The weather outside is frightful........

.......but inside, I'm thinking spring! I started this little number for DD yesterday and after a round of gauge issues, I'm finally off and running. It's one of the patterns I traded for from the Destash list and as soon as I saw it, I knew it was perfect for my girl. Who knows if she'll like it, but it's a fun knit and not a tiny thread and a zillion yarnovers!

The yarn is actually a nice cotton - Mandarin Petit - with nice stitch definition and a soft feel. I just wished I liked knitting with cotton more...it feels so "dead" in my hands compared to wools. Maybe that's all in my head because I know it will stretch out and hang there... In any case, it's soft and a nice change of pace knit.

And yes, the weather is frightful! Snow, snow and more snow. It took this winter forever to get started but, now that it has, it won't leave! It's supposed to get windy later and be very stormy indeed. For now, it's just a strong, steady snowfall...beautiful, but I'm done with it just the same.

I finished the Three Cornered Shawl! I will block it later today and have photos up soon. I think I love it.

One done...two to go

I finished the Shoulder Shawl from VLT for Sharon and she loves it. I don't know what it is, but I have a complete brain lapse when it comes to adding the knitted on border. It's like I have never knit before in my life...I get all thumbs and can't imagine how to do it. So, once again, I picked up a bizillion stitches and did the peaked edge from the Swallowtail pattern.

It didn't block as well as I would have liked, but the yarn is drop dead gorgeous and I used less than one full skein! It's the gorgeous "Thistle" colorway from Handpainted Yarns and what a bargain that ended up being, since I expanded it to a full 281 stitches! For $5.95! It blocked out at 60" wide and 24" from top edge to center point. I wish I had pulled it a bit further down...making it longer and the lace edging more expanded, but that's what it is for now.

Now I'm plugging away on finishing the Three-Cornered Shawl, but I'm still loving this lace phase!

Project Harlot

There's the "Yarn Harlot" and then there's me... the "Project Harlot". The Victorian Lace Today book has me by the teeth and I currently have three different WIP.

First I started the Maltese Shawl...it's not blocked or anything but I just needed to get a photo of it. It's a slow go since each row is worked in pattern with no "rest row" so, as a reprieve from that when I'm feeling tired, I started.....




...the amazing Three Cornered Shawl. This little number begins with 684 stitches! I've actually started it twice, had a major error the first time and redid it. It was a heartbreaker since I had followed the directions and done an unreal e-loop cast on, making the first row one from hell. Never again. In fact, when I started over I did a typical cable cast on and it seems plenty loose enough. I have just reached the end of the first chart repeat.



I would probably be a lot further on both if I hadn't started the Shoulder Shawl.

This is the second one of these I've done and I thought it would be a quickie but...

I choose to use the incredible soft (and fine!) Handpainted Yarn lace weight so my gauge is completely off and I need to make it much larger than the pattern calls for.

In fact all of the above are in the same yarn...it is so soft, it's like silk and I love the weight. I will see what I really think when I have it all washed and blocked, but if it's anything like their heavier weight yarn, it will only get nicer.

Another Swallowtail finished

From this...









To this....









...another Swallowtail Scarf for mom's birthday. Made from Misti Alpaca in a glorious and succulent red for an 85 year old hot shot!


I failed to get a picture of the beautiful Shoulder Shawl from VLT that I made for Becky's going away gift. I did it with lovely yarn from Ebay's JoJo Land and it came out stunning!

Now I just need to finish the Maltese I am working on as well as the Three Cornered Shawl which I just love! Is there anything in this book I don't want to knit???? No!

Shawl Magic

First, it gets wet. I soaked for a good twenty minutes, shooting for the full immersion technique since this was my first attempt at blocking lace and I wanted it to be as pliable as possible!


















It's very hard to believe this pile of wet wool is going to turn into anything, never mind something beautiful and elegant!











Rolled in a towel and ready to begin the blocking process!





It's magic watching the transformation take place. It's also amazing how one slight adjustment and you have to move 1000 pins as a result! Around and around the bed I go....















Blurry shot but it's finally all pinned out and ready to dry. I am in awe of what I have done!






And yes, it DOES turn into something beautiful and elegant! Who knew?????

Some of the Christmas knitting....

The incredible Harrisville "Orchid Line" sweater I made for Kristin for Christmas. Wonderful yarn...a joy to work with and I loved how it turned out!










Chelsea's luscious mittens done in Kid Seta and Cool Wool. They feel like you are placing your hand into velvet. She loves them!






She also loves her cabled hat which was my own design. I loved the way the cables spiraled out of the top and wanted to work that design into a hat. Turns out it was exactly what my DD wanted, complete with braids!

