What's on my needles Fri, June 27

Socks in progress.  I'm almost at the back or the heel moment.  My very favorite part of sock knitting, other than the leg, is that little short row turn of the heel.  I just love doing this.  Not there yet, but will be shortly.

The short row scarf is progressing nicely.  This is such a delight to do.

Almost at the end of the 2nd ball.  This is not going to be very long, but it will be wide and squooshy, so very comfy to cuddle up around my neck.  I can't wait to see how it blocks out.  All those garter raised portions will smooth out, I hope.

My charity scarf for Chabad House is getting there.  I'm using the same technique on both this and the mitered scarf above, but look how different they look.  This one is all garter stitch; the one above has a stockinette and garter pattern.

And a sweater that I didn't show last week.  It's just mindless stockinette at this point.  Yawn.  The sleeves will be worked up in stockinette also, and then joined to work the yoke.  The yoke will have stranded color work on it.  I haven't knitted an Elizabeth Zimmerman sweater (other than the Baby Surprise Jacket) in a very long time.  It does look small, but it's the right size (36" in circumference) for me.

And that's it.  Well there are a couple more WIPs, but I'm not working on any of them, and may frog them. 

Friday What's on my needles

Lots of projects, of course.

The usual sock.

A mitered scarf knitted for my Chabad knitting group for a charity donation. 

A new scarf/shawl whatever for me.  I found this pattern on Ravelry.  Frankie is the author of the 10 Stitch Blanket, which I also have in progress (for at least 3 years now).  The yarn is Boboli Lace ( a fingering wt yarn) that I bought on the Cape.  

A growing wide scarf for me, using a pattern in this book, but adapted to how I like to make mitered scarves.  The yarn is some Jojoland that I've owned forever.  I only have 3 skeins, so it won't be very long, but it will be squooshy and comfy, I hope.  Needless to say, it's messy, and will look just fine when blocked.

And what's off the needles?  Ta Da!  Yet another Baby Surprise Jacket, this one knit in Encore DK and for a brand-new baby boy.  It will fit him in a year, I think.

What am I not showing you?  The vest for the Hubz that just needs neck and armhole borders, a sweater for me that is in process and is, at the moment, totally boring stockinette, a pair of socks for elder DD's friend.  Ya think I have enough knitting projects?  Hah!

The Yarnarian is back.

The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido

We had a wonderful time in Minnesota as usual. DD took us to Northfield, home of Carleton College and St. Olaf's. Lovely little town with cute shops and such. Hung out with family, and came home quite content with the weekend. Next is Cape Cod, and you know how much I adore the Cape. About 3 weeks to go. I'm counting the seconds!

Dyeing news: This week I was inspired by my Azaleas and a bouquet of Mother's Day flowers I saw on the Web. But what really caught my eye was the art work of Hiroshige and Eisen: The Sixty-Nine Stations of the Kisokaido.

So first the flowery moments:

Ruth's Azaleas and Mom's Bouquet




And the wonderful pictures of the 2 Japanese Artists!

The first 3 are by Hiroshige: Yawata, Okute, and Shinmachi.

Yawata, Okute, and Shinmachi.





And the last one is inspired by Eisen: Tsumago.



These will all go up in my Etsy shop starting today. If you want one before I post it, just send me an email: fritzL234 AT Yahoo DOT com

The Yarnarian is in Project Heaven!

I do love starting new projects. Finishing? Eh. Yes, it's nice to have the completed object, but the fun is in the planning and starting. So a really fun sock is in the works. This is being knitted from the first long skeins I played with. I never put it up for sale because of that bit of white that kept peeking through, but it's nice enough for knitting. So here it is:



The pattern is loads of fun to do, and not terribly difficult once you figure out where to place your needle.

Remember the multi-colored triangle scarf that I kept posting and frogging? It's baaaack, with a much nicer neck edge. That last neck edge was awful. I kept seeing it and it offended me mightily. The Hubbo never saw what was wrong with it, but then he's the Hubbo and not a knitter.

So, I frogged for the umpteenth time, and am now happy. Yes, I know it looks as if it could use a good blocking. It can use a good blocking, and that will make all those nice woolly stitches line up and look good. It always does. Happiness is wool. So, I changed the edging yet again, and I really, really like it. It's going to make its way onto a sock or something else. It's a weirdly worked zigzag, not done in the usual fashion, and I quite like it. Look for it, because it's going into my pattern collection.




