Category: Knitting

Ikea, The New Knitting Store

I made my first foray out to the local Ikea store over the weekend.  What an adventure!  That place is just amazing;  I won’t even go into the Swedish meatballs in their cafe.  I made one knitting-related purchase.  For some time now, my stash has over-run the storage containers I have.  Mostly these are a variety of Rubbermaid-style boxes in different sizes and shapes.  Then there were the shipping boxes from several months of online shopping.

Those are the empty boxes that I finally threw out after I bought these cuties at Ikea:

Aren’t those just adorable?  They have lids, they stack, and you can buy casters for the bottom one so you can roll the whole thing around.  Please note the other storage thingie off to the side, full of yarn also; and the yarn in a bag sitting on the top.  That’s the Beaverslide yarn intended eventually for Rogue.

And here is a shot of another storage solution I found at Target some time back:

And a wicker basket full of a variety of things:

There is just no way I am crawling under the bed to take a picture of the three plastic storage boxes in hiding there.  I call that the Yarn Protection Program.

As you can see, I am well-prepared for when the Big Earthquake hits the Pacific Northwest.  I can pack all this into the car with a couple of gallons of water, and head for high ground.  The yarn shops could be closed for years, and I wouldn’t run out of knitting projects.  Well, OK, I would need an RV to pack all of this anywhere; it’s really sort of a rhetorical discussion.

I am still working on the front of Audrey; I’m into the armhole shaping.  Work is getting in the way of knitting this week.  I have a man cooking my dinner tonight so will get a little knitting done while the pork roast is cooking on the barbecue spit.  Now, what kind of wine goes with barbecued pork roast??
(That’s actually also a rhetorical question; the answer is “whatever bottle you have handy”.)

Half Finished

I’m not talking about the Audrey sweater.  I’ve finished a sock, and started the second of the pair.  The yarn is Sheep’s Gift, from Joslyn’s Fiber Farm, in the color Montego Bay.  Here is a picture before I finished the toes:

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And after:

Yes, I have big feet.  It takes more than the average amount of yarn to make socks for size 10 1/2 feet.

This is the Blueberry Waffle pattern; I’ve been working on these a while in between other projects.  Socks make a great portable knitting project.

I’m just to the end of the increases on the front of the Audrey sweater.  For some reason, I had to redo one section of the increases twice.  I was more than a little cranky over this.  I did the “make one” increase wrong twice in exactly the same place after tinking back, leaving a big honking hole.  I’m sure this was intended to make me humble as a knitter.  No picture, as it still looks just like the back piece.  I thought I would spare you pictures of the holes.

I will leave you with these pictures.  I have never in my life put bumper stickers on my car before this election year.  I will make an exception for this year.

You can buy these here.

This and That

I think I need a doctor.  I’ve been in three yarn shops in the past few weeks, all with lovely stuff, and have bought NO yarn.  I bought a set of double point needles in one shop to finish the blue sweater, and that’s it.  What’s with that?  Buying something for a specific project, and nothing else??  Of course, it might have something to do with the embarrassing stash I already own.  I have so much yarn I almost need to hire a full-time Stash Manager to deal with it.  If you add in the knitting tools, books, and patterns, it really could be a full-time job.

So in an effort to get rehabilitated quickly, I went to Elann and bought enough Schachenmayr Aurora in Claret to make a sweater.  It might turn into a Sitcom Chic type of sweater.  I’ll have to swatch it up to see what it wants to be.

I did finally break down and buy a steamer.  It’s a Rowenta hand-held steamer; the kind you use to steam wrinkles out of your business suit.  This could make blocking almost fun!

On the knitting front, I am up to the increase section on the second piece for the Audrey sweater.  It looks just like the first piece, so no pictures.  This is just such nice yarn that I might have to get some more for another sweater.

We had a Bastille Day celebration at our house last night.  The neighbors came over, we listened to a lot of French music, and drank a lot of French wine.  The menu was as follows:

Gougeres

Cucumber Mint Salad

Roast Chicken

Steamed Green Beans with Fresh Marjoram

Potato Galettes

French Bread

Cheese course, with several lovely French and non-French cheeses

Strawberry Tart

One of my French cookbooks points out that although three courses technically makes it a Menu, no self-respecting French chef would serve only three courses, especially to company.  So we had five courses.  I got absolutely no knitting done yesterday, but we have some great leftovers!

Ferry Knitting

We took a little trip to Seattle this weekend.  Instead of driving up I-5 hell, we drove across the bridge to Gig Harbor and took the Bremerton ferry across the Sound.  This gave me a couple extra knitting hours.  I have a little trouble knitting in the car due to motion sickness, but the ferry is great.  I love living in a place where part of the public transportation system involves boats and water.

Here I am waiting in the car line to get on the ferry:

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And on the ferry:

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And the return trip:

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I finished the back of Audrey this weekend.  Here is Willie’s opinion:

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I really love the shaping on this pattern:

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I am just not convinced that this is going to fit.  It seems like everyone on line says the same thing, so I am going to knit on and hope for the best.  It just looks so….skinny.  We’ll see.

Ice Blue, Finished!

