Author: missouristar

Hey, it fits! The blocking was successful and the weather cooperated, so here are photos showing the detail on Viking Turid:

This is a rather close fit, as it was designed to be. In fact, it’s a little closer that I am used to, although my husband endorses it wholeheartedly (no ulterior motives there, eh?). He is of the opinion that I wear my clothes too baggy. What do you guys think? The only change I will probably make is to adjust the neckline. It’s choking me! I adapted the pattern from a boatneck to a crewneck and should have gone lower an inch or two. When I picked up for the rolled edge, I picked up 3/4. I think I will frog that and pick up 1/1 and just do a backward crochet edge (one of my favorites). That should make it a little stretchier and a tad lower. I didn’t mention the yarn I used – it’s Louet Gems Merino and I love, love, love it! It’s soft against the skin and has a lovely finish. It is a DK weight. I just can’t say enough about how much fun Elsbeth Lavold’s patterns are! They are a challenge and you have to read very, very carefully, but once again I feel as if I have created magic. I have a feeling knitting Rogue is going to give me that same feeling.

Why looky! Another FO:

That picture shows the color, but not the detail – here is the detail with washed out color:

This is Elsbeth Lavold’s Viking Turid from Knitter’s Magazine Best of Arans and Celtics. It was a very, very fun knit. Making the Celtic knots appear in the middle of plain knitting is just magic! The jury is out, however, on whether it’s going to fit. It was hard to judge while I was knitting because the edges curled so much that it was difficult to measure (we won’t even discuss the issue of gauge – an invention, I believe, of Satan!). I tried it on just after seaming and it was, shall we say, snug? As in I-wouldn’t-wear-it-out-in-public snug. However, when wet it seemed to cooperate and I was able to block it out a few more inches. So we shall see. I know it looks a little odd shaped, but unfortunately it does resemble the shape of my body : ) Here is a detail of the sleeve:

I will keep you posted on the fit. I feel pretty good about now. The only large projects I have left are two Dale sweaters, Kongsberg and Ingeborg. I think finishing Kongsberg will be my next goal. I’m up to the shoulders, but followed the pattern and started knitting back and forth at the neckline. That was a mistake. I do not like the uneveness compared to the rest. So I’ll rip back to the neckline and do a steek. I really love the detail on the back:

When putting up the Christmas decorations I found the box containing my son’s baby clothes. In the box was a sweater that I knit for him before he was born, along with various knitted items I made for him when he was little. I’ll post some pictures later in the week. It will be so much fun seeing his child wearing them!

I just viewed my site and the first two pictures are really awful, but they’re the best I could get. The one of the sleeve is pretty accurate. Maybe if we’re blessed with sun tomorrow I’ll be able to get better ones.

Aah – the New Year! A time for reflection, for looking past and looking forward. I have to tell you I am a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions. I know, most of them are probably broken. But when have any of us started a new habit without a few false starts? Resolutions give you a chance to make a fresh start and to try again to improve. I only have a few this year. Number one is to simplify! That means not starting so many new projects. Now don’t get me wrong – there is nothing morally inferior to starting lots of new projects. But when I completed those two sweaters within a week, I had such a feeling of relief! I realized that having baskets of unfinished projects around was cluttering up my life and causing me stress. I know that I do need different types of projects to keep me going, but it does seem a little much to have THREE Norwegian sweaters going. So I am going to start finishing and then limit myself to one of each type of project. Remember, you heard it here first and you are perfectly welcome (if you remember) to gently poke me if I stray. Gently.

The second resolution is to be more frugal. I like the depression quote, “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” So I’m going to try and not buy so much this year. Whew, I’m glad we’ve already replaced the dishwasher! The government finally saw fit (after 3 months of retirement) to let us know how much we will be getting. We ran our budget and will be fine without Bill working at all if we’re careful. He will eventually do something, but in the meantime it will not hurt us to learn to economize. My airfare to England to see the new baby is already in savings so there shouldn’t be a whole lot we can’t do without.

And finally, the third resolution is one I make every year – to lead a healthier lifestyle. Mostly for me that means getting up and getting exercise. I’d so much rather sit in my chair and knit or quilt. I’ve read before that the key to a healthy exercise program is finding something you love. I hate it all! But the exercise I hate the least is my recumbent bike. There’s something enticing about being able to sit down while you exercise. Do I sound lazy? I’m not really – I very rarely just sit. But at least with the bike I can listen to books on tape to help the time pass. And I could kill two birds with one stone and study as well.

