My knitting moniker is taken from my license plate — or vice versa (chicken and egg?). But, I think of my blog name and Ravelry name as a big part of my identity. Recently I renewed my license tabs. To my surprise, I received a shiny new gift from the state:
They are so pretty! The letters are flat, though — they used to be raised. I suppose it is to save money. I like ’em!!
We have not written much about our respective Eala Bhans. Early on, we kind of made a pact that we would knit this project in tandem and not post individually, on the off chance that one of us would speed ahead of the other. In reality, of course we knit at different paces: we have different amounts of time to spend, life and work and other projects intervene. But right now we are pretty darn close to each other, so we will post! (Note from Sally: No, we are not all that close. Susan is waaaaaay ahead of me. But that’s fine.)
The Yarn
The yarn is lovely. The feel of it, the wooliness of it, the depth of the color. It gets an A+!
When you take colorwork classes from Alice St@rmore, she presents you with a small white box which holds a sample of every yarn color. Of course, her color cards are required to identify the name of the color in question:
The Pattern
The Eala Bhan pattern is crazy detailed. For the collar, Susan had to move between three pieces of paper to track every row! It is easy to see that the sheer magnitude of pattern itself could turn off many knitters. But it is also very beautiful. Sally thinks it might be too dressy to wear often, but Susan thinks it will be a great work sweater.
Progress
We knit the fronts and back in one piece, knowing full well that this would be a slow go. What we did NOT anticipate was how slow the back would be once you made the split at the armholes! We thought we would breeze along after leaving the fronts behind, but it felt even slower! The fronts themselves were speedy quick.
Susan’s Eala Bhan Blocking
The collar
Susan is ready to start knitting the sleeves.
From Sally: I am NOT ready to start knitting the sleeves. I have finished one front. Mine is not yet blocked, and I hope it looks as nice as Susan’s does after the blocking. Here are a couple of my slower progress pictures.
Sally’s Eala Bhan before the split for the arms (the color is very true here)
Sally’s Eala Bhan with just the left front finished (unblocked)
Weather
And here is what Susan woke up to this morning: snow-flavored rain!
One thing great about knitting is that you can usually rip it out and fix it. The bad thing about knitting is ripping it out and fixing it.
I made a few mods to the sleeve for fit and construction. One thing I wanted was to finish the gusset decreases before I started the sleeve shaping — I did not want the increases and decreases to collide (been there, done that — did not like the look!).
I also did not want the sleeve to narrow quite as drastically. In the first version, I did my sleeve decreases every 6 rounds — now I am starting with the every 8 round decreases. This will mean that the sleeve stays wider where my arm is fat wider and get narrow where my arm tapers to the wrist. Duh.
So, I spent most of my weekend knitting time reknitting and figuring. That’s okay 🙁 . I had nuthin’ better to do…
Eala Bhan is also progressing. I have about 6 inches above the armhole split. Yay!!
PS: How many Trick-or-Treaters did you have? We had ONE. Uno. Singleton. Not a duo. I am now forced to eat all of the leftover Snickers before they go stale.
PS2: Today (Wednesday) I am wearing one of my “new” outfits, made a few weekends ago — made to go with my Sunrise Circle. And it does!!
I usually knit in my spare time. It is portable and I derive both pleasure and knitted garments from it. Yay. I used to sew much more than I knit, but those days passed many years ago when I decided that knitting allowed me to spend more ‘creative’ time with my family (instead of being sequestered in my sewing room!). This weekend I have to bust out the sewing machine again. I have no clothes to wear. At all. It is more than simply embarrassing.
The other thing that suffers with my knitting is cleaning (ugh squared!). I am committed to doing a little of that this weekend, too. B-O-R-I-N-G!!!!
So, this weekend I plan on sewing and cleaning and not getting much knitting done — though I will still knit on my frequent breaks! 😉
Hour One: One bathroom cleaned and our bed linens in wash. Motivation already gone. Checked out fabric stash. Fabric options are there, but no thread or other notions. Run to store will interfere with continuity plan for day. See golden opportunity fading. Making more coffee to think.
Hour Three: Drank coffee; made list. Back from store with 80% success ratio. Is it too early to take a movie/knitting break? OK, even I know the answer to that one…will at least set up my cutting area. 🙁
Hour…??: It’s hopeless. I started cutting out one of my items. Younger DD called for ride. Came home and sat at computer. Can’t seem to find my way back to my cutting table. I need a break.
Day 2
I did finish cutting out Item #1. I am trying to decide if I should sew Item #1 first or cut out Item #2 and then start sewing.
Decision Made: Cut first, sew second!
Hour 3: Cutting done; one more trip to the fabric store 🙁 and now I will begin. I am not coming up except for coffee until something is accomplished!
Day 3
One item done except for the hemming. I will work on the second to the hem and then sit with a good movie to do the handwork. The Mad Men finale is on tonight 🙁 so no knitting or sewing then!
