Month’s End

I am so happy to see February (finally) end.  I’m not a fan. This is not a deep dark secret either.  For some reason, February is the one month that I just can’t manage.  Somewhere around the third week, I become convinced that this month will never end.  Every.  Year.   I’m not sure exactly why this happens, but I just want it not to be February anymore, and the realization that I can’t make the days go by any faster just makes me sad. 

So in defense of this state of “blah” that I sink into, I want to knit and generally do.  I went into a sort of high gear of sock knitting…

I knit my February PSC pair:

Blue Chevvy's

Pattern: Father and Son Socks by Mona Schmidt

Yarn: Malabrigo Yarn Sock / Color 806 Impressionist Sky

Size 2.25mm needles / magic loop

Then I finished these:

Sweet Sweat Socks

Pattern: Basic sock
Yarn: Panda Cotton Sock / colors Ivory, Crystal Pink and Deep Water
Size 2.25mm needles / dpn

And meanwhile, I worked on these along with the class I was teaching for knitting Two at a time Top down socks at the shop:

Pond Ripples

Pattern: Harris Tweed Socks by Ali Green

Yarn: Noro Kuryeon Sock / Color 150

Size 2.25 mm needles / Magic Loop, 2AAT

Just before I finished those, I realized I wouldn’t have any socks on the needles so I cast on a mindless pair to get me through until I cast on my March PSC socks:

Vegetable Thin socks

Pattern: Basic Sock

Yarn: Noro Kuryeon Sock / Color 255

Before you get the impression all I knit in February was socks, when I wasn’t working on socks, I also knit another one of the little dice bags,

Sea Urchin Bag 2

this is a fun little project and I still have a lot of the yarn left over... I'm thinking of a new design for using that. 

And I finished this:

Carefree Shawl

Pattern: Carefree by Jen Hansen

Yarn: Three Irish Girls Adorn Sock / Color Alchemy

Needles: US Size 4

Cast on for this:

Friday Cardi

Pattern: Girl Friday

Yarn: Gedifera Extra Soft Merino

Needle: US Size 6

And this: 

Marmalade

Pattern: Miss Marple's Shawl - What Would Miss Marple Knit / Vintage from Weldon's Practical Needlework

Yarn: Knitivity Down Home Fingering / color Peachy

Needle: US Size 5

Hopefully March will bring better pictures and some interesting activities and I’ll have something besides socks to post.

Happy Knitting,

Nana

On and Off the Needles

When I was younger and had my whole summer to look forward to during the last week of school, the idea of no schedule and endless possibilities was very delicious.

As an adult it is a little scary. I made it through my first week of “unemployment” feeling just a little bit un-tethered.

The whole concept of just getting up and doing whatever with nowhere to go and nothing special to accomplish is just a little daunting. Fortunately I had a couple of private lessons and have plenty of knitting goals to keep me going.

I finished a couple of things and started a couple of new projects just to keep myself occupied.

Here’s what I’ve finished:

2 pair of socks, a shawl, and a couple of dishcloths for gifts:

Sock pair #1














Pattern: basic sock
Yarn: Panda Cotton baby blues; deep blue and Ivory
Size 2.5 dpn

Just a quick pair of crew socks that I cast on for traveling over Memorial Day weekend, I had a lot of yarn leftover from two pair I did before so I thought I’d see if I could get another pair out of it. I managed to have just enough of the light blue and the white. I have enough of the dark blue left to use as striping or heels and toes in another pair. I did pick up a few skeins of this yarn during the going-out-of-business sales at the shop. One interesting note about this pair; since I made the entire cuff in ribbing I tried the technique for making neater stripes by doing the first round of each new color in stockinette before switching back to the ribbing. I think it does make a nice looking stripe.

Sock pair #2

Pattern: Annetrelac (IK Holiday Knits 2007)
Yarn: Knitivity in Chocolate covered cherries
Size 2.25 magic loop

I am extremely happy with how these turned out. I had tried a couple of different patterns for this yarn and didn’t love the pooling effect with this limited palette. When I got to the feet and the yarn started a nice thin spiral of reds and browns, I knew I made a good choice. When the second sock turned out to be nearly identical I was just ecstatic.

