Pickin' and Throwin'

Oh my!

2012-02-13T10:00:00.000-08:00

My iPad ate my post.

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Guess I'll have to start over, since the post I was working on was frogged by my technology. First, I should admit that Knitting at Lunch has been encouraging me to post, so she should get the credit here (or blame, as the case may be!)

I finished my February Lady! I cast off and blocked it in January, so I avoided having the project turn 2 years old without completion.

Here it is modeled by my lovely niece. It looks much better on her than it does on me! I don't like the neckline or the raglan shoulders on me. Lea-Ann at Knitting Today thinks that I may like it better if it is shorter, so I may try ripping back a few inches. Else I'm not sure what to do. I don't know if my niece likes it enough that I should give it to her or maybe I'll rip it out and try a new pattern. I don't want to have a sweater that I just don't like well enough to wear, but I love the yarn. Oh well, we'll see!

I also just finished a pair of handwarmers to wear at work. I wanted fingers with open tips for typing. I tried a pattern that I found on Ravelry and I really enjoyed it. It is knit from the fingers to the cuffs. You knit the fingers and then join them as you knit the hand. I find it much easier than gloves that start at the cuffs. This pattern also has a flap for when you are out of doors, but I didn't want that for this pair. I think I'll do another pair with flaps sometime.

Ok, there's a quick update - the post that I lost was better - sorry about that! Talk to you again soon.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Time flies!

2011-09-28T15:58:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Laura

It seems like just yesterday that we were in Chicago for Stitches. That was so much fun! Our trip back in rental cars went so well that we've decided to skip the train next year and drive both ways. No more delays and cancellations for us!

Your hubby's Christmas sweater has grown since I saw you. I always love how you calculate needed progress to make goal. It's much more precise than my 'just keep knitting and it will get done' approach.

I've been frogging a lot lately. I was working on these socks when I saw you. They were my July project that ran into August. And September. October is looking likely. I was finishing the first foot in August when I noticed a glaring error and had to frog back to the ankle. I did finish that first sock and promptly cast on the second. I was almost to the heel when I discovered that I had switched from 3x2 rib to 2x2 rib. FROG! So I still have most of the second sock yet to go.

Early in September I decided to make a 'quick' pair of socks for my sil Chris. She's been sick for several months now. They've diagnosed a problem with her gallbladder (which took 6 weeks to determine) and now she needs to find a surgeon who will agree with the specialist that it should be removed. In addition, they are installing a new furnace this fall and we have had rather chilly weather here, especially at night. I thought that a pair of worsted weight socks would be quick to knit and help her feel warm and cared for.

I used a Malabrigo worsted with a contrast yarn. At first it went really well. I cast on just before a road trip to a reunion and since I didn't do any driving, I completed the first sock in one day!! I cast on the second sock immediately, but the following weekend we hosted another reunion and knitting time was hard to come by. I got serious about it again the day after the reunion - and that's when I noticed that the almost-completed cuff was in 2x2 rib instead of 2x2 garter rib!!! I evidently have rib issues.

The socks are now complete (and matching!) and warming her feet. Back to the July-August-September-October socks!!

I also want to show off this beautiful iPad2 case that knitting@lunch made for me!! The color is a darker purplier color than it appears and I love it very much. Stylish and cushy at the same time!!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter )

Knitting for Christmas

2011-09-12T07:06:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I have some time today to post to the blog. The washer repairman is scheduled to be here sometime between 8am and 5pm, so I am tethered to the house right now waiting for him to arrive.

This is a blessing and a curse. I am forced to catch up on some things here that really need it (paperwork), though I really can't run out even for a moment to take care of any errands until after the repair.

I've been working on a DK weight (size 4 needles) sweater since last February. It follows the basic framework given in Beth Brown-Reinsel's book "Knitting Ganseys." It is very difficult to photograph well.

I am trying to finish it before Christmas as my gift to DH.

Instead of knitting in his initials into the left front lower corner, I knitted our "family logo," which is "circle square triangle," which means "I love you." (Circle is made with one line, just like "I" is spelled with one letter. Square is made with four lines, just like "love" is spelled with four letters. Triangle is made with three lines, just like "you" is spelled with three letters.):

The front bands are rather flimsy, so I'm definitely going to be sewing some grosgrain ribbon along the backside of the bands to make them more robust. I calculated that I will meet my Christmas deadline if I am able to average 8 rows per day on the sleeves.

One other thing - I might run short of yarn. I'll know for sure after this first sleeve is finished. I could order more yarn, but the dye lot would be different, which may or may not be an issue. Crossing that bridge when I get to it, though I'm taking your advice to "knit really fast" when you think you might run out of yarn.

Okay, so back to my other chores! I hope this note finds you all well!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Water Bottle Holder/Carrier Sewing Pattern

2011-08-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

A pattern by YarnThrower

My family and I enjoy hiking together, and as the mother, I typically end up being the "pack mule" for our little group. One day I thought to myself, "Why am *I* carrying all of the water bottles?" Probably because I was carrying the only backpack in the group...so I started thinking that I should figure out how to get each of my kids to at least carry his own water bottle. After searching online for a pattern to make some water bottle holders/carriers for my kids to use, I eventually developed my own hybrid pattern based on some of the ideas I found.

Inspired mostly by this pattern which utilizes old jeans, and also the idea of reinforcing the strap found in this pattern, my version results in a carrier which is a little bit larger, has a more robust strap, utilizes an actual pocket from a pair of jeans, and is constructed in a way which allows all of the raw edges to be concealed. I made these for birthday gifts for my nieces and nephew, and they were a huge hit! And, the pocket is the perfect place to put a trail map when hiking!

(This pattern is the property of YarnThrower and may not be reproduced except for one copy for individual use. If you print or distribute this pattern without YarnThrower's written permission, you are stealing .)

Materials needed:

4 feet of strapping/belting (shown in the photo as off-white in color, but use whatever color you'd like :-)
4 feet of grosgrain ribbon which is a slightly smaller width than the strapping/belting material
9.5 x 11.5 inch piece of scrap fabric, cut along the grain line
9.5 x 11.5 inch piece of denim (can be cut from old jeans), cut parallel to the grain line, to form the "shell" of the water bottle holder/carrier. (I generally make a cut which goes from top to bottom in one of the legs of the pair of jeans, and then open it up/flatten it out to use as my fabric to cut the 9.5 x 11.5 inch piece)
Optional: Pocket carefully removed from pair of old jeans by snipping the threads which are holding it to the jeans
Basic sewing supplies, such as coordinating thread (I used white), sewing machine, scissors, needle, pins, etc.

First, center the grosgrain ribbon on the strapping material and zig-zag stitch along both side edges of the ribbon to secure it. I also zig-zagged along the short edges to keep them from raveling:
Here are the shell and lining fabrics already cut to be 9.5 x 11.5 inches:
If you are going to put a pocket on your carrier, stitch the pocket to the shell fabric so that the top of the pocket is parallel to one of the longer edges of the shell fabric, and so that it is centered between the left and right sides of the shell fabric. Allow a space of about an inch between the top of the pocket and the upper edge of the shell fabric:
Next, fold the shell fabric in half, right sides together, so that the shorter sides of the shell fabric match. Stitch along the longer side of the rectangle formed after folding, creating a tube of fabric. Repeat with the lining fabric, EXCEPT leave an opening of 3" in the middle of the seam:

In this next photo, the area between the points of the scissors is the place where the seam of the lining has been left open for 3":Next, adjust the tube of fabric so that when flattened, the seam which was sewn in the previous step runs down along the center, as shown in the photo below. Stitch along one of the ends of the tube. If you have sewn a pocket to the shell, make sure that you stitch along the edge of the fabric tube which is *closest* to the *bottom* of the pocket. Otherwise, the pocket will be upside-down on the finished product. (Ahem, don't ask me how I know this.) Again, I always zig-zag stitch over the raw edges to keep them from raveling:
Now, to add some depth to the bag, fold it/pin it as shown in this photo. You will be stitching a straight line located about one inch away from each of the tips of the little triangles formed by the folding. Confusing? Maybe these pictures will help:
Here's what it looks like after it's sewn:
Trim off the excess little triangles and zig-zag stitch over the edges to secure them (so they don't unravel):
The "shell" of the carrier is done. It has a rectangular bottom and can almost stand up by itself :-) Leave it wrong side out and set it aside for now:
Make a rectangular bottom for the lining using the same method of stitching little triangles, trimming them, and securing the raw edges by stitching over the edges with a zig-zag stitch.Turn the lining "right side out" when done. Here is the finished lining. You can see where the opening is that will be used for turning later on:
Next, take the strap and pin the *right side* of the strap (which is the side the ribbon was sewn onto) to the *right* side of the shell, with raw edges even, and placing the strap *inside* the tube, as shown in the photo:
Now, put the lining into the shell, right sides together, and matching raw edges. Stitch through all thicknesses using 1/4" seam allowance. Here I also zig zag stitched along the raw edges to secure them better. This photo shows it all pinned together (before I stitched it):
After stitching, pull lining fabric out of shell; notice the opening for turning in this photo:
Turn bag right side out by pulling the strap and the denim shell through the hole in the lining:
Whip stitch the opening of the lining closed:
Tuck the lining inside, making a crisp flat edge around the top of the bag as shown and pinning the top edges in place to hold them in position for the next step:
Stitch around top of bag close to upper edge, and again 1/4" in from the edge:
And voila' - your water bottle holder/carrier is finished:
I hope you have fun with this pattern! As always, I'm interested in your thoughts, suggestions, and especially any corrections you may have to the directions I've given.

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Christmas in August

2011-08-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Just a quick note...

A friend commissioned me to knit a Christmas stocking for each member of her family:

Pattern is from Blackberry Ridge, but I designed the colorwork in the holly and snowflake sections and also used different lettering in the name band.

Bulky yarn, so they were relatively quick knits at roughly 7.5 hours each.

Gotta run! Lots more to share, including a pattern I devised for making a water bottle carrier out of old jeans... Stay tuned...

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

All Done!

2011-04-19T13:00:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Well, life has been a blur for the past 12 weeks. I was affiliated with an outpatient neuro PT clinic, and it was really a great experience for me. We saw lots of patients with dizziness, some folks who were post stroke, some post traumatic brain injury, some with Parkinson's disease, etc. Very interesting! With that now behind me, I have a few weeks to catch my breath, and also catch up with other things I've been neglecting (the list is long). I *did* actually finish the red sweater. Recall that this is the *third attempt* at using this yarn after ripping out two other versions of sweaters prior to this. Introducing my new favorite sweater:

The pattern is "Twist" by Chic Knits, and I love it. The photos aren't that great, taken outside with hopes of better lighting, but because the weather is...well, don't get me started on the weather. Today temps are hovering around 32 degrees, and we had snow falling for much of the morning. It just doesn't seem right for April 19th...

In other news, last Friday I met all of the requirements for my degree in Physical Therapy. This has been a long haul, and all day Friday I just couldn't stop smiling. I still have to take a national board exam, and there's the whole *job* thing, but it feels really good to have the degree piece of this wrapped up!

That's the big news! I've got other knitting on the needles, including a sweater project I've started for Christmas. (What?!) Yep, I'm actually knitting a Christmas sweater and started it *before November,* a new strategy for me :-) More on that later!

I hope this finds you having a great day!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Another sock already?

2011-02-22T11:30:00.001-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

I didn't used to have SSS.* I remember when I first started knitting socks, I knitted complete pairs all of the time. I had at least 5 or 6 pairs to wear at any given time! I don't know what happened to me, but the last few years I have not knitted many pairs of socks, and I've struggled with the second sock each time. It was just grit and determination that got me through the second hexagon sock last summer. I did the first Norwegian Rose sock pretty quickly, but I didn't do the second one until 6 months later. I have 2 socks currently in my UFO's - two different socks, so I have the first of each partially done.

And now I'm trying to knit a pair each month! Yikes!

I didn't finish the second Norwegian Rose sock until Feb 10th, at which point I realized that I had 18 days left to knit a pair. That meant 9 days per sock. (Not really 9 days - I cast on at 10:30 on the 10th, so that wasn't much of a day!) The first sock took me until the 22nd to finish, and today I cast on for the second sock. I got 4 of the 8 rows of ribbing finished during lunch, which isn't really much.

And I'm really not feeling the love for this second sock. I just DID this sock! Maybe I'll love it more if I knit it fast and get it over with?

Yes Lauren, you can pick a project for March. Just don't tell me about it until I get February done, ok??

Also, what's with the ice? And snow?

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka DesignatedKnitter)

*Second Sock Syndrome

Thank you!

2011-02-07T13:39:00.001-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Thank you, thank you for the beautiful mittens that you sent! I love them – they are cozy and warm and pretty AND they are in my current-obsession-color – light green! What a happy day at the mailbox!

Congrats on last night’s big win by the Packers. My brother has always been a Packers fan and his wife has always been a Steelers fan (talk about your mixed marriage!) and so I tried to stay as neutral as possible. However, there was a drawing at work and I had to pick one or the other to put my name in and so I went with the Packers. I ended up winning a $20 gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings – so YAY PACKERS!!

Thank you to Cindy G for your comment on my last post. I’m still finding projects to package together, and I’m way past 12 – there are currently 21 projects in the basket and I have 3 or 4 more waiting to be printed and packaged. I don’t know if you noticed my copy of “A Cuff Above” in the picture, but I have two projects from it in the basket – the cover socks, and the Lucy Anklet socks. I spent quite a bit of time at Stitches Midwest last summer, choosing the perfect yarns for the cover socks, so I hope they get pulled out of the basket soon!

Since I want the choosing process to be random, I asked my mom to visit the stash and pick a bag. My February project will be Spud and Chloe socks in a medium-blue Spud and Chloe yarn! And as soon as I finish the last 20 or so rows of the Norwegian Rose socks (groan!) I’ll be casting on for those. Meanwhile, I put each project in my Ravelry Queue with the tag ‘2011Project’ so to facilitate allowing others to choose for me remotely. Watch this space for opportunities to ‘boss-me-around-about-knitting!’

Lea-Ann commented about Kitchener on a fingerless mitt project. That is indeed what it was. Nancy made them from the Not Just More Socks book, (Ravelry link) and they are knit flat, sideways, and then grafted together. They are very cute!

In other news, how bad is it that I haven’t knit an inch of my yarn from Stitches Midwest 2011 but all I can think about is saving up for Stitches Midwest 2012??
[sigh]

Keep knitting!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

I posted! And I kitchenered!

2011-01-29T12:01:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

We'll need to take a minute to let you and Knitting@Lunch and any other loyal readers recover from the shock of it all. Here's a picture of some yarn while you catch your breath.......

I have been enjoying reading your posts tho. You make such beautiful sweaters, and I'm always impressed with how many you actually finish. And the Heilo mittens look great - altho that post gave me a scare. When I read about the proposed changing the name of the blog, I thought you might be going to drop the Pickin' since I post so rarely! Whew!

Anyway, I would surely not object to "Pickin' and Throwin' and Rippin'" after my struggles with my February Lady cardigan. However, once I got past that evil instruction to - well, let's just post it here.

Eyelet increases (RS): k7 (10, 8, 8, 8, 10, 14), pm. Work 41 (38, 47, 41, 41, 38, 39) YOs spaced

evenly among the 197 (207, 219, 239, 267, 291, 311) center stitches, pm, k7 (10, 8, 8, 8, 10, 14).

[252 (265, 282, 296, 324, 349, 378) total stitches] (Some knitters have made the pattern less

swingy by decreasing the number of increases here. Others have left the increases off the

sleeve stitches, to make narrower sleeves. Knit it to fit you! See “notes on sizing” below.)

Seriously? That one - I think on the 4th or 5th try I figured it out, and it had to do with adding some 'fake increases' so that it worked out. (None of those numbers divide evenly into each other!) But that was a long time ago, and I've been plugging away on the lace body, and it turns out that eventually you get near the end. Who knew? Another couple of lace repeats and 2" of garter border and I'll be ready to move on to the sleeves.

