theraineysisters knitting and so much more

We are in packing mode here today.  My husband is driving to Colorado so he can take all the essentials: bike, roller skis, etc.  That means that I can load up his van with all the junk I want!!  I will take a long a small carry on just in case we beat him there (daughters and I are flying out tomorrow).  It’s the best of both worlds!

I am excited about the wedding and to see Sally’s lovely shrug.  She took quite a bit of time landing on the look she wanted and I am sure it will be beautiful.

A Sally mentioned, my daughter will also be getting married — in December.  She has requested a bolero, much like the one worn by Sally’s and my mother in this photo:

We ordered fabric that matches her dress and I found the perfect pattern:

It will take me a lot less time than Sally’s shrug, I’m sure!!!

As for knitting news, I have some projects underway that will be revealed a bit later.  What I realized this week is that I have not really shared some recent FOs and their details.  I entered this hat in the fair and forgot to tell people about it in detail.  And this hat deserves it!  It is a lovely, well designed pattern.

Flavia Hat by Beth Kling
Yarn Used: Miss Babs Tierno in Color Beach Glass
Needles – I think I used size 2’s and 4’s

You start out with twisted rib, which is set up to flow right into the main pattern.  The increases are added without disrupting the ribbing.  The hat is worked on 244 sts!  Quite a lot.  I used slightly larger yarn to get a larger finished size.

The beauty of this design is the elegance of the decreases.  Beth changed up the design in very creative ways to have the decreases naturally flow into the crown.  Beautiful!

I received a second place ribbon for the hat.  Okay.  Nothing odd there.  Except that 1- there was no first place and 2- there were TWO second place awards…now that is unusual!  (Reminds me of Strangers on a Train, “I’ll have a pair of doubles.”)  The judges are not obligated to give out a blue ribbon (or any ribbons) if none of the submissions are deemed worthy, but it seemed odd to have two seconds.

ETA Deepa’s Theory: “Here’s my theory- your hat and the other second place winner had the exact same score, say 98/100. Since there was no outright 1st place, they gave out two red ribbons. Just speculating.”  –Makes sense!

Well, the weekend will be a blur and it is doubtful either of us will post anything before next week.  Wish us luck!!

I know that I’ve been missing in action, and Susan hasn’t been that very visible either.

I leave Washington, DC tomorrow for Boulder, Colorado where my lovely and wonderful daughter (and occasional model) Nora will be married this weekend.  I’ve been deep in wedding details these last few weeks.  I’ve helped create most of the “paper” for the wedding — programs, menus, place cards, etc.  And I’ve knit her a little silk shrug — nothing complicated, just an impromptu pattern.  So I apologize that not much has been posted.  It’s just that other than the shrug, I haven’t knit much.

I don’t want to share the shrug because she hasn’t seen it, and I don’t even know if it will fit or if she’ll wear it.  But here are some quickie photos of one of my swatches:

I do have a new project for the trip, which I hope to share when I return.

P.S. Susan’s deep in wedding planning, too — but I will let her talk about that when she’s ready.

Some of you may recall my post about Vintage Mood — a cute, intriguing design knit with bulky yarn (which I had in stash!).  It had “issues” which I corrected surgically (described in this post).  To recap, the back neck had a hump.

After Surgery

Someone asked if there was way to fix the hump as you were knitting it — what would I do differently?  Would short rows work?  I deferred to the designer to fix the problem, but dear Sivani jumped in with both feet and crafted a solution.  I did not try it because my vest was already supposedly fixed, but Charlotte did.  She said it was a success!

Here is Sivani’s Solution (bear in mind that she was working from my photos and did not have the pattern in front of her — even MORE amazing!):

Sivani’s Solution
Use preferred method of shortrowing, e.g. Japanese, Wrap and Turn, etc.)

20 rows before starting the ribbing, locate and mark the center stitch (CM), and 8 sts either side (M). (17 sts in center group)

R 1: K to M, turn (8 sts to CM))
R 2: (and all even rows) P to end
R 3: K to  3 sts before M, turn (11 sts to CM)
R 5: K to  5 sts before M, turn (13 sts to CM)
R 7: K to  7 sts before M, turn (15 sts to CM)
R 9: K to  8 sts before M, turn (16 sts to CM)
R11: K to  9 sts before M, turn (17 sts to CM)
R13: K to 10 sts before M, turn (18 sts to CM)
R15: K to 10 sts before M, turn (18 sts to CM)
R17: K to 11 sts before M, turn (19 sts to CM)
R19: K to 12 sts before M, turn (20 sts to CM)
R21: K to 12 sts before M, turn (20 sts to CM)
R22: P to end

Do not break yarn!

– End of first side. —

Attach yarn at the other end.

