theraineysisters knitting and so much more

The Minnesota Knitters Guild picnic was last night — it was great!  Really good food and lots of knitters — both newbies and not so newbies.  There was such a positive vibe in the air.  And I received three more shawls for Wrapped in Care — we also had ten afghans ready for the Project Little Lambs program.  You rock, MKG Members!!

QUESTION: How do you keep deer from nibbling the !##$%^%$&* out of your plants?  We have one little deer (very small deer tracks) that nibbled a huge chunk out of a newly planted tree in our front yard.  I do not want to lose our tree!

I taught a knitting class for another teacher tonight.  It was fun to get back into teaching mode again.  It has been a while!  Too long a while.  It was a beginning cable class.  It’s always fun to see the lightbulb go on when they see that cables are really just about knitting the stitches in the “wrong” order — and that you don’t do much of anything in between.  Lots of bang for the buck!  Not that cables can’t be complex, but they don’t need to be hard to have a lot of impact.  I think my next big project will have to be Am Kamin!

Sally should be back soon and may have some stories to share.  It sure seems like summer is moving at a lightning pace, doesn’t it??

I received a small package in the mail the other day.  It was unexpected — no purchased goods expected.  To my surprise, it was a baby sweater that I had made for my now 24-year old niece when she was just a baby.  I did not know what to make of it.  Why would my brother return it now, after all these years, after my own two girls were far too old to be able to wear it.  My first reaction was one of hurt feelings.  Was he mad at me?  Ridding himself of all past reminders of his big sister?

Naaaahhhhhhh! 

I called him and he said, “You asked me to send this to you if I ever found it.”  Oh, yeah!  I forgot!  I thought it would be nice to have one of my old knitted relics as a keepsake — if they didn’t want it any more.  It has meant a lot to me to have the sweaters that my mom made me, and I like looking back on my own first attempts at knitting.  The sweater in question was my first blue ribbon at the State Fair.  In fact, when I gave the sweater to them, I left the ribbon attached. 

It’s fun to look at your old knitting.  There are many opportunities for “I would do THAT differently,” and, “What was I thinking when I did THAT?” and “Why did I choose that technique?”  The usual answer to these questions for me is, cuz it’s the only way you knew HOW to do it back then!

So, here is the old, old baby sweater, my own design, made in CHEAP acrylic yarn — for the baby, of course!  I did use antique buttons (because I had them in my stash!).  Be kind…

I think I crocheted the buttonhole bands, which is surprising because I really do not crochet.  Doesn’t it look like something someone’s Grannie should be wearing?  In those days, baby garments were very traditional.

The back:

And a close up of the back neck detail:

I did a chain embroidery stitch around the back neck to carry the line all the way around.

And the sleeves have the small cable detailing:

So, no new FO’s to share, but instead I am dredging up the past!  Now I knit very little seed or moss stitch because it is so slow, and it bothers my elbows (I have tennis elbows from knitting no less!), but I did a lot of it back then. 

Hope your holiday was filled with family and fireworks.

PS to kellistar: Unfortunately, I did not write the pattern down — at least that I know of.  I do have a lot of old knitting papers around and if I stumble upon the pattern, I will share it.  OW, feel free to use it as a creative starting point for your own rendition.

Happy 4th of July to all of our readers.  Let’s remember the reason we celebrate the 4th.  We hope you enjoy this holiday with family and friends.

From Susan : As for me, I am celebrating independence from work.  I am relaxing, knitting, doing errands and hanging out with peeps.  I have a feeling that several WIPs will morph into FO’s all at once!  I can’t be “knit-ogamous” so each is getting a little bit of knit time each day!

I know.  We said we wouldn’t blog much over the summer, but what the heck!  Sally is on an extended road trip and will not be able to write much, so that is one reason for the announced hiatus.  I’ll check in when I can, and we will for sure hit the blog-o-sphere at least weekly (weakly?). 

Check this out:

This is the road to my house .  Now, picture a torrential downpour.  The road was a muddy mess all weekend — you should see our poor cars!  The “high road” to the left is not even really a lane — I have no idea why they built it up like that.  It is supposed to be “in process” until November…bummer!

Re: knitting.  Lorraine mentioned that she is in a bit of a knitting funk.  I can relate.  Is it the summer blahs?  Is it due to the fact that it’s not sweater weather? 

I have been knitting every day but seem to have absolutely nothing to show for it.  Nada!  For me, that is contributing somewhat to my funk.  If I start something new — to feel excited about my knitting again — it will continue the downward spiral of nothing getting finished.  It is a dilemma and one which I have written about before.

On the bright side, the Wrapped in Care Ravelry Group now has almost 60 members.   They have shared some great shawl pattern ideas and one member is ready to mail in two shawls.  I am amazed. 

PS — I realize that not everyone is on Ravelry — but they are the only people I can keep tabs on with regard to the Wrapped in Care Project.  I will track the numbers on our blog (see upper righthand corner).  Thanks to all for supporting this project!

Okay.  So I’m wearing my cute new outfit today (see previous post) and was in the cafeteria getting coffee.  The cashier complimented me on my new dress.  I said, “It has these pants, too.” And she said, “Lose the pants.”  Then someone else walked up to pay for her food — a complete stranger, mind you — and said, “Yeah, you’ve got to lose the pants!” 

So, I took them off — not in the cafeteria line, but…I did lose the pants.  I’m a little bummed that no one liked my cute pants!

The Yarnery is sponsoring its own charity knitting event, called The Promise Blanket.  They are creating a simple, but beautiful blanket that will be auctioned.  The proceeds will benefit Women’s Advocates, Inc.  They have a free pattern available at the Yarnery for a blanket square.  Knitters and non-knitters both can bid at auction time.