My goal for this year is to make 12 projects out of stash yarn for me! Mostly socks/sock yarn, but there are a few other projects as well. The picture at the top of this post was the pairing of yarn and patterns, which I finally got around to this weekend. I had been collecting the patterns and choosing the yarns from my Ravelry, but it remained to do the actual packaging. Now I'm all set - there are actually 18-20 projects in the basket. Later this week I can randomly pull out one for February!

For January, I had decided to work on a UFO, since it was getting later in the month. Last week I worked on the second sock of the Norwegian Rose pair that I worked on last summer. Remember the 1st sock was displayed at Stitches, in the Knitting Today booth?

I had most of the foot of the other sock done, and I'll finish turning the heel yet this evening, so it should be done soon. However, last night it occurred to me (!) that it wasn't going to make it by the end of January, so I grabbed a chunky stash yarn and made a quick hat for myself. I've had the yarn for a while, and a hat is what I intended and needed, so that was a win!

Well, that's a good update from here - oh wait! I mentioned that I Kitchenered, didn't I?? (I believe that my long-standing aversion to Kitchener grafting is well documented over the life of the blog.) Knitting Today got a shipment of these really cool keychains that document the anatomy of a sock, and brief instructions for grafting the toe. (I know that it isn't complicated, but I always manage to get confused part way through.) It was cute and colorful and I'm a real sucker for such things, so I picked one up for my notions bag.

Last Thursday, Sweater Night was cancelled and so a few of us met at Starbucks. (Much less driving in the snow!) As I got out of the car, I realized that I had left my knitting on my desk, and so I had nothing to do. Nancy generously offered to let me graft together a fingerless mitt that she had. I was bored enough that I agreed (I did barter for a double-chocolate frapa-thingy) and I got out my little keychain. It was very useful! It was so brief that I was able to keep track of where I was, and we were both pleased with the result. In fact, Nancy borrowed it to graft the second mitt and reported that it worked really well for her as well. So, those of you who are intimidated by Kitchener - get yourself to the Knitting Today store or website and get one of the magic "Grafting Lucky Charms!

Whew. Anyway, we both have a goal for 2011 knitting!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

Valentine Craft - woven felt hearts

2011-01-18T07:21:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

This is not an original idea, though I don't recall ever running across it actually in print, so I thought I'd share this fun craft with you.

These are little heart pockets made out of felt:

The tops open up and can hold a treat inside!

They may be made any size. The pattern piece I use is four inches wide and six inches tall. The key is to start with a square (I started with a four inch square), and add a half circle to one side of it. Then draw two lines evenly spaced which are the length of one side of the square (as shown in the photo):

This pattern piece is placed on the fold of a piece of felt. I use two pieces of different colored felt. (I get the pre-cut felt which is 9x12 inches; I am able to make two hearts with these two pieces of felt.)

Cut around the pattern piece and also cut along the lines. For a heart having larger woven squares, cut on only the two lines; for a heart having smaller woven squares, bisect each of the "legs" with an additional cut. Here is what the felt pieces look like after cutting them out and opening up the fold; these pieces will make a green and gold heart having the smaller woven squares:

Weaving the first row can be tricky, until you "see" how things are supposed to be working. It's difficult to explain with words, though hopefully you will be able to figure it out from the pictures. For big woven squares:

For little woven squares:

First row completed:

Moving on to the second row:

...and the third row:

Heart with big woven squares with weaving completed:

Weaving in the final (sixth) row of the heart with small woven squares:

A look at the inside after weaving is complete:
Add a little hanger (I just took a piece of long/narrow rectangular felt and used a hot glue gun to attach it to the top of the heart, one end on each side so that it still opens up to be able to hold a little treat inside):
Of course, you may not fancy a green and gold heart (not a Packers fan?), so enjoy creating your own color combinations!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Things are looking up

2011-01-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

It is very cold here right now, and we've got plenty of snow, which I suppose is normal for winter in Wisconsin, and though I'm not sick of it *yet,* check back in about a month and I'll be singing a different tune... Wonderful to have nice wool sweaters and socks to wear...especially while cross country skiing, or simply wearing inside our 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit house.

Heilo mittens are looking much better after ripping them out and re-starting with smaller needles:

The only problem is that if I place the end of the cuff (which is at the beginning of the increases which occur at both sides of the thumb) at the base of my hand as in the photo, the thumb opening is going to be in the wrong spot. Referring to the photo, I am supposed to knit the 11 thumb stitches onto waste yarn on the very next row, then place those stitches back on the left needle and continue knitting around in pattern for the rest of the mitten. After that, the waste yarn is picked out and those stitches are used to make the thumb... Notice how the thumb opening will not be in the right location for my anatomy...

HOWEVER, after a few e-mails with blog buddy BaxterKnits (Cindy), I think I'm going to take her advice and knit four rows for every increase instead of the three indicated in the chart. This means that I'll have to revise the chart a little bit, but the thumb location on the mitten will much more closely approximate the actual location of my thumb. So, I rip again, but just nine or ten rows this time...

So, do you think that it is time to change the name of our blog to "Pickin' and Throwin' and Rippin'?"

My NEW GOAL for 2011 is going to be to knit something according to the pattern, without alteration, and without having to rip it out. This might mean that I'll have to make a simple dishrag...

In other news, I don't think I'm going to run out of yarn on my Twist cardigan! I have the second sleeve halfway done, and plenty 0'yarn left... Goal to finish that one this week, before I start my final clinical in another week and have much less time for blogging...

Stay warm! Also, Go Packers! (Can you *believe* the Packers??!!!)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

The year of ripping...

2011-01-14T14:01:00.001-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Here is the current state of my Twist sweater:

The hood is done, and I've actually sewn in the first sleeve, instead of saving all of the finishing until the end... I still must knit the second sleeve and the front button/buttonhole bands. I'm concerned about running out of yarn, so there is a chance I'll have to harvest extra yarn needed for the sleeve or front bands from the hood...

This would be fine, as the pattern has an alternate collar version which doesn't require nearly as much yarn. However, let me just say that I am *tired* of this sweater. I had to take out large chunks of the first sleeve on multiple occasions for various dumb mistakes I made, and though I am thrilled that the "third time is the charm" on knitting the entire body of the sweater over again, and the Cascade 220 yarn has been quite durable, I'd like to *conclude* my little experiment about how many times a yarn may be ripped and re-knit without losing it's loveliness...

I also cast on for a pair of "Heilo Mittens," thinking that it would be nice to start a fresh new project which was straight-forward and had not been ripped at all. Here is the cuff so far -- love the braid and also the color pattern:

Ahem. My gauge is way off, and these are going to be way too big, so I have to rip back and start again with smaller needles... AAUGH! The pattern for these may be found in Veronik Avery's book "Knitting 24x7."

I haven't spent *all* of my time knitting stuff and then ripping it out... I've been able to get some things done around the house which I've been putting off for literally years. I *finally* put up my youngest son's baby pictures on the wall, so now he is included in the family "gallery" in our upstairs hallway. I've had the frame for years, but never took the time to put it all together... I also cleaned out my work/sewing/craft/knitting room -- still some work to be done there, but it is so much more functional than it was. Look -- labels on my yarn stash bins!

These two shelves contain the bulk of my yarn stash. At my current rate of ripping as I go, I've got plenty of yarn to keep me busy for a long time!

In other news, after I met my goal of 150 workouts for 2010 on December 17th, I totally fell off of the exercise and eating right wagon, so my big project for next week is to re-group and literally get my butt in gear. It is my last week off before I start my final clinical, so time to really get more disciplined again...

Have a great weekend! Will you be watching the Packer game tomorrow night? If you *aren't* a Packer fan, it is a great time to go grocery shopping, because I guarantee you that the stores will be almost empty starting at about 7:00pm... I'll probably shop early in the day, however, and knit while the game is on in the evening... SuperBowl Fever!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Gift card holder / pouch

2011-01-11T17:27:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I gave my nieces and nephew gift cards for Christmas, but I wanted to spice them up just a little bit, so I decided to make little pouches as "wrapping" and included some lip balm in each one, too:

To make these, I first used a word processor program to print out really big letters onto a piece of paper:
I then cut out a piece of "Wonder Under" which was slightly larger than my letters. (Note that "Wonder Under" is a material which may be ironed onto most fabrics to make the fabric fusible, and may be purchased at any fabric store.) I traced the letters onto the paper side of the Wonder Under *backwards*. It was helpful to place the paper and Wonder Under on a window for tracing:
Once the tracing was all done...
...I ironed the Wonder Under onto the *back* of the fabric:
I recommend holding the iron for no more than three seconds in each position while ironing the Wonder Under to the fabric; otherwise, it can be difficult to remove the paper backing later on... Cut out the letters; see how they are not backwards any more:
Remove the paper backing from the letters. If you find it difficult to get the paper to start to come off of the fabric, try stretching the fabric a little bit on the diagonal which will tear the paper and make it easier to grab. Then, iron each letter to a piece of 6"x12" bag fabric (I used denim), placing the top of the letter 1.25" from one of the 6" sides of the bag fabric. Stitch around the letter using a satin stitch (zig zag having a 0.5mm stitch length):
...and up close:
Next, install the zipper. I usually have "Make-A-Zipper" on hand, which is a roll of zipper tape having plenty of zipper "pulls" on it; I just cut the zipper to the right size, which in this case would be about 7". However, a 7" purchased zipper will work, or really any length zipper which might have been recycled from some old clothing...just as long as it won't harm your sewing machine to stitch through the zipper and you can cut off the extra length after it is sewn into the bag. Nylon zippers work great for this:
Stitch one long side of the zipper tape to one 6" end of the bag fabric with right sides together. Then, stitch the other long side of the zipper tape to the other 6" end of the bag fabric right sides together. You will now have a little tube.
Open the zipper about halfway. It is really important to do this, because otherwise you will not be able to turn your bag right side out! With right sides together, and with zipper positioned near the top of the bag, stitch along each side of the bag. (See photo above - zipper is positioned properly, and so just stitch along each side.) Then, to give the bag a little bit of depth, pull out each lower corner and stitch across forming a triangle as shown in this photo:
Here is the finished product, wrong side out.
Turn it right side out, poking corners out. Iron seams and corners as needed, add a piece of ribbon to the zipper pull...and that's it!
My nieces and nephews were finding all sorts of things to put in the bags for safe keeping, ranging from Legos to barrettes... :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Mittens for me :-)

2011-01-11T16:48:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

One of my friends / classmates gave me a pair of mittens, which she made!

I really love them, and I couldn't believe that she took the time to make me such a nice gift!

She purchased some sweaters at the Good Will store, cut them up using a pattern she found online, and sewed them together. They are even fleece lined and really, really warm!

The three pattern pieces needed for these are similar to the ones linked to on this website, which also contains a nice tutorial. Also, here... And, just feast your eyes on these finished mittens! ADORABLE and WARM! It's a lot faster than knitting a pair of mittens from scratch... I am thinking I know people who might need these as Christmas gifts next year...

That's it for now. Soon to come is a tutorial on how to make a monogramed gift card holder/pouch which my nieces and nephew really enjoyed receiving this past Christmas...

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Things that make you go AAUGH !

2011-01-02T10:51:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

Sometimes a picture alone tells the whole story:

OOPS!!

Single digit temperatures here, making it a perfect day for knitting in front of the Green Bay Packer game :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Easiest ever sweater requires ripping

2010-12-30T11:00:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I'm a bit behind in lots of things, but thought I'd share some photos of the Halloween costumes I made for the boys about two months ago - at some point I promised photos, and I try to be a woman of my word... Here is a dolphin:

Here is a triceratops:

People had to ask what the triceratops was -- apparently it was not *evident* just by looking at him... I guess that can happen when you are starting with a penguin pattern and making it up as you go...

I bound off my "Asymmetric Cardi" more than a month ago, and I hated it. It was supposed to look sorta like this...

...except in a lovely Red Wine colorway.

Here is what it actually looked like. Please ignore the fact that I am wearing house pants in these photos:

It's difficult to discern from these photos, but the fit through the shoulders was really poor, I didn't like the neckband/collar area AT ALL, I would never be able to wear it unbuttoned because it hung sorta funny all asymmetric and all, and I did not like the way the buttonholes were done because they and the entire front edges were really quite sloppy looking...

I tried a re-design on the fly, and I'll spare you the details, but it was becoming a sweater that I was NOT GOING TO LOVE, and so I ended up completely ripping it out...and now I am much happier... The yarn is still nice even though I am knitting it into a sweater FOR THE THIRD TIME...but I now bring you Twist from Chic Knits:

LOVE IT SO FAR! I was going to knit the pattern verbatim, but apparently I have some sort of defect and can't do that -- OVERALL I'm not changing it. I'm knitting the back and fronts all at the same time (to avoid side seams, to make sure all of the decreases/increases for the waist shaping occur symmetrically, etc.). I love the cables!

I hope you have a Happy New Year! Any knitting goals for the new year? I am resolving to attend Stitches Midwest next August ;-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Christmas Knitting - The exciting conclusion

2010-12-25T18:49:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

In my previous post, I showed a photo of the Christmas stocking which I made for my advisor. [We all know that knitted gifts are generally either really loved or really hated, so when I give a knitted gift to a person, it is generally with some anxiety about how it will be received.] I saw her at the gym two days after leaving the stocking in a gift bag outside of her office door at school. So, when I spoke with her at the gym, I was relieved to learn that she loved it, matches her great room amazingly well, and would I agree to knitting one for each of the other three members of her family in time for next Christmas if she paid me. Big PHEW! And also, lots O' lead time! Sweet.

In my prior post, I also mentioned trying to knit a Christmas sweater for both of my kids. I finished the second sweater approximately 1.5 hours before we had to dress for church yesterday (Christmas Eve)... Here is the green one:

I generally don't like to come in just under the wire like that, and I'm thankful for a weekend train trip (YAY Amtrak!) to Fargo ND a couple of weekends ago which afforded me *gobs* of knitting time, which helped immensely... and here is the blue one:

I used Beth Brown-Reinsel's book "Knitting Ganseys" to design these. Both of them have underarm gussets and shaped necklines; the green one utilizes garter stitch bands at the bottoms edges, whereas the blue one a mistake rib pattern. My kids love them, and they fit them very well...so well, in fact, that they may be too small for next year. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

I hope that everybody has been having a wonderful Christmas season! I'm really enjoying my time off, especially after all of the pressure I put on myself for my Christmas knitting. I *do* have a cough which has been with me for over three weeks now which is beginning to annoy all people unfortunate enough to be within a 25 foot radius of me, and the general consensus at today's family get-together was that I should take myself to a doctor...which I hate...because he/she is *probably* going to tell me that it is a virus blah blah blah...but since I'm about to cough up a lung tonight, perhaps it is time.

My next post will return to regularly scheduled knitting, and I have to say that it is *not* pretty and involves a large amount of ripping... Stay tuned :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled knitting...

2010-12-09T11:10:00.001-08:00

...to bring you Christmas gift knitting...

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

It may not surprise you that I have unrealistic goals for what I shall accomplish in terms of knitting projects to be completed in time to "gift" them.

First, for my clinical instructor, who was joking with one of the other fine gentlemen at the clinic where I am currently working about how I should knit him a sweater, "or at least a hat"... Tomorrow is my last day at this clinic, so I'll give him this tree ornament (pattern/kit can be found at Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill):

Are you able to guess his name?

And the flip side:

Second, for my advisor, whom I called upon for advice for one of my patients and has been there coaching me since the day I stepped foot back on campus almost three years ago, and because she told me that I "owe" her cookies but that she has stopped eating them in order to shed a few pounds, a full-sized Christmas stocking (pattern/kit can be found at Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill):

I love the braid detail it uses to separate sections...

And the flip side of that, which includes a snowflake pattern which I improvised, in case my advisor already has a stocking which says "Jill" on it and just wants to hang up an un-named sock:

Finally, a gansey sweater for each one of my kids, which I will post pictures of the next time I write. I am roughly 1/3 done with each of the sweaters and may finish, er, maybe, one of them this coming week?? Stay tuned for progress on those.

In the meantime, I made a batch of cookies to share with all of my current coworkers so that they have sweet thoughts about me as I depart tomorrow:

I want a job there, and have a plan, but there are currently no openings... I don't graduate until next May, but no harm in planting a few seeds right now...

