theraineysisters knitting and so much more

For YEARS every sweater I made was too small for me.  But as luck would have it (not lucky for me), they always seemed to fit ma petite soeur (my little sister).  Tres petite soeur.  Sally is 5′ 4″ and I am 5′ 10″.  So, I would make a sweater.  It would not fit.  I would give it to Surly.  I would reknit the sweater.  It would fit.  Not very efficient!!

I learned a lot as I went along and eventually my sweaters would usually fit on the first try (unless my weight fluctuation threw me a curve, but that’s another issue entirely!).  However, I recently wore a sweater to work (Alexandria Cardigan by Connie Chang) that was just too small.  Too tight.  Sleeves WAY too short.  One more for Sally!!

As luck would have it (lucky for me), Sally had recently finished a wrap called Claire de Lune by Carol Sunday.   When she tried it on, it overwhelmed her petite frame.

The idea of a swap was born.  Sally brought her Claire de Lune with her and we exchanged our ill fitting projects.  I really lucked out!  Her Claire de Lune is fabulous.

Knit out of Classic Elite Firefly (75% rayon, 25% linen, 155 yds to 50 gms, color 7706 Linum), it looks like linen and has wonderful drape. I loved wearing it to Yarnover!!  The lace pattern is gorgeous and can be dressed up or down.

I really enjoyed wearing something I did not knit myself.  What a treat!!

First, you fall madly in love and then in an ideal world, marriage follows (::gag::).  BUT, this is what happened to me in my knitting life!!

Any semi-regular reader knows that there are two recent designs that I am completely smitten with: Sweet Dreams Shawlette from Boo Knits and Hitofude by Hiroko Fukatsu.

Well, I was toying with the idea of knitting another Hito in a different lace pattern when the lightning bolt struck: Sweet Dreams and Hito both have 12-stitch repeats!  Kaboom!  I almost fell to the ground when it hit me!

So, as simple as it seems to substitute lace pattern B for lace pattern A, there was the problem of the skirt.  The Hito skirt is enlarged by adding plain sts to the lace panels.  If I did that to Sweet Dreams, the final points at the hem would be farther apart and odd.

My solution was to add pattern repeats to each front edge and incorporate the lace pattern as I went along.  I could not follow BooKnits’ chart because she increases 3 sts every 2 rows per side and I wanted to increase 1 st every 4 rows on each side.  This was the part that took the longest — graphing out the lace pattern for the new rate of increase.  I also increased needle sizes as I knit the skirt.  And believe me — there was fudging along the way!!

My Sweet-o-fude:

I used Madelinetosh Merino light in Well Water and barely cracked into the 4th skein.  Like I said, I changed up needles sizes, using a US 5-6-7-8-9.  Once the charting was done, the knitting was pretty straight forward.  I love this spring-summer cardi!

What can I say?  It is a marriage made in heaven!! 😉

PS – Surly arrives today!  🙂

Surly will be travelling to the Twin Cities this week to attend Yarnover 2014.  Yay!!

The train is leaving Comfort Station and heading to Over the Top Color.  You know me – I am the one wearing the boring classic colors in mundane traditional styling.  I decided to branch out and try some actual color for a change.  A friend of mine was wearing a bright melon top at work and everyone loved it.  I thought I’d give it a whirl.

The yarn is a ribbon type from Berroco called Linus.  It is a mish mash of fibers (50% Acrylic, 20% Linen, 18% Nylon [Polyamide], 12% Rayon), machine washable, 159 yds to 50 gms and knits up at worsted gauge (19 sts to 4″).  The above picture looks prettier than it looks in real life.  There are whitish, washed-out areas that don’t show up in the picture, but I guess it’s okay.

The colors are all named for birds – this is Macaw.  My friend, Kathy, also bought this yarn in a gorgeous blue (Skimmer) and a pattern booklet with a darling short sleeved summer sweater called Harbour.  Kathy made the adorable gray bunny in the picture — we did a knit swap!

