6.29.12

It does not look like much, does it? It is three skeins of Noro Silk Garden. I cast on about 40 sitiches and knit totally in garter stitch. When I got to the end, I knit 4 stitches and left them on the needle, bound off until the last four stitches and then knit those. I yanked the needles out and ravelled down. Each row of each side had a long loop which I tied in an overhand knot close to the knitted fabric.

Fold it in half lengthwise and add a button at the bottom and I have a colorful, silk scarf collar. It took me about two days since I could knit it in the dark while watching Netflix.

2.10.12

Birthday pampering. Yes, I know my birthday was more than a week ago but the pampering continues! My southern Florida family sent relaxing shower washes and candles. Here they are posing on a pretty scarf with pockets, knitted for me by my mother. I hope we get some more cold weather so I can use it. This has been a very weird winter.

I also got some LUXURY yarn; soft alpaca. See it posing on the alpaca scarf? I think they like each other.

1.20.11

I finished Purl Ridge and "blocked" it with this unusual invention. I turned it every 20 minutes or so and it came out without any creases.

This was fun to knit but I think I would use more stitches if I used the same weight yarn.

Malabrigo Silky Wool is listed as a DK weight. I got about 4.5 stitches per inch so next time with DK, I will cast on about 250, maybe 275.

Here it is all ready to wear.

This one is finished, also and on its way to the Gift Box.

9.12.10

This school scarf was knit a couple of years ago in a horrible yarn called Comfort. For awhile it was my stoplight scarf. Don't need one up here! there are not many stoplights and when you find one, the red doesn't last long. Anyway, I knit it for this sweater.







Take a last look, it will be unknit and put up in balls by the end of this week. It is Takamay cotton with little flecks of deep red. The pattern is for a Henley style sweater and it was a disaster from the very beginning. I signed up for a class, figuring I could learn the finer points of sweater making from an expert. Since it was a class at a shop, I was expected to buy the yarn there. I could not afford what I liked and when I found something that would do, inevitably there was not enough of it. This was probably my fourth choice.
It was okay to knit with, but there was very little to the lessons. I wanted to make a top down, crew neck sweater with long sleeves. I was given a Henley pattern with short set in sleeves and told it would be easy to convert it. Several weeks of struggle (figuring out rewrites to a pattern that had NONE of the features I wanted) got me as far as the sleeves. I was told to find yet another pattern to cobble together some sort of decrease system for those sleeves and rip it back if I didn't like them.

This week I AM ripping it back and I AM ripping up the pattern! The yarn will become the top-down raglan I wanted. I even have the RIGHT pattern this time!

9.6.10

Finally blocked: a wonderful wool Noro entrelac made for me by HMHC. I can hardly wait to wear it!
Look how well the colors line up on both ends of the scarf. I tried entrelac once and it is not for me, but I sure appreciate the final product!





Another finally blocked piece: Alpaca lace scarf. The only good things about this scarf: it is made of alpaca and it was luxury to hold while knitting, it is finally finished. Drawbacks: I hate the pattern, I hate that the person who "helped me" at the yarn store looked at my gauge and said it was good for the project because, "It is just a scarf, gauge doesn't matter." WRONG. Gauge in a lace stitch always matters. This scarf has been finished for about 4 or 5 years and never blocked until this summer because I could see that it should have been knit looser. Anyone want an alpaca scarf?

9.2.10

I finally finished the leaf scarf for a beloved sister-in-law. Her birthday is coming up soon!

It is 10 inches by 41 inches, blocked. I used Karabella Aurora 8. It is 100%Merino worsted and is a dream to knit. I bought it at Knit! in Longwood, Florida.

It has such great stitch definition I chose to use a stitch pattern that shows a little of what it can do as lace and as cable. You can't tell from the picture of the scarf but the stitches cross to make the center vein of the leaf. That is not really a cable but it is close.

We washed the pollen from the windows and screens yesterday. It is time to open the windows! Overnight temperatures are in the upper 50s and right now it is 61F (16C) I love sleeping with the windows open. That was a really narrow *window of time* when I was a Floridian.

I did a few random stitches here and there on different projects, did some writing, and then started looking for the right embellishments to finish a recent project. Oops. Now I am finished organizing all but one element of my extensive button stash. That was time I enjoyed but I still have 6 pair of socks on needles and only knit 21 of the 32 rows I had left to pronounce a long-time sock pair finished. I will finish today and you might see them tomorrow.

Today we are going into town. It is knitting day for HMHC and me. Most Thursdays I get together with my dear friend, HMHC. She lives about 25 minutes from here but halfway to the YARN STORE. When we feel like it, we go and sit at the table with PJ, Julie (if she is not busy), Ginny, Sheila, Ro, and anyone else who wanders in to the shop. They used to have a website but I can't find it right now. Maybe they took it down since they are brick and mortar but not an internet store.