Lorette

Alrighty, then

A Tale in Four Photos

Ouch. Yes, that was a painful decision. In case you can’t tell what that blob is, it’s the Vanilla Sweater, which I started LAST FALL. I got it almost to where it was in that first picture and decided that it was too snug, and that I needed to do some body increases. Which would have been fine, except I was almost ready to start the bottom hem. I put it in a bag and hid it, like you do, thinking it would fix itself.

Right. Fast-forward to earlier this month. I hauled it out, tried it on again, because, you know, it COULD have been fixed in the back of my closet.

Nope. I went ahead and did another several inches, adding some increases, because throwing more knitting at bad knitting will turn it into good knitting.

This morning I sucked it up, and with the help of a friend, took the whole thing back to just after I started knitting the body, and I’ll do it properly.

It takes two, indeed.

Another Hitchhiker

Project Details:

Pattern: Hitchhiker, by Martini Behm. As of today there are more than 35,000 of these either finished or in progress on Ravelry. That is sort of moderately insane.
Yarn: Arcane Fibre Works 80/20 fingering yarn. The color name is Who’s A Good Boy. Though this is technically sock yarn, it’s pretty soft. I’m not sure how it would hold up in socks. It’s divine as a little neck accessory though!
Started: January 2023
Finished: August 31, 2023
For: ?? This is going in the gift basket for someone.
Needle: 3.25 mm
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. This may be the perfect knitting pattern. You can use a wide variety of yarns, you can change it up by adding eyelet rows or lace inserts, or it can just be a terrific easy TV knitting project. You just knit along until you have just enough to finish the last repeat and bind off.

Hank likes it!

I also never got around to posting the last sock pair I finished.

Those were for John. The yarn is one of the Regia Design Lines by Arne & Carlos. The color number is3879. It’s a sock, what can I say. This is my usual cobbled-together sock-pattern-in-my-head.

One last Hank photo, just because he is so goofy.

Et voilà!

It’s finished! Well, it’s been finished for awhile, I’ve just been too busy to get it photographed.

You can tell by the socks and Birkies that it’s not that hot here. We’ve had a few warm days, up into the low 90’s, but that’s it. Yes, I’m extremely grateful that the awful weather around the world seems to have bypassed us for now. Today it was in the mid-70’s, dry, and with a light little breeze.

Now, on to the SHAWL!

Project Details:

Pattern: Cathedral Stole, by Birgit Freyer
Yarn: Tajik Kid Mohair. This was marketed and sold by Peace Fleece. It is handspun mohair made by a woman in Afghanistan. There is a cooperative of women spinners there and in Tajikistan that spin and sell their yarn. You can buy similar yarn by them now at Port Fiber, though she doesn’t have it in this put-up. The color is a deep, glowing scarlet. I used about 240 grams of this, which is called lace weight, but i’st more of a light fingering. It reminds me of shiny Ruby Slippers.
Started: Embarrassingly, February 2016. 🙄
Finished: June 12, 2023
Needle: 3.25 mm
What I Learned: Eventually, all projects can be finished. I have no idea why this took so long, since it is lovely yarn, and a lovely pattern. The pattern is knit entirely from charts, and I added a bit of length to each end of the stole to use up more yarn. I also love big shawls that I can wrap up in.
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. The pattern is probably not for beginners, though it doesn’t have any exotic techniques. It’s just…brief. You get a few terse paragraphs of instructions (short paragraphs!), and the charts. The yarn is gorgeous, though as handspun, there was an occasional bit of unevenness, and the odd splice/knot. I wish I’d bought more of this when it was available.

Here is a photo of the woman that spun this particular yarn. Her name is Maliknoz, her bio is here.

Here is one more photo:

I am beyond happy with this one. I also have some newly finished socks to show you, and a couple of new projects, but I’ll save that for another day.

New lace

I still haven’t gotten a good finished project photo of the Cathedral Stole. That will be the next post. That certainly doesn’t mean I couldn’t cast on something new.

