Still Around, Still Knitting

Yes, I'm still alive... and feeling wonderful! Dr. changed my thyroid level and some supplements and I'm feeling so full of energy that it's hard to sit still long enough to compose a blog entry. I've finished a few things, the pictures are still in my camera and will make it here eventually.

I've also been running an evening Summer Knitting Program at a local Library which has been a lot of fun. Mostly new or new-ish knitters so lots of problem solving on my part.

Personally, I've several lace projects going and a couple of socks.

My secret Knitty blue project was a dismal failure. I was making, for The Photographer, Retrofit which is a somewhat slim fitting sweater. I made it from measurements I took a year ago since I wanted it to be a Father's Day surprise. His shoulders didn't fit by two sizes and around chest measurement needed to be the next size up. (The smaller sizes really are fitted.) Simply a disaster - the whole way round! The yarn is now back in hanks; it really didn't want to be that sweater.

Next time I'll have pictures, promise.

Annie says, Hey.

It needs more Cow Bell!!

Not much to show for the past couple weeks. I've been knitting but sticking to just two projects which is unusual for me. Normally I'm working on four or more projects at one time; what can I say, "I just like variety."

The main project is a store sample. Since I don't get to keep them, store samples are quick projects that I enjoy knitting but I don't want to devote lots of time to BUT I've found one of those rare patterns that has a rhythm to the knitting and I can't seem to put it down. I believe I'm committed to the end of the yarn. It's the very popular Lace Ribbon Scarf on Knitty.


I'm using Ella Rae's Lace Merino (which is more of a fingering weight than lace weight) in color 110. A yellowy light green.

For true colors check out the yarn here.

I'm also still plugging away on my Barn-Raising Quilt blocks. I have 16 finished squares now; everyone a different yarn. I have two blocks that I thought were different yarns but they ended up looking very similar - not sure if I'll use the duplicate looking one or not.

I also am wondering how busy this quilt is going to look with all that changing color. Should I make a bunch of solid color squares to alternate with the more colorful ones. (That might be a problem as I don't have much solid superwash fingering weight yarn, either new or left overs.)

And I'm running out of left overs so I've started combining small bits together and coming out with some great looking squares IMHO.



That's it for knitting around here. I have been spinning but it's still that same white corriedale fleece I've posted before. Six and one-half pounds is beginning to feel like a life time's amount of fleece.

The Photographer went to the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California and has some pictures posted here if you're interested in the race.


(cowbell passed out at the beginning of the race)

Getting On With It

I hate the fiddly finishing of knit projects. This weekend I sucked it up and decided to block the pile of finished projects I've accumulated the past six month. Of course, I couldn't decide to do it last week when it was in the high 80's and the humidity was down to 14% - No not me. This weekend it was about 70 and 49% humidity so it took a full 24 hours for each batch to dry and that's with a fan on it all day too.



Saturday I blocked the parts for Hey Teach





While pinning out the front pieces I saw that I'd knit two more rows on the Right front than the Left front. This is at the top of the neckline so, yes, it will show. Why couldn't I have seen this when I was knitting?? Absolutely the worst place to have made this MISTAKE! So my choices are to pull out the whole shoulder and re-knit or try to pick out the two rows and anchor the extra yarn at the back. Thick I'll try pulling out the two rows first and see how it looks before pulling the whole shoulder and re-knitting. Sigh... It's always something.



Sunday I blocked three scarves.





The scarf on the left is My So Called Scarf which I finished in February.
Ravelry link here



Center is the Noro Stripped Scarf I mentioned last post.



The Right hand scarf is the Grace's Scarf I mentioned in my Nov. 7th blog entry.



And this morning I pinned down the last project that's been languishing in my blocking pile.





My Midwest Moonlight Scarf from the book Scarf Style; at 12 inches in width seems more like a small shawl than a scarf.
Mentioned in my Sept. 8 blog entry. Ravelry link here



My second knitting problem was I ran out of yarn 2.5 inches from the end of the second sock! I kept looking in my sock bag like more yarn would magically appear.



