Monday, October 16, 2006

I did the first of these ages ago....

and now there are two :) I wish I could put up pictures of everything else I'm knitting right now, but it's all for Christmas...you never know who might be looking!



Saturday, September 30, 2006

A Sweater for Sohpie

I have been knitting...I swear!

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also working on finishing a pair of kilt hose for Dad, a double knit jacket (which will take FOREVER) and a couple of Christmas presents :)

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

ps...

That picture of Kathy just seems to be sideways no matter what I do....sorry!

Hiatus

First from knitting....then from Life in General. And it was great! I spent a week at the John C. Campbell Folk School taking a class in Double Knitting. Here are some of the people, some of the pics, and some of the projects!

The class:

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Our final table!

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Jaqui (the teacher) and Anita (the troublemaker...who we loved!)

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Happily knitting away...we couldn't talk. It was too easy to make mistakes!

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Jean working quietly

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Veronica

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Kathy showing her project!

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There are plenty more pictures, but it may take me a while to put them all together...

Friday, July 28, 2006

Progress is slow...

So here are some past projects :)

Christmas Sweater for Kathleen:


Prayer shawl for a friend:


Baby layette:


Laura's Purse:



...and Morgan's Hat!

Monday, July 24, 2006

Just a few quick pics...

of the Shetland Shawl. I really am knitting on it, I swear! This is repetition 12 out of 17 (I think) and then I'll add the border. I love everything about this....so much that I'm really, really tempted to find some cobweb weight yarn and someday knit this again :)


Sunday, July 23, 2006

also on the needles....a Christmas scarf, the shetland shawl is creeping along, and the striped baby raglan that I keep putting off finishing..

slacking....

I've been slacking on the posts lately...but here is a finished sweater! It's for my friend Amanda, who just had her baby girl. It's deliciously girly (I think so, anyway) with as many purple ruffles as you can stand! Here are a couple of photos before I send it off.





Thursday, July 13, 2006

Time is Precious!

...and there hasn't been much of it for knitting this week. We were out of town over the weekend (judging a harp competition) and things were a little crazy. Usually the drives to and from these things are great for knitting, but this time I couldn't seem to do anything but sleep. However....the girly version of the baby raglan is well underway and I should be able to finish it soon. That's good. I miss my lace!



and another shot....

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

A new type of knitting!

I don't think I ever knew knitting could be this frustrating. I don't think I knew knitting could be this rewarding. I'm pretty much a practical knitter. I knit things that are useful and I use yarn that (if it's taken care of) should last generations. A lot of the new novelty yarns make me cringe! If I'm going to spend weeks out of my life making something for someone then I want their great-grandkids to still be wearing it. I know that most of the people I knit for probably don't think or feel this way about it, but I can maintain my illusions and keep my pretty scrapbook filled with pictures of yarn and sweaters and the people they were knit for. My point is, that for the most part, I've knit bulky warm scarves and warm sweaters and practical baby clothes and blankets. I don't think I've ever before chosen to knit something just because it was beautiful. It'll be warm, sure....but I don't really care about that. It's exquisite. It floats...and it's lace. I'm almost a third of the way through the main body of this shawl and I'm totally in love. I curse at it, reknit row after row (because for some reason, I can NEVER get the right number of yarn overs in there) but it's going to be worth it. Absolutely. Here's what it looks like so far...



When it's done, it will be about 20 inches wide (lace stretches a lot, plus there's a border to put on it). I'm knitting both halves of it at the same time (which is probably one reason why it's so frustrating), but they will be joined end to end when I'm done.




It's going to creep along for at least another week or two, and besides another baby sweater or two, I'm really not going to work on anything else, so I'll be posting up some projects from the past year that are now happily living with their new families.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Finished Lace!

Here's the first counterpane...I think I could do better about controlling the tension on the yarnovers, but in general, I'm pretty happy with it! It ended up being exactly 12 inches square and I ought to get 3-4 of them out of one skein of this yarn (alpaca-silk from knitpicks.com) Turns out I was having both problems the other night...there was a mistake in the pattern, but I had made one too. :)



I don't know if you can see the flower in the center with it all stretched out to block, but it came out well.

Cotton Sweater

OK, the third time's the charm, right? I've tried to post this a couple of times and given up. Here is the cotton sweater I was working on. I'm not completely thrilled with it...it's just ok. I rebuilt the neck twice and it's still too big. I can't decide if I'm going to go for a drawstring or put it in the Christmas drawer for someone it suits (and fits) better. Here it is!