This is some of the prettiest yarn I’ve worked with in a long time. It’s Lisa Souza 100% Silk Lace, in the color Cameroon. It’s 1000 meters/100 g, and is just gorgeous to knit with. After a few starts to get the right needle, I ended up with an ebony 2.50 mm circular from Holz & Stein, with wickedly sharp tips.

Doesn’t look like much yet, but I’m loving knitting with this. This will be another shawl, Elizabeth, by Dee O’Keefe.

Stay tuned for the Finished Project post for the red shawl!

Close…

I need to straighten some pins on that, but I’ve gotten it blocked.

This is huge. I’m about 5’9”, and this is longer than I am. I do love my generous shawls.
Finished project post coming soon!

Still life

Our peonies have been taking a bit of a beating with the windy days we’ve had, but I rescued these for the mantle.

Note the little Corgis. The little felted guy was made by one of our grandsons, using a photo of our previous corgi, Lewey. The other piece is a lovely Tasha Tudor corgi, sent to me by a fellow knitter, Robin.

Also note that both are safely out of reach of the Hankster.

“Who me??!!”

What’s next?

Thanks for the nice comments on my pink shawl! I’m happy to be back. Maybe I’ll do a post someday about that four-month blog break. But not today.

Today, I have another NEARLY finished project. That Cathedral Stole that I’ve been working on since 2018 (!!!) is approaching the finish line. I finished the second half of the shawl last night, and now have just the loopy bind off and a bit of finishing to do, and it will be DONE.

That’s the loopy bind off in progress. It’s a crochet chain bind off, and I’m no crochet whiz, so it’s taking me a while to finish. Of course I forgot to note where I found the instructions I used on the first half, so that flummoxed me for a bit. I also didn’t note which size crochet hook I used before, so there was a false start and some swearing involved, which shouldn’t surprise anyone who has frequented Chez Knitting Doctor for any length of time.

The other “bit of finishing” is that the pattern calls for a row of single crochet on each of the long sides of the rectangle. Again, an easy task for someone who is a crocheter. This behemoth is at least 6-7 feet lengthwise, so I might become a crocheter once I’m finished.

Oh right. Here are the instructions for the crochet chain bind off. It’s easy, just fidgety.

Four Months later…

Holy moly. I’ve never taken such a long blog vacation previously. I have been knitting, though very slowly. Hank (remember him??) loves to steal yarn balls and run around the house like a demon with them. So there are only two kinds of knitting around here: One kind, where Hank is sleeping, and the other kind, which involves a lot of yelling and dog spit-soaked yarn.

Here’s a recent photo of the yarn destroyer.

I HAVE finally finished something though! It’s PINK and it’s PRETTY!

Project Details:

Pattern: Quatrefoil, by Janina Kallio
Yarn: Cream Silk, from DyeForYarn, in the color Baby Unicorn. This is fingering weight, I used two skeins, 800 meters worth.
Needle: 3.00 mm Chiaogoo bamboo interchangeable
Started: Dec 22, 2022
Finished: May 31, 2023
What I learned: I like PINK! I don’t think I have much of anything PINK in my wardrobe, certainly not in my shawl collection. I bought it for the color name, because who doesn’t love baby unicorns?? I also learned that knitting silk on metal needles is guaranteed to result in tears. Once I switched to the bamboo, I was one happy camper.
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/****. This CreamSilk stuff is like crack. The colors are gorgeous, and it knits up beautifully, other than being slippery. The pattern is a simple triangle shawl, started at the bottom point with just a few stitches and increasing on each side. It makes a weird, really pointy triangle shape that isn’t my favorite, but I tend to wear shawls wrapped around my neck anyway, so it doesn’t matter. The pattern itself is well-written.

Those are my peonies in the background. I moved them to this location two years ago, and they apparently love it, and are blooming like crazy.

That’s all for now, I’ll try not to take such a long break next time!

Pink!

New socks!

The pattern is the usual cobbled together one in my head. The yarn is Ty-Dye sock yarn from Knit One Crochet Too. Knit on double point needles, 2.00 mm. I started these back in October, before I got the bright idea to get a puppy.
Here’s the puppy!

