The green and purple baby blankets went out in the mail today. Such a nice feeling to complete a project!
Now the main yarn-based project is the variegated red shawl, which is progressing nicely. The more I get done, the more I like it, although all that openwork is going to take some blocking. Crotchet projects are so quick and satisfying, I like to do one now and then. At the end of the day, though, I like the knitted product better, so I always go back.
The big push this week is a shirt for Peter to wear at Blacksmith Days this weekend. He has been learning blacksmithing, and he joined a local group. This weekend they are putting on their big, annual festival with people coming from all over. They all try to dress up in mid to late 1800's style, so Peter wanted an appropriate shirt. I found a piece of fairly coarse weave linen in my stash, he says it's just what he wants, and I have an old Burda pattern that's a bit old-timey looking. With a few changes I think it'll look pretty good. The most time consuming part is that I don't want any machine stitching to show on the outside, so I've been spending my evenings doing the topstitching on the front placket, back yoke, and soon the cuffs by hand. I don't mind it, I actually love the rhythm of hand sewing. It's very soothing, much like a good knitting session. I hope I have it done by Saturday!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
hot wool
Last weekend was the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. Two days of petting wool. In 90 degree heat and blazing sun. You have to be pretty crazy about wool to do that, and apparently lots of people are. We made the mistake of not going early, and we spent an hour and a half in the line to get into the parking lot. There were a lot of people there.
I went with my sister-in-law Nel. She spent the night with us, which was fun. Her husband and sons go to a church "men's retreat" that weekend every year, so we have our own retreat to the Festival. On Saturday, my mom came with us, but the sudden heat was hard on her, so she stayed home Sunday. (The week before, we had frost two nights, so this was a sudden hot spell.) On Sunday, Peter came with us. He actually wanted to. How great is that?
In addition to eating some really good lamb for lunch (grilled kabobs Saturday, BBQ pulled lamb Sunday), I got some great yarn. The prices seemed a little better this year, probably in deference to the stinky economy. For those of you who are also really into yarn, I am now going to review the purchases. Non-yarn-geeks, feel free to link to somewhere else now.
The first purchase was at our favorite loopy yarn booth, which happens to be right inside the entrance to the grounds. We have bought from them every year, and they have the best loopy yarn I've ever seen. It's the softest, and the colors are great. This year Nel and I split a big hank of a yellow/red variegated yarn with little bits of pink in it. I wasn't sure at all about the pink, but I worked up a little bit yesterday, and by golly, it works. This will make a fantastic winter scarf to go with the red wool coat I'll be making later this summer.
The thing I went in search of was some yarn for a crotchet shawl. I'm sewing a summer dress which has a multi-tiered gathered skirt, in a dark charcoal washed silk. The style always makes me think Mexican, but summer dresses always make me think over-air-conditioned indoor spaces, so I decided I needed a shawl to go with it. Thinking Mexican, I thought a red to go with the almost-black would be cool. I had almost despaired, when finally I found it -- a variegated red superwash fingering weight merino with colors ranging from dark brick red to a bright reddish orange. Just enough brightness to make it pop. I love it. The pattern I had at home, it's a very open crotchet shawl, triangular, a big late '70's style, with sort of deep fringe around the edge.
After thinking overnight about the idea of a shawl with serious wool fringe in the summer, I thought maybe something else for the fringe. One of the stands had some interesting rayon ribbon yarn, so on Sunday I went back there and got the closest red I could find. I wasn't sure it was right, so I made sure I could order more if I wanted, and I only bought one skein. Turns out it isn't really a good shade, so I'll do something else with it. What I have in mind is another idea I got at the Festival. At one of the booths, I saw a knitted shawl, rectangular, that was mostly a variegated wool in a leafy pattern, then both ends of the shawl were borders about 8" wide knitted in a ribbon yarn that exactly matched the wool. It looked fantastic. The ribbon borders gave it a very interesting visual texture. I might try that with my red.
So once I decided I was not going to find my shawl fringe at the Festival, it was on to impulse buying. Woo hoo! Not much money left by then, but enough to get the real prize of the weekend. It's about a 4 oz. skein of variegated blue worsted weight llama with little silver strands in it. Just enough sparkle to catch the eye, and so soft, it's unbelievable. Everyone at my knitting group this week had trouble letting go of it. The blue is a warm tone, not a cool blue, ranging from a midnight blue shade to a late evening summer sky. I can't wait to work it up. I'm thinking sweater, and while it's not enough for a whole sweater, I think if I make a top-down yoke sweater, like the EZ sweater knit in reverse, I can make the yoke in this stuff until it runs out and the rest in a matching wool. I think it'll work, if I can match the color.