Simple shawl

Pattern: improvised
Yarn: Brooks Farm Harmony
Size 10.5 needles

I have had this yarn for quite a while and never really came up with a good project for it. I knew I had less than 500 yards which wasn’t enough to really do much. It is silk, wool, and mohair blend, so I didn’t think it would be very good for a hat / mitten set. It was way too pretty to give away (not to mention probably expensive too). I bought it in 2005 at my very first Stitches Midwest and so I had a sort of sentimental attachment to it as well. I finally decided I could probably get a nice wrap or shawl out of it. I tried one wrap pattern, but didn’t like the way the lace looked. So I decided to work up a triangle shawl and experiment a little with patterns. I tried a couple different lace designs, but couldn’t get my mind around how to work in the increases without messing up the pattern. (I’ll get there one of these days). So I just alternated garter bands with two different eyelet sequences. The result is simple and completely plays up how pretty this yarn really is. The finished shawl is about 68 inches wide by 33 inches deep.

I also worked up a couple of washcloths:

I discovered during my last workshop at the store that a dishcloth is a great way to work up a pattern stitch for demonstrating so I've been using these for swatching and my samples for teaching. Plus I have a surprising amount of heavy cotton in my stash. Win, win.

It’s hard to believe this, but I really only have two WIPs right now:

Flower Child by Nora Gaughn

This is a long in the queue project that was delayed due to trouble acquiring the right yarn. I won’t go into the hairy details, but suffice it to say that I am happy to finally get going on this! This is going to be for my DD2 who will be visiting in July so I have a deadline.

I’m using Berroco Pure Pima in the Nectar colorway and size 6 needles. Hopefully this will be a quick knit.

I know you’d be really disappointed if I didn’t have more socks going, so I won’t disappoint. I started my June challenge pair and my am trying to pick a pattern for my June personal sock club pair. The June challenge pair is the Chevron Lace pattern from Getting started Knitting Socks. I’m using Claudia Handpaint in the Ocean Depths colorway. I’ve already had to frog these once because the pattern makes a very tight fabric. I cast on and started over with more stitches, but may need to use bigger needles as well. I think it’s a nice pattern though. I have a picture, but it's more needles than sock at this point.  I'll try to have more done for the next update.

I picked a nice skein of Noro Silk Garden Sock from my personal sock club, but I didn’t like the pattern I had previously paired with it. I’m considering a couple of others I have in my queue right now. I think I just need to start one and see how the yarn knits up. I did a little searching in Ravelry to see what patterns others had used and there are so many!  I guess you’ll have to wait for an update to see what I choose.

And of course, I’ve got about 4 other projects on my “on deck” circle.  I want to try to focus on Flower Child for the moment.  The socks are for when I need a change from the cotton and for carrying around with me. That's what I've got going.  Don't forget Saturday is WWKIP day (or the kick-off for WWKIP Week!) So be sure to do some knitting out and about. 

Happy Knitting!

Nana

In the Meantime

I’ve been busy trying to get a handle on my stash; I keep finding undocumented skeins whenever I go to put projects on Ravelry.  How can this be?  So in an effort to get things under control and make sure that I can match queued projects to yarn I have I started an inventory to compare the stuff in my actual stash to what’s entered in Ravelry. I’ve done 5 out of 8 drawers and am flabbergasted by what I’ve uncovered so far.  I suspect that it might be mating season or something, what else would explain where all this extra yarn came from?  Needless to say, I will have to make a day of updating after I get done with the whole inventory.  I’ve been photographing the missing yarn as I go.  I actually had more stash pictures than project pictures on my camera when I uploaded this time.

Yarn shock notwithstanding, it’s been good getting reacquainted with some of the things I have squirreled away and helping me focus on specific projects I should be planning.

Speaking of projects, I’m still working away on the Vines and Leaves Cardi.  I have one sleeve about ¾ the way done and one more to do. I’m hoping I can finish it by the middle of next week.  And in the meantime, I’ve managed to finish a couple of other things.

I took a short break between finishing the body of the cardi and starting the sleeves to work this up for our granddaughter in MI (who we’d like to visit sometime soon). It’s a belated birthday gift for her 2^nd b-day. Her mom and aunt call her "bug" so I thought this pattern would be perfect for her.

