Life is in the Details

Week in the Life - Thursday

In the home stretch!

Early Summer Recap

Family, friends, crafting, gardening, and just enjoying the outdoors.  It's been great so far!

New Shawl

I finished this shawl this morning.  It's my first handspun shawl and I know for sure it will not be my last.  The yarn is spun from Hello Yarn fiber in two different club colorways that I was lucky enough to get from destashes on Ravelry.  It is a two ply yarn of Maldives and Patchwork.  My first time mixing colors and I was so happy with how it turned out.

This was how the yarn looked before it was knit up.

The yarn was a fingering weight and I ended up with approximately 800-ish yards from 8 0z of fiber.  I decided to do a simple shawl pattern to really show off the handspun.  I found this Simple But Not Boring Shawl (the elongated version)  and it was perfect!

I adjusted the pattern to account for the thinner yarn, so it took a bit longer to knit than I originally thought it would.  I did some project notes on my Ravelry page.  Basically I had to make the shawl with twice as many stitches as the worsted weight in the pattern. The last rows of the ruffle that went up to 600+ stitches each were killer! But so worth it in the end! I'm so happy with the results and can't wait to knit more handspun!

New project, old memories

I love the beginning of a project.  Which may explain why I am in some stage of five different projects right now. I love picking the yarn, reminding myself of all the beautiful yarn that I own. I love pulling out the swift and winder and seeing how different the yarn looks once it is caked from the skein.

I'm working now on a quick project,  baby booties.  They are kind of a surprise, but if the Mom pops in here and figures out that they are for her, well worse things have happened.

I am making "Christine's Baby Booties" that have an interesting story behind them.  The pattern can be found here.  But on the pattern page it talks about a woman named Christine Bourquin who wrote a letter to the editor of a knitting magazine in 1989 explaining that she was, at that time, 95 years old, and she knew that her time knitting on this earth was almost over.  She wanted her pattern for baby booties to live on and the pattern and her story were published in the magazine. 

I wonder how many countless pairs she made over her long life, how many grandchildren's baby toes were warmed in her booties.  I marvel at how at 95 she was still able to make them, probably from memory and perhaps with failing eyesight, she made those tiny shoes using the familiar movements that had been imprinted on her brain and in her fingers from decades of kntting.  

 

This blanket was made by my own great grandmother, my Nanny, only a few years before Christine had sent her letter to the editor.  Knowing that she was nearing 90 and her eyesight was failing she wanted to make something for her two great grand-daughters while she still could, for us to always have a part of her.  Her daughter, my Mimi, gave them to us when she thought we were were old enough to care for them.  And for many years my Mom held on to these while my sister and I were in college and then venturing out on our own. I now have mine in my own home.

The blankets that she made for us are not unlike the many lap blankets that she would always have with her as she played store with us, listened to our endless chatter or watched her stories on tv.  I remember thinking years ago why did she pick those colors? But perhaps the bright colors were easier to see, easier to recognize the lace pattern when her eyes were not what they once were.  

I love that I have this,  but since I have started to knit I have a new appreciation for it, realizing all the love that goes into each and every stitch, understanding now how many hours are spent thinking of the recipient as the project takes shape.

I hope that this new little person that wears the booties that I am making is warmed by all the good thoughts being knit into them. Now time to start on the second one.

So many buttons!

I have finally finished my owl sweater. This has been in the works since November.  Originally I had hoped to finish it to wear for Thanksgiving.  Obviously that did not happen. I got stuck. I had thought at first that  I would try to modify this sweater to be a little more like a jacket, since it is bulky yarn (Beaverslide Dry Goods McTaggart Tweed in Bison Brown) so I had planned a high collar and a zipper hoping to wear it as a light jacket in the Fall.

Here's a picture of the first collar.

 

I liked this collar, but  it pulled in at the neck, which you can kind of see in the photo.  I had decreased too many times and I was not completely confident that taking it out and redoing it would make me any happier with it.  Plus I had ordered a custom zipper online, I took the time to carefully measure the sweater, picked the perfect bison brown, waited 3 weeks for it to be delievered and it came at least 2 inches too long.  So I decided to take it out and replace it with a regular crew neck collar.  Much better...

And I skipped the zipper.   Apparently I am not skilled enough to measure a sweater after working as an engineer for 15 years! 

Then there were the buttons, SO MANY BUTTONS! 62 buttons in all, 52 for 26 owl eyes and 10 buttons down the front. I'll tell you, if this furlough at work had not happened, I may have never finished all those buttons.

I finished sewing the buttons this morning and blocked the sweater outside on this beautiful sunny day! And as I was placing the sweater carefully on the picnic table I saw this...

A ONE EYED OWL!!

Unbelievable. 

Make that SIXTY THREE buttons!

Once the sweater is dry I'll add a new one.  I don't think I've sewed that many buttons in my entire life put together! 

