theraineysisters knitting and so much more

I am sitting here freezing.  The cold part of fall has crept in!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.  Mes Amis.  My Amigurumis!!  I decided to embark on crocheting some small little friends for my knit- and crochet-worthy daughter.  Let’s be frank here.  I do not consider myself a crocheter!!  But I soldiered on.

For my first attempt, I chose Molang, the Fat Rabbit, because Laura has a picture of Molang on her phone:

It turned out pretty cute!

She loved it!  So much so that she decided that she wanted to learn how to crochet 🙂 to make her own amigurumi 🙂 .  Okay, let’s give it a go!

We went to a crochet class and brought little Molang with us.  My first red flag was when the teacher said, “Gee, I wish I could make those!”  Huh??  It was still a fun class, but I must say that it is a long journey from bulky crocheted blob to making tiny little toys. 🙁

My next foray was a much bigger challenge and maybe a bit over my head: The Chinese New Year Monkey.  These can turn out quite large so I opted for fingering weight yarn.

A lot of weird finishing and putsing but I think he turned out pretty cute, too.  Laura will see him tonight for the first time.

I learned a lot making these, but I’m not sure I want to part with Mes Amis!!  You know I love my toys!!

Even Little Darcy hates to say goodbye!

Weird image…very weird!

Sally actually revisited The SHIRT this weekend while attending Sense and Sensibility at the Folger.  The SHIRT still looked great and was attracting an enthusiastic crowd!

PS: Baby Monkey needed a pacifier!

I have a love/dislike relationship with Brooklyn Tweed’s Loft yarn.  I love the colors and many of the patterns designed for it.  But the yarn itself is very fragile — it must be hand wound and even then it can break if given a sharp tug.  Sometimes, it can feel as if you’re knitting with dryer lint.  (Sorry, Jared!)  Over the years, I’ve bought numerous skeins of Loft and started many projects.  But I’ve rarely finished them.  One exception:  my Foxhall Gloves, which looked great but did not wear well.

However, I’ve just finished knitting Boardwalk, designed by Heidi Kirrmaier, and I’m quite pleased with it.  The color I chose is Nest.  I started this sweater ages ago.  I knit it almost to the armhole and set it aside.  When I came back to it, I decided I had knit it too tightly.  The fabric was too dense and I was worried the finished vest would be too small.  I ripped it back to the welted hems and then went up a needle size (from a 2.75 mm to a 3.25).  This time, I kept going until it was finished.  Yay!

This felt like a slow project (possibly because I knit much of it twice), but once you get past the armhole it’s fun.  The mitered front is very clever and the directions are well written.  The yarn itself blocked out beautifully and has a nice drape.  I am inspired to go back to some of my earlier Loft projects now that I’ve finished this one.

I saw a shawl pattern recently and just loved it: Lehigh by Melanie Berg.  Bought the yarn and the book, Malabrigo Book 10 (Rios)…waited two weeks for the yarn.  🙁  Started the shawl straight away before I headed to DC to visit Surly.

It takes 4 skeins of Rios Plomo and two of Arco Iris (I got the Plomo at The Yarnery and the other from Love Knitting).  I ran out of the Plomo and just kind of finished it up at that point.  Thank goodness.  The finished size is 120 inches across.  I said that to Sally and she goes, “That’s TEN FEET!”  Wow.  She is right!

Susan’s Lehigh Shawl

This shows the wrong side:

I added tassels to the back and both ends.  This side edge picture shows my use of No End Stripes:

I don’t have a picture of the entire shawl, nor have I figured out how to wear it! 😉  But I expect to look exactly like this: 😉

I was and still am disappointed in the color of my Arco Iris.  The picture shows a lot of yellow and spring green (more like this person’s shawl on Ravelry), but my color is more pink and orange — and generally duller.

All I know is, this ten-foot sucker will be warm this winter!!!

Hi, all!  Fall is here and I am loving it!  Minnesota has been showcased to the nation and beyond recently with the Ryder Cup and other major sporting events.  The weather has been stunning and everything is a lush green, with just a hint of fall colors emerging.  Here I captured a double rainbow from our front window:

As promised, I am revisiting some of my State Fair entries that I had not posted prior to the fair.

The Ridge Hat captured my attention because of its elaborate cabling…and the fact that it is knit in worsted weight (which I hoped meant a quick knit).

I knit it out of mystery yarn – probably Madtosh DK (KW – do you recognize it?).  I love how the cables completely change up as you near the crown.  It received a 3rd place ribbon which was very nice!

The second thing I want to share is my Strandwanderer Shawl.  Some of you may remember a prior attempt.  I have bought lots of yarn in the past in order to make this intriguing shawl.  The color changes have to be of a specific type and spacing for it to work.

I found Yarn Love Mr. Darcy in the Rainbow River Rock colorway last April at Yarnover.  My “yarn whisperer” Kim thought it would work.  I bought two skeins so it would not be skimpy.  Later I looked at the receipt and realized I had spent $78!!  Ouch!!

The shawl was part of my Camp contest entry – I started my presentation talking about the shawl (Mr. Darcy yarn)…blah, blah, blah!  Then I threw the shawl aside and showed Little Darcy instead.  Though I threw the shawl aside as if it was nothing, that is not the way I feel about it — I LOVE this shawl!

It was kind of tedious to knit but I adore it.  The yarn is gorgeous and it worked perfectly to create the small, repeating boxes that represent the unique feature of this pattern.  The boxes are created by binding off most of the sts across the shawl using 3 garter sts.  This creates regular color repeats.  The boxes alternate with rows of garter, where the pooling changes as the scarf widens.  Brilliant!  I knit this right down to the last 3 grams of yarn.

That’s it for now!