He is growing up fast! John and I both are having a blast watching him grow up. He’s right in the middle of the terrible twos, but is cute enough that we forget the willfulness, and laugh a LOT.
That’s it for now. I’m off to pick up more dog poop, and to referee the impending Hank/Arlo wrestling match.

Bandwagon

I think I’m the last person on Ravelry to finish one of these hats. There are over 10,000 projects for the Musselburgh hat pattern, by Ysolda Teague.

That is just the best hat pattern on earth. Here are the details:

Project Details:

Pattern: Musselburgh, by Ysolda Teague
Yarn: Beaverslide 2-ply Sport/Sock weight, 80% merino, 20% kid mohair, color Mink Heather.
Needles: 3.25 mm Chiaogoo bamboo double points
Started: Sometime in the past year?
Finished: December 22, 2022
What I Learned: This is an interesting pattern construction, starting at the top of the head with a few stitches, casting on until it’s big enough around, then knitting straight for a really long time, then decrease. See below, the photo explains this better than I can. It leaves you with a double-layer hat that is very cozy.
Yarn/Pattern rating: *****/*****. Clearly written pattern, can be used for a wide range of yarn weights and hat sizes. This yarn is just divine. It is soft and lofty, but also durable. The kid mohair gives it a nice sheen.

Here’s a photo of the whole hat:

I do have a few more colors of this yarn in the stash. This hat is for me, but John tried it on, and he’s picked out his color.

Last but not least is Hank! He’s growing, learning, and in general being a whole lot of fun.

Hyrna Hap, and Arlo

I finally got around to blocking this shawl. Don’t judge me, I have a 14 week old puppy to wrangle.

No apologies for the photos in the bathroom mirror. John isn’t home right now, and I just needed to get this posted.

Project Details:

Pattern: Pattern? I made it up. It’s a plain garter triangle shawl, increases at each end and along the center spine every right side row. I just knit each color until it was gone and attached the next one.
Yarn: This is Icelandic wool, from an Etsy shop, Hespa. I’m pretty sure this is Istex Einband that is hand dyed. She dyes her skeins with plant dyes local to Iceland. I bought all but that last light brown stripe as a kit from her Etsy shop. The last color I bought on our trip through Iceland. It’s the same wool, from the same dyer, and matches the color scheme well.
Needle: Oh, holy hell. I didn’t record that. I’m pretty sure I used a 3.25 mm Chiaogoo bamboo circular, as it is sitting on my desk still instead of being in the case.
Started: June 12, 2022
Finished: Oh, who knows. I apparently didn’t record that either. Let’s just say sometime since the end of July.
What I learned: Great yarn doesn’t always need a fancy pattern. Just cast on and knit. This was a perfect travel project, and I LOVE the colors.

I still haven’t gotten around to doing a remodel post. I will tell you the Arlo story that goes with it though. The last day of the major work was the day the plumbers came to drop the tub in and get the plumbing hooked up for it. It was sort of an all-day project. They built a plywood platform under the tub, with an opening to access the plumbing works. When they were ready to put the tub in, I sort of joked that they should make sure that all the cats were accounted for.

You can guess where this is going, right? They finished up late in the day and left. I hadn’t seen Arlo all day, and was beginning to get a bit suspicious. After the noise of the construction was done, I could clearly hear him in the dining room. Coming from the ceiling, where he was trapped between the subfloor of the tub and the dining room ceiling.

Our neighbor came over with power tools to help. This is a small hole he drilled in the ceiling to make sure we were in the right crawl space. Then the fun began.

I wasn’t nearly as cheerful about this as I look in this photo. My little worrier brain had already traveled the distance between “cat trapped in the ceiling” to “dead cat in the ceiling, we’ll never see Arlo again”.

It took a bit of coaxing, but we got him out. The guys came back the next day and patched the hole in the ceiling. And Arlo promises to never do anything like that again.

