theraineysisters knitting and so much more

March 24, 2009

From Susan — Sleeves are Fun

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 9:40 pm

Sleeves are fun.  Going to the dentist is fun.  Tax time is fun.  You think I’m kidding, right?  Au contraire!!  My Ode to Joy sleeve is going fine: enough going on with the color changes and decreases to not be boring.  Last trip to the dentist, my youngest daughter got her braces off and looks grown up and gorgeous, and my taxes are organized and ready for the tax guy! 

I stopped by The Yarnery yesterday and picked up the latest Rowan Magazine (#45).  Quite beautiful!  It has a combination of Asian-inspired designs and hippy flashbacks.  The hippy stuff is not my taste.  Sally liked the cap-shawl inspired wrap with sleeves in Kidsilk Haze called Honeysuckle.

March 20, 2009

From Susan to Surly

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 8:55 am

OMG!  The Bohus is absolutely gorgeous!  Congratulations, and Happy Bloggiversary!  No fanfare this year, but we are both happy to have been blogging with you for the past three years! 🙂

March 17, 2009

From Susan — You May Already Be a Wiener

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 11:40 pm

I already AM a wiener!  I won a book tonight at the Knitters Guild meeting — it’s a really lovely book with some great patterns. 

Knitting Classic Style by you.
Knitting Classic Style by Veronik Avery

It has a little bit of everything: sweaters, vests, socks, gloves, wraps, styles for all ages, fair isle, lace, cables, beads.  There are several patterns that piqued my interest.  Woo Hoo!!

Veronik has done a lot of designing for Interweave Knits, and she has several designs that you would (might?) recognize:

So, it was a nice St. Patty’s Day!  Hope yours was great, too, and sober!

PS — the blog title refers to an old cartoon that was one of my favorites.  It shows a hot dog mailing an envelope that reads…yes, you guessed it, “You may already be a wiener!”

March 15, 2009

From Susan — Keep Your Focus!!

Filed under: Current Projects — lv2knit @ 1:31 pm

I am so at the point when interest fails!  Yes, you have heard it here before….the cry of waning interest!  Oh well.  But, “I’ll be back,” as Ahnold says!

Here is a status update on my Ode to Joy.  I do love it.  The colors make me happy.

Ode to Joy Front by you.

Ode to Joy Back by you.

Ode to Joy Upper back by you.

As we have mentioned before, the design is from Candace Eisner Strick’s Strickwear Merging Colors line.  There are several colorways from which to choose, and they are all stunning.  She has a number of different designs, also.  Her website is for wholesale sales only but your local knitting shop can order from her on your behalf (or check her list of distributors).  The pattern is very well written.

Yesterday a neighbor called with a “knitting emergency.”  My favorite kind!  She ran over with a confusing pattern question and I loved it!  I could blather about knitting for hours, so I thoroughly enjoyed it, plus I was able to help her. 

March 3, 2009

From Susan — Knitting Along

Filed under: Updates — Both Sisters @ 7:57 pm

My Ode to Joy is coming along nicely.  The back is done, and I started the second front.  That is all.

Okay, so we have hit a boring patch.  That always allows us to fill in with other crap explore new and exciting alternatives!  Here are some pun-tastic jokes to keep you laughing (or retching as the case may be) as you read the latest stock market reports:

1.  The roundest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2.  I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.

3.  She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4.  A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5.  The butcher backed into the meat grinderand got a little behind in his work.

6.  No matter how much you push the envelope, it’ll still be stationery.

7.  A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

8.  A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

9.  Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

10.  Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11.  A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

12.  Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

13.  Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, ‘You stay here, I’ll go on a head.’

14.  I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

15.  A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: ‘Keep off the Grass.’

16.  A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, ‘No change yet.’

17.  A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.

18.  It’s not that the man did not know how to juggle, he just didn’t have the balls to do it.

19.  The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

20.  The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

21.  A backward poet writes inverse.

22.  In democracy it’s your vote that counts. In feudalism it’s your count that votes.

23.  When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

24.  Don’t join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!

Groan!    

