R is for Ribbit

My DGD Ana has a birthday coming up in mid-September. Now that her feet have quit growing, the decision was made to knit her some socks. I have a tracing of her foot from a year or so ago, so figuring commenced. I checked books, I figured gauge, this was a problem. Ana is a short young woman with very small feet (size2) but what I was knitting just looked too small. There was another concern. She's turning 17, so she doesn't have childlike stick legs. Her legs have shape.

Last night, I caught up with her to have her try the sock on. It wouldn't go over her heel!! RIBBIT!! I measured her heel, her leg, and the ball of her foot. The foot length from the tracing is ok. I've redesigned the sock in my head. It will be bigger and better. I'm keeping the trellis and adding a rib edge that looks like a flower, followed by a yarnover braid from Folk Knitting in Estonia. The yarn is Brown Sheep Wildefoote in purple Splendor. Ana's favorite color is purple. The new pattern will be awesome! I wonder who I can sell it to.

Sewing Challenge
Today I spent most of the day enlarging a bridesmaid dress for a large young lady. She's at least 6 feet tall and her dress is now a size 28 plus 12 inches. The dress is long enough. The wedding is next Saurday. I need to see 3 of 4 bridesmaids Tuesday, so that I have time to hem their dresses and make whatever other alterations are still needed. Two dresses were made larger by adding a fabric strip on each side from underarm to hem. The other two dresses are another style and needed taking in. Never a dull moment.

Olympic ravthlete, sock patterns, P is for, Q is for.

Olympic Ravthlete

My socks qualified for a medal!!I misread the start time for the Ravelympics. They used Beijing time and I used US Eastern daylight time, also known as television time. It worked anyway. I'm putting the medals on my side bar.

I used pearl buttons on my sheep vest, but today when I was putting the left over yarn away, I found something. I have sheep buttons!!!

I finally have patterns for sale through Ravelry, hosted on my own website. I have 4 sock patterns listed, but one of them is not written yet. When it's written I'll put it up as a pdf. I've also learned how to edit my sewing business web site. It's always had a knitting page, which was blank. I'm hoping with a couple of extra days this weekend, I'll be able to make a pretty page and link to the other page.

P is for patterns

One of my first published patterns appears in XRX's Socks, Socks, Socks book on p. 15. I still have the socks. I bought the yarn at a house sale and made the socks to match my bowling shirt. There is ribbing under the mosaic cuff. The book was the result of too many good entries in a sock contest. The winners are in the book except there is no picture of the "Emperor's new socks".

Q is for quilts

I'm not the family quilter, but DD Julie is. Last fall she made a quilt as a Christmas gift for her sister Jan. She showed a picture of the design at a quilt wholesale show and sold the design to Quilter's Home. The issue with the quilt is now on sale. The quilt went off for photography and Jan got a picture for Christmas. We had a family party July 4th and Julie had the quilt, but needed it for a trunk show. Did I say that she lives in another state? Jan's afraid to use the quilt when she does get it. Julie's web site is Quilted pleasures.

I did it!!

The vest was finished Saturday night and the socks Sunday night! Mother of pearl buttons are from my button stash. I couldn't find any green buttons that I liked.

Socks were finally finished during closing ceremonies. The pattern is written. I'm going to try to put some patterns up on Ravelry.

The Ravelry Vest award is on my sidebar. I may not get one for the socks, since Ravelry was working on Beijing time and I was working on US eastern time.

I'm busy at work, so less knitting time there.Wednesday I judge needlework at the Geauga County Fair, the oldest county fair in Ohio.

Olympic progress

Olympic Sock Put Event
Once I got the correct size needles I moved forward fairly quickly. I'm not totally happy with the heel. I've changed the pattern for the second sock. I used Priscilla Gibson-Roberts short row heel. the way i read it, the knit stitch decreases were worked through the back loop. I don't like the look of that. It doesn't match the purl decreases. I may have that backwards. I fix it when I get to the second heel.

I have shown a close up of the lace pattern. The color repeats are very short. I was looking for something interesting, but easy. I love the feel of the Panda Cotton yarn.

