Knitting In Public

Today is World Wide Knitting In Public Day!

I’m not quite sure, but I think this used to be a single day (hence the name), but has now become a two-day, weekend thing. In addition, this year there are two, two-day weekends that are “Knit In Public” days! Apparently it has been the 2nd weekend of June, but that now presents some kind of conflict, so they will be moving it to the 3rd weekend of June - and in this transition year, they will have Knit In Public Day(s) on both weekends.

The end result is…get out there and knit! Show off your projects and encourage others to join in your madness craft!

I’ve been having a severe case of startitis lately. I can’t even say it is the result of needing different “kinds” of knitting (brainless, charted, lace, etc.) but rather that I have found a bunch of patterns and reasons I want to knit them. Lots of baby stuff (for the rash of recent births), mittens because they are small and portable and good for charity knitting for CRYP, afghan squares (and the resultant Baby Moderne afghan) as they are also portable and good for charity (see the MKG blog for info on the year-long afghan project), and lace to satisfy my desire to make something “pretty.”

Pictures? you ask. Ummm. Not yet. Too busy knitting and working. Also, DD & hubby are here from California and we are trying to spend extra time with them. Pictures will be posted “soon.” (If I can convince DD to share the photos from our “tea” with Jenny, I’ll have some other fun photos to post as well. If you know her, put some pressure on to share the photos!)

In the meantime, I’ll be Knitting In Public this weekend and next weekend!

I’ve been busy making no progress. Well, almost none.

I’m out of the competition for Sock Madness 3 (again). Didn’t make it through Round 2. The pattern, “Tokena” by Tricia Weatherston, is a great-looking pattern. It’s two-color stranded/fair-isle knitting, and the pattern is well-written and fairly easy to follow.

I started out with some Lorna’s Laces (red and rainbow), but that wasn’t enough contrast (I bought the yarn for a different pair of socks). So I switched to black and rainbow, but I didn’t like how the rainbow was coming out (too much of a non-sensical jumble of color) so I switched again and used the leftover yarn from the Tropical Mer-tini socks from round 1. I like the contrast and color combination! I hoped there would be enough of the Gulfstream to finish the pair… I was a little behind because of the false starts, but finished the cuff portion and decided to try it on. It fit, but was pretty snug and I was afraid that wearing it all day would restrict blood flow. :(  Having had times when I rip something and re-knit, only to decide that the first try was better, I left the tight one on the needles, and started a second sock with a larger needle. This was much stretchier than the first, and I was confident that I could pour on the steam and squeak in before the end of the round. I knit the 2nd cuff and tried it on - too loose!

I had only gone up one size in needles, so I figured I either had to consciously change my tension (which usually doesn’t work very well), or use another yarn. By then, there was almost enough finishers, and I figured I’d never manage to start again and still complete a full pair before the end of the round. I love this pattern, but it sure kicked my behind!

Now that I’m out of the running, I can still knit the other patterns and be eligible for prizes (although that’s not important to me - my stash is so large right now, I’d prefer that I don’t win any more yarn). The third round whizzed by, but I’m hopeful to knit a pair for the 4th round pattern. I’ll be ripping these and re-using this yarn, and give it a try for “Lucky Diamonds.”

Now that I’m no longer competing in the Sock Madness, I thought I’d work on some baby things, since we had a couple of upcoming baby showers/births to celebrate. I’m really becoming enamored of non-traditional colors for babies. So I went shopping (I know, I have lots of stash, but it never seems there’s an appropriate weight/fiber content/colorway for what I want to make) and bought some Dream In Color Classy in the Ruby River colorway. I decided that I would at last make a February Sweater on Two-Needles (Elizabeth Zimmermann, you can find it in Knitter’s Almanac). It is also a current hot item to knit the February Lady sweater - an adult-sized version of the baby sweater. Some folks have also had problems with good-looking increases in the garter stitch yoke and have modified the pattern to use a stockinette raglan yoke instead. The gal at the LYS said I should need about 200 yards or so, and the Classy supposedly has 250, so I bought the only skein they had of the Ruby River and hoped it would work out.

