theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Let’s face it.  Most of the time, making people cry is a bad thing.  But sometimes, it feels pretty good.  Like last night, when Mary Sue saw the scarf that I fixed for her DIL.  There were tears, and it felt pretty good!

And today, my daughter and I packed up a box of food — a family meal with all the fixins — to take over to her friend’s house.  Her friend’s mom was just diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, with a very poor prognosis.  Jena took the box over and spoke to the mom.  Again, there were tears, and Jena felt good doing something special for her friend’s family.

Doing something special for others, even strangers, can make one feel pretty good.  Knitters are known for their generosity and kindness, and I have tapped this trait in the past!  I would like to take advantage of your generous spirits once again.

Many of you may remember the “Wrapped in Care” Program I posted about a couple of years ago.  It is part of the Bereavement Program at United Hospital and Children’s Hospitals and Clinics – St. Paul.  The program helps mothers deal with infant loss and the pain of leaving the hospital with empty arms.  Handknit shawls are provided to these women for two reasons: to give them something tangible to wrap themselves in and also to provide a suitable backdrop for the last photos they will ever have of their infant. 

Many of you knit shawls in the past — so many that Dee Moore (the chaplain and my contact) was overwhelmed!  Well now they have decided to expand the program and model it after the “Care Carts” used in hospice settings.  They will put together a cart with comforting items for use by the grieving family in their time of loss and mourning.  One of the items Dee would like to be able to provide on each cart is a handknit shawl.  Either the mother or other grieving family member would receive the shawl as a gift in remembrance of their lost child.

Just writing this makes me teary.  I have not suffered infant loss, but the pain must be unbearable.  If any of you are able, please knit a shawl for this worthwhile program.  The details are in this flyer — which is aways available on the righthand side bar.  Also available are a couple of very simple patterns.  I also started a Ravelry group called Wrapped in Care which has been pretty dormant of late, but feel free to join, post your projects and suggestions, and ask questions.  There is no urgency to this request as the need is ongoing.

We can’t make the pain go away, but we can let the person know that someone cares.  And that feels pretty good.

Here we go again! Today we are launching the third in our series of five glove patterns. Not your garden variety gloves, we named this design ‘Snapdragon’ because the flowers can be changed in a snap.

First the gloves are knit — with a Leaf Panel that comes with both charted and line-by-line instructions. Then comes the fun part. Decorate your gloves with flowers knit from a variety of colors to create as many gardens as you want – by snapping them in place. Or use the same color yarn for a monochromatic look. You can make these your own with your color choices, embellishments, and imagination.

Winter Blues and Fall Foliage Colorways

Change them in a snap to a completely different look:

Spring Mix

Don’t feel like dealing with snaps? The flowers can be sewn directly to the gloves as a permanent feature. The Grey Garden Gloves below have sewn-on flowers and are embellished lightly with beads to create a formal, snowy look.

Grey Gardens

Quick Facts about the Pattern:

Sizes: Small, medium, and large. Hand circumference 6.5 (7, 7.5) inches.

Gauge: 35 stitches and 48 rounds in stockinette stitch = 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches).

Yarn: One skein of Dream in Color’s Smooshy with Cashmere (70% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon; 400 yards/113 grams). Shown in Starless Sky. Other yarns of similar weight can be substituted. Grey Garden version knit using two skeins of Classic Elite’s Fresco (60% wool, 30% Alpaca, 10% Angora; 164 yards/50 grams). Shown in Parchment. In addition to main color of yarn, pattern requires small amounts of contrasting fingering weight yarn for flowers.

Snaps: Size 1 snaps (7/16 inch) in sufficient quantity for all sets of snap-on flowers. (Quantity depends upon how many flowers the knitter chooses to make; flowers can be sewn on instead of affixed with snaps.)

Instructions: Leaf Panel directions are given in chart form and line-by-line written instructions. Included with the pattern is our ten-page Glove Guide, which provides detailed information on how to get a perfect, custom fit when knitting gloves.

Cost: $6.00

How to Purchase:
The Snapdragon pattern is available through Ravelry. Whether or not you are a Ravelry member, you can purchase the pattern by clicking the link below. You will be taken directly to a purchase page; after purchase, you will receive a link to download the PDF of the pattern.

To Receive a Loyalty Discount:
In order to reward our loyal customers, those who have purchased both of our previous glove patterns (The Bijoux Beaded Glove and The Smart Glove) will receive a 50% discount on this purchase. You will receive this discount on any glove pattern if two others are purchased (purchases you have already made will count). This offer will be extended to include our two unreleased patterns as well.  Unfortunately, this discount can only be activated if you are a member of Ravelry. Fortunately, Ravelry is free and easy to join. We highly recommend Ravelry to all knitters.

We hope you love this glove as much as we do. Now go snap to it! 😉

PS From Susan — I was so touched by everyone’s response to my scarf surgery!  Thank you for your kind words.