Pattern: Mrs. Beetle from Babies and Toddlers: A Knitter’s Dozen (XRX Books)

Yarn:  Jil Eaton Minnow Knits

I also finished these socks:

Pattern:  Diagonal Lace by Wendy Johnson

Yarn: Down Home Sock by Knitivity color Purl Grey

Size 0 needles / Toe Up

And started these:

 Pattern: Prism Socks

Yarn: Lang Jawoll (yellow) and Rio De La Plata 

I may have to adjust the stitch count on these, but I am really liking the effect of mixing these two yarns on the look of the pattern.

Happy Knitting!

Nana

Moving Right Along

Well, I just need to say that March was a not-so-great month and April is already shaky. Our family has been experiencing some ups and downs. We made one trip to Des Moines together and hubby is back there again this week assisting his Mom after she had surgery. Adding to the stress, his sister recently delivered twin boys at 29 weeks gestation meaning they are still both in the hospital. Both boys are doing well and making progress as expected, but will probably be there a bit longer. His sister was on bed rest in very bad condition prior to the delivery. She is doing very well now but is very busy going back and forth with the babies and returning to work until the babies are released. So that’s all been very distracting for both hubby and I.

I did manage to get a little knitting done here and there; I think I’ve fallen behind my imaginary schedule though.

I finished the Blue Pukas sweater and am very happy with the outcome. You’ll have to take my word for it though because my computer is refusing to have anything to do with my camera. (so any pictures in this post are old).

I have two pair of socks on the needles, the Forget Me Knots and the Rivendel socks. I’ve turned the heel on the 1st Forget Me Knot, and am almost done with the second Rivendel sock.

 The pattern/yarn combination for the Rivendels is not quite what I expected but it is quite interesting. I started these the week we took the first trip to IA. The colors of the yarn matched the colors of the landscape along I-80 perfectly the day we traveled there. . (I obviously ignored the rules according to this
But fortunately we had a little rain and a little sun before we returned from the trip and it is amazing the difference two days can make, what had been very dry, brown, grey and dead looking started to green up around the edges and was beginning to look like spring might be on the verge.



Oh and remember the vest? I frogged it after I consulted a few knitting friends and the consensus was that it was bad and therefore needed to be ripped and re-knit. Well, I frogged it on Thursday and a new issue of Creative Knitting hit my mail box on Friday… guess what! There was a pattern for a really nice sweater that is really more my style anyway; a sweater pattern that calls for Terra yarn (Vines and Leaves Cardigan).

Yup! I cast on and started that as soon as I could. The project is much happier as a lace sweater!


Happy Knitting!

Nana

It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a …. Post!

The top 10 reasons I haven’t posted in a while:

1. Knitting (or more like serial casting- on)
2. Some family things
3. Cats
4. Work
5. Work stuff that needed doing at home
6. Home stuff that needed doing
7. Lack of inspiration
8. The camera needs a new battery
9. Non-knitting (aka petting the stash)
10. The weather

Seriously, I know it’s sort of cliché to whine and make a bunch of apologies for not posting often enough, which actually, in reading others blogs it does seems to be in season.  There really have been a bunch of things going on lately that have kept me from taking the time to put my thoughts together and remember to take pictures and actually sit down at the computer and pull a post together.  I’ve had about five versions kicking around in my head all week and just couldn’t get the other parts together to actually write one. 

I finished a pair of socks.  These were my purse / work project during knitting Olympics so I had to put them on the back burner for that last week or so of the games.  It didn’t take long to finish these once I could devote a little bit more time to them. 

Pattern:  Rib & Cable Socks by Nancy Bush (Interweave Knits Fall 2005)

Yarn: Dream in Color Knitosophy in Strength

I really liked this yarn and am anxiously awaiting the reorder to arrive at the shop so I can stash some more in another colorway.  It’s the same base as Smooshy with a little bit different dyeing approach.   The pattern was good until I got to the heel and toe parts.  I modified the toe and would definitely modify the heel as well if I knitted it again. 

I got caught up on the knitting of my Big “V” vest, but made a mistake on the neck shaping of the fronts and need to rip back about 2 inches.  It’s currently in time-out; therefore no picture. (besides it is really boring)

I knit a cute intarsia hat for baby Sylvia, but had some serious issues with the pattern construction (knit flat-seamed).  Seaming hats is not a talent I possess apparently. This turned out so horrible that I refuse to even share a photo. But, I do have sufficient yarn for a redo. I put the whole project on hold for now while I rethink the process for knitting the pattern in the round. 

