Christmas Gifts

All gifts were a success. I knit double-knit hats and ear warmers, socks and a hat/scarf. I also sewed flannel pj pants. Basically I didn't buy anything ready made.

The hat pattern that I was missing was in Alasdair Post-Quinn;'s Extreme Double-Knitting Book. I needed a third color, and raided my 6-ply sock yarn stash.

That led to designing another hat and 3 ear warmers.

I even finished the sewing by Christmas Eve, with the last minute hemming of pj pants for a granddaughter I had not been sure was coming in town for the holiday.

I started a baby sweater for my gift drawer drawer. Pattern and yarn have been waiting for months.

In a Christmas related search session (didn't find what I wanted), I found a skein of yarn that never made it to the yarn corral. It called to me: "Use me now, use me now!" Here are some steps to craziness;

1. Find renegade yarn
2. Look on Ravelry for a pattern using that weight and yardage
3. Find one pattern, a hat, and it's an Elizabeth Zimmermann pattern which I own.
4. Her instructions are very vague, so I used some Ravelry information.
5. One hat is finished, and I've only used about 1/2 of the yarn.
6. This is for charity, so I'm knitting another hat.
7. The baby sweater is not likely to be finished this year. 

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.

Remodel week 2

We are still living with many rooms looking like this. Everything has been moved to the center of the room and all baseboards have been removed. Things are looking up, because there are new outlets on this floor and almost all outlets are grounded. The one that is not is in the center hall and the wires run between sets of stairs.

The old outlets come through the baseboards and the new ones are above them, but the wires run through the wall studs.

I made a Home Depot run this morning to return all the little things that were piling up unused, broken, not needed. $119.00 worth. I was able to get the last of the light bulbs needed for the kitchen and a couple of other things. When I got home, I had to go back and get some pieces needed to hang the can lights in the kitchen. We're now down to $71.00 on the card.

The kitchen looked like this at lunch time. Every flat surface is covered, to say nothing of debris on the floor, the ladder in front of the stove etc. Lunch came from Wendy's and was eaten on the back porch table.

I can't even wash clothes, because the washer is next to the breaker boxes and is being used as a table ( the top is flat when closed and has circuit breakers and tool on it). I still need to vacuum ceiling debris out of the tub, so I don't ruin the pump. It took a few days to find and recover DH's small shop vac for the job. That is now sitting next to the washer. There are some advantages to having a lot of clothes, but the underwear supply is running low. I'll vacuum when the electrician leaves.

Did I show you what I made last week? It's a harem outfit for a 1 yr old baby. Grandma paid for it. It must be a first grandchild to make all that fuss. They had a big party in their back yard. I could see the tent and some of the decorations on my morning dog walk.

Knitting is progressing, of course. One project is a birthday gift for someone who reads this blog, so no pictures of that one. I don't have a good picture yet anyway, so my Ravelry project page is blank. That doesn't happen very often. I'll be taking project and camera outside shortly.

My other project is a sweater for me. I haven't done a pullover in quite a while. The pattern is by Lucy Neatby, called Cables After Whiskey. It comes with 3 pages of random numbers. All cables are 4 x 4. For certain numbers, you cable to the front. For others, you cable to the back. Some numbers are ignored, and some mean to knit 4 stitches. I've found that it is important to keep the columns of 4 stitches lined up. Other than that, mistakes don't matter. I've started calling it my Tree Bark sweater.

August means count fairs. I judged knitting etc. at one fair Sunday. The other judging is at the end of the month, since the fair runs over Labor Day weekend.

Missing sock and other stash reduction

Sock Mystery
The missing sock mystery is still not solved. I bought more yarn and knit a 3rd sock.There is enough leftover to knit another pair. I keep waiting for the missing sock to turn up. The pattern is Knotty or Knice by Chrissy Gardiner. The yarn is Crystal Palace Panda Silk.

Blue socks
Once upon a time, I knit a pair of wonderful socks that shrunk when I washed them for blocking. Crystal Palace replaced the yarn and I've finally knitting the replacements. The pattern is Moonchild by Adrienne Fong. The new yarn is Crystal Palace Panda Superwash. I've used 8/0 clear AB beads.

These socks actually don't qualify for any prizes. I had hoped that they'd work for Solid Socks, but was denied. The Crystal Palace blog has a contest using their yarn. It was time to stop petting it and start knitting with their yarn.

Both pairs of socks are part of my Spring Stash Dash challenge. I'm also working on the gray sweater.

