Hanging out and the Blob

Posted on May 29, 2013 by cpeezers

Davey finished pre-k two weeks ago. He likes to tell everyone: “I just graduated”.

Right now he’s watching a little tv in his fort. I found the neatest Little Tikes fort kit yesterday. He thinks it is great fun. Unfortunately, I am getting ready to have to maneuver it to the garage as we have a house showing this afternoon. This picture is a little blurry, but I like the expressions on both David’s faces.

Davey also has been enjoying playing with Buster. We have just realized though that Buster’s herding instincts are emerging. Davey often says that “Buster is hurdling him.” At this moment, Buster only has a tennis ball to hurdle. He picks it up, moves it a little ways, puts it down and then walks around it. He has also started nipping at us – well it’s more of a mouthing – not biting – and moving us around. It’s pretty hilarious. For now. Poor dog needs a job. He’s a herding dog who maybe also feels the urge to mush at the front of a sled.

Finally, I am working on the Regrowth Shawl. It’s beautiful. I like to take pictures of my progress, but at this point it is just turning into a bigger and bigger blob. I can do no justice to photographing the beautiful patterns in the lace.

It is coming right along though!

Knitting with Icelandic Wool

Posted on May 26, 2013 by cpeezers

I started a sweater awhile back for my sister-in-law Holly. The pattern is called Hulda, so I call the sweater the Hulda Holly. I have been working on it again. It’s good “tv knitting” – just straight knitting.

Knitting a sweater with lace weight yarn still seems a little crazy, but I love how the colors are blending (5 shades of gray I think!)

I’m using this laceweight Icelandic wool called Einband. It is not soft. It is the opposite of soft. So I’ve been worried as to whether a human could comfortably wear this sweater even with a shirt underneath. However, I was reading about this wool in my new favorite knitting book Knitting with Icelandic Wool by Vedis Jonsdottir (there are accent marks throughout that name. I am terrible with alternate keyboard strokes and have no clue how to put them in on a Mac). Anyway, the author talks about this yarn. She says that “it feels abit rough but softens considerably after washing or soaking”. I like the use of the word considerably. I need considerably.

So I checked out this new book Knitting with Icelandic Wool from the library. I am going to have to buy a copy for my very own. I have had so much fun looking at the different patterns, that I had to share my joy and blog about it as well.

There are several sweater patterns for the traditional lopi type sweater which has the fair isle round yoke – like this:

I have to think that this is a sweater made for practicality because the shape seems like it would make just about any person look like a linebacker. I love the fair isle work though. So pretty.

There is a hooded sweater for a little girl that I love. (the sweater – not the girl although she is a cutie.)

I love the colorwork on this sweater, but here’s my favorite part:

There’s colorwork on the hood! I love that!

Of course when I saw this sweater I loved it immediately.

It’s the green. That’s about my favorite shade of green. Love the colorwork here too. So pretty, and this sweater is not quite so bulky and “linebackery” looking.

There are several great patterns that have no colorwork at all. I think I am going to have to make this eventually. It’s not a shawl. It’s not a sweater. It’s a sweater shawl!

Look at this construction!

Sleeves in the shawl. I’ve just got to try this out and see what happens.

Then there is a pattern for socks where the heel and toe are made using the same method. I’ve not done this before. I want to!

I love these mittens too.

I’ve not done any stranded knitting in awhile. It’s tough to keep the tension loose, but I’d love to make these eventually as well.

I’m wondering if David might like this sweater.

I like that there is cabling on the front and on the sleeves as well! This model makes me laugh too. So intense. He doesn’t look too happy. I’m not that into the next sweater, but it’s the model again. He scares me a little in this picture.

I am definitely going to make this scarf soon. I have some beautiful lace weight cashmere yarn that I bought back at Knit Unto Others. I’ve been looking for the right project for it, and I think this might be it.

I didn’t think I’d better take pictures of every project but there were several others with additional techniques with which I am unfamiliar and would like to try out.

Ok, I’ve talked myself into it. Going to go order this book right now!

Vintage Knitted Fairy

Posted on May 22, 2013 by cpeezers

I’ve been looking at vintage knitting patterns. There are quite a few on the internet, and I enjoy looking at the patterns. I happened on a little fairy doll pattern the other day, and I thought it would be fun to try out.

This pattern came from a 1952 issue of Needlework Illustrated.