I had read that the backwards loop cast on worked nearly invisibly on garter stitch (done on the right side). I tried it and it was pretty sloppy, so I ripped it out and tried it again, yanking the yarn fairly tight for the cast on stitch and the following stitch, and it worked pretty well. (Sorry, the color of the photos just doesn’t match the yarn - it’s much more red. No pink at all.) I was pretty proud of the yoke, and happy with how it turned out. The color was unusual but I thought attractive (since I know it will be going to a girl). I found great buttons for it at 3 Kittens. The pattern was kicking my butt, however, as EZ considers everyone a “thinking knitter.” The problem is that I don’t think like EZ! The entire pattern is 2 paragraphs long. She says to repeat the increase row, but fails to mention that you must skip an increase because there’s 1 too many if you knit it exactly as the last increase row. (Perhaps you’re supposed to put on your “thinking cap” and realize that because she gives you the stitch count for the row.) Anyway, I struggled a bit with the pattern, but ultimately figured it out.

I did end up ripping a bit on this because she off-handedly mentions buttonholes after the point at which you should have put some in.

I knit the sleeves and was happy with how it was turning out, proud of myself that I had managed to get through all the rough times and was steaming along, finishing the body when I looked at my remaining yarn. Hmmmm. Looks like it’ll be a squeaker to finish. I had checked Ravelry to be sure that there were folks who made this with one skein of Classy, but this looked closer than I wanted to be. So I pulled out my new (Christmas gift) scale and weighed what was left. Then I knit 2 rows and weighed it again. I computed how many rows I could get by weight and was waaaay short. So I decided that the arms could be reduced by one pattern repeat, and I ripped back and re-knit one sleeve.

My tension must have changed because the 2nd sleeve is waaay too small. I then looked at changing to the stockinette, raglan yoke as you get more distance from stockinette than you do garter, and I hoped that would make enough difference that I could squeeze out the sweater from the yardage I had. I computed the stitches needed and it won’t be enough. So this sweater sits in time out until I decide what to do with the yarn.

I moved on to the Crocus Cardigan which I’ve made before. I wanted to go with an unusual color, and I’ve recently fallen in love with Shibui Knits sock yarn. I found this color, called Honey.

I also found these fabulous buttons to put on the sweater:

I like this yarn because there are subtle variations in the color, but it all blends together with no striping, etc.

I was so disappointed to see this striping! Since the entire bottom portion is exactly the same width (no shaping), I expect that the striping will continue. Not happy with these results, I will likely rip this. I’m thinking this may become a February sweater - with the garter stitch, and the increases for the yoke, etc., that may hide this striping effect.

I have knit a couple of afghan squares for the MKG charity project:

Even this one didn’t turn out quite right, as I was just following the pattern (which is for a full-size afghan) and figured I’d stop when the square was 8″. The last strip (yellow) ended 8 rows short (4 ridges). Next time I make this (and I will - it was easy and fun), I will make the center (red) 4 ridges less so the outside strips will all be uniform.

This is the Darning Pattern square from the MKG blog for May. I managed to knit both these squares last Sunday.

Knitting the Log Cabin pattern was fun, so I decided to try the Moderne Baby Blanket for another donation to the MKG charity project. (They accept full afghans, too - not just the squares.)

This is just the start, but these are the 4 colors I’m using. This is Caron’s Simply Soft Brites (Watermelon, Limelight, Lemonade and Blue Mint). It’s fairly mindless knitting, and just about fool-proof. Lots and lots of garter stitch! I think it will be a bright and fun afghan/blanket when finished.

Apparently all I’m capable of managing is garter stitch right now, but I’ll get back in the saddle soon!

Well, I guess they have the “madness” part correct….!

I signed up for Sock Madness 3 - I’ve been a lousy not very successful participant for both Sock Madness and Sock Madness 2. On the original Sock Madness, they received more applicants than they had space, so the first round was to the top number of participants in each group - and I squeaked into the finishers for that round. The 2nd and subsequent rounds, participants were paired off and competed against each other as opposed to the group. I was paired with the #1 finisher for the entire competition. Need I say more?

