This is Joseph at about seven months old. I wish you could see the whole outfit. It’s from Debbie Bliss’s Nursery Knits. The hat is underneath was probably just a little plain vanilla in-the-round pattern (I made a lot of them for the boys when they were little) and the shawl is the beginning of the Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Stonington Shawl from Knitting Workshop.
I also keep forgetting to mention that a photo I sent in to Knitter’s over a year ago finally made it into the Fall 2005 issue (Where In The World section). It’s a group shot of everyone that went on the Mull Island Spinning Retreat in Scotland a year and a half ago. That’s where I met Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) and several other awesome knitters and spinners. You can read more about that trip back in my archives.
She’s here… she’s here!! She’s on my lap as I type.
I brought Aggie home on Wednesday! She’ll get to go back and visit her mom, sister and one brother on Saturday when we go for a bbq. Actually she’ll see at least her mom and sister quite often as they live down the road and we’re friends.
She’s been a great girl already. I have a big basket on my side of the bed. She whimpers to go out at about 2am. We do our business and she goes right back to sleep until 6am. Even though the basket has been serving as her crate (just easier for me to sitck my hand down and reassure her at night) we’ll start real crate training on Monday. We’re huge believers in this method after we crate trained Bailey and I have yet to meet a vet that doesn’t think it’s the way to go. I’ve already introduced her to it for a few naps but I wanted to her to feel comfortable with us and in her new home first. She hasn’t had one accident in the house yet. She went everywhere with me yesterday in a doggie tote bag. She slept so much no one even knew she was there. Good girl.
Our friends that we got Aggie from have a little girl named Lucy. She looks adorable in hats so I’m making her the Fiber Trends Garden Party Hat.
It will be perfect on Lucy. I started the brim the other night. Here’s how far I’ve gotten:
I’m knitting it with none other than Elann’s Highland Wool. Speaking of Elann… they have a great line up for the month of November. I just got my knittable swatches yesterday. The new Highland Silk is some gorgeous stuff. It does have a sheen to it due to the silk content.
I’m also working on a V-neck sweater for Dan with Highland Wool in the darker denim color. The exact name slips my mind at the moment. I think this may end up being one of his favorite comfy sweaters to just hang out in. It’s just a basic wide V-neck with a band of ribbing that will go up the sides and down the inside of the sleeves. Of course, I’m knitting it in the round so it’s a pretty simple knit so far. Kind of hard to make out the ribbing before it’s been blocked but here’s a picture for proof anyway:
One thing that I’ve learned through blogging is that I know some knitting stuff that I just figure everyone knows. I’ve also learned that other people know lots of knitting stuff that after I read it on their blog I feel like I should’ve known. So… after writing yesterday about making my Hopeful a little longer after the fact, I got a few emails asking, “How’d you do dat?!” I’ve done this on a couple of store bought sweaters to shorten them for Dan. Of course, as with the Hopeful, it can also be used to make an item longer. Once you’re finished you can not tell where you snipped and added as long as you make sure that your stitches aren’t twisted on your needle. Look at the stitch as if it’s just a loop. The right side of the loop (as you’re looking at it) should be on the front of the needle. I don’t even want to admit to you how many years I’d been knitting before that light bulb went off in my head.
So my little sweater is too short… okay, so it has other problems too. Forget those. All that matters is it’s too short. Or too long for you Hootchie Mamas. Either way… here’s what you do.
Look at your knitting. If you turn it upside down it looks the same doesn’t it? That’s the magic of knitting and that’s why this works. Now turn it back the right way and pick a spot where you want to put it back on the needles. Carefully… OH so carefully… snip one side of a stitch. I usually do this in the vertical center of the sweater. It doesn’t really matter and honestly, now that I think about it, it’d probably be easier to start near an end. At any rate after you snip that little stitch you will carefully pick the stitch out and you’ll see a little loop just sitting there ready for you to pick up. So go ahead… save it. Put it on a smaller needle than what you knit with. This makes it easier and you can just transfer to the right sized needle once you get all the stitches on. I started at the center and worked my way across.
