Silken Smoke Cowl in Peruvian Baby Cashemere from Elann. I cast this on as soon as I saw it the other day. Quick and satisfying knit. I only used two balls of the Baby Cashmere. It’s about 8″ long. Could probably have used one more ball, but I’m good with this size.
I felt a little guilty bragging about my class with Charlene Schurch and no more gusset holes and not explaining the technique. Truth is, I had no idea how to explain it in words. Charlene’s book, Sensational Knitted Socks, does a great job of that already. This video might help but you really need to get her book.
With the help of a little birdie (thank you Jennifer – Major Knitter), Charlene gave me permission to do a little video of the technique. Now… Steven Spielberg I am not but here you go (I have no idea why the first couple of seconds of the video are moving at warp speed). It helps to watch it at full screen:
It’s been a few months since I took the class so I might not do it exactly the way I learned that day but the outcome is the same and that’s what’s important.
A little side note on the ssk…. instead of slip as if to knit, slip as if to knit; I slip as if to knit, slip as if to purl and then knit the two together. I just like the way it lies a little better. You can see it at the end of the video when I show the finished gusset.
So thank you, Charlene Schurch! I said it before and I’ll say it again, if you have the opportunity to take her class, don’t hesitate. It was really great. Not only is she FULL of knitterly info and advice, she’s really down-to-earth, fun and PATIENT! 🙂
Daniel, Lucky and I got home from Columbus last night. Bottom line, Lucky is deaf for life sadly.
Jeremy came and stayed with us from Ball State so that was a great save to the trip. We spent all day Tuesday at COSI while Lucky was at the OSU Vet Hospital:
It was a great way to spend the day if you’re ever in Columbus.
Back in early May I went to West Port, Ct to meet up with Jennifer (Major Knitter) for a class with Charlene Schurch.
Here’s a great shot of Jennifer in her beautiful shawl.
I went thinking I’d just have fun because, after all, I’d been knitting socks so long, what could I possibly learn. I even have a few of her books that I’ve knit socks from, so for sure she wasn’t going to teach *me* anything new. Ha. Shows what I know which isn’t near as much as I thought. lol. It was not only great fun but Charlene was a FABuoulous teacher and I learned a ton. No more holes in my gussets!
There were many great socks to be seen:
Thanks for all the kind words regarding my grandmother. She really was a great woman and well loved in her community. We shared the love of knitting. She was my inspiration for learning to knit in the first place. My very first large project was this sweater for her in 1989. It’s from Simplicity Knitting, Winter 1988. It’s #24 and just called Icelandic Cardigan.
About five years ago we visited my grandparents when we lived at Ft. Campbell, KY. I’d shown my grandmother a pair of socks I’d been working on. A few months later she told me on the phone that after seeing me enjoy it so much, she’d like to try knitting again. She’d given it up years before due to severe arthritis in her hands. It was about six months before Christmas and she wanted to surprise my grandfather with a pair of socks. We were talking on the phone and she asked me about how I’d done the kitchener stitch. As we were on the phone she took notes. She mentioned the socks now and then over time and she showed them to me when we visited in February, frustrated because she couldn’t keep focused on them. I wanted to help her finish them but I didn’t want to offend her and make her feel like she couldn’t do it. She was still aware enough that her forgetfulness was very frustrating for her. Between the arthritis and the Alzheimer’s, knitting was very difficult for her.
After she passed away I asked my grandfather if I could look for the socks so I could finish them. He knew exactly where they were and led me to the little basket on their desk with a finished sock, an unfinished sock, the pattern book she’d used for years and years and a little surprise…. paper clipped to the pattern book were the notes she’d taken while on the phone with me five or so years ago. What a gift!
I finished the sock that she’d left on the needles and gave them to my grandfather for Father’s Day. He was very moved. I’ve knit him many socks over the years, including a pair of alpaca ones that he had put away to be buried in. You may remember me telling you that he loves my handknit socks so much that he puts duct tape on the soles of them as soon as he gets them so they’ll last longer. lol. These simple acrylic socks have replaced those alpaca ones and I couldn’t be more pleased. The sweetest thing about it all… look to the right. See the yarn wrapped around something? Can you make out what it is? Take a closer look:
My thrifty Scot grandmother had the yarn wrapped around a plastic knife. lol. And there it will stay forever.
54. That’s how many rows I was into Lilly. Oh. And let me not forget to mention that I was knitting her in one piece to the underarms. So multiply that x 3. At… oh…. about row 25 or so I was thinking that I didn’t like the way the side shaping was looking and that maybe I should just go ahead and rip it back out before I got too far. Naaahhh… it’ll be fine. I convinced myself of this with every right side row. You can see on the 2nd, 6th and 8th column that I’d messed up too. And I just now spotted one on the 4th column from the right. Dropping stitches down to fix an error in this pattern is near impossible. Obviously I wasn’t successful and by row 54 I knew I wasn’t going to be happy with the finished cardigan so…..