Second item done but for the hemming as well. Now to the TV for the handwork!!
Sunday night: all three items are done with 2 minutes to spare!! The third item has been marinating for two years an only needed to be hemmed. Three hems in one day — yuck!
Day 4
In the light of a new day, I don’t think I like any of the items I made over the weekend and may have to do some tweaking. 🙁
Day 5
I am wearing one of my new outfits today and actually got a compliment — mostly because it is new and not something I have worn every third day for the past 15 years! Woo Hoo!
This post will have absolutely nothing to do with knitting. BUT, it is similar to knitting in that it involves creativity that is a long time in the making!
In 2005, my hubby (John) decided that our deck was too small and so he was going to extend it slightly. Once into the project, he realized that the original deck had completely gone to dry rot — the entire deck needed to be replaced!! Rut roh! He was very gung ho and got the main (flat) part of the deck done in no time (I’m being facetious). John always does excellent work, but at a snail’s pace. However, the deck railing was not to be. Some progress shots:
Expansion Phase
The DH at Work
In 2007, fate stepped in and John suffered a significant health issue. This prevented him from working on the deck for another 3 years…which brings us to 5 years without a usable deck. Without railing, you felt like you were sitting in an empty parking lot! This summer he decided to tackle the deck again in earnest. There is still much to be done, but he is making great headway!
Yay, John!!
Both Sally and I are still laboring away on our respective Eala Bhans — and personally, I am loving it! I love the feel of the wooly yarn on my fingertips and I love watching the design slowly emerge. But progress is measured in tenths of inches. I have spent two evenings trying to get one inch done.
I also have another project going — simpler for group knitting and in front of certain TV programs (Mad Men, I’m talkin’ about YOU). I am using the gorgeous alpaca and silk yarn I bought while I was visiting Surly.
The pattern is called Ophicleide (huh?? WTF??) . I have no idea what it means, how to pronounce it, or what the heck it has to do with knitting! I do like the beautiful stitchwork in the yoke and the fact that after the fun knitting on the yoke, it is plain stockinette. There are two sleeve options, and I will be going for 3/4 length. Here is my progress thus far:
So, quite a way to go. It will be more of a spring sweater, so I am in no rush. The yarn is absolutely butter soft and much prettier in person than you can tell here. I only got through about half a row tonight at knitting group!!
Now that I am home, back to Eala Bhan!!!
PS: Kathy provides us with the definition of Ophicleide: a vintage brass horn:
I still have no idea what it has to do with knitting!
For those of you who thought the stories from DC were over — think again! Yes, there’s more! Two posts for the price of one.
One of the things I did when I visited Sally was work on my Maia Shoulderette designed by Romi Hill. The reason I could not finish it here was because I was out of yarn. I was using yarn from my stash: Colinette Jitterbug in a light green with rust highlights (Moss)…but I made two fatal mistakes: 1- I added a repeat even though I didn’t mean to (don’t ask!) and b- chose a yarn without much yardage.
When Sally and I bought the yarn, we got three skeins of ~330 yards each in anticipation of each making socks. So I am the yarn hog. I brought my almost finished Maia to DC and worked on it non-stop until that bad boy was done. By the end, the rows were ENDLESS!!! I think I probably used two full skeins to finish it.
The fun thing about this pattern is the start: Romi uses a play on the garter tab cast on, incorporating a large leaf motif:
The bottom edge:
Here you can see the unusual shape — a “stay on your shoulders” kind of shape:
Sally and I both worked on this shawlette. She wrote some notes on her Ravelry project page that describe both of our thoughts about this pattern.
I’m not sure exactly when I’ll wear this, but it is kind of cute.
The countdown has begun! I will launch at 1010 tomorrow and meet up with Surly around 2pm. Then watch out, DC, The Rainey Sisters will be on the loose!!
Houston, we have a problem: a serious yarn shortage in the DC area….
It certainly feels that way. When I am between large projects I usually take a breather with a few quick knits. I can’t get through a day without knitting, but I am not yet prepared to embark on the next big thing. Plus, my knitting group is donating hats to charity this fall.
So, I knit hats — three this week! The Quincy I already shared, a very basic hat too basic to share and this one: The Tuscan Leaves Hat by Nina Machlin. This is a very nice hat pattern! I love the way the leaves meander slowly next to each other. It is NOT charted, but I had no trouble reading it row by row.
Here are the pictures of Nina’s Hats, which show the hat in its entirety:
I did not have a model, nor do I own a “head” so my pictures are flat and not that good:
I used Ella Rae Worsted Weight Wool. When finished, the hat looked so tiny that it seemed like it would not fit a soul, but it did block nicely. I would make this again. It is so pretty and unique.
There may be a gap in our blogging: I will be heading east to visit Surly on Thursday! Yay!
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