theraineysisters knitting and so much more

I started knitting because I enjoy it, but also to make sweaters with long enough sleeves.  It’s also the reason I started sewing (plus, I had the crazy idea that I would save money! Okay, that didn’t work!).  I still sew from time to time, and I still buy clothes with sleeves that are too short.  I can’t always do too much about that, but decided to try with a recent purchase.

I went to Amazing Threads a few weeks ago and Tina (darling, petite little Tina) was wearing a really cute shirt.  She graciously let me read the tag but could not remember the exact store name, which was out of state.  Enter “google.”  I found Country Ewe, which sells the same line of shirts.  Looking at the website, I doubt I would have bought one, but I had seen Tina’s and knew it was really nice.  They are wonderful white cotton — I actually think they are made with flour sack fabric — with lace embellishments.  I ordered a shirt just like Tina’s and was very pleased with it.  It does not look as cute as it did on her, but it fit fine except for the sleeves.  Cotton is very easy to sew, so I thought I could tackle an alteration. 

If you know anything about whites or blacks, you know they are very hard to match.  I found white cotton fabric that was actually pretty close, though I knew it would not have the same “crinkle” effect of the original.  So I decided I needed camoflage.  I bought white cotton lace to cover the sleeve extension.

Here are the steps:

Original Cuff

Cuff disembodied: too late to turn back now!!

Extension added — the basting thread marked the original cuff line and came in very handy

Lace sewn in place

Blouse back in one piece!!

Phew!  I really liked the shirt before, and now I love it!  It no longer has that skimpy feel.  Yay!

And Ode to Joy is dry:

It fits perfectly, too, so now I have two FOs in my corner, which have been few and far between lately!  🙂

And now for some fun facts about Minnesota — you know we take the State Fair seriously, but there’s something else that makes Minnesotans Minnesotans: hotdish!  You may call it a casserole (?), but here a one-pan meal is called a ‘hotdish.’  And people take it VERY seriously.  Cream of mushroom soup is a mainstay ingredient 99% of the time.  They had a contest this weekend that has been going on for years and growing in popularity.  Here is my favorite quote from the StarTribune:

When a 20-something waitress who finished as the runner-up to Vaughn in a previous cookoff muttered, “Next year, I’m going to take you down,” the 75-year-old Vaughn, a block club leader who has lived in Holland [a Minneapolis neighborhood] for 36 years, shot back, “Bring it on.”

Bring it on!!  Woo Hoo!  I may have to make Tator Tot Hotdish tonight!

At least for today!  It was 85 degrees in Minnesota , though the forcast calls for a major change by tomorrow!

It’s also time for Summer Knits…as seen in the latest IK, which was in my mailbox when I got home from my knitting group:

I am usually underwhelmed by summer knitting designs but there were some cute things in this issue.  I love this felted bag, but how many bags do I need (don’t answer that):

It sure looks like something that might work with leftover Kauni — let the Kauni do the work and use a few solids to tie it together.  Hmmm.  Maybe I could use one more bag! 😉

PS — Surly’s assessment (Your bags have bags.  So I say “No.”) seems a bit harsh!

Yesterday was the Minnesota Knitters Guild Yarnover event.  Wow.  That is all I can say.  It was a great day.  I am on the planning committee, and so it is always a nerve wracking wait to get to the big event.  This year was extremely well organized thanks to the committee and our wonderful volunteers, and a slate of teachers that rival any knitting event in the country. 

I got to meet Romi Hill in person (finally) — yay!  I dined with Romi, friend Kerry Palm, Sharon Winsauer (designer of the Heere be Dragone Shawl), Susanna Hannson, Sally Melville, Ginger Luters, with many other notables at other tables — including the wild and crazy Lily Chin!  It was a who’s who of knitting geniuses.  The Vendor Market was stocked with gorgeous yarns and fun knitting supplies to tempt the most jaded knitter.  My dogs were very tired when I got home, but less so than last year.  Thanks to all for a wonderful event that seemed to surpass everyone’s expectations. 

So, all of that inspiration and where does it leave me?  Waiting to be inspired.  My mojo took a bus to Cincinnati.  It is not from lack of trying.  I have had more false starts in the last month than anyone would dare to believe.  Pathetic little attempts at “stash busting.” 

Sally and I now have a running joke about my Cascade Dolce and my Sublime Aran — I’ll mention a project and Sally will say, “I wonder if Dolce would work,” and then she cackles with an evil glee at how clever she is .   Truth be known, I cackle right along with her because it has gotten to the point of being ridiculous.  I have swatched and reswatched.  Nothing is clicking.  Even going to the Vendor Market yesterday did not help.

Both Dolce and Sublime are gorgeous yarns, so I am not placing the blame there…I just can’t get a project to take root.  Even my Ode to Joy has encountered a terminal illness that has required amputation.  The problem was with the fit — it didn’t.  At all.  No hope.  So, I decided to convert my Ode to Joy jacket into a vest.  When I got home from Yarnover last night, I surgically removed the completely finished sleeve.  Let’s hope the patient can be saved!! 

So, I am going to try to salvage Ode to Joy, continue swatching (!), and hope that when I hit the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in (less than) two weeks with Surly, I am overcome with inspiration!

Surly did not think the cheesy peep diorama was created by moi, so I must clarify for our readers.  I did indeed put together the “line o’ peeps,” and I knit the little project that the pink peep is holding.  What a gripping life I do lead!

Knitting peeps are my favorite!!

Happy Easter to one and all!!

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.

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! 🙂

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 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!”

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!