theraineysisters knitting and so much more

If I am like many of you, I have too many knitting books in my collection.  I found one the other day that was just awful — where did it come from??!!?

But, I love knitting and that means occasionally getting bit by the knitting book bug!  I pre-ordered this book and got the Ravelry link today.  The first printing already sold out so I’m glad I pre-ordered when I did!

104 pages of beautiful stranded hats!  Wow.  The hat that forced me against my will to buy the book is Every Flavour:

It spoke to me!!  I thought I would find most of the colors in stash but my stash betrayed me.  Maybe I need to buy more yarn…??

Our new countertops were installed today.  Wow.  I decided to go with the slightly risky sleek-modern look.  You have a picture in your mind and then there it is!  It surpasses our expectations by far.  We are very pleased with the workmanship that we have experienced from a “big box store” – aka Home Depot.  The people who installed the cabinets and the countertops did excellent work, and the quality is fantastic.

The picture of course shows the kitchen in a transformational stage!!  There is a lot more to do, but at least WE are in control of that part!

While Surly was in town to go to the special Yarnery event with Brooklyn Tweed, we went shopping.  One stop was J. Jill at Galleria.  Sally bought a couple of things, including a cute pair of red and black buffalo plaid gloves.  She wanted me to get a pair, too, but I just couldn’t justify spending money on more gloves even though they would go so well with my Plaid Squared red and black bags!  A pair arrived today, all gift wrapped from that lil sis of mine!  🙂

Plaid Squared by Susan Rainey

Yes, I know it’s after Thanksgiving but my latest FO is really more of a spring sweater.  If I had finished it sooner, I could have worn it earlier this fall, but I didn’t.  Sigh.

The pattern is Orime by Veronik Avery.  Orime apparently means fold in Japanese, and this design has an Origami-like quality to its construction.  I used the yarn called for:  Peerie from Brooklyn Tweed.  Peerie is a four-ply fingering weight yarn with a lot of bounce.  It blocks beautifully and is soft enough to wear right next to one’s skin.  The color I chose is Rainier.

This was an easy to knit project, but the neckline finishing is somewhat tricky.  It works but I did it multiple times before I was satisfied.  (I do think the directions could be a bit clearer.)

I made a few slight modifications.  I lengthened it by two repeats.  I wasn’t sure I’d have enough yarn to lengthen it more than that.  As it turns out, I could have but I was ready to finish knitting it so I don’t mind that it’s a shorter type sweater.  It’s fine for the style.  I grafted the back neck together instead of seaming it.  It doesn’t look absolutely fabulous, but I prefer it to the seam.

The sweater fits well and was interesting to knit.  If we get a spell of warm weather — always a possibility in Boulder — I might even get to wear it soon.

Here are some additional photos of the shirt – not great ones but you can kind of see the construction.

You can just see the vertical seam that I added to remove the unflattering (but cute!) gathers:

I also added some twill to the back to make a loop:

One more important detail: don’t crisply iron it — not the seams or anything.  This made construction a little more difficult because I usually really iron seams, collars, etc.  But that would remove the crinkle in the fabric.  So, I ironed on the wool setting instead of cotton, from the wrong side if possible.  Or just at the seam being pressed.

PS – The buttons I chose are from my stash.  Green shell buttons sewn on with brownish beads.

I was home alone most of this last weekend.  Friday, I passed out on the couch from 9 pm-1 am!  I got up and went to bed…which meant I tossed and turned a while because I had just slept for four hours!  For some reason, an idea came to me in a flash.

Back Story:
My friend Kim and I got a bee in our bonnet based on a Knitting Camp experience.  We decided to go all in on embroidering kitchen towels.  I bought a 12-pack of lovely cotton towels and got right down to business.  I embroidered 1-2-no, ZERO towels!  Yep.  Not a one!  Who wants to embroider towels??

This left me with 12 lovely cotton towels.  Flour sack cotton is absolutely divine, so my flash of an idea was to make a shirt out of the towels.  I knew I would have to piece them for length, but that would be part of the design.  The fabric is absolutely fabulous to sew.

Another surprise addition was the twill tape.  The towels came tied with a cute twill tape that says “linenandtowel.”  I added the tape to the button side of the front and a small patch on the pocket.

All that is left to do is to buy buttons — we all know how fun that is!  I want to wear it this upcoming weekend so I may put some buttons on and then keep checking around!

Speaking of this weekend, Sally is arriving late Thursday in time to participate in The Yarnery’s Brooklyn Tweed Extravaganza!!  Jared Flood himself will be the main attraction.  Should be really fun.

PS – Kitchen Update: We are in a total stall though the flooring is set to be installed on Thursday!

