My name is Lorette. I learned to knit in 1999, and took up spinning in 2009. I'm a physician specializing in internal medicine, and live in the Pacific Northwest. Enjoy my blog!
I am actually going to finish this* one of these days. Ravelry says I started this in 2018. Of course, I haven’t been working on it all that time. Even I’m not THAT slow. I have about 50 rows left, then a single crochet edge along the long sides, then blocking. It’s not really a complex lace pattern, but does require that I pay attention to the chart, so it isn’t TV knitting.
Here’s another photo. It’s a bit hard to get a good picture of unblocked lace, especially red unblocked lace. Most of the photos I’ve taken inside suggest that it’s tomato-red, when it is really a deep ruby-red color.
I’m off to knit a few more of those 50 rows. I’m ready to finish this thing and wear it.
Oof. Again. I keep waiting to post until I have time to catch up, but I never seem to make that time. So I’m just going to start where I am.
Two new projects, both “knit-alongs”. the first is Casapinka’s Sharon Air shawl, which started a week ago. Here is where I am.
I’m a few rows into Clue 2. The yarn is from stash*, Plucky Knitter’s Lodge fingering, which is a wool/linen blend. I’m not sure what I was thinking** when I bought four skeins of this in different colors, since one skein isn’t enough to make much of anything that I’d ordinarily knit. It will work perfectly for this though. Here’s a closer view of the stitch patterns.
As usual with a Casapinka pattern, there is lots of fun and goofiness that accompanies the knit-along.
The next is a sweater.
I know, it doesn’t look like much. The pattern is Vanilla Sweater; it’s a top down raglan, knit with Rauma Finullgarn at a relatively loose gauge. Here’s a photo from the pattern.
So far I really like how the Rauma knits up. I think this will be a terrific between-seasons layering piece.
That’s all for now. I have lots more going on, but I’ll save it for next time.
*Because I have SO MUCH STASH yarn.
**Thinking? There is no thinking when it comes to yarn-buying at Chez Knitting Doctor.
Our excursion Sunday was to a nearby village that was the site of a small knitting factory that opened in the 19th century. The factory unfortunately closed in 1989, but it has been converted into a museum, keeping most of the old spinning and knitting machinery in working order. The original factory primarily made machine-knit (and hand-finished) clothing, especially woolen long underwear.
That is just some of the old equipment on display.
That is a bin of single ply thread ready to be made into either cloth for garments, or finished yarn for knitting.
The museum shop was lovely, with a nice collection of knit items, books, and other souvenirs. You know I was there for the yarn, right?
Some of that did come home with me.
That little guy didn’t end up in my shopping bag, though he sure is cute.
After John tested positive on Sunday, I did the same on Monday. We were restricted to our cabin for 5 days each, so John was out yesterday, me this morning. I felt pretty lousy for a couple of days, but have no symptoms now other than reduced sense of smell. We missed four ports in Norway, though did get a few photos from our veranda. The prettiest day so far was Geirangar fjord, which was spectacular, with many stunning waterfalls.
Our cabin attendant, Mohammed, took good care of us for the week. He made sure our window and veranda wall were kept clean so we had a good view at all times.
We arrived in Bergen yesterday, and today is the midpoint of the cruise. Many passengers are staying on for the full trip to Stockholm, though there is also a lot of turnover from people only doing the two week portions. We did a tour in Bergen today, here’s one of the highlights.
Some fine Norwegian wool, and a sheep-themed bag to put it in.
And I finished a pair of socks.
The wool is from deep stash, Elliebelly 100% BFL. Same old pattern. These are for me.
Stay tuned for more adventure now that we are able to explore!
And that’s likely all we will see of Norway for the next five days.
John had a scratchy throat yesterday so we retested. He popped up positive. I didn’t, but have the same symptoms this morning. We are waiting on PCR confirmation, but we’re in quarantine. Neither of us feels very sick, which is good. The ship staff couldn’t be any better. We are able to order food from the main dining room menus, as well as from the specialty restaurants. They are crediting us for any shore excursions that we will miss.
And of course, I have enough knitting and reading material so I can’t possibly run out of things to do.
Speaking of knitting, I did manage to find some yarn. This was from Orkney island, the guide on the tour we took was a knitter and gave me directions to a little shop selling yarn.
Who knows what that all will be, but it is awfully pretty.
We are having a blast so far. Our wifi is a bit spotty, so this will be short. We have a tour this afternoon of Orkney Island. I hear there may be wool shopping opportunities there.