For Sock Madness 2, I was going to try knitting with 2 circs instead of my usual 5 wooden dpns in the hopes I could keep up a little better. However, my surgery occurred and the competition started just a few days after I came home from the hospital. Again, I managed to finish the first round, but round 2 was a sock that I could not find a rhythm and had to watch the chart all the time. Need I say more?

This year, they’ve made some changes in how prizes are awarded (random drawings from all finishers, instead of just the #1), and I believe they’ve made some changes so we aren’t competing directly against only one person (I could be wrong — we’ll see!)

The first pattern for SM3 was released on Thursday, March 19. I was amazed to find that the competitors this year are fairly slow and I happened to have been placed in one of the slower-knitting groups! I finally finished my pair with about 15 minutes to go before the cutoff yesterday:

Pattern: Tropical Mer-tini by Ronni Smith

Yarn: KnitPicks Essential, Gulfstream (discontinued colorway), 2 skeins

Needles: 2.25mm circulars

I actually knit about 2.5 socks as I knit most of one then switched, and discovered that the first one was a little tight, so I ripped back to the ribbing and re-knit. I added 2 extra rows of ribbing, and 8 extra pattern rows before the toe shaping. This pattern also called for an afterthought heel - something I’ve never done before. It fits “ok” but is not my favorite, and certainly does not fit as well as my standard heel-flap-and-gusset type sock. I can wear them around the house, but they’ll probably be more comfortable inside a shoe where they can’t slop around.

Round 2 starts tomorrow - I hope I can actually make it to round 3 (it would be a first for me). I’ve been struggling with illness for almost 2 weeks now, so I hope I have the stamina to hang in there.

I did manage to have a few minutes to work on mittens last night, since my socks were finally done. Not enough to post a photo, though…. and no more afghan squares yet. If I ever feel better, I hope to get a little more knitting done! Right now I’m spending most of my “free” time sleeping.

Hope you all stay healthy - and keep on knitting!

This is the sight that greeted me from the deck this morning:

No joke, here - except on those of us that live in Minnesota!

I’ve been distracted from my afghan squares and my mittens by a couple of very cute patterns.

The first is a pair of booties that I heard about on one of my many Yahoo! knitting groups. The pattern is on a blog and I believe the language is Dutch. There was a lot of talk on the knitting group about whether or not a translation is a violation of copyright law…. I admit to being confused about the issue because the pattern is available for free on the internet - I just don’t read Dutch! Anyway, there were a few translation tools suggested and with a better-than-basic knowledge of knitting and how knitting patterns are written, I could figure it out. I did need a little help for the flowers on the ends of the ties (they are crocheted). This pattern caused a storm of emails as everyone thought these were so adorable. Here is my finished pair:

I knit these over a weekend out of stash yarn (I think it’s Lion Brand “Jamie” yarn). My arms still have not recovered from that marathon of knitting!

After I finished these booties, I finally got all the information I needed to replicate a kid’s hat I saw at my Monday knitting group. Sandy had made this hat and it turned out so fabulous that I had to make one for my FGS (future grandbaby stash). I got the pattern name from Sandy, but she didn’t have the ball band from the yarn she used. She did remember that she bought it at Zandy’s, so I stopped over there one day when I was in Burnsville and asked if they knew what yarn was used. They knew exactly what I was referring to, and directed me to the yarn! They had to order the pattern, as they were out of stock. In the meantime, I was finishing the booties, so I had plenty to do - and I decided to look up the pattern on Ravelry to see what others had done. UGLY!!! I couldn’t believe it was the same hat. Once I got the pattern, I thought Sandy must have made alterations, but she insisted she had knit the pattern as written. Once I started knitting, I realized why I had thought she had made changes, and all was well. Here’s the hat I made:

Pattern: Loop d’Loop Hat & Scarf by Chris Bylsma    (I only made the hat.)

Yarn: Nashua Handknits Wooly Stripes (2 skeins)

Needles: Size 8 (5.0 mm)

It took me only 2 days to knit this hat — very fun to watch it all come together! There are a couple of things I wasn’t thrilled about: the pattern tells you to knit until you reach the appropriate measurement, when the work is slightly stretched. What does that mean? How hard are you pulling on it? The other part was that the yarn clearly was the thing that made this so adorable, but the skein is only 88 yards and that’s not long enough to get a complete repeat on the color sequence, so when you add the 2nd skein, you don’t know “what comes next” to be able to continue in the intended sequence. As a result, while this side of the hat is cute, the back side doesn’t look the same, and is primarily blue, green and white. Still “ok” but not as cute as getting all the colors as in the photo.

