theraineysisters knitting and so much more

I am cryin’ in my beer! 🙁 The new yarn is noticeably lighter than the old. In comparison, the old dye lot looks dirty, so I am glad that the new yarn is lighter and not the reverse, but it does mean I will need to start over — though the first 6 rows can be salvaged. Bummer! Thanks for all of your sympathetic comments, but really, I have no one but myself to blame.

Thanks, Mary Ann, for the speedy delivery! You rock!

PS: Katherine mentioned that some shops work together to find dye lots for customers. It is too late…already ripped and restarted. I had totally lost my mojo for this sweater, but I decided to dive in again last night and am glad I did. My knitting looks a little better. I think because I realize that this time it really counts!!

I am waiting for the mail. I am waiting for yarn. I am waiting for yarn for my Dale of Norway 10903. I am feeling really stupid right about now.

Back Story
I suffer from Dye Lot Anxiety. It harkens back to my earliest knitting experiences. My first sweater is a tale of dye lot woe.

In the old days, before great yarn stores and gorgeous patterns (Rowan, Bliss, Starmore), and Ravelry, Twist Collective, etc. there were only two ways to buy patterns (there were probably knitting magazines out there, but I was not aware of them). You went to the yarn store (which carried about three kinds of yarn) and looked through their sad, meager pattern collection OR you saw the design of your dreams in a women’s magazine, like Redbook or Good Housekeeping. If it was the latter, you sent in $3 and a SASE and placed your order. 4-8 weeks later, your pattern would arrive. No color photos (maybe one or two B&W’s), no diagrams, no charts. Lots and lots of tiny little writing. That is how I purchased the pattern for my first sweater. Then off I went to buy the yarn.

I wanted something practical, so I bought white acrylic. I know. However, I did not buy enough white acrylic. I had no idea about dye lots and most cheap acrylic yarns now don’t even HAVE dye lots! So back I went to buy more yarn. The new white was more like gray and very noticeably different. So, I decided to add some red to give my new sweater style and pizzaz. There were lines of garter ridges that did not go all the way across the front until they reached the bustline, so I actually figured out intarsia so I could create a notched area (it is in the gray-white yarn):

I keep this sweater as an example of what NOT to do on so many levels — it is full of oddities. And a bad dye lot.

A few years later I was again inspired and ready for a cabled Aran-inspired classic. Again, off I went to buy yarn (wool this time!!)…carefully checking the dye lot numbers. You can’t fool me twice!!

This sweater was a huge challenge for me. I did not know how to cable without a cable needle and there was cabling on every row. It was a slow go. I had used my first skein of yarn and had maybe 8-9 inches of the back done. I started my second skein and it was a completely different shade!! Very noticeable! But how could that be when I was so careful?

I had matched the color numbers, not the dye lots! The first skein I used was the ONLY skein that was different!! Aaaarrrggghhh!!!

Those two experiences have made me obsessed with dye lots AND with buying enough yarn. Add my tight knitting gauge and the fact that I am the size of Big Foot, and I need to buy a lot of yarn! There are times when I need 30-50% more yarn than called for in the pattern. This is a source of ongoing ‘tension’ with Sally and me since she is the size of a teacup.

The Present
When I bought the yarn for my Dale of Norway, I planned on making the size medium (as I said back then, their sizes are crazy big). BUT, I bought more yarn than called for for the largest size. The largest size said you needed 8 skeins (400 gms) of the off white. I bought 9. Hey, no problem!!

Except that I was looking at the chart for the Child Sizes! The adult large takes 600 gms (12 skeins). Yep. Way short. I contacted Kidsknits (Mary Ann Stephens — super nice and great to work with) and she of course did not have any left of a two-year old dye lot. The irony is that she had plenty of the yarn when I bought it two years ago.

