Is this the longest and strangest year ever??

In case you had any doubts, I’m the one on the right!! 🙂

Sally and I have been doing some knitting.  I am also on a potholder high!  I’ve been cranking them out for my dad, my daughter, and myself.  They are such a dumb little project — kind of like knitting dishcloths — but they are practical and necessary.

My first attempt was a fail.  When I got to the last edge to bind off, the lack of tension caused the whole thing to disembowel.  SO, I came up with an idea to use knitting needles to hold the tension on the bound off sides.  These are super long, strong DPNs, but I had planned on using old straight needles, which would have also worked.

I am also knitting.  When my daughter was a baby, I designed and knit her a baby sweater (she is 30 now).  I have planned for 28 years to recreate the sweater for others and sell the pattern.  It is in process and may take another 28 years at this point!! 😎

Blocking is magic.  Blocking makes things happen!!  And thank goodness for that!

I started the “Stars and Stripes” Wrap designed by Carol Sunday last April.  The lace work was challenging and the stripes boring, so I set it aside for a while.  After finishing my Sandness and Flora Cardigans, I had nothing fun on my needles, so I picked it up again.  Still challenging and it looked hideous!!

I soldiered on, but had my doubts.  I made some changes to the ends: I substituted a crocheted, scalloped edging that wasn’t flared like the original.  I also did a “pick up/bind off” edging on the long sides of the wrap to give it a cleaner look.

But just how much difference could blocking make?  I mean, if it was a full on lace shawl I would have no doubts whatsoever, but this wasn’t full on lace!

Mount Vesuvius??!!  Kilauea??!!  What the beep??

I really didn’t think the miracle of blocking could fix this thing…but, I gave it a go.  Blocking wires assured a straight edge and consistent width:

Mount Vesuvius disappeared!  The color in the next pictures is very true.

So, blocking took it from hideous to gorgeous!  Yay!!  Speaking of gorgeous, the Together Apart Shawl that Surly made me arrived on Monday.  So stunning and more than thoughtful.

Two FOs for the price of one!!

PS to Heather T.: The “pick up/bind off” method I used is very basic.  The edge on this wrap consisted of k2, p1.  Using the same size needle as the wrap, I picked 3 sts for every 4 rows into the left leg of knit st number 1.  This left me with an unbroken knit st to follow.  Then I bound off with a needle one size larger, as to knit from the WS.

For the Weather Scarf, blocking alone might be enough to smooth out the edge.  I don’t know what yarn you’re using, but I had a tough time blocking my Tukuwool.  It ended up looking very nice however!

Melanie Berg is a prolific and talented shawl designer.  I saw her Together Apart shawl knit and loved the  lace pattern and the colors Melanie used (Tosh Merino Light Copper Pink solid with Phantasm stripes).  I bought the identical yarn and began to knit.

About halfway through the knitting, I began to feel guilty.  In her description of the pattern, Melanie wrote:  “Knit two shawls in inverted colorways and send one to your friend! The intertwined colors are a reminder that even when we’re apart, we’re still a part of each other’s lives.”

During the course of this never ending pandemic I’ve had to cancel four trips.  I missed a family vacation (where I’d get to see my son, who lives in Seattle), a baby shower in Minneapolis, a charity gala I attend every year with dear friends, and knitting camp.  I’m lucky that my daughter lives here in town, but I miss my friends and family deeply.  Susan is both my sister and my best friend.  Not being able to visit in person is no fun!

So I bought more yarn and when I finished my predominantly pink shawl, I knit one for my sister in the reverse colors.  It took me about two weeks for each shawl.  (It just felt longer.)  I popped Susan’s in the mail today.

Here are photos of the two shawls.  Someday soon, if we’re lucky, they (and we) will be Together Again instead of Together Apart.

Happy Knitting and stay safe everyone.

PS from Susan: My shawl is stunning!  I know the lace was not a simple pattern and the shawl is very generous in size, so I know how much work was involved.  Whew!!  I can’t wait to get it!  Sally said she had a little trouble trying to figure out the best way to wear hers, but I love this shape and I love the colors!  Thank you to my lil sistie!  I dreamt last night that she popped into town to surprise me.  Even though she spilled the beans about the shawl during our virtual camp Zoom call, it still is like a surprise visit from Surly!

As promised, a discussion about that wonky thing that happens with short rows on a circular sweater!!