After you pick out a couple of stitches it’ll look like this:
And then like this after I worked my way across the first half:
I pulled the needle through so that I could work the end through the other half of the stitches and here it is all ready to go:
Now you just knit down to the desired length. Cool, huh? You can not tell the difference once you are done. Hope that helps.
I went to visit the pups today! Two weeks old today. I can’t believe how much they’ve changed in only ten days. Incredible. Fat and happy. Meet Aggie:
She was squirmy. I interrupted her breakfast for this photo because I had to leave for a meeting. I think you get the idea of how cute she is though. Her eyes just opened yesterday so they’re still a little cloudy. We’re going back with the boys on Sunday after church. You can bet you’ll be seeing plenty more of her. I’m remembering what it’s like to have a baby in the house again before she even gets here. We’d had plans to go to Belgium for Thanksgiving with friends, but it’s just too far to take her at ten weeks. Ahh… the sacrifices we make for our kids. 😉
Contrary to popular belief, I have not been snatched by aliens nor did I hit the lottery and head out on a world-wide tour (don’t I wish though). I’ve just been busy… plain ol’ busy.
I think a little blog-burnout is at play here also. It’s nobody’s fault but my own. I stress myself out with looking for blog fodder. I always want to have knitting content, but let’s be realistic. As much as I’d love to, I don’t knit every day. Especially not during the Spring and Summer. That said, I think Fall is upon us. We keep telling the kids to go out and play before there’s no more nice weather. I think they’re beginning to think we’re lying. lol.
I’ve been working on Daniel’s Halloween costume. Two guesses as to who he’s going to be and the first one doesn’t count. Why… oh … why did I ever sell my LK150 knitting machine?!
I have been working on the Hopeful. You might think that I’m knitting it from the top down by looking at the photo. Nope. This is a clingy little number. It’s also a bit short for my longish torso. Clingy and short on a 42-year old woman looks like she’s trying to dress like a hootchie mama. So I snipped, picked up and am adding some legnth to the bottom. I’ll probably add about two inches total. Let’s just say I won’t be wearing this one to church without a jacket over it.
The Elann Esprit is PERFECT for this sweater.
Nice and soft and S-T-R-E-T-C-H-Y.
On the neckband, I did a ssk instead of the K2tog called for in the pattern and on the reverse I just slipped that stitch. I think it gave it a much crisper seam. The color is a little more lavender than the photo is showing. I love it.
We took the boys to see the pups last week. These are the two girls:
Still don’t know which one is Aggie, but I think it’s a win-win situation, don’t you agree? And Aggie is the perfect name for an almost maroon and white pup. I found a Texas A&M dog collar on the web yesterday but I need to measure the mama’s neck and see about how big (or should I say small) I need it. This photo was taken ten days ago. They’ll be two weeks old tomorrow and their eyes opened today. Hopefully I can go for a visit and get some more pictures tomorrow.
Old business to take care of… I still have the Latvian Mittens book for the Red Cross drawing. Katie’s mom (Knittish)has several copies so she passed on it. I had Joe do another drawing. The new winner is Rossanna So e me your address, Rossanna, and the book will be flinging it’s way over the Atlantic to you.
I’ve joined the Hopeful Knit-a-long hosted by Jessica at Rose-Kim Knits.
The pattern is by Jenna Adorno and all proceeds plus a dollar go to the Susan Love Research Foundation. How cool is that? I love the shape of it.
I have one little problem. After all the complaining about all the yarn in my stash… I don’t have yarn for this. I have plenty of DK weight, but nothing that will work for this. I have a gift certificate for Elann so I ordered their Sock It To Me Esprit in Soft Periwinkle. It’s a little finer that the required yarn, but I think I can make it work. It’s hard to find a cotton yarn with a little spring in it. I just can’t see me wearing it if it’s in wool. If I’m wearing short sleeves, then I want cotton.
While I’m waiting to start the Hopeful here’s what I’m working on:
Its a sweater for Bailey from Dogs In Knits. I love fair isle but haven’t done it in quite a while. This is all leftover scraps from other sweaters I’ve done. I bought all of the yarn when we went to Shetland in ’97. Some of the colors are so close it’s hard to see what I’m doing so I’m not working on it much at night. I just cast on the steeks for the legs.