Inbetween those two projects, I did manage to finish a few more afghan squares:

I got a little lazy on the pictures as I’m uploading these to Ravelry as well, and I’m running out of photo space before I have to start paying for it! I won’t be attending this month’s meeting for the Knitters’ Guild, but I’ll keep knitting (this is a year-long project, after all!) and will turn them all in when I make it to the next meeting. I still have lots of yarn left - and not enough time to knit it all up for afghan squares.

I did finally manage to spend some more time on my Lillyfield mittens (I’m trying to hold off on the Anemoi mittens so I can knit them with Mary). We had a “craft night” at church on Friday and I am now just a few rows from beginning the decreases for the top of the mitten. At last, I can share a photo-in-progress (but this is before Friday night’s knitting). Unfortunately, the magenta does not photograph well. It’s very hard to get the right color, and the yarn itself is multi-colored/shaded and it’s gorgeous in person - the color is very rich - but nearly impossible to capture in a photo. I did upload it to Ravelry on Friday, and have found that the designer has marked my mittens as a “fave”!!!!  

This weekend I’m starting another new mitten (less intense, no chart to follow). Once I get some progress I’ll show it to you. I did end up buying the wrong an unintended color (102 instead of 101), so I’m hoping it will be as cute as the photo on the pattern. I’m also making the child’s small, and the photo shows a woman’s medium. That definitely changes the color sequencing, so we’ll see how it turns out.

There won’t be as much knitting going on this weekend as I’d like….I’ll be mostly working on taxes, taxes and more taxes! Filing all this stuff is getting to be a huge burden (payroll taxes paid weekly, sales tax filed and paid monthly - amidst the year end record-gathering for both business and personal taxes) - it never ends! Thank goodness knitting helps to reduce the stress!

So…how does a weird saying like “Cute As A Button” get started? What’s so cute about buttons?

I have been bitten by the afghan square bug.

The Knitters’ Guild has begun a year-long service project to knit 8″ x 8″ squares for afghans, to be sewn together at the January, 2010 meeting and given to three charities chosen. You can read all about it on the Guild website or on the new Guild Community Service Blog. I wrote about this awhile ago, and that I’ve been involved in the service committee to come up with the idea and (for now) I’m in charge of the blog.

I wanted to be sure the project started with a bang, and that at least *some* squares were collected right away. Hopefully that would inspire others to contribute.

I have been working mostly with just two skeins of yarn, and I’m amazed at the number of squares I’ve produced out of just those two skeins, and I still have some left!

Here are the squares I submitted today. The patterns are all on the Guild blog (in case anyone wants to knit a few and contribute to the project).

This is the 2 x 2 stripes. (You’ll be seeing more of these two yarns.)

This is “Parquet Squares” - and the start of my skein of red and skein of white which is lasting forever.

This was a fun pattern to start and I have some ideas to make several more. One of the squares submitted at the Guild meeting today was two shades of brown and all I could think of was chocolate! (Go check out the community service blog - I know it’s not the same as “in person” but perhaps you’ll see what I mean.)

This is the “Heart Square”  Easy to do, of course, except that the heart is duplicate stitch. I must admit this is my first successful duplicate stitch attempt.

This is Moss Lace Diamonds. Listed as “challenging” but was a pretty easy knit.

Lastly, I tried my hand at shadow knitting for the first time. I also decided that I could get some variety in the squares by using dishcloth patterns - and that is what this is, modified slightly to get the correct size. Speaking of size, I discovered that nearly all my squares were too large, once they were washed! I’ll have to watch that on future squares for the project. In addition, I discovered first-hand the truth of the caution that acrylic yarn doesn’t really block at all - it just goes back to what it was before blocking!

