A Fresh Start

The holidays are over! I'm so glad I could make most of the gifts. As I was coming home from the fabric shop Christmas week, I got stuck in a traffic jam caused by people going into the mall!! I felt sorry for all the shoppers

As I said, I made almost all the gifts this year. The one exception was a cookbook that I picked up last fall. I own a copy of the same book, so I sticky noted all the recipes that I made.

Knitted gifts were cowls for most of the guys, a pair of fingerless mitts, and three pairs of socks. The trip to the fabric store was supposed to yield enough flannel for five more pairs of pj pants. I ran short of fabric on the last pair, and was fabric shopping Christmas Eve. I sewed that pair Christmas morning. I live alone and the family get together was on Saturday.

I also knit pair of scrap yarn advent calendar socks. Every day was a different color, with guidance on the choice provided by the designer. One day was your favorite sports team. There were charts for cartoon characters. I don't remember the rest. Each day you knit the number of rounds for that date. It got difficult as we got closer to Christmas. I actually finished on Christmas Day.

Now I'm knitting on my reknitting Masters sweater. I lost weight and it was too big. I'm nearing the

end of the back. Earlier last year I unraveled the sweater and washed the yarn. There is hope that I can wear it this winter. Silly phone camera saved the photo sideways.

I'm also knitting an elephant for my granddaughter.  I converted the pattern from flat knitting to knitting in the round. I almost had a head and trunk that couldn't be stuffed, but I realized in time and there will be a seam on the trunk.

I hope to blog more often. That really is my only New Years resolution.

Well That was Interesting!

I did run out of yarn for the socks, and finished with some black. After all the angst about size and yardage, I remembered that I had used the brown yarn to decorate another pair of socks. with I had put a note with the yarn. anyway they are done and will be given some time in December 2014, either birthday or Christmas.

It keeps on snowing here. I'm ready for spring!

My knitting guild has decided to decorate a Christmas tree for charity next year. They need about 200 hats and mittens, which will be donated after serving as ornaments. I knit a pair of mittens. It seems I can't count. The first mitten was knit on 40 sts. The second on 52. Since this was for charity and I had plenty of yarn, I knit another pair like this. I also finished a smaller pair.

While I was on a mitten kick, I knit two pairs for great grandkids.

I also sneaked in a pair of fingerless mitts for ME before starting my Olympic challenges.

This is a pattern that I designed a year or so ago. I used the same yarn for me, since I had given away the originals. They'll be ready when the weather decides to cooperate.

I'm working on four Olympic challenges. Early in the day I have my Lady Macbeth sweater. I may not finish this, but and hour or so a day makes progress. It would qualify for the Ravelry event WIP Dancing, but I won't enter it unless it is finished.

Secondly, I have a pair of socks: event Sock Hockey. It's a Cookie A pattern which will also qualify for SKA and Solid Socks, I'm working with Knit Companion, which is great for a pattern with a 38 row repeat. It's the socks shown on the cover of her Sock Innovation book. I've done 48 of 63 rows on the first leg.

Thirdly is my Aerial Unwind event. I'm reclaiming the yarn from my TKGA Masters sweater. Lovely yarn. A great sweater! Too big for the body I have now. I found the pattern and will reknit and publish the pattern after rewriting in a smaller size etc.

Fourth challenge is another WIP dancing event. I started a skirt from leftover yarn. This is a Gwen Bortner idea, which I am probably going to have finished by the end of the games. I'm using up lots of odd balls of worsted weight yarn.

I've recorded the games and plan to do a lot of sitting and knitting in the next two weeks.

Socks and mitts

A new pair of socks is growing.The SKA group on Ravelry has a flora and fauna challenge this month. I designed these to fit the challenge. I'm calling them Zinnias. The self striping yarn does not appear to be in my yarn inventory. Either I missed entering it, or I'm blind. The red yarn is from a recent pair of socks

I put the pattern on the iPad I borrowed from my daughter. I'm thinking of getting one, especially if I can get a good used one. She loaned me this one to be sure I'll use it before I spend the money. I'm still on the uphill part of the learning curve, but I'm having fun.

