theraineysisters knitting and so much more

More knittin’ and more sewin’??  I found some cute spring fabric at Blue Bamboo and a skein of yarn in my stash that ties the whole thing Newsom together.  More work but twice the fun!

And in response to Grace who thought my dryer technique took nerves of steel — it was necessity and nothing more.  It could not be blocked when it was SO big!!

PS – Several of you asked what I will be making with the fabric.  I will probably make a dress I can wear to work, though the blouse idea is a good one!!  The skein of fingering weight yarn will probably end up as some kind of “Trillian“-like scarf.  It needs to be something that works well with variegated yarn.

That was a tortured title!!  But, it is meant to announce my latest FO: Newsom by Bristol Ivy.  It felt like a bit of a slog, but only took a month so it couldn’t have been THAT bad, plus I threw my Margo Poncho in there somewhere, so quit complaining! 😉

When Sally and I went to Rhinebeck in 2014, I bought three skeins of Miss Babs’ Yowza – Whatta Skein in French Marigold — a jaw-dropping, tonal orange.  I loved it, but could not find the right pattern.  Everything was too this, or too that and most times I did not have enough yarn.  I thought this simple style might work…and it did.

This sweater drew me in because of the clever construction.  The sweater starts at the center of the back, right at the hem.  Bristol says you can’t really adjust the length much but a couple of people tried it as did I.  I am almost six feet tall, people!!  My mods are described in more detail on my Ravelry project page.

The bold line continues up to the underarms, where you attach the sleeves:

Yes.  You are essentially knitting a rectangle: up the right side “seam,” across the back, then down the left side seam.  At the point in the picture, I am ready to attach the sleeves – up the right side, around the sleeve, across the back, around the second sleeve, and down the left side.  it is crazy town!

The two diagonal lines between the stockinette and garter sections continue, becoming the raglan lines on the front of the sweater.  You can see the front raglan line here:

It forms one continuous line from the center back to the front neck.  So cool!  A second [new] raglan line is added where the back and sleeves have been joined:

The color looks light and dark in the picture, but that is just shadow.

Now.  About the fronts.  They do not come together, nor are they supposed to apparently, but I knew mine would not even be able to wave at each other!  So I did a series of short rows to create a wider hem.  I did this after all the raglan shaping was done, right when I was ready to begin the collar.  I did short rows every 6 sts which added 18 ridges to the width on each front at the hem only.  Then I knit the collar, concluding with an i-cord bind off.  I also did an i-cord bind off at the sleeve cuffs.

The sweater fit well but needed blocking.  I wet blocked it and it became GINORMOUS!!  I threw it in the dryer a couple of times and that did the trick.  It fits perfectly and the yarn feels amazing.

Whew!  Another one bites the dust!  Now I need spring weather to wear this bright little puppy. 🙂

I saw this in yesterday’s paper and had to share it!  The full color cartoon comes from the Flying McCoys website.

Send me straight to ………

SURLY!!  Yep, today is the little Rainey Sister’s birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister, and bestest friend!

Remember this picture from a post or two ago?

Well, friend Ellie brought in the final finished object to knitting last night, with such a cute embellishment!

Thanks to all for the warm reception to my Margo Poncho.  People have been curious about using two yarns, etc., etc.  Obviously, the cashmere I used is long gone and no longer available.  I was wondering if KnitPicks Palette could be substituted, since to me it is a very thin fingering weight yarn.  I have a bunch in my stash and (even though I did not have an exact match to my cashmere), I swatched it to check gauge:

Palette in Doe swatched with Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool Oatmeal

The gauge was 14 sts/4 inches which is perfect.  I remeasured the gauge on my poncho and it was 15 sts/4 inches, so the Palette is actually closer!  I have Palette color cards and Camel Heather is almost an identical match to the color.  The fabric is not quite as soft, of course, but it is very nice.

KnitPicks Palette Camel Heather

Two skeins of the Palette yarn ~equal the same yardage as one skein of Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool, so 4 Palette and 2 Lion Brand would make this poncho at a pretty reasonable price.

Yay!  My Margo Poncho is done — as of last week actually.  Eight days from start to finish, so a nice quick project.

I made a few mods, which are described on my Ravelry project page.  I only buttoned it at one spot on each side (there is a button on the front and back) — it looked better that way on me.  I bought the buttons at Hancock Fabrics and doubled the cost of the project!  But I think they are really nice.  They are 1-3/16 inch instead of 1″ and I like the larger size for this.

I was trying frantically to finish this before the weekend and then I never wore it!  Oh well.  At least now I can forget about my poncho obsession and move on!!

I just finished knitting an adorable little baby dress under a tight deadline.  Why such a tight deadline?  After all, I knew the baby was coming for months.  I even knew several weeks in advance when I was going to get to meet the baby for the first time.

Well, as we all know knit happens. I started a different dress weeks ago.  Then, last week, I decided I didn’t like it.  The pattern wasn’t as cute as I’d thought it would be, the pattern itself had issues, and I was knitting it out of cotton.  The cotton was a beautiful, deep fuchsia — I loved the color.  But I hated knitting with it.

So, I cast around (ha ha) on Ravelry looking for something I could finish within 3 or 4 days.  It had to be a quick knit and I had to have the yarn in my stash because the roads were still a bit dicey from our big storm.  I settled on the Lizzy Dress designed by Taiga Hilliard. I rummaged around in my stash and found a light blue Madelinetosh Merino light — the right gauge and machine washable, too.

This was a great pattern: fun to knit, well written, adorable, and quick. If you make it out of one skein, you never even have to join new yarn. I made the 12-month size with a few modifications. I did fewer increases on the skirt so that the skirt was the 6-month size (which substracted one lace repeat). Note: If you knit this and make a similar modification, just take care when you set the side marker so that the lace is centered in the front.

I ordered an assortment of inexpensive shell buttons from Amazon (yay for free two day shipping). I was planning to use white buttons, but the pink seemed to pop.

I’m very pleased with how this turned out and I can’t wait to meet the recipient.