Mother's Day was celebrated with all available family. Thirteen of us invaded BobEvans at 8:00 in the morning. The rest of the day was quiet.

Guild project
Monday night our guild had a speaker as part of our charity knitting. She represented women2women-knitting4peace. Among other projects distributed in third world countries, she talked about skinny scarves given as rewards to kids who do things like show up for medical exams. I was looking in my stash for bulky yarn for another project. I found many single balls not suitable for beginning knitters. With big needles and bulky yarn, I can knit a scarf in a couple of hours. so far I have 6 of them. I'm aiming for 10 scarves. I may do more if I have the yarn.

Tomorrow, our son receives his PhD. This is the third PhD in our overeducated family. We're not going to the ceremony, but will gather at a local park for burgers etc. I din't ask him, but I'm presuming that he is marching and making his teenagers watch.

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.

What was I thinking?

or...If all else fails read/reread the instructions! It's a long story about a fairly easy pair of socks that had a disconnect between written instructions and knitter. Let me tell you about a couple of other things first.

My son is Ph inishe D. finally. Dissertation, defense and everything. It took him 8 years part time. He now has earned a PhD in Statistics. He's now working at Cleveland Clinic. WE don't know what he will do next. Take a break, breathe a sigh of relief, look around, spend time with his kids. He'll figure it out. He will be looking for a better job, but not just yet.

Some successful knitting is the CPY Panda Silk shawlette. The pattern called for 2 balls of this yarn. Perhaps a solid color has more yardage. I'm short one row of zigzags and a double layer hem. I finished mine with 4 rows of garter stitch. I actually like that finish better. I used an old china rose pin to fasten it. I like things to stay put while I work.

I'm sewing myself a new blouse, hiding in the background of the back view shawl. Every so often, I get to sew for me. I really don't need clothes, as I don't tire quickly of the ones I have, but new is nice. I have olive slacks and brown ones. the blouse still needs buttonholes and buttons, which is why it's still in my shop.

The patten is the cover feature of the last Piecework Magazine. It's an Anna Zilboorg design, and not really hard. How could I go wrong? Let me count the ways.

The cast on was fine. I used a crochet cast on instead of the long tail one she specified, because it's provisional. I started with one row of knit and then worked the short rows. This toe starts with 29 sts, short rows to 9 sts, then works back up to 27 live sts. I haven't worked a toe like this before, but I was familiar with it. All was good. Rearrange sts as specified on 4 needles and work until 5 1/2 inches less than desired length. That worked out to 2 repeats of the fan pattern, as shown in the picture. Still good, but here's where it starts to go wrong.

1. Arch increases begin on the sole; k6, yo front to back, k1, yo back to front, k6. Good. Twist the yos on the next rnd to avoid holes, good. (this is a really flat increase with no bumps on the sole of the foot when worked like this) Work 2 rnds. I read this as 3 rows total. Got to the heel much too soon.
2. Retreat! Work another repeat of the fan. Realize that the increases are a 4 row pattern.
3. Retreat! Work increases correctly starting after 3rd fan pattern. realize that k6 + 13 increased sts + k6 does not = the 29 sts I'm looking for.
4. Retreat back to 2nd fan pattern ( the measurement called for in the pattern). Work increases as the 4 row pattern called for. Triple check math and thought process. I will need 5 fans before the heel. There are 3 increases/fan pattern. I need 8 pairs of increases. (6 + 17 + 6 = 29 with a center stitch) The last increase is in the last fan pattern.
   

Wish me luck! I'm in the middle of the 4th fan and have increase to 13 sts.

OH NO!!!
I just read further and I was correct to begin with. Increase every 3 rows until you have 6 + 29 + 6. Head desk!!!

Knit, Knit, Rip, Rip

The fish/scarf thing is Rodekool from Knitty.com. It is finished, but still a little short. More yarn is coming from Michigan. I love Ravelry! I get to make my scarf longer and someone else gets rid of a leftover.

I declared it done and wore it. Getting more yarn will mean that I have to take out the bind off in order to add on. The center section is fine the way it is.

The new mittens are growing. I frogged the hand because it was too tight. I went up one needle size and it's much better. I expect them to stretch with use. It's surprising how quickly bigger yarn works up. I did most of the hand at the library knitting group last night. It took 1 1/2 hours. The design is my own. I did a chart for the hand, based on some Slovak color patterns I saw.

The blue socks are growing. I will get more yarn tomorrow. The yarn went to New York City, but we got a call that a skein is now waiting for me.