I also expect to use it in cooking recipes from the internet. I put another recipe in Pepperplate today. It's the soup I had for dinner.Poblano Chicken Chowder. I've been tracking my food in MyFitnessPal and had to enter it there. I needed all the ingredients for the entry and took it out of my cooking notebook, When I saw the website at the top of the page, it went into the iPad. My oldest daughter trolls the internet for interesting recipes and shares them with me.

Today was fix the mitt day. Over last winter, a mouse or squirrel chewed the inside of my barbecue mitt. I used it over the summer, but was not happy with the damage. I bought fabric and insulation to make a replacement. When I turned it inside out to get a good pattern, I decided to sew in a new lining, enclosing the damage, and still make the new mitt as a gift.

Forget to take a photo of the damage, but here's the new lining.

I quilted it and then trimmed it. What a pain to turn right side out!!! The top edge has bias tape on it. Yes, I used a power machine and a heavy needle. Here's the finished mitt.The lining on both mittsis gingham. The gift mit is denim on the outside and red gingham inside. If I show it here, it won't be a surprise.

Miracles and mysteries

Mother of Bride
Success on the first fitting! It was just a blouse, after all. I didn't write down the pattern number and it's gone to the customer. (it's an easy Butterick pattern with pull on pants and a couple of blouse options) I didn't have the camera to take a finished photo.

I made a few changes to the pattern. I put an underlay under the buttons and loops. (matte gold buttons). since this is a blouse I didn't want skin showing.

Also, the pattern showed sleeves with a contrast band and a 1 1/2" hem. I used a wider band and folded it to eliminate the hem and give a better look.

Another short deadline miracle!

This week's sewing miracle involved a 3X prom dress and a girl who needed 10" added to the bust. Mom did buy fabric that was a close match. I added a stripe from top of dress to hem on each side. I also had to adjust the bust shaping (twice) and make new straps for what had been a strapless dress. The optional straps that came with the dress were too short and there was no way this dress was staying up without straps. I just wish they had bought the bra before the first fitting! Luckily strap shortening solved that problem. From now on, if you don't have the bra at the first fitting, there will be a large charge for the alterations it causes. I should have done this years ago. I guess I'm getting less tolerant of ignorance as I age.

Socks
I've been working on green socks. I finished sock #1 before Easter dinner. It has gone walk about! I've been looking since Tuesday night and today I finally ordered replacement yarn online. Two more balls will give me enough for 5 socks, which guarantees that i can make a pair of what's left over. It also made more sense than ordering one ball of yarn and doubling the price with postage. I didn't see any other sock yarn that called to me, one of the disadvantages of having a healthy stash.

I have been plugging away on sock#2, hoping that finishing it will cause it's mate to appear. It's been very frustrating and discouraging. The possibility exists that the sock went somewhere it won't come back from. I will finish it sometime before bed time tonight. Then I can start another sock and wait to see what happens by the time the new yarn gets here.

Easter Dinner
There were 7 1/2 of us at dinner. DH came down with the flu and didn't participate. He gave it to me and one daughter, so it was a less than productive week. All is better now. It's been about 5 years since I hosted a holiday meal. The dining room is where remodeling things tend to land, tools, things moved to open up the work space, etc. It was available for a week or so after Christmas until the next project started. I couldn't even take the tree down, because I need to spread out the ornament boxes to put things away. It didn't help that the tree was surrounded with tools and things.

I did finish the pair of mitts for myself. This used up the majority of the yarn from DD#3. Besides it only took a couple of days. I keep forgetting how quickly heavier yarn knits up.

Today the Tivo machine took a break from sports and showed us some opera. Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West.
I was not familiar with this one, but the story is simple and the ending unexpected and a little unrealistic, as often happens in opera. I'm glad we have more opera scheduled.

Holiday sewing

The Passover garments all were picked up on time. No last minute Easter things yet. It's only Thursday and I'm off today, cleaning my house for Sunday dinner with the family. I was making a dress for Easter, but the customer had to leave town early (a funeral), and bought something. We've had a fitting and it will be done when she gets back in two weeks.

