theraineysisters knitting and so much more

November 16, 2008

From Susan — More Snow in the Forecast

Filed under: Winter Wonderland Shawl,Wrapped in Care — lv2knit @ 2:48 pm

More snow, but just a flake at a time!  I’ve been knitting on my snowflakes a bit here and there, with a somewhat stealth project in between.

This flake was a little more fun to do because there was a lot going on.   My hexies are smaller than they are supposed to be, so this may end up a scarf!

I am finding quite a few errors in the pattern, and no errata published.  I contacted them and asked about a particularly problematic omission and received information — with another error.  Okay, it is a tricky pattern and not a lot of people have made it.  However, there are  lot of mistakes, so be forewarned.  Many of the errors will become fixable once you are familiar with the pattern.   But if you like your numbers “clean,” this may not be the pattern for you!  If you decide to forge ahead, make a copy of the pattern and take notes as you go.  Most of the snowflakes are made twice, so the second one should be easier.

Wrapped in Care
I’d like to put in another plug for the Wrapped in Care Project.  We are still receiving shawls from around the country and closer to home, as well.  My Thursday knitting peeps continue to dazzle me with their generosity!  Here is a recent donation from Cathy, an Alix’s Prayer Shawl:

I took the liberty of sending a shawl directly to someone who shared her story in our company newsletter.  She knew from tests during her pregnancy that her baby would not survive.  In cases like that, the baby still must be carried to full term.  She knew her growing pregnancy would prompt questions and caring comments, and she did not want to have to explain her story to everyone who said, “When are you due?”  So, she enlisted the help of her co-workers to get the word out.  Her co-workers also hosted a baby shower and gave her keepstakes of the baby and items to help preserve memories (like a kit to make a plaster handprint of the baby).  Her baby died in utero one week before the due date. 

Most women don’t have that kind of preparation time and go into their childbirth with hope and joy.  The shawls cannot lessen the pain but at least can show support and caring from an anonymous friend.  We have had close to 50 shawls donated so far.  Thank you for all of your efforts!!

November 11, 2008

From Sally — Biding My Time

Filed under: Back Story,Updates — surly @ 2:06 pm

I’ve got a small case of the knitting doldrums. I don’t know what I want to work on. It’s not that I don’t have projects to work on because I do. I could finish Butterfly. I could work on one of a number of unfinished fair isles (looks askance at Marina’s enviable stack of finished ones). I could start my new Bohus. I could finish my Damask Kauni. My Niebling. My Eris. Or my own Snowflake shawl.

I am just not sure what I want to work on, although I do have some Christmas knitting to start. While I wait for inspiration or interest to hit, I’ve finished two small projects. The first is the cabled fingerless mitts that I posted about a little while ago. Here they are being modeled by my husband, who now expects royalties — or perhaps a pair of gloves with actual fingers.

Next I decided to tackle one of my long lost sock orphans. I’m notorious for knitting one sock or one glove and then moving on. Indeed, here is a photo from one of our earliest blogs showing some of my abandoned socks and gloves.

The light blue sock is the one who now has a mate. They are the Embossed Leaves socks from Interweave, designed by Mona Schmidt. I knit them out of light blue Koigu. Here’s a photo of both of them, modeled by “Anonymous.” They haven’t even been blocked or dressed. They went immediately from the needles to my Anonymous’s feet.

So, now what? I think I’ll go sit in a corner and wait for inspiration to hit.

November 8, 2008

From Susan — Seems Too Early

Filed under: Winter Wonderland Shawl — lv2knit @ 12:16 pm

Seems too early for Christmas trees in the stores and for snowmen in the news, but both are events witnessed by me recently — it snowed here yesterday!  What happened to fall?  I guess it is November and blah-blah-blah, but it seems like time is passing at a staggering clip.

I had a knitting goal in mind for this fall, but I think it has already passed me by!  I started the Winter Wonderland Shawl a few years back and always meant to complete it before the “first snowfall” of the “next” year (whenever the bee-boop THAT means!).  So, after finishing the Aran Wrap — and the temps still being very mild — I pulled out the Winter Wonderland (aka Snowflake) Shawl to give it a go.  

I am using the exact yarn called for in the pattern: Suri Alpaca Elegance (1 skein) and Glimmer (3 skeins).  US size 6 dpns are used.

It is a much more time consuming piece of knitting than it might appear.  The snowflakes can be knit fairly quickly, but the snowy backgrounds are slow going for me.  They are awkward and take much more time than their simplicity would indicate.