The final purchase was a skein Peter fell in love with. It's a 3 or 4 ply heavy worsted wool, with each ply being a different shade of beige or brown. I think it will work up into one of those nice heathery sweaters. Again, only a single skein, but this is from a farm that's only about an hour's drive away, and they have store hours on Saturdays at the farm. So I thought I'd get one, play with it until I find a pattern and gauge I like, then figure out how much a whole sweater will take and go get more. The farm had a whole big booth, and all their yarns were very pretty and exceptionally soft. I am looking forward to visiting their farm store.
It was a great weekend. Should keep me knitting until next year.
I went with my sister-in-law Nel. She spent the night with us, which was fun. Her husband and sons go to a church "men's retreat" that weekend every year, so we have our own retreat to the Festival. On Saturday, my mom came with us, but the sudden heat was hard on her, so she stayed home Sunday. (The week before, we had frost two nights, so this was a sudden hot spell.) On Sunday, Peter came with us. He actually wanted to. How great is that?
In addition to eating some really good lamb for lunch (grilled kabobs Saturday, BBQ pulled lamb Sunday), I got some great yarn. The prices seemed a little better this year, probably in deference to the stinky economy. For those of you who are also really into yarn, I am now going to review the purchases. Non-yarn-geeks, feel free to link to somewhere else now.
The first purchase was at our favorite loopy yarn booth, which happens to be right inside the entrance to the grounds. We have bought from them every year, and they have the best loopy yarn I've ever seen. It's the softest, and the colors are great. This year Nel and I split a big hank of a yellow/red variegated yarn with little bits of pink in it. I wasn't sure at all about the pink, but I worked up a little bit yesterday, and by golly, it works. This will make a fantastic winter scarf to go with the red wool coat I'll be making later this summer.
The thing I went in search of was some yarn for a crotchet shawl. I'm sewing a summer dress which has a multi-tiered gathered skirt, in a dark charcoal washed silk. The style always makes me think Mexican, but summer dresses always make me think over-air-conditioned indoor spaces, so I decided I needed a shawl to go with it. Thinking Mexican, I thought a red to go with the almost-black would be cool. I had almost despaired, when finally I found it -- a variegated red superwash fingering weight merino with colors ranging from dark brick red to a bright reddish orange. Just enough brightness to make it pop. I love it. The pattern I had at home, it's a very open crotchet shawl, triangular, a big late '70's style, with sort of deep fringe around the edge.
After thinking overnight about the idea of a shawl with serious wool fringe in the summer, I thought maybe something else for the fringe. One of the stands had some interesting rayon ribbon yarn, so on Sunday I went back there and got the closest red I could find. I wasn't sure it was right, so I made sure I could order more if I wanted, and I only bought one skein. Turns out it isn't really a good shade, so I'll do something else with it. What I have in mind is another idea I got at the Festival. At one of the booths, I saw a knitted shawl, rectangular, that was mostly a variegated wool in a leafy pattern, then both ends of the shawl were borders about 8" wide knitted in a ribbon yarn that exactly matched the wool. It looked fantastic. The ribbon borders gave it a very interesting visual texture. I might try that with my red.
So once I decided I was not going to find my shawl fringe at the Festival, it was on to impulse buying. Woo hoo! Not much money left by then, but enough to get the real prize of the weekend. It's about a 4 oz. skein of variegated blue worsted weight llama with little silver strands in it. Just enough sparkle to catch the eye, and so soft, it's unbelievable. Everyone at my knitting group this week had trouble letting go of it. The blue is a warm tone, not a cool blue, ranging from a midnight blue shade to a late evening summer sky. I can't wait to work it up. I'm thinking sweater, and while it's not enough for a whole sweater, I think if I make a top-down yoke sweater, like the EZ sweater knit in reverse, I can make the yoke in this stuff until it runs out and the rest in a matching wool. I think it'll work, if I can match the color.
