Some things...

Some things, in the past 6 months, have been just too depressing, and therefore not blog worthy.  The past week has been full of "work", cleaning out a house, wondering what, if anything, is worth the work.
When I get back to reporting about my down time = knitting time, I find that knitting an adult sized sweater... well, it takes awhile.  I'm motivated to get it done or mostly done by early September, and realize that it's going to take me that long.  Have I made any progress? Let's see:  I started in February, but have finished 11 little and big projects in the meantime.  That's how I am!

It's a fun pattern, and if I can convince myself that it's moving along, I'm contented.  Knitting in the round, I'm farther along than I think!  There is a small hem which I turned under at bottom right (in the picture).  And one sleeve is finished.  This is my go-to project for the next month while I carry a sock around in my bag.
The pattern is in Norwegian: "Mademoiselle", and has a big beaded collar.  I love the feel of DROPS Baby Alpaca Silk (fingering).  So smooth to the touch! Much nicer than the keyboard...

Knitting in Patterns

Here's my final picture with model included:
I'm quite proud of this one.  It took a re-think of another pattern, some teeth gnashing, Ends and finishing, and more finishing. But the icing on the cake is when you see it 'in (on) the flesh'!
Ta dah!

Luckily, she likes this pose... Perfect show off the sweater pose!
The Pattern is from Rauma 093R, Design Baby.

And the Pattern is called "Helmønstret genser" or Fully Patterned Sweater.

The one on the right, but how cute is the one on the left???

Yarn:   Lanett by Sandnes Garn, Fingering / 4 ply, 100% Merino 213 yards / 50 grams

Other details on Ravelry.

Pattern Alert

I'm not advertising, but just wanted to share!  Very cute idea of a scarf and mittens in one:
Find it HERE.  Not a free pattern: $5.95.

Following Stephanie

Stephanie who?  Otherwise known to the knitting blogger community as Yarn Harlot, Stephanie writes great posts on knitting and life.  Her descriptions are wonderful, but nothing prepared me for what I saw yesterday.  There's a link under my column "Blogs I Read", and I recommend it highly.  First off, her mantra or punishment on August 31 was the prelude.  I know that writing a repeated sentence on the chalk board isn't quite the same as Command C/Command V in a blog, but amusing all the same.  I saw this:

I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it.
I cannot commit a fancy chart to memory and knit without it....

 And two days later my breath was taken away.  Gotta have it!  Anything with cats is of interest to me, but this pattern hit me in the solar plexus.  It's called Catkin, and for pictures you'll have to see Stephanie's blog or Ravelry.  
And just half hour ago I made up my mind I would finish 3 projects and in what order...  Time to re-vamp.
Designer:  Carina Spencer - I couldn't stop looking at her other patterns;  gorgeous...

"I do this all the time"

Have I ever said that to you?  I probably have... I said it adamantly to my friend, P, as she tried to prevent me from ripping out a page from a book of patterns.  

"I don't need to go to the library to make a copy.  I'll just take this one page with me to get me started.  I do this all the time."  

"No, no," she says.  "What if you lose it?"  

"Pschaaaa!"

Now I did it... Two thousand miles later, I had it on my coffee table, WITH the book, (I thought until this morning) and after straightening and cleaning for a month it isn't there.

I'm at the point in the knitting where I thought I should have a look to see how many inches I need of this cable pattern.

And although I don't work on it every day (obviously) it's starting to look nice.  The ribbing is becoming tight.   And to be honest, I was thinking that I might "alter" the pattern.  

Thanks to Ravelry, I have a lifeline that I'm beginning to pursue:  I've written to a stranger in Wisconsin who has knitted this pattern, and asked if I could get a copy of pages 63-64.  

Let this be a lesson!!  I'll NEVER do it again, I'm sure...

No Pics!

In all my rage last night, I left no evidence:  No pictures to remind me of the event.  I guess it will go into the past tense, and I'll make the same mistake again... and again.

Knitting again, folks, so you non-knitters can tune out and go read something else.

