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by Kelley on May 26, 2010
Last Sunday I laid out clothes for our trip. Having gotten the “boring” task out of the way, I enthusiastically contemplated what fiber-related projects to take with me. I knew I wanted to take my Spinsanity spindle and my Golding Aromatherapy spindle. I have bright, colorful rovings for each spindle. I also wanted a very low-key knitting project. A Moderne Baby Blanket fits the “easy” requirement but the yarn takes up a lot of room and, once the blanket gets going, it isn’t really portable. Then I remembered my long-neglected Stonington Shawl from Knitting Workshop by Elizabeth Zimmermann. I had made a good start but then was sidetracked with Prayer shawls and baby blankets. The yarn is Shimmer – Bayou. What a perfect travel project! Lots and lots of plain garter stitch with a lacy edge to entertain me ... |
Category Archives: Inspiration
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 26, 2010
Over Thanksgiving, my parents and I drove down to visit my sister in San Jose. It’s about 11 hours each way, so that meant lots of knitting time. I took along my mindless, feels-so-soft, comfortingly warm garter stitch afghan in the Bayou color of Suri Dream Hand Dyed. I’m using size 11 needles. With 9 balls of yarn, at 150 stitches wide, I think the afghan will end up being close to 65 inches square. Sitting in the back seat, with no additional knitting tools available to me, I discovered that the spit-splice joining method (more elegantly known as the felted join) works wonderfully for Suri Dream, except you don’t need to (and really can’t) splice – all you need is spit, which I did happen to have with me. I know…good thing I had the back seat to myself, right? ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 26, 2010
My family has decided not to exchange Christmas gifts this year, it lowers stress and credit card bills and instead we’ll all go for a hike and have a great meal together on Christmas day. Well, that doesn’t stop me from knitting. Since my Mom taught me, I think she deserves a little something from time to time so I’m going to give this set to her this weekend. The yarn is Swish DK in Hollyberry and Egglant. It is the first time I’ve worked with Swish and I really, really loved it. It’s just so soft. I can see why people use it for baby blankets. I’m looking forward to trying something with Swish bulky soon. The hat is just a basic 2 x 2 ribbed hat, I cast on 88 stitches and decreased after 6 inches. The fingerless gloves are from here: http://lifeincleveland.blogspot.com/2008/03/mmmalabrigo-glovies.html ... |
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by Kelley on May 26, 2010
Xena’s breeder, Lora, has been waiting for her Suri Dream shawl much longer than I care to admit. The greatest obstacle to my getting started was finding a pattern that would work well for Lora. The pattern I choose for another friend’s Prayer Shawl turned out to be my answer. As soon as I finished Elizabeth’s shawl, I cast on the Black Forest version. Lora travels a lot and prefers to wear black, grey and white for simplicity’s sake. I love my long, narrow Suri Dream shawl that I use as a blanket when I’m sitting in an airplane seat. It also works well as a pillow or even as a true shawl. Lora is the first non-knitting person to whom I’ve given a shawl. It dawned on me that “blocking” was not something she would appreciate having to do whenever she washed her shawl. Handwashing ... |
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by Kelley on May 26, 2010
I used to go crazy casting-on and knitting the very center of a circular shawl. But, now I start with Emily Ocker’s cast on and then use the Magic Loop method rather than struggle with a set of double pointed needles and a very small number of stitches. I use the Magic Loop as if I were working in a tiny sock leg. Half the stitches on each cable section that are increased at regular intervals. After awhile I will have enough stitches to fit around a 24″ circular needle. From then on, things are relatively easy. I’ll even move onto a 32″ circular needle eventually. I’m not sure when I will pick up the shawl again. November and December seem to flash by and I’m not sure I will have time to continue before the new year. But, I haven’t finished planning my travel ... |
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by Kelley on May 26, 2010
After three false starts, I’ve finally settled in with a Log Cabin pattern from the first Mason Dixon Knitting book. I am going to get to projects in the new book but not until I’ve finished knitting my last three baby blankets. For some reason, I struggled with the color blends for the Moderne Baby Blanket that I’ve made for several babies. By the time I had gathered yarn for three versions I was completely frustrated and had a huge pile of yarns! I had seen the log cabin design in the book before but I’d always been so happy with the results of my previous Moderne Baby Blanket projects that I never thought about a change. With the Mason Dixon Knitting book laid out on the floor, I played around with my pile of yarn and finally came up with the plan you see here. ... |
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by Kelley on May 26, 2010
Bob’s youngest son, Jonathon, is a new officer in the Marine Corps. He spent a week in Portland before reporting to his base in California. Walter certainly enjoyed the rides on Jon’s shoulders. And, Xena was pleased to see him as well. Having Jon visit gave me a renewed sense of urgency for my Socks for Soldiers knitting. Just to give you a quick update – the military has changed their color guidelines. Unfortunately, the Marines are sticking to black, but the other services are using Drab Green (Sarge – Essential) or a Dusty Tan (Buckskin – Essential). Right now I am working my way up the legs of socks in Sarge. Yep, “up”. I’m trying out Tina’s free knitting pattern for Two At Once, Toe Up, Magic Loop Socks. I haven’t gotten Kim’s approval for this pattern so stick to ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 26, 2010
We’re always working on something new around here, and lately one of the projects has been a group of new Knit Picks tools. For the first time, we’re focusing on tools – making improvements to the old faithfuls plus developing a couple of brand new things. One of the main improvements you will notice is that the prices will be much lower – yay! You know it already – that we work directly with the factory, cutting out the middle man, thus keeping prices low. But one thing you may not know is how much fun that is. It means visits to the factory, which I got to do last week. Here I am in Taichung, Taiwan at the factory showroom to approve samples: Sheldon went with me. Here he is inspecting a set of double ended crochet hooks designed for knitters – for fixing mistakes ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 26, 2010
I finished a new pair of socks just in time for our cold, fall weather. I call them my “Wicked Socks.” I used Imagination in “Wicked Witch” for the main color and “Frog Prince” for the contrasting heels, toes & cuffs. By using a contrasting color for the toes & heels, I only needed one skein of the Wicked Witch for very generously high socks. (My shoe size is 9, so it’s not like I have tiny feet either.) I must have loosened up considerably by the time I knit the second sock because my sock is a little bigger and the yarn pooled in slightly thicker stripes. You can see this on the left foot in this photo (sorry about the blurry photo–I’m sure you know how hard it is to photograph your own feet!): Oh well, I ... |
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by Knit Picks Staff on May 26, 2010
My brother’s wife is pregnant with the first grandchild of the family. She’s due at the end of December and they are having a boy. I wanted to complete the project and give it to her when I saw them at Thanksgiving. The project is from Mason Dixon Knitting. I used Comfy in Planetarium, Fedora, Cashew and Honeydew. The colors were chosen by the mom-to-be, they match her nursery theme perfectly. The Comfy gives this blanket a beautiful drape. I keep saying it feels “slinky” to me. And we know from the accidental washing of my purple Comfy hat that this blanket can be abused and washed without worry. Whew, my next couple projects are going to be MUCH smaller. < |