She’s cute. I realized that my photos doesn’t give any point of reference as to her size. She’s about 6 inches tall.

The parts of the body are knitted flat. I enjoyed that. I would rather knit flat and seam up these relatively short seams then try to maneuver a fairly small number of stitches on double pointed needles in the round.

The little skirt and petticoat were fun. I love the way they look although they were a little painful on the hands to knit. I had to increase each stitch all the way down the row and even though I am a loose knitter, the stitches got rather tight and difficult to maneuver. But I thought it was worth the cute result.

The pattern called for sleeve and neck frills. It was fun for me to make all these little “costume parts”.

Unfortunately, the hair ruins the whole “vintage notion”, but I am ok with that. The pattern called for large french knots placed on the head. I tried that, but I wasn’t thrilled with out it was looking so I went for wild fairy girl hair instead.

She had pretty wings too!

I am on the lookout for more cool vintage patterns. It’s fun to read the instructions from these patterns and see how they differ from patterns written today. I imagine I will learn different techniques from them as well!

“Regrowth” is growing

Posted on May 5, 2013 by cpeezers

I have been working on my “Regrowth” shawl. It’s really hard to see how lace is going to look when it is still on the needles and unblocked, but here’s an idea.

It’s really a fun pattern. I am finally beginning to learn how to “read lace”. I am no expert by any means, but I am learning to see patterns in the stitches. This is proving to be invaluable so far on this project because it’s not a pattern where I can set stitch markers every so many stitches to keep track of where I am. Each chart is different, and it is even different from row to row in a chart. It makes for fun knitting because I really have to pay attention to what is coming next. Typically it would make for stressful knitting because I do have to pay such close attention, but because I can now better “see” where I am, it’s been ok.

For example, I am working on the “blossom chart” right now (which not only looks like flower blossoms, but the number of increases in this chart is making the shawl also “blossom” greatly!). I have to take 3 stitches and increase them into 9. The subsequent rows involve adding yarnovers to these 9 stitches, and then doing different decreases to form the blossom shapes. So I can “read” to know where I am most of the time. It makes for engaging knitting. However, when I finish this chart, I am going to add a lifeline just to be safe. I may not be able to “read” the next chart quite so successfully.

Lace was always really frustrating for me. I’d get lost and I never thought I was going to progress. Turns out, just like anything else, I needed practice. And lots of it. And I still need lots more practice!

Arm Warmers, Socks and Pre-k

Posted on April 29, 2013 by cpeezers

I’ve had a chance to do more knitting lately. yay for that. I just finished up my first arm warmers and another pair of socks. I’ve been working quite abit on the Regrowth shawl, but it’s not evening time tv knitting. I’ve learned this the hard way. Twice now. So in order to avoid tinking back entire rows, I am not allowing the shawl in front of the tv.

The arm warmers are from a Berroco pattern called Radius. Very simple pattern, but it was fun. I used Cascade Heritage sock yarn (I’m almost positive). I got David to take a couple of pictures for me.

The pattern is plain stockinette with the ribbed cuffs. There is no additional thumb work required. I like the way the thumb (or lack thereof) looks though.

I also just finished the first sock in the basic “How I make my sock” pattern that I always use from Susan Anderson.

This is Tofutsie yarn that I bought back in Arkadelphia. I don’t know why I hadn’t used it before. It’s great yarn. It’s made out of a blend of superwash wool, soy silk (made from soybeans), cotton and chitin (chitin is made from shrimp and crab shells!). The yarn has a silk feel to it and knits up so pretty.

These are going to be end of the year gifts for Davey’s preschool teachers. I can’t say enough how happy I’ve been with his “first school experience”. He has been going to preschool at our rec center. I just by chance learned of its existence from another mom on his soccer team. On registration day, I had to arrive early, wait in line, and cross my fingers that I was in time.

Fortunately, we got in. He has two awesome teachers. The lead teacher is about my age, and she has just been the greatest with them. He is in a class with eleven other kids, and they are this little unit who all play together and get along really well. They are nice kids, but I give lots of credit to the teachers too for teaching them how to work so well together. Pre-k just meets two days a week, but he’s learned so much and he absolutely loves to go to school. That’s what makes me the happiest I think – that he has had such a positive early experience with school and is ready for more!

