theraineysisters knitting and so much more

We are in full Birkie prep mode and a lot of snow fell last evening!  It is a beautiful, snowy-white, sunny day!!  More expected tomorrow on race day (??!!).

Last evening I got a bee in my bonnet to fix a shawl that I made quite a while ago: Lehigh by Melanie Berg.   Beautiful shawl!

Mine turned out ginormous!  Ten feet wide!  It was like wearing a 10 foot boa constrictor around my neck – or body!  I loved the look of the shawl but it was TOO MUCH of a good thing!   So I decided to take off the top few inches.  The new width is 82 inches.  I did not keep the tassels on the ends as they were so heavy they felt like I was being pelted with baseballs!!!

It will go very well with my gray wool coat and many other things, so it is OUT OF THE CLOSET so to speak! 🙂

Wish us luck at the Birkie!  Last year it was cancelled due to no snow and this year there is a ton of new snow — be careful what you wish for, though this is 1000 times better!!

And you still have time to knit up a 2018 Winter Games Hat in time for the closing ceremonies on Sunday…and even if you don’t finish, it is a darn cute hat!!

We have posted this week’s Tip of the Week in our Ravelry Group!!

Today is Surly’s birthday.  Yay!!  Happy Birthday, Surly!!  What a tumultuous few months she has had.  She started out last July visiting Colorado and her daughter and son-in-law.  An idea that had been percolating went into full boil: should we move to Boulder?  They decided to do so, and thus began a saga of semi-epic proportions.

Sally is now on the verge of moving into her new Colorado home.  They leave a stunning home in our nation’s capitol to move into a sleek, modern “Colorado-style” house with views of the foothills.  Being in three different houses in as many months can be very stressful, but Sally has been able to reconnect with family in a way that makes it worthwhile.

So, the gift that Sally gets this month is to close on her old life home and start anew.  That is quite a gift at our age and very exciting.  Happy birthday wishes as you settle into your new life!!  It takes courage to change and shows a youthful spirit!!  🙂

Many of you have joined our Ravelry group called, with much creativity,  The Rainey Sisters.  Each week we share our Tip of the Week.  This week’s tip is about how we use waste yarn to count rows when doing things like increases or decreases on a sleeve.  Because it is easy to do but difficult to describe, Susan prepared a very professional :cough: :cough: video:

Also, Susan’s FREE 2018 Winter Games Hat pattern is going gang busters on Ravelry.  Click on over and check it out!!

PS to Susan: I am wearing my Funky Grandpa!!

PS2 to Kate: Throwers rock, so nannie-nannie-boo-boo to pickers!!

The Olympics have started and the opening ceremonies are tonight!  I just heard from StevenBe — famous Glitter Knitter — that his shop is putting together hat kits for people who want to create their own Olympic souvenir and symbol of support for our Team USA athletes!!

Time to get this party started!!  Find the FREE hat pattern here:  2018 Winter Games Hat.  Can be worn with or without a pom…

This addendum to my previous post was longer than the post, so I decided to start a new post!!  Phyddy asked, “What is invisible stranding?”

Invisible Stranding is the term I coined to describe a technique for carrying stranded floats across any number of stitches without catching them.  It is a machine knitting technique that has been adapted to hand knitting.  I wrote up a pattern, called It’s Not About the Hat, to share this technique with others.  The pattern includes a series of videos that demonstrate all the steps, and the tricks I have learned along the way.  Invisible stranding is perfect for projects with long floats.  Here are some examples:

Mother Goose Hat

Rose and Lily

And the reason I dove into invisible stranding with both feet: Dale of Norway 10903.  There were places in the chart where you had to carry a dark color across 30+ sts of cream!

This technique is a game changer and removes any obstacles to stranded knitting.  It opens up all sorts of possibilities!!

Can you stand another freebie??  I just finished a hat for my husband to wear during the 2018 Birkebeiner.  The race occurs right when the Winter Games wrap up, so it is very festive and exciting!  This year a local female skier, Jessie Diggins, is on the US team.  Last season, Diggins became the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier, male or female, in world championship history.  So we are really looking forward to seeing how she does!

I reverse engineered the hat from photographs and wrote it up as a pattern — though others beat me to it!  I used invisible stranding to do the red on the diamond motif, which was very annoying to say the least!  Duplicate stitch may be a better way to go!

