Hope your day is special in whatever way you choose. We are planning family gatherings both today and tomorrow. “Boxing Day” will be spent at Susan’s, with Sally and most of the family in attendance!
Happy Holidays from Susan and Sally, The Rainey Sisters!
Santa brought Yuki a stocking:
As I said a few weeks ago, I’m a big fan of Shibui yarns. (I only wish I got a discount for promoting them!) I finished yet another project in Shibui recently and finally took some not so great photos of a great pattern.
Truss is a tunic designed by Shellie Anderson for Shibui Knits. Her version has a deep thigh high split, but I toned mine down. It’s knit holding one strand of Maai with one strand of Pebble. Maai is a light chainette type yarn spun from 70% merino and 30% alpaca. Pebble, the same yarn I used for my Leigh, is a tweedy blend of recycled silk, merino, and cashmere. By itself, Maai is very stretchy. Combining it with Pebble reduces the stretchiness and produces a cozy, plush feeling fabric that feels wonderful against the skin.
I made a very few small modifications to the pattern.
I made the side seam longer. The slit in the original is very deep — thigh high. I decided that wasn’t the best look for me. I added the sleeve stitches by knitting across a provisional cast on. That gave me live stitches so instead of a sewn seam at the bottom of the sleeves I was able to do a 3-needle bind off. Finally, I cast on a small number of extra stitches for the ribbing and then decreased in the first row of stockinette so the ribbing would hang straight without needing to be overly stretched when blocked.
P.S. I live, as many of you know, in Washington, DC. Right in the city. Here’s who I saw outside my window this morning.
P.S.#2 Robin, below, said the fox was brave to chance it in the big city. But we live near a large park that runs down through the city to the Potomac and we’re in a residential area that doesn’t feel urban. We have deer, lots of birds (hawks, pileated woodpeckers, various songbirds), squirrels of course, raccoons, and even the occasional coyote. There is one large buck who frequently walks down the middle of the street. Hard to believe that we’re in the city.
Well, actually TWO FO’s!! I just finished a great shawl that seems to have its light hiding under a basket: Borderline by Nicole Montgomery. What appealed to me about it was both the gradient colorwork and the bobble thingies at the edge. The bobble thingies remind me of a shawl that my daughter owns that we have both really liked.
The pattern is very well written. The shawl shaping is a NO HUMP crescent!! I will use her shaping technique in the future for a great no hump shape. The shawl is wrinkled slightly because I wore it yesterday and garnered many a compliment!!
I used my Fiberstory Fave Sock Gradient Set (purchased at The Yarnery) with the addition of a very dark full skein at the bottom edge. Because the number of colors and yardage differed from the yarn used in the pattern, I had to adjust my row counts to accommodate.
I was a bit “crochet challenged” by the bobbly bits, but finally managed to do them. You make all 50 and then attach them. The first one I tried took an hour!! After some trial and error, I restarted and did all 50 in one day.
My other FO is a cute little thing that is a great gift idea for this time of year. It is called certifiable (why I don’t know!), and is a small hoodie that serves as both a gift card holder and a Christmas tree (or generic holiday) ornament:
This pattern was also very well written and just so darn cute. Made it in one evening!! I wonder why there aren’t more projects on Ravelry??!!
And now it is FO, FO, FO!
Kmkat mentioned that she thought the pattern was expensive at $5. That is a personal choice, but to me it was worth it. It was very well written and set up for minimal printing. She detailed the pattern line by line.
Well. I finished my Waking Tide and wore it last evening to knitting group. Kathy W. already commented on it. It turned out the way I planned. I had not planned on it making me look like a bus. BUT, that is not necessarily the sweater’s fault!! 😉
I added buttons to the side “seams” and made the back a little longer than the front. I also made it swingy so it would not be a fitted pullover.
I added ribbing to the edges as well – I thought there needed to be more “weight” on the hems and I wanted the sleeves to fit better.
All in all, I would say it is a very wearable sweater, though not real flattering. I don’t care too much about that. I was looking for something to throw on when I did errands and this will certainly serve that purpose!!
PS — Anya asked if you could add the lace panel to a plain sweater (written by someone else) to avoid the sizing issue of the yoke. That is how the original was designed. The body and sleeves were fine. Lace does have a different gauge than non-open type stitch patterns, so you might have the same issues. Maybe you could do separate gauge swatches to see how many sts to remove.
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