theraineysisters knitting and so much more

I do like that about sewing: start in the morning and done by evening!  I made another of my ‘work dresses’ today.  I bought the fabric to go with a shawl that I have had for several years* that went with NOTHING I owned.  The color looked brownish next to pink and pink next to brown.  It languished — I would take it out every once in a while and wish again that I had something to wear it with.

So, I finally dragged the lil sucker around with me and found the perfect fabric:

It is white, lineny fabric with embroidery in the exact matching color and 30% off to boot!  I made the dress today and the rest is history:

Yes, I do realize that all my work dresses look pretty much the same 🙂 . 

When I tried it on with the shawl, it seemed a bit dressy for work, but no matter.  I will either wear it and hope that I do not experience another “lose the pants” moment (“Lady, lose the shawl!”), or save it for dressier occasions (though my social life is rather bereft of such occasions at the moment!).  In any case, I really like the dress — my daughters both said they liked it without prompting — and I like looking at it with the shawl.  So there!

Knitting is progressing well — I am on the 3rd chart out of 4 for my Icarus Shawl.  Chart 4 has 24 rows and then there are 4 finishing rows, so I have about 30+ rows total left to do.  I’m thinking of adding a few beads to the bind off row to add a little bit of pizazz.  Maybe it’s gilding the lily — I’ll have to see.  I’ll post a picture later — maybe when it’s done if it goes quickly.

* in answer to PainterWoman, this is a purchased shawl and is not knit

There is a new player in town — Twist Collective.  It describes itself as follows:

“The idea of Twist Collective came from our shared desire to bring talented designers and writers together, to give them a beautiful showcase for their work, and pay them fairly. After publication with Twist Collective, designers have the option of using the pattern as we produced it, photography and all.  Meanwhile, writers have an explicit right to use their work here as the beginning of something bigger, if they like, or just to work out an idea in a publishing format that allows them their own voice.  

Twist Collective will be published quarterly, send monthly newsletters updating subscribers with news and events, and the magazine’s blog will supplement issues with contributor and reader content, updates to the site, and other surprises.”

This is a new venue for knitting designers to showcase their designs.  You can buy the patterns on-line for about $7 each.  Anyway, there are some very nice designs from some very well known designers.  We added a link under “Where we visit.” 

The Minnesota Knitters Guild picnic was last night — it was great!  Really good food and lots of knitters — both newbies and not so newbies.  There was such a positive vibe in the air.  And I received three more shawls for Wrapped in Care — we also had ten afghans ready for the Project Little Lambs program.  You rock, MKG Members!!

QUESTION: How do you keep deer from nibbling the !##$%^%$&* out of your plants?  We have one little deer (very small deer tracks) that nibbled a huge chunk out of a newly planted tree in our front yard.  I do not want to lose our tree!

I taught a knitting class for another teacher tonight.  It was fun to get back into teaching mode again.  It has been a while!  Too long a while.  It was a beginning cable class.  It’s always fun to see the lightbulb go on when they see that cables are really just about knitting the stitches in the “wrong” order — and that you don’t do much of anything in between.  Lots of bang for the buck!  Not that cables can’t be complex, but they don’t need to be hard to have a lot of impact.  I think my next big project will have to be Am Kamin!

Sally should be back soon and may have some stories to share.  It sure seems like summer is moving at a lightning pace, doesn’t it??

I received a small package in the mail the other day.  It was unexpected — no purchased goods expected.  To my surprise, it was a baby sweater that I had made for my now 24-year old niece when she was just a baby.  I did not know what to make of it.  Why would my brother return it now, after all these years, after my own two girls were far too old to be able to wear it.  My first reaction was one of hurt feelings.  Was he mad at me?  Ridding himself of all past reminders of his big sister?

Naaaahhhhhhh! 

I called him and he said, “You asked me to send this to you if I ever found it.”  Oh, yeah!  I forgot!  I thought it would be nice to have one of my old knitted relics as a keepsake — if they didn’t want it any more.  It has meant a lot to me to have the sweaters that my mom made me, and I like looking back on my own first attempts at knitting.  The sweater in question was my first blue ribbon at the State Fair.  In fact, when I gave the sweater to them, I left the ribbon attached. 

It’s fun to look at your old knitting.  There are many opportunities for “I would do THAT differently,” and, “What was I thinking when I did THAT?” and “Why did I choose that technique?”  The usual answer to these questions for me is, cuz it’s the only way you knew HOW to do it back then!

