theraineysisters knitting and so much more

The first kiss of fall fills the air and means that summer is over.  It is a wistful time, but a pleasant one.

A friend recently asked me if I could fix the cast on for the French Cancan Shawl, which has a definite hump like many other crescent shawls.  I seem to have become the unofficial “hump whisperer.”  Please do not put that on my headstone!!

The French Cancan does not use the same rate or method for the increases that I have used in other shawls, so I had to build the cast on from scratch.  It isn’t perfect but I think it is an improvement.  A link to the cast on for this shawl is here.

I decided I needed to make the shawl to test it.  🙂  I started out with fingering weight yarn and completed the entire body.  I found the braided edging (which takes 2 rows per stitch to complete = 800 rows for mine) too daunting, so I started over with worsted weight yarn.  Cheater!!  😉

I used very well aged yarn from my stash – Mulberry Silk from Horstia left over from my Viking Turid sweater.  Beautiful 50-50 silk and merino yarn.

I added some short rows and other mods to the corners so they would look pointed and not lopped off.  Here is my French Cancan blocking:

Blocking shows reduced hump!!

Lettie likes everything French!!

Corner Detail

So there is my French Cancan.  I hope to wear it when I visit Surly next week.

My Mother Goose hat is featured on the main Ravelry page!  Thanks, Bonnie, for alerting me to this news!  My little hidden hat is getting its day in the sun after all!!  🙂

Sally is in Colorado selflessly tending to her DD’s medical needs and helping cheer her up.  She really appreciates that many of you responded to the question she posed about the mystery knitting needles!!

I picked up my stuff from the fair on Wednesday.  There are several items that I had not yet posted on the blog or Ravelry.  One is the hat that no one saw!  Literally.  No.  One.  It was better hidden than [insert your favorite insulting political comment here].

The pattern is called Mother Goose Hat and to me it screamed invisible stranding!!  The last pattern row has one white stitch and the rest blue!  The technique worked beautifully.

I think it’s pretty cute!!  The hat received a 5th place ribbon at the fair which means I received a $0 award.  Yep.  Not even a buck!!

And to Gretchen — you will have to wait until next year to get a picture with Babe!!

PS in response to Amy:  I will bring my stuff and judges’ sheets to the fair, but you are only allowed to talk about five entries.  🙂

PPS to Angela:  I wasn’t complaining about 5th place (maybe about the $0!! 😉 )!  I feel like getting any ribbon at our fair is recognition.  The competition in Minnesota is fierce!

I was just swatching for a project and one of the needles I grabbed is a favorite of mine.  Unfortunately, I have absolutely no idea what the brand is, whether it’s still being made, or whether it’s been changed.  I have several of these needles in different sizes but nary a package in sight.

Here are two photos.  As you can see, the cord is black.  It’s also extremely flexible.  The tips are sort of between being pointy and blunt, and the surface itself has a nice feel.  Not too grabby, not too slick.  The needle size is “engraved” on the tip (you may not be able to read it in the photo).  Finally, the cord itself flattens out slightly just before it attaches to the tip.

If these are still being made I want to buy more.  I thought I’d reach out to our readers to see if anyone knows about these mystery needles.

ETA: Thanks everyone — the consensus seems to be Inox. I knew our readers wouldn’t let us down. And thanks for the information on where to find replacements.

It was back to the fair for me on Tuesday – this time with DD and DH!!  We visit very different parts of the fair than when I go with Kim, so it is worth a second trip.  The weather was superb and, because school has started for many kids, there weren’t big crowds.  Yay!

Here, Laura and I share a cuppa Joe!!

And who would believe that nestled between the Food Building and Pork Chop on a Stick is an oasis of serenity and beauty!

Yes, this idyllic resting spot is located right in front of the Horticulture Building and has lots of shaded seating!

The best thing I ate on Tuesday was Bacon on a Stick from Big Fat Bacon.  Yes.  That is what they serve…big, fat bacon.  And it was d e l i c i o u s!

We had a ton of fun but I was so tired I didn’t think I could make it back to the car!  Now, we have to wait a whole ‘nother year!!

PS to Anya: Your husband has excellent taste!

I am fairly certain that I will never have a nicer day at the fair!  The weather was S P E C T A C U L A R.  Could not be better.

My knitting peep, Kim, and I always hit the fair the first day and trot right over to the Creative Activities Building to see how our entries fared.  I had high hopes for Kim because she entered an amazing afghan.  And there it was in the main case:

We went bonkers!!  It was so exciting to see her beautiful blanket festooned with ribbons.  It is the Elephants Blanket by Alice Starmore.  When we could tear our eyes away from the glory of it all, we saw more:

Right above her afghan was her submarine sweater and above it my Newsom Sweater, both with blue ribbons!  Yay!  (I don’t think I got a single good picture of my Newsom).  Close by was Kim’s adorable Lilleput Sweater, which also walked away with a blue ribbon.

You kind of have to hunt around for everything — the good news is that they included people’s names on all the items that won ribbons!!  Really nice addition!

We went around the corner and there was my latest Niebling Doily:

It was displayed so beautifully I was really pleased!  It is in the main case with the needlework and quilting.

I also entered a sweater I just finished, Carol Sunday’s Milkweed Pullover (the color in the top two pics is the truest):

My other Carol Sunday entry, Dancing with Bears, also got a blue ribbon:

I entered a slurry of hats and another sweater that received ribbons:

Except for Woodfords, none of these are on Ravelry yet.  I will come back and describe them later in more detail.  🙂  If you try to find my Mother Goose Hat at the fair, good luck!  It is so far back it is almost in the next county building!!