Vest Vault Event
The Shy Sheep Vest event in the Vest Vault keeps growing. The picture shows the left front and the back to the edge of the right armhole. That means 13 sheep finished out of 20. I'm now up to 15 finished sheep. The edges will be tamed by green I-cord. I'm thinking about white buttons, because I have some I could use.

I will finish both events before the end of the Olympics. I will not be entering any events as a late substitute. I have been asked to redesign and write patterns for a local yarn company. I'm taking something designed by someone else which is selling yarn for the company and reworking them because the other designer changed her business plan to be unrealistic for the yarn company. I'll rework them to something similar, but different.

Still in the Race

I'm still in the Olympics race, but stumbling on the Sock Put. The first try was too wide. I needed the stitch count for the pattern to work. Now the width is right, but I've goofed up the pattern twice. Maybe now I can go forward without mistakes.

The Shy Sheep Vest is up to almost nine sheep out of 19(?). It's such fun to knit, but not as portable as socks.

My quilter daughter is thrilled. Her quilt is on the first page of the Benartex web site. www.benartex.com
Her name is Julie Pieri and the flower quilt is hers. They link to her website.

O is for...

I wasn't thinking about Olympic knitting, which also fits. I was thinking about old sweaters. The black sweater is at least 35 years old. I remember where I bought the yarn. Would you be surprised to hear that it is knit of wool? The pattern is a gansey type sweater published in Woman's Day magazine. They used to show a collection of sweaters with pattern available by mail. The sweater has always been a little big on me, but also fit my DH. It's like the favorite boyfriend sweater, its big, but still gets worn a lot.

The green sweater is a little younger, but I don't remember when I knit it. It's a simple raglan, also of wool. Its actual color is a light olive.

Pre-Olympic knitting grumble
Last week I picked up a hibernating Christmas present. The pattern is Harvest Cable socks from the Sock Guy. I finally finished the 2" of ribbing and started the pattern. It didn't fit the number of stitches given. The numbers appear correct for the woman's version. A Ravelry check showed only female socks. A 14 stitch repeat does not fit in 80 stitches. Rrriiippp!! Start again with 84 stitches, which is 6 repeats of the pattern. At the start of the Olympics, I was 1/2 way down the foot and running out of yarn. Retreat! I'll find some comparable yarn for the heels and toes and pick it up again after closing ceremonies.

Olympic knitting
After frogging CB's sock, I started my Shy Sheep Vest. We have sheep!

We also have socks. The swatch was knit in Aussi Sock Spanish Fiesta color. The color length is similar, as are the colors. I have lots of Aussi Sock. The Panda Cotton I'm using for the real sock is short yardage. Cotton weighs more than wool. The sock toe in the picture no longer exists. The stitch count was right for the pattern, but came out too wide. I've restarted with smaller needles. 2.5mm was too big, now the sock is on 2.25mm. It's an easy lace pattern, where the colors don't fight the pattern. I'm calling it "The Road to the Olympics" because it's not smooth and straight, but zigzags, both the stitch pattern and the colors.

It's county fair time

This morning, I judged needlework for the Cuyahoga County Fair. This is one of the larger fairs in Ohio. I judged crochet, knitting, rug hooking, and afghans, both crochet and knit.

Now that the Tour de Sox is finished, I was free to finish the July Mystery socks. The first sock was finished twice. If all fails, read the instructions. I had worked the ribbing, without the little band at the top. It looks better as the designer intended. The yarn is Opal, needles size US#0/2.0mm, worked at 10 st/in, so there was a lot of knitting. The heel is a little different, but I like it and will probably use it again.

I've been swatching for my Olympic socks. I'm in OlympicSocks 2008 and Ravelympics. I'm using Panda Cotton in the Fruit salad color. I'll be working toe up, so gauge isn't a issue at this point. I needed a pattern that would work with this color repeat, also I needed it to be simple because I'm also knitting a vest during the Olympics, the Shy Sheep Vest by Mabel Corbett. I have a kit. A gauge swatch will be knit before Friday morning. I really want this to fit.