theraineysisters knitting and so much more

• One of my state fair entries underwhelmed the judges but pleases me quite a bit!  It is my Fair Isle Long Hat.  I saw a hat like this on Instagram and loved it.  It was labelled as a purchased hat and no pattern for handknitting seemed available, so I charted it out.  The original appeared to have 6 repeats of 24 sts (144 sts), but I added a repeat for my hat because I have a big head and too many tight hats!

I thought about launching it as a free pattern but opted to link to my notes instead.  I did not want to enrage anyone!  The Fair Isle Long Hat pdf (for the 144 st version) is linked to my Ravelry project page and includes charts and the colors used.  I would love it if others made it.  It is a nice, traditional fair isle hat.  It hangs down really cute in the back and the fat tassel holds it down!

PS to Commenters: the hat is still at the fair.  I will try to get a model after I pick it up!

And these are not my colors – I copied the hat I saw on Instagram.  🙂

PS2 ro Elizabeth: I am so glad you found the chart helpful!  I don’t have a color printer any more, so I write my charts for b&w printing! 🙂

Yes, it is state fair time in Minnesota, which is bittersweet.  It means that fall really is here and summer is almost gone.  I love fall, but what the …??!!  Where did summer go?

Okay, stop ranting!  Kim and I went to the fair yesterday on a picture perfect day.  My dear hubby dropped us off!  The buses were set to start an hour later than usual and that would be well after the Creative Activities doors opened.  The only reason we were a tad late was because I had to use the restroom!  The traffic snafus caused by the transportation changes were the highlight of fair coverage on the evening news.

The first order of business was to hunt for our entries.

The first thing we spotted was my Moose River Cowl (this was made from yarn I won).  And congrats to Lucy for her blue ribbon sweater!

The next two items were next to each other in the case: Pravigan and my latest Plaid Squared Felted Bag.

Doesn’t it look like that rosette ribbon has been snipped off?

Then we eyeballed Kims’ gorgeous fair isle blanket which also won a blue:

After that we had to hunt a little for our other entries.  Here are Kim’s stunning hat and stranded scarf:

My Capture the Moment won a 2nd place ribbon and was kinda flopped into the case:

Our friend, “N,” also won a ribbon – her first time entering!!

Baby Bonnet did well, and is hiding in the garments section!!

Also hiding in Garments is a sad looking little pancake, my Fair Isle Long Hat:

The hats that don’t win ribbons get plopped onto sewing mannequins!  Here is how I see it!

We finally found Dumbo – so proud to see him with his second place ribbon!!

I also entered three items in the senior category:

Bonnie Esplie again won our Penelope Knitters award for a beautiful pair of gloves!

Kim and I volunteered at the MKG booth where we talked to fair goers about knitting and the guild.  A highlight for me was when my dear friend Lynn and her family found us at the MKG booth!!  We also dined on several healthy food choices: Corn Dogs, Mini Donuts, Fried Cheese Curds, ice cream cones, and Big Fat Bacon!!  It’s the Fair!!  You have to eat like that! 🙂

PS to Commenters: Unfortunately I don’t have all the details about Kim’s projects!!  She is Luckydogknits on Ravelry if you want to ask her about them or ask her to post them to her project page. 🙂

PS2 in response to Amy: Amy asked why I entered some items in the senior category instead of regular knitting.  There are several factors.  I entered Fading Point in seniors because I thought it would not do well against the level of competition in the regular knitting category – it would have been entered against shawls.  (Senior has three knitting lots: sweater, scarf, and not a sweater or a scarf, aka “other”!!!).  I entered my Ovale Decke shawl in the “other” lot.  I didn’t know what lot to enter my beaded Snowfall Hat in in the regular knitting.  I already had an entry in the colorwork hat lot so it would need to go elsewhere, but if they moved it into that lot it would have been disqualified because you can only enter one item per lot.  They had a couple of beading lots under seniors: beaded necklace and beaded “other.”  So Snowfall landed in Beaded Other and snagged a blue!!

