theraineysisters knitting and so much more

Or is that knit a clock?  You decide.

Over the years, we’ve both been intrigued by knitted clock patterns.  This time, we actually did it!  The pattern is by Stephanie Earp.  Although she offers several variations on the pattern, we both chose the same design.

Sally’s Clock

I dug through my stash for my clock.  The background was knit using  Sunday Knit’s Angelic 3-ply in Smoke.  The “numbers” are out of Spincycle Dyed in the Wool in the Devilish Grin colorway.  I am very excited that the clock actually works.  Or, as my daughter said:  “It lives!”

Susan’s Clock

I, too, was intrigued by this design and also rummaged through stash yarn to knit my clock.  I stumbled onto Grinning Gargoyle Shiny Penny and dark brown Malabrigo Sock.

It was a fun knit and also fun to put together.  My clock seems to have a mind of its own: it’s on time, then stops, then starts, runs slow, then runs fine!!  In other words, don’t rely on it if you have to get somewhere!!

I recently did a test knit for Hudson + West Co in their yarn Forge.  The hat pattern, Asthore, is part of their STUNNING fall launch.  I’ve never seen so many gorgeous cabled sweaters!

I decided to use my famous tubular twisted rib cast on (how can it be famous if no one knows about it!?!).  Someone suggested I write it up for a magazine article, so I will let you know!

Anyway. I proceeded to the main chart. The chart key was on a different page. I glanced at it, but did not read it carefully. So, I didn’t realize that the gray squares were purl sts, I thought they were “no stitch” place holders!! After several unsuccessful attempts, I read the key! Novel idea. Things went swimmingly until I got to the end of the row. I had cast on 4 extra sts! Argh!!  KNITTERS CANNOT COUNT!!  I “creatively” decreased them away, while retaining the flow of twisted rib into the pattern. 8-(

My other issue was needle size. I am a tight knitter, so I did my usual and automatically went up a needle size, esp given the robust nature of the yarn. Mistake. Huge. As is my hat: HUGE. I did a very light felt when blocking, but it is a really big hat.

I knit the second hat with different yarn (Cascade 220 Superwash, color Parsnip) and the correct needles. It’s much smaller as you can see!

The pattern is easy to remember after a few repeats, esp if you have the right stitch count!

Health update on The Rainey Sisters: I finished my radiation treatments last week and Surly started hers yesterday (she has to do 5, I did 20).  We are doing great.  That can’t be said about our 89-1/2 year old dad!

Last Wednesday at about midnight, he fell and broke his hip.  He laid there for 7 hours until it was light enough for him to see his phone!!  He called a neighbor who swooped in like a hero and called 911 and helped him.  He had surgery on Thursday afternoon and they sent him HOME on Saturday!  My brother (Barry) and I had quickly driven down there (to Omaha) Friday, but had no expectation that he would go directly home that soon.  Typically, people go to a rehab unit for a week or two.  Needless to say, we were in a scramble to get him in-home care!!  We had driven my husband’s van so Saint Barry couldn’t just stay down there.  There are medicare staff coming in once a week and we arranged round-the-clock caregivers until Barry gets back.  So many people have to deal with elderly parents and I guess it’s our turn.  Dad is super independent and wants to stay in his home (his log castle).  He is in really good shape for his age, which has amazed all of his nurses.

That’s the latest!!  One crisis after another! 😉

How long could it possibly take to knit a cap sleeve slightly cropped sweater with color work in the yoke?  A very long time if you go by my Lovebirds sweater.  Of course, knitting the yoke 2 1/2 times didn’t help!  Here’s the saga of my Lovebirds.

I saw this pattern on Ravelry and loved the original color way, which you can see here.  I went out and bought the exact same yarn.  (I already knew that I liked knitting with Spincycle’s Dyed in the Wool.)  After knitting most of the yoke — this is a top down sweater — I didn’t love how it looked.  The Sunset Strip color way was simply too yellow for me.  Yellow is one of those colors I just can’t wear easily.

Here’s a photo taken after I had started to rip it out.  I was much further along.  There’s nothing wrong with the color; I just wasn’t happy with it on me.

I put Lovebirds aside for a number of months and then discovered a color of Spincycle — Midsommar — that was similar to Sunset Strip but had more pink than yellow in it.  I wanted the hearts to pop and so I used some Spincycle Dyed in the Wool in the Devilish Grin color for those.  (It was leftover from my knitted clock.