How is everybody else's Christmas knitting going right now.

It's snowing right now -- beautiful!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

On the way home

2010-10-25T13:14:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Finishing up a fun weekend in Wisconsin - now I'm on the first train home. I'm working on a baby sweater for one of Amber's expected babies. We're fervently praying they can wait another 4 weeks at least to be born!

Got some tech advice this weekend so you may see short posting activity!

Here's a pic of the sleeve I'm working on.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Trying new technology

2010-10-23T14:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Hi! Just a quick little up-date here! I'm trying to find a way to write my posts that doesn't make me want to gnaw my arm off - I'm a finicky techno person. So, just for trying this out, I'm going to post a picture of my two nieces and the the ribbons that the animals I made for them won at the County Fair! More to follow!

Keep Knitting!

Cynthia (aka DesignatedKnitter!)

Kauni in "time out"

2010-10-23T06:00:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

My new sweater:

My 8-year old helped out with the photo, and my directions to him were to "capture the sweater and my face in the photo"; that appears to be exactly what he did :-) The sleeve tops are a little bit on the funky side, but kind friend Catherine told me that she wouldn't have noticed it unless I pointed it out to her, so I'll stop doing that. They are just a little bit "roomy," though I think it adds to the comfort of the sweater. I've never liked things that are very tight, and this sweater is just really comfortable with the extra space in the upper body/sleeves.

So, the Kauni Cardigan is in a *time out*. I started the neckline but now must rip it out again...and I've already ripped out larged chunks of the sweater about three times already, so I'm taking a break from all of the ripping and working on a more mindless sweater, the "Asymmetric Cardi" from Knit Simple Magazine:

This is perfect for 9:00pm when I am watching my show Castle, or on football Saturdays to keep me from falling asleep on the couch during the Badger games (who beat Ohio State last weekend, did you hear??). This is the progress after one week:

I was going to follow the pattern verbatim, but decided instead to knit it in once piece. The thought of knitting the fronts separate from the back and actually sewing raglan sleeves into a raglan sweater when it is so easy to knit it altogether at the same time didn't make sense to me. Watch -- I'm probably going to get messed up with that and have to rip, but right now the idea seems *sound* to me... The front bands are knit in as you go, too. Bonus! I'm using Cascade 220 yarn, "Red Wine" colorway... It's a very simple, basic design... I want to have it done in five weeks because DH has an adventure planned for our family and a nice, red sweater is going to be called for. More on that later...

Other than that, I have the small matter of sewing two Halloween costumes this week, basically without much of a pattern to go on.

I am making a dolphin costume starting out with a penguin pattern as a base design for it, and also a triceritops costume which is going to require some soft sculpture skills to make the head piece... My kids have more confidence in my abilities than I do. Thankfully the internet is loaded with photos for me to consult as I go. Hopefully I'll have photos of my own to post within the week, assuming I get these done...

Well, I just finished up my second week at my new clinical assignment, and I am wiped out. Due to an...er... issue with time not being blocked out on my schedule, I ended up with 13 initial evaluations this past week, most of them scheduled during times in which my clinical instructor (CI) had his own patients...so though he was able to pop in once in a while to make sure I was on the right track, I did most of the work on my own. I feel pretty good about that, because at the beginning of the week I didn't think I'd be capable of that. It was a real confidence boost to me, and also a lesson in not letting my fear of being uncomfortable paralyze me from trying to do things on my own....something I've always tried to stress with my kids, and which I've found a lot harder to do myself than I thought... Anyway, it's still a lot like "work," and I'll be glad after I graduate and will be able to do it on a part time basis... Right now I barely have time to put even the simplest of suppers on the table...so meal quality has taken a nose dive...

Well, beautiful fall day here today. I went to the grocery store to shop for the week, went running, and have a pot of chili going for supper, so I'm going to just relax with my knitting in front of the Badger game right now. (Did I mention they beat Ohio State last week?)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Riddle: What has two sleeves and is blocking?

2010-10-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Not sure what struck me today, but I sewed the second sleeve into my Two Hearts sweater :-)

I also took out several rows of the rolled edging at the neckline, because I thought it looked too bulky. I still have to weave in the ends, but I had some concerns about how the sleeves were sewn in and wanted to see if blocking took care of that first. Actually, things now look okay to me, so all systems are *go* to finish all of the loose ends (heh heh) as soon as it is dry.

I really want to wear it tomorrow, so I might put it on mesh and let it hover over an air vent overnight...but for now, it is lying in the play room...right next to a parking lot...

I started the sweater last January. I changed the sleeves from "dropped" to "set in," and added some subtle waist shaping. Other than that, I think I followed the pattern... I'll take a photo of me wearing it and post that soon. I'm pretty happy with the way it fits! The cables really are more visible when I'm not using flash photography, too, so I'll try to get a decent picture that shows off the cables...

Things were fine at Grandpa's funeral yesterday. He is buried with a pack of M&M's in his coat pocket.

I hit it hard with my exercise this week. I'm running a 5 mile race on Saturday, so wanted to get some good training in this week. Nothing like signing up for a race to give a person some motivation!

I hope this finds you all well!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

The end of an era...

2010-10-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I'd like to introduce you to my "Handsome Grandpa Booth."

He was born in 1918, and was just shy of 92 years old when he passed away last weekend. The funeral is tomorrow...

He was one of the most childlike goofy people I know (in a *good* way), and appreciated the great things in life, such as Schlitz Beer (he worked at the brewery for many years) and frozen M&M's (which I've been enjoying myself the past few days, as a rare treat in celebration of his life):

He was a pilot and a flying instructor / examiner. When he was young, one of his teachers asked him what he wanted to be, and when he told her he wanted to be a pilot, she told him that he would never make it. I guess he showed her!! :-)

When DH and I got married, the gift my Grandpa Booth gave to us was a rather large *case* of toilet paper. It's probably the only gift we used every single day right after our wedding...

His jokes were *bad* jokes, lots of groaners, so we always laughed a lot when he was around. Most of all, his faith in God was strong, and he was ready to depart from this earth and move on to better things.

Godspeed, Grandpa! I love you!

There has been some knitting, though I continue to take out sections which aren't contrasty enough (and have done that three times I think?). I was affirmed by everybody's comments on my last post that it is acceptable to be fussy about how the colors of the Kauni are combining and I *can* force them to be more to my liking...so thank you all for your thoughts on it! This has meant that I end up knitting three inches, then taking out one inch, repeat...

The latest reason to take out a chunk of knitting, however, is that I've gone past the part where I had to start decreasing for the neckline...so will be ripping back an inch and then working the neckline. AAUGH!

I decided I will be using "modified drop" sleeves. The directions specify that you leave 12 underarm stitches on stitch holders as you work up the rest of the front, then put the reserved stitches on a needle and pick up around the arm hole and immediately begin to work in the round. That didn't seem right to me, and is probably the reason that lots of people who have made this sweater (ref Ravelry) are complaining about all of the excess fabric in the underarms... Instead, I bound off 24 stitches on the body of the sweater where each armhole is going to be, and I am going to pick up stitches for the sleeves along the front and back parts of the armhole and work each sleeve back and forth for two inches, then join to knit the rest of the sleeve in the round. I'll then go back and sew the top two inches of the sleeves to the bound off edges of the body. Not sure I'm explaining this well, but I'll show you as I go...

So, my 8-year old really wants to be an engineer, and found directions to make this little car in a library book:

DH helped him with the project, and it's really kind of fun! The little motor drives the soda can via a "belt" (rubber band). Now, if only I could give the little guy a better sense of timing... He missed the bus today because he wasn't getting ready on time, in spite of my *incessant* nagging...so I told him I wasn't going to nag him any more and it was up to *him* to get finished, that he's old enough to understand that I want him ready in time for the bus... So, anyway, after the bus came and went, I went back inside the house and found him still in his pajamas. He asked me what time it was, I told him he missed the bus. He got ready for school at a speed I've never seen before, and then wanted me to *drive* him to school. I told him that he had a ride, but he missed it, so I made him walk to school with me, and when we arrived late, he had to tell the lady in the office and his teachers why he was late ("because I wasn't getting ready on time"). Will be interesting to see if this affects his behavior tomorrow morning when he is getting dressed... Fortunately, it happened on a day in which I actually have a little bit of time to follow through on the natural consequences...

I'm on a one week break from my clinicals, and am *enjoying* getting caught up a little bit around the house. I cleaned the refrigerator and freezer yesterday! I might not have to go grocery shopping at all next week, given the treasures we already have stowed in there...which I didn't even know we had... Sweet!

Okay, so I'm off to get more stuff done today... For one thing, I have to finish "back to school" shopping for my 8-year old, whose pant legs end somewhere between his ankles and his knees. He doesn't care, really, but now that it's getting colder and pants are appropriate, I really need to get him into some clothes that actually fit.

More soon! I'll be *cutting* my steeks soon on my Kauni Cardigan... What would you do next after that? Sleeves, or button/neck bands?

I hope the weather where you are is as glorious as it is here today! Perfect day to exercise outside, just sayin' :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

I am going to cheat...

2010-09-19T08:43:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

You probably remember Stitches Midwest, where I purchased two skeins each of two different Kauni colorways (and where you *ALSO* purchased Kauni yarn, but in a different colorway, to make the same sweater :-)

The night I got home from Stitches, I re-wound all of my Kauni skeins into "cakes," so that I could clearly see what colors lurked inside:Fun! Just a note...the two skeins I bought in the purply colorway were wound in opposite directions -- the one shown in the photo goes from gray to black to purple working from the inside out, whereas the second skein goes from purple to black to gray. That isn't going to matter, because the whole idea of the Kauni is that the yarn is sort of random and the colors present themselves how they will.

So, I started knitting the infamous Kauni Cardigan (which is totally THE CURE for anybody who might have lost the *knitting mojo*) , and was rather pleased with how things were going regarding the color pattern that was happening *UNTIL* I got to a point in which there wasn't really enough contrast to see the fancy shmancy colorwork -- In this photo, you can see that the stripe on the top looks like a messy blur instead of a row of squares:

In this next photo, you can sort of see the squares in the top row, maybe if you squint:

So, I decided to take out the last stripe and cut the yarn from the blue skein, skip a bunch of the darker blue yarn as it is coming out of the skein, and re-join it once it starts to get a little bit lighter to allow for more contrast with the black/dark gray. Did that make sense? I did some checking on Ravelry, and some of the sweaters there have areas with low contrast which I don't really care for, yet others have nice contrast throughout. I don't know if people are cheating by cutting out sections of color from the skeins in order to achieve a nice contrast throughout, but I AM GOING TO. So there.

A couple of other notes about this sweater/yarn/pattern:

1.) When I was casting on, I must have tugged the yarn too much, and it tore, so I had to re-start. Fortunately, I was only a few stitches into the cast on when that happened, but beware to not yank the yarn, it might be fragile.

2.) Cast on using the color which is going to be *purled* in your corrugated ribbing. I cast on with blue, and my ribbing is *K1 purple, P1 blue*. That way, you won't have an odd colored purl "bump" all along your first row of ribbing...

3.) THE SLEEVES! Yikes. Not sure how I am going to handle those, but I am definitely going to stray from the pattern. Several of the entries on Ravelry speak to the fact that there seems to be a lot of excess fabric in the underarm, so I read ahead in the pattern and it is quite clear why people are complaining about the sleeves... I think I know what I'm going to do to revise the pattern, and it is going to involve purling in colorwork, but only for a couple of inches. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right?! I'll talk more about the sleeves in my next post.

4.) There is also some discussion on Ravelry regarding the neck area being a bit generous, so I have to figure out if I'm going to stray from the pattern on that or not... Stay tuned :-) (What did we ever do before Ravelry?)

In the meantime, here is a sock fresh off the needles:

It is not just any sock -- it is Loretta's *first sock* :-)

I met Loretta in the library when she was bringing her grandson and I was bringing my son to story time there a few years ago. We started talking about knitting, and Loretta made a really nice hat. Fast forward to the summer of 2009, when I ran into her at the swimming pool and was able to convince her of the virtue of sock knitting. So, Loretta started her first sock more than a year ago, and then Autumn was upon us, and the sock went into hibernation. I saw Loretta again this past summer at the swimming pool, and she brought her sock back with her, and now it is finished! YAY! Way to go, Loretta! Excellent fortitude there, and the first one is the hardest! Loretta is definitely on the slippery slope toward being completely addicted to this whole knitting thing....heh heh...

Okay, so I have to do some ripping and make some color decisions on my Kauni Cardigan, so I'll ramble more later, probably again next weekend. By then I'll have my color contrast and sleeve dilemmas worked out, I hope.

Have a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

There is a reason...

2010-09-17T05:29:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I laughed at your most recent blog post, and totally agree that when somebody makes a special request for a knitted item, especially an adorable little girl, there is really no choice but to deliver...

Just a quick post today. I have the morning "off," which means I will be cramming a week's worth of errands/projects into four short hours...

ENE'S SCARF is finished! The obligatory photo of it blocking:

And the reason I am not a model and my son is not a photographer:

In the category of "fun times at my house," we had a few too many fruit flies, and I finally figured out the source was one particular onion in the onion drawer which was getting smelly...so I promptly disposed of that, but still had several of the pesky flies swarming around a week later, so I checked online for some strategies to get rid of them and ended up making a couple of traps:

Both traps worked equally well I would say. The one on the left is cider vinegar in a little bit of water with dish soap covered with plastic wrap which has fork holes poked into it. The one on the right is a now-evaporated bowl of white wine with a little dish soap in it. An empty beer can sitting next to the traps on the counter also attracted quite a few of the little flies, but was not able to actually *capture* even one... I haven't seen a live fruit fly in a couple of days now, so that's nice!

I hope your weather in Indiana is as glorious as ours in south central Wisconsin right now! Have a great Friday!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

All I can say is that I was unprepared......

2010-09-12T19:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Oh your Ene scarf looks great! A beautiful thing indeed!

On Friday, I took the day off and went to Shipshewana Indiana with my sil and her four-year-old granddaughter Lydia. We had a great day! One of the stores we went to was a yarn store, where Chris wanted me to see several projects that she either liked or was ready to start on. I browsed around and found a back issue of a magazine I had been looking for, and some herbs to keep moths away. I was about to get away relatively unscathed when Lydia brought me a ball of yarn and said, "Aunt Cyn-tee-a, would you make me a wainbow cawf with this yawn?"

Well.

Yes Lydia, I will absolutely make you a rainbow scarf with that yarn.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Home Stretch on Ene

2010-09-10T05:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

WOW - Your hexagon socks look *fantastic* and I'm so glad the weaving in of the ends is behind you now! Perhaps you might share a photo of the handmade bag you got in that trade? I'd love to see it, too!

My kids are back in school now, so things are a little calmer around here. And, I have Friday mornings *off* from being in the clinic, so I may spend that time *however I wish*... Today, I am spending it picking up around the house to reduce the overall feeling of clutter... Also, putting this blog post together.

Living with boys, there are always little surprises around the house, and I never know what is going to turn up where. For example, just outside the master bathroom:

At least this is in the corner. My general rule of thumb around here is to "watch your step," because traipsing over a Lego, which might have been left in the middle of the main pathway of the house, in my bare feet can be painful, just sayin'.

You'll be happy to know that the Ugly Socks are finished, and I don't think they are really that ugly. I'll definitely wear these -- I mean, they'll match just about anything, right? Thank you Kaffe Fassett:

So, I started another pair of socks for my "take anywhere" mindless knitting:Ene's scarf is moving right along. For those of you who are math geeks like myself, only 125 stitches on the needles right now (down from 375 initially), and I'm on row 126 (out of 170 total). I really like this construction, and the fact that the rows are getting shorter instead of longer. It's a rather easy pattern -- especially after getting through the initial border rows. Can you tell by the coloring where I changed from the first to the second ball of yarn in the photo?:

I'm using "Jezebel" yarn, by SouthWest Trading Company, and it says on the yarn wrapper that it is 'Hand Dyed Merino Wool for Lace, Socks, & Beautiful Things." Okay then...

