Category Archives: Knitting

Family, Knitting

Two Little Red Mittens

Posted on by Jean

After Norma’s (nownormaknits2) post the other day I used our TV time this weekend (which was a lot due to the storms that blew through) to knit a couple pairs of mittens for The Soaring Eagle’s Project.  I had some Gjestal Naturgarn in a beautiful bright red left over from this sweater I knit for Joe.

  Funny… for Joseph’s sweater I toned down the color with some brown dye but it was a perfect bright red for mittens.  They’ll be winging their way to Rachel later today if the ice melts a bit.  I used the patterns from Ann Budd’s Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns. After knitting the larger pair I knew it was going to be close to get another pair out of the skein so I cast on a small pair.  Here’s what I had left:

Also started pulling out old UFO’s.  This is the back and one front part of Chick Knits Ribby Cardi in Elann’s Highland Wool. 

Due to the ice, the boys have another day off of school today.  Joseph, however, will be spending the day doing a book report that was supposed to be due today.   He never brought the book home so we made him pick out one he finished recently so that he had something to turn in when they go back to school tomorrow (hopefully!).  Trust me, he’s only smiling because he knows I was taking his picture.  Hoping to nip procrastination in the butt by Junior High.

Jeremy is supposed to fly here on Thursday.   I’m a little worried because it looks like another big storm is going to hit Indiana that day.  Ugh.  We’ll all be SO disappointed if he doesn’t make that flight.  We’re all dying to get our arms around him and have him home for a couple of weeks.

Family, Friends, Knitting

Ice, Ice, Baby

Posted on by Jean

We got hit by quite an ice storm last night here in New York.  The boys had a two-hour delay.  Too bad we didn’t know about it before everyone was up and ready.  Lucky slipped when Dan took him outside this morning so that’s how we knew to check the roads.  It was some nasty stuff but made for some pretty pictures!  Of course the rest of the week calls for rain.  blech.

I keep forgetting to post the picture of  the socks I finished with Kim’s (Woolen Rabbit) yarns.  I think this colorway was called Boysenberry?  I know it was some kind of berry.  Gorgeous stuff all the way around.

Also finished another gift for my grandfather.  A nice warm hat.  I used Elann’s Uros and that same sock yarn that I used in his socks (trying to be thrifty, couldn’t use the sock yarn for anything else). You can get the free pattern by clicking here.  It’s very basic but I figured I’d save someone else doing the math.  I did the decreases at the crown by alternating ssk and K2tog so that there wouldn’t be swirls.  My grandfather just doesn’t strike me as a swirly kinda guy.

Jeremy comes for Christmas in a couple of weeks.  I CAN’T WAIT!!  We haven’t seen him since he came home on R&R from Iraq almost three years ago.  He’s doing so great in college that we’re treating him to a night at a great B&B in the Catskills and two days of lift tickets.  I can’t wait to see his face when he opens his stocking on Christmas morning.  He loves to snowboard and I told him I didn’t know if we’d be able to make it up there or not but to bring his snowboard because there’s actually a small slope right on West Point.  Bwahahaha.  I love surprising people.   Just hate being surprised.

Family, Knitting

Mountain Man Socks

Posted on by Jean

Need a quick Christmas gift?  I have an idea for you.

This is a very basic, simple pattern that I came up with for my grandfather that I’m calling Quick & Thick Mountain Man Socks.  You can download the pattern by clicking here.

I used two strands of yarn together.  One strand of Elann’s Peruvian Pure Alpaca in Black and one strand of a very fine German sock yarn.  It came out to 5.5 sts per inch.

We put our tree up on the first and I forgot to share my favorite ornament with you:

It’s my little knitting lady from my favorite Christmas Store in Germany, Käthe Wohlfahrt’s in Rothenberg.

Joe is quite the crafter.  It was his favorite part of German Kindergarten.  He’s always coming and asking me for the stapler and tape.  Last night I found this on the tree:

For as ornery as that kid can be… I think he just may be the one of my four boys that ends up a priest.  He can be very sweet when he wants to be and he’s always the one that says grace at meals and worries about what time it is when it’s almost time to go to Mass.  I found these pictures on an old website I used to keep.  This was Joe at about six months old in late 1999.  I knit it from Debbie Bliss’ Nursery Knits.  I found the teddy bear buttons in a shop in Germany.

