Category: Knitting

100

That’s a great number for a score on a test. Makes you feel smart and practically perfect. But 100 is not so nice when its the temperature outside. Should I mention that the heat index is 106. I live in that pink cluster of 100’s, 101’s and 102’s. This is why we like to drink our tea iced. It’s too hot to work, it’s too hot to think, it’s even too hot to knit.

I absolutely hate it when it’s too hot to knit. I have flubbed the the same short row heel three times now. Can’t seem to figure out what row I should be knitting on the Indigo Ripples skirt and with my brain this fried I am afraid to touch MS3. What’s a girl to do when it’s too hot to knit? Maybe today is the day to clean out the freezer.

The good news is that after getting increasingly hotter for the next several days we should have a chilly 99 by the weekend. Maybe I should start knitting a sweater.

Since I cannot concentrate on knitting, I have decided to have a contest. I have been trolling Ravelry for holiday knitting ideas but I am still not finding the perfect pattern to knit for my family – not the kids but the extended family – brothers, nieces, nephews, aunts, uncles cousins and the like. Maybe you can help. What do you knit for someone that doesn’t require a lot of time or yarn, can be made a generic size that doesn’t require fitting and looks really nice? Last year, I knitted simple scarves (garter stitch for a lot of them) for most of my holiday gifts because I was just learning how to knit. This year I want to do something a little nicer since I have gained a few more knitting skills since then. I would like to find a project that is interesting and fun to knit but that doesn’t take a really long time to knit or require close fitting (in other words, sweaters are out). What can you knit that is fun, looks really complicated but doesn’t require huge amounts of time, can be knitted in a ballpark size and doesn’t require a lot of yarn? Any recommendations??? If you leave a recommendation that includes a specific pattern (in other words, don’t just say knit a hat tell me which hat pattern you recommend), I will throw your name in a hat for a drawing for a knitting related prize – either a book or some yarn I’ll have to check the stash and let you know later. I will make my decision next Friday, August 17th (I think) and post the results here. The winner will have 48 hours to send me a snail mail address so I can send their prize.
Just to start you off, here is a list of who I need to make gifts for

1 MIL – 80 and picky
2 BILs – 40-something one is a computer nerd, the other a ~~redneck~~ hunter
2 SILs – 30 something – one a teacher turned SAHM, the other a pharmacist
1 niece 17 on her way to college
1 nephew 6
1 aunt 80-something and not very active
1 nephew 18 in college
1 nephew 3
1 niece 9 months
2 brothers – 30-something
1 mom 27 and holding

I will throw your name in the hat twice if you include a link to the pattern or the name of the book where it can be found.

It’s those little things that’ll getcha

Why is is always the little things that drive you crazy? Today those little things have been a pesky fly that I cannot seem to get rid of, a teeny, tiny splinter that has taken half the day for me to dig out of my pinky and the Band-aid that had to be placed on my pinky finger after the aforementioned “surgery”. All these things combined have served as just enough distraction that my knitting hasn’t been too successful. Just can’t seem do concentrate even though I had set aside a large part of the day for knitting. I have only completed a few rows of MS3 and those few with great effort. I was hoping to complete Clue 3 before tomorrows next clue but I guess not. On the bright side, I have actually been knitting on the KP Shadow version since last Thursday so I haven’t made horrible progress in a week. The Cashwool version is still on vacation. No new photo since I haven’t really made much progress since the last photo.

I did get a few more rows on Indigo Ripples as well as a new photo (the last one was just embarrassing)but I have spent the rest of my day dreaming of new projects – with the encouragement and assistance of Ravelry.

I have also spent a lot of my knitting time playing paper dolls with the Potter fan. She has created her own set of Harry Potter pater dolls including pets, clothing for a variety of wizarding situations, invisibility cloaks, wands, and brooms. She also drew a quidditch pitch and the Gryffindor common room. Can you tell she is a huge fan?

More Tuesday Triumphs

I got my Ravelry invite today – woohoo. I have only had a little time to explore the wonder that is Ravelry but I must say it is living up to the hype. This goes so beyond blogs and forums. It is really amazing to see so many other people knitting the same thing you are. There are so many features I can’t begin to explain it. If you haven’t signed up, get yourself on the waiting list. I signed up on June 6 – number 7321 – but just got my invite today and there are over 13,000 people behind me waiting for their invites. If you are already on, my Ravelry id is tabitha (not feeling terribly creative today).