I'm into serious zigzagging these days. It seems that every new project that I start has a zig and a zag.

But here's what I'm really excited about! The crochet blankie, the one with the hexagons. I'm have the time of my life playing with this. So, of course, I'm now thinking of the next one. It's a very nice change from knitting, different arm and hand motions, and I've always liked doing Grannie pieces. As you can see, I have a long way to go, but I'm not in a hurry. I'm doing it in a skinny DK, more of a sport weight, but crochet is much heavier than knitting, so it feels like a worsted wt. object. Such fun! Clearly I'll have to do different grannies for the American Girl dolls in the family. And a winter, spring, summer, and fall grannie or two or three or four. Ach, I'm getting grandiose here. OK, I'll finish this one first.



Off to work some more on it. If you've never crocheted, go learn how; it's tons of fun, and lace crochet is amazing, quite different from knit lace.

Polzic - Thank you. I like your legos, too.

CathyR - The yarn really does stripe. I knew it would, but it's one thing to know it and another to actually knit it. The poor scarf, it's been frogged so many times. I'm knitting it in Bambi, and it's holding up. It's getting a tiny bit fuzzy, but so would any yarn frogged 5 times. Too bad on the crochet for you. I can only do it in little time spans because it is hard on my hands too.

itsJUSTme-wendy - That's a great idea. I'm thinking of making some blankies for the various dolls our granddaughters own.

Linda - Actually crochet hurts me lots more than knitting. Don't know why either. Also, for the life of me, I can't figure out how to decrease within a pattern.

Henya - So now I'm about 1/4 way through with the blankie, and I'm already planning the next one.

The Yarnarian is Home and Happy!

Well, I was in Minneapolis and happy, too, but there's nothing like coming home. I'm not much of a traveler; I tend to be the princess and the pea, and the slightest thing will bother me a lot. But, going away is healthy and then coming home is just wonderful.

Of course we had a wonderful time. The family was delightful, and Miss P, being Miss P, was her usual character self. Tons of fun. That child has more energy than the other 4 grands put together. She's taking a mini-soccer course, and you have see her run and attempt to do things with the ball. I finally got to walk down to the 50th and France area. Very nice, indeed. Great food, a consignment shop that was so expensive, even at half-off. Good place to go when you need something posh and you don't want to spend your yearly income.

I did a lot of knitting on my visit. Almost finished one scarf, and made a big headway on the other one. Here's the almost finished one. My Bambi yarn. I loved doing this, but I don't like how I ended it. Who wants to sew a seam when the entire thing is picked up and knit? Not moi. So, I shall cast on in the round, and decrease within it. 2 circs, of course.




The other scarf is being knit in my new fingering yarn, Rachel. Nice tight twist, but not so tight that it wants to torque or get in the way of your knitting. This is taking a long time to knit mostly because I'm using size 4 needles. I think I can easily go up a size and still have good stitch definition. I love the yarn; it flows beautifully and feels nice on my hands. And wow, does it take dye. Yummy stuff. It's a dark colorway, but in order to see the stitches, I lightened it up a bit. Yes, it looks raw, needs a good blocking.




OK, and here's what I knitted on Saturday as I vegged with my usual post-flying clogged ears and vertigo. This is some commercial yarn that I fell in love with. I like the colors so much, but have not found a good pattern for it. So, it's become my fool-around with miters yarn. This is just an idea for a scarf for moi. I know it looks dopey; but I cast on the scarf on Sunday in an old Bambi yarn that I adore and can't figure out what to do with it. Looks soooo much better than this mess. So just take it for a practice piece.



I can't tell you how much trouble I've had figuring out this scarf. Why is it that the simplest stitches or miters or ideas always need multiple frogs? Give me the hard stuff, and I can breeze through it. Give me baby simple, and I go nuts with it. I have to remember Occam's Razor (Occam's Razor says that the simplest answer is often correct). But do I pay attention to this? Nope. I have to make things much harder than they really are. Anyhow, all is well with my plans for the scarf. It needed just a week away for me to see how simple this idea really is. Yay, Occam!

