theraineysisters knitting and so much more

From Susan: I don’t think I can!  These were hard questions!

Q#1:  I can’t possibly pick out one knitted item as my all-time favorite.  That is because, like movies and food, I like too many to discrimininate ;).  There are things I loved to knit and sweaters I love to wear.  I loved knitting the Peacock Shawl, Lyra was like getting to the top of Everest, and Henrietta is my best ever fair isle. 

Q#2: My knitting disasters cannot hold a candle to the one Sally recently wrote about   (but really, whose could?) — yikes!  My consistent knitting disasters have been, like many of you who wrote in, gauge related.  When I started out as a knitter and making sweaters, the “first version” always fit Sally perfectly — who is 7″ shorter than me!  I ended up making two of everything.  I can’t count the number of sweaters I knitted twice!  The second time was often the charm, but that’s a crazy way to make a sweater!

Q#3: Can I be stranded on a dessert island instead?? 
On a desert island, I have no idea which book I would bring, but I do know the yarn.  My favorite all-around yarn is Cascade 220.  I would take zillions of skeins in zillions of colors and probably a book with a lot of sweater patterns.  I really would be sad to be limited, though.  As I have often said, I really love the variety that knitting provides and would not want to be stranded very long without access to laceweight, beaded knitting, felted projects, etc.

And one more little blog-related story. 
I was knitting in a public place not long ago and someone came along and said she was a knitter, too.  So of course we struck up a conversation about our knitting.  I wanted to refer her to something on our blog, so I said, “My sister and I share a blog called The Rainey Sisters…blah, blah, blah.”  She looked dumbfounded.  “You’re not a Rainey Sister.” Now, I looked dumbfounded (I think I’d know if I was a Rainey Sister!).  She went on to say, “I read the Rainey Sisters blog — they’re young and pretty.”  ::choke::gasp::  The implication being of course “…and you’re not.”  I had to burst her bubble and inform her that our signature picture is a wee bit old (by a few -er- decades) and that both of us have been knitting for over 40 years.  But, I did feel complimented that she thought we USED to be pretty 🙂 ….

From Sally: Hmmm. I haven’t been knitting for over 40 years (but then again, I’m the younger sister). Here’s my attempt to answer the questions.

Q#1: Several of our readers provided an answer that really resonated with me: My favorite project is almost always the one I just started or am about to start. I think that’s one reason I always have so many projects going at once and am so easily seduced and distracted by beautiful yarn or a striking pattern. That said, two of my all-time favorite projects to knit were Kimberly and Arches. I loved knitting each stitch of those two sweaters. I rarely wear either one of them, though. Kimberly is slightly shorter than I’d like. The yarn, Dunedin, had been discontinued by the time I decided to make it. I cobbled together enough of the black out of three different dye lots, but didn’t have enough to lengthen it. (I may reknit it in another yarn some day because I love the pattern so much.) Arches was a one-size-fits-none pattern. It’s enormous. I had to put a huge dictionary under Lucy to keep it from dragging on the table when I photographed it and it’s 50 — yes, I said 50 — inches around. I’m not. But I still love it. Other favorites are Henry VIII, Rennes (one of the first sweaters I designed), my Peacock Shawl, and my Cap Shawl.

Q#2: Some of you suggested that I should severely punish the person who left that felt tipped pen on the table. Let’s just say that the punishment (reknitting the front) fit the crime and leave it at that.

Q#3: I am going to slightly cheat on this question. I would take an Alice Starmore book. I’m not sure which one, though. Maybe Tudor Roses, maybe her Fair Isle book. It doesn’t matter; I would be happy with any of them. For yarn, I would take Koigu and Kidsilk Haze. With those (alone or in combination), I could knit anything from sweaters to gloves to socks to shawls and never get bored.

Thank you for reading The Rainey Sisters!