R 1: P to M, turn (8 sts to CM)
R 2: (and all even rows) K to end
R 3: P to  3 sts before M, turn (11 sts to CM)
R 5: P to  5 sts before M, turn (13 sts to CM)
R 7: P to  7 sts before M, turn (15 sts to CM)
R 9: P to  8 sts before M, turn (16 sts to CM)
R11: P to  9 sts before M, turn (17 sts to CM)
R13: P to 10 sts before M, turn (18 sts to CM)
R15: P to 10 sts before M, turn (18 sts to CM)
R17: P to 11 sts before M, turn (19 sts to CM)
R19: P to 12 sts before M, turn (20 sts to CM)
R21: P to 12 sts before M, turn (20 sts to CM)
R22: K to end

— End of second side —

Return to the edge of the first side, and continue working in pattern (starting rib).

Thank you so much, Sivani and Charlotte, for sharing!!  It makes me want to knit another — kind of!

Figuratively, at least!  But just wanted to drop in and say we are alive!  No knitting news.  I have been sewing like a fiend, which is keeping me trapped in the basement without hope of seeing daylight!  I hope we have something of interest to report soon…

This weekend and this date sure are harbingers of summer’s passing.  Bummer!  Last chance for summer activities before the first fall cold snap hits.

I am working on a very satisfying project which will be revealed if when it gets finished, but I also knit this little item at the request of my daughter (for a friend of a friend).

It is my One Day Baby Hat knit out of leftover Venezia Sport.  I have a feeling that I will making a LOT of small projects out of my leftovers!

In the original, you can see that the Malizia floral yarn  worked out so the little flower thingies popped out perfectly at the top and bottom of the lace motifs:

In the newest rendition, the lace motifs are smaller (smaller gauge yarn) so the flower thingies don’t line up in the same way.  Whatever!  I think it looks fine and I am not going to do anything to “fix” it!

If I cared, which I don’t, I would enlarge the lace pattern for smaller gauge yarn and use a 10-stitch motif instead of 8.  The other thing I did is make the hat too long by probably a half inch.  Oh well.

The reason that I made this for my “non-knitworthy” daughter is that she actually went to the state fair and found my knitting, dragging her friends along for the ride!  Many, many points were accrued!  Wow.

Summers are short and intense in Minnesota.  Plus, we have more than 10,000 lakes (lots more) and the mighty Mississippi flowing through it.  Water is everywhere and it is part of who we are.  We tend to take it for granted…until we travel to some other state and see maybe three lakes.

My husband is what I affectionately call a “River Rat.” When we started dating, he actually lived on the river in a boathouse (a “garage” for storing boats, not a houseboat a la Cary Grant!).   When the river was high in the spring, we had to take a boat to GET to the boathouse, as the road would flood.  He has worked on the river for 40 years and we live in sight of the river.  My favorite past-time (other than knitting) is to take a little boat ride on our pontoon boat.

So. Why have we been “aground” for six years??!!??  It’s complicated, but it has been resolved!  Our cute little boat is in the water.  Tonight we took a short ride.  These pics were taken with my camera so they are not great, but they do capture the moment.

At the Dock

John at the Helm

The Sun is Setting

Heading Home

I hope I don’t have to wait another six years!  Happy summer, everyone!

Yep, and even though I hate to step on my own blog post, today was the first day of the fair.   That means the results are in.  My Knitters Camp friend, Kim, and I set sail early this morning so we could get a front row seat for the knitting at the Minnesota State Fair.  This year I was really excited to see if Kim did well with her beautiful sweater.

She did: she received a blue ribbon!!

Kim’s ‘New Zealand Sweater’ from Knit One, Knit All worked in Simply Shetland Jumperweight, color Grouse

That flipped over piece of paper is her JRB Associates Woolgrower Association award!  Way to go, Kim!

My personal quest was to see how my latest Niebling doily did — Gloxiniaeflora worked in size 30 DMC Cebelia Coton, Size 000 needles.  It did well:

I have never worked so hard on anything in my life.  The knitting was physically difficult on such tiny thread with those $%^^$$ needles!!  But I do think it goes quite well with purple!!

My other “bigger” project was my Daydreams in Lace — it also garnered a blue:

I can’t get a good picture of it in any light, and certainly not through the reflecting glass of the state fair case!

I put in a few other small items and they were displayed all in a cluster:

Four of my entries are in this photo — my Friday Again is well hidden behind the gorgeous blue vest.  The textured hat (called Flavia and available on Ravelry) and brown Escargot hat are both mine, and my Grey Gardens gloves are hanging to the upper right.

Here are better pictures of the hats (both got 2nd place ribbons):

Not a state fair shot!!

The textured hat is actually sage green, but the color just faded out in the pictures and under the harsh lighting.  My gloves took a 3rd place:

First place in the glove category also receives a prize from my knitting group, The Penelope Knitters (click link to read the blog post about the name of our group).  This year’s winner was my good friend Bonnie (her Ravelry project page):

Really beautiful!!

Last and least, I entered my Ponchette, which took a 3rd place:

Honestly, Kim and I spent 45 minutes looking for the thing!  They had the shawls and scarves displayed at the far back of the building next to the baked and canned goods!