What's keeping me busy right now......

The little Cables with Heart sweater for Sarah. The pattern is from the Arans & Celtics book. (I only list Amazon as the link as a means of giving you the info but would love to suggest you purchase it from your LYS instead.) The book is chock full of patterns I love and have every intention of making once the holiday knitting is done.

I'm doing this in Dale of Norway Freestyle - not a yarn I am enjoying much. I don't like superwash wools...don't like the sheen or slickness it gives the fibers, but how can you create a sweater for a three-year-old that isn't washable?

The whole thing is taking far longer than I dreamed it would....I mean, it's not that big!!



But here is a close up (sort of) of the miles and miles of seed stitch in this little sweater. It's a good thing I love the way it looks so much or this particular stitch would be eliminated from my repertoire!










The little sleeves. It's almost done! Good thing with Christmas only a few short weeks away! Not to mention, I'm sick to death of this color, this yarn and this seed stitch!!



On another note, here are the two Maple Leaves scarves from Jackie E-S. I love them! I do so love her designs and her patterns are so beautifully and clearly written, anyone could make them. I'm doing these in the Elann Baby Cashmere and they will grace someone this Christmas, but I'm not sure who just yet. Despite how stupid they look, they really are lucious and once blocked, will be gorgeous and yummy! I work on these when I can't take another moment of the sweater above. I'm trying to stick to one project, but it's really hard!

Just to strengthen my resolve (and get back to knitting!), I won't show the other WIPs right now. Shhh...we'll pretend these are the only two things I've got going.

Another finished sweater

This is another sweater I knit when I wasn't blogging. This one was for my sister, done from a pattern for "Aran Cardigan" in an old (1997) issue of Cast On. I used some Pinquoin I had in my stash and loved it. So soft and the pattern took only a little tinkering to look exactly the way I wanted it to.

Here's a close up of the back, where you can see the alternating seed stich and ribbing done inside the cable areas. It was another pattern that was a joy to do...plenty to keep my interest alive!
I made it a bit longer than called for....my sister would not have liked it nearly as short as the pattern wanted. I wish the color were better. It really is a lovely pale blue.

Lochinver

The gorgeous sweater for Maureen from Alice Starmore's Fisherman Sweaters. The pattern is the Lochinver made with some of the old Heirloom wool. It was a joy to make...her patterns are so good....and it looks unbelievably beautiful, even on this old chair!

It's been a long time.....

....a really long time, since I updated this blog. That's what happens with new computer, new camera and more time spent knitting than blogging! I hope to get "current" in the next few weeks, but one never knows....Christmas knitting is taking over!

I'm back...

This sock knitter has been knitting sweaters for the last six months and thus, have ignored this blog completely. With Santa having sat on my computer, I'm trying to refind everything and stumbled upon this blog, so sorely out of date.

It was a scurry, but I managed to make three adult aran sweaters for Christmas gifts, along with a skating jacket for little Sarah, 3 lace smokerings, a baby fisherman knit for Johnathan, two pairs of mittens and a pair of socks! Good thing I hit the sale at Webs last spring! The buttons alone for the sweaters was a small fortune. But they were all gratefully and lovingly appreciated. Too bad I didn't get photos before the 'puter crash......

Currently working on another aran (for me!), a mobius scarf, another smokering and just jointed an aran KAL with Janet Szabo...follow the leader. Should be fun.

I'll try to get this ancient old beast to download photos but that may have to wait for the new computer...which will have to wait until some Xmas bills get paid off!

Arrggghhhh......

....I'm running out of yarn on the Honeymoon Cami. Worse still, my LYS has none and are in flux with ordering since Susan is out with back problems, so I had to order more online. After searching around forever, I found the right colorway and at a reasonable price, but the shipping! Grrr...I could have gotten two more skeins for what I paid. Grrr....

After a glorious few days of 60+, we are back into the cold. Nothing like a month ago, but it hardly feels like spring either. Just I can't be happy today....

Progress

The cami is moving along nicely....having Sharon and Denise over yesterday for hours of knitting and chatting sure helped! I wish my monitor showed the colors better...it's much richer in purples than it looks. And I'm not finding the yarn so tricksy...when it splits, it IS a pain but, for the most part it's pretty easy to keep it together.

Honeymoon Cami

I have decided (after several attempts) to make this cami for Amy. I'm not sure how much of a challenge it will be to have her 1000 miles away and thus not able to try it on as I go, but I'm willing to give it a shot. The different patterns I tried using the Mission Falls cotton just didn't work, I'll be making this in Berocco Cotton Twist which I recently got off Ebay. It's a great colorway - blues and purples - called "Tiedye" and I like the sheen. Now if only I can get gauge, I'll be off and running.

