like the right side of stockinette on each side.  One side will look like reverse stockinette.  These sts must be turned — not individually, but all three at once.   

The sts appear on the needle like this:

Place all three purl side sts on a dpn and then turn the dpn counterclockwise until the RS of the stockinette sts are facing forward.  Now place them back 0n the needle in this new order:

I won’t even try to show how to do garter grafting (yes, I’m a chicken  &^%$)!  Just make sure the center sts are set up properly (there are many tutorials out there). 

The results:

There will always be a jog where the change from st st to garter takes place because you are grafting two different directions of knitting together (heads of sts being grafted to heads of sts — if that does not make sense, you are normal!).

I’m still deciding on my next bigger project…a couple of ideas are floating around so we’ll see which one lands!

PS: Rox’s comment made me re-think the above and she is correct that you are grafting in the same direction as the knitting, so there shouldn’t be a jog.  The fact that there is is probably due to the built in i-cord (?), not the transition from stockinette to garter and back again.  That shouldn’t cause a jog in and of itself.  Maybe I’ll try it and experiment.  Or maybe not. 😉

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.

August 26, 2010

From Susan — 5-4-3-2-1-1-1-1

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 10:56 pm

The State Fair Countdown!  I spent today at the Minnesota State Fair with some very special friends.  I’ll elaborate on their “specialness” in more detail later.

I always like to get to the fair on the first day to see if my knitting entries fared well in the judging.  This year was a mixed bag, but I am not here to complain!  I did better on some things than I expected and not as well on others.  This pretty much happens every year.  Other peeps I spoke to felt the same way about their items: “Not quite what I was expecting.”  The ribbon distribution is based on many variables and luck is just one of them!!  I always feel pretty lucky to win anything when I see the other beautiful entries. 

I entered eight things this year and received the ribbons listed in the title: 5th, 4th, 3rd, 2nd, first, first, first , first.  The sweepstakes went to one of my favorite people: Shelley Monitor, MKG president, for her Large Lace Collar Bohus Cardigan:


Shelley Monitor’s Bohus, Sweepstakes (on a night-of-the-living-dead mannequin!)

Shelley is an excellent knitter and very deserving of the sweepstakes award!  Congratulations, Shelley!

I took pictures of my knitted items and very few of them turned out.  The glare on the glass coupled with the hopelessly unattractive mannequins made a good shot almost impossible!  All of my pictures have a yellow caste which I was unable to adjust.  Edited to add: Sivani, bless her heart, fixed several of the pictures for me and removed some of the yellow.  Thanks, Sivani!!


Ode to Joy Vest, 2nd Place


Olympic Reindeer Hat — 3rd Place Ribbon


Lace Beret, 4th Place


Whisper Cardigan, 5th Place (my biggest disappointment!)


Sleeping Baby’s Castle Blanket — this was entered in the Garment Category under Afghan less than 42×42

Yes, this is Sally’s design!   The color is off white but here it looks VERY OFF white and is not displayed to its full advantage.  You cannot tell there is a castle on the blanket, but I was excited to get a blue ribbon for Sally’s wonderful pattern.


Alexandria, First Place


Aeolian Shawl, First place and JRB Associates Award (terrible picture — lots of glare!)


Brage/Dragon Sweater, First Place and Three Kittens Award (OMG, the picture is horrid, plus they covered up the dragon with the ribbon)

I really have to give a shout out to a couple of people: my friend, Kim, entered a gorgeous hat that received a second place ribbon.  If I was the judge, she would have gotten a blue, but I’m not so there you go.

Ellen De Silva won the Thursdays at 4 special award for her blue ribbon gloves!  I am so happy that it is going to a friend of mine — yay and congratulations (no picture, though 🙁 ).

Speaking of friends, my peeps (Janet, Deb and Martha) really are fantastic people.  I have known them since college.  We made plans to go to the fair together.  As you may recall, I hurt my heel about 4 weeks ago.  The “heeling” has been slow and so I have been severely limping for three plus weeks.  That in turn caused my bum right knee to flare up in rebellion, due to my crazy gait.  I really can’t walk very well right now.   I went to the fair knowing that I would not be able to stay long and certainly would not be able to partake in all of the fair festivities. 

We arrived early (about 6:30 am) and by 10:30, I was done.  I’m out.  Time to leave.  My dear friends said, “Au contraire, Limpy.  We are going to get you a wheelchair.”  And they did.  They pushed me around the fairgrounds until 5:00 pm.  Then they pushed me all the way to my car.  No complaining at all — they just acted like they were having the time of their lives, this is no big deal, we will always remember this and laugh…you name it!   They are true friends in every sense of the word.  I love you guys!!

One of the great things about going to the fair with four people is that you can share food — we got to eat everything and get just the right amount.  Yum, yum, yum!

One more thing: Sally has been busy getting her son settled into college and so she has not been doing much blogging of late.  She’ll be back this weekend and has a beautiful FO to share.  She is now an empty nester.  Crying face

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! 😉

August 21, 2010

From Susan — Just Call Me Sparkles!

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 7:54 pm

Have you ever googled your name?  Some other Susan Rainey goes by the stage (?) name Sparkles the Clown for kids’ parties — IT IS NOT ME!!  But there are some sparkles in my knitting life!

I usually opt for very traditional yarn and colors.  I have tried to branch out from time to time, but I seldom stray.  When I went to The Yarn Garage last Wednesday, I saw some gorgeous yarn.  They had variations of it kitted up with a sequined yarn for a simple shawlette (price: a mere $89).  I am all about the shawlette lately and I love the yarn, so here I be.  The proud owner of sparkly yarn!

The kits come is a very cute and functional bag.

I want to start this NOW, but I have a couple of things to wrap up.

This looks like something my alter ego, Sparkles the Clown, might be interested in! 😉

PS: A couple of you have asked about the pattern I will use.  The kit came with a pattern, and I am using the pattern they provided because it looked great and is made for this yarn.  It is the Zephyr Shawl by Lauren Scarpo.  The Rav pics do NOT do it justice!!!  It apparently was in the June 2010 issue of Knit ‘n Style.

August 19, 2010

From Susan — Southern Exposure

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 7:41 am

Yesterday I had to drive to the far side of the moon for me for a work related event — way on the south side of the Twin Cities.  SO, I thought I should stop by Steven B.’s Yarn Garage, since I rarely get down that direction.   First off, I was no where near Yarn Garage!  I was southwest and YG is southeast!   Oh well.  My lack of knowledge got me there because I may have changed my mind otherwise.  I live northwest, so the drive home was 1.5 hours 🙁 .

They are so nice at YG.  And an announcement: they now sell Madeline Tosh yarns!  I’m not sure that it’s available in too many places in town.  They opened the box just for me and it was swoon worthy! 

I did buy a LITTLE something, but no time for a picture now.

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