PS2 to all: I will share some more pictures but the ones I took of the whole shirt did not turn out that well.  I basically used my go-to shirt, with some alterations.  I pieced the fronts and the back, but made sure the seam was above the top of the side vent.  At first, I added a cute bit of gathering on the fronts, in about the middle of the bottom panel.  But, it made my hips look wider (NOT a look I was going for!!), so I removed the gathers and took up the extra fabric with a seam.  That means there is a horizontal seam where the top and bottom “halves” are joined and a vertical seam on the lower half.  The back has a center back seam and seams to join the bottom panels, as well as a deep pleat in the back.  The seams line up with the corresponding seams on the front.  I found some small coconut shell buttons that are not very exciting but I have another day or two to look.  Buttons are so hard to find – especially if you don’t have the luxury of time.

This diagram is not to scale probably!!

Here is the pattern I use for all my shirts (Butterick B4231, View A).  It is old!

PS3 to Susan – the towels were pre-washed, but I did wash them anyway.  We have not yet decided on the kitchen lights, but will probably have to forego the pendant style that I wanted!

1. Hope you have voted already or plan to!!
2. I have a new FO to share!

I just finished my Arabella Cowl out of the yarn called for: Rowan Alpaca Classic.  It was designed as a launch for the yarn.  Last August, my peeps and I travelled from shop to shop collecting the colors.  It was a LONG and annoying knit, but like most long, annoying knits, I like it now that it’s done!  My lemming project is complete.

Most of us opted not to make it a moebius — good decision.  I changed up a couple of colors.  In doing so, I got to the end and though it too garish.  So, I dug through my stash and found a skein of charcoal gray, somewhat fuzzy, yarn which I suspect to be Classic Elite Fresco!!  My cowl is 10 inches wide and 63 inches long.  I think it is quite attractive!

PS to vpurl: what was annoying were the endless rows (>300 sts) and certain sts: seed stitch, stranding.  It seemed like every row was interminable!

PS2 to Kathy: The gray was much fuzzier than the other colors so that part should get easier.  It is a lot of knitting but so butter soft and pretty!

DD asked for another hat!!  Yes, another one!  This time the request was for a friend for a baby shower gift.  I searched Rav high and low but even this hat with over 8,000 projects did not come up.  My search was obviously flawed!  😉  I had made an adult size a few years ago for hubby, and remembered this cute two-toned version.

I used Rowan Pure Wool Superwash Worsted in cream and gray from my stash.  My yarn was smaller gauge and I wanted a baby-sized hat so I read notes from others.  I used size 5 and 6 needles and cast on 68 sts to get the smallest size hat.  Wish I had used 6 and 7’s.

Garter Ear Flap Hat

I think it is pretty darn cute!

Laura stopped by and picked up her two new hats (black and pink Rikkes) and her Pickpocket Sweater.  While driving over, she called and said, yay, she had found her original black hat!!  Oh, well!  It was “hiding” in her bag of winter hats and gloves.  🙂

Happy ending!

PS to Julie — I probably do have enough yarn to knit another pink hat – may hold off for a bit, though!  I am sick of knitting Rikkes!!

PS2 to Gretchen — DD absconded with both of the black Rikkes!!

I finished the pink Rikke Hat.  A very expensive pink Rikke Hat!

The irony is that as I was knitting the hat, it was tight and small and felt like 100% cotton, not merino wool.  So, I added a couple of extra ridges before starting the decreases.  This meant that I ran out of yarn before finishing the top.  Oh well, I had purchased an insurance skein because the yardage was skimpy for worsted (Claudia Hand Painted Merino Worsted “Desire”, color Bubble Gum, 175 yards/100 gms).  Not happy to double the cost of the hat, but at least I had it, right?

When I wetblocked it, it G R E W to HUGE!!  I did not need to knit more or dip into the second skein!  🙁

But, it is done and is the exact size of the black one.  So they will both fit or neither will fit!  Her Pickpocket blocked beautifully! 🙂

I am so happy that Laura’s Pickpocket is finally done!  🙂  This picture shows it blocking today:

Saturday, I had Laura try it on just to make sure it would fit before weaving in the ends and blocking…it fits!!

Laura opted for a closer fit, so I used a size XS for the body.  You may notice that she also opted out of the red stripe at the shoulders.  She did not want the sleeves tight, however, so I did the armhole depth of the size small.  I picked up a sleeve and knit the whole thing without realizing that my small circumference gauge was tighter…so the sleeve was skin tight!  I ripped it out and picked up more sts.  It was perfect.  Or will be after the magic of blocking.

I used Berroco Vintage, which is 52% Acrylic, 40% Wool, 8% Nylon, colors Black and Sour Cherries.  I hope it holds a block!  It is nice, very reasonable priced, yarn, but I do prefer wool!

She is wearing her “Replacement Rikke” in the picture, but she thought it seemed poofier and that the top belly button was more of an “inny” than the other one.  I reworked the decreases and think it is much improved.  She also asked for a PINK hat.  Yes, I said pink.  Not black, PINK!!  I almost fell over!  She wants a hat to go with her new sweatshirt.  So, I found some pretty hand dyed yarn at Amazing Threads – Claudia Hand Painted Merino Worsted (Desire) Color Bubble Gum – that is a tonal pink and white.  Should be pretty!

Lots of knittin’ for the DD!!