I made some progress on the Loksins socks which I cast on sometime in the middle of the pair of rib and cable socks.  Sock #1 is nearly finished and will probably be done tonight.(Yarn is Cascade Heritage Hand Paint)

 As of last Tuesday the Big V and Loksin socks were the only projects on the needles, so I got a little itchy and have since cast on for:

The Knotty but Knice socks from Interweave Knits Fall 08 (project name Forget me Knots) this is a pretty fun pattern once you get going.  I actually started it twice.  I cast on, knit the cuff and started the first pattern repeat thinking there was something not-quite-right going on.  Then I looked over the pattern info again.  D’oh.  I’m knitting a top-down version and sort of just winged it on the cast on. I knit the cuff in k1, p1 ribbing which looks pretty nice, but if you look at the flow of the pattern, it would have been better to cast on and knit the ribbing according to pattern rows 1-3 which then flows directly into the pattern.  The picture below illustrates that pretty well.  Top (on dpns) is the first go; bottom (on ML) is the second with the corrected ribbing.  I also changed needle size to get a little bit better stitch definition (and fit, too).  Little things can make a big difference. 

The Pukas sweater from the current issue of Knitters (more Dream in Color, loving it).

 (left sleeve)

And I’ve been working up the samples for my April color work class.   

Whew!  I think that’s it.  I know I have at least two more projects ready and waiting to be started. But… maybe I’ll try to finish something first.

Happy Knitting!

 

Nana

What’s In Your Basket?

I figured it was time I shared a little of what’s happening here at Nana’s.  I’ve been doing more serial casting on and less knitting than I would like (again).   But I am seeing progress on a couple of projects…

But before I get to those, I thought I‘d share a few yarn acquisitions I made recently.  The first is some beautiful handspun that knitter friend Paula gifted some of the knitters in our little Thursday night group.  Sherri got two skeins of brown energized singles and I got this:

About 270grams of a nice grey and white twist yarn.  Paula wasn’t 100% on the fiber content, but I think there is enough here for a nice hat or pair of mittens or maybe a cowl.  Ah, the possibilities.

Next up, you know I can’t resist alpaca in any form, so I went to the Northern Illinois Alpaca Extravaganza at the new Lake County Fairgrounds a couple of weeks ago and after ogling all of the lovely alpaca on the hoof, I found these two skeins of  Sport weight from the Whisper Meadows Alpaca farm… The yarn is named after the alpaca it came from … how fun is that

Peruvian penny (cream) and Patent Leather (black)

I’m thinking maybe a tam?

Then last weekend on Halloween I went on an excursion with Kelly and Carol out to the Fold in Marengo, followed by a lunch where we decided to go visit yet another shop that none of us had ever been to (Gene Anne’s Yarn in Barrington).  All in all it was a lovely day and a few things followed me home:

From the Fold, Cascade Heritage Hand Painted Sock Yarn in the glamorous color 9926

And from Gene Ann (who practically thrust it upon me) Dream in Color Knitosophy in Strength

So you see, with all this yarn shopping, who has had much time left to knit?  No seriously, I have still been seeing too many patterns that I want to knit right away and have been totally unrealistic with myself about the amount of time needed to actually knit the pattern…

So, here’s what’s patiently waiting turns in my knitting basket

Niagara Falls Socks by Janelle Laidman

Yarn KPPPM

Big V Vest by Melissa Mathay

Yarn SWTC Terra

I might have showed this one already… the It Ain’t a Pair of Socks Shawl (pattern Simply Effective Shawl by Cosmicpluto Knits

Yarn Down Home Art by Knitivity colorway Ain’t Gail

And the newest and most exciting project:

Arena from Knitters Fall 2009

Yarn: Valley Yarns Stockbridge from Webs

Whew! What’s in your basket?

Happy Knitting

Nana

Tuesday’s Problem

Remember the vest I’ve been promising to finish and show off?  It’s going to be a while.  In a very play-off result type parallel I rallied to get it going again this weekend. I redid the bottom band and was quite happy with the result.  Then I started to pick up the recalculated number of stitches on the front I got through the left front very nicely, worked across the neck where there was no change and started down the right front. Things were not going well.  I ripped, picked up, ripped, picked up; put it down, smoothed it out, paused; LOOKED and oh (insert your favorite swear word here)!  I discovered that at some point I had made a mistake in the pattern repeat and had left out about 5 rows!