The project up there is a simple garter shawl; no pattern, just garter stitch with increases to make a triangle shawl. I’ll change colors when each yarn runs out. The wool is Icelandic light fingering, dyed with various plants. As we’ll end our trip with a few days in Iceland, I thought it was appropriate.
So far we are still on deck for our vacation. We did home covid tests yesterday just for reassurance (both negative), and had our ”official” lab tests this morning to enable us to get on a cruise ship by the end of the week.
This is my retirement trip, delayed from last summer due to covid. If anything screws this up, I may need to be put into restraints. We do have trip insurance, so if those covid tests surprise us, we’re covered. BUT. I’d be really pissed off. We’ve been REALLY careful about exposure in the past few weeks.
So, where are we going? We decided on a Scandinavian/Baltic cruise. We fell in love with Viking cruises when we did one just before the pandemic shutdown, and signed up for this before that cruise was over. We fly into London, spend a couple of days there, then the cruise goes to Scotland for a few stops. The majority of the trip is along the northern Norwegian coast, going up to the Arctic Circle before heading back, then to Denmark, one stop with a bus trip to Berlin, a stop in Gdansk, Poland, ending up in Sweden. We disembark in Stockholm. We’re making a short stop in Iceland on the flight back. We’ll be gone close to five weeks. The ship was supposed to dock in St. Petersburg, but obviously that’s not happening.
I have everything staged to pack. Not surprisingly, I’ve agonized more over the knitting/spinning projects than anything else. I do believe that there may be a few yarn-acquisition opportunities on the cruise (Shetland islands, all of Norway!). So I’m trying to not overpack and leave a little room for souvenir yarn.
After some dithering, here are the spinning projects I’m taking:
Fingers crossed for those Covid tests!
*And yes, the house, the cats, and the yarn stash will be carefully guarded while we’re away-we have a house sitter!
Pattern: Mine Hill Cardigan. This is another CustomFit design; you choose the basic pattern, which then uses your specific gauge and body measurements that you’ve entered.
Rating: *****/***** for yarn and pattern. The yarn is wonderful. It’s a sheepy, slightly rustic yarn, which knit up into a nice, drapey fabric. The Custom Fit patterns are no-nonsense, no-handholding, but clear and straightforward. I’m also amazed at the fit of the sweaters that I’ve made using this method. I always tend to knit sweaters that are too big for me. The whole time I was knitting this, I was quite sure that it wasn’t going to fit, but there you are.
What I Learned: I’m learning more about sweater fit with each of these sweaters that I make. Baggy sweaters aren’t flattering for most people. I’m also learning how to be more particular about my finishing work. My seams aren’t perfect, but they are getting better. I’m also getting more selective about choosing patterns that I will actually wear. This will be one of those closet staples that will get a lot of use.
This is a tough color to photograph, especially since my corner of western Washington apparently didn’t get the memo that it is summertime. It’s in the mid-50’s and overcast here today, which makes taking pictures chancy. If we ever see sunshine again, I’ll get a photo outdoors so you can see the true color. Here it is still skeined up, which shows the color better:
And a close up of the front stitch pattern:
One last photo. We might be going somewhere next week.
Finally, the mystery project has been gifted, so I can show you what I’ve been up to.
It’s a baby blanket!
Project Details
Pattern: Hansel, by Gudrun Johnston
Yarn: Miss Babs Yummy 2ply, various colors
Started/Finished: February 2022/June 2022
For: Steph and Paraj’s baby girl
This is the medium size, and is plenty big for a baby blanket. I didn’t add the lace border, since it was big enough without, and I was running short on time. This is a straightforward, easy pattern, really only basic knitting skills required. The pattern was easy to follow. This would make a nice shawl also, there might be yarn in my stash for another one. The baby isn’t here yet, but I’ve done my part.
I had a little out of town trip over the weekend. My great-niece Elise graduated from high school in Sacramento, and I flew down to join the festivities. Fun was had by all. Here are a few photos.
There weren’t a lot of masks in evidence, either on the airplanes, or in Sacramento. I’ve only been home for two days, but so far I’m testing negative for Covid. We have a big trip coming up in late June, so from here on out John and I will be trying to isolate as much as possible. This is my retirement trip that got postponed from last summer due to Covid, so I’m going to be really pissed off if it gets canceled again. More on that in a future post.
I have all the pieces for my newest sweater finished and blocked. I started seaming things together last night. I have one sleeve in, and am sewing up the side seam. Once it’s put together, there is a wide band that goes up and around the fronts, I suppose that will take forever, but I’m beginning to see the light at the end of the sweater tunnel. I might even have this finished to take on our trip. here’s a photo.