We've been riding bikes with our kids, and a patient told me about one of the "rails to trails" converted railroad bike paths having a tunnel in it that is so dark and long that you need a flashlight to go through it:

That was really fun, but my 10 year old was concerned that it was going to cave in on us once we got in the middle of it. I told him that it's been there for over 100 years, so not to worry. He said that since it's so old, there's even more of a chance of it caving in. Yes, my son has MY exact same hang-ups, only exaggerated...poor guy...

I'm still working up to running a 5 mile race in October, though my training schedule has fallen apart a little bit. Some days I have to get notes for the clinic done in the morning, so I decided that it was okay to be, er, *flexible* with my running schedule, as long as I'm trying to get some longer distance runs in. This morning's weather is glorious -- sunny and cool -- so as soon as the kids get on the bus, I'm gonna be out there.

A couple of exercise tips:

1.) If you miss a day, don't sweat it. However, also DON'T let it give you "permission" to give up on your program entirely. Just do what you can when you can. An imperfect exercise routine is still better than not exercising at all :-)

2.) Sign up for a 5K walk or run, even better if it supports a cause you believe in. This will give you a clear, timely goal for your training, and you will find it motivating. Plus, free tee-shirt with your entry fee :-)

My 10 year old and I ran a 5K a couple of weeks ago -- it was his first 5K race, and he finished a minute and 40 seconds before I did... However, just signing up for the race got him out there training with me prior to it. It was very fun.

I hope you (all) have a great weekend!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

I still don't like chunky yarn....

2010-09-08T03:37:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

I hope you had a great Labor Day weekend! I had a QUIET weekend, and that was just what I was hoping for. I watched some baseball, did some housework, laundry, napping, and finished two knitting projects! Can't beat that....

First of all, I finished the Hexagon Socks! YAY!! Overall, I enjoyed knitting them. The heels just about killed me tho. I thought after I finally got it figured out on the first heel that the second one would be a breeze, but I was mistaken. That diagram was just plain difficult. On one hand, I liked the modular part - making a hexagon didn't take long! On the other hand, by the end I was tired of picking up stitches and almost immediately sewing in ends. Now that they're done, I'm glad I did them - but I won't be doing them again anytime soon!

I think when we were together at Stitches I showed you the hat that I was working on. It's from the "Dream Club" that I'm doing. Dream In Color Yarns puts out a kit each month - it's one skein of a specially-dyed yarn and a pattern that can be made from that skein. We get together at Knitting Today and cast on together, and that's really fun. When I cast on the hat, I was madly trying to hit a couple of deadlines, so at first I put it aside. However, it turned out to be perfect 'train and hotel' knitting for my trip to Stitches, so I was able to finish it in August.

Last Thursday, we met to cast on for September's project, which was slipper socks in a chunky weight yarn. It was a project that I had a use for - my mom needs slippers (long story, but I 'over-felted' the ones she had!) We were told that we could get a pair of slippers from the one skein, but only just. I decided that, since the yarn supply was tight, I would make mine from the toe-up instead of as the pattern was written. I got them done in just 4 days (YAY!) and I did have some yarn left over. I think that since I did a short-row heel instead of a flap-heel, I used less yarn. They could probably have used a few more rows before I started the ribbing, but mom has tried them on and likes them, so I'm happy. FOUR DAYS!! Still, I prefer finer yarns, even if it takes longer......

I'm working on my February Lady Sweater this week, and then this weekend I'll start working on my list for the rest of this year. I need a sweater for a one-year old, 3 more toys, 2 kids hats and gifts for the twins due in December. That will finish out this year - the year of Toys For Birthday Gifts.

As we discussed, 2011 is going to be the year of Store-Bought Birthday Gifts! And the year of Socks for Me! It's going to be fun!!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Catching up!

2010-08-29T13:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Well, I always have good intentions. I think, "This is it - today I'll blog. For sure. Today." One day, I actually built the photo mosaic and got it added to blogger (the jury is still out on whether or not you can see it!) That day looked promising. But alas, the day gets away, and I'm falling asleep at the computer, and it isn't done.

I had a wonderful time at Stitches! It was so great to see you and catch up in person. We don't get that chance nearly often enough.

As you can see, I've worked on some small projects this summer - booties and bracelets, some socks and stuffed animals - even a hat! I still have a second sock to finish of the Norwegian Rose Socks, and I have seven more hexagons to finish that pair. That's my goal for this weekend - our County Fair is at the end of this month, and I'm gathering/finishing projects to take.

There is a picture of one of the Teddy Bear's with his stuffing hanging out.....I got that back for a second repair job. I had sewn up a hole in its bottom once before, and they assured me that the dog hadn't been around it since. This time they discovered the true problem. When I made the first few bears, I was unable to locate the poly pellets that it called for, so I substituted a little bag filled with uncooked rice. Turns out they had a mouse, and the mouse liked rice! Oh my. Anyway, it is now stuffed with poly pellets, and has a patch and some embroidery and is all set to go!

Also shown are some purchases from Stitches! I love my green Namaste bag, and as soon as I finish my February Lady sweater, I'm definitely starting Kauni. I'm also completely besotted with the Adventure bag pattern and handles - I picked up the yarn last night. I debated about the color; I love the harvest gold that I saw at Stitches, but I was worried about dirt. I plan to use it as an overnight bag, and I've had enough bags get grungy in the trunk or when someone tosses it on the ground that I was concerned. I found a lovely purply-brown called "Midnight Lake" by Shepherds Wool, and so now I'm very anxious to get started. It's bulky crochet, so it should go quickly!!

It's cooled down here, so the holiday weekend should be great! Hope you have a great weekend there - and I'll talk to you again soon!

Keep knitting!!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Stitches Midwest 2010 edition

2010-08-21T21:38:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Can you name the two people in this photo, taken at Stitches Midwest in Schaumburg IL?

So, let's review some of the hotel room amenities. Can you identify the $4.00 bottle of water in this photo? (HINT: It is in a CLEAR GLASS BOTTLE, and it doesn't even hold as much as the metal water bottle I generally haul around with me...)

Find the TV hidden inside the bathroom mirror:

Weird to turn on the bathroom light and have the TV automatically turn on at the same time... I have never seen anything like it before...

Okay, so onward to the business at hand. My goal, to accomplish before next summer, is to complete the two shawls I have on my needles right now AND knit three of the projects I purchased materials for at the Stitches Marketplace.

First up, a necklace/bracelet wire/bead knitting kit. I've never knit with wire before, and the store samples were just sooo pretty. I selected a kit having silver wire and beads that are pearl and quartz:

Since it was way too hot to be wearing hand knit sweaters or socks today, perhaps next year at this time I will sport my new necklace, just so that I am wearing *something* handknit to the big show :-)

Next up is four skeins of Kauni yarn to knit the Kauni Cardigan which was so popular a couple of years ago. (As is typical, I'm a little bit behind the craze...) I selected colors which were a little more subdued than the rainbow version, and you can't see how the color changes within the skein by looking at this photo, but I'll wind them into "cakes" and then show you the grays, blacks, and lighter blues which phase in and out throughout the lengths of yarn. Also note my new shawl pin in this photo:
I also selected another triangle shawl pattern, which uses a construction I haven't tried before. I like this pattern because it starts at the tip of the triangle at the bottom of the shawl, and works up from there in horizontal rows. That way, I can use a skein of sock yarn (which I already have in my stash) and just stop knitting when I am about to run out of yarn at the top edge:
Finally, a copy of the Cassidy pattern. It is unlikely that I'll make this sweater during the coming year, but I prefer to have the pattern in this hard copy, card stock format (versus purchasing it online at the Chic Knits site and receiving a pdf file of it to print out on separate sheets...).

So, great companionship (and was fun to meet your knitting cronies), fun shopping, and a nice change of scenery for me yesterday and today! Now, back to reality and putting together a grocery list so that I can go shopping and get ready for the coming week... I hope that you have a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

We have a Winner!

2010-08-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

Just a quick post today... I apologize for the delay in announcing the winner to my little contest about guessing what this mug represents:

Congratulations to Sus (a temporary citizen of Milwaukee when she was going to school there, but now no longer in God's Country), whose winning entry of a "lumbar vertebra" won her some, er, spectacular prizes...

First, a sample of Malibrigo Silky Merino which I picked up today at the Stitches Midwest Market:

Second, a pamphlet for making five different sock styles, each in three different yarn weights:

(Picture is blurry because I had to turn off the flash to avoid big white blobs on the shiny booklet cover while taking the photo...but you get the idea...)

And finally, a book of scarf patterns:

Thank you to all of you who either commented or sent an e-mail with your entries for the contest!!

I apologize for the delay in announcing the winner... I once again feel a little bit behind in everything, as I am now on a full time clinical assignment, and I am finding it challenging in several ways.

First, adjusting to a full time schedule and keeping things at home running smoothly has presented some challenges for me and my family, though this should ease up after the boys are back in school very soon.

Second, I am reminded of the discomfort of being less than competent. When I first started my engineering job fresh out of college back in the 1980s's, there was quite a learning curve, but I eventually became competent at what I was doing and comfortable in my decision making at work. Now, at this stage in my life, I feel like I should *still* be competent, though in this new field of PT, I once again find myself on the steep part of the learning curve, and I really, really miss the feeling of competence. I have been daily reminding myself of a quote from Kristin Armstrong's blog, in which she says, "If we want to get better, we have to deal with being uncomfortable." Very true. Not easy for me right now, but time for me to step it up....

Coming soon - a report from our experiences at Stitches Midwest!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Ene's Scarf...and a contest

2010-08-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I mentioned that I thought the gauge on my Ene's Scarf was running a bit on the tight side, and the "holes" weren't "popping" the way I hoped they would using the size 7 needles specified in the pattern...

Yuck...so, I ripped the whole things out and used the "S" word --> SWATCH...with size 8 needles, and this is what it looked like:
Also yuck. Actually, worse...so I decided to stay with the size 7 needles and work to consciously reduce my tension. (I've noticed over the past several months that I've been holding my working yarn much tighter, and I think it is because of all of the 2x2 ribbing I've been knitting on socks -- keeping the yarn especially tight, to avoid the "loose" column of stitches common at the transitions from the knit stitches to the purl stitches in the ribbing...) Now I'm finally getting somewhere:
Charts 1 and 2 completed - 32 rows done out of 179 total, started with 375 stitches on the needle and already down to only 313! Each successive row takes less time to work than the previous row -- LOVE THAT! And, only 147 rows to go...

So (abrupt transition), in the category of "what's not getting done at my house since I started 'working' full time on my first clinical assignment...I used to sort of have an inventory in my head of the food in our house. I had a sense of when we were close to being out of milk, and had a rough idea of how many eggs were in our fridge. Yesterday, I started making lunch for the boys and realized that we had one slice of bread in the whole house... (I remember having three loaves of bread in the freezer about a week ago -- what happened to all of those?) I rummaged through the freezer and found an assortment of bun packages, each having a couple of buns remaining from when it was initially opened a month or two ago:
Desperate times call for desperate measures, right? So, I made grilled cheese sandwiches out of buns, using the "inside" of the buns for the "outside" of the sandwiches:

Unconventional, definitely not gourmet, but my seven year old told me, "Hey, these are really good," as though he was surprised that I could make something he liked...

And in the category of really fun, my mom and dad gave me this mug:
Correctly identify what it is (as specifically as you are able to), and I'll randomly select one winner from the correct answers and send out a (modest) prize related to knitting...

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Diary of a knitter on vacation...

2010-07-30T17:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

We spent the past week in DC (Door County) on Wisconsin's peninsula...which is north and east of the city of Green Bay on this map:

Sunday, July 25, 12:00pm: Decide to start a new shawl as a "vacation project" and see how far I can get on it during the relaxing week away from home; envision that it will *almost be completed* by the time I return home on Friday.

12:30pm: Begin knitting Ene's Scarf, because I've always wanted to knit a triangular shawl which begins at the outside edges (longest rows) and works its way toward the middle (shortest rows), and this will be perfect vacation knitting.

2:30pm, during stop in Ripon WI: Decide that we will get our Christmas card photo at some point during this vacation. Manage to take "self portrait" on park swing (I hold camera at arms length "backwards" and the four of us huddle together to try to all fit into the picture) which appears to have all four of us captured in it and might be cute for our Christmas cards. Upon closer examination, realize that ten year old was sticking his tongue out in the photo. Consider that the week is just beginning, and there will be many other photo opportunities.

6:00pm, still en route to DC: Start to question whether or not the lace on my Ene's Scarf is "popping" the way it should; realize that I did not bring any needles which are larger diameter to fix the problem and so continue knitting with the existing needles hoping that the holes will "pop" more after I've knit a few more rows.

Realize this is a futile proposition and set Ene's Scarf aside to re-start after I get home in a week. Fortunately I brought along enough sock yarn to keep me going...

Monday, July 26, 4:30am: Awaken via my kids, who decided that I would enjoy driving to the other side of the peninsula to watch the sun rise over Lake Michigan on this day, my birthday. Get up and quickly dress without showering; realize that I will have bad hair all day as a result of no morning grooming, and determine that Christmas card photo-op probably will not occur today. Enjoy the sunrise with my family -- really lovely.

Receive scarf from ten year old which he knit using a loom and which is my birthday present -- also really lovely:

6:30am: Since we're already up anyway, drive to Peninsula State Park and bike 9.6 miles. Note that I am the only one in our party of four having a crate on my bike rack, so my *bike* is very popular when it is snack time, or when a map is required, or when clothing is doffed and cannot be carried by youngster while riding on his bike:

9:00am: Enjoy watching my two boys skip stones into the Green Bay of Lake Michigan. Wonder how a ten year old can skip a stone six or seven times and a 46 year old can only manage to throw it into the water so that it disappears on the first "plop."

Spend the afternoon swimming in a pool, and then playing at the beach. Have a nice dinner at Shipwrecked - a brewery/restaurant a few blocks from where we are staying. Best birthday ever!

Tuesday, July 27: Get up and run four miles, because that is what my new 10K training program says I must do on Tuesdays. Take shower, blow dry hair. Don baseball cap and spend the morning at a farm. Spend afternoon on another beach; hike and get caught in the rain. No Christmas card photo-ops today because hair is a mess. Plan to make s'mores and have "family movie night" in hotel room in the evening. Start setting out s'mores ingredients and wonder what can be used for marshmallow skewers. Note that weather is again beginning to look ominous. Place marshmallows on forks and roast over electric stove:

Wednesday, July 28: Get up and run three miles. Shower, and realize that styling my hair in the morning is no match for my bike helmet, baseball cap, and wind, so decide to stop blow-drying hair. Throw head-band on wet hair and apply sunscreen for another day of biking at a "wilderness" state park. Get attacked by mosquitoes; make futile attempt to deter them by spraying on two layers of bug repellant. Thoroughly enjoy early evening showing of "Life on the Mississippi" (with live music) at American Folklore Theater in the woods.

Thursday, July 29: Get up and run four miles. Figure out that there is no shampoo in the middle of taking a shower, so use bar soap to clean hair instead. Reflect that it doesn't really matter, anyway, because hair is low on priority scale when playing in nature. Return to Peninsula State Park and hike trail having rating of "difficult"; be amazed that I was able to contain my fear of heights, and be equally amazed that my kids having legs much shorter than mine were able to navigate the rocky cliff-side paths carefully and safely:

8:00pm: Attend amazing Big Band program at Birch Creek Music Performance Center featuring music instructors from all over the country playing awesome big band tunes together -- So awesome, and great fun!

Friday, July 30: Drive home from Door County, knitting most of the way. Analyze knitting progress for the week and figure out that I managed to knit roughly half of one sock in the past five days. I know -- WOW...

Feel fortunate for having had a nice vacation with lots of fun diversions which aren't so accessible at home. Unpack, get laundry started, and get ready to relax with one of my souvenirs -- A Cherry Wheat Ale from Shipwrecked. They put cherries in everything in Door County...

