Catching Up

What have I been doing?

Let's see. And hopefully I will be able to add photos, so you WILL see.

1. I finally finished that bamboo sweater. It's short-sleeved, with lace sleeves.

It fits.

It's beautiful.

I'm keeping it.

No photo yet, but it's coming.

2. My friend, who has 6 girls, is having a boy in November. She asked me to make him a little sweater out of brown Merino, so I did. It took me less than 2 days. It's the style she wanted, but it isn't what I would have chosen for my baby. Here it is:

3. I made ties for the men in my life. Here's my son's:

4. During our trip to Ireland, Wales and England, I made wrist warmers for Daughters #1 and #2. Here are Daughter #1's:

5. I discovered Teeny, Tiny Mochimochi. These are the tiniest things you could possibly imagine. Just for an example, here's the first little gnome I made. He has his own little computer to book a flight on, and a tiny little airplane to fly on (although he has to ride on top).

6. In July, I got the ladies from our ward Relief Society to make 2 twin-sized quilts for donation to Primary Children's Hospital here in the city. One was made of pastel colors and wasn't (to my mind) very interesting. The other was made of bold colors. I really liked that one, and had a difficult time parting with it. I had to put it in a bag so I couldn't see it before I could give it away.

Immediately after that, I got called to be the President of the aforesaid Relief Society. Whoda thunkit?

Now it is October, so Christmas is preying on my mind. I have two projects in mind.

A. A shrug for a daughter in bulky, washable yarn. No buttons! It should knit up quickly.
B. A short scarf that buttons around the neck for another daughter, also in bulky, washable yarn. It should knit up quickly, also.
The yarn for both of these projects is on the way. Until then, I'll make more mochimochi!

Oh. And finish the Christmas stocking for my son-in-law. It's 8/10 finished! Seriously! The stocking is my work project, the mochimochi are my traveling project, and the shrug and scarf are my at home projects.

Then, after Christmas I will get the yarn and cast on for my Celtic Cable sweater.

So I have been busy. Too busy to post to the blog. I hope to correct that in future.

Third Time's Charm

Once upon a time, this yarn was in skeins. It's a bamboo blend that I got at a local fabric store years ago. Over the course of a YEAR, I knit it into a rather shapeless sweater, which had so many problems with it (caused by me) and was so frustrating to look at as a result, that I frogged it and it sat around like this for 2 more years.

Since it was bamboo, I decided I would try again, but this time make a short-sleeved summer sweater. So, the yarn took a bath and hung lightly weighted over the bathtub for 24 hours, and then it looked like this:

I took it to my local yarn store, Black Sheep Wool, and used their skein winder to wind it into usable skeins. So far I have the back and most of the front finished. The sleeves, as I said, are short, and have a lace pattern on them, which I am really excited to get to but . . . Murphy's Law. . . they are the last thing to be made.

This is my Home Project because it's rather bulky to carry around.

The tie, mentioned previously, is my Traveling Project because it is small and can fit into my bag.

I'll keep you updated on both.

It's Alive!

After 11 months, I finished the Handsome Husband sweater! And he's worn it multiple times! I should have posted about it sooner, but life (and death) got in the way and I forgot.



Also, Not-So-Small Son was taken with the idea of a knitted tie. I found a pattern, and a color he liked (yellow, of course), and literally whipped it out. I had some trouble lining it because the instructions are overly fussy and came to naught, but eventually it got done. He wore it on Sunday but I was . . . out of commission. As soon as I catch him in it again, I'll get a pic posted.

Then, Handsome Husband liked the tie and wanted one for himself, in a different color of course. I'm in the middle of that. It's miles of tiny rows and lots of turns, so rather monotonous.

I also made some beautiful fingerless gloves with a lace inset on the back, in black to match my band sweater. Pics also to be posted soon . . . probably after Memorial Day, as my time is not my own this weekend. I usually spend it wandering through cemeteries and piping for the living--and the dead. I have another skein of French Provincial Blue for another pair of these gloves, and Oldest Daughter wants a pair in Burgundy . . . Luckily, they're quickly made.