Family, Friends, Knitting, Travel

No Place Better than New England for Tday

Posted on by Jean

Lots to catch up on!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We made the six-hour trek to New Hampshire.  We did pretty good traffic-wise.  Hit it in a few spots in Connecticut on the way there but pretty much smooth sailing other than that.

As if getting to live this close to my family isn’t great enough already, it’s even better because I get to visit with Kim (Woolen Rabbit) and her hubby who live a very short drive from my family.   I was especially looking forward to her meeting Lucky since we both have a love for the Cavalier breed.  We met them for dinner on Friday night and she surprised me with this:

Gorgeous, no?  The pattern is Delicato Mitts from Anne Hanson at KnitSpot and the yarn is Kim’s.  I’m telling you, the girl’s got an eye for color and she seems to have my favorites down pat.

I’ve been working on socks with the yarn Kim gave me when we went up over Labor Day.  I guess it’s only fitting that I show them in progress… I wasn’t hiding them, Kim, I promise!

I tried the Sherman Heel on the heel and toe.  I love the way it looks but…  Dear. God!  If I don’t have my mind completely on it I lose track and have to rip back.  I am getting the hang of it though and getting better at figuring out where I am without counting.  I’ve never had to rip back so many times.  I think it was worth it though.  NO GAPS!!!  Can I hear an AMEN?! The Sherman Heel was originally posted on the Knitlist which is long gone. I’ve added it to the bottom of this post.

And then when we got home I found this little gem from Claudia (bavgirl) in my mailbox:

Thank you so much, Claudia.  It was a fun little challenge.  And thanks, La (Knottygirls), for telling me about it!

My grandparents gave me a great gift as well.  A photo album put together by my great-grandmother on Gram’s side.  I’ve promised to scan every page and photo and make CD’s for everyone.  I couldn’t wait to get it home to compare to my family history notes.  This is my great-grandmother x3, Christiana Lewis (Soule) Chick (left). 

Her sister, Judith Thomas Soule, is on the right.  Christiana is my favorite person in our history because through census reports I’ve been able to get the most information on her.  She is my link to all my Mayflower ancestors.

It’s getting very cold and grey here in the Hudson Valley.  This is the view my boys have on their way to/from school each day and every weekend when we attend Mass.  This is taken from the Catholic Chapel here at West Point.

The Sherman Heel from the old Knitlist:

The Sherman Sock, or ‘How did you do that?’

Mary Sherman Lycan, 9/3/99:

The Sherman Sock is named for my late father, Rallston Sherman, an inventor. He always said an inventor is someone who is too lazy to do things the right way. The Sherman sock is knit from one side of the base of the toe cap, around the toe tip, and up. It is worked flat on two needles for the double-mitered toe and heel, and in the round for instep and leg.

Its advantages:

  1. As with peasant heels, the identical toe and heel are structurally independent, with no need for gussets or other awkward foot shaping. Use a contrasting color for toe and heel, for a very nice effect. Leg and instep are straight tubes, allowing for maximum freedom in stitch and pattern design.
  2. The mitered toe and heel, based on Montse Stanley’s suggestions for mitering, are easier to work than wrapped short rows. The decreases and increases are smooth, without holes or long carries inside.
  3. Toe-up construction allows for best use of yarn: if you start to run out, make tennis anklets; if you have extra, make long socks.
  4. Toe-up construction of identical toe and heel eliminate guesswork on the length of the foot. The depth of the toe cap is the same as the depth of the heel, so you can try on and measure as you go. Just poke your toes into the toe.
  5. Toe-up construction allows Fair Isle, lace, and Aran patterns to be knit right side up, except on the first half of the toe cap. If you want your multi-row patterns to come out even, toe-up construction allows you to fit the foot exactly, and fudge the leg length, to accomplish that.
  6. Worn-out heels and toes can be reknit as peasant heels.
  7. No more toe grafting!
  8. Sherman socks are fun to fold flat into little torpedo shapes.
  9. The invisible cast-on at the base of the toe cap makes it impossible to tell where you started knitting.
    Mystify your friends. ‘How did you do that?’

For more information, see: http://web.archive.org/web/20071231151807/www.knitli…


Knitting

Yeah! I can still Stricken with the best of them…

Posted on by Jean

I loves me a challenge.  Especially a quick little one that’s not too hard.  😉

I knit this swatch from a German pattern which is now off the internet. 🙁

When we did our first tour in Germany I did a lot of lace knitting and the German Lace Knitting mags were awesome and plentiful.  I couldn’t believe how it all came back to me.  I did this swatch and only had to look up the definition for the SL2 K PSSO.  Not bad for a girl who’s best phrase in German was, “Noch ein Beir, bitte” after living in Germany most of her adult life.