Frog City. I hooked it up to the ball winder and cranked away.
I cast back on but I’m going to do it in pieces so the shaping won’t be so noticeable. I’m already on row 59 of the back and it’s looks SO much better. The pattern is almost mindless now but it’s an awful lot like ribbing with a backwards yarn over stuck in there now and then. I’m really glad that I went ahead and ripped it back. This Jaeger Roma that I bought from Elann back in November is beautiful stuff. Soft and easy to knit.
In my last post I had a little verse from a song from what I thought was a popular line dance. I was surprised at how many people didn’t catch the verse that I wrote. I found this video of people doing it at a wedding (of course the clap your hands line isn’t until the very end of the video):
Kinda like the Chicken Song. Dumb but fun.
Poor Aggie. I’d made some banana bran muffins (I’d share the recipe but they were horrible) on Saturday in our quest to lose weight. Dan had one the other day and decided that the foil liner was the perfect accessory for Aggie. Poor dog. She wasn’t amused.
Everybody Clap ya hands
Clap, clap, clap, clap your hands
Clap, clap, clap, clap your hands
Le Clapotis… she isa vera fun knit.
I wore it out to the bus stop this morning and I came back in looking like I’d wrestled with an Angora goat. The mohair is shedding like crazy. Anyone have any tips on that?
Have you seen Professor Randy Pausch’s Last Lecture?! People like this amaze me. Where do they get their strength? If you haven’t seen it, it’s very inspirational.
Another place that I find inspiration from is Tracy at Wool Windings. She posted about a little box she knit and felted from the Mason Dixon Knitting book. I cast on right away. Here’s my before and after:
We were pounded with snow last Friday so it was a pretty lazy weekend. I finished the Clapotis just haven’t gotten a picture of it yet.
You can download the graphs and pattern here. Be warned… in the words of Elizabeth Zimmemann, it’s a very “pithy” version. I was winging it as I went along.
tiny zig-zag instead of straight stitch because of the slippery factor in the acrylic. Twice for security.
Moment of truth… the cut. Ugh.
So far, so good. Heavy sigh of relief.
Happy, happy, joy, joy!
Part of the hem. He’s named after my cousin’s dad (uh.. yea… I guess that would be my uncle) and they are going to call him by his middle name (Nels short for Nelson). It’s on the hem along with a couple of hearts but I couldn’t figure out how to photo the whole hem at once.
Knitting is finis
Now it’s time to cut the steeks
Who has the valium?
A little Haiku for Sandy (Sandy’s Knitting).
There it is. Knitting finished. Now comes the part I dread. I’ve done steeks a bunch of times but it always takes shots of vodka a strong will to cut something you’ve knit. Especially when you knit it in acrylic – GASP! Because acrylic doesn’t stick together like wool does. Dan’s Hardangervidda has been a royal pain. It was knit in super-wash wool and the yarn is slicker than snot. Every time he wears it I have to repair something.
I’m a wool snob but I love my cousin. She has four girls age eight and under and now the baby. I think she’d appreciate not having to worry about felting wool. Still… now that I think about it I wish that I had gone with the wool because she’s going to have to hand wash it anyway and seriously, he’s probably going to get to wear it like twice. I need to get it in the mail in the next couple of days because if he weighed this on January 1st….
… chances are that he may have already outgrown it. We’re going up to New Hampshire for a visit in February but I’m afraid to wait that long. Usually it takes me at least a week to work myself up to cut but I don’t have the time with this one.
Thanks for all the kind words about Lucky aka Sir Cha Ching. He was pretty out of it all day yesterday. Aggie was very gentle with him and sort of hovered over him all day like she knew. She’s usually jumping on him and tugging him around by an ear or a lip or whatever she can grab with her teeth. Not yesterday. She sniffed all the parts that hurt and stayed by his side. It was so sweet.
Here’s a work-in-progress post for Kim (Woolen Rabbit). This is the little Norwegian sweater I cast on for my cousin’s mountain man baby. Good thing it’s a quick knit or he’ll outgrow it before I even get it done. Good incentive. I totally screwed up my math so when I got to the patterning I had to completely change it and come up with my own. I pulled out the graph paper and started fiddling. I learned something. Norwegian patterns are much easier to do on and odd number of stitches. Of course I had an even number. Grrr. I’ll share the chart I did in a future post. You can just make out the column of green on the upper left that will serve as my stitching line when it comes time to cut.
I was supposed to meet an Elann friend for lunch yesterday but they closed the roads down on post and the boys got yet another snow day home from school. I would really have liked to go meet T but I have to admit… our backyard is beautiful as a winter wonderland. You can’t even see the houses behind us.
Yesterday was a perfect morning for fresh warm muffins. These blueberry muffins are FABULOUS! I just beat the butter and sugar by hand instead of pulling out the Kitchen Aid and they were light and airy and perfect. I happen to have the book (Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook) and love it. It’s chock full of excellent recipes. You can also find the recipe here.