Snowy Thursday and Regrowth Beginning

Posted on April 18, 2013 by cpeezers

The sun is out again. I think the past few days was the longest stretch of cloudy skies that I’ve experienced since we’ve moved here. We got a lot of snow! Monday afternoon it started falling until I think we had about a foot of snow. We had to venture out to the airport on Monday night to pick up Mom. We took it slow and it went fine, but there was a lot of snow out there.

Tuesday and yesterday we played outside some. Buster loves it.

Davey had a great time with his Oma too.

I am also getting started on the Regrowth shawl. The yarn is DK weight so I had to play with the needle size. I started with a size 6, but then decided that I needed to bump it up to a size 7. So I restarted. I hadn’t gotten far. I have finished the set up chart and am approaching the end of the second “Stars” chart. This is the top section close to the neck and is a little more solid then the rest of the shawl will be. Lace is hard to photograph in progress since it is all squinched together and not blocked, but here’s the progress so far. This color is really pretty, and the yarn is great to knit with.

Baby Bunny Blanket Buddy and Double Knitting!

Posted on April 17, 2013 by cpeezers

Last week I finished knitting a cute little bunny blanket buddy for my niece Lila. It’s a free pattern from Lion Brand, and it was fun but pretty quick and easy. Except. I knitted the head and realized that I was supposed to then stuff the head. But how was this going to happen when it looked like this?

As I was knitting the head (and this is another sample I whipped up because I didn’t think to take pictures when I was knitting Lila’s bunny), I thought well this is a neat stitch. I was purling one and slipping one, and I repeated this across the row. I’d never done anything quite like this before. It was making for a really nice soft squishy piece of fabric.

So I got to the top of the head, and the instructions said to stuff the head. How in the world was I going to stuff a flat piece of knitted fabric that looked like this on the needle?

I had no clue. So I went to ravelry and looked at some of the pattern notes. I saw that someone mentioned the word “double knitting”, and I then realized that this was what I was doing. I’d wanted to try this technique out for quite awhile. It makes a double thickness of fabric, or when you take the stitches off the needle you can do this:

The slipped stitches fall to one side and the purled come to the other. People who have actually done double knitting before will find this pretty obvious, but I was quite happy with my accidental discovery of double knitting! I think there should have been a big note of it at the top of the pattern as well. “In this pattern you will use a double knitting technique!” But then I would have missed out on the surprise! So then I was able to do this:

So that I could send it to my sweet niece who did this:

Snow? Snow! and a Fancy Tiger knitting class

Posted on April 15, 2013 by cpeezers

It’s Monday afternoon, and we are watching the snow just pour down. (pour? plummet? I don’t know what the word is exactly, but it is really snowing.) Again, this is hard for a former Okie/Texan/Tennessean/Arkansan to get used to. Snow in mid April. My mom is coming tonight and she will get to enjoy a couple more days of snow with us. We will have fun going out to play in it.

Yesterday, I was so happy to be able to go to a knitting class at Fancy Tiger (greatest crafting store ever (after Knit Unto Others of course!)). It was led by Stephen West and Ragga Eiriksdottir. I’ve followed Stephen’s work for awhile, and he does some cool stuff. I was surprised to learn how young he is! He is from Oklahoma and I asked him what year he’d graduated from high school. 2007! I admire all that he’s accomplished in just a few years since graduating from high school! I was not familiar with Ragga’s work, but I really enjoyed learning from her as well. This is not the greatest picture in the world. I just had my phone with me and I was trying to be quick about it.

I have another lousy picture to share because I was fascinated by this sweater that Stephen had designed and knitted.

The sweater is made out of linen, but see the white stripes? They are made from linen (I think linen and not cotton) dipped in latex! We all had to touch the sweater to see what this felt like. Linen is not the softest although I think it softens over time. The white stripes were actually fairly soft and not that latexy feeling. I thought this was really neat. I think he’d gotten the yarn in Belgium.

So we played with shapes.

We tried some different techniques where we played with different edgings and increases and decreases. One of my favorite things that I learned was when we knit several rows and ended the row (on the right side) by slipping 3 stitches with the yarn held in the front. This created an “applied?” i-cord along the side of the swatch. I think the upper right of this picture shows that although this is the wrong side. It’s smoother on the other side. I loved this look.