This is the first time this has unexpectedly happened. The yarn label says 350 yards and that's usually more than enough for me to make an 8" leg with a 9" foot. I'm thinking the pattern may be the reason. I'm knitting the Welsh Traveling Socks out of the book Shear Spirit. So I ripped back the toe of sock one in order to finish the pattern part of sock two and will finish both toes in another yarn. No pictures as the sun went in before I got the photograph and the detail of the pattern wouldn't show up. I'll finished them and then you can tell me if I picked an acceptable color for the toes.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in the U.S.; enjoy your time with family and friends.

Now is a good time for me to say how thankful I am to all you that read this blog and have taken time to write to me. I really do enjoy hearing from you.

It was a Kureyon Weekend

The four day Holiday Weekend is over; we both took off Thursday. Daughter #1 was over for dinner Friday, #2 Daughter was here on Sunday. We ate, we watched The Music Man, listened to March Music and had a very nice, quiet celebration - except for the time Friday when the helicopters were circling because some kids set the canyon on fire playing with fireworks. (Small fire that was quickly put out - Thank-you Fire Dept!)

My personal celebration was lots of time spent gardening, spinning and knitting. I finished the Primavera Socks. Made from Trekking XXL, color 108


Earlier in the week I finished the Tile Socks from Socks, Socks, Socks made from Louet Gems Sportweight.


These are the first socks I've made in a yarn heavier than fingering weight. I love the socks but living in Southern California I don't know when I'll have occasion to wear them. Maybe I'd better stick to lighter weight yarns in the future.

Started the Ziggy Socks from Knitty.


I'm using Kureyon Sock yarn; sorry but I hate this yarn. As singles, it's all twisty on itself making it impossible to use for a stranded project! This is going to be ripped out. The pattern is fine except for one thing - this toe-up sock starts with Judy's Magical cast-on (this was my first attempt using this particular cast-on) Did I do something wrong, there's a row of garter stitch at the cast-on site (you can just see it in the photo?) I ripped it out twice but always ended up with those garter rows right at the tip of the toe. I like this cast-on method but I suspect I'm doing something backwards. Anyone have some pointers to help me?

Last Tuesday was my day to do the Spinning Demo at the San Diego County Fair.


Members of our spinning class covered this Demonstration over the run of the Fair. I was there on Kids Day so I must have been ask many times, "Where did Sleeping Beauty hurt her finger?" Since I was spinning on an Ashford Traditional there was no spindle to show them. We've discussed next time having an old wheel there that has a spindle, at least on Kids Day.

That Wheel was a single pedal which I'm not use to; by the end of my Demo hour my whole treadling leg hurt. Don't know what I did wrong but I'm sticking to double treadle wheels! I can spin for hours on either of mine with no aches or pains, thank goodness.

Last weekend I dyed this Superwash Merino Roving.


I baked it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 mins and then let it sit to cool to room temperature.

Spinning this is so cool ; I love the way the singles are changing color.


Ravelry let me to Bobby's Blanket. The Hexagon pattern/recipe is posted here. I used some left over Kureyon to give it a try. (6 inch double point for size reference)


I enjoyed making these two hexagons but it's very hard on my hands. I probably won't be making more with worsted weight but I'm wondering if it would be easier with fingering weight? Maybe a use for that Kureyon Sock Yarn?

Under "Small World": Sunday I was reading Laurie's blog Issues with Knitting
where she talks about buying a bag of Kureyon to make Sandy's Sweater in Big Girl Knitting. Well I bought a pile of Kureyon #213 two weeks ago


to make the same sweater. And I too haven't decided on the solid to go with #213. I'd like to use a green but haven't found a green worsted weight I think works with this Kureyon colorway. Hmm, are sweater patterns contagious?

Finally, Annie's poodle foot is growing out. And she's doing fine - never would know she'd been so sick. We're really watching what she eats and
No Table Scraps!

Stuck in Squares-ville

Not until I pulled out my camera and started taking pictures of my current knitting projects did I realize that everything I'm working on is square.

First, I pulled out Mitered Thing after Laurie sent me more sock yarn leftovers. Thanks again, Laurie, I always appreciate the kindness of knitting friends.


