theraineysisters knitting and so much more

It was nice to hear that there are readers out there!!  Thank you for commenting!

Okay.  We know knitters are obsessive.  It comes with the territory.  You can’t keep going on an adult sweater in fingering weight yarn without having some form of mental quirk!  I really love my Ris Tunic, and when I finished I thought it would be super cute to make matching mitts.  I rummaged through my stash of Jamieson jumperweight yarn and found many of the colours (you have to spell colors “colours” when speaking of British yarn!!).

See??  Thery really are super cute!!!  I call them Ris-tlets!!  ::groan::  The style is a handwarmer, like my Fjord Mitts.

In addition to Spindrift, I used Einband (Istex laceweight yarn) for the facings. However, my jumperweight wool is a darker gray, so I also made fake Einband out of medium gray Léttlopi. I split the yarn into its two separate strands and then twisted the heck out of it!  After the foldline I switched to the lighter Einband color. I also used Léttlopi in a few places on the mitts, where I just couldn’t match the colors — the lime green and bright purple. I split the strand and knit it like Plötulopi. It was quite thin, but it worked!

I wanted to use 60 sts so I could use the 12-stitch pattern repeat.  That number of sts would make the mitts too large.  To get both size and hourglass shaping, I used various needle sizes from 2.75 mm to 3.5 mm.  They ended up too tight!  I [over-] blocked the first one and it was too big.  Goldilocks finally reblocked the first and blocked the second to the perfect size.  I really love them!!

Aloha, Folks!

First, a little back story.  I just returned from Maui with my two daughters.  This was a dream on my bucket list.  I had gone to Maui twice before, over forty years ago, and determined to return to the ocean, whales, and tropical memories.

When I returned from the above trip, I called my now-husband up and asked him out.  We’ve been together ever since!

The girls and I did it all: whale cruise, snorkeling (I watched!), a luau, swimming in the ocean.  All in all, we saw at least three dozen humpback whales!!  Laura captured this iconic image:

I worked on a small project on the trip — a Sophie Scarf.  Yes.  Onto the bandwagon!!  Sometimes I knit something because the design bugs me and I want to fix it.  I think that was part of my motivation.  Another was knitting with cashmere!  The original Sophie has these little squared off ends and i-cord along both edges.  I thought it would be an improvement to have the i-cord “make the corners,” so to speak:

I started with a provisional cast on and then worked each end along the sides.  I used Pascuali Cashmere 6/28 held with Shibui Silk Cloud.  The fabric is lovely!

On the trip, Jena was shopping for a friend who is expecting.  I offered to make a baby hat for her to take along as a shower gift.  Per Jena, the hat HAD to be a bear cub hat.  Okay.  No problem!  How hard could it be to find brown, washable yarn?  Harder than expected!  I ended up buying my yarn at Micheal’s.  There.  I said it.  My secret is out!  The shopping part was complicated by the fact that, upon arrival in the Twin Cities, both Jena and I tested positive for COVID.  Yep.  Finally got me.  The good news is, my case is mild, and Micheal’s has curbside pick up!

The pattern is Bear Ears Beanie Hat.  It is free if you scroll down on the pattern page, and it comes in sizes from infant to adult.  I used Loops and Threads Impeccable Tweed, color Chocolate, which is the same yarn used in the pattern.  I have enough left over to knit a second hat, so if the hat doesn’t fit next winter, I can make another.

Now that I’m back, I’m following the March knitting goal of my Thursday knitting group: finish languishing UFOs!!  I started a Hitofude for Laura months ago, and have also been working on a sweater for me forever.  The buttonbands were all that’s left on my Lunenburg Cardigan — hope to get THAT into the bath today!

Nobody reads blogs anymore, but we’ll keep on posting!