theraineysisters knitting and so much more

We are in full Birkie prep mode and a lot of snow fell last evening!  It is a beautiful, snowy-white, sunny day!!  More expected tomorrow on race day (??!!).

Last evening I got a bee in my bonnet to fix a shawl that I made quite a while ago: Lehigh by Melanie Berg.   Beautiful shawl!

Mine turned out ginormous!  Ten feet wide!  It was like wearing a 10 foot boa constrictor around my neck – or body!  I loved the look of the shawl but it was TOO MUCH of a good thing!   So I decided to take off the top few inches.  The new width is 82 inches.  I did not keep the tassels on the ends as they were so heavy they felt like I was being pelted with baseballs!!!

It will go very well with my gray wool coat and many other things, so it is OUT OF THE CLOSET so to speak! 🙂

Wish us luck at the Birkie!  Last year it was cancelled due to no snow and this year there is a ton of new snow — be careful what you wish for, though this is 1000 times better!!

And you still have time to knit up a 2018 Winter Games Hat in time for the closing ceremonies on Sunday…and even if you don’t finish, it is a darn cute hat!!

We have posted this week’s Tip of the Week in our Ravelry Group!!

Today is Surly’s birthday.  Yay!!  Happy Birthday, Surly!!  What a tumultuous few months she has had.  She started out last July visiting Colorado and her daughter and son-in-law.  An idea that had been percolating went into full boil: should we move to Boulder?  They decided to do so, and thus began a saga of semi-epic proportions.

Sally is now on the verge of moving into her new Colorado home.  They leave a stunning home in our nation’s capitol to move into a sleek, modern “Colorado-style” house with views of the foothills.  Being in three different houses in as many months can be very stressful, but Sally has been able to reconnect with family in a way that makes it worthwhile.

So, the gift that Sally gets this month is to close on her old life home and start anew.  That is quite a gift at our age and very exciting.  Happy birthday wishes as you settle into your new life!!  It takes courage to change and shows a youthful spirit!!  🙂

Many of you have joined our Ravelry group called, with much creativity,  The Rainey Sisters.  Each week we share our Tip of the Week.  This week’s tip is about how we use waste yarn to count rows when doing things like increases or decreases on a sleeve.  Because it is easy to do but difficult to describe, Susan prepared a very professional :cough: :cough: video:

Also, Susan’s FREE 2018 Winter Games Hat pattern is going gang busters on Ravelry.  Click on over and check it out!!

PS to Susan: I am wearing my Funky Grandpa!!

PS2 to Kate: Throwers rock, so nannie-nannie-boo-boo to pickers!!

The Olympics have started and the opening ceremonies are tonight!  I just heard from StevenBe — famous Glitter Knitter — that his shop is putting together hat kits for people who want to create their own Olympic souvenir and symbol of support for our Team USA athletes!!

Time to get this party started!!  Find the FREE hat pattern here:  2018 Winter Games Hat.  Can be worn with or without a pom…

This addendum to my previous post was longer than the post, so I decided to start a new post!!  Phyddy asked, “What is invisible stranding?”

Invisible Stranding is the term I coined to describe a technique for carrying stranded floats across any number of stitches without catching them.  It is a machine knitting technique that has been adapted to hand knitting.  I wrote up a pattern, called It’s Not About the Hat, to share this technique with others.  The pattern includes a series of videos that demonstrate all the steps, and the tricks I have learned along the way.  Invisible stranding is perfect for projects with long floats.  Here are some examples:

Mother Goose Hat

Rose and Lily

And the reason I dove into invisible stranding with both feet: Dale of Norway 10903.  There were places in the chart where you had to carry a dark color across 30+ sts of cream!

This technique is a game changer and removes any obstacles to stranded knitting.  It opens up all sorts of possibilities!!

Can you stand another freebie??  I just finished a hat for my husband to wear during the 2018 Birkebeiner.  The race occurs right when the Winter Games wrap up, so it is very festive and exciting!  This year a local female skier, Jessie Diggins, is on the US team.  Last season, Diggins became the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier, male or female, in world championship history.  So we are really looking forward to seeing how she does!

I reverse engineered the hat from photographs and wrote it up as a pattern — though others beat me to it!  I used invisible stranding to do the red on the diamond motif, which was very annoying to say the least!  Duplicate stitch may be a better way to go!