This isn’t the best photo - as I was walking around and glancing over at the drying/”blocking” squares, there were certain angles where this looked like a plain, red and white striped square. The magic, of course, is when it’s viewed at an angle:

The center square becomes white, and there is a solid red heart in the middle! (This picture is also not as intense as some of the angles at which I saw it last night - but I was in a hurry for photos and this was “close enough”.) I’d also like to make a few more of these in different color combos. Since this also grew quite a bit, I would actually make the pattern as listed instead of adding stitches and rows I thought I needed to make it the correct size.

I think all of these squares were finished in just two evenings (each). Not a long time commitment, and I know I’m not the fastest knitter around. I’m sure others could finish these in much less time. I just finished posting the March patterns on the Guild blog, and I’ve already finished knitting the “Horizontal Chain”:

I decided to wait to submit this one, since it is a March pattern. (I didn’t want to confuse anyone!)

Of course, I’ve also finished the “Twining Trees” square that will be for July, I believe.

We’ll see how long this fascination with squares will continue…. I’d like to make some squares specifically for baby afghans, too (one of the charities is Bundles of Love).

Inbetween squares, I’ve been working on the Anemoi mittens (Mary & I are attempting to finish our mittens started over 2 years ago) - I’ve completely started over as I originally used gray and black yarns and was soooo uninspired. I’ve changed to black and aqua, and I’m much happier. I’ve also started work on the Lillyfield mittens, using lace weight yarn, doubled. I bought this yarn for last year’s Sock Madness, but was bumped from competition before I got to the socks requiring the lace weight. So far, I’m happy with the results. I’ll post photos of both once I get a little more done on the hand. Right now, I barely have more than the cuff - not too exciting for blogging!

I’m also slogging away on a few other projects, but the squares and the mittens are definitely getting most of my attention. I’m off now to spend time knitting!

Memories shared with friends and family weave the unique fabric that is our lives. Photos, letters, cards, schoolwork…all of these are little reminders of people and times in our past. Sadly, these mementos are occasionally lost to moving, fires, and sometimes just the ravages of time.

All three of us had personalized Christmas stockings, hand made by our mother. Each was unique and it’s amazing to think we’ve had these for over 50 years.

Last year, Anne discovered that her stocking had become ruined while in storage - mold had attacked her stocking and there was no way to clean or repair it.

By the time I found out about it, it was too late to try to do anything - but this year I was determined to try to replicate her stocking. I used mine as a template for size, then copied the above photo to an approximate equal size, then cut out the letters and figures to use as a pattern to create a new stocking. Of course, the photos were never close-ups for detail, but I hope I came close enough to help recapture the memories of her stocking for many more years to come.

Brrr. Temps have been in the -20 range and I’m beginning to think I need to replace my windows!

We’ve had some fun this week with cold weather experiments:

I blew bubbles one morning… I had heard that they would freeze and then sink (something about cold air being heavier) and then the bubbles with shatter instead of pop as they do in warm temps. Well, it must not have been quite cold enough, as I took leftover wedding bubbles out for my experiment. The bubbles continued to float - although you could tell they were freezing as they turned cloudy. I did have one tear - so the bubble was a soap film and the air escaped, but it did not shatter.

On another equally cold day, Dave took a cup of boiling water outside and threw it into the air - it immediately turned to steam and vaporized! Pretty fun stuff and I’ll put up videos next time if we get this deep cold weather again this year!

I have been knitting quite a bit, even though business has picked up some more and I’m trying to get the books done for the accountant, etc. so I don’t have as much knitting time as I’d like. I decided on a scarf from Michelle’s hand-dyed yarn:

Pattern: One Row Handspun scarf by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (the Yarn Harlot)

Size 11 needles

18 stitches, knit until I ran out of yarn.

I found these wonderful mittens in the new issue of Knotions:

Pattern: Magic Mirror Mittens by Kristel Nyberg

Modeled by the lovely Ms. A

Yarn: Old Schaffhauser wool I bought at LeeWards eons ago - on sale for $1/skein! Looks like this might have been a tad heavier than I thought - these mittens turned out fairly large.

Needles: Size 3 (3.25 mm)

I altered the pattern slightly as I thought the end of the cables at the top portion of the “mirror” was a bit pointy. I was surprised at how long these mittens are, too…. the mirror cable portion actually starts well below the wrist!