No wonder the thing was giving me so much trouble.  Needless to say I feel a bit like the Cardinals, Twins and Red Sox right now, swept and out of the series.  For such a relatively simple pattern, this thing is kicking my knitter’s butt. 

I did progress on the bubble socks and if not for trying to finish the vest would have finished the pair this weekend. 

So, you now know what I will be doing on my day off tomorrow. 

Happy Knitting and I hope your projects behave better than mine!

Nana

A Slight Problem with Finishing

I really wanted to post a picture of my finished vest. The best I can do today is post the blocking shots I took the other day. But first let me distract you with some cute cat pictures:

 "Did St Louis really get swept?  Say it ain't so Mommy!"

Okay, now where was I? Oh the vest. I am having a problem with the finishing of it. I think that although my stitch gauge was good, my row gauge might have been a little off. When I picked up the 245 stitches (three times!) I got bunching fabric and a ripple effect down the front. This was not at all the result that I had hoped or envisioned for this project. Actually the first two times, I was mainly worried about getting the buttonholes spaced correctly and it wasn’t until the second bind off that the ripples really started to be noticeable. The first bind off got ripped back because I might have made the “watching my team get swept in the playoffs” mistake, again - too tight; but I digress. I have determined that I actually need to pick up additional stitches and maybe go up a needle size to correct the problem. So the vest is in time out again until I can figure out exactly how many stitches I need to add to as Tim Gunn puts it “make it work.” But I do have some really swell buttons if I ever get that far. So here’s a sneak peek at the as yet unfinished vest:

And the button(s)

I did finish some socks. So fear not, there is a finished object to show off. These are the second pair of Sister Stripe Socks from the Noro Kureyon Sock Colors S40 and S164.

These will be mailed off to DD #2 sometime later in the week.

The other pair of socks I’ve been working on actually got frogged, but I cast on a new pattern and they are coming out much better. I loved the original pattern (cut-paste-socks) that I was working, but that pattern and this yarn didn’t make a good pairing. This pattern (Bubble Wrap Socks) is working very well for this yarn and I will be finding a better yarn for the other pattern because now that I tried it out, I’d really like to knit it.

So I give you the Rainbow Bubble socks in progress:

I've also cast on for the next vest.  More on that in another post.

Happy Knitting!

Nana

Back to Everything

I haven't solved the problem I was having with pictures entirely, but I did manage to get it to work with a couple of work arounds... so here's the knitting post I promised. I’ve been back home from my trip for well over a week, and I feel like I have been in constant motion. There always seems to be something more to do that I just can’t quite get to. I like being busy, but sometimes I appreciate being able to slow down a bit, too. Vacation was a great time for that, but it seems like I had to pick up the pace right where I left it. That’s getting harder to do with each successive birthday. I got a little knitting done while I was traveling and a little after I got home. I’ve been trying to restore some sense of order to my office/craft room since it looked like it exploded with all of the (new) yarn everywhere and patterns and magazines and ‘nuff said. It’s slightly better, and I hope before long it will be in some sort of working order.

So here’s what I’ve knit recently:

I finally finished the Rib Fantastic Socks aka Perforated Purple. The pattern wasn’t too bad, but just complex enough that it required complete attention and made for a bad knitting group knit. I knit them magic loop which compounded the complexity as I had to adjust the stitches on the needles when the pattern shifted. I like the stitch pattern well enough but disliked the heel / toe used by the designer. I’d probably knit these again on dpns and with some pattern modifications.

Pattern: Rib Fantastic from Knitting Socks with Hand painted Yarns

Yarn: Samantha in Stitches, Footcrazy, color Purple Thunder

Size 2.25 mm needles / Magic Loop

I also finished a lone Monkey sock. We needed a sock sample in the Claudia Handpaint and I fell in love with this colorway (surprise) but couldn’t see myself wearing a pair of socks this color, so I figured this would make a good sample and the monkey pattern looks fantastic in Claudia… so I give you Lone MonkeyPattern: Monkey By Cookie A

Yarn: Claudia Hand Paints, Color; Eat Your Veggies

Size 2.25 needles

Then I needed a sample for my next technique class, so I whipped this up:

Pattern: Diamond Head from Hats, a Knitter’s Dozen

Yarn: Wisdom Poems in colors 556 and 558

Size 4 needles

This was pretty quick as projects go, although a little fiddly if you just want to make a quick hat, but since it matches the scarf I made last winter, it was worth it to me. It is a good project for teaching miters, which is why I chose it, so I hope people sign up for this class.