Most stranded pieces are not problems for differing dye lots, but on this sweater, the white areas are so large and unbroken that a different dye lot could be very noticeable. I will just have to wait and see how far off the new dye lot is and if the knitting I have done so far can be salvaged. Starting this a third time is not an appealing option for me. 🙁

So, I wait for the mail. Tick. Tock.

Happy New Year, Faithful Readers! As I said to Sally this morning, I overdid it last night. No, not drinking and raucous revelry! I overdid it with my knitting. I am suffering this morning from sore wrists and sore elbows. Just too pathetic for words!

New Year’s Day is a time of reflection. As I look back over this past year, I have made quite a few smaller projects. I think I have suffered of late from “failure to launch” syndrome. It has become mentally difficult for me to tackle the big, complex projects because I know how much time and work is involved…so I haven’t. My New Year’s Resolution is to get up on that diving board and take the big leap!! And lose 30 pounds (but that is my resolution every year!).

What will be that big project? I went down into the dungeon -er- my knitting/sewing room and started searching through bags. I do have several big projects stashed. I came upon ‘Dale of Norway 10903’ as it is affectionately known. Long time readers may recall that I “started” this project quite a while ago (The Long and Winding Road). I do not remember why I started the bottom band and then put it away.

It seemed like a great idea to restart this lovely Norwegian sweater since the boring band was already done. It took a while to regroup and figure out where I was.

A word about Norwegian sweater patterns: they leave a lot of details to the imagination. Like the number of stitches for the shoulders, and any number of other things. Because the sweater has both a pullover and cardigan version, I was able to cobble together the numbers by comparing the two. I reworked my pattern so the armholes will be centered to the latticework pattern.

Off I went with a vengeance. But then reality hit. It looked awfully small. My original blog post specifically mentioned that I had gotten gauge on a US 2, but I chose to use a US 3. I don’t know what went wrong, but I was 7 inches off!! So, after knitting 12 rows on > 300 sts, I had to start over!! This is why people do not make sweaters!! I started over by doing a provisional cast on — I will knit the band after the body. I also changed to a US 4 needle and things seem to be going swimmingly. Whew!

This particular pattern also has a unique aspect to it with the patterning. There are some incredibly long (31 st) “floats” between color changes!! I first fell in love with this sweater when I saw it on WendyKnits Blog in February 2004. Wendy discussed that she did not wrap her floats across the 27-31 st white areas because a- they show through and b- they create puckers. So, I thought if she can do it, I can do it. So I did not “grab” my floats in the dark olive/white section of the leaves that I finished last night:

The back:

Risky, to be sure, but I wanted the white sections to look as good as possible. The red arrow on the top picture shows where I caught the green float. I usually grab floats to align with sts already worked from a previous row, which did not exist to this point. The second choice is to align the floats with a stitch from the NEXT row. Since the next row is covered up, I mark these spots on my chart with a pencil dot so I know where to grab the floats and cause minimal disruption to the fabric.

The next color up is pale green, so I may catch them — shouldn’t show through as much. But later I will have burgundy against the white, so I will again have very long floats.

So, we will see slow progress over the coming months. I would love to go start the pale green rows right now, but I need to ice my elbow. I am a knitting dork.

PS – Twinset Jan mentioned that maybe the long floats will felt to the back of the sweater with washing and wearing. A great thought, but the yarn is Daletta, which is washable! 🙁

The long wait is here. Though it feels more like it came lightning fast!! We hope you have the opportunity to spend time with family and friends.

We each have an FO to share, which we will do this week. Happy Knitting and Happy Holidays!

PS from Susan — Thursday night I finally started to feel normal. Bring on the Christmas bounty!

Oh my! To get sick the weekend before Christmas is ridiculous! Friday I was hit by a freight train that left me flat for two days. And really set me back during a year that already had me weeks behind! No decorating had occurred. Not. one. thing. So today I feel a little better and launched into it. First on the agenda, I put up my favorite thing about Christmas…my Santa Mantel:

Today also happens to be our wedding anniversary. One week before Christmas was a lovely day for a wedding– the world was decorated and celebrating! The years since have proven it to be a folly choice: swamped, exhausted, sick of running around and shopping. Not conducive to going out to celebrate. Plus, this year I am still not 100%. So, we may stay home with a movie and nice takeout meal from a restaurant. After 29 years, do you need more than that? Hey, we’re still married and happy so it’s working!!