I hope everybody had a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

"Winner" Sock Pattern

2010-07-28T18:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

After years of knitting socks using various techniques / patterns / types of needles, I think I've finally assembled a combination of elements into a basic pattern that I will refer to as my "Winner." These techniques are probably familiar to most sock knitters who are experienced knitting socks from the toe up; I am just publishing this combination of techniques in this post so that I can refer to it in the future (row counts, number of stitches to cast on to fit my foot, etc), and in case it might be helpful to any of you. This is rough, and does not include every single detail, but hopefully you get the idea of my standard cobbled together sock pattern from it. Please feel free to e-mail me if you have questions regarding any additional details.

These socks are knit using the "magic loop" technique. Note that I actually prefer using double pointed needles (dpn's) to knit socks, though practically speaking, socks are the easiest thing for me to "take-along" to my kids' activities and warrant preventive strategies such as using one really long circular needle instead of five tiny little pointy sticks... (We're *all* familiar with bleachers at a baseball diamond, right? -- No good can come from dropping a dpn while sitting in the bleachers!)

Using a size one 47" circular needle, begin with a Turkish cast-on as given in this excellent tutorial - cast on 36 stitches (there will be 18 stitches on each needle). (Note that the tutorial shows one bamboo needle and one metal needle; for these socks, just hold both ends of the long circular needle together as the yarn is wrapped around the needles to cast on the stitches...)

Row 1: Knit one round.

Row 2: *K1, M1B (by performing M1 by picking up stitch from back to front), knit to one stitch before end of first needle, M1F (by performing M1 by picking up stitch by inserting needle from front to back), K1*; repeat once.

Repeat Rows 1 and 2 until there are 72 stitches total (36 stitches on each needle).

Foot section pattern: Knit 36 stitches (all of the stitches on the first needle); on second needle K3, P2, *K2 P2* seven times, K3. This completes one round.

Repeat "Foot section pattern" until 75 rounds have been completed, or until foot of sock is desired length minus 2.25 inches.

Work short row heel using yarn-over method, as given in Interweave Knits Summer 2007 magazine. If you don't have access to this magazine, there are some online tutorials which don't spell things out quite as nicely, but which utilize the YO technique for doing short rows and may suffice. I like this tutorial in particular, though there are several out there (search on "yarn over short row heel"). Work the first half of the heel (increasing section) until there are 14 unpaired stitches on the middle of the needle. If everything has worked out properly, there will be 14 unpaired stitches after working a right side row; after working this row, do *not* turn work. Begin working second half of heel (decreasing section) as given in directions for YO short row technique...

After the heel is worked, return to working "Foot section pattern" for 14 rows. On next row, switch to standard 2x2 ribbing for the rest of the sock. Work 75 rows total of 2x2 ribbing, or until desired length has been achieved. Bind off using Russian Bind-off.

Make second sock to match.

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Doorbells and exhaust fans...

2010-07-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

When I was walking down the street one day with my kids, they picked up the irony of this car being parked next to the sign and they thought I should take a photo of it, so I did the best I could with my cell phone:

(Sign says "NO PARKING ANY TIME." Hopefully this bodes well for them when they start parking their own cars (starting in six years). Thankfully it's not *my* car...because I totally didn't catch this... (Perhaps riding my bike or the bus to school for the past two years has ruined my ability to read/comprehend signs regarding parking...)

So, our doorbell was ringing only sometimes when the button was pushed. This would have been great if it *didn't work* when the person ringing the bell was a politician with viewpoints in opposition to mine, and if it *did* work when it was the Publishers Clearinghouse coming to tell me that I was the big winner. However, one of our babysitters ended up standing outside for five minutes one day before we figured out she was even there, so time to get the problem taken care of. Here is the old doorbell:

It is laying on the kitchen floor. Note that the brown cover typically fell to the floor every time one of my kids got mad and slammed the bathroom door upstairs.

Here is the new doorbell, installed in the same place as the old one, by a nice electrician. Notice how it is smaller, and there is a bolt sticking out from the wall an inch above it (remains of the mounting hardware from the old doorbell). Not too bad, though someday I'll remove the bolt, patch the hole, and re-paint...but not today:
I *do* appreciate that it does not have the fake chimes on it.

In other riveting news, the master bathroom fan had a serious bearing problem, and here is the new fan installed by the same electrician:
It works really well, much better than the old one, and I only notice that it is a different size and shape than the old one when I look up....(which, oddly, happens more than you might think...) Not too big of a deal. Again, some day I'll re-paint...

Not as exciting as knitting...

...but that's what's going on at our house :-)

I did start a new knitting project today, but I am so mad at it right now and still have a few missed yarn-overs to fix.... but in the next day or two I might be able to bring myself to take a photo of it and share it with you. Until then, I hope that you have a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

All the news that isn't...

2010-07-23T13:25:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

First, this is what it looks like when a person has just finished the last of her grad school classroom work and goes to the Union Terrace next to Lake Mendota for a few beers IN THE MIDDLE OF THE AFTERNOON:

(My kids were with their grandma, at Grandparents University, so it was a rare occasion for me to actually go drinking with my classmates.) The gal next to me in the photo is the only other mom in my class, and I think she is the second oldest, maybe four years younger than I am?) I don't actually style my hair to look like that; there was a little bit of wind that day. I might have had a slight sunburn accident after losing track of time. I blame the Leinie's Honey Weiss. I'm going to really miss my classmates... Clinicals start on August 2nd.

So, I'm in need of a new goal and decided to begin training for a 5 mile race (Al's Run 8K) which I'll run with my siblings in October. I currently regularly run 3 miles several times a week, but I've been wanting to step up the intensity, so I'm going to be starting a new training regimen next Monday. Okay, so on to knitting content...

Here is the current status of the Hanami Stole:You might notice that it looks very much like the previous photo I posted of it, except for it is now without the errant part and slightly longer:

I had to tink back 12 rows and then re-knit. It turns out that I had skipped two rows the first time around, so I'm keeping better track of things this time... I think I have to work this pattern repeat six or seven times, and then things get more interesting... Slow going, because this is my project for home, and I haven't had a lot of time to just sit around knitting at home...

Also, remember the ugly sock? ...which I ripped out? (I know - you thought it was gone for good! Sorry...)

I'm using the same yarn and just a plain 2x2 ribbing pattern this time, and I think it looks so much better. I don't know why -- same colors -- but for some reason it is much easier for me to look at:

Here is the current status of the "pair," and I'm going to post my basic sock pattern soon, just so that I can remember what it is, and in case anybody else is interested in it.

I've tried a lot of various methods for making a basic sock, and have finally cobbled together a combination of techniques which have become my own "best practice" for making a standard, good fitting sock for myself. I really like the 2x2 ribbing, because it is snug without being too tight, and I think it just looks nice, though it is a little tedious...but for something I continue to cart around to various kids' activities, it is perfect.

Speaking of kids' activities, for baseball, a parent is required to work in the concession stand during one game... I'm telling you, when it rains on a day you are signed up to volunteer, it is like winning the lottery. I had worked only half hour (normally would be 2.5 hours) when the skies opened up and the rain came pouring down. Volunteer time *done*.

Volunteer time is also required for the swim team. I signed up to work in the "Clerk of Course" area. The idea of the thing is that the Clerk of Course lines up the kids and then delivers them to their proper position just prior to the start of each event. Picture an 8x8 matrix of chairs, and then picture trying to get 64 eight year olds to each sit in his/her own specific chair as he/she is awaiting his/her turn to approach the starting blocks of the pool...and picture me trying to remain calm and nice about the whole thing for 4.5 hours on a very hot Saturday morning. One father started raising his voice at me when I wasn't exactly understanding what he was trying to tell me, so I kindly looked him in the eye and just said in a pathetic way, "You know, this is a really hard job for me," and that was enough to bring him back to civility, though he probably thinks I'm mentally impaired (which I haven't ruled out myself...) I actually enjoyed the work, though, because it's constant and the time goes fast, and I'm a stickler for details, so getting kids into their proper chairs is a skill I didn't really know I had, but I'd do it again...but not until next season :-)

Well, I suppose I'd better get started on making supper. One of my classmates is coming over for dinner. More soon! I went yarn shopping last week, just sayin'...

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

When is a pair of socks NOT a pair of socks?

2010-06-27T11:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I finished knitting two socks. You may remember that I ripped back sock #2 because the striping on the heel was very different from sock #1...

Well....then I decided that I didn't like the fit of sock #1, nor the gusset heel...so when I re-knit the heel of sock #2, I switched to a short row heel. It's not obvious in this first photo, though you can tell that the sock on my right foot (#1) looks a little baggy compared to the left (#2):

Here's a view of both socks in which you can compare the heels. Short row heel on the left (#2), gusset heel on the right (#1):
The astute among you also noticed that the right sock is a bit longer than the left... I prefer the shorter length. I generally fold the sock at the back of the heel and knit until the leg portion is as long as the foot portion -- that is the perfect length for me.

Side by side, the difference between the heel styles is perhaps more obvious, with short row on left (#2) and gusset heel on right (#1):
Also notice how the sock on the left maintains the stripe sequence all the way up the front of the sock. So, I have a "pair" of socks, but the one on the right (aka sock #1) is going to be ripped back to the point just before knitting the heel, and I will re-knit it to be just like sock #2... That is the plan, anyway, until something quirkly happens with the striping sequence and that gets messed up again... I think I've spent more time on this pair of socks than any other pair I've ever knit, because after I rip out the one on the right, I'll be knitting my fourth heel on this pair... On the upside, it turns out that socks are much easier to knit during baseball games than lace...AND easier to rip back...but ripping back the lace is a story for a different day...

I am halfway through with summer school already; my kids and I are having a busy summer, and it seems like it is blowing by us pretty fast. The boys have had two weeks of summer vacation: Week 1 = honeymoon period; Week 2 = constant bickering; Week 3 = hopefully we will be more accustomed to spending so much time together so that we all get along better and know how to handle the days having less structure than what they were used to at school. Thankfully, swim team, baseball, music lessons, and the summer reading program at the library break up our days...

....so, I suppose I should rip out that sock now so that I can be all set up to re-knit the heel and leg part of it during baseball games this week... I hope you're having a nice weekend!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

"tink" is "knit" spelled backwards...just sayin'

2010-06-20T07:03:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

First, do I have to remind you right now to plug in your lift station pump? Just checking... A wise man once said, "You home is your hassle, I mean castle..." Yup...but it certainly does beat a lot of other options that come to mind...

Okay, so here is the current state of the Hanami:

It is difficult to see them in the photo, but I am inserting a lifeline after every pattern repeat. I know it is a rookie thing to do, but this project comes with me to swim team practices, baseball games, and piano lessons, and I've generally been feeling lucky if I am able to get across a row without messing something up... So, I'm three pattern repeats into the thing, and I'm thinking I should take a photo and post to the blog or something, and there is always that moment of trepidation when you spread out your lace and really look at it, because you are hoping that some error doesn't pick that exact moment to reveal itself....but alas:

....I have no idea what I did, but something got messed up either six or eight rows ago, so I have to tink back... I guess *that* is why I think I need lifelines... Hopefully I can tink back the six to eight rows without having to drop back to one of the lifelines, but it's hard to say at this point.

In other ripping news, remember the ugly sock:

Even though my mom told me that she liked them and would wear them if I gave them to her, I just couldn't bring myself to continue, I dislike them that much, so I'm giving the yarn a fresh start (merely a *coincidence* that the freshly wound ball of yarn is sitting next to a beer in the photo...really):

And finally, the shower curtain in the main bathroom has been hanging like this for months:

Recall that the cabinets and a chunk of the wall were all painted to match this particular shower curtain, so it MUST BE SAVED! To that end, I purchased the "Extra-Large Eyelet Kit" months ago, and let it sit on the kitchen counter for a long time:

Finally this past week, I reinforced the area around the original hole with some clear duct tape, then used a scissors to cut a hole in the newly applied duct tape to enable eyelet insertion:

...and voila':

I thought about putting eyelets on *all* of the holes in the shower curtain, but that seemed like overkill, though we'll see how long I can stand to have the one hole be different from all the rest...

Finally, these are my new running shoes, which I love, applied to a nice green background which has become the official color of the business I'm working on with one of my classmates:

I've been having "fun" with some photo editing programs, because for my summer classes, I'm having to design a brochure, do several presentations, etc... The assignments are a royal pain in the places where no sun is shining, though they become a bit more fun if I try to be a little creative with the graphics... And, we'll be able to use the brochure in our business. By the way, my business partner and I came in third in the nation wide business idea contest we entered... Trips to attend the private practice meeting in DC next November went to the top two winners, and if one of those winners can't make it for some reason, then we get to go... It was thrilling and disappointing at the same time to learn how close we came to being selected...

Okay, so I had some other knitting ripping to show you, but there is probably enough bad knitting already contained in this one post. A gal can only deal with a certain amount of ripping at one time.

Have a great week, and warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

A Rip-Roarin' Time

2010-06-12T09:15:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Well! You've certainly been making the most of your time without classes! I've really enjoyed reading about the adventures of getting your oven repaired, and all of the projects you've been working on. The seafoam scarf went really quickly, and it's lovely! Your sweet harmony bag is amazing. I can't wait to see it in person! And I'm not going to look TOO closely at your Hanami scarf - I do not need any temptation to cast on another project right now, and I've longed to try that pattern. However, I'll have to enjoy it vicariously through you for now!

My oven is working fine right now, but I had to chuckle when I read about what you would go through to use your cook top or oven. I have several things here that are on "manual operation" status. A little clip broke on the water softener, so while the dial moves, it never trips it to run, so it runs whenever my feeble brain remembers to cycle it (ha!) or when I notice the water is getting a little orange. Even more fun is the lift station that pumps my drained water up to the waste pipe that carries it to the septic system. Occasionally (and I haven't found a cause/effect pattern) it doesn't turn off after it's done. I'm pretty tuned in to the sounds of the various machines in the furnace room, so it eventually sinks in that it has continued to run long after the last time I ran water. I can unplug it nearby, but then I have to wait at least 15 minutes before I plug it in again. Remembering to do so is the tricky part! It has happened that I have flushed and then heard the tell-tale "glug-glug" sound that tells me I have mere SECONDS to get that plugged back in before I've got a real mess! Hmm, wonder what it would take to convince my landlord (!) to get one of those....what did you call it??....."repairman?" ;)

Anyway, I've been knitting too! I finished that pair of sport-weight socks last weekend, and I really like them. It's nice to think of wearing them next fall!

I immediately turned around and cast on another pair of plain socks. I was headed to a Tin-Caps baseball game (local minor league team - used to be the Wizards, remember?) and I needed something that didn't take much concentration. I knew I had a pair of plain socks started, but the invitation to the game was last-minute and I couldn't find them, so I grabbed a ball of sock yarn from the stash, some beloved Signature DPN's and the toe-up sock directions from the Summer 2007 Interweave Knits that you pointed out to me, and so here is my current 'portable summer knitting project." I got the toe done during the game, a
Zauberball Sock and I did not get knocked out by a foul ball either! It was a great time!

February Lady gets some knit time as well, although not enough. It's getting a little warm for me to enjoy having that much wool on my lap. I take it to "Sweater Night" at Knitting Today, and occasionally to work on at lunch. I'm on the lace now, and I noticed immediately that it's not a complicated pattern, so I was happy about that. Although it occurred to me several times that for a simple 7-stitch repeat, I was finding plenty of mistakes the first few times through, but I was able to do a little fudging. Then yesterday I realized that I had done a complete row incorrectly two rows back. Consistently - but wrong. I toyed with ripping out the 8-10 rows that I had done, but I decided to try to just rip back the two rows,and if I could get the lace back on the needles, I'd move on. That worked, so I did a full 4-row repeat to cement the pattern in my brain and in the sweater, and now we're good to go.

February Lady progress

Now, to the Norwegian Rose socks. I've had a bit of a struggle there! (Imagine!) I cast them on using a set of my beloved Signature DPN's. It's the first set that I got, and while I cannot express enough how much I love these needles and how addicted I am to my stilettos, when I got my first set, I chose the 5", thinking that would be nice since my hands are not that large. I thought wrong. The other sets that I have are 6" and that 1" difference is the world. It really came to a head with this colorwork. I was using 1 needle for all of the front pattern stitches, and 2 for the sole, and with the shorter needles, I was always losing stitches on the end and having to pick back up (or not! I notice my count is 2 stitches short on the back.)