The final purchase was a skein Peter fell in love with. It's a 3 or 4 ply heavy worsted wool, with each ply being a different shade of beige or brown. I think it will work up into one of those nice heathery sweaters. Again, only a single skein, but this is from a farm that's only about an hour's drive away, and they have store hours on Saturdays at the farm. So I thought I'd get one, play with it until I find a pattern and gauge I like, then figure out how much a whole sweater will take and go get more. The farm had a whole big booth, and all their yarns were very pretty and exceptionally soft. I am looking forward to visiting their farm store.
It was a great weekend. Should keep me knitting until next year.
Thursday, April 15, 2010
the prodigal blogger
My goodness, has it really been that long since I posted? Ack!
The Bell/Lambert knitting week back in March was a huge success from my point of view. Much knitting, much chatting, how great it was to see Kate again. Now she has a new home, and I am hoping to reciprocate the visit in the fall, if finances allow.
On the knitting front, I have three projects going.
One is the traveling project, a pair of sox in a grey and blue self-striping yarn. Knitted top down (unusual for me) because I wanted to try an edging at the top. Now I'm ready to turn the heels. Tried to do the first one at knitting group yesterday, but we had so much fun talking and laughing that I totally mangled it. Time to frog and try again in the quiet of my own home.
The second is the pie are square shawl in brown-toned Moonlight Mohair. STILL binding it off, using a picot edging and putting a bead in each picot. I figured in my head how many stitches the bottom edge should have and threaded the appropriate number of beads onto the yarn, but now I realize I only calculated the stitches in the circular part. I forgot about the triangular front parts. I am running out of beads on the yarn, and I have a lot of shawl left to bind off! I have more beads, but it means I either have to undo the rest of the skein and thread them on from the other end, or I have to break the thread and figure out later how to work in the ends so that they don't come loose and hang down at the edge of the shawl. Bleh. On top of that, as more and more of it comes off the needles I am able to try it on a little, and I'm not sure the proportions have turned out so well. However, the other EZ patterns have worked well for me, so I'm willing to suspend disbelief until it's all off the needles. If I don't like it in the end, it's going to be very sad, because I imagine that frogging 16 skeins of mohair blend yarn is going to be HARD!
The third project, and the one that comforts me right now, is the second baby blanket of the twin set. The purple one turned out very well, now I'm doing a green one to match. So I know the pattern by heart, I know it's going to turn out well, I can just sit and knit and be happy with this one. Thank goodness.
Okay, lunchtime is over, so it's back to work for me. Thank you, faithful readers!
The Bell/Lambert knitting week back in March was a huge success from my point of view. Much knitting, much chatting, how great it was to see Kate again. Now she has a new home, and I am hoping to reciprocate the visit in the fall, if finances allow.
On the knitting front, I have three projects going.
One is the traveling project, a pair of sox in a grey and blue self-striping yarn. Knitted top down (unusual for me) because I wanted to try an edging at the top. Now I'm ready to turn the heels. Tried to do the first one at knitting group yesterday, but we had so much fun talking and laughing that I totally mangled it. Time to frog and try again in the quiet of my own home.
The second is the pie are square shawl in brown-toned Moonlight Mohair. STILL binding it off, using a picot edging and putting a bead in each picot. I figured in my head how many stitches the bottom edge should have and threaded the appropriate number of beads onto the yarn, but now I realize I only calculated the stitches in the circular part. I forgot about the triangular front parts. I am running out of beads on the yarn, and I have a lot of shawl left to bind off! I have more beads, but it means I either have to undo the rest of the skein and thread them on from the other end, or I have to break the thread and figure out later how to work in the ends so that they don't come loose and hang down at the edge of the shawl. Bleh. On top of that, as more and more of it comes off the needles I am able to try it on a little, and I'm not sure the proportions have turned out so well. However, the other EZ patterns have worked well for me, so I'm willing to suspend disbelief until it's all off the needles. If I don't like it in the end, it's going to be very sad, because I imagine that frogging 16 skeins of mohair blend yarn is going to be HARD!
The third project, and the one that comforts me right now, is the second baby blanket of the twin set. The purple one turned out very well, now I'm doing a green one to match. So I know the pattern by heart, I know it's going to turn out well, I can just sit and knit and be happy with this one. Thank goodness.
Okay, lunchtime is over, so it's back to work for me. Thank you, faithful readers!