Animals and Nature, Knitting

Hot Diggity Dog

Posted on by Jean

As you can see, Lucky is coming along nicely.  Since he’s still a little lacking in the hair department, he needed a sweater for our daily walks that help build his muscle tone and confidence.  Isn’t he handsome?  He’s even sweeter than he looks if you can believe it. 

Pattern:  Fiber Trends Dandy Dog Sweaters (with some adjustments).

Yarn: Elann’s Highland Wool in Claret (#2020)

I’m one of those people that never follows a recipe exactly (and then wonder why it doesn’t taste the same) and I rarely follow a pattern exactly.  Instead of knitting the chest piece I just knit a band in garter stitch to go around his belly and then I knit a little triangular gusset to fill in where the polo neck pulled apart under the front of the collar.

Work it, Lucky!

Animals and Nature, Knitting

Fitting In

Posted on by Jean

I can’t believe that I keep forgetting to tell you guys about this….  Last year I mentioned in one of my posts about a surprise but it was hush hush at the time.  One of the Elannites, Michelle Ciccariello, was working on a possible book deal and asked if any of us would volunteer to test knit for her.  This is the sweater that I knit.  I sent it in unfinished because I was under a time crunch with Dan coming home from Afghanistan and we were getting ready for the move back to the States.   A bunch of us on the Elann chat site decided to give it to one of our own who is going through Chemo.  I sent it off last week with cards from some of us.  I’m getting kind of nervous because I haven’t heard yet if she got it.  I’m sure it’ll catch up with her.  I hope I’m not letting the cat out of the bag but I don’t think she reads my blog so I’m feeling pretty safe about having a big mouth.  🙂

Especially gorgeous on Margaux, the daughter of wonderful Ann, owner of Elann.   It’s knit in Highland Wool.  Thank you Ann, for giving me permission to use the photo here!

I’d say Lucky’s getting comfortable around here.  This morning he decided that his new favorite place is Aggie’s bag.  She isn’t too happy about it.  I’m going to go out to our storage place to get one of the larger crates we have so they can share.

The woman that actually rescued him from the mill wrote to me and told me that the conditions were awful and they weren’t sure he was going to make it.  He most likely spent all of his life (he’ll be three in February) in a cage of some sort just being used for breeding.  There was a special on Entertainment Tonight last night about puppy mills.  I was a little disappointed in how little they said but there’s a second part on tonight so I’m hoping that it has more detail. 

He’s doing really well considering what he came from.  He doesn’t walk hunched down anymore and comes running to me a lot when he sees me.  He and Aggie have actually played… sort of.  It’s more like she’s playing and he’s laying on his back swatting every now and then.  He also tried to play with her ball yesterday but he got scared when it moved and ran for the sofa (where he felt safe until he took over Aggie’s bag). 

It’s really hard to get used to the fact that he can’t hear us.  I still call him and then slap myself on the forehead and think, “Oh yea… that’s right… he can’t hear…” 

Animals and Nature, Family, Knitting

Lucky

Posted on by Jean

We have some huge new family news but first a little knitting.  I finished the scarf for my Gram.  This is the yarn and pattern that I bought at Morehouse Farms when I went to meet Jennifer (Major Knitter).  Simple Feather & Fan but I can’t tell you how many times I had to frog back several (once it was about six inches) rows to fix an error.  I even tried once to just drop down the stitches where the repeat error was but I made a bigger mess of it.  Click on the pic for a bigger view.  This merino yarn was SO soft and the colors are beautiful.  Because I used two skeins, I did two rows and then switched skeins so that the color variation would be more even.  There was quite a difference which gives it that striped effect.

Now the big news…

We’d been toying with the idea of getting a companion for Aggie.  We thought about a puppy and then thought we’d look into rescue.  Cavs are such a great dog that there aren’t a lot of them in rescue (well, one is too many, but compared to other breeds there aren’t a lot of them) but I looked anyway.  And then we saw this guy who was rescued by Lucky Star Cavalier Rescues from a Missouri puppy mill.  These two photo were taken after he’d been in rescue care for about a month.

When he was rescued he had a terrible case of mange.  You’ve seen Aggie and other healthy Cavs on Kim’s blog, so you can see how badly he was treated.  He’s also deaf, which no doubt in my mind, is due to ear infection, I could be wrong but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. 