…and needs malpractice insurance!! A good friend sent me a picture of a scarf that was literally in shreds and asked if I could do anything with it:

This picture is of the center (middle) of the scarf.  The two ends were in better shape.

Uh, no!  Then she explained that it had belonged to this woman’s father and he had died recently.  It had great sentimental value.  Would I look at it?  Okay — I told her to bring it to our knitting group.

She brought the scarf and the mother-in-law of the woman who now owns the scarf.  The MIL also comes to our knitting group from time to time and is a lovely person.  It was hard to say no to this woman’s pleas, but I did say there were “issues.”

Issue 1:  Look at it!  It is a shard!  Shredded.  Nothing there!  The yarn was thin everywhere, not just in the area with the most holes.  It would be difficult to salvage sufficient yarn with the strength to do any grafting.

Issue 2: It is Brioche Stitch.  I have never really knit the Brioche Stitch before and after googling it, could not find anyone who had grafted it.  But, you know how I love a challenge.

I took the scarf home and proceeded to do a practice swatch of Brioche just to understand the structure.  The stitch looks like a complex 1×1 rib: the purl sts are slipped with yarn in front, and then the knit stitch is worked without moving the yarn back into proper position.  This creates a yarnover, which is knit togther with the knit st on the following row.

Once I got the hang of the stitch, I dismanteled the scarf and arranged the sts on needles the way I wanted to have them for grafting.  I knew that I would need to graft two rows to create the one row I needed.  (I will do a later post and show some pictures of the process…maybe!). 

The first row of the two (the right side) went as planned and looked pretty good.  As expected, the yarn I was using to graft shredded every few sts.  I had at least 20 ends when the whole thing was finished!

The wrong side did not look so good.  Once I got it done I realized that I had missed a critical step.  But, I am just stubborn enough that I plan on figuring out how to do this without the mistake!!  We shall see.

The finished right side:

You can see the line where I grafted, but I think it looks pretty good.  The wrong side is another story:

It is definitely more noticeable.  This is where I will need to file a malpractice claim!  I hope she will be pleased.   It is still as fragile as a dandelion puff, but at least it looks like a scarf.

And now, I just have to find that next great knitting project…I am thinking either the orange or the black and white:

What do you think?

PS: A couple of you asked about the damage to the scarf — what the heck happened?  I think it is just from overuse and abuse.  If I find out anything different, I will report back.

We mean, get The Smart Glove — the second design in our gloves series.

Fun. Funky. Functional.  The glove  that comes with its own “apps.”  This is the smart glove for your smart phone!   You will want to wear these every day.

The Smart Glove features a long gauntlet cuff that can be worn three ways — as a gauntlet, folded, or over the thumb to create an extra layer of warmth: like having a glovelet on your glove.  It also features an optional “pop top” for your texting finger and/or thumbs.

Sally made her gloves out of Malabrigo Sock in two colors, Solis and Lettuce:

Susan used Berocco Ultra Alpaca Light for her Smart Gloves, which has a larger gauge than Malabrigo.  This adaptation is also included in the pattern.

Sizes:  Small, medium, and large.  To fit hand circumference 6.5 (7, 7.5) inches.

As with all of our glove designs, we have included our ten-page Glove Guide, which provides detailed information on how to get a perfect, custom fit.

This pattern is available for $6 and can be purchased by clicking the “Buy Now” button below or on the right sidebar.

Yes, like building a house brick by brick, you build a sweater stitch by stitch.  And, like a house, you need to keep your crew on task!  I am building a Brownstone for my husband.

Brownstone by Jared Flood

This classic style looks very much like a sweater my DH had when we were first dating — he wore it ALL the time, so I am hoping he will approve.  It will be , might be, should be a Christmas present if I build it in time!

I decided to go ahead and actually use the yarn in the pattern: Jared’s Shelter in color Nest:

I started this last summer during Knitters Camp as my mindless, knit-in-the-round stockinette knitting.  What you see here is the body kind of folded in half to fit on my scanner.  Jared started this with the sleeves, but being the rebel that I am, I started with the body (You mean the way most sweaters start?  Yeah.  You’re a rebel all right.).  The yarn has a nubby thing going on, but you still get a very nice fabric.  I love the yarn and knitting with it. 

Plan B:  If I can’t get it done in time for Christmas, John’s birthday is in February!

PS:  Kmkat asked, “Apparently your husband doesn’t read the blog? Or notice what you are knitting?”  In a word, no.  Semi-oblivious!

We mean it when we say we’ve been knitting our fingers to the bone…lots and lots of fingers! We have been busy designing and test knitting gloves and are very excited to launch the first in our series of original glove patterns.

Gloves-Gloves-Gloves
We love the gorgeous sock yarns that are available nowadays. But how do you show off your hand knit socks without looking conspicuous? With gloves, all you need to do is wave! With that in mind, The Rainey Sisters (yes, we’re talking about ourselves in the third person) set out to design a collection of glove patterns that take advantage of all of the beautiful hand painted fingering yarns out there.

