Posts filed under ‘Finished!’
“I tried to give you some lovin’ but you just gave me hives”
I was cleaning out an old piece of furniture and found a slip of paper with that quote attributed to me written in DH handwriting.
?
I did not remember saying it, but it made me laugh.
Fortunately, DH did remember and told me I said it to our dog (long since gone).
Now that does make sense.
I wish I was songwriter, because that is a heartbreaker right there.
good dog 1984-1995
I was making room for this, it’s not knitting, but I made it!
Well, OK, I didn’t make it, I put it together; it came in this box “Ready To Assemble”:
That worked out well, so…
another box:
another cabinet:
Wow, real furniture. I feel so grown up!
Mushroom picking and some knitting
Finished with a bit of lacy trim:
Vine Lace
Barbara G. Walker’s “A Treasury of Knitting Patterns”
And delivered:
Happy Birthday!
socks in Koigu KPPPM color 105d &
Planet Earth Fibers silk and bead trim
Also finished:
plain ol’ socks in Trekking XXL color 104
I love the color transitions of Trekking XXL!
And a new thing started on the way to the mountains for mushroom hunting:
DH posing my knitting in the Cascades off I-90
Apparently it is the time of year for baby animals.
Baby horses with their moms
Baby deer with their mom
On into the mountains…
We found:
mushrooms
Mom says:
“Don’t eat anything bigger than your head.”
(bolete mushroom)
strange flowers
these were growing in gravel with no leaves at all
fabulous views
This was actually a little scary it drops off pretty dramatically. When I lost my balance and grabbed the rock a chunk came off in my hand “AAAAAAAAH!”.
We brought home a few morels and boletes
and then had grilled steaks and morels in cream for dinner, yumm!
IK Embossed Leaves in Koigu KPPPM 105D
continued:
IK Embossed Leaves in Koigu KPPPM 105D
Planet Earth Fibers beaded silk in color Rouge
Now I need to figure out how to add the beaded silk…
lacy trim?
embroidery?
leaves?
On my first attempt the colors were pooling so that one side of the sock was red and the other side was green:
Pooling red side
Pooling green side
I modified the pattern, removing the first stitch of the leaf chart for a total of four stitches per round. Just enough to make the colors swirl in a nice spiral:
Modified for swirling instead of pooling
Estonian Garden Stole in Cracksilk Haze
A Late Birthday Present:
After overloading the birthday girl with pattern links, and an unfortunate reference to “Jemima Puddle-Duck Syndrome“, I decided it would be best to just take her to Knit Purl and see what happened; I don’t think you can walk in there without finding something perfect.
Rowan Cracksilk Haze color 627
We both love this color! We’re calling it ‘Vine Maple’.
That is not the name Rowan gave it. They usually come up with picturesque romantic color names, but color 627 is named “Blood”.
First of all:
Ew.
Second:
It’s NOT blood colored. Maybe the color of the icky styrofoam tray liner under a pound of ground beef.
Again:
Ew.
So I renamed it Vine Maple. Oooooo-priiitteeeee.
Later, we decided we should go back and get that perfect coordinating yarn that we had waffled on for socks IF Knit Purl was still Open.
We got there and it was Closed.
D’OH!
But I tried the door and it was unlocked! We ran in and straight to the Wall of Koigu and grabbed the yarn and then tried to act like we’d been there all along.
Sandy Kay heard voices and came up to investigate, she was nice as could be, especially considering they were supposed to be Closed. Then we sent her to go find more yarn because I decided I needed to have a pair of the same socks! We were laughing ourselves silly the whole time and Sandy was a great sport about it.
Thanks Sandy!
Koigu KPPPM P105D
…and then, at the counter they were tempting us with these irresistible little hanks of silk and beads, perfect for trimming a sock:
Planet Earth Fibers in color Rouge
Finished:
Fiber Trends Estonian Garden S-2009 by Evelyn A. Clark
And started:
Koigu KPPPM color 105D socks
Husky Hat
My Catherine Lowe Headgear IV kit arrived!
The yarn is gorgeous…I am a little intimidated by the 23 page pattern instuction book.
At the opposite extreme, DH asked if I could knit a hat for him this week – I used leftover yarn from a pair of socks and no pattern.
I finished the hat as the UW Huskies clinched the Conference Championship, much better than the season the socks had.
quick hat, Blue Moon STR lightweight in colorway Husky
TREKKING (XXL) Color 100 Socks and New Shoes
When I first saw TREKKING (XXL) Color 100, I was smitten.
I started knitting and loved the socks
So much.
You know.
In that way that makes you go temporarily insane and back to the store to buy the rest of it that they have in stock.
Yes, those are all Color 100 and all the same dye lot!
…and then I had to buy shoes to show them off!
I don’t know what I am going to do with all that yarn,
I don’t need eight pair of the same socks
…not that any two socks will be the same, much less any two or eight pair!
Judy’s Colors St. Nick completed due to snow
Snowbound.
(has not moved since last Wednesday)
Going a little stir crazy.
Thank goodness for knitting!
Done in time for xmas:
Judy’s Colors stocking St. Nick (kit)
I replaced the (pattern) loop with a round spiral braid and tassels.
Blue Moon STR Husky and Midsummers Night socks
Finally! I started these last summer as a back-up easy travel knitting project while on vacation in Canada.
Knitting these socks got off to a slow start, didn’t have much enthusiasm, it kinda sucked to be a Husky this year.
Blue Moon Socks That Rock Lightweight in colorway Husky
(specially dyed for us sad University of Washington Huskies)
150g (1.2 hanks) for men’s shoe size 10-11, 8 stitches/inch on size 0
DH was glad these socks were not done in time to be cursed as The Unlucky Socks.
