One for you, one for me

I admit it. I am not among the ranks of the knitting super women. Take Stephanie P-McP. How does the Yarn Harlot do it? I mean, she started her grey cardigan just a few days ago; then abandoned it to make a pair of socks, then finished the cardigan before I could even select my next knitting project!! During this time she flew to Madrona, took classes and gave a speech, took care of 3 teenager daughters and husband, and is working on a gazillion more books no doubt!!

Here at my homefront, where I have only one teenager, am retired but do volunteer work and am equally buried in snow and grey and cold, it was all I could do to finish these: the first ever socks REQUESTED by daughter #2, the 16 year old!!
The yarn is a Kaffe Fasset colorway that Regia came out with recently. I did a k3, p2 ribbing on the entire cuff and leg and the top of the instep. She wears the socks inside of her fake Ugg boots, to school, to keep her feet warm during this the winter to end all winters in the upper Mid-west!! She likes them, the really likes them!!

Now, for me these socks took time. They weren't difficult, but they did take time. Size 2 mm needles, size 8.5 feet. I mean, I didn't knock them off while taking a short breather from a cabled cardigan!

It took me a while to select my next big project. I don't get to make myself a lot of items, since I am now keeping myself, my father, daughter #1 and daughter #2 in handmade socks!! I showed you several possibilities for my perfect project. I didn't select any of them. I went off on a wild tangent.

Did you hear that Dale of Norway has discontinued the production of they fabulous yarn, Tiur?? I didn't. I think I was the last US knitter to learn of this. I panicked. I have had in my mind, for at least 8 years, to make about 8 or so Dale of Norway sweaters for myself in Tiur. I never accumulated the yarn, but I (incorrectly) had faith that the venerable Dale would never discontinue a staple of their stable. My faith was utterly misplaced.

I went on a mission to collect, by hook or by crook, sufficient Tiur to make all the sweaters that were bubbling back in my mind. I collected enough Tiur to make about 8 sweaters. I spent the entirety of my of my 2008 yarn budget. Forget the sewing machine that my yarn diet was accumulating money for.

Here is my first project. I purchased the pattern for this when I visited Norway in 2001. Red is my favorite color. Despite being brunette/grey haired, I think I became convinced that I would look like this model if I made the sweater.

Don't you love that "come hither" look in the model's eyes?? In that warm sweater with cables, color work, embroidery and textured stitches, I will be a sultry, blond 20-something Scandinavian! Forget the Marilyn Monroe and Lindsay Lohan nude photos, I will give them a run for their money in the allure department, dressed in wool/mohair and pointsettia/stars.

It took me longer to do my swatch than it did the Yarn Harlot to start and finish her socks!! Why I worried and did two swatches with two different needle sizes I'll never know. The gauge instructions gave dimensions over stockinette. There is NO area of stockinette in the entire sweater. Be that as it may, I achieved gauge for a stockinette sweater; not that I'm making a stockinette sweater....
So, I started with the sleeve. Turns out that the cuff was too narrow and the sleeve increases too dramatic for my taste. Rip out, start again. Use larger needles for the small needle size. Increase for the sleeve more slowly.
And I finished, one sleeve!! Looks like it will fit!! And, it's for ME!!!! Now, cast on for sleeve #2, and finish the second sock for my father. By the time I finish sleeve #2, Stephanie will have made her next cabled sweater in a more lively color AND made more grape leaves for another pair of Vintage socks for another friend........

We mere mortals slog on.

Some Assembly Required

Ta, daaaa!!!!
Look at this handsome, proud man. This is my husband wearing his Dale of Norway sweater that I FINALLY finished. Was the finishing painful? Not really. Was it intimidating? Definitely.

Back in 2006 I gave my husband what I thought was a wonderful Christmas present. I gave him a Dale of Norway pattern and invited him to my favorite LYS to select yarn. Well, he didn't like the pattern I selected ("too flowery" ?????). It took several trips to more than one LYS to select the above pattern and yarn. This was a painful process. He finally selected the winning "daring" color combination: navy blue, dark red and grey. Aren't 98% of men's sweaters done in navy blue, dark red and grey?? But I digress.

I shouldn't berate my husband, however, for the long and painful time it took for him to select a pattern and yarn-- it took me nearly two years to knit the sweater!! We who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones!!

I finished the actual knitting of the sweater just after Christmas. But, somehow, the steek and other assembly intimidated me. I previously suffered traumatic experiences with two other steeks in intricate color work. I used baby ull and the shoulders and upper torsos unravelled as I sewed in the sleeves, despite the fact that I thought I had securely prepared the steeked area. PTSS--Post-traumatic-steek-syndrome--haunted this sweater.

