theraineysisters knitting and so much more

I am taking a break from the sweat shop -er- the festivities to provide an update.  Remember when I said I was going to make a bolero like this for my daughter’s wedding?

Well.  I tried a prototype and it was an abysmal failure.  I was going to give it another go when I had a brainstorm.  Would the seamstress doing the alterations on Laura’s dress make the bolero for us and if so, what would she charge?

The answers:  yes and NOTHING!!

I am serious.  She said she would “throw it in!”  Well, you can imagine the nano second it took for me to decide what to do.  I figured the worse case scenario would be that it would not turn out, but we would still be out nothing.  We already knew mine would not turn out!

So, today I went to pick up the dress and bolero.  The bridesmaids are also wearing boleros that Laura liked so much, she bought one for herself.  She took said bolero to the seamstress for sizing purposes.  Here is the result:

It is identical!  It looks exactly like the shrugs the bridesmaids will be wearing, in the same fabric as her wedding dress.  Like we planned it all along!  Nothing like that ever happens to me.  I feel like I won the lottery!

Back to the sweat shop festivities…

Sally and I will be off line for a few days.  My daughter’s wedding is this coming Saturday and it is amazing how much there is to do.  Like clean my house.  Ugh.  Double ugh.  We will connect next week!!

We me luck 🙂 !

Hello, all!  This time of year is very busy, and 2012 is no different…except for the added stress of a wedding IN ONE WEEK!  My DD (the knitworthy one) also asked me to knit a scarf for her new FIL, AND make a wall hanging for a special family member.  Okay.  I can do that.  I love you.  I have time.  I have nothing else to do………h e l p  m e

If I had known that I was knitting a scarf, I never would have taken on the following “small” project for myself:

It is Barb’s Koigu Ruffle Scarf from Churchmouse.   I used Malabrigo Sock in new color Arco Iris (440 yds/100 grams, 100% merino).  I only used 2/3 of the skein even though I lengthened the scarf by 81 sts (per pattern).

The pattern recommends “ironing” the scarf — and I did.  Just like you would iron a blouse!  This photo shows the pressed and unpressed difference:

The pattern has you cast on over 600 sts, but I had to cast on >700.  They suggest using a cable cast on so you don’t need to calculate the length of the tail.  My ‘go to’ cast on is the cable so no problem there.  BUT, if I was to do this again, I would use the crochet hook provisional cast on method, but with the real yarn, not waste yarn.  That way, both edges would match.  I really like the chain along the cast off edge and wish that both edges looked the same.

I think this is super cute and a nice mindless knitting project to carry along.

PS: Woody Woodpecker was spotted off our deck:

Cute!!

PS2: Lisle asked to see the two edges side by side to compare:

The left side is the cable cast on and on the right is the bind off.

Okay.  The post is not knitting.  It is about knitting!  I have a few FOs lurking in the background and will share one with you today.

First, though, I sure hope you had a nice holiday weekend.  Mine was very relaxing.  Except for when we discovered that the wedding invitations had the wrong address.  (Thank goodness it was my daughter’s fault, and not mine!).  With two weeks to go we had time to send out a correction.  Thank goodness we discovered it now!  What if we got to the day of the wedding and no one showed up!?!?!

Okay, back to knitting.  I just finished a large cowl/wrap: Moose River by Steven West.  My friends and I spotted it at StevenBe’s, tried it on and loved it.  What I really like about it is the fact that it is made with reversible cables.  Fun to knit!

I used the same yarn as Steven’s sample: Wexford Merino Silk from Three Irish Girls (240 yds/115 gms, 60% silk, 40% merino), in two colorways: Little Black Raincloud and Heathered Lilac (for the top and bottom ribbing).  Butter soft and beautiful.

The pattern recommends using a tubular cast on and bind off.  No problem, thought I.  I can do a beautiful tubular cast on in 1×1 ribbing.  The bind off was another story!  I used the technique described in Principles of Knitting, but should have done a bit of double knitting first (as shown here).  With almost 300 sts, you need to use multiple pieces of yarn, and there isn’t a good place to hide the ends with a reversible edge.   I may take off the last couple of rounds and try it again.

So, I got it all done and then couldn’t figure out how to wear the darn thing!  My friend, Mary, finished hers at the same time and L.O.V.E.S. it.  I think if I just wear it it will grow on me!.  But after spending $125 for the yarn and the book, and two weeks of knitting, I would expect to be a little more enthused!

PS from Susan: Purrl Gurrl mentioned this in her comment, “There are two knitted items I find have no purpose at all, cowls and sock yarn shawlettes. I find both annoying to wear and neither do anything to actually keep the wearer warm. Both are wastes of time and good yarn in my view.”

I love cowls and sock yarn shawls!  I wear them quite frequently.  I find them both warm and fashionable.  Scarves and shawlettes add color and style to my extremely drab wardrobe…and are being worn by Muggles everywhere, including my two fashionista daughters!

Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!

Yes, we have used this picture before!!!  🙂

PS from Susan — What was I thinking?  I ate way-way-way too much.  🙁

I have an almost finished sweater: Burr, the same sweater Susan finished recently. I just need to weave in a few ends and sew on the buttons, and therein lies the problem.