Sometimes you just want to knit something to knit it…not to gift it or wear it.  I got a little bee in my bonnet (pun intended!) to knit a sweet little Christening Bonnet from Poetry in Stitches.  The original christening cap is so pretty and is adorned with beads.

BUT, they had sewn the beads on after knitting the hat…ridiculous, I thought!  The beads could be added while knitting, right?!?  However, after several attempts with the wrong size yarn and wrong sized beads, I went in a totally different direction!!

I was inspired by the sweater on the book’s cover:

Who wouldn’t be inspired?  It is so beautiful!  So, I morphed the sweater into a baby bonnet:

I used oddments of sock yarns, lined it with a vintage hankie that I trimmed in lace, and added tassels made with perlé coton .  It was fun to knit…but now what to do with it? 🙂

PS to all: The bonnet is already entered in the fair in the “garments” category, infant and child.  I will learn its fate tomorrow.   Wish me luck!

Greetings!  We wanted to let you know that we just posted one of our best Tip of the Weeks ever!  It is something that Gretchen Funk shared with the Campers and it is fabulous: needle felted steeks!  This is an amazing technique for fair isle knitters.  Check it out on The Rainey Sisters Ravelry Group!!

I have been knitting, even though I haven’t posted in a long time.  (Sorry about that!)

My latest FO is a mishmash.  I combined two patterns — Morning Sky by Heidi Kirrmaier and Mirage by Shellie Anderson — into Morning Mirage.  I liked the lace bodice and cap sleeves on Morning Sky and the sheer hem on Mirage.  I don’t knit summer sweaters all that often because cotton and linen are harder on my hands, so knitting a two for one seemed an ideal solution for me.

For the main body of the sweater I used Shibui’s Fern, a soft certified organic cotton with a slightly “brushed” feel.  This cotton seemed easier and more forgiving on my hands than firmer cotton yarns I’ve used.  For the hem, I used Shibui’s Silk Cloud, which I love.

As usual, the sweater looks better on my daughter (wonder why?) than on me so she’s my model.  Her golden retriever Enzo wanted to get into the act.

Sally and I just returned from Knitting Camp.  I don’t have time for a full report, but I did want to share an FO that was part of the Camp experience!  The contest this year was At the Circus, or something like that.  Several of us went all in with elephants, including moi.  I adore Dumbo and knew right from the start that I wanted to knit him.  Who doesn’t cry when his momma is behind bars for protecting the little guy??

He stands just under six inches.  He started off with the body from Elefante – of which I have knit several.  I changed his trunk, eyes, head shape and of course, the ears!!  The eyes about did me in, but I like how he turned out.  I added a hat and ruffle to finish out his circus costume!  The competition this year was fierce, so he didn’t win, but I love him anyway. 🙂

Check out The Rainey Sisters Tip of the Week!

PS to All: Thanks for the nice comments!  The winning entries were absolutely BEYOND!  The winner knitted an entire clown suit from head to toe.  She gave a little speech and then said, “The question we should be asking is NOT how many clowns can fit in a car, but how many cars can fit in a clown!”  She proceeded to pull several TINY hand-knit cars from the sleeve of her costume!  Another person had a small knitted ballerina doing an actual high wire act!  It was crazy!!

PS to Julie – nothing really written “on my pattern” to share, but I did place a reenactment of my ear pattern on my Ravelry pattern page.  Cannot guarantee its accuracy, but it is close!

Circling back on a project.  Have you ever had to do that?  Almost every project?  Okay, then you’re like me!! 😉

This time around the circle I revisited my Circlet Shrug.

I loved the theory of the Circlet as described in this previous post, “What gives the Circlet its style is the seaming — you sew it so the armholes are relatively fitted.  It gives the illusion of an actual sleeve cap when worn.”

