theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Twinsetjan commented on my last post:

“Yay for knitting warriors!!  Twinsetellen got me into the next level of knitting while I was stationed in Iraq.  She sent me a sock pattern, yarn and dpns and told me to just figure it out.  (Up till then I’d been a very basic knitter!)  Knitting in an up-armored HMWVV is one of my favorite memories.”

I love reading Ellen and Jan’s blog because we share so much in common (and they happen to be very interesting people): two knitting sisters, one in Minnesota, one in or near our nation’s capitol.  I really like their blog format of writing a letter to the other in way of an update.

Ellen was certainly instrumental in advancing Jan’s knitting to the next level!!  Surly did (and still does)  the same for me.  Years ago, she got kind of pushy and told me I HAD to branch out beyond knitting in one color.  She dragged me downtown to Ram Wools yarn shop (yes, it used to be located in Minneapolis, right downtown in kind of the warehouse district).  My daughter was 3 at the time, so I figured if I made something for her, it would be easier.  This pattern is an Annabel Fox design from an old Rowan pattern book (Rowan Children #1), and is called the Bill and Ben Cardigan.

That same day I bought some sale yarn in apricot and after completing the above, I tackled another intarsia design from the same book and designer, called Magic Dragon:

The rest is history…once I started using more than one color, I never looked back!  I guess I have to thank Sally for pushing me beyond my perceived limits and expanding my knitting world.

I certainly enjoyed myself at Eat-O-Rama -er- Knit-O-Rama!  What a great day — kudos to the fabulous planning committee. 

Let me get the important part out of the way first: the food.  The event was held at The Northland Inn in Brooklyn Park.  I live in Brooklyn Park and have attended many events there. 

Our Room

Outside our room was the snack kiosk.  In the morning, it was stocked with a continental breakfast: pastries, juice, coffee, hard boiled eggs, bagels, fruit, yogurt, etc.  Wonderful.   For lunch, we had the pleasure of sampling their famous buffet: salads, hot entrees, made-to-order grill (I had walleye!), specialty desserts…yum!  After that, we returned to our meeting room and discovered that the breakfast kiosk had been replaced with afternoon snacks: cheese & crackers, bars & cookies, pretzels, gummy bears, malted milk balls, and assorted sodas.  Okay.  I was in heaven!!  Clearly, I could live there and be happy for life!

The Program
A few months ago, an article appeared in the StarTribune about an American soldier in Iraq who was himself a knitter and taught his fellow soldiers how to knit.  Many of us implored the Guild to arrange for him to speak to our group.  Staff Sargent John Sorich IV was the keynote presenter at Knit-O-Rama.

Staff Sargent John Sorich IV

It was more than amazing.  John started out by describing the role his platoon (? right word ?) played in Iraq building bridges for use by both the military and the civilian population.   He talked about the unbearable heat, the emotional toll, and the sense of accomplishment.  After that, he talked about knitting — he learned here in the States and brought his yarn and needles with him.  Despite a bit of ribbing (pun intended!) from his peers, he eventually convinced a few of his buddies to give it a try to help stave off the boredom of their non-working hours.  Several of them really enjoyed it.  He had pictures and video of their knitting group and brought FOs to share.

The curved item in the upper right of the last picture is the ammo magazine cover he knitted from parachute cord, using pencils for knitting needles to get gauge!  You’ll note that all of his FOs are knit in “army green” using vintage patterns from a WWII knitting book.  I believe he said the color is Cascade 220 # 9547.   He said his current project is his first sweater, in (you guessed it) #9547 using one of the vintage sweater patterns!!

John was a great speaker, humble and very interesting.  It was wonderful hearing his story and we were all very grateful that he shared it with us.

Next was the Ugliest Knitting contest — very few entries!!  I think most of us rip out or discard our failures (or gift them….!!), so not many people had anything to show.

Rox Richardson and I were next up for Stump Ask the Expert.  

Susan and Rox

Rox is well known on Ravelry for answering technical knitting questions.  She writes for the Ravelry Newsletter and has a group devoted to her called Rox Rocks with over 550 members.  We answered questions from the audience for about an hour.  Last on the agenda was yours truly, discussing how to enter items in the Minnesota State Fair.