I talked to Lea-Ann at Knitting Today, and we decided that it probably wouldn't be noticable if I switched to Magic Loop. I've also been fiddling with whether to hold the yarn two-handed, or both in the left. When I was on DPN's, I mostly held both yarns in my left hand, but when I switched to Magic Loop it seemed easier to do two-handed. While the front look great, the sole is a mess! And the side stripes are a jumble. I called Lea-Ann and told her that the change was really obvious, and she said, "That's ok - it can be a teaching sock!" I appreciated that, but it still bothered me.

The directions said to knit the foot until it was 3" less that the total length of the foot. I noticed in the picture that it was a short row heel, and I thought 3" was a pretty generous heel, but I didn't worry so much about it. The sock on the model showed the heel place at the end of a second pattern repeat, and since this is a one-sock model, fit isn't a big deal. I got to the end of the second repeat, and was ready to start the heel.

At this point I was encouraged by you to go ahead and do both socks to eventually wear them. I looked at the mess on my needles and thought - "Hey, the front looks fine and the foot will be in my shoe. I'll just make this the sock that I keep, and knit another, more consistent sock for Lea-Ann to display." I didn't mind it being a teaching sock because my gauge changed, but all of the messy bits along the side do bother me. This is going to be displayed, and I can do a better job!

So I measured my foot (9") and the sock (7") and noticed it was not a 3" difference. Since I'm going to wear these now, I didn't want a 10" sock, so I started reading the pattern to find out why the heel was so big....it's not. Since this is color work and not as stretchy, they have allowed for a 1" of gusset increases before the heel, and then a small 1" flap to decrease back after the heel. Oh. More ripping! I'm just going back 1" to do the gusset correctly, so it's not so bad. (I did have to be talked down from just ripping the whole thing out. Being a struggling perfectionist is such fun!)

Anyway, I'll cast on another sock for display, and end up with two socks! Yay! I have more to post, but I should sign off now so I can get ready to go Knit In Public today! More later!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

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Diary of a lady waiting for a repairman...

2010-06-08T06:23:00.000-07:00

Oven repairman scheduled to arrive sometime between 8:00am and 5:00pm.

7:50am: Clean kitchen, including washing dishes, clearing countertops, so repairman does not think I am a complete slob.

8:15am: Remember that classes started yesterday, and though this was supposed to be a summer to glide through, after starting summer school yesterday there are already several assignments looming to be completed during the next six weeks; decide to prepare for and knock out a few online quizzes so that there is something to show for a full day home by myself.

8:20am: Consider that this is a knitting blog, and I actually have been working on a new stole. Post photo of current knitting project (Hanami) having first pattern repeat completed:

While pinning out knitting project, decide to measure it, just to get an understanding of what the finished width will be; reach for yardstick but realize one of the kids must have taken it for some very important magic trick or something and not returned it to its home. Make mental note to advise kids for the bajillionth time that they may borrow Mommy's tools but only if they put them away *as soon as they are done with them.*

8:25am: Walk by kids' bathroom and examine towel holder which is no longer attached to wall due to seven year old pulling on towel which had been hanging there because he "didn't know it would come out of the wall."

Wonder if I will have a chance to get to hardware store today to purchase slightly larger wall anchors for use as an after school project with seven year old to re-affix towel holder to wall ("you break it, you fix it"). Realize that towel is covered with toothpaste. Decide to get going on some laundry.

8:30am: Recognize that school work can wait, and what I really must do right now is sew a Sweet Harmony Tote Bag lining. Make secret pact with self to get tote bag completely finished *before* repairman gets here, in a covert attempt to actually get him to show up here early in the day so that I am not tethered to the house for the entire nine hour service window.

10:00am: Rip out small section of bag lining which is not fitting together perfectly and set aside to take ten minute break for snack and to check e-mail to see if results of private practice contest have been sent yet, after five weeks and two hours worth of waiting to hear response to essay submission. Think about calling DH to see if he might be available to meet for lunch and then realize that I am still tethered to the house awaiting visit from repairman. Get back to making bag and continue with secret pact to complete it before repairman gets here...

11:35am: Finish Sweet Harmony Tote and determine that I LOVE THIS BAG. It is large and very, very sturdy because of the three types of stiffeners/interfacing in it, and it has five pockets and will easily hold my laptop. Decide that *this* is the bag I will be carrying when I see you in Chicago in August:

While making this update to the blog, receive phone call from GE repair guy indicating that he will be here in five minutes. Decide that it is better to *not* tell him that I *just barely* finished my bag *before* he got here, though I secretly know that I WON! Wondering if I should take bets as to whether or not the part they sent to our house ahead of the repair will be sufficient to actually fix the range; also wondering if the fee to make the repair will exceed the cost of a new model. Take cursory glance around kitchen and decide to move the two beer bottles from the countertop to the recycling bin in the garage.

Noon: Repairman working on range right now. He came here this morning from his home in Kenosha. After I pointed out an issue with the element, he indicated that the part sent ahead is the wrong part; however, he has the correct part (a new element) on his truck. Anticipates that he will be done fixing the oven in a few minutes. He is quite chatty and lived in Indiana for a while; fun to talk about my former state of residence, though of course this *does* include talk about basketball.

12:15pm: Repair complete; repairman gone. I suppose I should get started on some school work... Planning baked shrimp with tomatoes and feta for supper -- nice to have the oven back!

(Edited to add: 2:45pm: Realized that repairman left signed work order and check for payment of parts/labor lying on kitchen table. Do I phone them, or wait to see if they figure it out on their own?)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

If I was a person who bought lottery tickets...

2010-06-06T10:47:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Seafoam scarf is finished, final dimensions 60x6":

I love the stitch pattern, and it will look even better when it is not blocking on a green towel for a background:

If I was a person who bought lottery tickets, I would buy one today, because this is how much yarn I had left after the final pattern repeat/bind-off:

Sometimes things do work out (YAY) -- another life lesson :-)

I will be taking Hanami to baseball practice today, and all of the swimming practices which will be a daily thing beginning in about a week (intermixed with my own summer class schedule).

Day six of the range not working; planning grilled pork chops for dinner... The boys will be thankful that our main course is not a vegetable, because it has been for the past couple of nights. They'll eat just about anything I put in front of them, though feel free to say things like, "Mommy, I really prefer something like this with a different dressing, no offense." Well, I guess as long as there is "no offense...."

Have been running low on the blog fodder... Thanks for reading, if you're still awake, that is :-)

Have a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Attention Deficit

2010-06-05T13:18:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Just wondering how your socks are coming along... The photos of them are incredible, and I think you *should* make two of them so that you can wear them. They will be amazing! Also, perhaps after you and Lauren finish your February Ladies' Sweaters, you can model them together for us?

With classes starting on Monday again, I've been a whirlwind of haphazard activity. One thing different in grad school from undergrad is the fact that so many of my classmates have been getting married...so I've been making dishcloths to be able to give them a "little something" to mark the occasion. These are for Jeannie:

And all wrapped up:
I also got started on the lining for the Sweet Harmony Tote, though had to carefully rip out a little bit as I installed the first interior pocket zipper. I'm happy with the finished product here, but after this part was done, I set things aside to do the other pocket zipper on a different day:
And, the weather was downright chilly here yesterday morning, so I mustered all of my "finishing energy," which you know I hate, to get one sleeve sewn into my Two Hearts sweater. It took FOREVER, because I am soooo picky about the finishing, so once this was done, the weather was warmer again and I set the thing aside again... Really, one of these days it will be done:
And finally, I missed the Hanami craze of several years ago, but cast on for one now! I'll work on this more after I finish the seafoam scarf, though I wanted to give it my undivided (with no children at home) attention so that I could get it cast on, because the cast on included beads and a new method I wasn't familiar with...so in a couple of days when the seafoam scarf is finished, I'll get going on this for some perfect summer knitting:
Speaking of the seafoam scarf, the ball of yarn has not gotten any smaller since I started knitting with it. I can't explain it, but I think it will go on forever... I'm going to keep knitting on the scarf until I run out of yarn.

We are on day five of no oven/stove, and though I try to generally put healthy meals on the table, we have actually been eating a lot more uncooked fruits and vegetables the past couple of days...so maybe not a bad thing. A repairman is scheduled to be here next Tuesday, and they sent a "part" for the repair, which we received yesterday. However, my own inspection of the problem leads me to believe that though I think this particular part is definitely required for the repair, there will be another part that will have to be ordered... I hope I'm wrong, but I guess we'll see. I've been assured that I will only have to pay one "trip charge" regardless...

Okay, so back to things here. Today I scrubbed and mopped the kitchen floor like it's never been cleaned before, including moving the refrigerator out to get under there, and though it's a small step toward getting this house in order, the little improvements I'm making every day are starting to add up. I know I keep saying this, but after devoting two years to school, it feels so great to have an almost normal life again!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Sometimes it takes two tries...

2010-06-03T05:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

While my sister was visiting the other day, we took some time to run around town a little bit and get photos of road signs matching the names of people in our family... Here's mine, located within one mile of my house:

Here's my sisters, located about six miles away from my house:
You can tell that Heidi and I are from the same gene pool, because she commented about the fact that the sign was lacking an apostrophe. We know it is a "possessive," named for a person Heidi something, because there is a marker near the sign discussing that it is in memory of Heidi something...

In old news, I might have mentioned about the dress I had to sew twice... I was using a pattern that had sleeves, because I liked the line of the dress and the fact that it fit me pretty well without need of a zipper in the back...but I wanted something sleeveless, so I started messing around with altering the pattern. On the first go-round, I sort of got messed up and got to a point of no return on an armhole while trying to figure out alterations on the fly, and then I realized there was enough spare material to just start over again...so I did, and here's what I ended up with the second time around (son took the photo, and I did what I could to 1.) crop because it wasn't centered; 2.) straighten it because it was crooked: 3.) fix the blurriness, but some things just can't be fixed all the way... now there's a metaphor for life...), and I don't know what's going on with the odd coloring on my face but I blame my photo editing software:
It's very comfy, easy to wear, washable, yet dressy. I have fabric to make another two of them, and I'll give one to my sister, because she and I are shaped a lot alike...again, same gene pool.

Still working on the Harmony bag. The outside is finished; next step is to put the lining together, but it is not trivial, as I decided on the option having two zipped pockets inside... With all of the fleece plus 'peltex' plus interfacing in this thing, it is quite stiff, which is working out quite nicely:
So, we have things in the basement with the dehumidifier all squared away (got a replacement for FREE - my favorite price), so now we're developing issues in other areas. Here is our range:
The oven temp does not return to room ambient unless it is turned off at the breaker box or unplugged. It's sort of an inconvenient way to turn the range on and off, and the temperature setting is not reliable, as it is several hundred degrees F when the dial is in the "off" position, though whenever I must use the cooktop, I run downstairs and turn the breaker back on again (which is *way* easier than unplugging the thing). I hope it doesn't explode before next Tuesday, when the repairman will be here to fix it.

I guess that's it for now. I start classes again next week, though my schedule will be much less intense, and I already have half of the work done for the classes. In fact, I only must be on campus for two days next week, though it is still considered "full time," which primarily means that I 1.) must pay full tuition, and 2.) will be able to deduct a portion of my childcare expenses on our income taxes. Six weeks from today, I'll be done with classes altogether. Life is good!

Have a great Thursday!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Wow!

2010-05-31T20:32:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

You're really cranking out projects! I love the bags and the blanket - you're getting good production from your sewing jag.

I'm not getting anywhere near the rate of finished objects, but I'm keeping at it. I managed to get the top of the February Lady Sweater done, and so I've put the sleeves on holders, and that makes the rows shorter. Yay!

I'm also working on a sock project - the Norwegian Rose pattern from Wendy Johnson's new "Toe Up Socks for Every Body." I'm enjoying this pattern - I'm doing it as a store model for Knitting Today, and therefore it will be up to me if I just want to do one sock for display, or do the second one and eventually get them back. So far I'm leaning toward doing this one for the store to meet the deadline (August) but we'll see.

Last night, I was invited to my brother's house for a bonfire, and of course I wanted something to knit that was not a.) a big hot sweater on my lap or b.) a complicated colorwork project. I grabbed a WIP that has been resting for a while, a pair of basic socks in a sport weight yarn. I've had these on the needles for AGES - and I've had the first sock done for some time. I pulled them out, and the toe of the second sock was done, I was ready to start the foot. I had a lovely evening visiting around the fire, and spent a little time on them while I watched a baseball game this afternoon, and ta-da! I'm ready for the heel. How could I have forgotten how quickly sport-weight socks knit up??

That's it for today - keep knitting! (Or sewing....)

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

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Silky Wool Seafoam Scarf

2010-05-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

So my mom and one of her knitting friends came for a visit a couple of weeks ago. They wanted to go to some of the yarn shops in Madison, and they knew I'm their gal for that.... While we were at the Sow's Ear, each of us bought one hank of Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool, with plans to make the Silky Wool Seafoam Scarf (a store pattern) that was on display there.

Yesterday, I quickly grabbed it before getting into the van for the trip to attend my nephew's high school graduation... I probably spent four hours total knitting during the drive, and have this to show for it:

It is currently 20 inches long, which means I was knitting one inch per every twelve minutes, or five inches per hour (5 iph :-) ....or 0.275 inches per mile... (LOVE math!)

We're having a nice weekend. I cried at the graduation yesterday when they played "Ordinary Miracle" during the slide presentation...a reminder that miracles can be seen in the simple everyday things we take for granted and often ignore.

Tomorrow evening my awesome sister is going to arrive for a short overnight visit. We plan to go running early on Tuesday morning (before everybody else gets up, when it's not yet 90 degrees outside like it is right now!), and she offered to help me clean/organize my kitchen after my kids leave for school. (THAT is an AWESOME SISTER!) I am hoping that it will be just the thing I need to springboard myself into spring cleaning the rest of the house...though I have my doubts...

Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Be safe!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

We interrupt your regularly scheduled bag sewing...

2010-05-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Okay, so I've had two weeks to pull together a graduation gift for tomorrow, even had the materials on hand, and I waited until TONIGHT to crank it out. What is the matter with me?! If I show you this first picture, can you guess where the new HS graduate (one of my nephews) will be attending college?

My seven year old guessed that he would be going to "UNDergrad." Not bad for a seven year old...

So anyway, I'm making a pillow and blanket out of fleece, in University of North Dakota colors. I went to their web site and found the little UND logo thingy, so I swiped it, made it bigger, and printed it onto a piece of paper. I cut around the edges of the logo, resulting in what you see in the picture above. Then, to make the pillow front, I cut a big square of green fabric, pinned a piece of black fleece on the back side of it, and pinned the cut-out UND design backwards and centered on the piece of black fleece:

Next, I stitched around the edges of the paper cutout:

When you turn it over, it looks like this, not backward anymore:
Then, very carefully, and I mean VERY CAREFULLY, I cut out the green fabric which was inside the stitching lines using a duckbill scissors (shown in the photo below), because the right tool for the job makes all the difference:
I assembled the rest of the pillow (back panel splits and has a velcro closure, purchased pillow form) and made a double thickness blanket with fringe on two edges to match:
Please pay no attention to the basement stuff in the background of the photos...
Well, it's 10:30, but I have to get some laundry done before tomorrow so that my kids have some decent clean shorts to wear to the graduation...but here's a fun game... DH has been telling me that 6-word memoirs are becoming the rage. As an example, one he heard which he thought I might have written was "married late, two kids, always tired," though I can't take credit for it. This topic is going to surface in this blog again in the very near future, though if you have a 6-word memoir right now, I'd love to read it in the comments...no pressure...

Have a great and safe weekend!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Sweet Harmony

2010-05-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

I am still sewing like crazy (and *not* finishing/sewing sleeves into my big brown sweater, though in my defense, it's been about 90 degrees F here for the past couple of days, so finishing the big Two Hearts wool sweater has been "temperature prohibitive.") I made a sleeveless black dress for summer (well, actually I made it *twice*, which is a story all in itself to save for a day when I have a decent photo of me wearing it). And now I'm working on the Sweet Harmony Tote by Amy Butler. There are lots of fun details in this bag. There is piping which I had to make out of the lining fabric:

...and here is a pic of how the piping looks "installed" along the top of the outer pockets:

There is also a cell phone pocket, hidden from normal view by the outer pocket:

I'm at the point in which I'm assembling the main pieces together for the bag. This next pic gives you an idea of the shape of the completed bag:

It will be about 17" across the bottom... Then, there is a lining to put together which will have large zippered pockets which is just in pieces right now...