After Memorial Day weekend.

The Dresses Have Begun

Last week my Handsome Husband finally got sick of our living room carpenting. We got some beautiful hardwood flooring from Ikea, and on Saturday he and Small Son put it all down. I helped, but only as much as I could injure myself. We still have the baseboard to put in, but we'll probably do that on Wednesday.

No, we did not sew the boards to the flooring. Nothing was knit or crocheted. So what does this bit of history have to do with sewing? Let me 'splain.

I have two dresses to make for Cat's wedding: a bridesmaid dress for Bethe and a Mother-of-the-Bride dress for me. I have been sick of that carpet for quite some time. I did not want to lay that beautiful fabric down on that horrible carpenting, and the floor was the only place big enough. It would have ended up irreparably hairy, and Cat would not have forgiven me. Ever.

Do you see where we are going here?

Today I had two hours and a 13 by 15 stretch of hardwood. I cut out my dress.

It's a step forward.

The Handsome Husband Sweater

Even though I'm going to be sewing for the next big while, I still need a knitting project to use up all those waiting times: doctors' offices, traffic jams, kid lessons, etc. The yarn that HH wanted was suddenly on sale at $1.49 per skein. It's Knitpick's Telemark in a lovely Rosemary green.(You might say Army green if you were vindictive. It's the same color.) This is 100% Peruvian Highland Wool sport weight. Hand wash, dry flat. I was strongly recommending the same yarn that I used for the previous sweater, of which I will say nothing at the present time as it is a present. I recommended it because it is Superwash Merino wool: soft and machine washable. Lovely to work with. But not on sale.
So I got the Telemark.
You have to order when it's on sale or the price will go up.

So I had 30 skeins of Rosemary colorway wool sitting there looking accusingly at me in its wirey way and nothing on the needles. Thirty skeins can do a lot of accusing. I knit my swatches in the pattern (5 sts per the inch), worked out the design, and cast on.

I now have almost 3 inches knitted of the back. The back is going to be 5" longer than the front, so I couldn't really put ribbing on the bottom, so I left it un-ribbed. The diamond pattern makes a lovely scalloped edge that HH may or may not object to. If he does, I'll add an I-cord border.

I've also collected the bamboo yarn into a bag, ready for skeining, washing, drying and straightening. The pattern I want to make is called Lace Saddle Tee by Lisa S. Rowe in the Interweave Knits Summer 2010 Issue, page 95 (instructions) and page 91 (picture).

But that's for later. I've got a pair of pink socks to get done before October.

The Bamboo Sweater Is No More

A couple of years ago I found this delightful bamboo yarn. It was pretty pricey, so I bought one skein each time I happened to be in that particular store, until I had . . . quite a few skeins stored up. I picked a short-sleeved lace shirt to make, but when I actually started it, I couldn't get the stitch count to come out right. I must have been doing the yarn-overs wrong or something. Anyway, I changed to a long-sleeved v-neck sweater from my Knitters Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd.

I knit on that thing for a year. The ends of yarn were joined inside the skeins with tiny little joins. The v-neck wasn't centered. The body was too short. The sleeves were too long. After one wearing, some of the ends came untied and started to unravel big holes in the sweater. In frustration, I let it sit for a year. Then I decided I didn't want to waste all that yarn and money, so I unraveled the whole thing.

I finished today.

I have another short-sleeved sweater pattern that I want to make with it. Bamboo is a good yarn for a summer item, so it will be perfect. I just have to remember where I saw that pattern. I think it was an Interweave Knits magazine. This year. And I have to put the yarn into hanks and soak them and hang them up to dry with light weights to get the kinks out.

First I'll make the bridesmaid dresses.

Cold Feet Socks Finished!

I knit on those during spare moments of the Salt Lake Highland Games, and to and from, and through a movie, blocked them overnight and during church, and they were ready to go by Sunday afternoon. At which time I turned them over to their new owner and my future son-in-law.