Yesterday I thought of my impending trip home and wanted to plan my hours of knitting for the journey.  I'm precariously close to finishing my second sock (Sunshine aka Windward) and thought I might leave the rest of it for the trip.  I cast on a new project last evening to watch a little TV and occupy my hands for the next day or so.  I bought a great book of patterns in Bergen, with C's encouragement.  It's Rowan's organic cotton kid's collection.  What caught our eye was "Sonia, the Cow".

A "must have" project, don't you think?   But instead, I decided to try the "Princess" top for my little girl.  I can't find a picture of the pattern, but the book looks like this:

 Isn't that the cutest top right there?  Not in small enough size for me...
And the yarn is not Rowan, since I couldn't find it in NINE shops... (another story)

Back to last night!  I looked at the pattern, read the first bit, decided to do it in the round rather that back and front as in the pattern, discovered I should leave off the first and last stitch of the front and back to accommodate the stitch pattern (k2, p2, k4 (sometimes cables), p2, k2), and cleverly cast on 120 stitches.  I didn't even use my usual long-tail cast-on, so I didn't have to cast on 3 times (which is my average).  P is sitting across the room knitting away on her East Putney Aran for Grandchildren.

Notice the unwound technique... It was later wound into a ball to fit into her new yarn jar.

I digress (again).
Admiring my work, I thought, hmmm, how is this going to fit?  It certainly wasn't as big as I thought it should be so I started to check the gauge.  (I was a good girl, this time, and had previously made a swatch of stockinette, although the pattern gives gauges for both stockinette and cable.)  I was miffed.  My gauge was big and certainly if I used smaller needles, I'd end up with a smaller garment!  In the past I would call, email or skype my friend, P, for HELP!  This time, she's sitting in the same room, and she's reading the pattern ALOUD to me.  I'm STUNNED!  She says:  Cast on 143, 143, 162, 162, 162 (for all of the sizes, and I say:  Tell me you didn't say 162!  She says indeed: 162.  How many times do we read patterns incorrectly and wonder why they are crazy wrong?  I confessed:  I cast on 60 per side, ignoring the 100, and taking 2 off for the side stitches...  Good night, I say!  And no picture of the frogged hours.  I blame "America's Got (NO) Talent".  Gotta blame something!

But we had the best sweet corn in the world!

Mennonite grown "Fantastic".

Next?

Last year I found a pattern while in Norway called Rose Cardigan for newborn to toddler sizes.  C and I went shopping for the yarn, and buttons, and I went happily back home to complete it.  Once I was home, I realized that the roses were duplicate stitched, and the whole booklet was in Danish. Never mind; I still was able to figure it out. It was stunning!  And I knitted it up. 

 On the same page in the booklet is a dress with roses on it, and with the fussiest gorgeous borders in crazy colors... just awesome, but the smallest size is 1 year. Here it is: A year later, and the Danish really is a problem.  I studied it, wrote out rows, and I think I made sense of it.  It's not easy to describe in Ravelry, but here's what I have so far:

Can you tell there are 6 colors?

Day 2 - Inspirational Patterns

LYS's:  Display a pattern knitted up!

That's all you need to do to inspire ME!  If I see something knitted, I KNOW "I can do that!"

I should find something that will stymie me, but so far:  Crazy fair isle, cables and twists, bring them on!!  My favorite sock patterns are from Sock Innovations by cookie a.  The most twisted the better!  Currently on needles:

For sure, "My Greatest Challenge":

Fair Isle? To be "fair", my daughter chose this pattern and I made it work with my mathematical skills, and friend, PattieKnits.

Even without my friend, I managed to cut open the band of fair isle to "repair" something that didn't turn out right the first time.

Thanks, Helen, for the modeling job!  Picture taken at Knit Night, November 15, 2007.


A close 2nd Greatest Challenge:  Monkey Blanket

I love to knit...

You all know that I love to knit.  I'm more comfortable doing something creative with my fingers than sitting, waiting, or sleeping...:-)
Seriously, it's a sickness:  Waiting to play something on piano or organ is torture.  If I can be at the keyboard playing, I'm much more calm than pacing, or thinking.  Knitting has the same soothing effect, calming, and I pride myself that patterns are my forte.  Charts, patterns, k2tog, yo, no problem.