All in all, I was really pleased — especially to see Kim do so well.  I know she worked really hard on the sweater and it is absolutely stunning in person!  I ate the best pork chop on a stick that I have ever had in my life and did some shopping!  Great day at the fair.

Now, off to knitting…woo hoo!!

If Sally’s Whale is the long of it, then mine is definitely the shortie!

I totally got sick of my Whale…I had to think hard with the conversion to contiguous and then think hard to mitigate the tail and then think hard to decide on my closure and then I gave up!!  I convinced myself (and my argument was quite sound actually!) that I needed a summer sweater.  I don’t have very many and this would look cute with short sleeves over a shirt or long-sleeved tee.  The beauty of it was: NO SLEEVES TO KNIT!!  D.O.N.E!  I could really get used to this!!

Here is the back of my Whale.  No one ever shows the front.  Why?  It is boring.  Mine is even MORE boring because I omitted the cute cables at the bottom.  Again, too much thinking involved and I was sick of thinking.

I made mine out of Cascade Venezia Sport in color Cranberry.  Merino (70%) and Silk (30%), 307 yards/100 grams.  The color is deeper than it looks in these photos.  It is pricey ($17-20/skein), but my project only took 4 skeins.  Unfortunately, I bought eight.  While knitting this thing, I thought my knitting looked horrid — very uneven.  It blocked out better than expected, but I still see its many flaws.

Sally was asked about the contiguous sleeve method.  Basically, it is a top-down method that creates a set-in sleeve as you go (rather than a raglan or circular yoke).

There are a few ways of doing it.  Friday Again uses one stitch to separate the “every row increases” used to create the shoulder line.   Many use 2 sts to separate the increases, which Sally and I did on our Whales.  If you are interested in this technique, there is a Ravelry group devoted to it, and more patterns being designed all the time, many of which are free.   I would recommend either making one from a pattern or start with the mini-sweater that describes the technique.   Once you understand the method, converting patterns is not too bad.

The fit is superb if done correctly.  People often make the shoulders too wide.  The secret is to make sure they don’t extend past the bone at the top of the shoulder.

Thar she blows.

Sorry it’s been so long since our last post; I blame me.  So does Susan.

Anyway, I finished my Whiteness of the Whale last week and finally got around to taking some photos.   As stated in previous posts, I made several modifications:  I knitted it using the contiguous method (which creates a set in sleeve without seams) and I lopped off most of the tail.  (There is still a very slight curve to the hem.)  My other change was in how I chose to fasten it.  First some photos.

Instead of buttons, I used bracelet findings. In other words, I took clasps used in making bracelets and attached them to applied i-cord along the fronts. I initially had some pretty silver clasps with peridot stones on them, but they were too small in the scale of the whale so I cannibalized these pretty “lapis” ones. (I had previously made them into earrings. I think they are having an identity crisis.)

Here is a close up of the clasps, with the upper one left open so you can see how they work.

Oh, and one more change: I added a little cable at the wrist because the front of the sweater itself is so plain.

So there you have it. The whale is finished. One more thing, though. You may remember that I started this project with Shibui’s new Linen yarn, which unraveled on me mid-skein. I did want to report that Jimmy Beans, where I purchased it, cheerfully gave me a full refund, including the cost of the skein I had already used. And Shibui contacted me and reassured me that they had had only a very few problem skeins reported to them, and that they were going to make sure that Jimmy Beans was reimbursed. So if you are interested in trying that yarn, don’t let my experience dissuade you. I may use it for something else myself. The colors are gorgeous.

Not every project is a whale, some are merely minnows!!  This little project is noteworthy because I have yet to find a bootie pattern that I can get to turn out — other than Fleegle’s Seamless Saartje’s Booties.  And those are pretty feminine!  I wanted to make some booties for a boy and the standard freebies (all the “best fitting booties ever” on Ravelry) do not look good when I make them (hangs head in knitting shame).

I stumbled onto Yarn Harlot’s Cutest Booties pattern – done all in garter – and thought they looked cute…just like the name suggested.  Now, Stephanie P-M does not need my help to sell patterns, but I thought it was a nice little bootie.  I liked that they are actually baby socks and therefore would look darling on an older baby/toddler.  I used up leftovers from my Vitamin D.  I thought the color would go well with blue jeans or khakis.

The bootie is knit in garter, but I did not like knitting garter in the round!  I gave up on that after the cuffs.  I did my gusset decreases at the rate of 2/3 rounds (instead of every other round) to account for the difference in row gauge between garter and stockinette, otherwise I followed the pattern pretty closely.  Well, she also attached little pom poms which looked super cute…but I am too lazy.  Maybe next time!

Nice pattern and a quick knit — great for using up small amounts of sock yarn.  Stephanie says she keeps a few pairs on hand for those unexpected “arrivals” and that sounds pretty smart to me!