Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Springtime in New England

I had hopes of finishing knitting stuff. I came close. This cotton cardi refuses to dry.


Woolie vest is ready for blocking.






One and a quarter pair of socks for the Oncology Dept. at the hospital-done.




On the non-knitting side of the weekend I took advantage of the gorgeous weather we had to do some home-owner stuff.' Patching a sidewalk with suprevision. Andrew had to step in it afterward but left no mark.



Deweeded a few brick walkways. Lost the moss in the process. Bummer.


Beau found some feet.


And I'm not sure if he's holding Andrew down or trying to get a better view of something down the lawn. I don't question bizarre cat behavior. And the ivy is getting ready to take over. It looks all neat and tidy now but this stuff goes nuts.


It was a lovely weekend.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Ummm

Okay, I got my Ravelry invite and I have that deer-caught-in-the-headlight feeling. What to do? It's too exciting! I have stuff but where to begin? I think I'll stroll thru Ravelry a bit more before launching pill balls at them. Yes, that's what I'll do.
Last night I picked up stitches for the vest in progress. Around the neck and armholes is going to be small turned finish and with the curling of the steek it makes a binding similar in looks to I-cord. Hmmm. No, wait, first I undid the tacking down of the steeks, then I knit. I liked it at 10pm. I put the vest, the cats and me to bed after that.
Now please excuse me while I have a look at Kay's Italy pics again then take a wander in Ravelry land. Memorial Day weekend, I should have finished objects to show by Tuesday!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Let's Go Back To The Captain...

My, my that last post was a tirade wasn't it? I admit it, sometimes people just suck the life out of me. I regroup quickly and move on. It's all good.
Knitting has been stalled to socks only of late. I have a cotton sweater that needs blocking and buttons, a vest that has been snipped of steeks and needs button bands. While I'm on that, tacking down the steek edges was tedious and unsatisfactory. How can I change that? I don't like the finish and I usually cover with grosgrain but there are so many steeks in this project I've stopped looking at it. Not good. I have a rule, no new large projects before the last is complete and I've already broken that rule with the lack of finish between the cotton cardi and the vest. Thus the reason for socks only. And by the way, these socks (donated sock yarn)are for the Oncology Unit at the local hospital so I de-guilt myself. They're for an excellent cause and not for moi. I tried something...I tire of self striping yarn so used a slip stitch pattern and found that it made an interesting blend of stripes. Every 4th stitch extended into the next row.

The under side of the foot (toe up method) shows the normal stripe pattern.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a pic of the sock before I was ready to turn the heel. Hee, Haw! The slip stitch pattern shortens up the length and made the toe end curl up! The bottom of the sock was a good inch longer than the top at that point. I should have seen that coming sooner but chose to not pay attention. Just knit, knit, knit, happy as a clam. After I stopped laughing I ripped back to toe and started again. Plain vanilla self striping sock. And yes, the pattern would work fine for the all around leg area. It would be quite squooshy. Why didn't I? Who knows.

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Don't Give Me Sharp Objects

I usually have the patience of a nightcrawler. Yesterday was one of those days where 50 things were going on in the office, no one wanted to wait their turn and I was apparently the only one with the answers. I could feel my teeth turn sharp and pointy as I watched MY work get farther and farther behind. I don't mean to be selfish but I'se got stuff of my own ta do. Pickin' up what I'm puttin' down here? Mail has to get out. Paperwork distributed. You get the picture. MEOWWWW! HSSSS!
Not much knitting has occurred. I finished the bottom edge of the vest and turned a sock heel. I short rowed the heel without wraps on the first sock and couldn't remember how I did it for the second. There was alot of tinking but I managed to pull it off. Since I have been working with nothing but fingering weight I'm looking forward to designing and working on a larger gauge item. I have scheduled a WEBS visit for Friday and have plenty worsted weight in my stash to create.
Now I have to go file down my teeth to a more rounded, calmer shape.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Mom's Day

The waffles came out perfect.

The weather behaved beautifully, regardless of the weatherman's prediction of clouds and rain.
The walk along the river was gorgeous and a bonus trip to a photography show was a treat.


The front porch is open for the season and knitting was accomplished.
The yarn for this has been marinating in my stash for quite some time. It's Jaeger extra fine fingering weight merino. It's going to be a button front vest. If my camera took closeups better I'd zoom the detail in the center. It's a slip stitch pattern with a row of burgundy and a row of navy with each row's color extending into the next every 5 sts. I steeked everything. Neckline, armholes (which have already been cut) and obviously the front which will be cut later. Mom is new to steeking and could not grasp the concept of the neck and armholes. After snipping (a painful process for her to watch.) she was amazed. "And the ends just curl right in!" It is pretty cool. The bands will be done in the accent colors. Very fall-ish.

She's a fairly new sock knitter and whipping them out like candy. She was taught to knit socks as a kid. Took her 3 years to finish a pair back then and couldn't wear them. Kudos to my teaching skills I guess.

And how angelic do these two look!? They posed themselves. A perfect mother's day gift.


"Honest mom, we don't know WHO made a hole in the porch screen. Must have been the cat next door. He's ALWAYS causing trouble."

Thursday, May 01, 2008

So I Was Thinking......

....and after conferring with Kay I came up with a way to steek cotton. Now, more than likely someone else already came up with this scathingly brilliant idea. I don't knit with non wool fibers often and purling is not my favorite thing to do along with sewing pieces together. So step by step, inch by inch, here's how it went last night.
I marked the center of the steek with contrasting thread. (okay, that's normal) Below shows the neckline and front steeks. (For clarification this is a top down seamless set-in sleeve construction.)
I flipped to the wrong side and applied fusible webbing. I would recommend using the roll version because you can get various widths with perfectly straight edges. Did I have any wide enough last night? No. I cut my own from sheet fusing. A light touch of the iron was all it took. I toyed with the idea of using my 1 1/2" barrel curling iron. Maybe next time.
I sewed down each side of the steek with a ridiculously small zigzag stitch. I don't want these stitches going ANYWHERE!
Don't you hate it when the kids borrow the car and leave the gas tank empty! Arrrgh! Since I haven't used the sewing machine in 10 years (no exaggeration) it took me longer to figure out how to load a filled bobbin than to complete the project.

A view of the underside after sewing (albeit blurry)
Snip, snip
SWEET! (the white stuff is leftover from the center marking thread. I've picked it all out. I was too excited to do so before it's photo shoot.


I haven't picked up the stitches around the neck or button band yet. Don't forsee any problems either. The edge is stable--no stretch which to me right now seems like a plus with the way cotton stretches out of shape. So the only problem was reloading the bobbin! I hope to finish this one up this weekend and offer a FO pic soon.