I started over.  I finished the color work.  I separated for the sleeves.  One of the design options for the body of the sweater is to add cables.  As I was about to start the first cable row, I realized that in my size the center cable was not going to line up with the row of hearts that finishes the color work.  Moreover, now that I was looking at it more closely, I realized that none of the motifs lined up down the center as they had on the pattern model.  Was it me?  Had I screwed up?  I looked at some of the other finished sweaters.  No — it wasn’t me.  I had assumed the motifs would line up on all sizes and had been so busy knitting away I hadn’t noticed that they were off.  (I do not have a photo of what the sweater looked like at this point.)

Let me say that there is nothing wrong with the other sweaters I looked at.  The overall pattern is happy and fun and the finished sweaters looked great.  But as longtime readers know, Susan and I are perfectionists.  I wanted my motifs to line up!

I couldn’t bear to start completely over for a third time.  My solution:  rip out to just before I separated for the sleeves, then shift the sleeve placement so that the patterns lined up the way I wanted.  No problem — except that this is a top down sweater that uses short rows to raise the back neck.  If I simply moved the sleeves, I’d end up with the neck short rows draped over one shoulder.

I decided to cut off the yoke above the color work.  I found the new center of the front and placed the sleeves accordingly.  Then I re-knit the short rows and neck ribbing from the bottom up.

The removed original neckline

Checking to see whether the motifs are lining up and the short rows are working

New neckline finished and knitting the body

It worked!

Knitting peep Kim and I always attend the first day of the Minnesota State Fair (this past Thursday), and this year was no different.  The day started with torrential rain, thunder and lightning (!).  As I prepared to leave the house, I honestly thought we were nuts.  However, by the time we got there, the rain had stopped and the weather was wonderful.

We timed it perfectly to be at the Creative Activities Center right as they opened the doors.  It is always fun to see everyone’s entries.  I must admit that I had the shock of my life.

When we entered the building, there was my Nightingale sweater, front and center wearing a sweepstakes ribbon!  I have not yet posted about this project — keeping it under wraps since last October when I first cast on.  It was a “holy grail” project, years in the planning/months in the knitting, and will get a post of its own when I pick it up from the fair (I forgot to take good pictures before I took it in!).

Next, Kim and I hunted for my Frosted Ferns — and discovered that it too had won the sweepstakes.  Wow.  I was stunned.

Elizabeth of York and my Raspberry Beret also took blue ribbons. I was surprised that my little hat did so well!  And E of Y was so much work that I was really pleased it scored a blue.  I also entered some other items:

Maestro in the upper right corner took 5th place — it looks like someone took it off, wadded it up and threw it onto a pile of other sweaters.  Actually, it looks like my bedroom! Moving clockwise, my Ojo de Dios scarf took 2nd, and last was my Sweet-o-fude with a 3rd. I was very happy that they got ribbons.

It was very exciting to see that both Kim and Jimmy won ribbons for their creations.  Kim made this gorgeous Christmas stocking for her new grandson, so it has very special meaning.  Many of you will recognize Jimmy’s world famous DNA Sweater, which took 2nd place!  Yay, peeps!!

What an amazing year.  It is humbling and gratifying to get recognition for something that you love to do!!

PS – a friend alerted me to the fact that my sweater was shown on the local news in a story about the weirdest* contests at the fair.  I think I should be insulted! 😉  You be the judge! My sweater is on for a mere flash at about the one minute mark.

WCCO News

*They DID say weirdest, but now it says unique.  I think they got grief for it and changed it!

The results of our bloggiversary survey are in. We had over 800 responses. Woo!! Thank you for taking the time to complete the survey.

The “typical” respondent is a very experienced knitter, clocking in with more than 20 years of knitting time. Our knitter enjoys knitting shawls and wraps more than most other types of projects, and likes our blog just the way it is. (Cue the Bridget Jones music. Or at least cue Colin Firth as Mark Darcy.) Our readers use Ravelry for pattern surfing and checking out other knitters’ projects. They read knitting blogs just as frequently, if not more so, than they did before Ravelry.

Here are the details:

How long have you been knitting?
Quite a while from the looks of it!

Experience level shows a perfect bell curve:

We decided not to constrain the responses by defining the different levels of experience. Respondents defined for themselves, often explaining their choices by what they are “afraid” to do, such as steeks, lace, etc. Many said they are fearless, or will tackle anything, but still have a lot to learn.

