Yes, it is a crappy picture. At the moment it is all I can do. The above item will be raffled off to those who have contributed to the Raverly Server. I am working out how to do this so bear with me. I am trying to be fair and I ask the same of you. I hope to get some answers in the next few days as to how to get peoples names, have a designated email for the address etc. Any help is greatly appreciated.
I started knitting a shawl for a co-worker and while it was mind numbingly easy I stilled screwed it up. What should I do rip rayon and lace-weight mohair out or move on to another project. Right, move on to another project. I found this lovely pattern from Thrifty Knitter,you have to page down to the shawl that she has created. It is using sock yarn on size 5 needles. Wonderful. I started the pattern and low and behold...Lace!
I am using Silky Wool by Elsabeth Lanvold. The color is a rich red. Here is some more lace
Believe it or not I simply put the lace on the scanner and scanned it. I LOVE how the purls make the leaves pop. What can I say. I do find that solids and nearly solids are the best for lace. Every once and a while, though, I find a beautiful varigated yarn and really want it to work. I hope this year to understand when a varigated yarn works and when it doesn't. By that I mean there are some yarns that are varigated that works well in certain lace patterns but not well in others, so I hope to explore that more this year.
Computer
It was dropped off last week and let me tell I miss the computer. I love putting a movie on, sitting down to write a blog post, surf the net and of course order yarn.
Enjoy
I know that there are so few of you looking at my blog, but I thought I would let you know why I haven't posted.
Not a lot of knitting
No camera to document no knitting
Computer not working really well
Holiday season
Lack of audience
The computer is in the shop and hopefully will be back the second week in January. As far as the holiday, dearest hubby did get me a camera and I have been taking photos of family, dog, cat, hubby and of course the yarn.
THANK YOU JOHN!
Well the weather here in Maryland has finally switched over to cold. The fireplace is going most nights, sweaters are out, washed and ready for wear. The leaves are turning and the deer are starting to get frisky and come out at dusk.
I am still knitting my blue Ultra Alpaca sweater. In fact, I tried it on the other night to see how much more I have to do. The right sleeve is going well, just maybe four inches to the cuff. The body of the sweater needs to be longer, it barely covers the belly, and the left sleeve isn't even begun yet. I still have John's sleeves to knit and then there are shawls that I want to wear around the house. I have been collecting various patterns off the web and looking through old knitters, vogue and iwknits magazines to see what I want.
I have also taken a serious look at my ufos. Last night I bit the bullet and ripped apart my red sweater. It had been sitting for so long! I used my swift, unwound the sweater and even washed two of the skeins. How's that for getting something done on a week night.
With gas prices hitting the $3 mark, the cold (use of wood and propane, our heat sources) and the cost of food going up, not to mention electricity I am being far more frugal with my yarn purchases. In fact I am staying out of yarn stores all together, and looking for the best deal for my dollars. I look at people who are destashing, overstocks at yarn stores (particulary Webs and looking at my own rather large stash for items that will work. There are some items like laceweight yarns, fingering weight that I don't have so I look for deals on them. I am hoping for lots of gift certificates at yarn stores for christmas.
I have been knitting off and on and it seems as though the sleeves on my ultra alpaca sweater are never ending. Hence the lack of pictures. I am also getting ready to knit the sleeves on my hubby's sweater. There is still the leaf shawl that has seen no work on it, the red sweater that needs to be ripped. (I have a ton of red tops that I wear to work) and I want to do a yoked sweater, something to wear around the house when cleaning, getting wood, etc. That workhorse of a sweater. It will be in brown sheep and colors right now are brown and black.
Then there are the yarn sales.
Yup Webs is having a sale on what appears to be a nice yarn for $4.29 but I can't do the spending of the money. There is a special item for a special person that I can't talk about, enough said. There is also a sale at one of my local yarn stores, and her 20% off coupon would help a lot but again, I have a lot of yarn and I need to keep knitting. It is really hard for me to ignore a yarn sale but I must. In a few weeks there will be Thanksgiving, then Christmas and those holidays are spendy to say the least. There are presents for kids and baskets of food for adults. There are great co-workers and bosses that need to be thought of and need to be thanked for all they do. There are neighbors that are just the best since apple pie, and people who you love living next to you. I have asked family if they want anything knitted and the answer is no, so that kills any idea of gifting knitted items, which is not necessarily a bad thing.