In 2008, we released our free Sweetheart Glovelets pattern. To celebrate our 10th anniversary, we have reimagined the original pattern — and it’s still free! Beads create a whimsical heart design, and bring color, sparkle, and fun to your knitting.  You still have plenty of time to finish a pair of these to wear on Valentine’s Day!!

Sweetheart Beaded Glovelets

These cuties are FREE  *  FREE  *  FREE  *

I recently finished my first truly  “Colorado” sweater — one knit with yarn purchased here.  It is a design that has been popular on Ravelry of late:  Isabell Kraemer’s Humulus.  I hate to be a copycat, but I loved the original, which was done in gray and gold.  I looked at several different color combinations, but kept coming back to those colors.

The yarn I used is Stonehedge Fiber’s Shepherd’s Wool in Pewter and Autumn Gold.  Autumn Gold is a soft color.  I debated between it and a brighter shade.  I tried all the tricks to determine if there was enough contrast between my two yarns, even taking photos and converting them into black and white.  The patterning in gold immediately disappeared.  Even so, I decided to stay with it.  The whole time I worked on this Ie worried the design was too subtle because of the lack of contrast.  I decided I love it for its subtlety. It reminds me of a faded Persian carpet.  And the color pops more when being worn than it does in photographs.

I made two very minor alterations to the pattern.

1. I did a cable cast on in the gold for a touch of color at the neck.
2. I added a small rabbit hole pocket for another slash of color in the body.

I also lengthened the sweater by a couple of inches.  To keep the ribbing from drawing in, I increased the number of stitches by about 10% before knitting the ribbing.

This is an incredibly comfortable and flattering sweater.  I absolutely love the yarn, which is incredibly soft — soft enough to be worn right against the skin.   The photographs don’t do it justice.  Unfortunately, I don’t have any modeling shots at the moment.

ETA:  Below, Chris asked how I did the pocket.  I was planning to provide details in the Tip of the Week discussion thread of our Rainey Sisters group on Ravelry tomorrow.  Stay tuned!

The gold patterning on the yoke made me think of Fields of Gold.  I’m sharing this haunting version by one of my favorite singers, Eva Cassidy.  Gone way too soon and way too young.

It’s not The Weekend, but it IS The Weekender!!  I just finished my sweater and I am pretty happy about it.  I used some cast off yarn (pun intended??) of Surly’s: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter in Soot.  It was like knitting with dark gray dryer lint.  But the results are pretty okay.  I started this on December 20 and finished a couple of days ago.  It felt like forever, but considering that some holiday knitting fell in there, that’s not too bad.

I was worried that the sleeve pick up would look wonky, since you are picking up stockinette sleeves on reverse stockinette.  It worked fine!  The sweater kept to size when wet blocked, which surprised me.  I hoped to get another inch or so in length, but couldn’t get there!

You know I hate modelling, but this is for the people who will request it. 😉

Surly saw the designer at Vogue Knitting Live! in New York City.  She said, “I see a woman wearing what looks like that sweater you’re working on — she’s surrounded by lots of people.”  I asked, “Is she blond??”  Yes.  GET A PICTURE!! 

Andrea Mowry at Vogue Knitting Live!

My husband loves the finished sweater and insists that it would look good on him.  Could be!!

Addendum: On December 24, I posted a picture on Instagram of a BooKnits Shawl being blocked and my definition of “knitworthy.”
DEFINITION: knitworthy
One who demonstrates that they value the time, effort, and love that goes into making a hand-knit gift. As in, “Laura is extremely knitworthy. She wears her Boo Knits Sweet Dreams shawl every day and brings it home periodically for blocking.” Knitworthy.

Here is the shawl again, 3 weeks later, being re-blocked!  Laura went to a “club.”  When she left, her shawl was not with her jacket so she went back in to get it and saw a drunk woman dancing with the shawl somehow stuck on her shoe!!  Ack!  On the filthy dance floor, which for some reason was covered in hair.  🙁 🙁 🙁  She said to the woman, “Hey, that’s my scarf.”  The woman insisted that no, it was her scarf!  Laura told her that her mom made it and don’t you notice it has no labels???

So back to mom it goes…

PS to Julie: The short rows are at the top right before you switch back to ribbing.  It makes the sweater curve over the shoulders.  Andrea described W&T short rows but mine looked terrible.  My go to SR’s are Japanese, but I couldn’t figure out how to resolve them on reverse stockinette.  I am not the huge fan of German short rows that many are, but sometimes they work best!