So there you have it folks. I encourage all of you to make resolutions! We can hold each other accountable and if not, at least be there to forgive each other when we stumble. And, in the light of my new resolutions, I am really, really hoping to have a FO to show you next post. Hold onto your hats! That would make three within a month!!

At times like this it seems somewhat frivolous to post about knitting and Christmas presents and things that all seem so trivial. I guess what we can do is appreciate the many things we are blessed with and share what we can with relief organizations. Our Christmas was relatively quiet, dampened by the fact that my mother-in-law was in the hospital. The good news is that she seems to be better, although that is a relative term. She has been released to a nursing home and will hopefully be able to move back into the assisted living facility within a couple of weeks. Sadly, she seems to be losing a lot of her cognitive abilities, although that may be due to some of the strong pain medications she is on. Only time will tell in that area.

My sister’s sweater was a big hit! Although she knew I was working on it, she seemed genuinely surprised that I got it done in time for Christmas. Oh ye of little faith. The gorilla sleeves really were too long for her, so while my hubby cooked Christmas dinner (turkey and all the trimmings – although some of us helped with the trimmings!), I snipped the sleeves and knitted the cuffs down. She wanted a turn back cuff. I let her get away without a picture, though. My husband made me a beautiful corner cabinet! I knew he was building something, but expected a small box, not a piece of furniture.

And here is a cute picture of Kirby tolerating (barely) a little puppy that barks “Jingle Bells” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”.

The only glitch in Christmas dinner was the dishwasher door getting stuck in the closed position (hey, at least the dishes were clean!). By the next day Bill had gotten it open and figured out a way to rig a little handle to open it up. However, when I tried it, a shower of sparks ensued and I suspected a new dishwasher was in our future. I know – we could certainly do dishes by hand, but a dishwasher is one of the luxuries we allow ourselves.

Post Christmas knitting has been Marguerite’s Old Shale Two Socks. Sock #1 is finished:

The heel is slightly different than her pattern. Why, you may ask? Ok, since you asked so nicely, because I misread the pattern. You just had to know, didn’t you? I was knitting merrily away doing what I thought was a standard slip stitch heel (which Marguerite called Eye of Partridge), when I realized that hers was a little different. After a flurry of emails with her I discovered that her slip stitches are offset, forming a little honeycomb (hmmm – eye of partridge?), while mine were lined up like little soldiers all in a row. I’m not going to rip this, but will try the EOP heel on the next pair. Yes, there will definitely be a next pair. I am loving this pattern! Thanks Marguerite for sharing. The only intentional change I made was to lengthen it a little after the cuff as I like a little higher sock. And I urge one and all to head over to Susan’s blog. She’s posting a cute sock pattern for sale and all the proceeds will go to Oxfam for tsunami relief.

‘Tis the season for FO’s (and more than one post in a week – aren’t you impressed?)! I was so pumped full of adrenaline from finishing my sister’s sweater that I thought I ought to keep going. I had Starmore’s Aranmoor all knitted and just sitting in my basket waiting to be sewn together and finished. So, in a marathon finishing session, I completed it:

What a handsome guy! This was made from some Tivoli that I bought when we were in Ireland years ago. This is one thick sweater! I believe he will be able to weather any storm in this. But he is quite pleased with it. In fact, he is sitting here now in his recliner, reading and all wrapped up in his new sweater. At least until the heat kicks in. Then he’ll either have to shed it or freeze me out. I realize the picture doesn’t show the detail real well, but I can’t get it off of him to do better pics. I think one of my projects over Christmas break will be to start a photo album of my FO’s with better details.

And despite my better judgement, here are pictures of Tilt on a body.

I am not especially photogenic – in fact I think the one from the rear definitely shows my better side. This was a fun knit, but I would not do it again. I never can get my horizontal and vertical gauge to come out comparable. Usually that doesn’t matter because you just get horizontal gauge and knit until it’s long enough. However, the yoke on this was knit on the diagonal and had some very complicated shaping, so there was no way to adjust. So the sizing was pretty dicey. And it was almost impossible to estimate the sleeve length. As you can see, the sleeves would fit a gorilla (and they’re rolled up). Despite what I may have told my sister growing up, she is not a gorilla, so I may have to undo the sleeve seam, snip and knit the garter stitch cuffs over. However, as EZ would say, I AM the master of my knitting and can do that if necessary.

