26 June 2015

So you though that you've had bad hair days – they were nothing compared to this bunny's day. If that rabbit sneezes it could be all over.

Let's hear it for angora!

25 June 2015

Here's a thought from Jo Anne:

Taken from Knitting Paradise

24 June 2015

I've been quiet for a while because it is hard to knit with just one hand. As always there are ways and I've found them so I'm back at the shop full time.

I've heard several complaints that the posting on my Facebook with the picture of my grandson wearing the sweater that I knitted for him is hard to see. I wasn't the photographer and I haven't been able to corner him to take another picture so I had to manipulate the photo and this is the best that I can do.

Here's a picture of the "torsade"

I guess this is what caught my eye. The purl stitches over the cable was interesting. Little did I know that I needed Valerie's help translating the french knitting terms. The cable wasn't bad because it was charted and charts don't usually need much explanation. It was the raglan saddle-shoulder part that required much translating.

As in most European patterns you are pretty much left to your expertise to make the sweater work.

I'm still working on Dotted Rays. I've started the twelfth color and tomorrow I will photograph the new color addition. After this color I will have to choose which colors to repeat.

14 June 2015

Okay, this is the eleventh color. It may be hard to tell but it is a red that is brown. It looks better in person. Now there are only four more bands of color to do but after color twelve I will have to repeat some colors unless I decided to use a medium gray that I ordered. The gray was a possible candidate as a dividing color but I decided to use the aqua instead – more contrast and I like the color.

I will post color twelve when I start it. The bands are getting longer and that means longer to knit. I'm knitting as fast as time allows.

13 June 2015

I'll take a picture of color eleven tomorrow. I just didn't have enough time to day to knit enough the Dotted Rays scarf to be able to show what color eleven looks like. More knitting tomorrow.

I've sworn off of knitting shop projects at home. I knit MY projects while at home. Because I've finished grandson's sweater I'm back to knitting my bete noir. A Kaffe Fassett kit that I purchased years ago. It is for Valerie and it is the colorway that she chose. This pattern is called Foolish Virgins and is named after a fairy tale.

This isn't my knitting, it is an image of what the sweater will look like when I finish it. I started knitting it several years ago and when I looked at what I had done I decided that it needed to be raveled and started again. That isn't the problem. Reusing the six foot lenghts of yarn has been the challenge.

Any row can have up to 22 different colors that have to be controlled. I must say that I'm whipping the yarn into shape and this go-around looks better than the first time but this is a project that requires concentration to follow the color chart. I manage a couple of row a night.

The answer to your question is, "Yes I'm crazy."

12 June 2015

Boy, is it hot outside! I guess we're almost to insufferable summer weather.

We're still knitting away. Here's the progress on the Brady Scarf.

You can see that the yellows are starting and will be working into the greens. It is fun and interesting to knit.

I'm starting on color eleven on the Dotted Rays shawl. I will post a picture tomorrow.

11 June 2015

Jo Anne discovered that there is an answer:

6 June 2015

Not too many more days that the porch will be useful for knitting. Today has been beautiful. I'm now knitting the ninth color. The rows are getting loooooonnnnger so the progress seems slower.

I'm trying not to think about how long a row is, I'm just enjoying knitting every row. The pattern includes stitch counts to make sure that you are on track. I've figured out how to confirm my stitch count without counting every stitch - YES!

Here's the progress so far.

5 June 2015

It's done! Well, at least 99 44/100ths done. I have to wash and block the sweater and then wrap it for gift giving.

Lyn was nice enough to model the sweater.

4 June 2015

I am sooooo close. I've finished in and glued all of the ends and I finished off the neck for a crew neck. Now that I've turned the larger stitches to the inside all I have to do is to sew down the neck edge to the inside of the sweater. Woho!

Tonight I plan on finishing the sewing and gluing in the last end.

3 June 2015

I can't believe it's June and the temperature outside is 58 - I'm not complaining. We're sitting here knitting with the door open, no bugs and it is just beautiful.

I've finished picking up the neck of the grandson's sweater. I've managed to have the sweater's ribbing and cables work into the crew neck. I had to really go down on my needle size to close up the neckline (3.75 mm). I've knit the 6 cm with the smaller needles and now I think I just need to knit one more row while using the 5 mm needles to finishing the final 6 cm. I'll turn down, to the inside, the additional knitting on larger needles and sew it down to give the sweater a proper crew neckline.

It just doesn't seem possible to bind-off the edge of a crew neck and make it look neat.

While the sweater is here at the shop today, it's the big glue down. As I knit the shawl I'm slowly working my way around the sweater and finishing in the ends and securing them with Stop Fraying.

The Dotted Rays shawl is coming along. I'm on color number six with only six more colors to go. My workaround for the one edge is working perfectly.