This past week I finally faced my "issues" and tackled the beast.
Here is the torso awaiting dissection. I liked the little faux cables running down the front.
Here is the obligatory photo of the innards. I thought I had done quite well, thank you very much. I hated the thought to cutting into those perfect little stitches, on which I had worked so very, very hard!

In my unwillingness to do the steek, I completely forgot to photograph the entire process. I thought I had, but my camera bears no photos of early steps. Oh well.

Step 1: measure and remeasure and measure again the width of the upper sleeve.

Step 2: locate, relocate and locate again the side stitches of the torso. You don't want a sleeve hole in the middle of the chest! AT least, I didn't.....

Step 3: insert sweater into sewing machine. Realize that sewing down the middle of a navy blue stitch next to other navy blue stitches would cause blindness. Remove sweater from sewing machine.

Step 4: Take some contrasting color sock yarn and sew down the middle of the stitches to be cut. Re-insert sweater into sewing machine. Sew up (or down) the middle of the stitch on either side of the marked line of stitches. Remember previous traumas and sweat profusely. Sew up (or down) the middle of the next line of stitches as well.

Step 5: Remove sweater from machine and pace to release tension.


Here's the cut edge. Not bad.. Very clean--no blood and no unravelled stitches!!
Step 6: Sew up the shoulder seams using the modified whip stitch shown in the pattern book. Dale typically leaves a bit up to your imagination in its instructions. The photo showing the seaming of the shoulders and arms was blurry!!! I didn't know if my shoulder seam was as it "should" be, but it looked good enough.
Step 7: Figure out how to sew the sleeves in. I had two sleeves with five rows of reverse stockinette at the top, which was to form a facing to cover the cut edges of the torso.
OK, right sides together. Ok........ Use lots of pins. I wanted the resulting product to have a neat seam along one line of stitches, following that line from the arm pit, up the arm, over the shoulder, down the arm and back to the pit. But, following navy blue stitches lined up with navy blue stitches resulted in stars before my eyes.
Step 8: Remove the pins and sew a contrasting sock yarn up the middle of the stitch I would be following for the seam. Much better. Blindness averted.

Step 9: Replace the pins, admire the neat rows of tiny machine stitches, and place right sides together. No, that didn't seem to work.
Step 10: Pin sleeve into steeked hole WRONG sides together. And begin to kitchener (is that a verb?) the pieces together.

I hope you can see that I inserted the needle through the body of the sweater just above the contrast thread. That way, I didn't have to pick out the contrast "thread"!!! Nifty, huh?

Here's a shot of the sleeve (on the bottom) going into the armhole, and the five rows of reverse stockinette efficiently being "sucked up" under the torso edge. I used the row of stitching just under the reverse stockinette on the sleeve as the "base" of my kitchener stitches.

Step 11: Admire one's handiwork. Do a little finished steek dance! Ignore stares of family members.
Step 12: sew up the hem of the sweater. See those two itty-bitty yarn over holes in the center of the hem? Those are for the elastic cord that gets inserted to snug up the bottom of the sweater to keep out those cold Norwegian (and Wisconsin) gusts of bitter cold wind and to make the wearer look dashing. A loose sweater bottom is simply unattractive!

But wait, isn't the black cord hanging out of the sweater also unattractive??

Step 13: Research mission. Go to LYS and inspect Dale sweaters hanging on display from the wall. Look at what they do! How clever!
They single crochet a couple of inches of yarn and sew it into the side "seam" (or lack thereof on a circularly knit hand made sweater) and the elastic cord passes through the little loop. Now, why didn't I think of that??


Step 14: Are we ever going to finish this thing??? Pick up stitches for around the neck. Ask husband whether he wants stripes on the neckband, as shown in the photo in the pattern book. Ask husband whether he wants the neck band as high as shown in the photo in the pattern book. Hubby says no stripes. Therefore, knit stripes to be on the INSIDE of the neck band, just for cuteness sake. I was very tired of working only in navy blue at this point. Show hubby the progress. Hubby now asks if the stripes can be on the OUTSIDE. Respond, "No!! It's too late. I'm done with this project!!!


Step 15: Put away the leftover yarn, the pattern book with notes about what I changed in the pattern. Skip the finished sweater dance. Go directly to step 16.

Step 16: Narrow choices for new project for myself!!!! Order yarn!!! Begin swatch!!! Yippee!! Do new sweater project dance!

Dre-ee-ee-ee-am, dream, dream, dream, dream...