The fit on this one is perfect though, I think I'm going to get a lot of wear out of this sweater.  It was one that I had to size up from the pattern because again no plus sizes. I guess only skinny people knit.  I think I'm getting pretty good at upsizing though, and it's nice to have all these sweater custom fit! Believe it or not it was a very quick knit, it was just all the other stuff that took a while to get right.  All in all a successful project!

Finished Socks and News

My new socks were finished last Sunday on the last day of the Olympics.  I was able to do my photo shoot and get them posted just within the deadline.  They were a struggle at times. The colorwork, which is still a new technique for me, took a few times to figure out. I learned that the yarn floats along the back of the colorwork whales decrease the elasticity exponentially, so I had to increase the number of stitches for it to fit over my heel.  In the end it all worked out.  Thank goodness for Ravelry and the experts there, especially Mariann  who seriously saved my sanity, or these would never have been finished!

But I LOVE the final product.  I already wore them the next day to work. They are so comfortable and fit great with my new clogs. The color is just spectacular, Wollmeise, of course. And they are not as heavy as the other socks I've made, which may be due to using smaller needles, I'm not sure. 

The chart for these are available on Ravelry now, it's called Walsocken. And the sock pattern I used was a modified version of Brainless by Yarnissima.  I used the purled gussets from her pattern, but eliminated the cables. I really like the fit of the Brainless, and I could definitely see using it again.  Perhaps with another chart from Bergfrosch like this one.

 

Ana, my awesome photographer roommate  did my sock photoshoot  so of course they may appear slightly better than real life. 

And then news.  I will have a bit more time for crafting, blogging and general fun activities for the next little while.  I was furloughed at work for at least a month.  I am hoping that is all it will be.  In the meantime, I can do a bunch of things around the house and yard getting ready for Spring.  And can use up some more of this Wollmeise I keep buying.  Hopefully it will only be for a short time, and I will not have to part with my precious Wollmeise to pay bills.  In the meantime, I will be stepping up sock production. Stay tuned.

Happy Anniversary to me

Today is my knitting anniversary.  I started knitting a year ago today at a class at the Wooly Monmouth.  So thankful for that little class that gave me the beginning skills for this wonderful hobby!

In the past year I have made lots of things, bought lots of yarn and met lots of wonderful people from all over the world at Ravelry

I have learned so much and so far it is still keeping my interest.  I have many more projects in my queue than I could ever knit! And more yarn than I'll ever need! I do normally have a tendency to run through my hobbies rather quickly.  But knitting has opened up a big new world and there is still lots to learn! So I can say now that I'll be knitting for many years to come. 

I am still working on my Olympic socks.  One down, one to go.  I will try to get some pictures up of my first sock tomorrow. And I'll tell of the long process of getting that sock to look like it does now.  Yes, still lots to learn, knitting is here to stay.

I Miss My Blog

I have not written here in a long time and I miss it.  I don't miss writing it, as much as I miss reading it. Is that weird? I love reading my own blog, I love looking at the photos and things and people that I love. I'd say I'm going to try harder, but I have said that before, so I'll just say I hope to post here more often.

Today is the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver Olympics! I LOVE the Olympics and I always wish I could take off two weeks of work to just watch every event! 

This year for the Olympics I am participating in Ravelry's Ravelympics!! I am a member of the Wollmeise Team and I plan to make some Wollmeise socks over the next 2 weeks starting tonight during the Opening Ceremonies!  That is the goal, to test your knitting abilities to try to finish  a project or multiple projects during the course of the Winter Olympics! And there are prizes and people cheer each other on.  Normally it has taken me longer than 2 weeks to do a pair of socks, mostly because I lose interest after one and the second one takes a while to get going.  Well I am hoping that this will push me to finish both in the next two weeks.

In other recent news, we have had tons of snow here on the East Coast! And it's made for some very pretty pictures!

 

It also makes a lovely backdrop for some recent knitting.  These mittens are my first stranded project.  They are the Bird in Hand pattern by Kate Gilbert.  I loved doing the stranded project but I ran into a few problems.  First of all, I used a needle that was a size too big so the mittens are rather large, and they had some tension problems.  (Notice how the dot pattern on my palm goes from large stitches to tiny stitches.) But for a first time out, I'm very happy with them, and they're so WARM!! It's amazing what doubling up the layers of yarn will do! I may have to move to a colder climate for these!

I used Madelinetosh Worsted in the Tart Colorway (which is now known as Tosh dk) and some Cascade 220 Superwash in the natural color.  With some scraps for the little thumb bird, I love the little birds on the thumbs.  Such a great detail! 

 

And the project I just finished last night that I was racing to finish is my Multnomah shawl.  I wanted to get it all finished before the Ravelympics started tonight, and I got it in just under the wire.  This one is in Wollmeise yarn in the Amazonas colorway. The color is so much more vibrant in real life, her colors just glow!  I would also like to thank my model, Eloise.  Isn't it a great color for her?