February 27, 2009

From Susan — The Promise of Spring…

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 1:38 pm

…is nowhere to be found in Minnesota!

March Snow by you.

We got quite a bit of snow yesterday (during evening rush hour, thank you) and the wind chill today is -14 degrees.  Spring may be coming up on the calendar but it sure looks a long way off from my window!

To seek spring, I’ve turned to my knitting.  Sally’s Ode to Joy is so joyful and bursting with beautiful spring-like colors, that somewhere along the line I decided to exchange my autumnal colorway to Sally’s Cape Cod.   Candace was very accommodating.  I started this a couple of weeks ago. 

Ode to Joy by you.

It is a slow knit.  Sally described this in detail, but to recap — you are always knitting with three tiny strands of yarn.  The color change is created by changing out one strand at a time to the next color in sequence: 1-1-1 changes to 1-1-2, then 1-2-2, and so on.  It is difficult to knit without looking because you must be certain that you don’t miss any strands as you are knitting.  It is knit on 3.25 mm needles.  The novelty of changing the colors wears off quickly, long before you are done.  BUT, after seeing Sally’s lovely sweater and the desire to wear it this spring, I will plod on.

Heaven save me from Ravelry!  Again, I have been sucked in, but gladly.  I just received a package from Needle Arts Book Store.  If you order the Peacock Feathers Stole pattern (the triangular shawl converted to a rectangular stole) and two balls of Exquisite, you receive an additional ball of yarn.  I wanted four balls, so by buying the pattern, I actually saved money, kind of (shopping logic is great I tell you!). 

Exquisite completely lives up to its name.  It is gorgeous: 50% mulberry silk and 50% merino wool, laceweight, 500 m to 50 gms ($8.50/skein). 

Exquisite in Slate Bue by you.
Exquisite Yarn in Slate Blue

It has the luster of silk and is incredibly soft.  The color is amazing.  I think it is much higher quality than Zephyr Merino and Silk, which I have used and loved for lace shawls.  This is nicer.

I’m off today and no one is home — yay!  — but I am doing laundry and cleaning bathrooms — boo!  

Off I go to the salt mines, but may get a little fun stuff done, too!

AND, go read Yarn Harlot!  Been there, done that…over and over again!

Check this out from Moosie:
Exquisite is 50/50 merino wool/mulberry silk. Zephyr is 50/50 merino wool/tussah silk. Two different types of silk with different characteristics. Tussah is from the Antheraea pernyi moth’s cocoon while mulberry is from the bombyx mori moth’s cocoon. Tussah worms feed on oak leaves while bombyx worms dine on mulberry tree, wormspit.com gives a lot more info about silk in all it’s different forms.

In response to Wendy who asked, “As always, you gals are an inspiration!  I’ll be interested to hear if there was much yarn left over.  Dare I ask what size you’re knitting?”

The Ode to Joy Kit comes in 2 sizes: small and medium/large.  Sally made the small size and had some yarn left over.  I am making the medium and will need to lengthen the sleeves.  Usually I make the jumbo size in everything.  In this case, however, I decided to make it to fit a bit smaller and cropped like it was designed — it would have taken way more yarn and a lot of refiguring of the pattern to remake it into a larger sweater.  I will make a dress or two to go with it and wear it to work.  When I make a sweater to wear with pants, I make it huge to get to where it needs to go…but this will be a very short jacket on me.

February 16, 2009

From Susan — Blah!

Filed under: Updates — lv2knit @ 7:49 pm

Sometimes the best laid plans go awry.  This second Sunburst Beaded Bag is a disappointment — it is so blah!  And I had such high hopes!

Sunburst II by you.

The center circles were gorgeous when they were laying there on their own, but look completely non-descript in the bag.  It also goes with NOTHING*!  Oh well…. 🙂

* PS to Nancy — I never even though of black!  Oh wait, I don’t have anything black.  Never mind!

PS2 — now I feel bad after reading everyone’s comments.  And, really, I wasn’t fishing for compliments, but appreciate them all the same!

February 14, 2009

From Both of Us — Happy Valentine’s Day!