All in all, I think everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did.  I sure hope the Guild offers more of these events in the future.

From Chloe:

“I read somewhere a supposition by a knitter that the reason Middle Ages knitted stockings etc., looked so evenly stitched was the mere passage of time, the element that allowed every knitted item – eventually! – to block out evenly.   I have always thought it useful to hold that thought!”

I had heard that, too, about an Egyptian form of knitting…after thousands of years it looked like a machine had made it!  Egads!  Can we wait that long??!!??

Well, not much.  Both Surly and I are working on some ‘stealth’ projects, though mine will be wrapping up very soon.

As I was looking through some old boxes the other day, I ran across this little baby blankie.  I knit it in the 80’s, before I knew if and when we would become parents.  So, each stitch was knit out of love for a baby not yet born.

After our girls joined our family, they both used this blanket to play with their dolls, so when I happened upon it, it was in kind of rough shape!  I washed it, but it still looks pretty rough.  I used [crappy] acrylic yarn — it was for a baby, after all! — and it is now fuzzy and pilled.  But just finding that blanket was like stepping into the past and returning to a time of anticipation and unfettered optimism — the kind of optimism you can only feel before reality sets in!!

I am thinking about my next project and am narrowing it down. I did buy yarn today so THAT part is taken care of!  One candidate is the Alexandria Cardigan, which I highlighted a week or so ago and the other is the Jali Cardigan from Summer 2010 Interweave Knits.  I bought Shepherd’s Wool in a natural off white.  This yarn is deliciously soft and knits up beautifully.  I really like it!  I know off white sounds boring, but I keep wanting to grab a cream-colored cardi and do not have one!  Now I need to swatch and think…

PS to those with questions about the source of this lace pattern: The pattern stitch is called Rose Trellis Lace and is in the first Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker.  It is written in long hand notation (all 44 rows!) instead of charted.  At the time, I was not a lace knitter and charts were a rarity.  Now, the first thing I would do is to chart it.  By doing so, I know I would have made some changes (such as not starting partial patterns along the side edges).  I can’t even believe I sat there reading each line as I worked this, but I remember having that piece of paper with me and following along!!

PPS: Alexandria won!

Hope you were able to enjoy this long weekend, the harbinger of summer.  It is one of those odd holidays because it is based on sadness, but is celebrated with picnics and water sports.  I feel conflicted because I have personal reasons for honoring this day. 

So, enjoy the beautiful weekend.  Enjoy the rite of spring and summer.  And honor the sacrifice of our service men and women, and the families they left behind.

As many of you already know, our blog has been hit hard by a hacker/virus/whatever!  My own computer became riddled with disease and caused me no end of despair. 

Sally is the “man behind the curtain” here at The Rainey Sisters and spent HOURS working on the problem, both with our host-site geeks and through trial and error. 

It appears that the problem has been remedied, at least for the time being.  These viruses are pesky and determined, so we can’t make any guarantees!  We are sorry if this caused you any problems and hope things settle down.

Not a lot going on — a stealth project and little more — so I thought I would share some of the designs I have saved in my “favorites” file in Ravelry.  I LOVE the fact that you can ‘favorite’ both patterns and specific renditions of patterns for future reference.  It makes Rav worthwhile even if you do not want to catalog all of your WIPs and FOs or your yarn stash.

Here are a few that I have favorited recently:

Panda Silk DK Fan Shawl (free pattern) — it looks crocheted, but isn’t!

Ormolu by Barbara Gregory and offered in The Twist Collective — mosaic knitting which is not my favorite but the design is stunning…

Alexandria by Connie Chang Chinchio — classic and beautiful

Norwegian Rose Socks by Wendy Johnson of WendyKnits — nice if you like to knit socks!

Luiza by Jane Araujo — very pretty and downloadable for $5

This just proves how dangerous it is to explore Ravelry!!  I have no idea if I will ever get to any of these projects, but it is food for thought!

From Susan
Sally can be a sweet and generous lil thing as evidenced by the fact that she bought me a present at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  That place is a tough go if you do not want to spend money — Sally resisted many of the temptations, but not this one. 

