Rogue, Day 4

The back of the body is finished and cast off. The center front is currently marked with cute little knitting markers from Nic! I pulled the sweater body on this morning and it fits really nice. I would say it's just perfect, not too tight or loose. I think it will take me longer to do the front, especially with the cable motif. Can't wait!




The final skein of Boysenberry that I have had on order for OVER A MONTH, finally came in this week. I found out when I called them. Makes me reticent to special order anything from 3 Kittens again. That was a hideous amount of time IMHO. However I can now FINISH the felted socks for Niklos. If I get them done in time I could be the 1000th sock, you never know....

Weekend nattering

Took pictures of the bird.




This is Tweet. She adopted us in October of 2004. P found her hopping around the bushes when he came home from work, brought her inside and we've had her since. She usually stays in her cage but I wanted to give her some exercise on Saturday.

Saturday night was a friend's wedding. Lots of fun! Beautiful dresses, food, dancing, good times! Dead sexy dress!






Tonight is week 4 of Rogue. We will be dividing for front and back and possibly starting the neck decoration. Yay!

Yay, more yarn!

My yarn order came in today. This would be the two skeins that I need to finish Rogue. The yarn is here and it arrived with Werthers original candy. Sweet!

Now if I could just get the yarn I need to finish that damn sock! GAH! It's been a month!

Rogue Day 3

Rogue went pretty well last night, until I realized that my suspicions were correct and I didn't have enought yarn to finish this project. I'm over 100 yards shy. Knit Knot found a website that carried my color and I ordered 2 more skeins (probably only need one more but better safe that sorry). Hopefully the dye lot will be close. She suggested knitting with the new yarn every other row so that it would blend. Cool suggestion! I'll probably do that on the sleeves.






I joined the front pocket and I'm only a few rows away from the armhole, almost time to divide for front and back. It's really hard to put it away each week, especially when I see the progress...sigh...

Socks for the boy

They fit him and I think he likes them. We both were under the impression that the yarn was more burgundy, but it is actually leaning more towards purple, but not in a bad way so this is good. The pictures does not really show the checky pattern very well.

I finished the socks while watching the ice dancing original performance last night.
Dang that ice was cursed! 5 couples performed and ALL but 2 fell in the last part of their routine. That sucks.... The American couple had a wonderful performance. Great energy! They are currently in line for silver. WOO HOO!

Night 3 of Rogue today!

Socks!

Since I can't work on my Rogue sweater every day and it is difficult (seriously it needs to be out of sight) I have been working on other things to keep me busy, namely socks for myself.



I made socks out of self striping yarn by Lana Grossa. Just look at that beautiful Kitchner stitch!
The other pair is made with Schaeffer Yarn and I just LOVE it! It is so soft. Now I have plenty of leftovers for baby socks!

Fear my computer fu!

Ok, now that Norton and I have had a chat (and I won) there are now PICTURES!!!! For that, cute cats! (and cute boy too)

Here we have the dynamic duo. Nehemiah on the left and Lenny (looking at the camera) on the right.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!! ::gush::
Gotta love a man who loves cats.

Rogue, Day 2

I'm on row 37 of the pattern and I'm really liking how it looks. The pocket is completed and is hanging out on a short circ 6 until I get to row 52 and join up the stitches. It's really pretty! Knit Knot was good enough to post pictures on her blog.

I get so addicted to knitting this pattern, I just don't want to stop. I would probably knit all evening every day if it wasn't for the fact that we agreed that we ONLY work on it on Monday. Now I'm worried that I'm going to run out of yarn. I'm already on the second skein and I don't remember the name of the maker to even start looking for more.


Another detail. The color is pretty accurate

Keeping my hands busy...

I dropped off the completed felted socks (mach 2) at Manthra's on Sunday and they fit her perfectly! Yay! The foot is a little roomy, but she likes them. Now I just need to get the other skein of yarn that I ordered (sheesh they are taking a while) and I can finish Niklos'.

The smaller sock is sized to fit a normal size 10 woman's foot (namely mine) to give you an idea of scale. (The grid is marked in inches) The gigantic sock is prior to felting.