Those clip things to hold pieces together for seaming are one of the great knitting-world inventions. I tossed the packaging long ago, so have no idea of the brand or where I got them, but they really do make lining things up much easier.
I’m off to do more sewing! I do have a great big finished project to show you, but it is a surprise, so it needs to be gifted first.
My phone camera really doesn’t do justice to the beauty of that fiber. The fiber is from Abby’s Yarns, and is 50% merino, 49% silk, and 1% firestar. It looks pretty grey, but in natural light it has little highlights of pale green and lavender. And glitter, like a sparkly pigeon.
And how about that pretty spindle? That is a Greensleeves, a Damsel Monique. It holds a ton of yarn, yet is very lightweight considering the size of the whorl.
Glitter pigeon is the color name that Abby gave this. Just like a real pigeon, it looks like boring grey until you catch it in just the right light.
That’s the yarn I hauled out of deep stash (aka the ”my precious” collection). It’s from Elliebelly yarns, though she sadly is no longer dyeing yarn. The color is Viper, and it really does look a bit like snakeskin knitted up.
These socks will be for me. I only wish I’d collected more of her yarn while it was available.
I’m getting closer to a finished sweater here. I have half a sleeve left to knit, and decided to block the other finished pieces this morning so I’m ready to start assembling.
This is the Mine Hill Cardigan, I’m knitting it up in John Arbon’s Appledore yarn, which is just gorgeous. Those photos show it mostly as grey, but it is a lovely light grey-blue heather color.
Here is the pattern photo so you can see what it will look like. I’m doing the sleeves longer, but otherwise it’s knit as written. Oh, and no pockets. This is a rather light, drapey yarn, and I think pockets would just be saggy. Saggy pockets are worse than no pockets.
That front band will take a little time, but I should have a finished sweater to wear soon! Here’s the other sleeve in progress.
I did finish the Ukrainian flag socks last night. As usual, they are a welcome addition to my collection. Though my sock drawer runneth over, some of those pairs are perilously close to wearing through at the heels, and I have way too much sock yarn in the stash to spend time darning socks. I’d much rather cast on a new pair. I do have a pair of John’s socks on my desk that need a new toe, but that’s just reknitting, not mending, so that is acceptable.
Here are the finished new ones:
The color in photos looks a little bumblebee-ish, but it is really blue and sunflower yellow, not black and yellow.
The yarn is Biscotte Bis-sock, color Minions. I knit these with my in-my-head top down-flap & gusset heel pattern. I used Hiya Hiya bamboo double pointed needles, size 2.00mm. I’ve played around with different brands of dpn’s over the years, often claiming that “these are my very favorites”, but these really are among the best. They are lightweight, with very sharp tips, and seem durable. The current pair has lasted through at least a half dozen pairs of socks, and don’t seem to be particularly fragile. And there has been no fraying of the tips. I also love my Lykke dpns and will keep those in rotation as well.
And no, it absolutely does not bug me that my socks are usually fraternal twins. There isn’t enough time in the day for me to try to match stripes exactly.
So there you are. I’ve already started the next pair. The yarn is from deep stash, you’ll just have to wait until I have a few rounds done to see what’s next.
I fell off the blogging traincar for awhile there. Part of it is the general ennui that accompanies the grey and rainy spring we’ve had. No doubt some of it is all the political turmoil that has been sucking the soul out of everybody I know. It’s pretty easy to get dragged down into the news/social media cesspool these days. I finally decided to just delete my twitter account last week. There’s one less thing to be outraged over.
Another reason for the post-avoidance is the blog mess that happened two years ago when the blog got hacked, then I lost a whole bunch of photos when I managed to get it up and running again. I’ve been trying to upload those photos to the correct blog posts, but it’s a tedious process, and some of them have been unrecoverable. I decided last week to say just fuck it, and leave the old posts as is. Probably nobody goes back to look at those, and I do have project photos on Ravelry if anyone does get some burning desire to see them. It’s a bit like mourning a favorite possession that you’ve lost. Sometimes it’s just time to move on.
I have been knitting, but mostly I’ve been working on a secret baby project. Said baby is due in June, and I should be on track to finish that on time, as long as I don’t get all distracted and cast on dozens of new projects.
Those socks up there should be done by the end of the day today. I now have a sock drawer stuffed full of hand knit socks, which makes me a very happy person.
I have almost that many more in the sock laundry bin. And of course, John has his own sock drawer.
Next time I’ll drag out the other things I’ve been working on!