I did make myself a t-shirt and am working on a Mother of the Bride outfit.

The Stashdown group on Ravelry has a Stashdash challenge. Show the stash you plan to knit up by July 1. Most of what is in my photo was already in the pipeline.
The gray sweater should be finished by then, The green socks in upper right are moving along. Two of the other projects are socks also. The pile of brown yarn will be a sweater. I've already swatched for it. The yarn in the lower right will be a small shawl. Chart is written.

So what did I work on??? Replacement mitts for DD Jan, who shrunk a pair earlier this year. These are a similar color, knit from Plymouth Encore, and will not shrink. The pattern is Maine Morning Mitts by Clara Parkes. Model is named Bronte, and was more cooperative than I expected. I only used half of the yarn, so I'm knitting myself a pair.

Time to get back to laundry and decluttering. There is so much stuff from remodeling to move. We put coats back in the front closet and put 1/3 of them in the donate pile. I think all of them were bought by my MIL, and we never did love them. Don't need them now. I'm sure we still kept too much! I'm trying to purge as I replace, but it goes against my true nature. I just feel weighed down by possessions. Also life styles change, and what we aren't using gets shoved to the back of the closet. Those things are now visible and will leave the house.

Odd Fellows

The mitts are finished! The yarn colors do repeat, but it takes most of the ball before they do. The yarn is CPY Mini Mochi. I designed these, but need to tweak the pattern before publication. They have been wear tested on this morning's dog walk.

I worked on them at our library's knitting night last night and finished before bed. I was going to stay up if I had to, I was that close.

Tonight, I'm doing something different. Our local movie theater has a showing of the ballet Don Quixote. DH will be out with friends, so I'm going after work. Most of the special showings of things like opera occur when I'm working, but not this time.

Time to knit socks! I've had a break, now back to work.

Sock Progress

One Fireworks Sock is finished. The embroidery took a long time, but they fit and look nice. My model foot is a little smaller than my real foot, and I'm keeping these! After all the trouble I went through, there's no way I'm gifting this pair. The next sock is started. No progress today, I got distracted!

Small project mode
I've been doing a lot of little projects this year, trying to use up single balls of yarn. Recently Crystal Palace Yarns sent me a ball of Mini Mochi as a prize for knitting the blue scarf with their yarn. The color is what they call a "lab dip", but it will go with my pink coat. I'm designing fingerless mitts. The mittens I finished recently are wonderful, but too warm for some days.

Later in the day
I have finished one mitt. I'm a little disappointed in the patterns I picked. This is going to be an odd pair of mitts anyway. The colors in the ball do not repeat, so the mitts will not match. I love the feel of the yarn, but it is splitty on #2 needles. A blunt point needle would work better, but that life with a single ply yarn. I did have less trouble with splitting when knitting the blue scarf on larger needles.

I wore my Suzanne Hanson Bohus wrist warmers to work today. My sleeves were a little short, so I covered them. For some reason, I felt like a poodle with those little fluff balls on their wrists and ankles. My wrists were nice and warm, however.

On the remodeling front, DD and son came over today to remove knotty pine paneling from our basement bathroom. It was water damaged and needed to come down so the wall can be repaired. I go to work, and the house gets torn apart before I come home. At least the debris is on the curb waiting for the trash men in the morning.

Knit, knit, finish

One of the side effects of working on many projects is that they may all get finished at about the same time.

• Sunday - cotton jacket
• Tuesday - Mystery Socks
• Thursday - Swiss Cheese Scarf
• Saturday - Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf
• Monday - fingerless mitts
• Thursday - mitt covers

That's it for now. Work has been slow, and I'm the boss, so I've had more knitting time at work.

The Mystery socks were stash busters., using little balls of left overs. The swiss cheese scarf is cone yarn from a mill. I like it so much that I have started a sweater from the rest of the yarn. It is top down. all available yarn will be used and there are so many colors ot tweedy bits in it, that I can choose another color for finishing if needed.