Here is a graphic that shows the layout of the shawl — the dotted line on the bottom indicates where I may add one more snowflake:

The shawl is made by knitting 13 individual snowflakes, knitting a background around each, and then grafting them together.  A border is added around the perimeter at the very end.

Here are some of the 13 snowflakes being blocked:

And a snowflake with the background:

All 13 snowflakes are finished, and I think I have 4 snowflakes completely done.  It is a fun project, but again I must ask myself: does everything you make have to be weird?  Can’t you knit a plain old something for a change?  This could be another of those projects from hell that never reaches its full potential!

Because the holidays are looming, I thought I would revisit a super fun project that I made last year to get you into the holiday knitting mood:

This is Rudy the Reindeer and he is really fun to make!  The pattern can be purchased from Amazing Threads and takes worsted weight yarn. 

PS — I’m sorry I got on my political soapbox this week on the blog.  We have always tried to steer clear of controversial topics — we won’t even go near the “pickers vs throwers” debate 😉 !!  I do believe this, however: whatever your political leanings and no matter who you voted for, it serves no one for the new president to fail.  The price is too high for all of us, so I hope people are supportive and rally for the success of our country.  I am now stepping off my soapbox to go knit on some more of those $##$%& snowflakes!  Or do laundry!

October 29, 2008

From Sally — Crime and Punishment

Filed under: Butterfly — surly @ 6:17 pm

Sometimes knitting can feel like a chore, especially if you’re no longer enthused about a project, it’s not turning out the way you’d like, or it’s simply boring to knit. So imagine being forced to knit sweaters for strangers.

Criminal gran gets knitting punishment

An 89-year-old grandmother who went on a tyre-wrecking spree in her street has been ordered to knit jumpers for her victims.

Heidi Kohl, from western Germany, was arrested after one neighbour spotted her slashing the tyres on a car. She later confessed that she had resorted to drastic measures after becoming “fed up” with so many drivers parking in her neighbourhood.

Kohl was initially told that she would be fined for her behaviour, but authorities came up with the more unusual punishment after the woman claimed she would be unable to pay.

A spokeswoman confirmed: “When she’s knitted the sweaters, then the matter will be over for us.”

Kohl is believed to have wrecked 50 tyres in total. Prosecutors have said that she will not offend again as she has since been moved to a retirement home.

At her age, that could be a life sentence!

My own knitting isn’t going along quite that poorly. I’m almost finished with the first sleeve of Butterfly. No photos because it just wasn’t photographing well today for whatever reason. I must confess, though, that I’m a little bit bored with it. (Warden! Let me outta here!) So, I’m also working on some small projects — the fall just seems like a good time to knit socks and gloves.

My hand model husband is out of town on business, so my sleeve board is filling in. (I have a secret passion. I love to iron. I love all of the accoutrements of ironing.)

But I digress.

Here is the first of a pair of fingerless gloves for men I’m working on. I’ve knit it out of Jaeger’s Extra Fine Merino in charcoal grey. That yarn usually knits to 5.5 stitches to the inch on a 3.75 or 4.0 millimeter (U.S. 5 or 6). I knit it down to 7 stitches to the inch on a 2.5 millimeter. That’s one of my favorite yarns; I have lots of it in my stash. Sadly, Jaeger decided to get out of the hand knitting yarn business, so I won’t be able to continue to buy it.

Just a simple little project so I have something portable to work on.

October 13, 2008

From Susan — A Brief Post and a Recipe for Nirvana

Filed under: Homage,Presto Chango — lv2knit @ 11:22 pm

Hi, remember me?  I’m Susan Rainey of The Rainey Sisters.  I share a blog with my sister, Sally.  We love to knit, talk about knitting, and share our passion for knitting with each other and our cyber-friends.  You would not know it from my recent lack of blogging, so I thought I would clue you in!

Fall is hitting us hard this evening — it may get down to 38 degrees tonight!  Fall means wearing sweaters so let’s get out there and crank out a few sweaters, peeps!

Do you recall this lovely vintage garment?  It was knit by my mom many years ago.  I am trying to re-create the pattern.  I started this little fantasy project last year, but the sucker was too big.  Off it went into the “some day” bin.  Well, I dragged it back out recently.  It is a great mindless project — at least the basic stockinette part.  Not so mindless when I have to figure out the shaping and raglans, but that is down the road a piece.