It’s funny because Bailey actually looks a lot like the dog on the cover. Check out her picture at the end of the post here.
I’m such a twit. I totally forgot to share with you a gift I received from Ali (Float and Purl) a couple of weeks ago. It’s been on my shelf in the kitchen so I don’t think about it when I’m in here on the computer. It’s the most beautiful pottery mug:
She sent me this along with a bar of Lush soap (the name is Honey I washed the kids – lol – beautiful honey scent) as a thank you because I sent her a few packs of Kool Aid. Kool Aid, I tell ya! Ali, I’ll send you as many packs as you need. Just holler!! 😉 Thanks for such a beautiful gift, Ali. It will be my constant companion once the chilly weather gets here… okay… it’s been chilly here for a while… I meant when Fall and Winter get here.
Sorry for the crummy picture. Dan had to leave at o’dark thirty for his flight to El Paso, Texas. I finished the raglan (note “damn” is not in the title any more) in the nick of time. It hasn’t been blocked yet but, as you can see, it’s DONE!!! It took me longer to knit that simple sweater than it has to knit Dale of Norways.
I think the threat of being felted into tea cosies is what did the trick. Even the zipper went in on the first try and that **never** happens to me.
Dan is going to be one tuckered out dude. He was just in the States a little over a week ago. Back again today to testify in one of his cases from the last tour in Afghanistan. He gets home on Thursday afternoon and on Friday morning we leave for France. Guess who’ll be doing most of the driving. He may have to leave for Ft. Bliss again the day after we get back from France and then he has at least one more trip over the Atlantic in September. Can you say frequent flyer miles?! Problem is they’ll probably all be on different carriers knowing our luck.
Ooh. Did I slip France in there? Yep. Going to visit my buddy, Nilda (Waltzing Natilda) in Brittany at the end of the week! Check out the beautiful little town of Rochefort-en-terre! When she started her blog I told you all she had to be one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met. Besides that she’s a lot of fun. We met in Scotland at the knitting/spinning retreat on the island of Mull. So much fun.
Neither Dan nor I particularly care for Paris, but we want the boys to see the high points so since we’re driving through we’re going to stop for the night and see the sites. We’ll take off the next morning for Normandy. My Gramps landed on Omaha Beach one fateful morning in June of 1944. I promised him photos and video of his great-grandsons there. We’ll get to Nilda’s in time for dinner on Saturday and stay until Thursday. Can’t wait, Nilda.
If you’ve never read any of the Stephanie Plum Series by Janet Evanovich you are missing out. They are hilarious. I just finished the tenth installment. I like to wait for the paperback, but I don’t think I can wait a whole year for #11. She’s a Jersey girl who ends up as a Bounty Hunter for her cousin’s bail bonds business and gets into all kinds of trouble. Her grandmother’s character doesn’t start coming out until a couple of books into the series but she’s my favorite. I bust out laughing so hard I think I’m going to wake Dan up. Seriously, if you need a good laugh, read number One. You’ll be hooked.
While I’m talking about books, I just started “Waiting Wives” last night. Maybe it’s because I grew up a military brat or have been a “waiting wife” or that I love history… but I can’t put this book down. Usually reading is how I get to sleep at night. A couple of paragraphs and I’m out. I was up until 2am reading this one. I had to force myself to put it on the nightstand and turn off the light. It’s the story of Schilling Manor. An old Air Force base in Kansas that they closed down and reopened as housing for families of soldiers sent to Viet Nam.
I should have known. Some projects are just… well, damned from the start. Know what I mean? Look here. Note the title of the post is Grrrr. And, gee, what’s the subject of the post? Yep. The beginnings of the raglan. That was way back in April, folks. Actually, look at the post before that one. I had problems with it before I even cast on! There must be three more posts after that complaining about the saga of the “damn raglan”. Is it any wonder that’s what I called it? So now here we are. I’m in the home stretch. Since showing you the photo in the last post of Dan wearing the “damn raglan” I’ve frogged it back a few rows twice more. Now I’m at the point where I start the neckband. Don’t remember what it looks like? Look here. Look past the success of the Must Have Cardigan. Look at the bottom of the post. Here’s a perfect example of when I should listen to my own intuition. I KNEW that sweater was weird before I even cast it on!