I love escargot and love the new pattern by the same name: Escargot by Veronica Parsons, Winter Knitty.

I have been trying to knit my oldest daughter a “suitable” hat for weeks now. She is very fussy. The last “order” placed was for something felted to keep her head warm. Since Escargot seemed perfect for her, I wondered how felting would work.

I still could not get it small enough to fit her perfect, but tiny, head. I hope she sees that as a plus for avoiding “hat hair.”

I used Rowan Felted Tweed Aran in tweedy light and charcoal grays. The yarn was way too big. I would love to reknit this in a more suitable yarn for myself.

The picture above was taken fresh out of the wash — I have not sewn down the “swirl.” I highly recommend this pattern: way cute and very fun to knit.

PS: Wendy stated that using Rowan Felted Tweed to felt was a surprise because it is washable and therefore shouldn’t really felt. I looked at the label and thought the same thing. Then I was told at the shop that their sign did not say it was washable. And it did actually fully felted for me. It was just that I was trying to felt something 24 inches down to 20. That is a lot to expect.

PPS — daughter stopped by and saw the hat. She tried it on and does not like it. She does like the Grey Rikke so I guess that is the hat she will have. No more knitting for her – well, at least for a while. 🙁

Sally called it a man’s world, but man, all I have been knitting are gloves! Sally and I both wanted to experiment with Loft Yarn so I chose to re-knit The Smart Glove in Loft: colors Postcard and Plume:

My pictures cannot capture the colors. Postcard is the lighter color. At first you think it’s rather plain, but there is a lot happening when viewed close up. Plume is a color like blackberries, purple and rich. The yarn softens and plumps up when blocked. The only downside about this yarn is that it can break easily. I have read about people whose yarn breaks just pulling it from a pull skein. All yarn of this type and weight is bound to be fragile, though, and I did not have any particular issues with it.

I did not close the fingers because I am sending this off to Sally and she will finish the finger tips once she finds a victim -er- recipient of sufficient knitworthiness. It will be somewhat like Cinderella’s glass slippers, but without the Prince!!

As we’ve been designing and knitting gloves this fall, there have been a few murmurs in the background from the men in our lives: When are you going to do a man’s glove?  We ignored the murmurs until we saw Brooklyn Tweed’s new Loft yarn. Perfect! We could play with a new yarn and create a man’s glove that can easily be knit up in time for the holidays. Thus, the Foxhall Glove:

These classic gloves are named after a favorite neighborhood in Washington, DC, distinguished by handsome homes and large areas of parkland. The gloves are urbane and stylish without being fussy. We call it a man’s glove, but we provide a range of five sizes that can accommodate a woman’s hand or yarn substitutions and changes in gauge. We also included optional instructions for “pop top” texting thumbs and index finger.

Quick Facts about the Pattern:

Sizes: X-Small, Small, Medium, X-Large, and Large. Hand circumference 7 (7.5, 8.25, 8.75, 9.25) inches.

Gauge: 30 stitches and 44 rounds in stockinette stitch = 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches).

Yarn: Loft by Brooklyn Tweed (100% Wool, 275 yds/50 gms); 1-2 skeins. Shown in Meteorite. Red version knit using one skein of Dream in Color’s Smooshy with Cashmere (70% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon; 400 yards/113 grams) in Fierce Scarlet. Other yarns of similar weight can be substituted.

Instructions: Directions are given in chart form and line-by-line written instructions. Included with the pattern is our eleven-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 Foxhall 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 two of our previous glove patterns (The Bijoux Beaded Glove, The Snapdragon Glove, or 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 next unreleased pattern 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.