Last Saturday was a guild yarn shop hop. We went to Columbus, OH, about 3 hrs south of us. We did have to meet up at 6:15 AM. I didn't drive, so was able to knit.I chose a simple scarf that had been sitting for over 6 months. It is the Multidirectional Diagonal Scarf, knit from 2 balls of Noro Matsuri that I received as a holiday gift. On the trip, needles, sock yarn, a pattern, and a sock yarn needle gauge were purchased. Much fun was had.

One of my daughters had taken up running for exercise. She asked for fingerless mitts with thumbs. The yarn I chose is partly purple, her color, but it is also cotton stretch. (Patons Stretch socks). I decided to make mitt covers using Wool-Ease. If she runs when it is colder outside, she can use something else. All pieces were adapted from Ann Budd's Handy Book of Patterns

Today is family day picnic gathering. DD #1 is in town from Florida. I gave her a book on historic American quilts, since that is her main hobby. She loved it.

Present sock on the needles is Lucy Neatby's Fiesta Feet, knit from Patons Kroy 4 ply sock yarn. Plan A was to use muslin as the solid, but it was knit into something else and is not available. Norfolk blue was substituted. Kroy is heavier/denser that many sock yarns, so I stuck with the same brand. Boy is this a lot of work! I made the leg longer, because I like winter socks to meet my long underwear. Nothing worse than a gap for the cold air to find. I've waited years to knit these. When I finally got to it, I couldn't find the pattern and had to buy a new copy. That wasn't so bad, as the first one was a copy a friend gave me. From her complaints, I thought she was sending me her original. When I used the muslin yarn, it was still available for repurchase. Oh Well. First sock is finished. Keep knitting!

Quick cast on - a fruit hat for grandson to be born in Sept. Stash yarn says he gets an apple. I bought a fruit phat pattern on the shop hop, thinking I only had the flower hat pattern. WRONG! I can't find a flower hat pattern, but already had the fruit hat. DD #1 was happy to take one of them off my hands. I should finish the hat tonight, started about 4:00 this afternoon. It was easy knitting at the party, round and round and round.

A Couple of Deadlines Met & Ethnic Knitting Exploration

On the Knitting Front
I have been working to deadlines recently. The big one was the shawl. I got a nice picture of my neighbor modeling it. I called it La Valse because the swirling, twirling pattern mad me think of the music by Ravel. It was needed for a show starting Mar. 25.

I had started a pair of socks for DD in Florida for her birthday. It took almost a month to finish them, but they arrived in times. Aussi Sock yarn, Kathleen Power Johnson's pattern. I really like how the yarn works with this pattern. Her birthday is today.

My favorite yarn company asked for a fairisle pattern. He wanted it for a one day workshop/show Saturday Apr. 4. I finished the mitts yesterday and the pattern today. The graphics seem to take longer than the words in some patterns.

I'm still knitting the socks for Plymouth yarn. The foot is done and I'm working on the leg. The yarn is Happy Feet solids.

Ethnic Knitting Exploration
Over a year ago I received Donna Druchunas's first book in the Ethnic Knitting series. She started by freeing the knitter from patterns, explaining what you don't need to know (higher math and advanced color theory). What you need to know (stating the obvious), sweaters are made from basic shapes and a gauge swatch is needed to know how to fill the shape with knit fabric.

The first book concentrates on the simplest shape, drop shoulder sweaters with variations. Proportions are given based on the circumference of the body. A few basics are given, so that a beginner has everything in one place. The first country is the Netherlands, concentrating on texture. A small project is given for each country, to familiarize the knitter with the technique, in this case, a scarf with patterning at the ends.

You have 3 options for working the basic concept; visual, working from a schematic and filling in basic numbers in a short worksheet, planning worksheets where there is more calculating, and step by step instructions with blanks for customization.

Denmark, the second country features all over texture. Norway and the Andes feature color patterns.

The second book expands on what has gone before. Shoulders can be raglan, yoked, or saddle shoulders. Information for refining and customization is given.

Lithuania is the first country presented. Color patterns are more complex, shown on fingerless gloves and raglan pullovers with color bands. Centering large motifs and variations for making the design fit the size of the knitting are discussed.