I promise that the next post will have some knitting pictures and that should make this blog a little more visually interesting.
In my previous post I discussed knitting with a 50/50 blend of alpaca and wool. The needle size (6) wasn't making the fabric one that would hold up for the long haul. I also posted to an Aran knitting list that I belong to, and got feedback that the cables would not "pop." I went into my little stash haven and realized that I had recently bought two bags of lightly worsted weight yarn. I had started to swatch the yarn to find out what needle sized was the best, and because I have never used this yarn before, I am going to wash my swatch to see what happens. I have a sneaky feeling that it might stay the same gauge but who knows.
Here is the red yarn
As you can see it is just basic swatching. I did find out that I didn't like the fabric on size 6 needles so I am now swatching on size 5. I will also do a gauge swatch for the tweed sweater, this just might work!
The family and friends gathered this weekend at our humble home. We served hot dogs, hamburgers, cole slaw and chips. There were a variety of October beers and sodas. Everyone had a nice time and it was a lot of fun. Hubby has suggested a Sunday morning knit on the porch series. Have a great day
I spoke earlier of Melissa Leapman and her wonderful cables. There is a sweater that I have admired and often wondered what it would look like in person. Well, at the class I attended she was actually wearing the sweater. She said it was in the Cables Untangled book that was already published. She showed me the picture in the book and while it was the sweater, the printer/production staff decided to make it a more brown color, the actual color is that funky green. YUM! It is knitted in a dk weight, in a yarn that is no longer available. Rowan Yorkshire tweed. I believe that substitution is Scottish tweed dk. I am not sure of the color range but believe it is probably close to what was, but I don't know for sure.
I did a little research. At Webs Scottish Tweed runs $10, so 17 balls minus 25% bring the sweater down to roughly $124 for the sweater. That's a lot for a sweater. Yes it could be something that would last a lifetime, but shudder. I just can't do it. Then there is the beautiful yarn that the yarnharlot has found Scottish Tweed had I known how it blooms when you wash it, I would have bought it when I was at Stitches. Alas, I didn't and the colors I want are gone. However, I remembered that I do have some dk weight yarn at home. There is Jo Sharp in a green similar to the originial color of the design, but I don't think I have enough yarn. There are the dark purple cones of dk weight yarn "kid n ewe" but it is far too dark. Lastly Ultra Alpaca has a light version and I had three skeins at my fingertips. What is a person to do but swatch a skein, in that funky green no less!. The cost is $5 per skein, yardage is 143 yarns so the actual sweater $75 minus 20% comes to $65. This is if I buy the yarn for the sweater at Webs. The other alternative is to waiting until my local yarnstore has a sale on the Ultra Alpaca and get it there. I also have stashed some of the heavier weight Ultra Alpaca so it might not be a sweater I even have to get the yarn for, SCORE!
I've put several photos of the green yarn and my swatch so that you can see how the yarn is working. Initially I don't like the feel of the fabric. It is on size 5 needles and I think to get the cables to pop I am going to need to drop down the needle size to a 4. Again this is where the swatching comes in. I am actually thinking because I want a bit of heft of the sweater perhaps knitting it at a worsted weight. Actually I am thinking of pulling out some of the old Classic Elite Tapestry yarn, and perhaps something else (something that I can't rember the name of) I also found a yarn that can be knitted at a tigher gauge and I have a lovely red and green, but in using a heavier yarn I'm not sure how to work out some the of problems. If I want a heavier weight to the sweater I believe that I might need more yarn but if I get gauge at a worsted weight that doesn't kill my hands it **might** just work.
Yes I am still knitting somewhat on other projects, but I need to take a break because we are having the family over on Saturday to enjoy the weather and the changing of the leaves. It is just something that should be fun. The prep itsn't. I also had a rather rough week at work and that isn't going to change anytime soon. Such is life.