This bag is going to replace my backpack. Here is my trusty backpack, which was given to DH for free at a conference years ago, which I...er... might have taken from him, even though it had a lot of propaganda stitched into the front of it...

...so I embellished it with a big "L"...so that he wouldn't even think about re-claiming it:

...and it has been with me since I started taking pre-requisites for grad school back in 2004... It started falling apart in the past couple of months. I've already patched it once, and now has another big hole. It is probably appropriate for it to start falling apart *now*, mimicking my own slightly wayward spiral just trying to crank through the last few weeks of core classes in April and May...so with all of that out of the way now, onward -- a new bag for my re-entry back into "normal" life. (I think I spent the first week after classes got done just thinking about what I *should* be working on, until I figured out that I have no classes right now, so I *should* be knitting and/or watching TV :-)

Have a great Wednesday! I'm going to have a little lunch, and then get back to sewing :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Three hours

2010-05-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Your hippos and bears are adorable!! ...though the hippo is my very favorite! And, wise to make the move away from sweaters and into something less time intensive for gifts for the kiddos in your life!! And, I totally affirm Lauren in making you do your own grafting... You go girl!

Look, actual knitting content:
I rotated the photo on my computer before uploading, but apparently something got messed up in the transfer/saving/whatever...but you get the idea that the heels of these two socks do not match. I noticed that a couple of the stripes are not the same number of rows from one sock to the next, and so even though I *counted* rows on the second sock to make it identical to the first sock, I'm going to rip back and add two additional rows before once again starting the heel...so, technically the second sock will be slightly longer than the first sock (which bugs me) but not as much as mis-matched heels is going to bug me. Do you think it is a conspiracy among the sock yarn manufacturers to throw in a "short" stripe every now and then just to play with a perfectionist's sanity?

I finished my "Birdie Sling," and I love carrying it around town:
The only issue, really, is that it's so big that I keep throwing stuff in there to take with me, and it just gets heavier and heavier... It *is* nice to take with me when I go shopping -- it's big and easy to throw new yarns and fabrics into it :-) It was handy when I purchased the materials for another bag (the Sweet Harmony Tote, which is another Amy Butler pattern, a little bit more involved than the Birdie Sling, except mine is going to be the jumbo size not shown in this picture):

In fact, I cut out all of the pieces this morning, and it took me three hours:

There are 57 pieces, by the time you take into account all of the (three) types of interfacing/stabilizers required... The next block of time is going to be spent fusing a lot of this stuff together...

And finally, if I was a person who bought lottery tickets, then today would be the right day to purchase one. Here is our dehumidifier, which doesn't:

I tried all of the trouble-shooting items listed in the back of the users manual (stupid things, like is it plugged in?, and do you have it turned on?), and though the fan runs (quite loudly, I might add), there was no water coming through the hose to the drain. So, I removed the hose to verify that there would be no accumulation in the water reservoir, either, and nope -- dry as a bone. So, I called the company, and it was purchased one year ago today, so today is the very *last* day of the one-year warranty (*phew*), and once approved (in 48 to 72 hours :-) we will be authorized to go to the place we purchased it and exchange it for a new model. Our basement is toxic to dehumidifiers; after this one is replaced, it will be the fifth one we've had down there in about as many years, and I think we've only paid for two of them... They can build a better mousetrap, but can they make a dehumidifier that can last more than one season?

So, time to have lunch and then maybe start working around the house a little bit... I've been spending all of my home cleaning/organizing time sewing, so I don't have much to show for my time off in terms of homemaking... Perhaps this afternoon...maybe...ugh.

I hope this finds you (all) having a great day!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Always Listen to Lauren

2010-05-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

What a great bag! You’ve chosen great fabrics - and it looks like a very useful size. Big enough for a beach towel, I’m thinking.

I have a cute little finished object to share. Well, I before we get to the hippo, maybe you’d like to see pictures of the bears that I made earlier this year. I decided that since so many of those adorable baby great-nieces and nephews that I used to make birthday sweaters have progressed to the (still adorable)kindergardener/preschooler stage that I no longer have time to make sweaters, and so this year we have moved to the ‘stuffed toy’ world. I love the patterns in the Itty-Bitty Toys book, so that is what I’m working from. LOVE Susan B. Anderson!

I scored a real stash victory when I decided to make the first Baby Bear. It calls for Noro sock yarn, and I knew I had some. A look at Ravelry showed me that I actually had the same color way that was used in the original!

I made two from that skein, and I have ALMOST enough for one more. Then I switched to a different color-way, and made one more.

I decided that I was all bear-ed out for awhile, so for my most current stuffed toy, I made the Hippo. This involved my nemesis - the dreaded Kitchener. The MOUTH is grafted - not the toe of a sock that will be hiding in a shoe. Not the foot of a Baby Bear - the MOUTH. Lauren offered to bring in the instructions that she found helpful, but I did what any sane person would do.

I offered her five bucks to do it for me.

She said no.

So I upped it to ten. (Note to knitters - it pays to hang around me when Kitchener is called for!)

She insisted that I must do it myself. (Hi Lauren! Thanks!) And I did! I buckled down and used her instructions, and it worked! BEAUTIFUL mouth on that hippo! (Of course, then you embroider over it, so no one really notices my lovely grafting......)

I was looking for a velvet ribbon to tie around it’s neck, but Lauren felt that it needed a scarf - and once again, she was correct!

So, always listen to Lauren. That’s what I say!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

Birdie Sling in progress

2010-05-20T14:12:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

So sorry to hear of your trouble sleeping! I've gone through stretches like that, and I know it can be very problematic and frustrating. You know how I feel about exercise, so I'm glad to hear that you're taking it up a notch on that. Hopefully that will help you sleep better? This past week, with no studying on my plate, I have been treating myself to one Capital Brewery "Island Wheat Ale" each night, and I have to say *that* has helped me with the falling to sleep thing, though I don't recommend having to rely on it... (I've been wanting to try it, because it is made with wheat grown in Door County, one of our favorite vacation spots...and it *is* yummy and relaxing :-)

I spent some time yesterday and today SEWING! I'm working on an Amy Butler pattern, called "Birdie Sling."

I think I spent three hours cutting out all of the pieces (three different prints of fabric plus fusible woven interfacing to apply to the back of each piece) and then fusing the interfacing to the many and various pieces. LOTS O'PIECES:

Nice pockets sewn onto the linings:

Pretty plackets on the outside of the bag, now ready to have the top bands attached:

With all of the cutting/fusing done, things are going much faster. I think that the sewing is always the most fun part :-)

I know you are wondering about the sewing of the sleeves into my Two Hearts sweater... Well, you know how I am about the finishing -- taking my time on it, because I backtrack if it isn't perfect, and right now I've set it aside because of the fun bag (see above)...but I've made a commitment to myself to have the big brown sweater *done* by the time I'm back in classes in a couple of weeks.

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Welcome back!

2010-05-18T10:37:00.000-07:00

I think I'll come back too! I've missed hearing from you. I don't even have a good reason like classes for my lack of posting - just general busyness. Lauren and I were just discussing our need to post, and had some topic ideas and here you are - staying ahead!

I'm so excited for you that you've gotten so far and I'm excited to hear how your business plan and the contest work out.

Your sweater is really coming along! MAYBE you'll get to store it away. Around here it's damp and chilly enough that you could probably still wear it!

I'm working on a February Lady sweater - several of us are doing a knit along, altho we're taking our time with it. I just posted an update to the blog that we're using to track our progress, and you can also see the details there. It's been a very long time since I knitted a sweater for myself, and I'm anxious to finish it - although even with the dreary weather, I'm not in any rush. Fall will be soon enough.

I've really be struggling with sleeping lately - I rarely wake up once I fall asleep, but I have a very hard time falling asleep. Functioning on 4-5 hours of sleep is no fun, as I'm sure you know! In an effort to better manage my stress and improve my health, I just joined the YMCA in our community. (My doctor has be 'encouraging' me to exercise!) At first I just stressed about where I would find the time - it was going to have to come in place of knitting or sleeping, and I really LIKE both of those things. However, since the sleep thing isn't so much working out, I decided to suck it up and do it. I'm starting out with a water aerobics class - that's at least something I like! I think it's a great starting point. That is two nights a week; I need to find an activity there for at least one more night per week. Once I'm past my initial adjustment, then I'll look for more activities to further increase my time.

Well, better get back at it - I'm anxious to hear more about how you're doing!

Keep knitting!
Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
-- Post From My iPhone

FInished object...

2010-05-18T09:48:00.000-07:00

...but not knitting....

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

I finished sewing an oversized sweatshirt today. I actually wore it yesterday without the sleeves hemmed, but today decided that I had to go the distance and finish it completely (which took me about five minutes), so I have something to cross off of my list:

It has a pocket on each sleeve (one of them having velcro at the top) which will be perfect to hold my phone and iPod.

In other news, I watched the season finale of Castle last night. Do you watch that show? It is the *only* show that I am religious about watching, and I'm not sure what about it "grabs" me, but I think it's cute and fun.

My kids get home from school early today ("early release"), and the weather is glorious, so I think we'll all spend the afternoon outside (they can play ball while I pull weeds -- though I suppose I should change out of my new white sweatshirt first)...

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

I am a SPT-3

2010-05-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Remember me? I finished my core PT classes, and have only six weeks of classes this summer, sort of a hodge podge of stuff we haven't covered in classes yet, but which, apparently, is critical going forward...and then clinicals for 30 more weeks after that. I can't believe I am at this point! I'm thankful that I'm here! This adventure has had "God's fingerprints" all over it, judging by the way so many things and people just fell into place at appropriate times. Truly, I am thankful. And my family and I are all feeling the effects of a significant reduction in my stress level. Big, happy sigh!

Knitting?? Well, ahem, still working on the Two Hearts sweater. It is off the needles, and I am sewing in the first sleeve:

As you can see, my photography still stinks. Just wanted to give you the gist of where I am on the sweater...More details/modifications when I post (better) photos of it when it is finished and I am wearing it :-)

With no classes for the next three weeks, and kids still in school, it is *possible* that I will be able to:

1.) Finish this sweater (to be able to store it all summer, until it is really needed in fall...)

2.) Give some attention to some housekeeping around here -- I'm the only one in the house bothered by the thick layer of dust (which fortunately has been tempered by several flat surfaces being protected by transient textbooks lying on top of them)...

3.) Finish cleaning the basement -- I actually made progress on this during this past semester by putting away one item each day for a few weeks, though I think one hour more of concentrated effort will "seal the deal."...plus, there was a "green" day in our small town which allowed me to get rid of some (still usable) fixtures which we changed out a few years ago but hadn't yet discarded.

There is also the small matter of a graduation gift I want to make for my nephew, as well as a really fun bag pattern to sew...so my three weeks will go quickly, though I'll try to keep you posted as I go.

Also, I have kept up with my blog reading, and enjoy being able to keep track of what my knit blog friends are doing, in knitting and otherwise!

Keeping it short(er) for today, though there is much to tell about things happening here... I have a business partner and we wrote up an essay/entered a contest for an original PT business idea, which we are actually planning to implement within the next year and a half regardless of how we do in the contest...

And my kids continue to fill me with joy and slight exasperation at the same time...

More soon, I promise! It's been almost four months since my last post, and I've missed you!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

You should probably sit down before you read this.....

2010-01-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura: I know, you're already in a dead faint that I'm posting again so soon! But that's not why you should be sitting down, and maybe have a stiff drink nearby. I'm about to talk about something that frankly makes knitters with healthy stashes break out in hives and get lightheaded.

Moths.

*Deep Breaths*

A few weeks ago, my mom asked me about some small holes in her felted mittens. You can imagine the panic and dread when I saw those obvious moth holes. I mean, altho I have my own apartment, we live in the same house! And apparently we've been sharing it with some wool eaters.

I went into rescue mode. I gathered all the wool items, washed them in my Eucalyptus wash, and stuck them in the freezer. Then I started sorting my stash, and putting all of the wool into space bags and sucking the air out. I started calling family members looking for freezer space, because weeks and weeks of very cold temperatures, it had warmed up and we spent two weeks or so above freezing. All of the snow melted, and everything was muddy. I put the first batch of space bags in a freezer at my sil's and left them there for a week. (The treatments I read about said 2-3 days, but I didn't have time during the week to get them back!) In the end, I could see the forecast finally getting colder, so I waited until this weekend for the rest. I've loaded up all the wool into my car, and I'm parking outside. With lows in the single digits and highs around 20, any little pests should be dead.

The up side of this process has been the fun of playing with my stash. I did at one point read that wool blends are not at risk, but I had put most of those in the first batch, so they've been frozen anyway. I ended up with four categories, and I have pictures.

1. Less-than-full skeins and leftover balls of wool yarn.

2. Wool and wool blends, bagged with all the air sucked out, have been added.

3. One basket of acrylic and acrylic blends have been added.

4. Cotton yarn has been added. Yes! This is my entire stash, in one place and here for all the world to see!!

Oh, and mom looks fabulous in her sweater, don't you think?? Keep knitting! Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

Almost.......

2010-01-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Oh, I love your Two Hearts sweater! The cables are beautiful. And you're rolling right along on those socks. For someone who has had all your time sucked into a vacuum, you're getting an amazing amount of knitting done!

Me? Not so much. January is always when I have to 'catch up' and finalize the financial stuff for my parents business. This year I was pretty up-to-date, but there is always a lot of reviewing and reconciling. At this time last year, I decided that it was definitely time to migrate them to a business software, and so I bought the Mac version and then spent 2 months unsuccessfully trying to move the old data into the new software. Long story short, I ended up using the old system for another year, and this year I've given up on having the history in the new software, and I'm just starting the year fresh. I'll finalize all the stuff this weekend and then we can ship it off to the accountant, and I'll be back to my usual schedule.

So, I have done SOME knitting, but not nearly as much as I would like. Cassidy?? It is ALMOST done. Truly. ALMOST!

(Sorry the picture is sideways - I thought I had that fixed!)

First of all, I should clear up the issue of the row count on that wonky neckline. I shared your surprise about the difference in the length with the same row-count. The answer is that it turns out my GOAL was to have the same row count. Seems there was a variance in the execution! ;) There WERE more rows on one side. In the end, I took my mom and the sweater in to Knitting Today, and Lea-Ann went over it with me. When my mom had the sweater on, it hung just fine and you really couldn't see a problem. Lea-Ann advised me to make the second button band the same length as the first and reblock a few areas. The other issue I had when she had the assembled sweater on was that the sleeves were about 2" too long. (And I made them 1" shorter than the pattern!)

Last weekend, I intended to do those finishing details, but, well, refer to paragraph 2. I did get the second button band done, and the collar, and then on Wednesday night I sewed the buttons in place and started shortening a sleeve. I did this several years ago for a friend who bought a sweater with sleeves that were way too long, and it's kind of a cool process.

The first time I tried to shorten sleeves, I found out that you really can't easily unravel from the cast-on edge. I ended up picking out the seams to the point I wanted and then cutting the sleeve off and only having to unravel one row. I picked up the stitches and worked a row, then bound off. I had in my head that I would do the same thing here, except that I had to cut in between cables, and knit down a 2" cuff. I vaguely considered the issue of the stitches being upside down, but didn't worry.

It has worked out pretty well. If you've never picked up stitches at the bottom and worked in the opposite direction, I will let you know that it shifts everything over by 1/2 a stitch. Therefore, I can see the line exactly where I did it, but it's where the cuff and cables meet, so I don't mind the effect. If I had messed up in any way, and cut too high into the cables, I would have been well and truly messed up. The thought of how casually I did this, waving my scissors around without a care still makes me break out in a cold sweat, but all's well that ends well.