Tuesday Triumphs

I finished Clue 2!!!! I cannot believe what a difference changing yarn made to my knitting. At the rate I am going, when the next clue comes out on Friday, I will …still be behind!!! I do hope to have Clue 3 completed but I know I won’t have time to complete 3 and 4 by Friday. But at least, I won’t still be stuck on row 87. I can’t believe I am actually knitting lace. Excuse my while I do a happy dance 🙂

What a Difference A Yarn Makes

Or How I got my knitting mojo back.

I have spent the last four weeks ~~failing miserably~~trying diligently to complete Clue 1 of MS3 but for some reason I could never get passed Row 87 – I have spent two weeks on rows 85 – 87 alone. I have tinked and frogged until my hands were numb and I wore the finish off my needles (okay, an exaggeration but you get the idea). Last week, someone on the group said that she had changed yarn and her knitting results had improved dramatically. So I started wondering if perhaps my yarn could be causing my problems too. The Lana Borgosesia Cashwool I was using is beautiful, very soft and a great price but it is also really splitty – especially if it had to be ripped and reknit – and it was so thin that it really made reading my knitting difficult. I thought this was just the nature of the lace weight beast. Inspired by Suzan’s post, I pulled out two other lace weights that I had in my stash. I compared them to the Lana. I noticed that while the size of the strand was not a great amount different, there was a dramatic difference in the twist of the yarn. I chose the more tightly twisted of the two yarns and wound it into balls (facilitated by the yarn swift that my hubby – muggle though he is – made for me and the ball winder that he bought for me).

I noticed a huge difference in my knitting immediately. I knitted the first 25 rows in no time. I even tinked a row just to see if it was easier with the new yarn – it was. I thought about knitting my stole without beads since I didn’t have any to match the new yarn but I just couldn’t – simply HAD to have the beads. A quick call to Joan-the-Amazing-LYS-owner located the beads that I wanted and another call to Muggle Hubby ~~asking~~begging him to pick them up on his way home from work insured that I would have beads by Thursday evening. When my dear sweet Muggle Hubby arrived home, I ~~snatched~~ politely took the beads from him and, as a thank you for his efforts, I made his supper wait until I had knitted the first few rows to make sure the bead color was just right. I am happy to report that the new yarn/bead combo is simply smashing. I am zipping through the chart this time. I am not a complete knitting failure after all, it was the yarn – maybe I owe Muggle Hubby an apology. I am happy to report that on Saturday, after four weeks of trying, I finally completed Clue 1!!! Theoretically, I had only been trying for three days on this particular yarn but I have been working on Clue 1 for that long.

Here is the new stole in all its glory.

This is a photo at the end of Clue 1. As of this morning, I am about a third of the way through Clue 2.

Here is a photo that shows off the stitches a bit better. The flash made the color all wonky -this really is a terrible photo – but you can actually see the beads in this photo. The color is truer in the first photo. For this stole, I am using Knit Picks Shadow yarn in Vineyard Heather with Mill Hill beads in Iridescent Black. I am still making mistakes – which is inevitable – but this time I am able to repair the mistakes and move on. My knitting has definite room for improvement but it’s not TOO bad for a first attempt at lace knitting by someone who hasn’t been knitting a year yet.

So what have I learned from the MS3 experience???

All lace weight yarns are NOT created equally.
The phone never rings when you are on the purl side of your lace.
Children, husbands and lace knitting do not mix.
Even though I learned how in first grade, counting to 99 can be challenging when you are being yelled at by three people simultaneously.
Your family only needs you when you are at the most difficult part of the row.
Tinking double decreases causes premature aging.
The same family that causes you to lose count and drop stitches can also be amazingly supportive when the need arises.
Dropped stitches can be a real booger to pick up in lace.
Reading your lace “road map” can prevent a multitude of wrong turns.
Count twice, knit once.
All lace weight yarns are not created equally.
And finally, OH MY GRANDMOTHER, I think I can actually knit lace.

The Lana stole is in semi-retirement until such time as I can knit lace without making mistakes. I will probably eventually finish it simply because the yarn is so soft but not until I am much more proficient at lace knitting.

In other knitting news, during time outs for the Lana stole, I have added another couple of inches of lace to the bottom of the Indigo Ripples skirt. And I also completed another pair of socks.

I call this pair Roses and Ivy. They are a modification of the Hedera pattern by Cookie A featured in Knitty. I knit them toe up instead of cuff down, I shortened the cuff and substituted a short row heel for the heel flap that Cookie used. They are knit from Panda Cotton Roses colorway – hence the name Roses and Ivy. The pattern is a very fun pattern to knit that I will probably reknit in a solid color some time. The stitches do not show up as well in the variegated yarn but I am still pleased with the results.

Here is another photo – this time with the sock on blockers. You can see the lace part of the pattern a little better in this pair.

Until next time, happy knitting.