theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Carol Sunday is one of our favorite designers, and I fell in love with her Soutache the moment I saw it.  I bought a kit (with pale pink as the main color) and then let it sit marinate for a loooong time.  I had glanced at the directions and felt intimidated.  I’d never even learned single color brioche.

I kept being drawn back to the pattern and the yarn and finally decided to go for it.  I swatched with the pink, but wasn’t sure I liked it against the charcoal (which is where the gradient started).  I waffled for a while until Susan pushed me to get the Dijon, which I loved.  (I will still use the pink for something else.)

This was a challenge to start, but once I got into it I loved knitting it.  I liked Carol’s charting quite a bit — it seems slightly more intuitive than other brioche charting I’ve looked at.  (Then again, what do I know?  I’m a complete novice!)

This was truly a labor of love.  It’s squishy and beautiful and warm.  I absolutely adore it.  This was my first brioche but it definitely will NOT be my last!

Wait — where did THOSE little cuties come from?  One of them will be coming to our home in early February.  (That’s the breeder’s hand, not mind.  I was only allowed to look not touch as of yet.)  They are two weeks old in that photo.  Little Golden Retrievers!!

That’s what you say to anyone who mentions Snefnug (sneff-noog) yarn!!  I saw the yarn featured on an email blast from The Yarnery and just had to check it out!!  I bought two for me and two for Surly.  I made the Leafing Cowl shown in the email.

It’s about 10 inches by 30.  I added a repeat and reversed the decreases (where they did k2tog, I did ssk and vice versa).  Different sized cowls are made by using bigger yarn.  The yarn is butter soft.

My Fun Nine from 2018!!

Imagine my surprise when I turned on Jeopardy today and saw a knitter!  Not just any knitter, but Kmkat who has been a loyal reader and commenter lo these many years!  I first spied the knitting, of course (the picture below is from yesterday’s show, which I missed due to knitting group 🙁 ).  Kathryn wore a knitted sweater today — Tappan-Zee, to be exact.  Congratulations on your winnings and for show casing knitting on national television!!  It was so fun to see you!

I have been knitting and baking and entertaining, so quite busy like everyone else.  Last week I finished a sweater.  I thought it took forever but it only took about a month — even with time off for boredom!!

It is Ebbetts by Elizabeth Doherty.  It is the sister of Woodfords, a favorite of mine, but knit in worsted weight.  Woodfords was knit in LOFT, Ebbetts in Blackstone Tweed.

The new sweater should be very wearable.  Woodfords is super cute but because the yarn seems more fragile, I don’t wear it a lot.  I am not going to baby Ebbetts!!

I bought the book Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day: Sweet and Decadent Baking for Every Occasion.  I made the basic white dough and used it for simple dinner rolls Christmas Eve – people liked them a lot.  Today I used up the remaining dough:

I did a simple braid and an egg wash.  It tastes amazing!!  Maybe even deserving of a Paul Hollywood handshake!! 😉

The Long Johns are finished — at least the first batch!  There may be a few more in the future.  I stopped by Michael’s’ yesterday and completed the last purchase in pursuit of my expanded Long Johns kit: itty bitty hangers.  The original kit included one really small hanger and two larger, white clothespins (shown here on the far right).  I bought the larger hangers at Michael’s and the small clothespins arrived from Amazon (they also had them at Michael’s).  I think the proportions of my items look better.  The cool thing about the hangers is that they work on a really small opening because of the slotted aspect.

Here they are hanging in my “new” kitchen – though they may not end up there!

Worth the trouble?  Who knows!! 😉

PS to Tobie: I have 50 mini clothespins so that should be enough for a lifetime!!

An update on yesterday’s post:

Thanks for commenting!  I did go do some shopping.  Found great yarn at The Yarnery for $5.85 that will make a zillion (8?) Little Long Johns (Nature Spun Sport, color N48S, Scarlet).  I bought a zillion black seed beads for $1.79 at Stormcloud Trading in St. Paul, MN (#8371, Czech Glass, size 6, black).  I ordered 50 mini clothespins from Amazon for $3.50.  I have twine 🙂 .  Add $3 for the pattern and it’s still a deal!

I did want all my long johns to look the same.  That’s how I pictured them – hanging on a clothesline as if Santa had just done his laundry.  I suspect Santa does his own laundry because my husband does his and that’s what “good” husbands do! 😉  Ha!!

I finished two long johns, with a third to go.  BUT, I may need to knit four because the first one I made seems smaller (the one you see pictured is the second of the two).  The extra one can go on the tree.  Instead of picking up the flap and knitting it, I knit the flap before even starting the long johns and attached it as I went along.  Full instructions are on my project page.

