So, two posts in as many days!  I’m sure you are simply reeling with excitement!  Actually, this is an update that I promised a couple of days ago on my River Wrap/Cowl/Whatchamacallit.

Done.  Blocked.  Dry.  Worn!!  I love it.  Simple to knit.  Easy and versatile to wear.  The Susurro softened beautifully and has a lovely glow about it.  It only took a skein and a half for the largest size!  This might even be something to knit for someone for gift giving.

The only thing I did differently was to do a pick up/bind off along the short edges of the split “hem.”  I don’t know if that was even necessary, but I thought it would add some stability.  The yarn called for, DanDoh Yarn Silk +, is lighter weight and marled.  Beautiful!  Anything kind of lightweight, lineny/raw silky, would work well.  Shibui Twig comes to mind.

PS to Augusta: I did not block the long strip before I picked up the top part.

I’m a bit late for my annual state fair wrap up!  Maybe a year late??  I went yesterday with my husband, brother, and SIL.  Friend Kim opted out due to COVID concerns.  I can’t blame her and maybe should have followed her cue!

My Crew: SIL in front, brother to left, hubby in the middle, and me

We got there about 9am.  John dropped Barb and me off at the front gate (yay!), then parked 3 minutes from the gate!  Yay!  We were there right after the doors opened to the Creative Activities Building.

We entered and saw a few of my things with 2nd-3rd-4th place ribbons.  Not thinking it’s a great year!  I looked around for my most ambitious entry and couldn’t find it.  It was not in the sweater cases…but then I spotted my Tapestry Wrap, tucked away in the quilt case:

I was keeping this project under wraps with the fair in mind.  It was the Fair Isle Club 6 design by Marie Wallin.  Sally and I both bought kits and knit them this past winter.  Will post much more about this project later!

I was thrilled that this sweater was recognized in this way.  It was so much work — but I loved every minute of it!!  I noodled around and found my other entries.  This little hat got 2nd place:

It is called Beanstalk — knit in my favorite Fresco yarn, with a pink beaded tassel.  Lavender Fizz got a blue and was displayed so poorly I could not get a good picture!!

I was thrilled that Stars and Stripes also got a blue ribbon!  It is such a lovely Carol Sunday creation!

I entered Pagan Sky in the seniors category:

Because I had knit so many Baby Ganseys, I entered two of them in different categories.  One got a blue and one got a 4th!  Go figure!

Sandness, Mulled Cider, and Katie’s Kep got 2nd place ribbons, other entries got either no ribbon or lower.  Then it was off to the Horticulture Building to track down my Queen Bee-nie!!  It looked so cute in the case!  I was pleased with 2nd place, that’s for sure!

Friend Kathy entered her gnome Gnectar in Honey Bee (not same category as me) and snagged a 3rd!

The fair itself was great: cool weather, small crowds, NO lines at the food booths!  I ate all my faves: Corn Dog, cheese curds, and Big Fat Bacon!!  Oh, how I love me some Big Fat Bacon!

I always thought I was a Corn Dog fan — not a Pronto Pup girl.  But John got a Pronto Pup and it was BETTER!!  What??!!??  I was shocked!  The quality of the dog itself was superb.  I think I’m going to have to rethink my Corn Dog vote!  We go again next week with the girls so I will have a chance to really study this! 😉

We left at about noon and missed a HUGE thunder/lightening storm!  The weather has been super rainy, which is great for our drought conditions, but not so great for the fair.  We will see what happens next week!

PS to Sue: I’m no Pronto Pup/Corn Dog expert, but my understanding is that it’s all in the batter: a cornbread-type batter vs a pancake-type batter.  Corn dogs have a cornbread coating that’s a bit sweeter.

PS to Marla: we love the apple cider freezies, too.  They’re $2 now instead of a buck, but still worth it on a hot day!!

PS to Twinset Ellen:  I’m not sure if your link worked for others, so adding it here: Pronto Pup/Corn Dog Challenge.  It sounds like you had a bad testing day!  Neither even seemed edible!!  I will be testing again tomorrow (Monday, August 30, 2021). 🙂

I am knitting on something small, simple, fun, and mindless!  And loving it!  The pattern is a wrap called [DanDoh] River.  I am using Susurro (color, Sunset) that I had in stash.

Here’s what it looks like:

Surly picked up the “real” yarn today, so we’ll both be knitting these about the same time and can compare.  Surly’s cor is a black/white marl, which gives it an interesting charcoal effect.

And from both of us, thank you for your warm and wonderful comments — we really appreciate your support!!

It’s been a tough couple of months for The Rainey Sisters.  In June, Susan found out that she has breast cancer (on her birthday no less!).  Sally immediately went in for the mammogram that she had postponed during Covid.  As usual, she was following in her sister’s footsteps.  Susan had two surgeries in July and Sally had surgery this week.  The good news is we are both very early stage and very treatable.  No chemo for either of us.  Just radiation therapy.  We can still knit, though any plans for a nude photo shoot have been completely ruled out (for Susan anyway!).

We wanted to share this with our loyal readers and urge you all to get your mammogram, get vaccinated, get a colonoscopy, and take care of yourselves!!

Surly visiting after Susan’s First Surgery

PS: Our sisterly sweaters are both Woodfords!  Surly just finished hers.

Hello, everyone!  I know it’s been a while!

Many readers will know that I like to enter knitting into the Minnesota State Fair.  It makes attending the fair much more fun!  This year, someone mentioned that the Horticulture exhibits have a honey bee section where they accept entries on all things “bee” including something wearable.  My brain immediately went to some bee mitts that I had seen on Ravelry called Hey Bee-Otch.  Once I started looking at the pattern, I decided I didn’t want to knit mittens.  Decided on my own hat design after all.  I call my hat Queen Bee-nie.