As I'm finishing the socks for daughter #2 and for my father, I've been dreaming of what I can make for myself after I finish those socks and my husband's sweater. I can't decide what to make.
What are my criteria? Well, I want it to be something I will wear a lot; something that a grey-haired woman of a certain age can wear without looking like she is finding lost youth; something that is challenging to knit, and something for which I can use stash yarn.

I haven't mentioned this before, but I long for a new sewing machine. Mine was purchased when husband #1 sold his French horn in 1971 and purchased me a snazzy Singer Touch and Sew. That machine has sewn miles and miles, to the moon and beyond. In recent years I haven't sewn much, but I can't imagine life without a sewing machine ready to do its job. Mine still sews, but only after a fashion. At any rate, I figure if I don't buy yarn this year, I can save enough for a nice Pfaff that has the dual feed feature. Therefore, I must knit from my voluminous stash.

But, I digress.

Here is a pattern in the recent KnitPicks. I like the loose neck that stands up. I can wear a turtleneck underneath to keep warmer. (This is Wisconsin, after all). I love cables. But, maybe I would vary the cables used rather than use the same one over and over and over and over....

Or, how about this airy little cowl from Knitty. I could use this when it wasn't too windy here in the upper Midwest. I would look like some heiress from an English novel.
Now, this zipper and hooded jacket is lovely. I like the cables on the sleeves. I might add a cable panel up the front as well. And, maybe I'd make it a bit longer. I like the idea of a zipper, but I think I might do an applied I-cord on the edges before putting in the zipper.
I've been to Meg Swansen's knitting camp twice and I've always longed to make one of the old, classic shetland sweaters. This photo is not a good selection of colors, in my opinion. But, I would love to design a color combination of my own. And, I might make the model with a placket neck opening. And, maybe a little decoration around the bottom of the sweater. But, that might draw attention to my hips and stomach that are wider than desired these days.
And, I've always longed to make this Rogue pullover. I have some lovely pale blue angora/merino yarn as well as a more vibrant blue. I can't recall whether I purchased the yarn from Mielke's or from Kimmet Croft, another Wisconsin small family business that makes wonderful angora/wool yarn. Upon further thought, I think it is Kimmet Croft's fairy hare, a yarn I've wanted to use for years. (I don't think they have a website, alas!)

Of course, there are thousands of potential projects to choose from. I've always wanted to make a Bohus sweater, and something from Meg Swansen's "Sweaters from Camp" and one of the Dale of Norways sweaters in the 12+ booklets that I have, or.......

What's your next knitting project for yourself?? How did you select it??

There Will Be Yarn

Ok, what have I been doing during my long absence from my blog? Follow me through my life since Dec. 11. Don't despair, there will be yarn--just not much of it. It seemed that I was knitting constantly--but I didn't achieve much.

First, my husband retired , ending a 42 year career as a college professor. As a true professor/scientist, however, he continues to go to work everyday. His last class lecture was in mid December. But, he can always find tasks to occupy him in his office, which he gets to keep until he dies or the department needs it. Our 16-year old daughter and I attended the last lecture and presented him with flowers at the end. A true bittersweet moment for him. He loves teaching. (I knit during his last lecture.)
Next, I attended numerous concerts. Just as the Yarn Harlot documented, mothers love their children's concerts. I have attended dozens of concerts of dear daughter #2. She is terrified of solo performances, but loves being part of a chorus. So much so that she participates in four choirs. Here in the US, or at least here in Wisconsin, schools seem to have December concerts without mention of Christmas or Christmas trees or presents, etc. Although we feel festive in attending the concert, the concert is distinctly non-sectarian to the core. We had the all-of-the-school choirs winter concert and the jazz band and choir concert. Here's daughter #2 in a small choir of 10 girls, five juniors and five seniors, who sing wonderful madrigal type music. (I knit during the concert, except when my daughter was performing!)
Daughter #1 is tool old for school concerts, but she demanded attention due to the slow, slow progress of her scuzzy condo renovation. It has been three steps forward and two steps back since September. One major step back is that the dryer is 3/4" too wide to fit in the alloted space in the kitchen. Now it holds court, unplugged, in the second bedroom which is the storeroom/office. (I couldn't knit when helping with the condo--I only have two hands!! Rats!!)
Back to another concert with daughter #2, this time in our church where appropriate seasonal music (for Christmas type holidays) was sung. However, also sung were festival of lights type music and Solstice type of music. We are ecumenical. (I couldn't bring myself to knit during the service, even though I had project in my purse calling to me!!)
We also struggled through low temperatures (below 0 F) and lots of snow. Daughter #2, an avid photographer, donned warm clothing on the coldest day to document ice on every pine needle. (I knit while she was outside. I wasn't stupid enough to frostbite my cheeks out there!!)
And then Christmas was upon us. Who decorated the tree all by herself?? Who did all the shopping for presents all by herself?? Who did all the grocery shopping and cooking and baking all by herself?? Who wasn't able to knit while doing all the above activities?? You guess.