I dyed up a bunch of yarn today and the skeins are happily drying outside. We finally have summer weather in the low 80's. I'm not complaining about our cool summer; I have loved it, but it is nice to feel warm and even a tiny bit hot in the sun.

CathyR - It is good to be back. There are 2 more scarves in progress. I really need more sweaters but can't get off this scarf binge!

The Yarnarian Likes to Tempt You.

Wicked woman that I am, here are a few more pretties for your pleasure. I seem to have been in a sea green dyeing moment, because I just looked at my stock, and there's a preponderance of those greens with blues. I didn't plan it; it just happened. However each one is different, so at least there's some variety here. And I'm not crazy enough to show them all; I don't want you to howl in the night that I was on a seafoam toot.

Water World and Summer Dream:




It's the berries:



See, that wasn't too bad. Summer Dreams is Bambi, It's the Berries is Alexa, and Water World is Rose. Don't even ask how I dyed up 3 different yarns without getting confused.

New yarn: I just got in 20 skeins of the most delicious lace yarn: merino/cashmere/silk. Over 800 yards of loveliness in a weight that's not skinny-minny like Zephyr but not as heavy as fingering. Not superwash, so you'll have to wash by hand, but since when would you put a lace shawl in the washer and dryer? I hope to start playing with it next week. Cost? Not sure yet. I'm guesstimating about $35-40, although the $40 seems a bit pricey for Miss Mingie here to charge. We'll see.

What do you have to look forward to besides yarn and more yarn: the 2 scarf patterns that I've been showing you. Fairy Leaf and Titania's Waltz. The Hubbo will do his PDF magic on them and I'll offer them at $5 apiece or together as a collection for $9. Maybe tomorrow on Ravelry and Monday on Etsy.




Holly - these are wonderful! I'm so tempted but which one?

Henya - Mwahahahaha! Evil laugh!

Caffeine Girl - The Hubbo just has to wave his magic wand!

The Yarnarian Plans Her Projects.

I'm taking everything with me but the kitchen sink, and if I could knit that, I'd take that too.

1. The never-ending gansey that I started last Dec. I have a sleeve and a half to go, and it's coming with me. If I could do 15 minutes/day on this thing, I'd get a lot done. And I really want to wear it next fall.

2. The socks from this last sotm. I have 1/2 sock to do, I love the design, and I want to wear them. Pics in the future.

3. Cashmere lace scarf that I started yesterday. I bought the yarn at the Stitching Bee in Chatham, NJ. One gorgeous 400 yard skein of cashmere, and not even a budget-buster at that.



4. Green sock yarn scarf that I started also yesterday. An unloved one that nobody wanted. Hah! So I swiped it for moi, and I'm loving it. It's Penny yarn, so not that soft gooshy yarn of Alexa or Bambi, but soft enough, and it works up like a dream.



Assorted other yarns and projects in my head: 1 skein of Zauberball yarn, that I also got from Judy's store.




I don't know what I'll do with this one, but I think yet another Diagonal Mitered Scarf might be in the works. I don't want to waste those long colorways on my feet, but want to use it where it will show up. Or maybe some diagonal thing or other. I'll play around with it. How about a diagonal thing with some slipped stitches where the colors change? Hmmm.

What else? A skein of sock yarn, maybe from my stash of non-PennyRose yarns, for another sock.

That should keep me occupied for a week of sloth.

Finished object: The neat Rolling Waves Scarf that I've been posting pictures of. In real life, it's just lovely. The Hubbo thinks it's great, and so do I. Talk about utter, total delicious semi-mindless knitting: this is it, and great for those yarns that are just too busy for patterns.




I'm just thinking of another way to use this pattern. Hmmm, yet again. Maybe I'll steal yet another yarn.

BTW, if you can think of a better name for this scarf, let me know. This was the best I could come up with. Wavy Lace has been used to death. Hunter likes the name "Shimmy" scarf. I do too. Now to remember this.

We'll see what I actually accomplish. Aw, who cares; I'm out to enjoy myself and knit what I feel like doing.

Hunter - You're right: there's no such thing as wasting socks on feet. I just want this colorway to shine through. Also, I'm on a real scarf knitting binge. Socks are kind of off the front burner at the moment. You are one smart cookie!

Mary - I'm glad she likes it.

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.