I'm knitting a second Rodekool scarf from my original yarn. Instead of using two ends of the same ball, I found another ball of sock yarn to contrast and like it better. I only ripped that project three times.

I started another jacket at work today. It's a Marcy Tilton Vogue pattern that I have sewn before. I also knit a version last summer. The first version was linen. This version is wool.

The father/daughter remodeling team is working on halls now. Wallpaper was discovered in a couple of hall sections, so a steamer will be rented and bedroom closets and halls will be paper free.

Bits and Pieces

The bathroom is completely finished, except for a radiator that needs paint. Sounds like a summer time job to me. We'll have to research heat resistant paint for it.

My velveteen jacket is finished. I also made a pair of pj pants for a two year old's birthday gift. Next up is another jacket for me.

The blue socks are progressing slowly. I used just over one skein of yarn for the first one, which means that I can't finish the second without more yarn. LYS says all of that line of yarn is in New York City this weekend. It will be back on Tuesday. I hope they don't sell all of my color.

This blue is not a fish, it's a scarf. The yarn is Mini-Mochi, which has very long color changes. The pattern calls for one ball, but I ran short. Do you see a tendency? I shortened the center section and should be in good shape. It's a technique called two-color brioche, and takes a lot more concentration that most of my projects. Now that I seem to have the pattern in my head, I may do another one.

A project that went well, was a vest for EB's birthday. I had plenty of yarn. The buttons came from my mother's stash. The pattern is from a book called Circular Knitting Redefined that I have a pattern published in. I have a birthday sweater for MB that I knit about 12 years ago for publication. It resurfaced just in time to fit him.

The black hole of knitting swallowed another dp needle this week. I saw where it fell, but it isn't there. It did spit up a sock needle 4 days later. Don't know when that one went in, but I'm glad to see it. I also have a knitting black hole at work. It ate a stitch marker recently, but that may have gone in the trash.

It's tax time for my business. Semi-annul sales tax is done and paid. Payroll taxes are in good shape, but I'm missing two forms. They have been ordered.

I'll finish the scarf tomorrow. I'm so close, but have about 3" to go. Then I can work on my new mittens. I finally trashed my purple mittens that match my hat and scarf. I got tired of mending them. I've had the replacement yarn since last spring. There was more mitten knit, but I ripped it out. It was a little small so I upped the needle size. I'm using fair isle, and making the mittens so that they can be worn on either hand to spread the wear.

Sunday I spent all day at a guild workshop on sweater fitting with Anne Hanson. My accountant's wife rode out with me. Made a long ride shorter. I learned a bit and got a lot of work done on a sweater that has been hibernating over the holidays.

We won't talk about the new classes I have to submit to Knitter's Fantasy, or the pattern waiting to be written.

Did you miss me?

One reason is these socks.
They have 16 colors of yarn in them. The pattern is called Drip Candles and is one of those, where if you start working, you can't seem to stop. What will it look like after the next color. My sock yarn leftovers pile is smaller now. The socks are packed up to go to Illinois for someone's birthday.

All the mittens were well received. My son remembers Stop and Go mittens from his childhood.

I've been slowly working on this velveteen jacket. It's time to sew for me and my family, so I'm trying to use 1/2 hr. each day for this. Here's the jacket at day 6.

It's a simple jacket that I've made before, but I did a couple of things different because of the velveteen. I lined the sleeves, so it will go on easily.

I did a Hong Kong finish on the hems. I used bias tape from my stash, sewing it to the outside of the hem, pressing it flat, turning it under, and stitching the line between bias and velveteen. They look like this when hand stitched to the jacket. The pattern calls for top stitching, which worked well on the first one I made, but I didn't like it here.

Day 7 saw the yoke put together and the bound buttonhole made. The jacket is now finished. the yoke is lined with lining fabric and there is a black button. I'll get a photo today, I forgot the camera yesterday.

Next project is a pair of flannel p.j. pants for a 2 yr old.

My knitting needles are not idle, but again, few photos. I'm working on socks (no surprise there). They're a gift for my hairdresser. I forgot her at Christmas. I hope she can wear wool.

There also is the vest for 6 yr old granddaughter. I've no pictures of that at all.

It's almost Christmas

Luckily, I won't celebrate with family until a week later. Out of town presents are mailed, except for the one that the post office couldn't find to pick up. I've rescheduled and will call the post office early in the morning to complain.