Sally’s Bijoux Beaded Gloves in Malabrigo Ochre and Tortoise Mix Beads

The first to debut is our Bijoux Beaded Glove Pattern. These glamorous gloves evoke Hollywood in the Forties. They feature a split beaded cuff and optional tucks on the back of the hand. The beaded knitting adds brilliance and elegance, but is easy to do. Full instructions are given in the pattern.

With each pattern purchase we also include our ten-page Glove Guide.

The Glove Guide provides detailed information to ensure a perfect, custom fit. We dissect the anatomy of gloves and provide tips for perfecting each element.

Quick facts about the pattern:

Sizes: Small, medium, and large. Hand circumference 6.5 (7, 7.5) inches. The Glove Guide also provides enough information to adapt sizes.

Gauge: 35 stitches and 48 rounds in stockinette stitch = 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches).

Yarn: one skein of Malabrigo Sock Yarn (100% Merino, 440 yards/100 grams). Other yarns of similar weight can be substituted; one pair of the largest size takes approximately 300-325 yards. Gloves shown in Ochre and Aguas.

Beads: Size 8 glass beads in coordinating color. Pattern provides the details.

Instructions: Techniques used include provisional cast on, simple bead knitting (directions provided), built-in i-cord, grafting. These gloves do not require the ability to read a chart.

The pattern is priced at $6.00 and is available through Ravelry. Whether or not you are a Ravelry member, you can purchase the pattern by clicking the link below or on the right side bar. You will be taken directly to a purchase page; after purchase, you will receive a link to download the PDF of the pattern and a separate PDF for the Glove Guide.

Each pattern will have its own unique personality. We have really enjoyed exploring the potential of glove designs and hope you feel tempted to try at least one of them out.  Gloves are great fun to make and show off not only your yarn, but your knitting skill as well.

I heard that Lila and Claudine’s recently completed a major renovation and expansion, so of course my peeps and I had to check it out.  When we hear of such things, our first response is, “Field trip!!”

They opened up several rooms upstairs, each with a different theme or focus.

Two views of The Sock Room:

The Sparkle Room with sequined and metallic yarns, and lots of bling (though bling was EVERYWHERE!):

A room full of just super cute stuff:

The “I’m Too Cute for My Shirt” room:

They have really expanded their gifts and jewelry and still stock an amazing amount of yarn.  It was obvious that a lot of thought, care and elbow grease went into their new concept.  Polly is such an artist — which really shows through.  And it’s not that long of a drive from the Cities — maybe 20-30 minutes?  Definitely worth a visit!

You must think we have dropped off the planet!  We have not been great at posting lately, but not because we aren’t busily knitting our fingers to the bone. 

We will share our progress soon.  In the meantime, we are experiencing the warmest fall I can remember — upper 70’s and absolutely gorgeous.  I can walk the woof-woof at night without a jacket!  I’m sure it will turn soon, but we are sure enjoying it. 

Since I don’t have anything of my own to share at the moment, I thought I would share a pattern book I found on Ravelry:

Killybegs by Carol Feller, published in Contemporary Irish Knits

There are some super cute patterns in this book.  They really get you in a cabling mood!  I ordered my copy and am anxiously awaiting its arrival.

Contemporary Irish Knits, Carol Feller (Ravelry Link)

Lettie is always thrilled to go on a field trip.  She loves going to work with me and thrives on being in the limelight.  But she is very sensitive about the, um, word headless. 

Lettie came to work with me to model the Damson Shawlette I made to donate for a silent auction fundraiser.  She did a stellar job and the shawl was purchased by a friend of mine!  Yay!

It will be fun to think of something special for next year.  And it’s nice to get Lettie out of the house once in a while.

Bread is supposed to be the staff of life.  For me, knitting is the staff of life.  So, the combination of the two seems pretty fitting! 

I finally finished what should have been a “quickie” knitting project, but it seemed to drag on forever.  Add the fact that I am not thrilled with the outcome, and you can be sure this will not be added to my Top Ten Favorite Knitting Projects.  The project in question is my Bread Basket Liner. 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with the pattern — it is really cute and is nicely written.  I think the problem was with my yarn choice.  I was trying to use yarn from my stash (::cough:: cheap ::cough::) — my denim Riveting leftovers.  I had to knit the thing 20 inches square so it would shrink to 17-18″.  That is a lot of extra knitting for no real good reason.  Plus, the yarn just doesn’t look that good for this purpose.  I think a cotton-linen washable mix would be better.

I took the shopping advice of a reader and bought the Tree of Life Bread Basket and Warmer from SERRV.  I got three: two for gifts and one for moi.  They are wonderful — a little more than I had planned on spending (::cough:: cheap ::cough::), but really high quality.

I may or may not knit a liner for the gifts: a nice linen or damask napkin would work, too.  I may save my knitting for more rewarding projects, although I just might try different yarn and make another for me, to see if I like it better.