Lots of knitting

 All knitted since November.  First of all, a Kid sweater.  KnitPicks Brava sport, which is inexpensive, washes and wears like iron, and is perfect for an active 8 year old.

Next, 2 pairs of Kid socks, both knitted from sock yarn from KnitPicks.  Soft, washes and wears well, and quite cozy to wear.

And finally, a shawl for DD#2, who requested a warm shawl in a heavier yarn than fingering.  This one is the Satie pattern from Dee O'Keefe, knitted in Miss Babs Yowza, a stunning DK yarn.  I made it a bit shorter than the pattern since it felt large enough and was at the point of heaviness where it was bothering my hands to knit it.  It is still large and cuddly.

On the needles now:  a mismatched helix sock for Miss P, a cabled sweater for me out of Cascade 220, and 2" done of a twist stitch sweater, also for me, in fingering wt yarn.

Quilting?  The Kid's quilt needs 3 more rows attached and then off it goes to Sew Jersey, my local and amazing quilt shop. 

Kid knits

 A sweater and a pair of socks for the Kid.  Knitting for someone 1500 miles away is always shaky.  I need to try thing on and he's not here.  So if there's a problem, the sweater will have to come back and I'll make adjustments.  I have the feeling that it will be too short in the body as well as the sleeves.  He's growing and may have gotten taller since I got these measurements.

Knitted in KnitPicks Brava Sport, which is my favorite acrylic yarn. Wears and washes like iron, and mom doesn't have to treat it delicately. 

And a pair of Kid socks.  Yes, they will fit.  They are scrunched up because I've used a k2,p2 rib and that compresses until you put on the socks.  Then they fit.  He has skinny legs.  I tried them on and if I can wear them, so can he.

These are helix socks, knitted with 3 different sock yarns.  The green and yellow are solid yarns, and the variegated one is from a pair of socks I made for me.  I love making these, but they are fiddly and take time.  Still, fun to wear and a good use of leftover yarns.  And, of course, I now have leftovers of the leftovers.  Sock yarn, like quilting cotton, never seems to go away.

Here's a closeup of the socks.

A yoke sweater for DD#2

Knit Picks Palette with about 6-7 balls of the green yarn and other assorted autumnal colors.  36" circumference.  I used Elizabeth Zimmermann's three and one pattern, which is one of my favorite yoke patterns.

Progress and a great book!

Knitting yoke sweaters can put you to sleep.  All that stockinette on the body and on the sleeves is not exactly exciting.  But, that's what you have to do before you get to the fun part.

The body length is 15", so you can just imagine the soporific effect this has had on me.  On the other hand, it's great TV watching knitting.  It's so mindless that you can pick it up while waiting for your tea water to boil.  You don't have to think at all.  All stockinette except for the last st before the front and back of the sweater; that's done in purl to make a fake seam.  I almost always put in a fake seam.  Looks kind of neat, and helps me find the "seam" line when I block the sweater.

So, the body is now done and put aside to work on the sleeves.  Yep, more motoring along except that I'll have to pay attention to increases every inch or so.

And here's the great book!

I'm an old hand at stranded knitting.  I did tons of it around 25 years ago, so much that I burned out of it and haven't done much at all until now.  I do have hand and wrist issues, which stranded knitting will annoy, but a yoke design is only at the top of the sweater, and the teeny bit I'm doing as a border on the body and sleeves doesn't count at all.  In a moment of lunacy, I had tossed just about all my Fair Isle and Scandinavian books.  I had to buy my 2 favorites on Amazon:  Sheila McGregor's  Traditional Fair Isle knitting and her Traditional book of Scandinavian knitting.  

These two are my basic stranded knitting books because of the incredible charts in black and white which are so much easier to read than color charts, plus you get to put in the colors you want.  I've owned a number of very beautiful Fair Isle books, but once you understand the techniques, it's all easy peasy.  So then this gorgeous book comes out and I'm totally smitten.  I don't really need all that info on color, but you can always learn something new and anyhow, the pictures and ideas are amazing. It's available on Amazon, Knit Picks and Schoolhouse Press.

Knitting in progress

4 projects on the needles, 3 of them socks, of course.

Another pair of socks for the little guy.  Same yarn as the previous post, same inability of my camera to get the red correct.  It's a lovely deep red with more blue than yellow in it.  You'll have to trust me.  I've just finished the gusset and am zooming onto the foot and finish.  Then sock #2 gets knitted.