The second pair of mittens is finished. No more Christmas knitting. I do have some sewing to do. Saturday was an 18th birthday party and I asked my DIL for gift ideas. She wants jammy pants. I had forgotten about that idea. Sunday saw me at the fabric store buying flannel for most of the rest of the giftees. Some young men are getting $$. This is the pile that I still need to sew up. One pair is finished and I should get a couple more done tomorrow. They take about 1 hour each.

I finished the Advent socks. they are knit from Knit Picks yarn. I'll see how they wear. They sure are soft and the yarn is not expensive. Even at noon, we don't have much sun these days. The detail shows if you embiggen the picture. The foot has decreases on the top and increases on the sole. the heel is very interesting too. I may make these socks again.

I finally started the December sock challenge. I chose the left overs option, designing my own socks. Unlike my previous left overs socks, these are very subtle. I should be able to finish the leg with the colors shown. I planned for the foot to be plain. These are for a January birthday, so I have plenty of time.

Advent Week #1

Well, I'm back at work, for better or worse. some days are really interesting, and some days I mostly baby sit the shop. I get more knitting done when babysitting. The wedding/cotillion dress is finished. I just had the hem to do. I did some pieces for a KISS tribute band that is redoing their costumes. I did a lot of boring hems. Saturday was a babysitting day. There were only 2 sales, resulting in me needing to sew on about 20 buttons.

The black socks are finished. I still need to do the pattern. The red mystery socks are almost finished. No new pictures at this point. Next up in the knitting queue are mittens for two of the smaller grandkids, and another mystery sock. Stephanie van der Linden had an Advent calender up on Ravelry. In addition to a u-tube video for each day, she started a mystery sock pattern on the first weekend of Advent. I had the perfect red yarn, which qualified under two categories in the Solid Socks group. It doesn't want to be those socks! It is hiding! I have been looking for about 2 weeks, and I cant find it. I got it out of storage, but didn't wind it into a ball. The socks will be knit from another red yarn.

Remodeling is moving slowly. Walls have been mudded and sanded again. The bathroom may be ready for priming. Today our son and one of his daughters came to plumb the new basement sink. Pipes for the washer were shortened. Pipes for the new faucet were shortened. It only took one trip to Home Depot for the new faucet with feed from the top. We have heat return pipes lower on the wall, seen just below the edge of the sink. Yes, the wall is still ugly. I've requested fixing and paint, but I'm not the one doing the work.

They're Tearing the House Apart Again!

A pile of rubble, the work of Runner Girl and her strong son Ninja. The day started with 3 laundry tubs in bad condition, left over from the days of wringer washers. 90 years later, they were in bad shape. The tub nearest the washer was cracked and the drain was deteriorated.

Early in the day we went out and bought a new sink. Then the demolition commenced. There's nothing like calling in your kids and grandkids when you want something destroyed. They had a great time! Sledge hammers and a Sawz-All did the job. I made many trips up and down stairs getting enough boxes for the rubble, which was carted out to our front porch to await garbage day. They did a good job of cleaning up!

This is what it looks like tonight. The sink is in place and the washer moved to what is probably it final position. Our son will come soon to help with the plumbing. I think DH wants to move the pipes lower. The wall needs work. Shelves will be built. The gas line needs to be moved to put the dryer on the other side of the sink. We had a dryer vent installed when the glass block windows went in.

My shop was closed today, giving me time to shop for the sink. I also made a German Potato soup for lunch, potatos, carrots, cabbage and 1 # of bacon. Seasoning is pepper, caraway seed and nutmeg, with sour cream added added with the bacon at the end. I have made so many varieties of soup to feed the work crew, that I'm definitely running out of room in the freezer. I put the soup in the Crock Pot before I leave for work, and it's ready when they are. Also, it feeds whoever shows up, especially when they are young men with large appetites.

Sewing
Last post, I said something about wrestling with a wedding dress. It looks something like this, a small part is under the presser foot and the rest is all over the place.

One of the other jobs I do is to replace elastic in pants. This pair has had the elastic removed. I will edge the top, sew in new elastic, fold it to the inside and top stitch about 1" from the fold.

Knitting Progress
I finally finished the fair isle socks for DH. Seven weeks is a long time for a sock project, although I did finish other socks in that time.

I have one sock finished from the SKA November Mystery Sock pattern. I'm trying to finish the black cable socks first.

I am getting a little tired of knitting almost nothing but socks. This next year I hope to spend more time on other projects, but the new sock patterns are so tempting. I just found an Advent Calendar mystery sock. The pattern clues are available each weekend, for 3 days only for each clue. Yes, I downloaded the first clue.