Here it is:

There is another picture of the finished sweater, and the specifications here.

I had to do the cast-off on the turtleneck twice.  I finished this thing at 2AM last night (don’t ask), and when I tried it on, it barely went over my head.  I had done just a plain pullover knit cast-off.  I went to bed with my June Hiatt knitting bible, and read about sewn cast-off methods.  This morning I ripped out the edge and re-did it, and it turned out perfectly.

The sewn cast-off is pretty easy.  I took a couple of pictures, and although they are a bit fuzzy, here they are:

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The first step is to put your needle through the second stitch on the left needle as if to knit; pull the yarn through.

Then put your needle through the first stitch on the needle as if to purl, then drop that stitch off the needle.  Fiddle with it a bit to make sure it’s not too tight or too loose, and repeat these steps.  With the last stitch, go  through it as if to knit, then fidget around and find a place to hide your yarn end so it looks right.  June’s instructions run to two pages, and are much more detailed, but this is the basic idea.

I’m most proud of the way that the cable drifted into the ribbed collar.  The two cable branches continue right up into the columns of ribbing. This was totally accidental, but if I had not done this, I would have ripped and done it over this way.

I’m getting rid of my On The Needles page.  It’s too much stuff for me to keep track of.  I’ve decided for now to have 2 pages, the main blog page, and the finished project page.  At some point I will set up a list in the sidebar for things I’m working on.

Ice Blue Sweater

Pattern: Schoeller Stahl Winter 2002/2003

Yarn: Schoeller Stahl Sunshine, color 09 (catchy name, eh?)
88% wool, 12% polyamid

Modifications: I changed the cable down the front so it was a cross-over cable, with a purl row on each side.

Started: April 2004
Finished: July 2004

What I learned from this project:

I learned how to drop a stitch down many rows and knit it back up with a crochet hook, rather than ripping out those many rows.
I learned how to do raglan shaping, somewhat painfully.
I learned that I can change a pattern feature to suit the way I want it to look.
I learned how to do a sewn cast-off to allow for a stretchy neck so it will go over my head. I learned this on my SECOND attempt at casting off the neckline.

Yee-Haa!

I finished knitting the pieces to the ice blue sweater. Or, rather, reknitting them. This time the decreases turned out pretty nicely.  Not perfect, but good enough.   Now I just have to block them, sew them together, and knit the turtleneck collar on.

My timing is a bit off for finishing this project.  I leave town tomorrow for several days for a family reunion in North Dakota.  (This is why there are no pictures of the finished pieces; the camera is already packed.)  Blocking and seaming on the road just doesn’t sound like it will happen.  So I guess it will have to wait till I get home.

And you all know what that means.

A new project!!

I dithered quite a bit about what I will knit next.  God knows I have enough yarn to choose from.  I think it will be the Audrey sweater, from the Rowan # 35 magazine.  I have the yarn and the pattern already, so I think this one will go in the carry-on to start swatching on the airplane.

This will be our first real family reunion.  My mother had seven siblings; there are three surviving, and a multitude of cousins from my generation.  We are meeting in the little town where my grandfather homesteaded, and are planning a whole long weekend of fun activities.

I’ll be back in a week!

That Damned Ice Blue Sweater

I can explain. I really do think I will like this sweater once it is done.  I could have titled this post “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”.  It’s the decreases this time that are giving me fits.  Normally I do increases and decreases reasonably neatly.  This pattern does a slip-knit-pass-stitch-over type of decrease for one side of the garment piece.  They just look sloppy in this bulky shiny yarn.  The real b***h of it is that I didn’t decide this until I got to the sleeve cap on the first sleeve.  After I had finished the front and back pieces and put those stitches on holders.  I re-did the sleeve and like it much better, and then looked at the finished front and back pieces, and my gut just says I need to rip those back to where the decreases start and re-do them.

Here are a few pictures.

I don’t have “before” pictures of the sleeves, and I am not taking close ups of the big pieces to show the sloppiness.  I’ll just say that I am not pleased.  It doesn’t help that this is a long sleeved wool turtleneck sweater, and it has been in the high 80’s here.  I want to be knitting a snappy little cotton tank.  I know if I set this aside that I will forget what the hell I have changed when it’s time to pick it up again.

Just for some fun, try the Essay Generator.

Here is what I got when I put today’s blog title in:

Download Essay.html

John’s Sweater

Yarn: Classic Elite Provence, in mariner blue and ivory shades. The pattern called for the blue stripes to be 2 different shades of blue, I just used one. The yarn is 100% mercerized cotton; very nice to knit with.

Pattern: Seaside Stripes, from the book A Close Knit Family, by Melissa Leapman.

Started: I think I started this in about 1999, when I first started knitting.

Finished: June 12, 2004

For: My husband, John (the model)

Knitting Update

Not a very imaginative title, I know.

I am finished with the knitting parts of John’s striped sweater.  Here are a couple of photos (this is before I knit the collar on):

Sew the thing together, and I’m done.

I also worked on this sweater yesterday.

The second photo is the beginning of one sleeve.  It has about 7 inches of ribbing on each cuff, which I didn’t think I would like, but so far it is OK.