Okay, that’s great in theory.  Especially if you are a 20-something with pretty, thin arms.  I have old grandma arms.  When and how this happened is a mystery to me and quite horrifying!  I used to be known for my skinny arms!

I do not show my arms.  Ever.  At all.  Even in 90+ degree weather.  So that means wearing a shirt under my Circlet.  Wearing a shirt meant that the armhole opening was too tight – causing the sleeves to bunch in an unattractive manner.  I decided to open up the seam a bit to allow for the sleeves.

That created wings!  Because the Circlet has absolutely no shaping and is quite a dense fabric, the shoulders looked like a 747 on approach!!  Ugh.

So, I did a little pick up/cast off to tighten the top of the armhole opening:

It needed a little more tightening, but when I tried that it looked “gathered” at the top.  This is a workable compromise.  So Circlet is now wearable and arms discreetly covered.  Yay!!

PS to Alley – I picked up all the way around the armhole but at different rates.  I marked off the armhole into quarters.  Starting at the bottom of the armhole opening (with a size 4 needle), I picked up 3 sts for 4 rows for the 1st quarter, 1 st for every 2 rows for the 2nd and 3rd quarters, and back to 3 for 4 for the last quarter.  Then I just bound off as to purl using a size 5.

PS to Barbara: This won’t necessarily fix your wing problem.  With many vests with standard fit, the problem is that the shoulders are too wide.  If you tighten the circumference of the armhole, it will pull the vest down over the shoulder, but that will not give it the traditional fit you might want.  For that situation, the shoulder shaping needs to be cut in more.  That is a really common problem!!

Just hanging out in the heat.  Working on a stealth project and getting ready for Knitting Camp next week.  Just thought I would touch base to let you know that I am alive!!

Alive!!!  Al-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-ve!!!!!

I spent this past weekend at the beautiful Norwegian Wood Retreat Center hosted by the lovely and gracious Deb Sorenson.  She bedazzled us with wonderful food!!  The other knitters staying there were really fun and great company.

The first evening I did my Herbert Niebling presentation for the people staying at the retreat center.  On Saturday, after a breakfast of scrambled egg BLT’s (!), we were joined by three additional knitters and tackled invisible stranding (shown in picture above, upper left).  Sunday, three different knitters joined us for Essential Shawl Techniques, including garter tab cast on, no end stripes, picot bind off, and i-cord bind off.  It was impossible not to be distracted by the non-stop bird action at the feeders!!

A special shout out to the delightful Gail, who came all the way from Florida just for the retreat!!  Okay, she was also visiting family in the Twin Cities…

We all decided that we are going to design a knitted bikini for the mature woman – it will have long sleeves, a turtleneck, and go all the way to the knees.  Woo hoo!

I will be returning to Norwegian Wood October 12-14 for another retreat.  Saturday will include finishing techniques.  On Sunday, we will knit up my little beaded Snowfall Hats in time for the holidays!!  Maybe I will have my sexy bikini finished by then!

Thank you for the nice birthday wishes!!  It is always nice to make it to another birthday…

I just finished a lengthy, kind of boring, project: Fading Point by Joji Locatelli.  I have made several of her patterns – she is very talented!  It is drying on the blocking board.

I used Fading Point Kit #12 from Primrose Yarn Co.  It is made up of five colors of their Adelaide Sock Yarn:

Color 1: The Picket Line or The Parade
Color 2: Crime of Passion
Color 3: Just a Girl
Color 4: Squeaky
Color 5: Romance Novel

I had to add an extra section to each half due to my tight gauge 🙁 so used a yarn from my stash to transition (Lost City Knits Merino Fingering in a beige).  I also switched colors 4 & 5 so that Color 4 would be at the center back of the shawl.  The color was such a pretty, speckled pink!!  I placed the beige between Colors 3 and 5.

Sharon F. asked to see the inside of my Farrell Hat, so I must comply!!

PS re: inside of hat: I did not show you the side where all the colors start and stop — definitely not as attractive!!