theraineysisters knitting and so much more

The world has been turned upside down in a matter of days.  The black cloud of uncertainty hovers over us.  How long will it last?  What will the final toll be in terms of lives, jobs, dollars?  It is very distressing.  Knitters hunker down and knit more.  It’s what we do.  Is it the best choice?  I don’t know, but if I am sitting home with nothing to do, I knit.

I recently finished (before the apocalypse) a cool design by Scott Rohr, knit designer and part owner of The Yarnery in St. Paul.  And a friend.  The cowl is called North Loop.  It is unusual and keeps your interest.  I used some of the nicest yarn I have ever knit with: Malabrigo Caprino in a fall array of three colors (fall? !!??).  It is called DK, but is really closer to sport.

Before blocking it looked like something that would emerge from the Black Lagoon!

It is soft and it is cool.  I cast on a new project today and have yarn arriving by mail.  I am sheltering in place, which for me just means not going to my knitting groups. 😐

Last summer our nephew got married, and we were thrilled to learn that he and his new wife will be having a baby in May…yay!!!  The shower in is in April, so I quickly landed upon a baby sweater for a boy (yes, gender is already revealed!).  Most baby boy sweaters seem to be a variation on the “grandpa sweater.”  I chose Elevenses because it has cute pockets and elbow “patches.”

I used Malabrigo Rios, color Denim.  So cute!!  I am in love with this sweater and the yarn and the color.  Hubby wants one of these!  The pattern is extremely well written.  I made a few changes, but nothing like I usually have to do!! 😉  Anyway, I do recommend this pattern.  I knit a size 18 months so I hope it fits in cold weather vs the heat of August!!  So hard to get that part right!

I was unable to go to this year’s Birkie due to a cold :(, but John went and had a great race!!  He is in the small cluster of skiers — just right of center.

I was able to catch him crossing the finish line – Bib #1011.  Way to go!  And Happy Birthday, too!!

No.  I am NOT obsessed with the garter-in-the-round line in the Rikke Hat!  I swear I’m not!  It’s just that I keep thinking of ways to get rid of it.  My first iteration was the “spoke.”

In the above version, the line is behind the slipped sts (the center spoke above), and is therefore camouflaged.  But, it is still there.  In my NEW iteration, the line is gone entirely!  Yay!!

I figured this out when I made the little Garter Earflap Hat for my daughter’s friend.  I noticed that there was a line where I used a single color, but no line when I purled with a different color.

I wondered what would happen if you used the same color for knitting and purling, but with two different balls of yarn.  I didn’t bother experimenting at the time, but decided to try it when I started a new Rikke Hat…and it works!

The top image shows the hat — the beginning of the round is in the middle.  NO TRANSITION LINE!!!  The bottom picture is identical, but it shows where the BOR is so you can compare the two images.  I am not very good at joining LTCO in the round, so I can tell where the hat starts, but I doubt many other people can!

So, how do you do it??  First, wind your skein into two equal balls:

Then leave one end to the front and one to the back (it will be obvious which ball belongs where).  Knit Round 1 using the yarn at the back.  At end of round, leave yarn at back…do not bring the yarn forward.  Instead, use the yarn hanging to the front and purl Round 2.  Continue in this manner, alternating knit and purl rounds with the yarn that is already in the correct position.

That’s it!  I’m sure others have probably figured this out already.  I know that “Fleagle” does something similar, but knits all rounds: one in the usual way and the other inside out and in the reverse direction.  The positive to her method is that you knit all rounds.  The benefit to my method is that you are knitting the item as written and can follow other instructions per the pattern.

What if I don’t start garter right away?  What if I start with ribbing and then switch to garter in the round?  You do not have to start at the center of two attached balls.  Cast on with one ball and work the ribbing as normal.  Then attach the second ball when you need to start the purl row in garter in the round.  Just always keep it to the front and the original ball to the back.  When finished, use a tapestry needle to pull the tail to the inside.  That’s what I did with my baby hat.

Knitting in the round is actually a spiral, so you will still have a purl “tail” at the start of the round.  There are ways to minimize this, but the whole process looks so much better than the line…at least this obsessed knitter thinks so!!

ETA
NOTE about the cast on: I did a German Twisted Cast On, as called for in the Rikke Pattern.  I joined with the working yarns coming off the righthand needle, in the position for knitting.  I mention using a longtail cast on (LTCO) in my description above, which will have a different look than the German Twisted.  LTCO is not my go-to cast on — I typically use a cable cast on.  I am not very good at joining the LTCO to work in the round, so I just did some practicing.  Not that successful!  I am sure that those of you who use LTCO frequently can figure out my technique and get it to work well for you!!

PS to Pam: I don’t think these techniques are the same, though the helix plays into each.  In my garter method, the start of the round never changes, no sts get slipped.

PS2 to KDS: The way this works is helix knitting.  Apparently, I discovered it, but did not invent it!!  The Fleagle method gets rid of the “seam” by knitting round one normally, and then knitting round two from the inside (WS), in the opposite direction.  I would get confused and not know where to do the decreases!!

Happy Birthday to the Little Sistie!!  Yes, it’s that time of year again when we celebrate the little half of The Rainey Sisters!!  This year I did something different: I knit Surly a present!

I recently posted about my Bella Serva, and how I dug up an old kit from my stash.  Well, I only had ONE kit in my stash, but I thought Surly might like one of these.  I bought some La Bien Aimee Mohair Silk laceweight and worked it with Berroco Remix Light.  It worked well!

Bella Surly

The Remix is not as luxurious as silk boucle, but rather has a raw silk vibe.  Anyway, Happy Birthday to my favorite sister in the whole wide world!  She’s my rock!!