Tonight I realized that I'm not going to be able to memorize the lace pattern I'm doing for a baby (one year size) Jasmine Lace Edge Cardigan.  The "lace edge" is a 12 row repeat of 13-16 stitches. It's beautiful BUT I have to follow the instructions for each of the 12 rows, every time.  This is a first for me.  I expected that after the first three or four times I'd be able to eyeball it and make it work.  Surprisingly, I have no idea where I should "yo" to make the pattern... I've done the repeat 17 times, which will fit the bottom edge of the cardi itself, and next is more of the same for the edging of each sleeve.  Not only do I not have a clue what comes next in the pattern but the number of times I've miscounted is embarrassing.  THAT I do know: It's wrong, and I have to tink, and often frog rows.  "yo"s are the worst when you have to frog, eh?
I noticed in Ravelry that when you look up a pattern, the pattern has been linked to blogs!  I wonder how that happens?  Do I have to link it to Ravelry?  We'll see.
Don't forget to give up an hour of sleep!

Welcome to the aughts!

Welcome to the 00's...

Hi, everyone! Today I'm running on few hours of sleep, and I'm pumped!

In less than 4 days my house will begin filling up with my daughter and granddaughter of 5 months. For the past 3 months I've been following developments via short movies. I wonder how entertaining they are to my friends, but I guarantee that you'll chuckle at this one!

This is where YARN comes into the picture. I'm surrounded by projects that are in various stages. To get an idea of what I'm up to I've been conscientious about updating my Ravelry page. Some would even say I have an unhealthy obsession about it, but it helps me stay on top of things!

I was up late last night because a "friend" (up for discussion later) showed me a pair of slippers that came from somewhere in Russia by way of her husband's trip. Now that's a good guy, right? Bringing home beautiful handmade slippers! The catch is: I can't resist a challenge. Now to be fair, I TRIED (a bit forcefully) to coerce two fellow knitters to help with the challenge, but they were just too smart, I guess... They turned me down flatly. What was it? To re-create these slippers; in other words write out a pattern so someone else could re-create them. I don't know about copyright laws but I looked at tons of patterns (on Ravelry) and I saw nothing like them. Please let me know if it truly is published, but in the meantime today, November 25th, 2009 was the day I wrote out a pattern. Will it work? Maybe... Anyone want to give it a try? Here it is:

Slipper Socks from Russia

Use Aran/Worsted weight yarn, and US #8 needles.

Cast on 26 st.

Knit 4 rows of garter stitch, and 12 rows of stockinette.

Knit 16, k2tog, turn. *Slip 1, p6, p2tog, turn, slip 1, k6, k2tog, turn* Repeat * to * until all stitches “live” (all stitches have been picked up and knitted).

At end of last knit row pick up 10 stitches along the side of piece. Turn and purl back. At end of purl row pick up 10 stitches along the side of piece. (27 stitches)

Continue stockinette until slipper is 3” less than the length of finished foot. Start toe.

Change to contrasting color and use short rows to taper toe.

Knit to last stitch. Wrap and turn (W&T) See below. Purl back to last stitch, W&T. Knit to one stitch before previously wrapped stitch, and next stitch W&T. Wrap stitches on each side until there are 8 “live/unwrapped” stitches in the center.

Next row (tip of toe) * knit 3, slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over [psso] (3 stitches=1 stitch, double decrease), knit 3, unwrap one stitch by knitting wrap and stitch together. Wrap next stitch (this will be the second wrap making it a “double wrap”) and turn. Purl 8, unwrap next (purl wrap and stitch together), wrap next stitch (dbl wrap) and turn. *

Repeat * to * until all stitches are unwrapped.

Continue in pattern (using double decrease in center: sl1, k2tog, psso) and pick up one stitch on each side in every other row on slipper side. At top of cuff, pick up last stitch and begin bind off row. At end of row pick up one more stitch from top of cuff and bind it off with last stitch of row.

Tuck in ends!

Good luck with it. I hope to hear from someone about their success or adaptations.

And Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm joining the blog world, and wonder if anyone really comments on things.