MomsMohair.jpg Mom\'s Dressy Mohair Sweater picture by lv2knit

I am using Rowan Kidsilk Aura (75% kid mohair, 25% silk; 82 yds/25 gms).  It is the chunky version of Kidsilk Haze and it is fabulous!  Tres cher, aussi.  The color here is not accurate — it has a creamy beige undertone — a pinkish warmth.  I love it, love it, love it.  it needs to be knit at a fairly loose gauge to take advantage of its loft.  When knit too firmly, this color (Ivory 750) looks dirty.

This is probably closer to the true color:

I also want to share a gift with you.  I called my folks the other day and Dad was making homemade onion rings — my gawd, that sounded fantastic!  He sent me the recipe, and I tried them out.  These onion rings are the best I have ever had in my entire life.  They are truly daydream worthy!  I do not do a lot of frying and they make a total mess of your kitchen, but every once in a while, don’t we deserve a sinfully decadent experience?  Dad says this batter works great on seafood, too.  M-m-m-m-m-m-m 😉 !

Sonny Bryan’s Onion Rings

October 9, 2008

From Sally — Just a Quick Note

Filed under: Updates — surly @ 12:51 pm

A few of you asked about the pattern for the red socks that I mentioned in my post yesterday:

That is the Lace Cuff Anklet pattern from Hand Jive Knits (maker of Nature’s Palette yarns). They do not sell their patterns directly, but if you google you can find it (and others) easily online.

For those of you who liked the buttons I’m using on Butterfly: They aren’t sewn on yet. I just pinned them in place to get an idea of how they’d look. They’re handmade glass buttons I purchased years ago.

October 8, 2008

From Sally — Seeing Red

Filed under: Butterfly — surly @ 1:58 pm

Red is my favorite color. I’m drawn to it always. A pair of shoes. A dress. A shock of hair.

Perhaps even a few skeins of yarn.

I love to knit red socks.

Red gloves:

I could knit with nothing but the red yarn in my stash and be busy for a very long time.

Right now I’m working on Hanne Falkenberg’s Butterfly. In red. You knit with three shades of reddish yarn to produce one deep color. I had started this sweater a long time ago, but had stopped because the yarns were not labeled as to color and I wasn’t sure I was using them in the right order. I decided it didn’t matter what the directions said, but it did matter what I liked. So I started it over about two weeks ago to see if I preferred a different way of using the yarn. These were my two “swatches”:

Although it’s a bit difficult to see in that photograph, one is brighter with a more poppy-like color dominating. The other is darker, and that is the one I decided to keep knitting.

I’ve now finished the back, one front, and part of the other front. Here it is in progress:

September 2, 2008

From Susan — FOs to Avoid FOs?

Filed under: Back Story,Current Projects,Presto Chango — lv2knit @ 4:17 pm

I am definitely exhibiting avoidance behavior!  I started two small projects in the past couple of days.  I’m not sure if I am avoiding the Aran Wrap Cardigan or the immediate comparison of my slow progress to Sally’s. 

I wanted to make a sweater for a co-worker who is expecting in November.  I was thinking of making the Baby Peapod from Interweave but I had it confused with “Presto Chango.”  I like the idea of this sweater because you can make the front panel however you want so it will work for either a boy or a girl.  We know my work peep is expecting a boy, but I made the standard lacey panel to be ready for Baby #2 if it’s a girl AND to gauge the panel’s size.  I’ll make a more boyish, cabled panel also.  But what was I thinking with white ??

I adapted this pattern to avoid seams.   I have nothing against seams per se, but they are bulky in worsted weight yarn on a baby’s small sweater. 


Presto Chango in Berroco Comfort (2 skeins), Size 7 needles

My adaptations:
Cast on the stitch count for the full back and both sleeves using a provisional cast on. Work to the neck opening and add a ball of yarn to work the top of both fronts at once. Once the sleeves are done, place sleeve sts on four separate lengths of waste yarn: right sleeve front, right sleeve back, left sleeve front, left sleeve back. Now join the fronts and the back: knit across left front, back, right front. Knit back and forth across these three sections until proper length; decrease per directions before switching to seed stitch at bottom border. Graft sleeves together or use a 3-needle bind off — I grafted mine.

