Take Two

To the frog pond and back..

Thought for the day: Measure twice, knit once.

We were so happily knitting along the Penny jacket that we neglected rule number one of knitting: measure.

Here is Penny on all four measuring:

As a result all of us ended up with a humongous bottom piece. Mine was 52" (as opposed to 42 intended).

To the frog pond we go.

This is what we got left:

And started back again. This time I measured and measured and measured.

Runty was a big help:

Take two is coming along nicely. I hope we can write a pattern for it. In the meantime I have a couple of finished objects to show. This is a vest I knitted for the husband. It is a take-off from the "beginner sweater" Penny teaches at the Yarn Barn except mine has three cables instead of one and no sleeves. (I am allergic to sleeves and yarn-over, but that is the subject for another post.) It fits Bill nicely. Too bad the weather is getting warm!

The yarn used in Noro Kureyon. Another Noro product is the "Sursa" shawl from the Jane Allison Naturally Noro book. Noro Silk Garden. The trim is Manos del Uruguay. This will go into the gift stash for Christmas.

And finally, here is my Clapotis hanging on the back of my chair at work. Lovely and soft Plymouth Royal Bamboo.

Here is a close-up:

That's all for now. Check back Monday to see what the "Mystery Square" turns out to be.

Happy knitting.

Mystery square

What will it be?



This is an eight-inch square of plain ol' stockingnette knitted with Lana Grossa Baby Kid and Trendsetter Joy.



Stay tuned and check in next Monday to find out what you can do with it.

The Yarn Barn Jacket

Last summer Penny Sanford, the owner of my favorite LYS, the Yarn Barn in Burke, Virginia, designed and knitted this jacket:



Several of us, including the intrepid Phyllis , fell in love with it. Penny didn't write down the pattern so we dicided to reverse-engineer it.

Here is the yarn I picked out:

Nashua cotton, Clip and Trendsetters.

So far, so good:



This is a quick knit -- all garter stitches multi-directional triangles. The fun part is you decide as you go. Each one will be different, and individual. We are writing down all we do so that we will have a pattern available for those interested.


All the time Runty was supervising from his perch:

Stay tuned.

No it is NOT a beach umbrella

Honestly, this is not a beach umbrella.






This is my pinwheel sweater. I am knitting it in Noro Kureyon #52. It was a fun knit and was going pretty fast. Round and round I went until I got to the garter stitch edge with over 500 stitches each round! It then slowed down considerably. I will plod along though. I have no idea what it will look like or whether it will fit. I googled it and found an old knitalong in which everybody was happy with their sweater. No pattern error was posted. I decided to increase until I got 40 stitches for the armhole opening, though. At 4.5 stitches to the inch I found a 30-stitch armhole opening way too small. I took it off the needle a couple of time to lay it out and see what it looks like/how it has grown and so forth. So far so good. I like the pattern, the yarn and the color very much. Can't wait until I get to the I-cord edging/bind off!



Spring has finally come to Northern Virginia:





It's time to get out in the yard and plan the gardens. See you later.

SSS -- S!

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Second Sock Syndrome -- Solved!!

Need I say more? Let the picture speak for itself.

That's two socks on one circular needle, magic loop style. Thanks to an excellent tutorial from the Boy Who Knits, there will no longer be an orphan sock around my house.

Happy Two Socks Knitting!

Noro Fever!

There is a Noro virus raging around my knitting neighborhood. It started at my LYS, the Yarn Barn in Burke, Virginia.

The Noro yarn there has been flying out of the shop as fast as Penny can get it in. And we all are knitting as fast as we can.

Here is my latest acquisition of Noro yarn:

Kureyon, Silk Garden, Iro, Transitions and even a skein of Daria Multi.

What have I done with it? How many Noro projects can one have on the needles at the any one time?

Here is a jacket from the Nasua booklet that I am doing with Iro #70 instead. I like the pattern but not the Nashua Equinox yarn, so I altered the pattern and the guage to fit Iro. So far I have the back, front and sleeves done. I will now put the body together and start the hood.

It looks good on (or under) Runty, doesn't it? He just has to check out and put his marks on every knitted object!

This is another jacket from the Debbie Bliss Noro 2 book.

The pattern calls for Noro Shinano but I decided on Karabella Soft Tweed instead. It is very soft. The stars and the border designs are Noro Kureyon 170. I only have one ball of the Noro; the rest is on order so this one is put on hold for now.