Many sweaters are now made in one piece, either topdown or bottom up.  There is usually shaping at the neck or somewhere near the yoke to raise the back neck.  The shaping is done using short rows.  This means that your “knit in the round” sweater needs to be worked back and forth to complete the short row section.

Short rows come in many varieties and seem to go in and out of fashion: wrap and turn, yarnover, Japanese, German.  Right now German short rows are quite popular.  I myself usually prefer Japanese.  Be that as it may, no matter what type you use they have the same issue.  Short rows like to be resolved in the direction they were created.  In other words, a ‘knit to the turning point and turn’ short row is best resolved by knitting.  A ‘purl to the turning point and turn’ short row is best resolved by purling.  This works great in flat knitted pieces.  But a problem arises when the short row section is completed and it is time to go to back to knitting in the round.  Knitting the last purl short row is wonky.  Major wonky.  Really, really distorted and pulled out of alignment.

I have tried many different short rows to minimize this issue and none worked very well.  I even asked the big knitting brains at Meg Swansen’s Knitting Camp which method worked best and no one had a solution.  I am currently working on Sunshine Coast — knit in the round but for the short rows.  I tried using a German short row for the final purl turn, but it looked terrible.  Somehow my inner brain remembered a rather obscure (or should I say, lesser known) short row method that I thought I would try since I had already decided that I needed to restart the sweater anyway: Shadow Stitch Short Rows.  I don’t even know how I remembered this method, but I thought the double shadow stitch might be less prone to distortion.

I actually used this method for both my knit and purl short rows.  I love it!  When I changed from back-and-forth to knitting in the round, the transition point distortion was minimal!  Yay!!  Here are some not very good pictures:

Here are the knit-wise short rows – they are in the 10-stitch section between the pins:

Here are the purl-wise short rows, including the transition to circular knitting:

I think it looks great!  Much better than usual.  This is what I love about knitting.  There is always something new to learn and new tools to add to the toolbox!!  You can even use your favorite short row method all the way through and just use this for the last purl short row.

I showed you all a picture in process of the terrible crooked knitting of my Flora Cardigan.  Well, the cardigan is done and blocked.  Blocking is magic, people!!  It looks so much better!!  But, boy, did it shrink!  I had to really tug and stretch to get it to size.

It is very lineny and drapey!  Lovely fabric!

I tried something new (to me) to join the shoulders: Russian Grafting.  You use a crochet hook and no working yarn.  You set it up like a 3-needle bind off, with wrong sides together.  Then you pull one stitch through from the front, and then one stitch from the back.  It creates a rickrack appearance and is very flat.  I did not find it to be any stretchier than a 3-needle bind off, which was my first concern.  I will use this again!!

The other thing I did is what I did with my Big Love Cardigan.  Even though this is knit bottom up and Big Love was top down, the construction is similar in terms of the shoulder positioning.  I knit the fronts 2 inches longer than the back.  The diagram below shows what I mean, and this link to Big Love goes into more details.

Stay tuned for another post about that wonky thing that happens with short rows on a circular sweater!!

PS regarding the shrinkage: I read up on viscose and it recommends dry cleaning store bought garments.  The yarn label said to handwash in cool water.  I wanted to aggressively block because of the poor appearance of the knitting, so I machine washed it on gentle in tepid water.  This definitely improved the knitting, and when I laid it out I was thrilled…until I measured.  It was 3 inches shorter and narrower!  Stretching brought it back.  Then it took days to dry!

I miss my sister.  She’s my partner in crime, my best friend, my knitting buddy, my surrogate mother . . . you name it.  I had planned on flying her out here for a mini-break, but that idea has gone out the window for obvious reasons.

Today is her birthday so, as part of an annual Rainey Sister tradition, I’m dragging out this photo of us.  Still one of my favorites.  I won’t tell you how old it is!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY BIG SISTER!!!!

As long as I’m here, I’ll share a work in progress.  Like my sister, I’ve been working with a summer yarn.  Mine is Malabrigo Susurro, a blend of 50% silk, 25% linen, and 25% merino wool in the color Pearl.  It has a lovely sheen.  I’ve knit with it before and I know all the irregularities in the raw knitting will block out.  At least that’s what I keep telling myself.  One skein got me to two or three inches below the armhole, which is a nice bonus.