Yet another helix sock for the little guy's big sister.  At 14, she's into mismatched socks, and this is a great way to use up my leftover sock yarn.  Of course it never gets used up; the balls just get smaller and smaller, but they never go away.  Kind of like dust bunnies:  you sweep them up, but they propagate over night.  At any rate, these are mindless and fun and she loves them.  Plus, if she misplaces a sock, she has a bunch more to choose from.  That's the beauty of mismatched helix socks.

A pair for me in my usual basket weave pattern.  No hurry on this pair since I have at least 60 pairs already.  And when I'm done, I'll have a nice ball of yarn leftover to be applied to yet more helix socks.  It never ends.

And now, the really neat knitting news:  I'm so into yoke sweaters that I've started another one, this one with a Bohus-style design for the yoke.  Bottom up with body knitted first, followed by sleeves, and then joined for the yoke.  I saw an Icelandic yoke sweater with a contrasting rib and little pattern, and I liked it, so that's what's here.  The body of the sweater will be that lovely heathered pale brown that you see with the off-white.  KnitPicks sport Wool of the Andes, which is delightfully woolly and warm and delicious to wear.

Before and after

Here's a sweater for DD#2 before blocking.

And after blocking.

You really can't see the difference, but it is really there.  These are my favorite fake cables and they work up with the purl stitches separating them as a rib.  So when you block, you want to gently stretch out the work.  It'll be a very cozy sweater with all those little cables.

The color is much more accurate on the two bottom pictures.

What's What on Wednesday

The back of Rachel's sweater.  Looks foreshortened because of my angle.

Here's the bodice on the back.  It's a bit compressed but will block out just fine.

Here's the band separating the body from the bodice.  Looks kind of weird, but again, will block out well.

A little bit of the front.  You can see the band and about an inch of the bodice.  Doesn't look like much right now.

The bodice patterns, which are not typical gansey patterns.  The center pattern is a nice lace.

Next to it are the 2 fake cable guys.  These are done by slipping the 3rd st from the end of the needle over the first two, then k1, yo, k1 to make the three sts again.  Cute stitch and one of my all-time favorites.

Next, again between the fake cables, is a little twist st pattern, with no cable needle required.  I love how this looks.  And the final pattern is a Jacob's Ladder, which is a real gansey pattern.

Such fun!  I might finish the front bodice today, and then knit the shoulders together, pick up and knit the sleeves.  I'm thinking of combining that diagonal pattern from the body with the fake cable for the sleeve.  I'll give it a try, and if I don't like it, I'll just frog it.  I knit, therefore I frog.

Reading?  Pagan Spring by G.M. Malliet.  Funny mystery in a tiny English village with a cute Vicar and an odd assortment of characters.

Sewing?  Nope.  Too busy knitting and working out and baking bread and celebrating the Big Birthday.  But I am thinking about it and drooling over fabric.  Not buying any, which is good.

The Yarnarian Finishes a Sweater!

OK, a doll sweater. Hey, a sweater is a sweater, no?




I dyed up some odds and ends of Penny sock yarn and had more than enough for this little sweater. It weighs about 1.1 oz. Dyed in that pink color that Miss P will love and it fits the American Girl doll exactly. Easy to get on and off, too.

I had quite a time getting the little ruffle border to work with such a small piece of clothing. I had to rescale it way down, but I think it works well. I used 2 circs in 2.5mm, and it was really a lot of fun to do.

Replies to Saturday's rant: Looks like we're all on the same page. If you haven't read the comments, do so; they're very interesting.

On the same day as I was posting this I read something about a group of parents who were asking toy companies not to market to children. In their dreams, I'm afraid. The only way you can control your kids' access to these commercials is to really be careful what they watch. PBS, I suppose, and maybe videos? I understand why the toy companies do it; children are big business; but the pressure put on the parents is awful.

Oh, and while I'm ranting (and having a good time doing it, too), why, oh why, do little girls need to have clothing marketed to them? Do my granddaughters need to own Hannah Montana junk? What are we teaching kids when we buy this crap? And while I'm really on a tear here, why do little girls' clothes have to look sexy? Are you telling me that a 6 year old needs to wear Hannah Montana clothing that brings out her sexiness? Like she even knows what that is all about. What happened to little girls looking like little girls? Nope, they don't have to wear frilly dresses; there's nothing wrong with jeans and cute tops, and such, but I see ads on tv where these little ones are wiggling their butts and giving off "sexy" signals. Well Moms, you're in charge here. Let your kid be little while she can.