The holiday was wonderful. My parents spent a few days with us. My mother does the most beautiful present wrapping, while recycling. She takes old Christmas cards, cuts out the drawings, and tapes them to plainly wrapped packages. The result is spectacular!!


Yes, I knit a number of Christmas presents, including two Wallaby sweaters for our surrogate grand children, a pair of socks for my mother, a six foot long scarf for daughter #1 made out of cobweb lace yarn and size 2 needles, a hat and mittens for a friend, a hat and mittens for daughter #2, a scarf for my father and a basket of scarves and mittens for friends and other family to choose from.
And, I put together a 1,000 piece jig-saw puzzle. I am now the only family member who observes tradition by putting together a jig-saw puzzle. I can't abandon the tradition. It used to be a way for family members to communicate, to laugh and catch up on the year. Daughter #2 helped out periodically, offering "new eyes" to the pieces that just didn't seem to fit anywhere. And, as usual, the empty spots were filled at the end even though I swore that the company failed to pack two essential pieces!!!
Then, my Fiber Arts Group, held a service project day during which we cut and sewed 106 hats for cold children's heads!! One of our group member has orchestrated the making of 10,000 hats in the past few years! She is a force of nature. We were swept in for only one day.
Our local knitters' guild has set a goal of making 500 items to donate to various local charities. January was "baby sweater" month, so I made an Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Jacket. I started with some self-striping worsted weight yarn that did not stripe, and quickly ran out. I switched to white Red Heart yarn. The charities require yarn that can be machine washed and dried. My changes to the standard pattern were two: 1) use an I-cord bind off and 2) pick up stitches along the cuffs of the sleeves to extend the sleeves to the wrist. (Check out our charity blog at http://mkgckc.blogspot.com!
I gave up on the socks I was making, using a pattern definitely NOT appropriate for self striping yarn.
I experimented with my my fave--Lucy Neatby's mermaid socks pattern. This pattern enhances the allure of self striping yarn. Much, much better. I frogged the ugly sock and made another matching mermaid sock. Success. Finally something for myself.
Now, I've been catching up with requests made at Christmas time. My dad finally realized that hand made socks are great for the feet of diabetics. So, he requested another pair (the first pair I made for him were made 4 years ago; he finally got around to wearing them!!). Daughter #1 didn't find anything in the basket that she wanted for Christmas, so she selected some yarn and has ordered socks. Daughter #2 decided that full, hand made wool socks were perfect to wear in the fake-Ugg boots she got for Christmas. So, she also, requested a pair of socks.

Christmas knitting fall out will last to mid-February I figure, when I will finally start a project for myself!! What oh what shall I make???

Somewhat Fetching Peace Fleece

Too many of my knitting projects evolve erratically from repeated failures rather than develop serenely from swatches and careful planning. If the Yarn Harlot's friend, Lene, made me a Christmas Knitting Schedule, there is no way I could possibly keep up with it. It would be doomed from the beginning.

Example #1.
While sipping coffee in my favorite LYS/Coffee Shop I found some lovely grey/blue/white speckled Peace Fleece. Who could resist Peace Fleece at this time of year?? Let me quote from their website:

Peter Hagerty and his wife Marty Tracy started buying wool from the Soviet Union back in 1985 in hopes that through trade they could help diffuse the threat of nuclear war. Since then they have worked with shepherds in Russia, Kyrgyzia, Israel and the West Bank, as well as in Montana, Ohio, Texas and Maine. By working with people who tend livestock every day, they hope to find a common ground that slowly leads to mutual understanding and economic interdependence. After twenty-one years, their goals remain the same.

Definitely the world needs peace in 2007 as much, if not more, than it did in 1985. So, I bought the Peace Fleece, determined to give a friend or family member some hope for peace as well as a warm hat. So, I made a hat.
Cute, I thought. I avoided the pitfalls that caused previous hats to be rejected by my youthful and fashion minded daughters. First, the hat shall not cover the ears. Who would want warm ears in Wisconsin winter?? Second, no dorky ribbing at the bottom of the hat. Instead, I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's I-cord cast off to give a finished edge. the pattern was from Lion Brand yarns from which I removed the dorky ribbing.