The pattern I’m knitting is Sunshine Coast by Heidi Kirrmaier.  It’s a great pattern — well written, simple but with some nice styling details.  There’s a reason it’s so popular on Ravelry.

It’s a good thing I have a nice view since I haven’t been able to go anywhere since early March!

Stay well and safe everyone, and please wish Susan a Happy Birthday.

I suffered from extremely crooked teeth as a child.  I had braces for four years and several oral surgeries.  I even suffered through a second round of braces in my 60’s!  No, my teeth still aren’t perfect, but the point is I don’t like crooked teeth.

I also don’t care for “crooked teeth” in my knitting.  You know what I mean.  Uneven stitches.  I have been knitting for a long time and have spent no small part of that time trying to improve the appearance of my knitting.  I have come to realize that it isn’t always my fault.  For instance, the choice of knitting needles can produce different results.  Another big factor is yarn.  Some yarns knit like a dream — stitches smooth as silk!  Oh, how I love knitting with that kind of forgiving, beautiful yarn!!

Some yarns on the other hand are known for their tendency to be unforgiving.  Linen is one such yarn.  But linen in summer is a wonderful thing, so I am currently working on a cute little cardi (Flora Cardi) in Classic Elite Firefly (75% Rayon, 25% Linen / Flax; 155 yards / 50 grams; color Capri).  My knitting needs braces!

I love this yarn, even though the knitting looks horrible.  But, I have hope.  I have a beautiful garment gifted to me by my fellow blogger and sister knit in Firefly, called Claire de Lune by Carol Sunday.  She called me quite a while ago now and said she had tossed her Claire de Lune in the trash without even seaming the underarms!  Ack!  I told her to drag it out of the trash and give it to me!  It is now one of my very best favorite summer tops.  It just didn’t fit her.  The waterfall fronts come almost to my knees, and Surly is 7 inches shorter than I am, so it looked ridiculous on her.  Yay!!! 🙂

Hmmm, I wonder if she’ll knit this one for me…

One of the few blogs I read is Mason-Dixon Knitting.  I know.  As a blog writer I should be a blog reader… 🙁

ETA (June 6): Mason-Dixon Knitting just announced that they have changed their name to Modern Daily Knitting.  Dana’s post and the comments by others opened their eyes to the racially charged subtext of their name.  Good change!!

Today’s MDK post by Dana Williams-Johnson is gut wrenching and a must-read.  I “met” Dana at last January’s Sweater Camp hosted by Darn Knit Anyway.  I was late to the Jelly Bean party, but started following Dana on Instagram after that introduction.  She is a prolific knitter of very vibrant hues.  Not my usual palette, but quite fetching.  Her dog Jelly Bean often has a matching ensemble, for which Dana is renowned.

Andrea Mowry just launched a new hat pattern called Minted.  I had some yarn in stash, the pattern was less than $5, so I bit!  I used BeWoolen DK paired with Lang Lace Mohair.  It created a lovely fabric…at the exact gauge called for!  But, oops.  Hat was very small!  Many others said the same thing!

My usual blocking method for hats involves my snowflake bowl, which fits into the groove in the lid of an old Folger’s container perfectly!  This keeps the snowflake bowl locked in place.  The bad news is that the shape of the container is straight and stretches out the ribbing.  I don’t usually care that much, but for this hat I wanted the ribbing to retain its elasticity.

I scoured my kitchen, looking for the perfect combination of shapes.  I found it!  The black plastic lid snaps onto another blue bowl (on the right side in the above picture).

This curved shape allowed me to cinch in the ribbing while it was blocking:

So, the hat is “okay,” but small for me.  I love the big pom and may gift this to someone with a peanut-sized head.

KnitPicks just launched a new handpainted version of Aloft, their laceweight mohair and silk.  They also launched my design, called Sparkler!!  I knit the Sparkler prototype using the original Aloft yarn…LOVE IT!!  It really is fabulous yarn at a fabulous price!  AND, the pattern is F R E E !!

There are three sizes: narrow scarf (10 x 75″), wide scarf (15 x 75″), and stole (20 x 65″).  They take 2-3-4 balls respectively; Aloft is $7.99 a ball!!  The size 6 beads used are large for laceweight yarn, but work because the yarn is fuzzy.  This makes beading a breeze.  The fabric is soft against the skin and warm for its weight.  The prototype shown below is the wide scarf in color Carbon.

The beading consists of sparkler sprays on each end and a bold center motif.