So, here is the old, old baby sweater, my own design, made in CHEAP acrylic yarn — for the baby, of course!  I did use antique buttons (because I had them in my stash!).  Be kind…

I think I crocheted the buttonhole bands, which is surprising because I really do not crochet.  Doesn’t it look like something someone’s Grannie should be wearing?  In those days, baby garments were very traditional.

The back:

And a close up of the back neck detail:

I did a chain embroidery stitch around the back neck to carry the line all the way around.

And the sleeves have the small cable detailing:

So, no new FO’s to share, but instead I am dredging up the past!  Now I knit very little seed or moss stitch because it is so slow, and it bothers my elbows (I have tennis elbows from knitting no less!), but I did a lot of it back then. 

Hope your holiday was filled with family and fireworks.

PS to kellistar: Unfortunately, I did not write the pattern down — at least that I know of.  I do have a lot of old knitting papers around and if I stumble upon the pattern, I will share it.  OW, feel free to use it as a creative starting point for your own rendition.

Happy 4th of July to all of our readers.  Let’s remember the reason we celebrate the 4th.  We hope you enjoy this holiday with family and friends.

From Susan : As for me, I am celebrating independence from work.  I am relaxing, knitting, doing errands and hanging out with peeps.  I have a feeling that several WIPs will morph into FO’s all at once!  I can’t be “knit-ogamous” so each is getting a little bit of knit time each day!

I know.  We said we wouldn’t blog much over the summer, but what the heck!  Sally is on an extended road trip and will not be able to write much, so that is one reason for the announced hiatus.  I’ll check in when I can, and we will for sure hit the blog-o-sphere at least weekly (weakly?). 

Check this out:

This is the road to my house .  Now, picture a torrential downpour.  The road was a muddy mess all weekend — you should see our poor cars!  The “high road” to the left is not even really a lane — I have no idea why they built it up like that.  It is supposed to be “in process” until November…bummer!

Re: knitting.  Lorraine mentioned that she is in a bit of a knitting funk.  I can relate.  Is it the summer blahs?  Is it due to the fact that it’s not sweater weather? 

I have been knitting every day but seem to have absolutely nothing to show for it.  Nada!  For me, that is contributing somewhat to my funk.  If I start something new — to feel excited about my knitting again — it will continue the downward spiral of nothing getting finished.  It is a dilemma and one which I have written about before.

On the bright side, the Wrapped in Care Ravelry Group now has almost 60 members.   They have shared some great shawl pattern ideas and one member is ready to mail in two shawls.  I am amazed. 

PS — I realize that not everyone is on Ravelry — but they are the only people I can keep tabs on with regard to the Wrapped in Care Project.  I will track the numbers on our blog (see upper righthand corner).  Thanks to all for supporting this project!

Okay.  So I’m wearing my cute new outfit today (see previous post) and was in the cafeteria getting coffee.  The cashier complimented me on my new dress.  I said, “It has these pants, too.” And she said, “Lose the pants.”  Then someone else walked up to pay for her food — a complete stranger, mind you — and said, “Yeah, you’ve got to lose the pants!” 

So, I took them off — not in the cafeteria line, but…I did lose the pants.  I’m a little bummed that no one liked my cute pants!

The Yarnery is sponsoring its own charity knitting event, called The Promise Blanket.  They are creating a simple, but beautiful blanket that will be auctioned.  The proceeds will benefit Women’s Advocates, Inc.  They have a free pattern available at the Yarnery for a blanket square.  Knitters and non-knitters both can bid at auction time.

Gee, everyone!  Thanks for the birthday greetings!  Surly, I’ll need to get back at you for sharing the photos!

As you may recall, the OH was this weekend — on my birthday!  And on Father’s Day.  So, DH and I had a “relaxing” day of hosting 60-75 people at our house!  It went extremely well, the weather was drop-dead perfect, I had food for 150 people (oops — note to self: buy less food next time!)….it was a success.  Just not relaxing.  Especially at ten minutes to 1:00 when nothing seemed to be ready.

Here is the cake before:

And after:

Friend Mary was right: cut the cake and put pieces on plates so people eat the darned thing!  The cake was humongous, and we did send a HUGE chunk home with John’s dad to share with relatives who could not be there.  I saw many old and dear, dear friends and felt overwhelmed by their love and caring.  So many of them go back to BEFORE the days when Laura was tiny.  One friend I have known since I was twelve!  So it was as special for me as for Laura and well worth all of the effort. 

Sally, your Ode to Joy is absolutely stunning and I keep thinking I should have gone with that colourway — so easy to second guess oneself!

Thanks again for the well wishes!