Monday, June 26, 2006

too tired...

I know better than to work on lace when I'm tired...I needed a break from the Tunisian lace (which is still coming along) so I decided to try this quilt square. It's a beautiful counterpane and I'm doing it in lace weight alpaca and silk. I like the way it's turning out, but there's a problem somewhere about half way through and I can't decide tonight if it's the pattern or if I made a mistake. I'll look at it in the morning...

Also OTN: a baby raglan for my cousin in the same colors as before, but stripey this time, the Tunisian lace scarf, and cotton pram coat. Oh, and I finished the cotton sweater for myself! I want to wash it and then I'll photograph and post pics tomorrow.

Friday, June 23, 2006

creeping along....

on the lace. It'll get there. It would help if I'd learn to count! I finally last night had a brain storm and took a set of highlighters to the chart. What a difference! You'd think since I spend all day long trying to find easier ways for other people to learn things that I'd apply it occasionally in my own life. Apparently not often enough!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Lace

I've knitted lace before, but always in worsted weight (or close to). I ordered this beautiful lace weight alpaca from Knitpicks in a dark blue and decided to give some real lace knitting a try. I'm making a lightweight scarf for myself. Here's the pattern I chose. It's called Tunisian Lace and it's going pretty well. Here are the pics so far...



and here's a close up of the lace pattern. So far, so good!

Monday, June 19, 2006

The whole set!

Here's the whole set and finished and put together. I think it worked pretty well! I've got enough yarn for one more set, but it will be striped. There's not enough of any one yarn to make it solid colored.




I'm swatching out a pattern for a lace scarf right now. Here's a picture of the first run-through. This is just some scrap cotton, the final thing will be in lace weight alpaca. This is a vintage lace edging pattern, so I need to rewrite it so that it looks less like an edging...it's hard to tell what it is right now, but I'll keep posting as I figure it out.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Instant Gratification

I always thought that hats were the ultimate in quick knitting gratification, but I was wrong! I found the answer tonight....




I did them both this evening in just a couple of hours. They're to go with the raglan sweater, of course. I couldn't be happier with how they've turned out! Itty bitty teeeeeny socks!! There are four whole rows in the gusset, and ten in the body of the sock...they're really fun to knit :) You probably can't really see the size from these pictures, but I guess they're about 4 inches from top to bottom.

Baby Raglan

I'm still looking for the perfect buttons...but here's the first sweater. It's made from a knitty.com pattern (mostly...I changed some things, but what's the fun of following a pattern exactly?) and Knitpicks Shine Worsted yarn...which I LOVE.




It's a typical day here at the house...students due any minute, a small noisy dog growling at me because I won't pick up the other end of the EXTREMELY slimy and nasty tug rope. Here's the big news, though...the SOFA is coming today! Hooray!!! A comfy place to sit upstairs and knit! I've been sitting on the floor upstairs because Ed likes to play computer games in the evening and I'm knitting....it's portable. We finally ran across a really good sale a few weeks ago, though and I'm soooo excited!!

Thursday, June 15, 2006

First post

It's been a hell of a week here...trips to the doctor, trips to the vet, people moving (into my house!), going out of town, back to the doctor, house closings, cooking for extra people, did I mention the doctor?, projects due (which of course are not finished), teaching...Everyone needs something right now and I don't feel equiped to deal with any of it at the moment. My sanity is being compromised in a big way! So, I've been knitting. Every moment that I can. Furiously. This lace scarf was started and completed last weekend while we were out of town. This is a one-hit wonder out of one skein of stash yarn. I think it's the Wensleydale Longwool. It's not really long, but it'll do.





Here's a close up of the lace. I haven't blocked it yet, so it will look a little cleaner (for lack of a better word) when I do.




I finished that Tuesday night, I guess...and the week was just starting! Luckily, I got my knitpicks order in the mail on tuesday and started a baby raglan sweater for yet another pregnant friend. I should be able to put this together and finish it completely tonight. Then, on to the hat and teeeny little socks that will go with it!




I think it's turning out pretty well! I love those colors together and it's not
quite the typical boy baby blue sort of thing. So, tonight will be a little stripey hat and a pair of baby socks with all three colors in blocks (green heel, blue toe, white sock sort of thing)

Also OTN: baby pram coat in impossibly small gauge that I needed a break from and sweater for myself that I have to re-think because the neck in the pattern is way too big