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Preparations
The purple afghan is coming along well, as are plans for the Lambert-Bell Knitting Week. Okay, I admit it, I spent my lunch hour yesterday printing out store hours and maps for the yarn shops in the area. I can now guarantee that we will be able to pet lots of yarn next week, if we wish. A couple of the shops require an hour or a little more each way in the car, but one of them I've been to and the other I've heard my knitting group drool over, so I'm sure both of those are worth the trip.
Hmm, now I just have to clean up the guest room. Well, the important stuff is done, so I'll get to that before Sunday.
Hmm, now I just have to clean up the guest room. Well, the important stuff is done, so I'll get to that before Sunday.
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Rip it
Started the purple baby afghan last night. I needed a change from green. Cast on 171 stitches, knitted 8 rows of seed stitch, only to discover that I had only cast on 169 stitches. Don't you hate that? Given the pattern on this one, there's nothing to do but start over. Dang.
I'm also not entirely happy with the feel of this yarn. Feels more synthetic than I would like as I work with it. I'll keep knitting the afghan, but I will also be on the watch for something nicer as the Lambert/Bell Knitting Week moves through the local yarn shops.
The first requirement of all baby stuff is that it be machine washable and dryable, and the second is that I have to be able to afford it. I did once spend too much money on 4 balls of baby alpaca in a baby weight. It feels heavenly in the fingers, but you can bet it isn't getting anywhere near baby drool or any of that other organic stuff babies are so good at. And I'm not knitting something this expensive just for some little guy to outgrow it in a couple of months. So, the yarn I have may be as good as it gets.
If I do switch to another yarn for the gifts, I can always give these afghans to Project Linus. It isn't bad, just not entirely perfect.
I also managed to tear myself away from the ice skating last night and get to bed on time, so it's only a couple of hours' work to be frogged. Next time I'll count more carefully.
I'm also not entirely happy with the feel of this yarn. Feels more synthetic than I would like as I work with it. I'll keep knitting the afghan, but I will also be on the watch for something nicer as the Lambert/Bell Knitting Week moves through the local yarn shops.
The first requirement of all baby stuff is that it be machine washable and dryable, and the second is that I have to be able to afford it. I did once spend too much money on 4 balls of baby alpaca in a baby weight. It feels heavenly in the fingers, but you can bet it isn't getting anywhere near baby drool or any of that other organic stuff babies are so good at. And I'm not knitting something this expensive just for some little guy to outgrow it in a couple of months. So, the yarn I have may be as good as it gets.
If I do switch to another yarn for the gifts, I can always give these afghans to Project Linus. It isn't bad, just not entirely perfect.
I also managed to tear myself away from the ice skating last night and get to bed on time, so it's only a couple of hours' work to be frogged. Next time I'll count more carefully.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
After getting some news from Kate, I realized that some of the old Lake Forest friends are going to need baby afghans this summer. Yay! I was looking for an excuse! (Oh, did you guess that?) Even better, that meant a yarn shopping trip was required. (You guessed that, too? You must be a knitter!) I have a lovely stash of sock yarn and worsted, but not much in between. Although you can make baby afghans out of worsted, I prefer sport or baby weight, especially for summer babies who aren't going to need a heavy blanket right away.
However, I got so excited that I started one afghan right away from some worsted my mom had in her stash. A washable synthetic that has a good, soft feel. The pattern I used was my favorite shell stitch crotchet pattern which I learned from my grandma as a kid. It's fun to make, and that's really the one I had a hankering to do even before Kate gave me the news. I had two colors of yarn, white and that light, minty green they use for baby stuff a lot. Finding out the sex of your baby in advance seems to be "out" at Lake Forest this year, so I'm sticking to the gender-neutral colors. Anyway, I alternated a row of white shells with a row of green shells, and that ends up looking like a checkerboard. I like it! It was a pain to have to deal with the yarn ends at both ends of every single row, but about a third of the way through the afghan I worked out how to work them in as I went along, so all I had to do was cut off the long tails afterwards. That much finishing I could deal with.
I'm not going to post a picture just in case one of the recipients happens to unearth this blog. Highly unlikely, I know, but stranger things have happened!
Tonight it's on to afghan #2. 2 and 3 are for a pair of twins. A trip to Michael's turned up some decent washable synthetic sport weight baby yarn in lilac and leaf green, on sale (bonus!). Now that I've gotten the crotchet shells out of my system, these will turn into two knitted afghans using the same pattern in different colors. The pattern has these arrow-head shaped lacy bits running up the afghan in rows. It looks very pretty in the picture.