What do you REALLY love to knit?

You can see our readers love to knit just about everything! Of course, we forgot some things in our list, so readers added them in their comments — felted items, toys, mittens, scarves — or simply the obsession du jour!

About a Blog
The next few questions related to the blog itself: frequency and content. Most people felt that we were on the right track with 98.5% saying the content balance was right.

We loved reading the comments people wrote about our blog — after all, that is one reason we continue to do this. We love hearing from you. Most people like our finished projects, information about patterns and yarn selection, finishing, repairs, etc. Shop hops and stories about our local knitting stores were less popular because most of our readers do not have access to them.

People were also realistic about the fact that we can’t crank out 5 FOs a week to keep the focus on finished projects! One commenter noted that we start some projects and then never show them finished. Hmmm. That can’t possibly be true 😉 . (Aside from Sally: I am notorious for putting projects aside. I do sometimes go back to them, and you may see one or two of these phantom projects over the next few months.)

Someone else wished that we would use more affordable yarns to make it easier to replicate our projects. We are truly sorry, but we cannot comply! We love really nice yarn!! We do understand how expensive a hobby knitting can be when you use expensive yarns. For us, it’s important to enjoy the process of knitting as much if not more than the finished object; the pleasure of working with beautiful yarns is part of why we love to knit. Moreover, it takes so long to knit certain projects that the investment of time seems to require an equal investment in yarn quality. That said, not all expensive yarns are worth the price and it’s particularly disappointing when an expensive yarn doesn’t live up to its price tag.

Has Ravelry influenced your blog reading?

Only 8% spend less time reading blogs! That was a surprise. And, for the 0.3% who are not familiar with Ravelry, please go join TODAY! You won’t regret it!!

Our readers LOVE Ravelry:

Here again, we forgot to list everything that people look for in Ravelry: stash management, the great library, buying as well as selling patterns, and networking with other knitters. Many of you expressed your love of Ravelry: wonder what I ever did without it, check it multiple times each day, it’s my obsession, etc. We agree with all of the above!

The overall message we received from your comments was to keep on blogging. To be honest, we get a lot out of it ourselves. We often come back and look up projects or techniques — ‘google’ our own blog to get answers. We know we read about it somewhere…maybe at The Rainey Sisters! (Sally will be providing an example of that very soon.)

And, remember — you are all Aran-clad wieners in our eyes! (There’s a reason we didn’t ask you about Susan’s love of puns. . . )

Hello, fellow knitting peeps.  Today was the first day of school for DD the Younger.   She has three years left of high school.  She just got her learner’s permit.  Pray for us.  Pray for us all.

I have a small FO to share — another Quincy Hat by Jared Flood.   I made several of these last year and enjoyed making them enough to do another — it’s a great take-along project.  Our knitting group is knitting hats for charity this year, so I am knitting hats. 

Quincy Hat by Jared Flood in Katia Azteca (128 yds of a 197 yd skein), US Size 10 Needles

The hat is started as a long, garter stitch strip with built-in i-cord along each edge.  Last year, I ran into several people who had difficulty trying to set up the grafting for the center back (I told them to go ask Jared…well, I told them and then I showed them 🙂 ).

You need to graft the first and last three sts as stockinette and the middle sts in garter stitch.  In order to do this correctly, you need to reposition all the built-in i-cord sts to look like the right side of stockinette on each side.  One side will look like reverse stockinette.  These sts must be turned — not individually, but all three at once.   

The sts appear on the needle like this:

Place all three purl side sts on a dpn and then turn the dpn counterclockwise until the RS of the stockinette sts are facing forward.  Now place them back 0n the needle in this new order:

I won’t even try to show how to do garter grafting (yes, I’m a chicken  &^%$)!  Just make sure the center sts are set up properly (there are many tutorials out there). 

The results:

There will always be a jog where the change from st st to garter takes place because you are grafting two different directions of knitting together (heads of sts being grafted to heads of sts — if that does not make sense, you are normal!).

I’m still deciding on my next bigger project…a couple of ideas are floating around so we’ll see which one lands!

PS: Rox’s comment made me re-think the above and she is correct that you are grafting in the same direction as the knitting, so there shouldn’t be a jog.  The fact that there is is probably due to the built in i-cord (?), not the transition from stockinette to garter and back again.  That shouldn’t cause a jog in and of itself.  Maybe I’ll try it and experiment.  Or maybe not. 😉