Now that was a good curmudgeonly rant, no? For all my fooling around here, I am serious about it.

Wait until I go into my Christmas carol mode. I love, love, love carols! But I'm a committed Jew. OK, I'll save this for another time. Be afraid, be very afraid. I'm revving up. I'll give you a little hint: You Christians get the most glorious music around, and we Jews get "Oh dreidel, dreidel, dreidel". What is wrong with this picture? What, we Jews can't compose beautiful music? OK, I'll save this one for another time. Giggle!

Off to dye yarn. I'm kvetched out for the moment. Kvetch = complain

Christine - Thanks for the tagging, I think. ;-) I'll do it in a day or two, or maybe when i get back from Minneapolis.

The Yarnarian Blathers On!

Just in case you didn't notice, our economy is sliding downwards. And the effect on moi is that my sales are down, down, down. OK, it's not a tragedy. Thank goodness I don't need to earn my living dyeing yarn. So, going with the flow, I've decided to slow down also with my dyeing. NOT stop, for heaven's sake, just slow down. This is not a bad idea because it gives me the option of playing again.

And I'm playing with knitting. After all, this is how I got into the dyeing business; I dyed so much that I needed to sell some of it. So, back to my roots.

I'm having a wonderful time knitting these days. If my wonky left wrist would just not ache, I'd be knitting for hours at a time. Hey, so I knit less. So what!

And what exactly am I knitting? The mystery sock; a lovely new lace scarf, a couple of new scarves out of sock yarn, 2 sweaters for me, and a sweater for Miss P's doll.

I'm sure that I'm missing some projects. You know me: a bag for every project and a project for every bag.

But these are the guys I'm doing this week.

Pics:

The cute scarf I just finished using the pattern for the Oct. Sock Club. The camera wants to foreshorten the pic,. The yarn is from my stash, Seacoast something or other. I put 4 garter stitches on either side of the pattern and the silly thing wants to fold along that line. Next time I won't do that.




New scarf from one of my yarns, Baby Breeze. The yarn was unloved by everyone but me, and I really like it, so I swiped it!



I'm using an old Shetland pattern and am doing 3 repeats of it, and only 1 garter stitch on either side, and I like that much better.

The sweater I resurrected from my pile. I think I started this last spring, got diverted and am back to doing it. Talk about mindless and pleasant! The pattern is the "Half Moon Bay Sweater" from Just One More Row, and I'm using Debbie Bliss yarn.



Here's what I can't show you:

The Mystery Sock. If I show you a pic of my sock, you'll want to knit just what I've done, and I want you to decide how you like the sock to look.
Evil woman that I am!

The lace scarf. I'm very seriously planning a 3 shipment lace scarf club. I have to work out the details, but this is the first one in the series. This is going to be lots of fun for me and a pleasant change from socks. I have to figure out pricing. I'm thinking Feb, June, Oct.

The other sweater: The February Lady Sweater, which is hurting my hands mightily. I'm just past the yoke, so I'm hoping that with a lot less stitches on the needle, that my wrists will stop protesting.

The Yarnarian Might Possible Do NaKniSweMo.

Or not. Depends on her fussy wrists. What is NaKniSweMo? National Knit a Sweater Month, or something of that sort. The last sweater I knitted for myself is at least 4 years old. Do ya think maybe I could do a new one? I have yarn for lots of sweaters, and my latest purchases were a bunch of glorious Harrisville Shetlands (not the real stuff, of course, but pretty nontheless), and a bunch of Debbie Bliss yarn that I got at the Stitching Bee. Both sets of yarns are fairly light weight, so shouldn't give the wrists trouble. It would be nice to have a new sweater; mine are from before the flood.

I've had to put the February Lady Sweater on temporary hold; worsted and my wrists are not talking to each other, but the yarn is so pretty. Well, we'll see.

I'm going to come up with something here, maybe, possibly, perhaps.

KV - I'm really trying to get into the mood for this sweater, but it's just eluding me. Piffle.