 

So I have been spending my free time cozy on the couch knitting warm wooly things and watching the snow fall outside.  It's been a wonderful winter for that.

Tonight the Opening Ceremonies and maybe some sushi as a nod to Vancouver and all their wonderful Japanese restaurants!  Other than Canadian Bacon and Tim Hortons coffee I couldn't think of what else to have for dinner that would be authentic Canadian and available at my local grocery store. Plus sushi is just darn good!

A new obsession...

I have a new knitting related obsession that is starting to get a little crazy.  See the photo above? See those colors, see that saturation, see how they look like the freshest fruit you can find in a farmers market?!? That photo above shows my current stash of Wollmeise sock yarn that I have been accumulating over the past month or so since I discovered this vibrant, wonderful smelling, German yarn. The colors of this stuff are amazing! I love practically every color that's available and a few that are not. I want to buy all of them! But that's the problem, I can't just buy them all.  Not without a whole lot of luck and a few sleepless nights!

The thing about Wollmeise is that it it very hard to get.  The yarn is dyed in Germany and the dyer, Claudia, puts the yarn on sale about once a week or so, usually in the morning, German-time, so for me living across the pond on the Eastern Seaboard that means 3 AM!! And you don't know for sure when the update will happen, you can make educated guesses by learning what the usual schedule is, but you really just never know.  Apparently when she used to announce her updates, the yarn obsessed knitters would crash her servers! And if that doesn't make it hard enough, the yarn sells out in minutes. Unfortunately I am not the only one in love with these magical colors. But at the same time it is so exhilarating when you get that yarn in your cart and get through checkout without it being pulled out! You feel like you won the lottery, you feel like you just received the letter saying that you passed the Professional Engineering exam, you feel like it's your birthday and Christmas morning at the same time! Basically it feels real good.

In addition to selling this yarn through her own website, the yarn is also sold by one online store in the United States, The Loopy Ewe, as well as through another site, Yarnissima,  that sells exclusive Wollmeise colors along with sock patterns that compliment the yarn.  I was super lucky the last time that The Loopy Ewe, had the yarn in stock, I hit two updates and was able to purchase 4 skeins between them, and another one I purchased with a pretty pattern from Yarnissima maybe 3 or 4 weeks ago.  The rest I have purchased from other knitters who were destashing their yarn on Ravelry.  I think I've done very well in the limited time that I've been on the hunt. 

Last week though, I literally hit the motherlode! Wednesday, Yarnissima had an update and had all the colors in stock when I got to the site, I was able to purchase 4 different sock kits at once, and then Friday morning at, yes, 3 am, I caught the real thing! A real honest to goodness Wollmeise update!! I was able to get yarn for 2 sweaters and 2 other colors that I loved! What a week! What a high! I can't wait to get that yarn in my hot little hands. (Well they will be hot when I knit up some gloves with this yarn!)

Wouldn't this one make a great pair?

Twin hats!

 

A friend of mine recently had twin girls.  And given my latest crafty hobby, it seemed only fitting that these babies would benefit with some knitted hats! I had seen a book in Barnes and Noble a few weeks ago called Itty Bitty Hats and at the time I didn't see any immediate need to buy it. But then I remembered the twins!! Thank goodness for the twins, because this book is a little gem, and I am going to definitely start some hats for my nieces and nephew very soon from the same book!

 

I finished up the hats yesterday and added the little pom poms. It had been a while since I'd made pom poms! Years in fact, so I had to remind myself with some internet research. 

I followed that up with learning a single crochet stitch for the edging.  I recently learned a half double crochet, and this one was similar, so it wasn't that tricky.  I love the knitting and crochet videos found on the website, The Knit Witch.  The lady who does the videos is so clear in her instructions and I've learned so much from her over the past few weeks! It's so much easier to watch someone do these stitches than to try to decipher illustrations or photographs in books.  

The contrast colors on the edge really do add so much to the hats, it's such a nice finish.

Hopefully I'll be able to get some photos of the hats in use when I meet the babies! I certainly  enjoyed making them!! 

Now I can get back to the mittens I was working on prior to these little hats. It's my first venture into 2 color knitting, it's a little tricky but so far so good.  Hopefully I'll be able to post them in the next few days.  

I also got a bunch of wool in the mail today that I ordered from Peace Fleece, in their grassroots color, to start on my first sweater! I might be biting off a bit more than I can chew, but I figured what's the worst thing that can happen? And what better way to learn than to just jump in head first? Right? lol I think I'm also trying to convince myself here. 

In non-crafty news, I had a great visit today from my family. We went out to lunch and over to the playground at the park down the street.  My nephew wore me out! So now it's time for some relaxation!