The hat is a hodge podge of techniques: beads, intarsia, stranding, duplicate stitch, embroidery, twisted cord, and a pom for good measure!!  I colored the wings with food coloring.

You can see the hive overflowing with honey, bees buzzing around, and the queen’s crown on the right.  The other side of the hat is the same design.  The whole time I was knitting, I thought whatta mistake!  But the lil sucker is growing on me!

I am still working on my Pink Fizz, and might even get it done some day!

PS to Millie regarding Pink Fizz: I didn’t split the bottom ribbing because I converted it into a cardigan.   The split ribbed hem works better for a pullover.  That’s my logic anyway!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had trouble finding anything to go with my new Pagan Sky Cardigan.  I thought, NO PROBLEMO!  I figured I would simply go to my LYS and pick up a tonal gold yarn.  Nope.  I did end up ordering yarn from Simply Socks: Life in the Long Grass Silk Merino Sock, color Gorse.  Three skeins was enough to knit up a revised Tegna that I call Tegna Dreams.  As I have often done in the past, I used the lace border of BooKnits Sweet Dreams to create the picot points that to me resembled the colorwork of Pagan Sky:

The color isn’t a perfect match, but kind of blends in a non-matchy-matchy kind of way.

Added picots to the neck and sleeve bands:

The original Tegna starts at the hem and works bottom up.  I did a provisional cast on, worked down to the hem, activated the sts and then worked up.  Overall, pretty pleased!!

PS to Stashdragon — the butterflies are on the tablecloth.  I bought it from Amazon.

It’s been cold and raining in Colorado for almost a week.  We’ve had minor flash flooding, mudslides, and hail.  The perfect time to finish a summer tee!

This is the Boxy Lace Tee from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.  It’s a simple, relatively quick knit.  The lace pattern is easy to memorize.  I knit mine out of Woolfolk Strå, which is 50% merino and 50% linen.  The mix of the two fibers gives the yarn a heathered, somewhat rustic look.  It’s nice yarn.

My color is S2.  It doesn’t know if it’s beige or pink and it probably veers more towards beige than I’d like.  Still, it’s a wearable neutral.   The pattern comes in a cropped or longer length.  Cropped garments aren’t my friend so I lengthened mine.

I had a lot of trouble taking pictures because of the weather.  Lucy almost blew away when I posed her outside.  Scroll down to see what was in the meadow that day.  Cuteness overload.

Triplet fawns!  So adorable but what a handful (hoof-ful?) for mom.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG SISTER!

One of the worst parts of COVID has been not having any knitting adventures together.  Sure, we talk on the phone almost every day but it’s not quite the same!

Here’s to (everyone) having more fun in the coming year!  In the meantime, please wish Susan a Happy Birthday with me!

PS from Susan — Thanks for the birthday greetings.  It really means a lot!!

Yep.  The final Niebling of my knitting career.  I decided I just can’t knit certain things anymore due to the arthritis in my hands.  I’m a bit sad, but resigned.  I mean, I can still knit!  But, not everything.

For instance, I thought I lost a favorite glove (a Snapdragon).  I was bereft, not for the glove per se, but for the fact that I couldn’t knit its replacement.  I really doubt I could do ten fingers on those tiny needles!!

Jesien is supposed to be easy as Nieblings go.  Right off the bat there was a pattern error.  Okay, regroup and move on.  On infamous round 123, another error.  I wasn’t sure which direction to go, so I threw caution to the wind and went off the grid.  Mistake.  Huge.  Had to rip back.  But, you can’t rip out 750 sts!  It would disembowel if you just pulled out the needle!  So I inserted a smaller needle through each stitch 10 rows back…and it actually worked!!  Jesien was saved.

I figured out the issue with the pattern and soldiered on.  I had ideas on how to “jazz up” Jesien, but in the end went old school.  Sometimes simplicity is best.  No sense in gilding the lily.

I used Aunt Lydia’s Crochet Cotton, which some look down upon, but I have liked knitting with it before.

I measured every point for consistent distance from the center and the next point.  If you don’t do that, it’s noticeable.

Pre-blocking:

So, if you see me knitting another Niebling, chalk it up to “007 Syndrome” — never say never!! 😉

PS to Suzan: Cotton is particularly hard to knit!  But, it was weird.  My wool Mulled Cider killed my hands.  It was very rustic yarn.  Soft merino is easier on my hands!!

PS2 to Annie: Good luck with your cataract surgery.  I just had both eyes done in March and April.  Still can’t see!  They zapped my eyes with a laser last Thursday to help improve my vision.  I’m hoping it will get better soon.

PS3 to Renee: More about cataracts.  I think it’s weird that most eye surgeons tell people who have been near sighted their whole lives to become far sighted.  I had lasik surgery 16 years ago ago and had mono vision: right eye near vision, left eye far.  My husband did it and hasn’t needed glasses since!  My brain kind of fought it: the near eye blurred the far one and vice versa.  So I opted for glasses…pretty weak ones actually.  I can see to my bathroom mirror and dinner plate perfectly and can pass my drivers license exam without glasses.  I decided to keep mono vision for my cataract lenses because it’s what I’m used to and I didn’t want to give up what I had.  I had hoped to get multi-focal lenses (the expensive ones) but discovered you can’t get them if you’ve had lasik!

We just posted a new tip in our Ravelry group forum.  It is a tip on how to manage YOs when going from purl to knit.  The ones that are way bigger than all the others!!  Susan used the tip when knitting her Mulled Cider Cardigan (bad, bad picture 🙁 ).