theraineysisters knitting and so much more

I am waiting for tomorrow to dive into this pie! If I ate the whole thing, no one would actually know, would they? You’re better off getting rid of ALL the evidence rather than leaving half a pie, right? Well, it’s a theory!

Happy Thanksgiving, all of our loyal readers! If you’re cooking, I wish you success. If you’re travelling, I wish you safe passage. If you are doing neither, I wish you happy knitting!

To that I say, yes.  Yes, I do.  Really cute ones!  I just started on a new knitting obsession using a free Ravelry pattern called Balls Up.  What’s great about this pattern is that you use small amounts from your stash, you can make them quickly, and they are very timely.  What great little gifts!

I used Palette yarn for the red and white and Debblie Bliss Pure Silk for the “silver.”  I also charted out a super easy bead pattern in multiple of 8 sts for the design.  You can really do what you want with this pattern.   I did need to do an addional increase and a few more rows.  But you can insert the styrofoam ball as you go to see how it is fitting.  The last few rows with the ball inside is putsy but doable and far superior to stuffing with fiberfill.  The styrofoam ball creates a perfect circle that is lighter than air.

I bought my balls at Michaels — 6 for $5.99.  You may be able to buy them cheaper elsewhere.

I plan on making a lot more of these!

In the “The Neighbors Think We’re Crazy” category, I submit the following in evidence:

I came home the other night and found that our butt-ugly circular garage opening was history…or at least ONE of them was history!  Hey, Buddy, make up your mind!   I was worried that this would become another “deck” project (i.e., great start but no finish…at least no finish for YEARS), but he is out there at this moment cutting the other door opening.  Whew!  There is hope.

Let’s face it.  Most of the time, making people cry is a bad thing.  But sometimes, it feels pretty good.  Like last night, when Mary Sue saw the scarf that I fixed for her DIL.  There were tears, and it felt pretty good!

And today, my daughter and I packed up a box of food — a family meal with all the fixins — to take over to her friend’s house.  Her friend’s mom was just diagnosed with Stage IV breast cancer, with a very poor prognosis.  Jena took the box over and spoke to the mom.  Again, there were tears, and Jena felt good doing something special for her friend’s family.

Doing something special for others, even strangers, can make one feel pretty good.  Knitters are known for their generosity and kindness, and I have tapped this trait in the past!  I would like to take advantage of your generous spirits once again.

Many of you may remember the “Wrapped in Care” Program I posted about a couple of years ago.  It is part of the Bereavement Program at United Hospital and Children’s Hospitals and Clinics – St. Paul.  The program helps mothers deal with infant loss and the pain of leaving the hospital with empty arms.  Handknit shawls are provided to these women for two reasons: to give them something tangible to wrap themselves in and also to provide a suitable backdrop for the last photos they will ever have of their infant. 

Many of you knit shawls in the past — so many that Dee Moore (the chaplain and my contact) was overwhelmed!  Well now they have decided to expand the program and model it after the “Care Carts” used in hospice settings.  They will put together a cart with comforting items for use by the grieving family in their time of loss and mourning.  One of the items Dee would like to be able to provide on each cart is a handknit shawl.  Either the mother or other grieving family member would receive the shawl as a gift in remembrance of their lost child.

Just writing this makes me teary.  I have not suffered infant loss, but the pain must be unbearable.  If any of you are able, please knit a shawl for this worthwhile program.  The details are in this flyer — which is aways available on the righthand side bar.  Also available are a couple of very simple patterns.  I also started a Ravelry group called Wrapped in Care which has been pretty dormant of late, but feel free to join, post your projects and suggestions, and ask questions.  There is no urgency to this request as the need is ongoing.

We can’t make the pain go away, but we can let the person know that someone cares.  And that feels pretty good.

Here we go again! Today we are launching the third in our series of five glove patterns. Not your garden variety gloves, we named this design ‘Snapdragon’ because the flowers can be changed in a snap.

First the gloves are knit — with a Leaf Panel that comes with both charted and line-by-line instructions. Then comes the fun part. Decorate your gloves with flowers knit from a variety of colors to create as many gardens as you want – by snapping them in place. Or use the same color yarn for a monochromatic look. You can make these your own with your color choices, embellishments, and imagination.

Winter Blues and Fall Foliage Colorways

Change them in a snap to a completely different look:

Spring Mix

Don’t feel like dealing with snaps? The flowers can be sewn directly to the gloves as a permanent feature. The Grey Garden Gloves below have sewn-on flowers and are embellished lightly with beads to create a formal, snowy look.