Now I am all freed up to do some really fun knitting! Old Shale socks, here I come!

Tilt is done!

I had to really scrunch the sleeves to get it all in the picture. Once it’s dry I’ll put in on a real body and you should get a better idea. This is my sister’s Christmas present. It’s ok – she doesn’t read my blog. Or if she does, it’s at work since she doesn’t have a computer at home (Shame on you Claudia, if you are reading this. Get back to work!!). And, it’s not a total surprise. I gave her the yarn for her birthday with the promise of the sweater for Christmas. Lately about all I’ve been able to finish are things that have deadlines! Except this:

I was noticing that my iPod was getting scratched. I looked at cases, but they were so expensive. I just used some leftover sock yarn and voila! An iPod sweater. My son is convinced that I could get a little cottage industry going making these, but I’m not so sure. For one thing, to sell something you need inventory, which means knitting whether you feel like it or not. And that takes some (or all) of the joy out of it. Anyone out there knit for profit? Any input? I have knit for barter. A dentist I worked with once was a very talented potter. His pots sold for upwards of $200 and at the time I certainly could not afford that. He wanted an Aran knit sweater and offered to barter for it. In the end, he was so pleased with his sweater that he gave me two pots, a bowl, a colander and a set of goblets. He made the point that time-wise he still got the better bargain and he was probably right.

Now that my deadline baby knitting and Christmas knitting is over, I need to get back to some languishing projects. There are two Dale sweaters, plus an Elspeth Lavold and an Alice Starmore that only need to be sewn together. I think for the new year I’m going to make myself the challenge to knit a pair of CIC socks each month. That shouldn’t be too hard – a little toddler sock should only be one or two evenings’ work. And I think I will start with the Toddler Basketweave socks – courtesy of Marguerite.

Well, gotta run and get ready for a party. It’s the last of the Christmas parties tonight and I’m so glad. I am NOT a party person. I’m not really shy, but I can deal with people one-to-one much better than in large groups. I tend to be a wallflower and look for an available excuse to go home. After all, I could be home knitting!

I feel a little guilty . . . I’ve been keeping up with everyone elses’s blogs, but haven’t posted here in awhile. I hope you all have me on Bloglines so you’re not continually checking here for nothing! But I will have you know, I’ve written two nine page papers and taken a final exam, so I’ve been busy nevertheless. Still don’t know what grades I received, but hope springs eternal for A’s. And I’ve not been entirely lazy on the knitting front. I finished this:

It’s the little girl’s set! I really love the little hat with the ruffles! It sure does look small, though. I need to dig out one of my son’s newborn sweaters and compare. I remember thinking they were really small, but some of them didn’t fit him until he was a month old and he was average size.

I gave in to the temptation to start something new, too. But really, I had a good reason (really!). I was going to my knitting group and didn’t have anything mindless to knit on. So I started another baby afghan:

But I promise to be good and not start anything else until the one Christmas present I have left is done. Promise. Really.

And you have to check out this site.
These really are some ugly sweaters. I wonder if he has any takers on his calendar?

A fun weekend coming up – my sister and I are spending the weekend Christmas shopping and generally having fun in Seattle. I have to find my husband something else for Christmas. He gave me a wish list, but every time I turn around, he’s bought something off of it. As I recall, he did this last year, too. So he’s just going to have to settle for something I pick out for him. What a concept, huh? We have some friends who buy their own Christmas presents “from each other” and I just don’t understand that. If you buy it for yourself, it’s not a gift from the other person. My friend insists that’s the only way you can insure you’ll get something you like. But I think that’s missing the point – a gift is something the other person wants you to have. Over the years, my husband and I have had some hits and misses, but we always know the gift is from the heart and it means so much more that way.

Hope I’m not so long in posting next time. Semester is over and although I have a class that extends into next semester I have no deadlines. Hooray!

To knit or not to knit, that is the question. Well, not in general, but specifically I’ve been pondering whether to continue in the Six Sox Knitalong. I guess I should make a decision today because the next pair is due by the end of November and I haven’t even started! I would like to start another pair of socks, but think I want to pick something on my own. I haven’t been too happy with the fit on the last two pair. And, since I just don’t have the time to keep up with the posts, I’ll probably just drop out. I’ve been such a good girl about not starting anything new and have actually finished a couple of things.

This was a baby afghan I started just to have something to put aside for a shower gift. Last weekend I really needed the emotional satisfaction of completing a project and it was the closest, so I did.

And I completed this last night.

