...relocation time...

Relocating again. More to come later. Maybe more knitting time???

Some FOs -- picture heavy post

Pretty Thing in Karabella Boise purchased from Ellen.

My gauge is a bit off. I got gauge with a swatch, but when knitting the pattern, I tightened up. It still fits, tho slightly snug going over the head. It should fit my sister....belated b-day present.






very soffffft. :) The sewn bind off was very nice and stretchy.









Tudor Rose in Araucania Ranco Solid purchased from my LYS.
It is more brick red in real life. I knit 68 repeats and did the "sewn bind off".










Wyatt Hat










Opal 6-ply, sze 5 needles, 2x2 rib, then garter rib, 4 point double decrease til 20 stitches, then draw yarn through. It fits his BIG head. As you can see, he likes to look at himself in the oven door.

Boo!!

Happy Halloween!!! He's getting over coxackie virus, thus the rash on his face. Just in time for Halloween. He just looks scary, no longer contagious. :) No knitting content to report, although I have several project near the finish mark.

BSJ for my Own

Well, I've been knitting BSJs for other people's children, now I have my own. Here's Wyatt getting ready to come home from the hospital. I used Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in Ravenswood, 3.5mm needles, with I-cord edging. The hat is 2x2 rib. The buttons are from Joann Fabric. There is a second BSJ for him (knit with Opal 6ply), but it needs to be seamed and the buttons need to be placed. Since he arrived 3.5 weeks early, I hadn't had the chance to get the jackets finished. I was sewing on the buttons on the LL BSJ in the hospital. The hat was completed in the hospital, also.

another BSJ

Here is another Baby Surprise Jacket for my friend's little girl. It is Lorna's Laces Supersock yarn in sherbert knit with 3.5mm needles. I've made several BSJs, including two for my neice (which she grew out of in two months) and one for a friend's little girl a few years ago. I've used Lorna's Laces sock or sport yarn for all those and they work wout very nicely. I'm working on one for my little one that is due early April. I am using Opal 6-ply. I'll have pics when I've completed it.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

where did the time go?

Yes, it's been a while. I had finished some projects, and I have started several more. I will have to take some photos to show you. I finished Lola socks (two socks on two circs toe up) and I finished a pair using Meilenweit in bluish green colors (possibly colortweed). I also knit up a scarf using Misti Alcapa bulky while at a meeting in Chicago. My shawls are at a standstill. I have just the edging to do on Shetland Tea Shawl. I promise to get pics up soon!!!!

P.S. The swan is no longer. I did not have the enthusiasm that I did starting it....so, it has been ripped. I am considering several other potential lace projects for this yarn. It is a purdy pink.

Pink

So I finished the first clue for mystery stole 3. It was a little cumbersome with the tiny crochet hook and the beads, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Here is a look at the product:




A closer look:
It is very sunny out today. Nice breeze, not too humid. I can have many days like this. It is expected to get warm and humid in the next few days. I'm liking this pink. The beads are nice, too. I can't wait for the next clue.

Pink

So I finished the first clue for mystery stole 3. It was a little cumbersome with the tiny crochet hook and the beads, but I'm getting the hang of it.

Here is a look at the product:

It is very sunny out today. Nice breeze, not too humid. I can have many days like this. It is expected to get warm and humid in the next few days.

me too!!!

It didn't take much to convince me to join MS3 (mystery stole 3) on the Yahoo Groups. Just a visit to Ellen's blog was all I needed to get me to sign up. I'd participated in mystery knit-a-longs before. I've made a triangle shawl and a square shawl through those groups. They've been given away, but I think I may have the photos somewhere. The square shawl was mentioned in a previous post.

I wonder what this stole will be. I chose to knit is in very light pink (color 831 from Skacel Merino Lace) with pink 8/0 beads. I'm using 2.75mm needles.I could go to 3.5mm, but I think the stitch definition is better with 2.75mm. I'll have pictures later. I'm just getting started with the first clue. I don't know if I will end up with a scarf or a stole, but I really don't care. I enjoy the mystery and the act of knitting too much to let the size of the end product be an issue. I just hope I have enough yarn. :)

A New Place

Well, since the last post I have moved to a new home in a different state. I'm back in the Mid-West to be closer to my folks and the in-laws, not to mention my new niece. I'm close enough to get to them in an emergency, but not so close that they are living in my house. You all know how that goes.

Knitting should continue, but the weather here is quite a bit different. I left Maine around the same time juju did; we left some awesome knitters at our LYSs. I hope to find folks here to knit with, but I think my schedule will be quite different than before. I did do some stash enhancement before leaving town. Once all the yarn and paraphernalia were packed, I needed something to see and touch. I invested in some cashmere lace, sock yarn, etc.

More to come later.

Patriot's Day "Hurricane"

This year's Patriot's Day was supposed to be a nice day off for me. But, NOOOOO! We had a Nor'Easter!!!!!!!

This makes my property look like water front, doesn't it? This is during the time when the winds had slowed abit to around 35mph gusts. The horizontal rain was rather scary and the noise that went with the winds....

More knitting content soon.

April Snow brings May Mud!

WHAT!?!?! It should be warm and showery, not snowy. No knitting content today. Just this lovely view from my kitchen as the sun sets. It has now become sleet.

Just in Time

I got this neck warmer finished in time for Pete to wear before the ski season ends. I used GGH wollywasch in navy and light blue...the Maine Black Bears colors. It is a basic k2p2 ribbing, size 3.5mm Aero circulars.

It looks like he'll keep his neck and chin warm while whooshing down the slopes of Sugarloaf.

(By the way, Maine Black Bears are going to the Frozen Four. I'm not a hockey fan, but the regional semifinals and finals were exciting. Go, Black Bears!)

Also, the socks and the mitts from a few posts ago went to Pete's wife, Allison. They fit her perfectly. I like it when people fit into my knitted items. :)

Snow storm...last week

Well, we had a loverly snow storm on Valentine's Day. I have pictures to show you.


This is what I drove through to get back home from work. Yes, I was going slow enough to dig out my camera from my bag.

This was about a mile away from my home. I couldn't tell where the road was.

I'll have knitting stuff next time. Aren't you surprised that I have two posts
this month already?