So I wrote to his foster mom and told her we’d love to bring him home and give him the love he needs.  Sadly, she wrote back that he was already being adopted.  We wrote back and forth a few more times and last Thursday morning must have been our lucky day because I got an email from his foster mom saying that the adoption had fallen through and if we were serious we could have him!  I would have left right then and there but we had Joe’s parent/teacher conference Friday morning.  As soon as that was over I hit the road for the twelve-hour drive through NY, NJ, WV, PA, OH to IN to pick him up.  About halfway there I was thinking, “What the hell am I doing”… do you have any idea how wide PA is?!  It was 730 miles each way… at least 400 of that was PA! lol.

The second I saw him I knew it was worth every single mile and every gallon of gas.  He is the sweetest dog I’ve ever met.  It was a pretty full weekend getting him accustomed to our home but he’s fitting right in.  He’s very skittish.  It’s hard to remember that he’s deaf.  He can hear a loud whistle, shout or when Aggie barks but that’s about it.  Aggie, the priss that she is, growled at him as soon as I brought him in the house but we layed her on her back and let him smell her and she’s been fine since.  Here’s the proof:

We toyed with Texas A&M names like “Bear” for Bear Bryant (a great A&M coach), Kyle for Kyle Field and Sarge for Old Sarge but we couldn’t really name him anything other than “Lucky”, now could we?

His birthday is listed as 2/1/2005 so he’s six months older than Aggie.

I’ll keep you posted on Lucky’s progress. He’s going to be absolutely gorgeous when his coat comes back in and he gains some weight but it doesn’t matter.  He’s such a sweetheart and cuddler I’m completely in love with him already.  Who couldn’t be? Rescues are the best.

Knitting

Everything I’d hoped For….

Posted on by Jean

In a word… FABulous!   I have to say that I wasn’t near as overwhelmed as I thought I’d be but it was grand.  I did wear the Must Have but Holy Smokes… it was HOT!  I thought it was October when I checked the calendar.

I know that I don’t need any more wool but you can’t go to Rhinebeck and not buy *anything*!  I’m pretty sure there’s some rule against that.  I bought some GORGEOUS Duet Yarn from Brooks Farm.  I bought it for a Clapotis (which I saw quite a few of) but we’ll see….  I think the color way I bought was Santa Fe, but I’m not really sure and it doesn’t say on the label.  I love it though.  It’ll go great with jeans.

Here’s the rest of my loot (the Duet Yarn is in this photo as well and it’s a little more true in color):

I’m a sucker for all things Scottish so how could I go wrong with the picture of Scottish Black face sheep with a Scottish castle in the background?  There’s a Fiber Trends pattern for a special little dog and two bags of Bluefaced Leicester roving.  After all, it was the featured breed and I’m pretty sure there’s another rule about going to the wool fest and not buying the *featured* breed.  Am I right?  Dan bought it and that’s all that matters.

I printed out my banner on some ink jet fabric and ironed it on to a black tote bag.  I figured this would help anyone give a shout out to me. 

I got to see Kim (Woolen Rabbit) again and she introduced me to quite a few bloggers during the meet up.  I failed to get any photos at the meet up but I’m sure they’ll be all over blogland.  I especially enjoyed meeting Diane (Indigodi), Carol (Carole Knits) and Chris (Wooly Buns) ( and no, none of those butt shots are mine).  There were others, but I told you, I’m horrible with names!  I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

Knitting

FINALLY!! Rhinebeck!

Posted on by Jean

I’ve waited for this moment since I first heard about Rhinebeck.  I think that was at least seven years ago.  I never really thought I’d get to go and now here I am… living only an hour away in the beautiful Hudson River Valley!  You might remember my somewhat bitter post three years ago and then the big tease when I thought I’d get to go last year but Dan had that little detour to Afghanistan…  Well it’s finally my turn, Baby!

I missed the whole Blogger Bingo thing so I won’t get to play but please holler howdy if you see me and my clan (they’ll be with me on Saturday but I’ll probably be flying solo on Sunday).  Is there some big blogger meet-up or something?  I don’t want to miss out on that for snoozing too!

Here’s what I looked like today and am pretty sure I’ll look about the same this weekend:

Say HI!  I’m terrible with names and faces so if I don’t recognize or remember you right away, I’m not a snob, just a bad memory.