Afghan #1 was helped out by the fact that I've been staying up far past my bedtime to watch the Olympics. I have to stop that. I think I'm addicted to the ice skating.
However, I got so excited that I started one afghan right away from some worsted my mom had in her stash. A washable synthetic that has a good, soft feel. The pattern I used was my favorite shell stitch crotchet pattern which I learned from my grandma as a kid. It's fun to make, and that's really the one I had a hankering to do even before Kate gave me the news. I had two colors of yarn, white and that light, minty green they use for baby stuff a lot. Finding out the sex of your baby in advance seems to be "out" at Lake Forest this year, so I'm sticking to the gender-neutral colors. Anyway, I alternated a row of white shells with a row of green shells, and that ends up looking like a checkerboard. I like it! It was a pain to have to deal with the yarn ends at both ends of every single row, but about a third of the way through the afghan I worked out how to work them in as I went along, so all I had to do was cut off the long tails afterwards. That much finishing I could deal with.
I'm not going to post a picture just in case one of the recipients happens to unearth this blog. Highly unlikely, I know, but stranger things have happened!
Tonight it's on to afghan #2. 2 and 3 are for a pair of twins. A trip to Michael's turned up some decent washable synthetic sport weight baby yarn in lilac and leaf green, on sale (bonus!). Now that I've gotten the crotchet shells out of my system, these will turn into two knitted afghans using the same pattern in different colors. The pattern has these arrow-head shaped lacy bits running up the afghan in rows. It looks very pretty in the picture.
Afghan #1 was helped out by the fact that I've been staying up far past my bedtime to watch the Olympics. I have to stop that. I think I'm addicted to the ice skating.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Snowpocalypse and Sweaters
Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but the term "snowpocalypse" has taken on meaning around here. On Friday, Feb. 5, we were all sent home from work at lunchtime. The school that says on its web page " it is the intention of the College to remain open during inclement weather conditions" and "In rare circumstances, the College might be declared closed" closed for an entire week. They are now saying we got 2 blizzards in one week. Local reports say we got 25-30 inches each time, but official reports (and my backyard fence) indicate a total snowfall more like 36-40 inches. Here are a couple of photos Peter took. The first one is looking out our front window at the car in the driveway. Look carefully! After we had shoveled out the car, the snow piled beside the driveway went up to about 6" below the lamp on the lamppost. That's taller than I am.
This one is my mom's car in the driveway in back of the house. It has been snowed in for almost 2 weeks now. The fence behind the car is a four foot chain link fence.
This morning I finished digging a path across the front yard to the oil tank fill pipe so we can get a refill and not run out of heating oil.
On the bright side, an unexpected week off of work left me lots of time for knitting and quilting. I finished the quilt I started for Peter for Christmas, and I finished my EPS sweater. No photos of the quilt, but here's the sweater:
The pattern really worked! I'm so happy! The sleeves are 3/4 length on purpose. The yarn is a cotton-acrylic blend, so I decided to make a spring/fall top instead of a winter sweater. The only change I will make for the next one (oh, yeah, there are going to be more of these), is to make the yoke depth a little less. Since I am short and no longer as petite as I once was, I think EZ's proportions need a little adjusting. But that's an easy change on this pattern. As you can see, this one looks just fine, it just has the really deep armholes typical of sweaters, whereas what I want to make is more of a top.
How exciting to have a big knitting success!
This one is my mom's car in the driveway in back of the house. It has been snowed in for almost 2 weeks now. The fence behind the car is a four foot chain link fence.
This morning I finished digging a path across the front yard to the oil tank fill pipe so we can get a refill and not run out of heating oil.
On the bright side, an unexpected week off of work left me lots of time for knitting and quilting. I finished the quilt I started for Peter for Christmas, and I finished my EPS sweater. No photos of the quilt, but here's the sweater:
The pattern really worked! I'm so happy! The sleeves are 3/4 length on purpose. The yarn is a cotton-acrylic blend, so I decided to make a spring/fall top instead of a winter sweater. The only change I will make for the next one (oh, yeah, there are going to be more of these), is to make the yoke depth a little less. Since I am short and no longer as petite as I once was, I think EZ's proportions need a little adjusting. But that's an easy change on this pattern. As you can see, this one looks just fine, it just has the really deep armholes typical of sweaters, whereas what I want to make is more of a top.
How exciting to have a big knitting success!
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