At any rate, as I was saying, I’m at the neckband. I got two rows into the ribbing and had Dan try it on again. There’s a BUMP where the front neckline decreases stop!! It’s hard to see but trust me, it’s there:
ARGH!!! Excuse me for a moment…. &%&%&$&$##$%…… Okay. Deep breath. I.will.finish.this.sweater.today. I think I have it figured out…. yeah, yeah… where have we heard that before? I’ve changed almost every single pattern I’ve done in the past with no trouble. I just don’t get it. Dan better wear the life out of this sweater. Then again…. I do like this wool felted….. Mmmmwwwwaaaahhahaha…. Keep it up raglan… keep it up.
For the spinners out there… take a gander at this old postcard.
The wheel is sideways! It makes perfect sense. She’s able to take the flax straight from the distaff to the orifice this way. I’ve never seen this before. Way cool.
What I want to know is what’s the guy doing? Reading instructions to her or wooing her away from the wheel with poetry?!
So… back to the damn raglan. By the time you readers in the States wake up I should have the bump problem solved and be well on the way to the end of the ribbing.
With any luck I’ll be posting a picture of a finished sweater tomorrow. Either that or a lot of felted tea cosies. 😉
I tried to finish Dan’s “damn raglan” this weekend but as you can see from the picture… it didn’t happen. Almost there though. Should be able to finish this evening but I’m not promising.
I did work on this square to send to Annie (Knitty Gritty) for Kerstin’s (Craisy Daisy) afghan.
It’s hand spun and hand dyed. The picture doesn’t do it justice. The pattern is the gull wing pattern from the baby sweater in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Knitter’s Almanac.
Last winter we went sledding with some friends. They named Joseph “Rocket Boy” because of how fast and fearless he was on the sled. I’m just overjoyed to report that “Rocket Boy” has abandoned the training wheels and I will never be able to relax again knowing he’s outside riding on his bike:
Today is Jeremy’s 23rd birthday. Happy Birthday, Jeremy! We love and miss you! This picture is of me, Jonathan and Jeremy (in that order). It was taken Christmas 1987:
Speaking of Jeremy, if you were reading back in October 2004, you’ll realize he’ll be on his way back to the States from Mosul, Iraq in less than a month! YEAH!!!
Things were going swimmingly on the “damn raglan” until I realized they weren’t.
I had to rip out 12 rounds (400+ stitches per each round) down to where the sleeves attach to the body. Grrr. I consider myself an experienced knitter. This should be a very simple sweater for me. What the heck?!
Okay. I’m calm now. I think I have things figured out now. I’ll keep you posted but if everything goes right this sweater will be done by the end of the weekend. I’m determined. Don’t hold your breath. Just wanted to let you know I hadn’t fallen off the face of the earth….. yet……
Thanks to some of the comments left on my last post, I’ve tasted freedom! I gave up on my self-imposed rules and cast on a little project. I’m THRILLED with how it turned out. A little disgusted with how much knitting time I’ve lost because of my own rules.
So. I cast on 110 stitches of my favorite color of worsted weight wool (in this case Elann Highland). I knit loosely with 8mm needles for about nine inches (the first inch in garter) and then I started decreasing four stitches per round until I had about 48 stitches left. I flipped it inside out and did a three-needles bind off.
What did I get? A hat for my little clown?
A fruit bowl?
Nope and nope. Here’s what it looked like before being cast into the washing machine with a load of jeans:
And here’s what it looked like after about ten minutes in the washer and the addition of some simple embroidery stitches:
In a word…. I LOVE IT!!! Here’s a close up of the sheep where you can see my Colonial knots and the beautiful colors in the wool:
So…. I’ve learned my lesson. When feeling overwhelmed… cast on something! Anything! Get those creative juices going! I’ve had this tea cozy in my head for a couple of months now. It only took me an evening and a morning to do it and now I’m ready to knit again. Ahhhh….. FREEDOM!!!