We were overwhelmed and had to celebrate with fair food.  We were devastatingly disappointed in the corn dogs from our “favorite” location, kitty corner from Creative Activities!  Mine was cold, with uncooked batter around the dog.  Kim’s was only slightly better and not at all up to par!  Ugh!!

And the price went up, too! Now $4 (this picture is from several years ago).

After the fair we immediately went to our Thursday Knitting Group.  Peep Kathy brought in a baby hat that is crazy adorable — Little Frankie Stein:

I got home exhausted but happy after a wonderful day at the fair.

One of things we often do when a new knitting magazine arrives is to page through it together over the phone.  Last week, when we received the new Fall Vogue, we both fell in love with the Leather Caged Purse kit from Maker’s Mercantile (shown on page 9).  The kits weren’t “live” on their website yet.  We hounded them kept checking back until they appeared and then placed our orders before the hoarders could get them all.  And thank goodness we did!  They are now backordered.  Yay for the hoggish speedy Rainey Sisters!

The kit comes with a cage and 3 skeins of  HiKoo by Skacel WoolieBullie in your choice of colors.  The fabric lining can be purchased from them or on your own.

Susan finished the cream colored version with black cage straight away and decided that to justify the expense of the cage, she would make another bag in brown.  She bought the brown yarn locally at Amazing Threads to get going ASAP.

Susan’s husband saw the bag on the table and said, “I just saw that in the most recent issue of Vogue Knitting!!”  😉

Here is the brown version:

Yes, the cream one is cuter, but they couldn’t both be cream or there would be no point!!

Sally selected a red purse cage and cream yarn.  They had several cute fabrics to choose from so she ordered two fabrics with her kit.  Here is her “When in Doubt Wear Red” rendition of the bag:

They all turned out really well and we feel quite cagey! 😉  ::Groan::

From Susan to Purrlie who said, “There’s just something a little perverted about that leather strapping.”  That’s what I like about it!! 😉

Hi, Folks!!  I am immersed in watching Olympic Gold!  The Americans are doing so well!

When  Sally was here in July, she and I stopped in at Blue Bamboo, one of my favorite fabric shops.  It is primarily for quilters, but I find most of my fabrics there.  They had a very cute, Minnesota-themed tote bag as a featured pattern for the quilting shop hop.  You could pre-order the kit, which I did.  Here is the pattern:

I think it is a fairly popular pattern.  I got the kit last week and made it over the weekend.  It turned out so cute!

It looks ginormous in the picture, but it is only about 12 inches high and 15 inches wide!  I had to play around with it a little bit to make the straps longer – the kit only included the exact fabric needed.  It has six very nice pockets inside:

The picture looks like a fish, but is just the pockets! 😉  I added a magnetic snap.  I really like it and may make another, though it was a TON of work.  The second time around I would know what I was doing!

Dancing with Bears!!  If you hang out on Ravelry (and who doesn’t? 🙂 ), you may see newly added patterns flash across the Patterns Page.  I used to check out every single bloomin’ pattern that was added but unfortunately I have not kept up with that practice.  However, a new design by my good friend Carol Sunday was just released!!  It is the same shawl I saw at Knitting Camp that I just had to make.

I knit it out of Carol’s yarn: Angelic 5-ply, color Moth.  I absolutely love, love, love her yarn!!  It is soft and lofty.  The finished items are light as air.

I made a few changes: I made the largest size, but mine is shallower because I continued the short rows at the same pace throughout (this will make sense if you knit it!).  I used smaller needles to make it a bit tighter as well.  I did wrap my short row turns (not picking up the wraps, though, because it was in the garter section).  Carol did not do wraps and that looked good for me on one side but not the other.

A very nice project, though with >600 sts at certain points, it can feel like a slog!!

Hope your summer is going well – we are anticipating a perfect weekend!

PS to Suzan:P Good advice!  I do always read the Sales and Promos Forum!!

Here is my Camp recap:  I bought a lot of yarn.  The end.

Unlike Susan, I didn’t participate in the camp knitting contest.  How could I compete with Mr. Darcy, not to mention the fabulous Girl with the Pearl Earring shadow panel?  (I’ve always wanted to knit one of those pieces of shadow art; I own several of the patterns but haven’t made the commitment yet.)  Instead, I chose to contribute to the economy.

It started at The Yarnery, where I dropped a ton of money on some Shibui Linen and Twig.  (Not pictured below.  That will come in a later post.)  I hadn’t even made it to camp.  Or Wisconsin.  Oops.

My one non-shopping activity at Knitting Camp was participating in Show & Tell.  The only problem was I had nothing to show when I got there.  I felt as if much of my knitting in the past year has been pretty boring and since I only brought two suitcases (not a light traveler) how much knitting could I be expected to have on hand?  I stayed up until 2 or 3 in the morning the day of Show & Tell finishing a shawl.  The quickie block I attempted hasn’t held up well.  Here’s a little preview.  I’ll post more photos once I’ve had time to reblock it.  The name of the pattern is Paradise Apples by Alla Borisova.  The yarn is Dye for Yarn’s merino silk fingering in the color Love Is Poison.  The color is more intense than it looks here.

On to the shopping!  Like Susan, I bought the yarn to make Helsinki by Janine Bajus (although I’m using a different background color).  Then I went wild at Sun Valley:  four skeins of Dust in the Wind (gray), 2 skeins of Coral, and one skein each of Antler (white) and Twilight (blue).  Their Painted Desert gradient kit called to me.  Twice.  (Hey, I didn’t know what I wanted to make out of it and I just hate worrying about having enough yarn.)  Finally, I picked up some beautiful silk lace weight from Lost City Knits in the color Silver Bells.  Whew.  That’s a lot of knitting in my future!