I have buttons that I love with this yarn color. Here’s a photo when I was working on the button band and collar.

The problem, though, is that these glass buttons are as heavy as they are beautiful. Even when I sew them on with a small button to the inside for “balance,” they want to dangle or hang down a bit. If I button the sweater, they’ll be fine. But I know that I may not want to wear it buttoned every single moment. Here is another quickie photo of the buttons laid out on the (almost) finished piece.

I’ve experimented with other buttons, but I don’t love them the way I love the glass ones.

What to do?

PS from Susan — I had the same problem finding buttons.  I ordered some and they were too heavy.  I ended up with wooden buttons:

I do really like them now, but was disappointed at first because I had my heart set on something else…

My husband and I went out with my daughter and her fiance least evening.  Very lovely evening enhanced by the fact that she was WEARING HER SWEET DREAMS SHAWL!!  Oh, yeah, Baby!!  She said she wears it ALL THE TIME!!

She has now been elevated to full knit-worthy status!  Woo Hoo!

Probably lots!  When my almost-knitworthy daughter mentions that she thinks something is nice…well who can pass up a soaring compliment like that?

Laura saw my Sweet Dreams in the car before I took it to work and said she thought it was pretty.  Okay!!  What color?  Black she said.  Always black!  I asked if she wanted it lighter weight or heavier than the one I had, and she said heavier.

I immediately stopped at my LYS and bought a skein of Malabrigo Sock in Black, Color 195.  It seemed to have a heftier feel to it than some other sock yarns.  I have been puttering around with it for the last couple of weeks.

And here is fall in some of its glory — taken last weekend in my backyard:

I did find out that my Sweet Dreams sold for $40.  I was kind of disappointed, but what can you do?  The money went to a good cause, no matter how much it was.

P.S. from Sally — Thank you so much for your concern and comments about Hurricane Sandy.  We were fortunate; Washington, DC didn’t see the kind of widespread destruction seen in other parts of the east coast.  We had hours of high winds and lots of rain, but we never lost power and life for us is back to normal.  Both Susan and I are thinking of those in the worst hit areas, especially New York and New Jersey.

PPS from Susan — Two Things: darling daughter stopped by and I gave her the shawl.  She said, “I will wear this…now!”  Yay!  And thank you for your comments about the lowball bid on my Sweet Dreams.  Even though the bid seemed relatively low, I received MANY compliments from fellow employees.  I did not feel like the shawl was under appreciated by any means.

I feel like I must be the last knitter on earth to figure this out,  but I do think the potential is there to change my knitting life forever!  Hyperbole?!?  You bet!

What am I talking about?  The best kept [knitting] secret of all time: the bottom up contiguous sleeve.  Yes.  A fitted sleeve knit in one piece with the body from the bottom up.  Others have tried it.  Others have succeeded.  But this is a first for moi.

Let me just say for the record that I don’t have a problem with seams.  They have their place and I am comfortable doing them.  But, that said, I hate sewing sleeve caps into the armscye.  Just hate it.   Many designers have glommed onto the fact that people do not like seams: there are many top down sweaters out there right now to prove it.  But there are still many bottom up designs that are worked in pieces to achieve the look of the set in sleeve.

Recently, Jared Flood introduced a new series of patterns, one of which really caught both Sally’s and my attention: Burr by Veronik Avery.  It is knit bottom up in pieces.  Could it be converted to bottom up contiguous?  I had to know.

The answer.  Yes.

Burr knit in Rowan Tweed, Color Reeth

Look at the beautiful set in sleeve!  And it fits me perfectly!  It is still wet and blocking, but I was too excited to wait to share it with my knitting peeps.

I love the beautiful details in this sweater: the YOs on the front and back, the gorgeous collar, and the inverted “V” ribbing details on the hems of the body and sleeves.  I did make major modifications though to achieve my goal of seamless, fitted sleeve:

1 – work both fronts and the back in one piece (I also made some other small changes in my set up)
2 – work to the armhole
3 – work sleeves in the round to the underarm
4 – join all pieces (leaving live sts at the underarm of both the sleeves and the body — ‘bound off’ sts in pattern) and start all shaping as needed (for this step, I graphed out all of the pieces onto graph paper to figure out my shaping)
5 – at the top of the sleeve cap (which was 2 inches wide at that point = 12 sts), stop knitting the sleeve and instead work the fronts and back as separate pieces for 1 inch each (and add short row shaping for the shoulder) — I added a ‘make 1’ to the fronts and back at the edge next to the sleeve cap for the seaming in Step 7
6 – join shoulders using 3-needle bind off
7 – graft the sleeve cap sts to the front and back extensions
8 – graft underarm sts

The picture below shows the work in progress after Step 5 is complete:

I am thrilled with the results and will share additional photos when it is dry and I have buttons.  This easy to do method is just one way that people eliminate the seam on sleeve caps.  I have experimented with other ideas for doing this and will try them out in the future.

This is another reason I love knitting — even after doing this for over 45 years, there is still so much to learn!!  Yowza!!