I know, it’s not knitting, but most of my friends know me as a quilter, not a knitter. In fact, I got some puzzled comments from them when I started my blog – “Why knitting?” I don’t know – is there a quilting blog community out there?

For Thanksgiving we did something new and volunteered at our local community Thanksgiving Dinner. This was started three years ago by a local restaurant owner. For years he had provided free dinners at his place for the needy. With the help of the local Elks Club he decided to throw it open for the entire community. All are welcome, whether they can afford it or not and donations are accepted from those who are able. It is already becoming a tradition for those who don’t have family around and even for those who do – entire families come and a great time is had by all. My husband, sister and I spent the afternoon delivering dinners to those who were housebound and to employees at the few businesses that were open. On a sad note, the man who started the whole shebang was out back cooking turkeys when he had a heart attack and died. But I couldn’t help thinking – what a way to go. He was doing something he loved, feeding others, and has left a wonderful legacy. I think the community dinner will go on because of him.

Tomorrow it’s back to work after six days off. Sigh, it’s always hard to go back, but I’m usually ok once I get there. More term papers and finals due so I’ll be busy for the next few weeks, but will try to post. I’m hoping to finish another project this week.

Ok, I think I’ve gotten hold of myself now. Actually this is part of what caused my meltdown:

And this:
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My sewing room (actually, I think I’ll start calling it my “studio” – so much more elegant) regularly gets like this. When it gets really bad, I go on an all day cleaning jag, get back to square one and always promise myself I will NEVER EVER let it get this bad again. And then, a week later . . . well, you get the picture. My husband says the same thing happens with his shop.

I promised myself (for about the hundreth time) that I am going to get more organized and will not, repeat will not, start anything else until I get at least one, and maybe two, other projects finished. Well, we all know about how long that lasts, huh? This time it lasted until we drew names for Secret Santas at work. I drew the name of Jyoti, a beautiful, beautiful Indian girl (India, not Native American). I just knew I had to knit something stunning for her. This is the result:

No, it is not a multidirectional scarf! I didn’t even realize it had made that lovely zig zag pattern until I took the picture. I got the idea from pictures on Siow Chin Yeo’s site. I just pretty much winged it from the picture and came out with a pretty nice result. I won’t tell you that the pattern is one stitch off on one side, because with the fuzzy yarn you can’t tell. I used Trendsetter Dune and it was great fun to work with and a very, very quick knit. An easy two evenings worth of knitting. I might actually allow myself to do a couple more before Christmas. Now see, there I go again, planning new projects when I should be working on papers

Somebody stop me! Before Christmas I have the following on my plate: three exams and three term papers, one promised Christmas sweater (about ½ done), an appliquéd square for my Round Robin group (barely started), two hats for our knitting group’s Christmas project, assorted Christmas parties, and of course, work, housework and normal daily responsibilities continue. And this doesn’t include the two sweaters sitting in the basket waiting to be sewn and the two (yes, count ‘em, two) Norwegian sweaters started. Oh, and the Mediterranean Shawl sitting in my sewing room with the border half frogged. Yet, all I want to do is start something new. I bought Cat Bhordi’s book, Magical Knitting (see sidebar) and all I want to do is cast on for one of her beautiful Moebius scarves. I need to have my head examined!

However, I am making progress. This is the first of the two hats for the Christmas project. Our knitting group is making hats for Children’s Hospital in Seattle. This is such a great project. The 12-year-old son of one of our members has a number of serious medical problems and has to make regular trips down to the hospital. He dreads these visits so much because they are never pleasant. But we have made him our emissary and he is responsible for delivering the hats. His mom said for the first time he is so excited about his visit to hospital because he gets to hand out hats. Neat, huh? So far I think we have over 50 of them!

And this is a picture of the side panel for the Christmas sweater. The pattern is Tilt and is great fun. The yoke takes a lot of concentration, but the lower side panels are a no-brainer. Haven’t looked as far as the sleeves yet, but putting it together is a breeze – three needle bind off throughout with the bind off showing on the outside.

I did discover one time saving device. If you haven’t signed up for Bloglines yet, do so now. It is so nice for keeping up on your favorite blogs, especially those (like mine) that don’t post daily, or even on a regular basis. I have put a link on my sidebar. I’ve found that it doesn’t work for all blogs – you have to have an RSS feed. But please don’t ask me what that means or how you get it if you don’t have it!! One other thing that I would love to learn more about, but simply don’t have the time.