Sunday, December 21, 2008

MK projects


Earlier this month I purchased Silver Reed SK160. It is a mid-gauge single bed manual knitting machine. It does allow me the option of upgrading to electronic allowing me to use Design a Knit program and add a ribber. I'm not quite ready for that, yet. My first lesson was making a shaped hat. Well, the orange one was the first one. Then the green heather, followed by forest green and green heather mix (left overs), and then the gray one. The first three are Knitaly (superwash wool) and the gray one is Patons Classic Merino. They are adult sizes and fit my husband's head very nicely. The forest green/green heather one is going to Iraq with a friend who is being deployed for the third time. It took about hour and a half to knit the first one, then the others took about an hour. It includes seeming. The shaping at the crown is a bit tedious, but works up pretty quick.

I'm excited about knitting a sweater. I have lots of variegated yarn that I want to knit up but seem to be running short on time. Since most variegated yarn doesn't show pattern well, simple stockinette or reverse stockinette stitch would look nicer on a sweater, maybe with a little bit of accent patterning. I just don't have time to knit stockinette. With the baby due in April, I want to get some baby sweaters knit up as well as some simple sweaters for DH and me. I still have way too many socks on needles and even started a reversible cable scarf. I have to finish up some lace works as well. I enjoy the complex lace, cables, and other texture patterning with hand knitting. Although I have many stockinette socks, I find it very boring and tedious to knit stockinette sweater. I have a couple of garter stitch projects that are waiting to be finished. Same thing. Boring. This is why it took me 5 yrs to finish the Einstein sweater. Bah!

Saturday, November 08, 2008

I'm still here...and FO, too

There comes a time when the desire to knit dips very low and then it comes up again. I've finally finished my Einstein Coat (Sally Melville pattern). I started this coat in April 2003. I had completed the sleeves last year and finally seamed them and finished the collar today.
I used Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky in Sable. I knit the "medium" size. I had to up the needle sizes to get gauge. Since there was a long gap between knitting sessions, the cast on and the cast off were of slightly different gauge. Otherwise, it fits fine. It'll get me through this winter in Peoria and my growing belly should be quite warm. I guess the final motivation to finish this coat was that I didn't want to invest in maternity coats for the winter. I am ordering a warmer coat, but this should get me through the bulk of the winter here as it doesn't get too cold (compared to Maine).

I finished a pair of socks and am working on the second of another pair. I'll get pics up later.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I'm in the doghouse...


This showed up in my office today. It's our wedding anniversary...12 years...and I plum forgot until this came. I've been writing the date ALL morning long. DH asked maybe we go out to dinner tonight and I even suggested including a movie. Sometimes, I'm really thick in the head. I love you hunny bunny!

Monday, May 05, 2008

finally more knitting



This is what arrived late February. Someday soon, I will knit it. The packaging was beautiful. There were chocolates involved!! The pattern is very detailed. I don't know where I found out about this but I was doing my usual blog browsing and next thing I know, I'm placing an order. I'm so weak.


I did get back to a stole I started last summer. Faux Russian Stole from a GOL.
I am using Opal Uni-solid in brown. I bought locally. It is working out very nicely. I purchased Addi lace needles for this and it is very nice. Since then, I obtained Knit Picks' Harmony. Those are nice, too, and more affordable (I have many, many circulars...). I hope to finish this this year. I'm not so sure about Frost Flowers and Leaves. The Shetland Tea Shawl should be getting some attention as I only have the edging to do, but...I get entranced in the rhythm of the FRS. I am at 2.5 repeats. I intend on following the recipe and complete 5.5 repeats. In the meantime, I still work on socks to pass the time in between cases.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

Is it Spring already?

I didn't even start the Spring Shawl Surprise KAL. It looks nice; I'll probably knit it someday.
I did join another knit along. (ETA: I have left the group...I have no time for what is happening there.)


In the meantime, blocked the baby shawl/blanket that took a year to knit. It's for my niece. She is now 14 months old and thinks it is very "oooooo". That's how she describes something she thinks is soft and nice. I knit the center garter stitch in diagonal with the letter "B" for the last name in eyelet. The borders were picked up and knit in the round with several rows of eyelet and then simple 4x4 feather and fan variety; then the edging was knitted on. The corners of the edging were short-rowed to accommodate the turn. I made up the pattern using various resources.


You can see some of the details here. I used Baby Ull, in white (natural?), about 6 balls, 5mm Knit Picks Harmony (luv it!!!). I think it measures around 54 inches across.




I started and finished a top down raglan sweater for my niece. I used Lorna's Laces Worsted in "child's play" (rainbow colored). The pattern is from LA books. I had knit several of these in the past for friends' children. This was the first in variegated yarn.

I also started and completed socks and cowl (neckerchief) for my friend in Brookfield. She spun the merino/tencel that I used for the cowl. It was very smooth knitting. The socks were knit with Canada Classic Sox. It will keep her feet warm when she goes fly fishing or ice fishing. Maybe she'll send me pics.

I'm hoping to get back to some of my unfinished items (frost flowers and leaves, shetland tea shawl - which only has the edging to do, faux Russian stole, large rectangle shawl from Victorian Lace Today, several pairs of socks, Taos diagonal sweater). I keep wanting to start another lace project, though.

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

a lemming, I am.

I did it! I joined another knitalong. THIS time, I will complete the shawl!!!! I just have to find the right yarn. I already have a cone of Zephyr in Jade, but I'm looking for other options. Clue #3 has been revealed. There will be 12 clues.