Grey Gardens

Quick Facts about the Pattern:

Sizes: Small, medium, and large. Hand circumference 6.5 (7, 7.5) inches.

Gauge: 35 stitches and 48 rounds in stockinette stitch = 10 x 10 cm (4 x 4 inches).

Yarn: One skein of Dream in Color’s Smooshy with Cashmere (70% Merino, 20% Cashmere, 10% Nylon; 400 yards/113 grams). Shown in Starless Sky. Other yarns of similar weight can be substituted. Grey Garden version knit using two skeins of Classic Elite’s Fresco (60% wool, 30% Alpaca, 10% Angora; 164 yards/50 grams). Shown in Parchment. In addition to main color of yarn, pattern requires small amounts of contrasting fingering weight yarn for flowers.

Snaps: Size 1 snaps (7/16 inch) in sufficient quantity for all sets of snap-on flowers. (Quantity depends upon how many flowers the knitter chooses to make; flowers can be sewn on instead of affixed with snaps.)

Instructions: Leaf Panel directions are given in chart form and line-by-line written instructions. Included with the pattern is our ten-page Glove Guide, which provides detailed information on how to get a perfect, custom fit when knitting gloves.

Cost: $6.00

How to Purchase:
The Snapdragon pattern is available through Ravelry. Whether or not you are a Ravelry member, you can purchase the pattern by clicking the link below. You will be taken directly to a purchase page; after purchase, you will receive a link to download the PDF of the pattern.

To Receive a Loyalty Discount:
In order to reward our loyal customers, those who have purchased both of our previous glove patterns (The Bijoux Beaded Glove and The Smart Glove) will receive a 50% discount on this purchase. You will receive this discount on any glove pattern if two others are purchased (purchases you have already made will count). This offer will be extended to include our two unreleased patterns as well.  Unfortunately, this discount can only be activated if you are a member of Ravelry. Fortunately, Ravelry is free and easy to join. We highly recommend Ravelry to all knitters.

We hope you love this glove as much as we do. Now go snap to it! 😉

PS From Susan — I was so touched by everyone’s response to my scarf surgery!  Thank you for your kind words.

…and needs malpractice insurance!! A good friend sent me a picture of a scarf that was literally in shreds and asked if I could do anything with it:

This picture is of the center (middle) of the scarf.  The two ends were in better shape.

Uh, no!  Then she explained that it had belonged to this woman’s father and he had died recently.  It had great sentimental value.  Would I look at it?  Okay — I told her to bring it to our knitting group.

She brought the scarf and the mother-in-law of the woman who now owns the scarf.  The MIL also comes to our knitting group from time to time and is a lovely person.  It was hard to say no to this woman’s pleas, but I did say there were “issues.”

Issue 1:  Look at it!  It is a shard!  Shredded.  Nothing there!  The yarn was thin everywhere, not just in the area with the most holes.  It would be difficult to salvage sufficient yarn with the strength to do any grafting.

Issue 2: It is Brioche Stitch.  I have never really knit the Brioche Stitch before and after googling it, could not find anyone who had grafted it.  But, you know how I love a challenge.

I took the scarf home and proceeded to do a practice swatch of Brioche just to understand the structure.  The stitch looks like a complex 1×1 rib: the purl sts are slipped with yarn in front, and then the knit stitch is worked without moving the yarn back into proper position.  This creates a yarnover, which is knit togther with the knit st on the following row.

Once I got the hang of the stitch, I dismanteled the scarf and arranged the sts on needles the way I wanted to have them for grafting.  I knew that I would need to graft two rows to create the one row I needed.  (I will do a later post and show some pictures of the process…maybe!). 

The first row of the two (the right side) went as planned and looked pretty good.  As expected, the yarn I was using to graft shredded every few sts.  I had at least 20 ends when the whole thing was finished!

The wrong side did not look so good.  Once I got it done I realized that I had missed a critical step.  But, I am just stubborn enough that I plan on figuring out how to do this without the mistake!!  We shall see.

The finished right side:

You can see the line where I grafted, but I think it looks pretty good.  The wrong side is another story:

It is definitely more noticeable.  This is where I will need to file a malpractice claim!  I hope she will be pleased.   It is still as fragile as a dandelion puff, but at least it looks like a scarf.

And now, I just have to find that next great knitting project…I am thinking either the orange or the black and white:

What do you think?

PS: A couple of you asked about the damage to the scarf — what the heck happened?  I think it is just from overuse and abuse.  If I find out anything different, I will report back.