I also decided that I would knit a pair of fingerless mitts to wear when I was working on the computer. My hands (and feet!) get so cold as I am right next to the windows. We had lots of help from Shawn & Doug and the visiting Chris A. and they managed to put plastic seal on my windows which has helped tremendously, but I still occasionally need something on my hands.

Pattern: Delicato Mitts by Anne Hanson

Yarn: KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud, Raspberry  - used double  (less than 1 skein!)

Needles: Size 2 (2.75 mm)

I made some slight adjustments - the pattern called for some rounds of stockinette on the thumb before starting the rib, and I just did the rib from the pick up of stitches for the thumb. I also made the mitt with less ribbing at the finger edge. (I guess I must have shorter hands than the designer!) They definitely make my hands warmer!

Notice the *lovely* painted nails…. We had a “girls day out” when Molly was in town for Christmas - Jenny, Fran, Molly and I all had manicures and then went to lunch together at the Olive Garden!

I’ve also been working on a surprise, (late) Christmas present for Anne (not knitting, and I can’t post it yet), as well as getting ready for the launch of the Knitters’ Guild blog and year-long community service project. One of the patterns will be this:

Pattern: Twining Trees by Sarah Bradberry

Altered pattern slightly by removing 2 rows from trunk area and three stitches from each side, so that I could get it to be 8″ x 8″ (the size for the project, instead of the roughly 9″ x 9″ square as written).

Size 7 needles

Yarn: Lion Brand Wool-Ease, Oatmeal, less than 1 skein

I’m working on several items now, including afghan squares from the Great American Aran Afghan series from Knitters Magazine. I finished 3 quite some time ago, and the 4th has been in my UFO pile for a very long time. I’ve picked it up again and hope to finish one square every month, in addition to at least one 8″ x 8″  square for the Knitters’ Guild project. Inbetween, I’ll be working on those projects for future grandbabies, and whatever else strikes my fancy!

I leave you with the photos from Christmas time - we had some more fun with the funky glasses (I bought two new pair) and the Christmas tree lights:

Last weekend we finally made it to the North Shore to visit Tom & Michelle. The last time we visited, we went up on Saturday and came back on Sunday — a very long drive for a very short visit. This time, we went up on Friday and came back on Sunday. Still a very long drive, but at least a less hurried visit.

The scenery wasn’t quite as pretty as our last visit (near the peak of fall colors), but it was still beautiful. The lake (Superior, of course) was breathtaking. It is amazing to me how huge it is! This photo was taken from the guest bedroom window at about sunrise.

Michelle was preparing for fiber-related craft shows, and was busy dyeing wool. I have a new respect and admiration for hand-dyed fiber! While I liked several of the skeins she created, they take several days to dry so I was unable to swipe buy any of them… but I did manage to snag this:

Now the task is to find just the right pattern to bring out the gorgeous appearance of this yarn!

The Knitters’ Guild had their November meeting this week, and collected for the winter charity project, “Get Set for Winter.” I was busy with the baby sweaters for church, and working on the new Guild blog and charity committee, so I didn’t finish as many as I’d like - but I did manage to contribute!

Of course, I finished my Gansey Gayle set.

When meeting for the community service committee, they told me that lots of folks were knitting hats and scarves, but not too many mittens. Since I think mittens are fun and relatively fast, I agreed to concentrate on knitting mittens.

Adult size, Beaded Cable Mittens. Pattern by Shirl the Purl. Lion Brand Wool-Ease, less than one skein. Without the beads, of course.

Kid’s size. Lion Brand Wool-Ease, remnants from the Baba’s Bed Socks that I made for Tonya last winter. Still have some yarn left - perhaps another pair, or a half-n-half pair…

Unfortunately, this was all I was able to get finished before the cutoff. I did notice in an email this week from The Yarnery that they are collecting mittens for local kids, so I still have an outlet for making mittens if I can get more done. I am anxious to make the new mittens from Knotions (a great, new online magazine!) although they are adult-sized. We are, however, creeping rushing towards Christmas and I have some gift knitting to do!