I joined a KAL for this pattern and can't wait to get started!

Chelsea's "Senior Socks"

Rather than do a sports theme for the "Go Team" pattern (the newest 6sox), I decided to honor my daughter (a senior next year) with socks using her school colors, logo and date. Nice to know I nearly have one Christmas gift done!

Maxi Ringels

Finished! I never dreamed I do an entire pair of socks in ribbing, but I love the way these turned out and, even more, the way they fit! I needed something brainless after the Opal sweater.

Questions and answers

I'm going to attempt to answer all the questions about the Opal sweater in one shot.

First of all, the pattern is listed at the end of the original entry...the incredible custom fit raglan....it's a fabulous pattern with plug-in-the-number blanks for all kinds of sizes. It can be found here.

And the stashbuster spirals pattern - one of the Six Sock KALs can be found here.

I used just one skein of Opal yarn, with some Phildar Preface (blue), Special Blauband (white) and some Regia (yellow) added. All but the Opal were incomplete skeins left over from other things. I used all but about 6-7 feet of the Opal!

To use the stashbusters technique, what I did was to pull off the skein four separate sections of one complete pattern repeat. In my case, it was easy as it went from red to red. Each section was probably 10-12 feet (but that's a guess...it was enough to wind up but not nearly enough to really wind on the ball winder.) I figured out how to divide this up around the total sweater....(220 sts divided by 4 = 55 sts a section) and knew that the last round was the longest (ie, double the quadrant or 110 sts in total). So in the middle of the front, I added a piece of Opal, starting with the red section of the pattern. I knit for 55 sts (or to the shoulder) and added another piece, dropping the first yarn and kept knitting. Midway across the back (or 55 sts later) I added another section of yarn and knit with it to the other shoulder. Here I added my last piece of yarn and since I needed to knit with this piece all the way around to where I had dropped the first one, it took me all the way across the front to the other shoulder. The "job" was barely noticeable once I got it going and I was able to make rounds of one color (in this case the red) 3-4 times before the pattern changed. Doing it this way, I have fewer ends to weave in (which I wish I could say about the top of the sweater!) and I think I was able to use the yarn much more effectively. Not only are the color rounds bigger, but only in a few cases did the yarn not match up like it should. When I ran out of the pattern repeat, I simply added a solid and knit a few rows with that before starting the process over.

I don't know if I've described this well, but that's how I did it!

Opal sweater

I am so thrilled with the way this is turning out! There is no doubt the technique from the stashbuster's spiral has changed the way I work this...wish I'd known it sooner! Just a few rows of ribbing at the bottom and around the neck and this puppy is done! I love the pattern....the incredible, customfit raglan sweater -definitely a keeper!

Deb's LL "Tuscanny"

I finally finished these for Debbie. I do love the Broadripple pattern for these LL colorways. I just wish the timing were better...spring is really making itself felt, but hey...winter will come again.!

Catching up

I've been so busy knitting, I have failed to stay current on this blog 'o mine. Let's see...what have I done since I last wrote?

Well, the Frolicking Shamrocks are done and all delivered in time for St. Patrick's Day....all three pair! They were fun to do, but the solid color, straight knitting about drove me nuts! Boring with a capital B. I can't see beading all that often, but it's nice to have done it just the same.

I finished the cashmere smoke ring and managed to knock off a pair of warm woolie Bartletts for my dear sis and bro-in-law which I gave them when they came with the oodles of stuff from my aunt's estate.

My gift cert to the LYS was burning a hole in my pocket, so I grabbed some Maxi-Ringel in blues and green that I just love. So much so, I'm doing a k2, p2 for the whole sock! Talk about boring, but at least the colors keep it interesting. And I finally found a colorway and pattern for Debbie...Broadripples in LL Tuscanny.

Speaking of LL, I can't believe what my gorgeous socks look like after just three washings. The whole cuff and leg is all pilled and fuzzy looking...not felted, just looking frayed and crappy. I loved them so much and now they look like junk. I am so disappointed...not to mention embarrassed when I think of all the ones I have given as gifts. What a pleasant thing....handmade socks that look like crap after wearing them a few times. I can't imagine why this is happening. Gauge? Pattern? Yarn? The foot is fine...nice and tight and not a bit of pilling or fuzziness, but the leg looks like I've had them for 20 years. So much for the high price on that stuff! Unfortunately, I still love it. I love the colors, the way it works up and feels. But I won't be making anymore until I figure how to avoid this disappointing final product.