I finished a multi-directional shrug (a Yarn Barn exclusive!) with Silk Garden held with Lana Grossa Baby Kid:

A sweater for the husband. Not Noro! This one was done all in Lana Grossa Royal Tweed. I love that yarn. I added the "design element" on the left sleeve as I discovered I did not have enough navy to finish the whole sleeve. It turned out wonderfully. Bill loves it.

Back to the Noro. Here is a vest I started for DH. This one in Kureyon. It has three cables down the front. Being a relatively new knitter I did not really how much cables pull the fabric in. I have had to recalculate and reknit several times befor I got the front and the back to be the same size.

Hmm, you can't see the cables very well in the picture, but they are three horseshoe cables with seed stitches in the middle.

An ongoing project -- this is the start of the Lizard Ridge afghan in Kureyon that will be a Christmas gift this year for my stepdaughter. I decided to knit in strips in stead of blocks and then will join the strips together. You don't get to play with rearranging the blocks, but it cuts down on binding off and seaming.

Twelve people at the Yarn Barn are knitting this. I have only got four blocks done so far, but this is not a race...

Looks like it is going to be a busy knitting year.

Last but not least, here is a very cute picture of Runty modeling a sweater I knitted for a friend's doggie:

Happy Knitting!

300 pictures later...

Happy Holidays!!

Mobius magic

Spinning is so much fun!

It is also a great therapy. It keeps your hands, feet, eyes and mind coordinated and focus on the yarn in front of you. Yet is is magically relaxing.

It has been so hot. We are in the middle of a heat wave here on the East Coast. My garden looks so sad.

This is what's left of the hydrangea. The vegetable garden looks a little better because I water the tomatoes. But not by much...

I won't get a good crop this year. Oh well, there is always next season. Global warming, I guess.

The pee gee hydrangea fares a little better. But even the heat-loving, drought-tolerant coneflowers look pathetic.


The mercury is supposed to reach 100 today. With the Washington humidity, the heat index will make you feel like it is 114.

Let's go inside.

Spinning, anyone?

I spun up some blue roving that I dyed.

And started a mobius bowl. The pattern is from Cat Bordhi's Second Treasury of Magical Knitting.

First you start with a mobius rim.
Then you keep kintting downward.

Runty came over to inspect. Of course he think it's his.

But Mommy took it away and actually finished knitting. Here is the before picture:
And presto! The magical mobius bowl... Nested inside yet another Mobius bowl.


And if I ever finish all the second socks, everybody on my list will get a bowl of socks this Christmas!

Stay tuned.

Second Sock Syndrome

I have not been updating my blog for a few weeks. This is because I have been recovering from SSS.

Second Sock Syndrome : A definite pattern of behaviour in which after finishing and loving a sock, the knitter is totally incapable of duplicating that sock, no matter how many times he or she tries. This syndrome can lead to the knitter wearing many unmatched first socks together, the first symptom of the insanity that reknitting and reknitting and reknitting the second sock can cause.

See what I mean?

These poor single socks have been waiting for their respective mates for some time. Even though I was itching to cast on a new pair with some new gorgeous yarn I got, I made a July resolution:

I will not cast on another new sock until I finish at least one pair.

Okay, here we go:



Drum rolls, please:

Two down, three to go. So far, so good. Don't you think.

In the meantime I got a new toy.

Here is my new Majacraft Rose spinning wheel. I have been dabbling at spinning on a hand spindle for some time but found it too slow. Then back in May at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival I ran into a lady who gives private lessons. She is also a Majacraft dealer.

The spinning bug got me pretty bad! I even tried my hand at dying my own roving.

This is a corriedale roving I got from Crown Mountain Farm that Idyed in Egyptian red.

Spinning takes a lot of practice. I came up with loads of thick-and-thin, uneven yarn as I practice. Now what to do with all this practice yarn?


A felted Kitty Pi, of course

Runty is getting a new, hand-dyed, hand-spun kitty bed.

It doesn't look like much yet, but I have got a lot to go. After all, that "Runt-of-the-litter" kitty of mine now weighs 21 pounds. So I will keep spinning. By the time the cat bed is big enough to be felted, I should spin well enough to attempt non-felting stuff. Otherwise there will me more felted baskets around the house for sure.

Stay tuned. Next, a non-knitting life. My garden. Here is a preview.




Now can I cast on a sock please?