Knit at the low end of the recommended 8-10 stitches per inch and they are hard (stiff), I canNOT imagine knitting this yarn at 10 stitches per inch. DH says the socks feel hard, as do the STR heavyweight socks I knit for for hiking.
For the hiking socks, he says they feel hard but thinks that might provide more protection for his feet.
Blue Moon STR Heavyweight, colorway Midsummer’s Night
146 g (1 hank was plenty) for men’s shoe size 10-11,
5.6 st/in on size 3 and 6 st/in on size 2 (for heels, toes, soles)
Misti Alpaca Worsted + Barbara Walker “ Arch and Leaf”
By Special Request: “a texture patterned, soft, cream-colored scarf”
Misti Alpaca Worsted
colorway SFN 10, 2X 100g hanks
dimensions: 52” x 8.25
“Arch and Leaf” stitch from Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
Not the best scarf stitch pattern, it curls (wrong side out) pretty insistently even after a good blocking.
If I did it over, I would knit it two arches wide (instead of three) and use a wider flat border such as K1P1, or seed stitch.
ERRATA for “Arch and Leaf” from Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury:
row 5: stitch 36 (counting from left edge of chart)
should be [RS: P1/WS: K1]
row 5: stitches 19 and 33 (counting from the left edge of chart)
and
row 7: stitches 18 and 36 (counting from the left edge of chart)
should be [RS: K1-b/WS: P1-b]
(These are the stitches above the YO and will create holes if not closed with a twisted stitch, see swatch below)
DD requested this scarf, we picked up the yarn at Beehive WoolShop in Victoria, B.C. last summer.
She wanted a textured pattern, so I handed her a pile of Barbara Walker Treasuries to choose from.
Never having been one to shy away from a swatch, I swatched up her favorites to choose from.
Details from top to bottom
Soft Cable (right), Barbara Walker Third Treasury
Ribbed Spindle, Barbara Walker Third Treasury
Exploded Ribbing, Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
Arch and Leaf, Barbara Walker Fourth Treasury
(my favorite) Cable-Framed Leaf, Barbara Walker Second Treasury
DD loves the scarf , mostly the softness.
Two-sided Reversible Intarsia
I got a request for a “ladybug” scarf.
Ladybug
Design: a reversible spotted scarf
I knew immediately which yarn I wanted to use. I had been suffering from Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino envy and just needed an excuse. I knew it came in black and a perfect red.
It’s light enough for an all-over k1 p1 ribbing scarf, it will be nice and flat. Since it will be hanging with all the tension in the lengthwise direction, it will always be un-expanded.
Wider and shorter would be a great Baby Blanket , lots of great colors of DBBC!
I knit a large swatch in k1 p1 ribbing to get the pattern gauge.
DBBC k1p1 ribbing swatch
I measured the gauge (un-expanded) and made a graph to match the size of the scarf I wanted.
Each square represents two stitches, one knit, one purl. Only the knit stitch will show, the purl stitches will recede and be visible as knit stitches on the other side.
I added circles to represent the spots and then tried different combinations of filled squares to get the best approximation of a circle.
Next, the worst part, okay maybe the second worst part, figuring out how to make a two-sided intarsia scarf that doesn’t look crappy on one side.
Floats = looks crappy
How to make the wrong side (WS) look as good as the right side (RS)…
RS to the left, WS to the right
Here’s what I came up with:
right side (RS), expanded
wrong side (WS), expanded, much improved
Here’s how I do it:
To hide the floats, I lift the float over a (same color) stitch that appears as a purl stitch on the right side (RS) (knit stitch on the wrong side (WS)). The float zig zags between the front and back laying on top of the purl bumps.
unattractive float (WS)
WS, lift float over stitch so float hides on purl bump
(knit stitch on WS) of same color stitch
WS, float dropped onto purl bump
WS, float woven between stitches (hidden),
float highlighted with white dots
One more time, going back the other way.
WS, ugly float
(flipped over to) RS, float lifted over from behind
RS, float dropped onto purl bump of same color,
float highlighted with white dots
RS, float woven between stitches (hidden),
float highlighted with white dots
right side (RS)
right side (RS) expanded,
floats highlighted with white dots
wrong side (WS)
wrong side (WS) expanded
floats highlighted with white dots
NOTE: Be sure to weave the float over stitches of the same color.
The Actual Worst Part:
Weaving In The Ends
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
(thank goodness for Project Runway Season 3 on dvd!!!)
Each spot creates 4 ends. 21 spots = 84 ends
(in addition to the usual beginning and end of every ball)
NOTE: Weave in the ends mostly vertically, so they won’t work themselves out when the ribbing is stretched and springs back.
Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, it is super soft. Lots of great colors for other spotted scarf combinations or baby blankets. It PILLS though. The beginning of the scarf was pilling by the time I finished it. DD is very happy with the scarf, we’ll see how it wears.
Shibui + Hilltop
Finished:
Lurrrve it!
Rhapsody in Lace and Ruffles by Megan Wright
from Hilltop Yarn in Seattle.
ShibuiKnits Baby Alpaca DK in color Spruce
from Knit Purl in Portland, OR.
This yarn is beautiful, it comes in rich colors, slightly variegated, soft and smooth, delightful to knit.
This yarn is a lighter gauge than the yarns specified in the pattern, so I modified the lace panel to make the wavy part wider, adding two stitches and two rows. I also added rows and details to the top and bottom borders.
That ruffle wanted to curl sooooo bad. I wondered how I was going to block a ruffle, thought about it the whole time I was knitting those 14 curly 581-stitch rows of stockinette. Here’s what I came up with:
it worked
ETA: see me showing off here: http://knit-purlpdx.blogspot.com/2008/07/rhapsody-in-spruce.html
Knitting In Mind 