One More State Fair Story
I got a phone call from a man stating he was a Minnesota state fair official.  He said he needed to verify that “Lyra” was crocheted.  I told him it was knitted, not crocheted.  He said my ribbons would be confiscated because it was not crocheting.  I told him that the lot specifically included knitting, tatting, and crocheting, to which he responded, “Oh, then that’s okay.  That means you will also win a bottle of wine!”  Huh??!!  WTF?  A bottle of wine??  Then he said, “You can pick it up at _______’s [my neighbor’s] house.”   Man, he got me on that one!  Whew!  Anyway, he delivered a lovely bottle of wine and homemade bread to my house — I think to make up for the heart attack he gave me!   So, I made the Winecozy from Knitty.com for my crazy neighbor!

I used some yarn I had on hand.  I think it looks better in the picture than it does in person!


Another excuse to use my pom pon maker!!!

I’ll make the cabled baby panel tonight and then I’ll work on the Aran Wrap in earnest — and, have a better excuse for being so far behind Surly ! 😉

August 8, 2008

From Sally — Premature Blocking

Filed under: Paisley Long Shawl — surly @ 9:01 am

I’ve been nervous about my Paisley Shawl. Despite reader assurances that it “blocks long,” I had a few doubts. For one thing, when I finished the first half of the shawl it was 27 inches wide and only 18 or 19 inches long. When finished, the shawl is supposed to be about 77 inches long and 29 inches wide. I’ve knit a lot of shawls and I know how much lace blocks, but the proportions seemed odd to me. So, I did a “partial block” or “block as you go.” I briefly soaked what I had knit and then did a quickie block. (As you may recall, this shawl is started in the middle on a provisional cast on; I bound off the finished half but left the provisional cast on in place when I did this block.)

INSERT SIGH OF RELIEF HERE.

It will work. Here is the partial shawl on Lucy (yes, I know — she needs some clothes. Susan keeps telling me that.)

When I finish knitting the entire thing, I’ll do a more exacting block of the entire piece. At least I now know that the knitting is not in vain.

I’ve already undone the provisional cast on and placed the shawl back on the needles so I can knit the other half:

It’s going to look very odd as I continue knitting. One half will be blocked and the other half will be a shriveled mess.

In the meantime, Susan and I are both getting very excited about our fall projects. More on that soon.

July 30, 2008

From Sally — Where in the World Have I Been?

Filed under: Paisley Long Shawl,Sally's Ode to Joy — surly @ 2:59 pm

Whew. I’m back and I finally have a computer. We went on a long drive cross-country to see my parents, my daughter (and my little assistant), and my husband’s family. Too much driving — once was definitely enough. We did have some fun along the way.

That wasn’t the most exciting part of our trip. That honor goes to suddenly coming across a tractor trailer wheel lying on its side in our lane on Interstate 80 with a huge truck in the lane next to us and a ditch on the other side. More thrills in those few seconds than in my entire paragliding. Fortunately, our car was drivable, just barely, and we made it home. Le sigh.

On the road, we saw some famous people:

More important, my hands are feeling much better and I’ve been able to do some knitting. While on the trip, I finished one of the sleeves to my Ode to Joy short cardigan (aka the Bolero).

I’m feeling a little bit unmotivated to pick up the stitches for the other sleeve. I added about two inches of length to the sleeve by doing additional rows of each color sequence starting about three inches from the top of the sleeve. (You pick up and knit from the top down.) The first one was a slo-o-o-o-w knit and I think I’m associating working on it with spending hours upon hours in the car. I need to get over it and just do it.

In the meantime, I’ve been working on the Paisley Long Shawl from Fiddlesticks Knitting. It’s a lovely piece and a relatively easy knit even though the lace is worked on both right and wrong side rows. You start in the middle of the shawl using a provisional cast on and then work your way to each end. I’m on the large set of “Paisley” patterns (on my first half of the shawl).

I’m making my shawl out of Wagtail’s 4-ply Fine Kid Mohair in Midnight Red (100 grams equals 410 yards). It’s a beautiful yarn with a nice sheen, but now that I am working on it I’m a little concerned that the color is very close to the Zephyr I used for my Peacock Shawl.

I do wonder how my shawl, which looks even more shrunken and misshapen then most unblocked lace, will ever resemble the beautiful model. Let’s cross our fingers.

P.S.Tangled Yoke: Someone asked about the bobbles on The Tangled Yoke. I’m not sure I understood your question — there are only bobbles at each end of the design as you go around the yoke. There aren’t bobbles elsewhere in the cables.

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