She bought me a necklace kit from Just Our Yarn and also got one for herself.  The kit is called “Just Your Necklace.”  I think it is a pretty recent addition to their line up as it does not show up on their website or on the website of its designer, Betsy Hershberg of StudioB Knits.

The kit provides everything you need except the knitting needles (I did substitute a different clasp). I used a US size 2 and 1. The base yarn is Aziza, which is tinier-than-laceweight tencel. The kit has generous lengths of the yarn wound on spools because it takes far less than a skein of two different colors, and includes two different sizes of beads.

Susan’s Necklace

From Sally
The kits were flying off the shelves at the Just Our Yarn booth. I had to grab two before the hoarders got them! Susan, as usual, finished hers ahead of me and has been patiently waiting to post until I managed to knit mine. I knit it one and a half times because I kept changing my mind about which color to have as the focus. Susan adds: I also knit parts of mine twice because it looked sloppy with the size 2 on the tubular part.

Sally’s Necklace

Lucy’s wondering if it makes her look naked and headless. Yes, Lucy, it does.
 
It’s a quick knit, but a little fussy in parts.

PS: Sally and I received a message from Betsy Hershberg, the designer of our beaded necklaces:

“I am the designer of this necklace and I’m so glad you both enjoyed knitting it!  And you both did a fabulous job – both with the knitting AND the picture taking.  Just wanted to let you know that the kits are now available (as of 6/8/10) on the Just Our Yarn website: www.justouryarn.com.  I admit that we didn’t anticipate the immediate popularity of the kit, but lots of gorgeous color ways are now available online. There is also a direct link to the kit on my website at www.studiobknits.com.  Thanks so much for the great post!  Much appreciated.”

Thanks, Betsy!!!

A Knitmare on Elm Street, that is!  When Surly and I were at Yarnover, Sally picked up a darling project bag at Darn.Knit.Anyway’s booth.  I wanted it…I wanted it bad.  But Sally snagged the really cute one, so I moped.  However, thanks to Google and Etsy, we found the maker of these creepy-funny project bags.  She is Laura from Slipped Stitch Studios and sells a lot of great items on Etsy.

As Laura describes this now out-of-stock Michael Miller fabric:

Do you enjoy horror and knitting? This bag has a bit of both!

Please be aware that this pattern includes some rather disturbing fiber-related images….

Fido gets your WIP, a shawl massacre!

Mr. Meowington unravels your cashmere- hundreds (of yards) slain!

Hubby couldn’t find chopsticks…so he uses your $40 artisan needles for lunch utensils!! THE HORROR!

….Not to mention, and I think we have all been there…picking up a supposedly “Quick and Easy Pattern” and expiring whilst casting on!

This funny pattern by Michael Miller is a “must-have” for any knitter with a wicked sense of humor!

So go ahead and show your knitter pride!

And let’s not forget the grumpy kid forced to wear ill-fitting handknits!

Our favorite image is of course the skeleton who dies in a vain attempt at knitting, so when I ordered my bag, I asked in the comments if the picture of Mr. Skeleton was complete and intact.  She answered within 3 seconds and said it was right there, front and center! 

I am extremely pleased with the bag.  It is very well made, fully lined,  with a number of small pockets inside. 

I also acquired some absolutely stunning yarn:

On the left from Briar Rose Fibers: Sea Pearl, laceweight,50% merino, 50% tencel, 800 yds/219 gms (I’m not sure what my color is because there is no color # given on the skein); purchased at Yarnover.

On the right from Artyarns: Silk Rhapsody, 50% silk, 50% kid mohair, 260 yds/100 gms, color #137 ( a gorgeous champagne!) — a gift from Surly purchased at Lila and Claudine’s.  This is the same yarn we both used for our Topsy Turvy Moebius.

I am sure Surly will have some nice things to share in the upcoming days!!

ETA from Surly: Yes, I will. In an upcoming post I’ll share the yarn I bought and my most recent knitmare finished object.

PS from Susan — we just got John’s official picture from the Birkie (I did not get any action shots):