Since I can't work on the Rogue during the week I need something to keep me occupied. I completed a knitted toque (pointy hat) for Halvdan on Saturday. It's made out of a 2 ply natural colored wool that I bought in Minot, ND. It's just lovely and the perfect amount for a hat. I'm waiting for him to try it on before I finish it.

I also started a pair of socks for the boy. He's going camping in MS next month and I want to make sure he has stuff to keep his feet warm.

The socks are made out of Lion Brand Wool-Ease (Sportweight) in Boysenberry. Very cute. He said I could make him socks and he likes the color and the pattern. I cast on last night and I have 7 1/2" knitted already.

Tonight part 2 of Rogue!

Felted socks, part 2

I finished the "wow those are really blue" socks and felted them last night. I feel that I got the size right this time. They went on and off my foot very easily and felt a bit loose throughout the foot, which will be perfect since the person they are made for has feet that are wider and a bit longer than mine. The socks were gi-normous before felting.

The Heathered Plum socks are still waiting for one more skein of yarn so I can finish them.... I ordered another skein 2+ weeks ago and checked Friday, still no luck but they said they would call me. I thought it would be quicker than this, but I can't complain. I just really want to get both done and to their proper owners before the weather gets too warm for them to use.

Who am I kidding? We live in MN and they have an old house

Rogue Sweater, Day 1

The Rogue Sweater was begun last night. Other than being rather befudled by the instructions it went ok. I'm not used to charts, none of my other patterns have used this feature. I am warming up to this technique though.

I had originally considered knitting this as part of the 2006 Knitters Olympics, but I really have far too many other things that need doing and I did not want to be yoked with such a deffinative deadline. My hopes is that slow and steady will win the race and I can have this thing done while it's still cold enough to wear it. (It's MN, there is hope...)

I did discover that I was short 2 stitches when I started the pattern. Not wanting to rip it out and start over I quick added two stitches. Of course I'm not happy with that solution so today I ripped it back down, quadruple checked the number of stitches and I'm going to re-knit tonight what I knit last night. No, I don't think I'm cheating..... ;^)

Operation Helmetliner Update

I received my Operation Helmetliner newsletter today: starting April 2005 to Feb 2006 they have shipped 6,020 helmetliners, 89 gators, 19 scarves and 4,320 neck coolers to soldiers stationed overseas.

I found out about the Operation Helmetliner through an article in the October issue of Cast On Magazine, which I receive as a member of The Knitting Guild of America (TKGA). It was on a page towards the back of the issue asking yarn shops to display the article and a URL for the directions.

I was reminded of the stories my grandmother told me about, when she and her mom would make knitted scarfs, mittens, socks and hats for the soldiers during WW1. Sending knitted items is such an old fashioned way to support the troops and I couldn't imagine that I would have an oppertunity to do such a thing, but when the chance presented itself I jumped at it. I felt like I was holding up a tradition.

That came with mixed feelings. I don't agree with the war. I don't like the fact that our soldiers are not properly equipped and it really makes me angry that our government does not seem to care. It also makes me sad that here it is almost 100 years later and I'm knitting things to send to soldiers overseas. People of my great grandmother's generation called it the 'Great War" the "War to end all wars" because they thought something like this could never happen again... While I don't consider the current Gulf War to be equivilant to WW1, it certainly is just as futile. That being said I never thought twice about spending time and money to make these liners. Men and Women need them and they were easy to make. Many times people would ask me what I was doing and I would tell them and kind of hold my breath, waiting for the "I can't believe you're supporting the war!" accusation. It never came. I think everyone I spoke to thought that what I was doing was a great thing, some even asked how they could help or where I got the pattern, or if I could teach them to make one. That made me feel really good. It took me on average 8 hours to finish one, or roughly two evenings. I think from start to finish I had all 12 done in under a month.

I may never know who gets them, but I hope they are used and I hope they are useful. It makes me feel good that somewhere a soldier has received something I made and maybe he/she will realize that we are thinking about them and that we want them to be safe. I have a feeling that I'm going to keep yarn on hand and just knit one up on ocassion. I'd like to do another 12. I used Merino Wool by Patons.