Since the time I first blogged about my "affair with mitered squares" I've received many questions about my method. I'll briefly describe how I make my garter stitch mitered squares. Hope it doesn't confuse more than it explains.

Cast-on an uneven number of stitches.
Do not slip first stitch on a row.
Knit half the number of stitches minus 3 (example: cast on 13 stitches, half minus 3 would be 5)
Here's the decrease you work on the right side only. Slip 1, K2tog, pull slipped stitch over K2tog
Knit wrong side row with no decrease.
Repeat these two rows until you have one stitch left.
Now pick up half the number of your cast on stitches down the side of the square and either cast on the other half plus one of the stitches or pick up along the edge of the square that is one down and over from the last completed square. Picking up one stitch for each garter ridge and one in the very center usually gives me the right count. (hope you understand that picking-up stitches part - I'm sure there's a better way to word it.)

Second, the Shop received a shipment of Trendsetter Yarns Tonalita, a long color change yarn that is great for Entrelac. I'm knitting a sample for an Entrelac class I'll be teaching.


This is color 2345; blues, purple, pink, turquoise, teal and jade.

(photo is true to color on my monitor.)

Third: I was exploring on Ravelry and was searching everything made with Noro yarn when I found Quant on Knitty, an entrelac headband.




By chance, I had a single skein of Silk Garden, sorry I can't find the ballband to tell you the color.
I'm going to have to hunt further because I really do like these rosy colors.


Any other square projects I missed? Can you tell I have a strong quilting background to be so enamored of everything square?

Taking pictures isn't as easy around here as you might think. My helper Sam one second after I took the first picture of Mitered Thing.


He's cute but a little too curious!

New Socks

I finished the Argosy scarf yesterday morning, started to block it and found I'd made a double square decrease about 1/4th from the beginning. "Stupid Cold" strikes again! It was such a glaring mistake I either had to throw the whole thing away or rip it back. So I left it to dry and then unraveled it last night. What a pain; you know where!

Saturday's mail brought two skeins of Fleece Artist Basic Merino Socks yarn from Little Knits. I selected the colorways: Hercules and Paris. Paris was so pretty that I had to cast on ASAP.

I started the cover sock pattern in the new book, Favorite Socks from Interweave press. Wavy Lace Socks by Evelyn A. Clark are an easy pattern/chart to follow. The yarn colors are probably too busy to show off the lace pattern best but I'm still very happy with the texture and color.

The surprise twist is that my usual Crystal Palace size 0 needles weren't pointy enough to pickup the K2Tog (Knit 2 stitches together) so I pulled out the Knit Pick Double Points I bought awhile ago. What a difference! I've never been a fan of metal needles; they fall out every time you touch your work and they make your wrists ache. These needles stay put yet slide easily through the stitches - that sounds impossible but it's true - and they give just enough that I had no wrist ache after several hours knitting. Plus those pointy points on the Knit Picks needles - I may never go back to bamboo!

Casserole dyeing has intrigued me for the past year. Everytime I've tried I've felted the roving. Gave it another try yesterday morning; the roving is still drying so I can't report on the felting. Even wet it does look a bit less felted than previous efforts.


This picture looks more like I'm baking than dyeing roving.

Bloomin' Tree

Christmas is two days past, I KNOW, and here I am with my Holiday Post. First the knitting content.

I tried my hand at two-handed fair isle with Knitty's Center Square hat. Everything worked but my floats so the hat is a tad small. Suppose to fit an adult but ended up fitting my 4 year old great nephew.

Our animals are very hard on full size Christmas trees so for the last few years we've had a rosemary tree. Never before has it bloomed while in the house.

Do you see the purple flowers? They sorta clashed with all my red themed ornaments. Different don't ya' think??

Christmas Eve morning we visited the Hillcrest Farmer's Market to buy flowers for the table. It was a beautiful day for a morning stroll through the vendors' tents.

Finally Annie with her Christmas Rawhide bone. She knew that she should have a present too and wouldn't leave us alone in the morning until she got hers. I have no idea how she knew since we kept her presents out in the car, never bringing them in the house!

See that tongue action?