Oh, now THAT is a tortured pun!!  I just took Lilli Pilli off the blocking board and I think it is a success!  I used stash yarn (again!!  Good for me!): Grinning Gargoyle Seda Sock, Color: Storm, and a special purchase of Phydeaux Joie Fingering, Color: Spring Lake.  Spring Lake was a special colorway for Coldwater Collaborative, now called BE. at Lakeside.  They dyed 4 colors, one for each season on Lake Minnetonka.  Spring is the only color I bought, but I thought it looked so pretty with Storm.  The shape and length is similar to Time Trades, which I LOVE!

The pattern calls for three colors, but I only used two.  Several people did that.  By making it narrower you have enough yarn.  See my Ravelry project notes for details!!

This thing was a total slog: acres of garter!!  So slow.  So boring.  I think it will look cute with a crisp white shirt in the summer to stave off air conditioning.  That seems very far away today with below zero temps!!

I just finished Childhood, a pullover designed by Ankestrick.  I’m in love with the yarn and the way the sweater fits and feels.  Do I have photos of myself in it?  Of course not!  My only available model was Loki and I get enough dog hair on my clothes without letting him try on my sweaters, too.

This is a quiet pattern with little details that you might not notice at first glance:  curved hem (flattering on me), purl stitches on the shoulders that flow into the sleeves, purl stitches on the sides that flow into the ribbing), a slightly oversize fit with narrower sleeves.

The star is the yarn, which I’ve found hard to capture.  It’s Blue Sky Fibers Eco Cashmere.  Very expensive and worth every penny for an occasional splurge.  The color is Black Rose.  It’s a deep brown/black marl.  Gorgeous.  Great to knit with and when blocked it became butter soft.  I love touching it.

Because I fell in love with the yarn, I used it even though it’s heavier than the yarn called for in the pattern.  As a result, I knit the XS to end up with a size M.  That worked well although when it came to the sleeves, the number I picked up was just barely enough at the top.  I did NO sleeve decreases at all until the end when I decreased two stitches to accommodate the 4 X 1 ribbing pattern.  True stovepipe sleeves.

Here are some not great photos.  The color is most true in the darker shots.  I’ve thrown in a puppy photo as a bonus.  We will have had Loki for a year this coming Friday!

And here’s Loki, who figured out how to get on the bar stools next to the kitchen island.  He’s a handful.

I sell some patterns, and I teach some classes.  Not a ton of either.  BUT, when those forces collide, it warms my heart!!  I taught several sessions of my Plaid Squared class at BeWoolen in Champlin, near my home.  You see people struggling with this pattern (entrelac is not intuitive!), and you also see the beautiful color combinations that people use.  At the end of class, we do not get to see the finished product, so getting to see the felted bag is a joy to me!

I love the bag, LOVE the colors!!  I am inspired to knit yet another of these bags!  Great job, Sue — I am beyond impressed!

Last week I was at my Tuesday knitting group and someone was wearing a scarf that I recognized — it was Bella Serva and I knew I had a kit for it in my stash — for YEARS.  Seeing her wearing it inspired me, so I immediately cast on and away I went.

Some issues ensued.  I misread the pattern and skipped an important set up row at the beginning, and I made a mistake in my lace.  The yarn is not really rip outable (yes, I made that word up!).  So I fudged the lace boo boo big time.  Fixing the bad cast on was another story!!

The cast on has you hold both the boucle and laceweight mohair together and cast on 387 sts with a size 10.5 needle.  Then you are supposed to go down to an 8 and knit a row (this is the part I missed).  Continuing on with the just the mohair and the sz 8 needle, you knit the lace pattern.  I hated how my cast on looked.  It bothered me every time I looked at it!

So, after I bound off (using a regular bind off instead of the recommended i-cord BO), I picked up the first row of the Angel Hair and cut off my cast on.  Using both yarns held together, I knit one row on an 8 and then bound off from the WS as to knit using the larger needles. I do not recommend doing this, but it worked and looks much better!!  I did look carefully today to see if I had missed any sts and I found two!  Ack!!  I stitched them down and they are fine.

I love, love, love the color!!  Most of the other kits were very bright and multi-colored.  I chose this taupey color because I thought it looked classy and subtle.  To me it looks very vintage!!  This last picture is for Janet even though it is not the best picture!!

I just finished a sweater that took me ages to knit relative to the simplicity of it: Rossore Pullover from the cover of Interweave Knits.

Sally and I both looked at this and thought: Rowan Felted Tweed!!  So, I rushed to The Yarnery and bought a zillion skeins.  Sally had a bunch in stash, so I filled in some of her colors and bought 8 colors for moi.  You may remember that I visited Surly in Boulder in early December.  We collaborated on this sweater while I was there.

The problems started with the gauge difference and the top-down yoke.  We had to make SO MANY adjustments…after MUCH ripping out, we both moved along.  Then we decided that some of the colors we had chosen weren’t that great.  More ripping.  More shopping.  More knitting.  Surly ended up changing out a lot of her colors.  I stayed pretty much on track.  My Rossore is now blocking:

The top color is shown better here:

I hated knitting the Latvian Braid (and reknitting the Latvian Braid!), so we both substituted purl ridges for some of the color transitions (I describe these in detail on my Ravelry project page).  I really like how they turned out.  I also did the neckline with the purl ridges, after plucking out my cast on 🙁 .  I will revisit this project once it is dry and off the blocking board!!  This is not a fabulous sweater, but I think it will be very wearable.  It fits well and I think it will be one I grab often!

From Sally:  I’m still knitting mine.  Yes, I had several colors in my stash, but only one skein of the colors I chose.  And I needed to dip into a second skein.  No one out here sells Felted Tweed.  I ordered it online and they sent the wrong color!