Icelandic knitting is characterized by heavier yarn and ofter feature yoked sweaters with multiple color bands. The small project is a capelet, which gives practice in yoke shaping. Cardigans are introduced

Ireland makes many people think of elaborate texture patterns, although this style is fairly recent. Teh easiest way to follow these patterns is with charts, so these are explained. Designing your own, by sketching out the patterns is recommended. A rough sketch can tell you a lot. Cable swatches are necessary, to know how much each variety will pull in. Cables also tend to flare at the top and bottom. Prevention is discussed.

The small project is a poncho and the sweaters shown have saddle shoulders. Neither book gives specific instructions, but how to get a properly fitting garment is easy following the guidelines. Texture and color patterns are given as suggestions specific to the country servingf as inspiration.

The Exploration book ends with a discussion on cardigans. They can be knit in the round and cut after knitting. They can be knit in the round working back and forth. They can be knit in pieces and sewn together. Bands and buttonholes are covered.

Lastly, these books are part of the Green Press Initiative. using paper and ink that tries to conserve natural resources. The information in the books may well save more paper as they free the knitter from the need to have a printed pattern for a sweater that may not fit. Teh options are endless.

Merry Christmas

Family celebration was on Friday 12/26. All gifts were well received. I wasn't sure about the hats. Most of them were worn for the rest of the day. The older kids also wore their hats all day. What do you get teen age boys? Fleece hats worked this year.

Most of the men got handknit socks. I have one picture, of MB opening his hat, with Dad's socks on his arms. It reminds me of the year that we gave mittens, which were worn when opening the rest of the gifts. Grandpa said they couldn't be taken off.

One guy got fingerless mitts because he lost one from last year. He can take photos with them on. The pattern is free on Ravelry.

Christmas day was quiet, just the two of us. Lots of knitting happened. I did make one mistake on a gift for DH. I bought him some long underwear in size small!!. He's 6'2". He hasn't worn small since I've known him. They've been exchanged. While I was at the store, I wandered into the kitchen department. I made spritz cookies for the family cookie exchange and my cookie spritzer broke. While I was there, I found the neatest things for a little girl who'll turn 4 years old in a couple of weeks, her own kitchen tools. There is a measuring cup (1/4 and 1/2 cup), a rolling pin, and a whisk. I didn't see anything else. but these seem well made and fun.

I've finished one sock for a January birthday. It's the same pattern as the last pair where I ran out of yarn, but the look is quite different. I put the color values in different places. The foot is twisted becaus I haven't closed the toe.

I am a lemming

Cuffed socks update
These socks did not want to be knit! I ran out of yarn twice and just gave up. I'll wear them where the foot doesn't show. I like the pattern and have started again for Peg's birthday. There's not much to show yet, due to Christmas knitting.

Why am I a lemming?
I've jumped on the wrist warmer bandwagon. Jeff lost one of the mitts I made him last year. At least they weren't hiding in a closet. I've put the pattern on Ravelry. The yarn is Aussi Wool, a worsted weight yarn, knit on US #5/3.75mm needles.

When I saw my niece in November, she expressed interest in..... wrist warmers. I don't know if I'll see her again this year, but I'm ready. This pattern is called Stulpen. The yarn is Regia 6-ply, knit on US# 3/3.25mm needles.

I needed a gift for Jan. Guess what. More mitts. These are Maine Morning Mitts by Clara Parkes. Yarn is Patons SWS stripes in Natural Plum. Needles US #7/4.5 mm. This was a one day knit!

Continuing the lemming thread, I'm knitting her a scarf, the Noro striped scarf from 2 colors of Patons SWS. It's simple and really fun. I'm not working full time this week, so should have it ready for the family celebration on Friday.

It's colder than blazes here, so good for knitting. I did go out Sunday to see grandchildren in a Christmas pageant. Lots of kids in costumes! Each group sang a Christmas song or two, connected by a little story telling. My favorite participants were a horse and a cow. They were in the group that sang "Away in a Manger". Their Mom was stage manger for the program. I do have group pictures, but you had to be there.

I've been sewing fleece hats for gifts. That's part of why I'm in my shop this week. No sewing machine or thread at home. I'm in for a couple of hours in the morning and then gone.