RE: the Girder Hat.  I added notes to my Ravelry project page.  I did not want to share my chart because it would be copyright infringement, so you’ll have to wing it a little bit!!

If you have been reading The Rainey Sisters for any length of time, you know we try not to trash others.  And I am not trying to trash anyone, but rather write an honest review about the kit I received to knit this: Little Long Johns by Susan B. Anderson.  The pattern is fine – nothing wrong there.  Very cute!

I ordered a kit from Barrett Wool ($15) as soon as I saw it.  The kit arrived and was packaged beautifully — really cute.

But, notice how the pictures show THREE little pairs of long johns lined up adorably on a clothes line?  Read the fine print, People!  The kit has enough supplies for ONE set of long johns (what the heck are you going to do with one??).  To make three, you have to buy yarn, beads, mini clothes pins, and twine.  If I needed to buy all that, I should have just bought the pattern on Ravelry and gone shopping for the rest!!  Which is what I am going to do.  Which also means that I cannot use the yarn included in the kit or my long johns won’t match.  🙁

So, that was on me, but please don’t fall into their adorable trap!!  Or at least go in with your eyes open!!

NOT disappointing is the hat I made for DD’s boyfriend:

Pattern: Girder

I added a repeat and changed the crown shaping quite a bit.  Added a small leather patch!

Hi, all!  We have a lovely little snow today.  It made me think that I should do something snow related, so I decided to release my Beaded Mini Hat Ornaments as a stand alone pattern ($4).  It has been free with the purchase of my Snowfall Hat pattern since last year, but I wanted it more widely available for the holidays!!  It is still free with the Snowfall Hat.

All five hats are included, with a chart to design your own!  They are super cute and a fun way to try beadwork!

PS to Stashdragon:  I agree!  These make cute attachments to gifts and become an additional gift.

If I am like many of you, I have too many knitting books in my collection.  I found one the other day that was just awful — where did it come from??!!?

But, I love knitting and that means occasionally getting bit by the knitting book bug!  I pre-ordered this book and got the Ravelry link today.  The first printing already sold out so I’m glad I pre-ordered when I did!

104 pages of beautiful stranded hats!  Wow.  The hat that forced me against my will to buy the book is Every Flavour:

It spoke to me!!  I thought I would find most of the colors in stash but my stash betrayed me.  Maybe I need to buy more yarn…??

Our new countertops were installed today.  Wow.  I decided to go with the slightly risky sleek-modern look.  You have a picture in your mind and then there it is!  It surpasses our expectations by far.  We are very pleased with the workmanship that we have experienced from a “big box store” – aka Home Depot.  The people who installed the cabinets and the countertops did excellent work, and the quality is fantastic.

The picture of course shows the kitchen in a transformational stage!!  There is a lot more to do, but at least WE are in control of that part!

While Surly was in town to go to the special Yarnery event with Brooklyn Tweed, we went shopping.  One stop was J. Jill at Galleria.  Sally bought a couple of things, including a cute pair of red and black buffalo plaid gloves.  She wanted me to get a pair, too, but I just couldn’t justify spending money on more gloves even though they would go so well with my Plaid Squared red and black bags!  A pair arrived today, all gift wrapped from that lil sis of mine!  🙂

Plaid Squared by Susan Rainey

Yes, I know it’s after Thanksgiving but my latest FO is really more of a spring sweater.  If I had finished it sooner, I could have worn it earlier this fall, but I didn’t.  Sigh.

The pattern is Orime by Veronik Avery.  Orime apparently means fold in Japanese, and this design has an Origami-like quality to its construction.  I used the yarn called for:  Peerie from Brooklyn Tweed.  Peerie is a four-ply fingering weight yarn with a lot of bounce.  It blocks beautifully and is soft enough to wear right next to one’s skin.  The color I chose is Rainier.

This was an easy to knit project, but the neckline finishing is somewhat tricky.  It works but I did it multiple times before I was satisfied.  (I do think the directions could be a bit clearer.)

I made a few slight modifications.  I lengthened it by two repeats.  I wasn’t sure I’d have enough yarn to lengthen it more than that.  As it turns out, I could have but I was ready to finish knitting it so I don’t mind that it’s a shorter type sweater.  It’s fine for the style.  I grafted the back neck together instead of seaming it.  It doesn’t look absolutely fabulous, but I prefer it to the seam.

The sweater fits well and was interesting to knit.  If we get a spell of warm weather — always a possibility in Boulder — I might even get to wear it soon.