OK, I had yarn left over. How about some fingerless gloves to match?? I thought I would have enough yarn for fingerless gloves. The Fetching gloves from Knitty looked pretty good. Of course, Peace Fleece was heavier than the yarn called for, and I used size 8 needles for the hat, so I reduced the number of glove stitches to 30. And, I ALWAYS make thumb gussets--I hate it when mittens and gloves stretch uncomfortably then I move my thumb. So, I added thumb gussets. Good enough.

So far, so good. Now we enter the knitting zone called "WHAT WAS I POSSIBLY THINKING???"

I finished the hand part of the gloves and was about to start the short thumb when I decided that I had enough yarn for a full thumb! So, I made two full thumbs on fingerless gloves.!! I saved you the horrible vision of these deformed Fingerless-but-not-thumbless-gloves by not taking a photo. Rather than simply rip out the thumbs, I realized that I had enough yarn to make mittens!!! Let's look carefully at the lovely Fetching fingerless gloves and think about what problem we could avoid when turning them into mittens, shall we?

Do you see any problem?? No? Well, neither did I. so, I blissfully removed the cast off edge, and continued the cute cable pattern to the tip of the new mitten. Now do you see the problem?
No? Maybe the photo is too dark. I didn't see a problem either. I was floundering in the knitting River of De Nile (denial!).
What was I possibly thinking??? Skinny narrow cabled mitten tops?? Cables eat up width. Fingers do not like to feel constricted. Fingers like to splay out at times, wiggle, breathe. They do not like to be folded up upon themselves. I determined to remove the cables. But, thankfully, I had not cabled the palms.
It seems that in knitting once completely submerged in the River of De Nile I tend to stay there. I can't quite get out of it. Rather than frog the entire tops of the mittens, down to the thumb, I decided to SAVE TIME by dropping down the cabled stitches and knitting them back up. Dear reader, does this sound like a good idea to you? Did you say, "no"? If so, you are much smarter than I. You, dear reader, are not dog paddling in the River of De Nile with me.

OK, here is what the mitten looks like when you drop the first of the four stitch cables. Did I think this was a problem?
Nooooo,.......... Here I am with my faithful cable hook picking up the first of the four cable stitches to form stockinette ribs of 4 x 1.
Here is the mitten-in-progress with the first of the cables removed and replaced with stockinette. Is there a visible problem at this point, dear reader? No. I think not. Let's continue.

Here are the finished mittens.
They look pretty good, don't they?? Cables on the cuffs. None on the hands. None on the fingers. Good. But no, now some type of weird perfectionism crept in and I continued to tread water in the River of De Nile. In examining the mitten I remembered that cabling four stitches takes more yarn than knitting those same four stitches in stockinette. This meant that the last stitch that I crocheted up after dropping each set of four stitches was looser than the other stitches. This, I felt, would let in too much cold winter air. This, I felt, would not go away after blocking.
Again, WHAT WAS I THINKING?? I frogged the entire top of the mittens , down to the thumb, and re-knit the mittens from thumb to tip.
Tell me, dear reader, had I saved any time??? No, I had not saved any time. By this time, I had gobbled up approximately three times the amount of time needed to knit the entire mitten!!! Fortunately, I realized this after re-knitting the first mitten. I left the second mitten as is. I think it is fine, just fine. I have finally crawled up the bank and and onto the sandy shore of the River of De Nile!!
And, voila, here they are! The beanie hat without dorky ribbing and the Somewhat Fetching thumb gusset mittens!

Ok, let's take a break from knitting. As I write this it is snowing heavily outside. Here's the view out of my front door.
Look closely in the lower corner!
A melange of Christmas and Halloween decorations! We never managed to remove the pumpkin from the bench, although we got Santa up. The Snowman wind sock is draped over the bench, awaiting being hung from the tree. Oh well, with the cone of snow on top, it kind of looks like a Halloween elf helper for santa!
At least this Christmas decoration is completely up. The antique wagon belonged to my husband's mother, who played with it as a child. My husband also played with it when he visited his grandparents in rural Iowa. Now, we keep it at our front door. My mother in law passed away a number of years ago, but we honor her every year by filling it with wrapped (but empty) boxes, ready to deliver. We like to think that Helen is watching from heaven and smiling.
In 1971 I sent out my first batch of Christmas cards as a young adult. This was the time of the Vietnam war, which we opposed. I found a card with a lion and lamb on it, and with the message "Peace" inside. Each year since I have sent Lion and Lamb Christmas cards, but they have been harder and harder to find--just as world peace each year has been harder and harder to find. At Christmas time I scatter little lions and lambs around the house, in the hope that I will do all that I can in the coming year to work towards peace and understanding. May 2008 be filled with peace, understanding and acceptance for you and for the world!