Ragga taught us something she called the “Insanely Stretchy Cast On” It involved using a helper needle. It was something like the long tail cast on with the helper needle added in. There was seriously a “twirl” at the end to bring the needles back up and it also added a twist on the yarn for the cast on stitches. I am not sure I can remember how to do it now, but when I was done, I removed the helper needle and so then had these elongated cast on stitches. Very neat.

We played with short rows and just swatched around. It’s not very often that I do this – just play with different stitches and short rows, and it was really fun. I have several of Stephen’s projects now that I really want to make. It was through playing around that he has created some really interestingly constructed shawls. I want to make “Rockefeller“, “Geysir Stretch” and “Bolting“. For starters.

So I guess it’s easy to see that I am pretty excited about the class. It was a great opportunity to get creative and to think about knitting in different ways.

Ok – I’m thinking this snowy day calls for potato soup. Davey is going to help me make some banana bread too.

Happy Monday!

Regrowth Begins

Posted on April 12, 2013 by cpeezers

I’m starting a new project with this yarn:

It is a beautiful sport weight bamboo/wool blend from Knit Picks. It’s called Galileo, and the color is Nebula. I’m going to make a shawl with it.

So back in October 2011, a friend of mine from Tennessee sent me a picture of a shawl. She’d seen it on etsy, and she just wanted to show it to me since she knows I am a knitter. We started talking and I told her that I’d be happy to make her a shawl sometime. We chatted about it for a bit, and I told her that really, it was something I’d like to plan to do in the next year.

So in January 2013 (yes over a year later), I remembered that I had said that I’d love to knit that shawl for her. I’d not totally forgotten about it; I’d actually kept an email reminder in my inbox saying “knit shawl for Debbie”. (email reminders to myself are the only way I remember to do anything.)

So in January, we started chatting about picking out a pattern and choosing the yarn. I sent her several possibilities of patterns I’d found on ravelry. She chose a shawl pattern called Regrowth. Here’s a pretty good picture of what it will look like.

Next we had to decide on a yarn. We messaged back and forth for several days trying to choose on a yarn. She initially wanted to stay away from wool, but then she decided that some wool would be ok – and this yarn is so soft. No scratchiness whatsoever.

Choosing the yarn was great fun, but it was the hard part! I think she ordered and sent back 3 yarn orders because when she saw the yarn in person, the color didn’t look like she thought it would from the picture online. It was worth the effort, because this yarn is so pretty and seems like it will be very nice to knit with.

It is a large shawl with lots of charts. I like charts though. It also has some Estonian stitches in it though. Yikes! I think I can figure them out though. There is something called a 2-9 star where you turn two stitches into 9. That may be crazy. I’ll figure it out though.

So I plan to blog about my progress on this. I can’t wait to get started.

Lila’s Sweater, a new project and self-service dog washing

Posted on April 5, 2013 by cpeezers

I finished a sweater for my sweet little niece Lila a few weeks ago. I made it with Blue Sky Alpaca Organic Cotton. It’s a worsted weight, and it’s a really soft cotton that was really nice to work with. I purchased the pattern from this designer: Kelly Without a Net. I was reading over her notes this morning (I hadn’t looked at her blog before today since I had bought the pattern through ravelry). Turns out she has had several comments that the cardigan runs big. Good to know. I’d kinda figured this out already. I made it for an 18 month old, but here is it how it looks sitting next to almost 7 month old. I know she will grow a lot, but in this pic, it looks like it won’t fit her until she’s 6!

But that’s the beauty of knitting for babies. It’s too big now, but it will fit her eventually!

The colors look completely different in the two pictures. I’d say the top picture is probably closer. This was not a difficult pattern at all. The hardest part was figuring out what buttons I wanted to use!

I’ve started another project. This is going to be a shawl that has lace and color work. I’ve had the yarn and pattern for awhile. I’ve been knitting things that don’t require much concentration, but I decided I was ready to tackle something a little more challenging. Here is what I have so far.

I’ve basically just cast on. I plan to work on it today. I love these two colors together.

That’s knitting for today. In a little while, Davey and I are taking Buster to a “self-service dog washing” place. Only in Colorado. Well maybe not only in Colorado, but this is such a dog loving state! Somehow I want to take pictures of this, but managing a 5 year old, a 7 month old pup and a camera may be too much. We shall see how it goes.

Cpeezers

Family, School and Yarn

Category Archives: Knitting