I am making a cute, free pattern knit in the same yarn, called Maderia.  The one in the picture looks like it is a dark denim blue but in actuality the color is Blackbird, which is black — go figure!

It should be a swingy, bright summer top, and fun to wear.  It is straight stockinette in the round so it is a great take-along project.  Can’t really go wrong…???

Well, that’s not entirely true.  This time around it IS too late!  It is definitely too late to wear one of my latest FOs.  I just finished a cowl (yes, another one — I have decided that it is impossible to have too many cowls).  It has a totally winter vibe and even though today is a bit dreary, all the snow has left our yard so spring is here.  🙂

It is a free pattern called Kinetic by Shibui Knits, and is meant to be knit in gradient colors.  I used Freia Ombré Sport in the colorway Oro Azteca. You buy two “sister” skeins and they flow one to the other.  It is pricey: $25 a skein!!

I am not sure how I will wear it but I have until next winter to decide!!

Friday several of us did our own short version of the Shop Hop.  A friend of mine – Bonnie – mentioned that StevenBe had a zombie knitting bag at the shop.  Well, someone had to be dumb enough to buy it!! 🙂

I do really love pie.  Especially cherry pie with tart/sweet cherries and flaky crust.  Oh boy!  So when I saw this cute little pattern (All Your Pie Tape Measure) it caught my eye.  I whipped up these two little ditties yesterday afternoon.

My husband, who is usually very supportive of my knitting habit, was speechless.  He looked at these and was afraid to say anything.  The look on his face told the story.  He was either thinking, “She has WAY too much time on her hands (so why is the house such a mess?),” or, “She has finally gone completely over the deep end!”

It IS a compulsion that cannot be denied.  What can I say?

PS in response to Pam’s question: My “knit” version really did not have a lot of knitting.  Just the bottom crust.  I crocheted the cherry filling because I wanted more texture and crocheted the fluting around the top of the crust.  The lattice for both versions were standard i-cord.

A foot and still snowing.  Welcome to Spring!  Woo Hoo!!!

Oh my gosh!  I saw this pattern on Ravelry (Yellow Chicken Doll ) and fell in love.  It screamed, “Make me!”  My daughter would love it, I was just certain.  So, off I went into my yarn remnants and my Little Chick was born:

I showed her to my daughter last night and it was true – she loved her!  🙂 Wants more.  Lots more.  🙁  Hmmm.  Success can be a two-edged sword, n’est-ce pas?

Things kind of slip past me from time to time.  I finished a sweater quite a while ago and it languished waiting for the buttons.  I HAD the buttons.  I just needed to sew on the buttons.  Months went by and I finally put them on.  I also needed to block this bad boy but decided to leave it au naturel!

You may remember this:

We saw it is person at Needlework Unlimited last year and my friend Beth and I fell in love with it.  It is Dydsmønster by Bente Geil.  I finished the knitting in October!!  Sewed the buttons on in February, but am just posting about it now.  Better late than never!

I essentially re-knit this entire thing.  I had the “can’t read the instructions” problem.  I had the “I don’t like the sleeve decreases” problem.  And all this led to a lot of extra knitting.  But it is done and it fits and I like it.  The buttons are gorgeous and just the right color, but I think they are too small.  I may keep my eyes open for some that are slightly larger.

Back Neck Detail

The pattern does not call for symmetrical increases along the v-shaped inset, but I did them symmetrically — looked better to me.

The yarn is deceiving: it is very small gauge and quite soft.  It does the “thick-thin” thing and goes down to a thread at times.  I spliced in extra yarn quite a few times because I was afraid it would break.

All in all, I really like this one.

I finally finished my Mary Tudor wrap. I don’t have great photos; my model is rather static. But I hope these give you the idea. The finished piece is about 73 inches long and 22 inches wide. I considered adding fringe, but I’m not convinced the wrap needs it. I’ll wear it and see what I think. I thought it would be too warm to wear this by the time I finished it, but sadly Spring has been willing to wait.