What I have learned so far from this sweater is to take notes as I knit.  I modified the cable down the front, as well as the raglan increases.  I set this aside a couple of months ago to work on John’s sweater.  Fortunately I had written about the increases in a previous post, so I could look that up.  I didn’t write down anywhere what I had done with the cable; I couldn’t remember if it was an 8 row cable or 10.  It looked more like 10 so that’s what I did for the top half of the sweater.  I think there is a rule somewhere that if you have a 50-50 chance of getting something right, you will pick the wrong answer 100% of the time.  Ripping ensued.  I have no idea why I didn’t figure this out until I had 3 separate cable crossings done.  I tried to just rip out the cable part in the middle, but decided quickly that it was more fiddly than just ripping it back to where I goofed.

I’m in a bit of a project-finishing frenzy.  I have a zillion things I want to start, but I think I want to finish both of these sweaters first.  Of course I won’t be able to wear that blue fuzzy thing for a few months, but at least it will be done and ready for the first cold fall day.

The National Pastime

No, I’m not referring to knitting, but to baseball.  I screwed up somewhat today.  It was (still is, actually) a glorious day in the Puget Sound area.  In honor of my first day off in 7 days, my husband and I went to the Tacoma Rainiers baseball game this afternoon.  It was in the mid to high 70’s, clear skies, a hint of a breeze, and just a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

I really love our local minor league ball club.  It’s close to home, and just seems more like what baseball should be.  There is the really cute mascot, Rhubarb the Reindeer, who is all over the stands for the whole game.  There are the cute boys dressed up in baseball outfits running all over the field.  It’s more unpredictable than going to a Mariners game.  When a major league batter whacks a pop fly into left field, the guy out there almost always catches it.  Boring.  With AAA ball, sometimes they catch them, sometimes they don’t.  They don’t always get the obviously “easy” double plays either.  Our home team won today, which made it even sweeter.

Then there are the between-inning activities to keep people glued to their seats rather than out at the beer stand.  My favorite is the one where all the little kids line up on one side of the field with Rhubarb, and they race across the field to the next exit.  The kids love it, and occasionally there are a few adults too.  A close second is the Chicken Dance.  Those of you from the Midwest know what this is:  I’m originally from North Dakota, and you are not legally married there until they have played this song at your wedding dance.  The college age kids working as ushers etc. get up on the dugout roofs and lead the crowd in performing this very dignified dance.  They do this every game, all season.  I certainly hope they get paid well.

The tickets are cheap; a beer costs more than the price of admission.  Heck, a hotdog almost costs more than the ticket.  All in all, a great way to spend an afternoon.

So how did I screw up?  I forgot my camera.  What a perfect blog photo shoot!  I took my knitting bag and did a little knitting off and on during the game.  Here is a photo of my DBKP  (Designated Ballpark Knitting Project):

And a close up:

This is Schachenmayr Rainbow, in White Rainbow (from Elann).  The pattern is the Bottoms Up Bucket Hat from Chicknits.

Of course, now we have to go to another game soon, so I can get pictures.  There really is very little that is more fun than sitting at the ballpark on a beautiful afternoon, beer in one hand, knitting needles at the ready.

Knitting Books, Part 1

I decided to do a post about my favorite knitting books.  Part 1 will be about my current two favorite books; who knows if I’ll ever get to Part 2 or beyond.

June Hiatt’s Principles of Knitting is one of them.  At 571 pages, this is at one extreme of the knitting book spectrum.  You can find just about anything in here, and if you want to know nearly all the ways to do a particular knitting task, this is the book for you.  Unfortunately it is out of print, though there are frequent rumors on the knit lists that it is going through a re-write.  It is not casual reading, but more of an exhaustive (exhausting?) reference work.  If you have friends who refuse to take your knitting seriously, this book on your coffee table might just impress them.  I do love this book, even though Ms. Hiatt can be very opinionated when it comes to the best way to do something.

If money is no object, you can buy this on Ebay or other online sellers at exorbitant prices.  Or check your library.  If you decide to spring for it, look at a copy first.  She illustrates her work with line drawings rather than photos.  I actually find this helpful; I’m not distracted by the color and texture of the yarn used and can focus on the technique illustrated.  Others just don’t like this and work better with actual photos.

At the other exteme is Nancie Wiseman’s The Knitter’s Book Of Finishing Techniques.  This is short and sweet, at 128 pages.  The title is somewhat misleading.  This is much more than a book about buttonholes and hems.  She discusses selvedges, seams, picking up stitches, grafting, casting on, and binding off, as well as other techniques.  I use this book all the time; it has a permanent place in my knitting bag.  It has a spiral binding so it opens flat in front of you while you are working, and the photos and instructions are clear and direct.

If I could only have one knitting book, and money was no object, I would get the Hiatt encyclopedia.  If I could only have one book, and only had $16, I would buy the Wiseman book.

Well of course you all know I don’t have just one knitting book.  I would post a picture of the knitting book library, if it weren’t so danged embarrassing.  And I would have to collect them from all corners of the house for the photo shoot; there is that, as well.  That’s too close to housecleaning for me.