And finally, I cast on for a project that has been on my list for a little while:

(I'm actually almost done with the back now)

Pattern: The Chevron Vest from Knitter’s No 87 (Summer 2007)

Yarn: Dream in Color Classy / Neat Stuff from Prism

For some reason now I’m craving oreos…

I'm also working on two other socks, but they will have to wait for another post.

Happy Knitting!

Nana

Shawl Shock

I’ve been doing quite a bit of knitting this month. I just haven’t taken the time to post much about what I’ve been up to. While I was visiting my daughter and granddaughter in TX I finished several projects and started a couple more. Here’s a sort of run-down on what I did then and have been doing since: What kind of Nana would I be if I didn’t knit a sweater for that little darling? I started this after I finished the blanket and finished it just in time for Sylvia’s arrival at home. I call it Sylvia’s Homecoming Sweater:

The purple and grey (silver) it’s done in are Texas Christian University (TCU) colors. My daughter and her husband met there and are active alumni. It seemed fitting to knit her at least one outfit in school colors; and since her Nana is very partial to purple, pretty satisfactory too. Pattern: Baby Sweater on Two Needles; Practically Seamless (aka Baby February) from the Knitters Almanac by Elizabeth Zimmerman Yarn: Butterfly Super 10 by Kertzer in Violet and Silver – this is a DK weight yarn and worked up very nicely. Needles: size 6 Pattern Mods: I left off the button holes so and knit the sleeves last so that I could knit them in the round (thus making it truly seamless). I also did two pair of matching booties (one in each color) with the leftover yarn using the pattern Knit Mary Jane Booties by April Cromwell The sweater is a little big for her now, but I am confident she will grow into it eventually. There’s also enough yarn left over that I may even add a hat to the ensemble. I also finished my contribution to the square a month swap that my two daughters are doing.

You’ll have to go here to get the details, but one of them suggested it would be fun if I contributed a knit square and I was quite honored to do so. I chose a fun mitered square that is knit from the center out. Pattern: Turn Back Time Spa Cloth from Creative Knitting Magazine January 2008 issue Yarn: Vanna’s Choice for grey square and for Blue Square Paton SWS and Red Heart for the border Then I finished one of the two pair of Sister Stripe socks (Noro Kuryeon Sock Yarn) that I'm also knitting for my daughters.The first pair was for DD#1 (the new mom) and turned out great.

I cast on for the second pair as well. I’ve worked on them some since and got them this far:

I also started a shawl while I was down in TX. On my first attempt I followed the pattern the way it was written, but decided my cast on was too loose and sloppy so I started over. Then I didn’t like the hole that the first and last yarn-over made on the top edge, so I decided to redo it and knit the yarn-over through the back loop (ktbl) on the next row. I liked that result much better, but on that attempt, I also decided to slip the last stitch of each row, which gave me a loose and uneven edge which I didn’t like at all, so out it went. After all that tinkering though I came up with a very pleasant arrangement of alternating stockinette and garter rows and on the third start using only three stitches as the base doing the ktbl’s and not slipping the last stitch, I got a result I was super happy with. I finished it off with a cute little picot bind off. So even with all of that, I started this on the 21st and finished it on the 27th so it’s fair to say it was super quick and easy. I think it turned out quite nicely.

(End of Summer Shawl) Pattern: Simple Yet Effective Shawl Yarn: Sunuvasock by Ceallach Dyes colorway, Vintage Needles: size 7 Which brings me to my current project; even though it’s quite embarrassing to admit that this project has been (gasp) OTN for OVER a year, I made excellent progress on the long-languishing Swallowtail Shawl (I KNOW!) (Hanging head in knitterly shame) I completed all the repeats of the 2nd chart and am ready to move on to the next section. I am doing only one pattern mod on this: I’m replacing the nupps with beads in this section. I’m hoping to get this one done in the next week. I’ll keep you posted! Happy Knitting Nana