12 Weeks!

Oh my. John and I are both in love with this little boy. Hank is an absolute delight, even with the bazillion potty walks, and the daily 8PM attacks of the “zoomies”. Toddlers are toddlers, whatever the species.

He’s a smart little boy, we are making good progress on potty-training, and he is learning several commands that have improved his manners already. We’ve also been working on developing a daily schedule for him (and me!), which has been a bit challenging with the bathroom remodel. Lots of noise, and lots of strange guys in and out of the house keep him entertained, but also a bit wound up.

If you follow me on social media, you’ve likely seen these photos, but here they are again.

Speaking of the bathroom remodel, it is close to done. There are a few sheet rock repairs that need finishing, and it will be a done deal. There is a whole story with this that deserves its own blog post, so I’ll save that for later.

Last but not least, we are FINALLY getting our oven in the kitchen. Our old Viking gas wall oven died on us last fall. Not 2022, but 2021. We ordered a new gas oven, had the old one taken out, did the bit of remodel needed so the new one would fit. And have been waiting ever since. 14 months waiting on parts. There aren’t many gas ovens made, and the space where the oven goes doesn’t have 220 electrical access. Putting that in would have meant tearing up an awful lot of walls/ceiling to bring a line into the kitchen, so we are stuck with the gas option. It was actually delivered here on Monday, and the guys are here installing it right now.

Here’s hoping it fits the hole in the wall.

Expecting!

No, not that. We’re picking up a new family member on Sunday.

Isn’t he adorable? He is an eight week old Corgi pup!

That one ear up cracks me up. Their ears don’t typically stand up for a few months while they are rapidly growing. We went gear shopping today.

He doesn’t have a permanent name yet, though Marley is our current favorite. I can’t wait until his “gotcha” day!

A little neck thing

I have so much yarn, a significant portion of which is single skeins of the “my precious” variety. A lot of it is sock yarn, which will become socks if I ever get to all of it. I also have a bunch of non-sock single skeins, including impulse purchases, or “souvenir” yarn.

Enter “little neck things”. Little scarves, cowls, etc. This one seems to be the latest thing on Ravelry.

Isn’t that pretty? It’s just the right size to grab and go when it’s chilly out. Here’s another photo.

It’s an idiotically simple pattern, but the i-cord edging jazzes it up and makes it look like something more than a plain garter stitch scarf.

Project Details:

Pattern: Sophie Scarf, by PetiteKnit
Yarn: Shilasdair Aran merino, I bought this on a trip to Scotland in 2011. The color is Sandstone. Their yarns are dyed with natural dye materials; this skein was dyed with madder root and onion skin. I used one skein of this, 175 yards. I have a tiny little ball of yarn left over.
Needles:5.5mm/US 9
Started: November 2
Finished: November 4. That’s right, people. I started and finished a knitting project in less than a week. The fact that it was finished in the same decade in which it was started is newsworthy around here.
What I learned: Knitting from stash is delightful. Knitting something useful from stash is even better. This is a dead-easy pattern, and though it is written for DK-weight yarn, it could be knit from a skein of almost anything. Just weigh your yarn, knit the increase section until you’ve used half the yarn, then do the decrease part.

In other news, our sunny fall is finally over here in the Pacific Northwest. We’re being hit by an “atmospheric river” today and this weekend. This basically means we are going to get a shitload of rain. And apparently, severe winds, though that hasn’t hit yet. Thankfully, our generator has been serviced and fueled up so we’re ready if the lights go out.

We’re also nearing the end of our bathroom remodel. I’ll save photos of that for the next post.

New socks

New socks! I started these in August, finished last night.

The yarn is Stocainn sock yarn, from Shilasdair yarns in Scotland. They don’t have this in their online store currently, but I cleverly bought a few skeins of this for the stash when they did have it. Their yarn is dyed with natural botanicals. I didn’t record it, but I’m pretty sure this was dyed with madder root.

I used 2.00 mm needles, and the same old jerry-rigged pattern. These are for me.

And of course there are new socks on the needles.

More about those later.