Patty
I have a hard time looking at a skein of yarn and "seeing" what it will look like wound up into a ball and knitted. Well the other night I decided to wind a ball of the Brooks Farm yarn to see how the colors line up. They are almost perfect lines. Now, this could be a good thing or a bad thing. I am thinking of a yoke sweater knit from the bottom up with this as the yoke. I need to do a little more knitting and see exactly what it turns out to be stay tuned
First let me say that Stitches, yarn stores, and yarn in generally are my downfall. Initially as I walk through the markets (whether it be MDS&W or Stitches) I don't see anything that truly calls to me. Yes there are lots of glitzy yarns, (vendors, do you really sell that much?) which I am not party to, there are booths for buttons, and bags, and of course vendors that are widely known to the knitting community, but initially nothing speaks to me. After the crowds die down that's when I can get a closer look and come back later after class and get what I want.
My goal this year is what I term the classics. Great wool, that knits up well and is generally a good price.
This is where Webs came in, it has a basic yarn 50% wool and 50% alpaca. It has a wonderful hand and let me tell you it is only $3.99 for 100 yards. Nice. Right next to Webs was Shelridge Farms from Canada (www.shelridge.com). Again nice yarns but a little more but stunning colors. See below
After buying yarn, or maybe it was before the buying of the yarn, I got some books. The first is Kristin Knits by Kristin Nicholas. I actually got her to sign it and let her know that I was the Patty that visited her blog a lot. She seemed to know exactly who I was! The reason that I don't have a picture of the book is because everytime I take the picture it is blurry and jumpy. I also picked up the Interweave Knits, Best of and Knitting for Him as I hope to have a variety of styles for the hubby.
Then came the Brooks Farm purchase. The goal was colors that I didn't already have and that were interesting. I think I did well.
Lastly I did attend classes. I went to the Nancy Marchant class and Brioche knitting definately needs constant repitition, and practice on the increasing and decreasing. I liked Nancy, and felt like she knew her stuff but, there is a part that (written directions) that was missing. I think that there is a difference in how they knit in Europe and here in the states, and whereas some individuals almost know certain stitches intutively, others must learn (like me) by looking at directions and having individuals close by to help students out.
But, my favorite teacher is Melissa Leapman. Incredibly bright, great attitude, knowledgeable, good sense of humor and uses the materials that she requests that you have ready for class. I got my book signed which was wonderful and made her laugh which is great. You see her Cables Untangled is one of those books I carry from bedroom, bathroom and my knitting study. I told her this seeing her laugh, well she just lights up a room. If you are the least bit interested in cables, cable knitting I encourage you to buy her book and take her classes. She is truly terrific!
I looked around trying to find Wendy of Wendyknits and her friend L-B. Alas they were not to be found. I did trying looking for them by looking at the shoes of various people that I thought might be her, but no such luck.
Lastly, yes, I went overboard but I did get some of the basic yarns that I wanted so much. The books I paid full price for instead of going to Amazon. While I had a list, I didn't follow it. So I hope to hell that Webs doesn't have a sale anytime soon, and that I just use the yarn I have for some basic everyday wearing designs. Hopefully no yarn purchases till after Christmas. Wish me luck. Do books count?
Patty
As promised here is the picture of the clamantis that is climbing up our front porch. The seeds are absolutely amazing.
Here is a new picture of the dog. Cute as ever, and protects us from thunder, the cat, all terrain vehicles, loud trucks...you get the idea.
And just so you can gauge why I am trying not to spend too much at Stitches this is my wall unit of yarn outside of the closet. There are still a couple of plastic containers of yarn next to it.
I have been knitting a little bit each night on projects. Of course that didn't stop me from casting on for a shawl that Kristin Nicholas designed for interweave a while back. In fact, that is one of the projects I plan to buy yarn for. At 1120 yards roughly worsted weight, I think I can find something interesting. I still am looking for yarn for a saddle should sweater and maybe something from Socks that Rock, a large skein of laceweight? Who knows. I thought about staying down here late on Thursday for their pre-sale, but you know, I did that last year and there was just too much temptation and I have off Friday, so why not come early Friday morning, shop, go to the lecture, class, and then pick up chinese and come home? Sounds like a plan to me!!
Saturday will probably be tough. The Batlimore Running Event is happening and I wanted to go to the farmer's market and pickup apples then head over to Stitiches. I might still have to head down early, but just go to my class at Stitches and head to the Farmers Market under the JFX on Sunday. I can stock up on a variety of apples, maybe find a zucchini and get dh to do his wonderful grilling of them. Yum! Will see if anything is worth posting tomorrow.
Patty