Period socks

I have had this tendancy of late to provide persona approprate socks for my friends who are in the SCA. My first venture was making the Medieval Islamic knee highs for Tarik, which were finished for a 12th Night gift. They fit him very well and he loves them.
(I modeled them on my leg for the photo)




I decided to make felted socks for two other friends, one who has a Roman persona and the other a Mongolian. When the Romans were stationed in the frontiers of the "Empire" they needed something to protect their feet, especially since their open toe'd sandles were not cutting it. There are letters in existance that record requests from soldiers at Hadrian's wall to "send more socks", most specifically wool socks. I would argue that these socks could have been knitted. So I'm knitting and then felting wool socks for Niklos. The felted socks for someone in Mongolia are pretty obvious, although I should really make them out of yak wool.

I finished my first pair of gi-normous socks and felted them. The Galway Worsted wool felts very quickly, almost too quickly. Good thing I took them out of the washer when I did because they almost didn't fit me anymore. I did a lot of stretching and pulling, but I got them to go on and off comfortably and they fit me beautifully. Unfortunately they are a bit tight for Manthra so off to purchase more yarn and start again.

Learning my lesson I made the socks for Niklos quite a bit bigger, and naturally ran out of yarn and the shop needs to order more. ::sigh:: They are knit out of the same Galway worsted wool. I think I will slide his socks onto a holder so I can use the needles to start on Manthra's.

Manthra's socks are knit in the Royal #011 and Niklos' is knit in the Plum #117. I'm using a pattern for felted (fulled) slippers by Nancy Lindberg.




Rouge sweater begins Monday!

Weaving....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Blasted, bloody, card weaving!!!!!!!!!

Why is it that I have managed to warp my loom, on my own, with no help, with no problems, have done it sucessfully since and TOTALLY frell it up when trying to teach someone else?

Inanimate objects were laughing at me last night and it isn't fair.

I did finally get it straightened out but not without, mostly sucessfully, having to surpress the urge to rip the bloody thing to shreds and stomp on it soundly. It's even better to have an audience when you are having all kinds of problems. Yay!

Welcome to the insanity

Hello and Welcome.

I was inspired by my friend Nic to create a knitting focused blog in an attempts to keep track of the various projects that I work on throughout the year, thus keeping my live journal relatively uncluttered from such.

About me:
I first learned how to knit from my Grandma (dad's mom). She also taught me needlepoint, embroidery, crewel, paint by numbers, quilting, counted cross stitch and crochet. She was my first fiber enabeler and I still have many of the needles that I lifted from her stash in her sewing room. The great thing is my grandmother taught my dad (her son) how to knit, sew, embroider, crochet, etc so whenever I got stuck I could always go to him for help. I always thought that was cool. I don't think he could knit something today to save his life, but he may surprise me. My mother's friend tried to teach her how to knit when she was recovering from breaking her back (1964). She never got the concept of "tension" and proceeded to create something that would hold water. Sitting and working on stuff was never mom's forte, too hard on her back and neck so she was never much for crafty things.

I consider my fiber addiction to be relatively mild. I do not have a room full of yarn, but I do not object to the idea. Most of my yarn stash fits in a standard tote/ drawer in my sewing room. I have been knitting since the age of five and I have lost count to the number of sweaters (adult and child), hats, mittens, socks and various other items I have completed over the years. When I buy yarn it is usually for a specific project that I will complete right away so I tend to not have a lot of yarn lying about calling to me.

I will admit that my knitting was fairly infrequent after leaving college and grad school, too many other hobbies taking my time. I would say that it wasn't until the last couple of years that the call of my needles overtook me. Now I seem to be working backwards, or from the ends in. Hats were the big thing, then socks, then mittens and now I'm making myself a new sweater in I don't know how many years (I don't count the mohair sweater that I took apart and re-worked 3 years ago as a new sweater, per se).

I don't consider myself a knitting expert, there are many techniques that I am still learning, the most recent would be fairisle. Many things I 'just do' because I figured out how to do them on my own or just guessed and may or may not be the accepted 'textbook' method. My thought is: if it works just fine and looks good then whos to say it's wrong.

I'm looking forward to seeing what I can accomplish in a year.