Filed under: Updates — Both Sisters @ 12:45 am

Rainey Day Valentine by you.
PS from Susan: Scroll down to see Surly’s Bohus update if you have not yet done so!!

February 9, 2009

From Susan — RU Nutz??!!

Filed under: Completed Projects,Updates — lv2knit @ 8:36 am

In a word, yes.  I must admit that some of my projects baffle even me for logic.  This project is interesting and beautiful but was quite difficult.  It is small enough that I did not suffer long, but I did suffer…are you feeling any sympathy for me?  Darn!

Sun Burst by you.
Sunburst Beaded Bag, pattern by Janet Hoxie of SewUnique
Size 0000 needles and No. 8 Perle Coton, Size = 3″ across

The picture cannot possibly capture the deep teal-green irridescence of the beads.

I would recommend this project if a) you have already done some bead knitting and 2) you have really good eyesight and/or really good lighting.  I can vouch for “a” but “2” was a stretch, as I have neither!  I had to bring out my Ott light, readers, and a seeing eye dog to finish this puppy.  All in all, I really love it and would make another.  I think the next one will be easier because of my newly acquired neck pain experience!  This truly is extreme knitting. 

February 7, 2009

From Both of Us — Gee, Thanks!

Filed under: Updates — surly @ 6:47 pm

Dianna nominated us for the Kreativ Blogger Award — another “made up” award like the Oscars!  We thank you and our mother thanks you! Now off to look for gowns for the red carpet (and we promise that they won’t be sock monkey dresses. Maybe.).

Kreativblogger

Here is what we are supposed to do, and the rules for our nominees:

1.  Copy the award to your site — check
2.  Link to the person from whom you received the award — check
3.  Nominate 7 other bloggers — hmmm, that part’s hard
4.  Link to the award recipients on your blog — easy, once Number 3 is done
5.  Leave a message on the blogs you nominate — okay, can do

It is so difficult to list one’s favorite blogs.  Someone gets left out.  Someone’s feelings get hurt.  So, we will list some blogs and hope that no one feels like we don’t like them.  We like a lot of people and a lot of bloggers!!

These are some of the blogs that touch us or teach us or inspire us.

Things Soo Likes — Soo is an incredibly gifted knitter and the sole inspiration for Susan’s Lyra.  She knits some of the most gorgeous lace there is and also owns up to some crazy mistakes!

Twin Set Ellen — Ellen and Jan are sisters (twins — duh) that share a blog and share their knitting over a great distance.  Blogging keeps them connected and enhances their friendship.  We certainly can relate.  Susan also knows Ellen personally as a fellow guild member and likes her a lot!

Rosemary-Go-Round — Romi’s Monday Musings are a favorite way to start the week.  Romi is a really talented designer, jewelry maker, and published author.  She will be teaching at Yarnover on April 18 so we’ll get to meet her in person and hang out for a few hours!  That may be the royal ‘we’ as Sally may not be at Yarnover this year. 

WendyKnits — Wendy’s blog was Susan’s first introduction to blogs and therefore set the bar pretty high.  Wendy is a prolific and talented knitter so there are RESULTS posted and not just false starts and UFOs.  Plus, we have met and dined with Wendy so she isn’t just a mega-blogger, she is a real person!!

Knititude — Angela Hahn is another talented knitting designer that we both admire.  We knitted her Aran Wrap from Vogue last year and have bought other patterns as well.  Her blog has some lovely patterns to buy and drool over!

Knitting Elegance KAL — We don’t visit this site often, but it is nice knowing it is there!  This blog features Japanese knitting, which we both love, and shows some wonderful finished works.  Worth a visit for inspiration if nothing else.

Ravelry — Yes, we know that Ravelry is not a blog, but to be honest, it sure feels like one!  It is a place to see great projects, watch people’s knitting progress, and connect with other knitters on the Forum Section or in groups with people of similar interest.  If you are not a part of Ravelry, go sign up today.

As we review the above list, it makes us appreciate the blogging community as a place to connect with others and learn a lot about knitting and its infinite potential.  Thanks to all who inspire and delight!

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