I finished one sleeve and put it on a yarn holder so that I could try it on her to be sure of the length. It is spot-on perfect, and so I just need to do the knitting on the second sleeve, bind them off and ta-da! She will be wearing that sweater tomorrow! It looked really great on her last night, even with one short sleeve on DPNs. I almost took a picture, but I decided to wait until it is well and truly complete. Watch this space!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka DesignatedKnitter)

-- Post From My iPhone

Two Hearts update

2010-01-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I'm back in school, and that sucking sound you hear is the noise made by my time being vacuumed up by school work. I didn't meet all of my goals for break, knitting or otherwise (ran out of time before I ran out of "to do" items), though in terms of knitting, there was only one item left unfinished -- this pair of socks. Here's the status on those:

Bamboo yarn, good fit, my mindless knitting for when I'm waiting for something... FUN!

The reason I didn't finish the socks is because of my Two Hearts sweater, also FUN:

My sweaters tend to flare out at the waist, especially if I knit them with waist shaping. So, I've started doing only the top half of the waist shaping. So, for this sweater, I cast on enough stitches for a sweater which is four inches smaller than my standard bust dimension, and after knitting seven or eight inches, I started making increases every six rows. I'll continue increasing this way until I reach my bust dimension, and by then I'll be close to the point at which I will start armhole shaping.

Still wondering how your Cassidy is going...

Have a great weekend!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Two Hearts

2010-01-14T07:20:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I am wondering how your mom's cardigan is faring right now. I felt terrible when I saw that the fronts were different lengths, and was surprised that it is even possible when the row count is the same....though I don't know why that would surprise me. Knitting, and especially gauge, has a mind of its own.....

Also, I want to thank you for your kind suggestion regarding the ugly socks. I didn't even think about toning down the color by combining it with a darker color of yarn. Until my mom said she would wear them if I finished them and gave them to her, I was thinking of just using two skeins of the same yarn, only starting at different points in the color repeat...sort of like those Kauni Cardigans which were so popular a couple of years ago... Anyway, one of these days I'll finish them, but I've totally been sidetracked by my new sweater.

Here is the first several inches of the first sleeve of Two Hearts:

My gauge is right on, and I'm happy with the way the cables are showing up. Thank you to Cindy G who gave me some peace of mind that the cables would 'pop' just fine using Lambs' Pride.

My first modification was to use size 5 and 8 needles, instead of the size 5 and 7 called for. I needed the size 8 size in order to get gauge, though I decided to knit the rolled edge section with the size 5's called for (without going up in needle size). By doing the rolled edge with needles so much smaller than the rest of the sweater, the rolled edge is well contained and really cinches the lower edge. I think this will be especially helpful when I make the body of the sweater, because the lower, rolled edge, looks a little bit sloppy in the photos in the book (in my opinion, anyway)...

My second modification is regarding the sleeve increases. I'm not going to make the sleeves as big around as the pattern calls for, so I'm increasing every six rows until the length is sufficient to go from my wrist to my armpit. I'm changing them to be set-in rather than modified drop. I'll discuss that more in my next post.

Here's a picture taken while we were making lefse at my mil's house, which I am including just so that there is another picture in this blog post:

So, DH was driving the boys around in the van last Friday evening and was hit from behind by a large pick-up truck having a brush guard on the front of it. All people walked away from the accident. Our van didn't fare so well. The bumper was sliced in half, and the tailgate was completely pushed in, window shattered so badly that the estimator couldn't even tell if it had a defroster in it. Nothing screams "My vehicle was in an accident" more loudly than driving around in a car which has rather large "Gates Auto Body -- Free Loaner Cars" decals on the front, back, and both sides, though that is the state of things, and frankly, I'm just relieved we have a vehicle to use.

My boys have an "early release" from school today, so we're going ice skating this afternoon. Kids keep a person young, that's for sure, and also, kids keep a person tired...

I hope I haven't put anybody into shock by posting multiple times in one week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Goals update

2010-01-11T09:24:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

First, some pictures of my new Basic Chic Hoodie:

I love love love this sweater.

I am also sporting my sorely needed haircut, the first one since summer I think... One thing remains constant -- my devotion to bathroom mirror shots for my finished object photos. I had to clean the mirror before taking the pictures...

I went yarn shopping with my mom, to a cute little store in Burlington called Artistic Fibers. Look at this cute little package of stuff:

The lady at the store wrapped up the yarn we bought with tissue paper and a store sticker, then placed the packets into a little bag with handles. It was a nice touch, which reminded me of how things might have been years ago, even though it was generating paper waste (though I'll recycle most of it...) In any case, here is some yarn for a new hat for myself (pattern: Thorpe):

...and some new socks (LOVE the Regia Stretch sock yarn!):

...and some buttons which I loved, though have no project in mind for them right now:

You know me, and how difficult it is for me to purchase anything without some clear vision about how it is going to be used, so I really went outside my comfort zone to buy the buttons -- THAT is how much I loved them!

Finally, the cover sweater on this magazine totally grabbed me:

It only has two sizes (33.5" and 36.75"), though I think the 36" will work for me. I was surprised by the sizing! It is a European magazine, but surely they have people with busts larger than 36" over there?

One of the four knitting goals I had for my semester break was to re-start the "ugly sock." In fact, after discussing it with one knitting friend, she thought I could alternate skeins of yarn to get smaller stripes, which would tone down the whole color thing that's going on. I was about to do that when MollyBee left a comment to save the sock. Then my mom (Hi Mom!) also told me how much she loves them, so I'm going to proceed with them and gift them to my mom. After all of this, I'll probably run out of yarn before they are done...though it's a chance I'm taking as I press onward with them... To make this long story short, I'm calling that goal item complete.

This is my third (out of four, which was my goal) blog post for this break. I'll have an update on my new Two Hearts brown sweater in my next post. I'm already loving it, and I only have part of a sleeve finished.....

Have a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

January already?

2010-01-06T08:45:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Wow! You finished your sweater! It looks great - I can't wait to see a picture of you wearing it.

I do support your decision to rip the boldly colored Jaywalkers. If you don't like them now, and can't be talked into liking them, then you shouldn't put anymore effort into that yarn/pattern combo. I wonder about pairing them with a darker neutral yarn. Something like the sock on the cover of "A Cuff Above" - I can't wait to do those socks! Some kind of pattern that stripes or slip stitches with that yarn to tone it down....

I had to laugh when I read about your 'burning question' relating to my mom's sweater. I had to go and check - I've mentally written a post about it so many times that I couldn't believe I hadn't actually posted!! I'll try to catch up a bit....

The short answer to your question is: No.

I was optimistic about sewing the seams and making button bands and the neckline when I last posted. To be sure that it turned out nicely, I drove up to Knitting Today on the 22nd to get instruction and support for the finishing. Oh, and I bought some clips to hold the pieces in place instead of pins, and I'm now an avid fan of those!! Best thing since sliced bread! LeaAnn walked me through the steps and I headed home to sew.

And hit the wall. I was SO tired that night that I couldn't even think about anything knitting related. (My mom considered calling 911 when I told her I was too tired to knit!) She did, however, bring me down her checkbooks to fix up, and I realized that given the choice of a completed sweater or having her checkbook fixed, her presents wrapped for her, and food & cookies done for Christmas Eve, that she would not choose the sweater. So I put it aside, fixed the checkbook, wrapped the presents and baked cookies and other stuff over the next two evenings. And on Christmas morning, I gave her sweater pieces!

I did get the sweater sewn up, and I'm really happy with the seaming. That part was the best I've done! And then I started the button bands. I did the button-hole side first, since that one always gives me trouble. I picked up 107 stitches and it looks great - I like the button-holes and it doesn't pucker or pull. Then I started picking up stitches for the 2nd button band, and I couldn't get 107 stitches to work out. It was like I needed another 7-10 stitches, which was totally weird. So I carefully laid it out to see what was going on.

Oh. Problem at the neckline. May I just say that GAUGE LIES! I was freakishly (for me) meticulous about counting rows and pattern repeats so that these would match. Evidently, however, my gauge changed on one of my fronts. I do remember at one point thinking that I should be ready to bind off the neckline, but I didn't have enough rows, so I kept going. I hate when I ignore that nagging feeling!

I tried it on her as I was seaming, and it does fit nicely. I made the sleeves an inch shorter than the pattern, and so it turns out they are only about two inches too long. I've put it aside right now tho, because I want to take it up to LeaAnn to work out how to fix these things. I know I can shorten the sleeves - I've done that before, and I have an idea on the neckline, but I'd like her input. I've put in too much time and effort on this to have it look ratty because I fudged on the finishing!

I did finish the crochet mittens and gave that pair away. I have done the first mitten of another pair for myself, and I'm anxious to have them done.

I'm working on some kid sweaters - and I'm going to start a sweater for myself! I've decided on February Lady in Forest Green Dream in Color Smooshy. I can't wait to get started, I haven't done a sweater for myself since the first year that I was knitting! I'm debating whether to do 3/4 sleeves as the pattern is written or to lengthen them to full long sleeves. Other than that, I'm not planning any mods, but it's early....

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
-- Post From My iPhone

First Goal Achieved

2010-01-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Today was THE DAY! As soon as the boys got on their bus for school, I sat down and got rolling on the finishing of this, my Basic Chic Hoodie:

When I entered the finishing information into Ravelry, I noticed that I started this sweater one year ago, in January, 2009! The knitting on it has been complete for months on end; what a relief to have the finishing all done TODAY, too! It fits great, and I'll get a photo of me wearing it once it is all dry. I have it hovering over an air vent, which works surprisingly well in speeding up the whole drying process. I'd like to wear it tomorrow, as I'm meeting my mom to go to a yarn store...

Speaking of yarn stores, I am a gal without a sweater project, and I really miss knitting on a big sweater, especially when it is so frigid outside...so, I looked through several knitting books, and finally decided on Two Hearts, from the book "A Fine Fleece." I have several modifications planned for the pattern, including making the waist area a little smaller, knitting the sleeves (and possibly the body) in the round, and making the sleeves "set in" instead of "modified drop." I think that what really grabs me about the pattern is the wonderful cable on the front and back... Here is the yarn for this project:

I am hoping that it isn't *too* darkish for the cables to really pop, though I think it will be okay. One of the samples in the book is made out of a similar brown yarn, and I just really like the way it looks:

Well, it's time to jump start the laundry (don't think I can put up a blog post without saying something about the ever-present laundry...), and then begin my new sweater project!! More soon!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Happy New Year

2010-01-03T11:57:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

The pictures of your sil's "girls" (are they her grandchildren?) are adorable!

My burning question, however, is whether or not your mom was able to try on her finished Chic Knits Cassidy sweater on Christmas Day.... I hope you all had a nice Christmas season!

Any knitting resolutions for the new year?

I have the next *two weeks off* before I start my *last* complete semester, possibly for the rest of my life... (I have no intentions of ever going back to school again, really...)

During these two weeks, my goals are:

1.) Finish Basic Chic Hoodie (only "finishing" remains)

2.) Finish 2nd sock of bamboo socks (pictures soon)

3.) Rip and restart the ugly socks.

4.) Post to the blog at least four times - that will give me incentive to jump start my knitting, as well as share with you all of the progress I'm making on getting my dumpy house in order. A year and a half of neglect since I started school is really starting to catch up with it...though I confess a certain desensitization to disorder which has taken place in my psyche.

Some discussion about the ugly socks... From those of you who commented, and also two knitters I regularly see on the bus, the colors are bold, and for the right person, they would be perfect. The first comments from the ladies on the bus were, "I like the pattern," which I think is a nice way to say, "Whoa, those are bright and not my thing," though they encouraged me to continue on with the Jaywalkers pattern, saying that it was not the fault of the pattern that the colors are so bold. However, I'm with Marit, that if I'm already afraid I'm going to run out of yarn and I've just gotten past the heel, probably best to rip. Also, I keep coming back to the queasy feeling I have when I look at the sock in progress and think to myself how much better I think they would look in more of a basic stripe (non-chevron). So, I'm keeping the socks, and dumping the pattern, though it is a lovely pattern, I honestly don't think it's for me, even in a different yarn. Crazy, but I just really like a nice, vanilla sock!

My sister and I were playing around with the "Photo Booth" on the Mac using the special effects. Here is our self portrait in "x-ray":

Here is "comic book":

So, I'm watching Brett Favre right now (I mean the Vikings), waiting for Green Bay to begin at 3:15. It's a frozen tundra outside of our house, and I'm thankful that I'll have a pot of soup simmering on the stove in a short while and I can hunker down for the rest of the day. Nice to *finally* have a day in which I actually have a chance to take a nap...

Have the best 2010 ever!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

4 days left

2009-12-21T08:12:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Ok, I think I can afford the time to blog....

First of all, no, I don't think your jaywalker socks are ugly! Of course, I have a rather bright color sense, so as Knitting@Lunch observed, we have to take that into consideration. Just wear them when you're feeling daring and fun!

As you may recall, I went into December with ambitious goals and a bit of a cocky attitude. I have been properly set in my place, however, and now I'm just knitting for survival. I believe that I started to go seriously awry the second week in December, when I finished the second front. That was around the 10th. That left me with plenty of time (so I thought) for 2 sleeves. One front took me about a weekend, and the second front took me about 4 week days - so those two pieces in a week. Now all I had to do was do the 2 sleeves in a week, and I'd go into the weekend of the 19th ready to block and finish. Pretty much a whole week for other small projects!

Then reality set in. Math hit me first. Each of the fronts called for a cast-on of 56 stitches, knit even for about 15" and then do decreases. I assumed sleeves were about the same amount of knitting or less. However, each sleeve called for 51 stitches, and then INCREASED to 81 stitches and 17" long, then some decreases. Turned out that was a lot more knitting. And before that really sank in, while I was riding high, my sil called and asked if I wanted to go out for dinner, shopping and taking the little girls to see Santa. Honestly, none of you could have resisted this. Look at those faces!!!

Sunday brought computer issues that required my attention, and some unexpected babysitting, and while I got through all of that, the bottom line is that the first sleeve took me NINE days, not just a weekend. (Of course, there were parties and tree-decorating and all that other stuff too....)

So last Friday, the 19th, I finally finished the first sleeve, and knocked out a quick soap sweater to fulfill a request and give me a break. It just took an hour, so not a big deal. OH, plus sometime during the sleeve process, I was unable to resist the temptation to spend an hour or so on a crochet mitten, but it was a time when I couldn't have concentrated on cables and increases, so that's ok. I sat down Saturday around noon with the ribbing of the sleeve done, ready to start increases. I had carefully marked and observed where the increases should start, and I was really quite proud of myself for being able to replicate my (cough)design mods(cough) from the first sleeve. I even remembered to do mirrored increases, K2tog on the right and SSK on the left.

I was halfway through that first set of increases, and spread it out on my lap to observe how nicely it flared out........but it didn't flare out.... it tapered in.......CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!! K2tog and SSK aren't INCREASES!!!! (You caught that right away, didn't you??????)

No way to make that a design modification, so I ripped back and tried again. I was really focused this weekend tho, and so 48 hours after I cast on for the second sleeve, I was pinning the sleeves out to block. I had blocked the fronts and back on Saturday night, and I've sewed the pockets in, so tonight I should be able to sew the seams, and start picking up button bands and neck edges.

So yes, I think I'll make it, no thanks to my space-cadet brain, but that happens sometimes. I may even get those crochet mittens done! At this point, ANYTHING else that gets finished is just a bonus. ;)

I hope this finds you well, and that you avoid the coughing that your kids are doing!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka DesignatedKnitter!)

-- Post From My iPhone

Is this sock ugly?

2009-12-09T10:26:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Dear Cynthia,

How is your Christmas knitting going. It didn't sound crazy to me at all. Really. Ahem.

I would *love* to see a photo of your Cassidy cardigan. I'm thinking about making that one, too, and I just know your mom is going to love hers after you finish it and gift it to her... (Christmas 2009?)

I am sitting home on a "snow day" today. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is *closed* for the day, due to our blizzard warning. (The last time the UW cancelled classes was in 1990.) City buses, which usually go by our house several times an hour, aren't running, and even DH has the day off because of the weather. We've cleared about 15 inches of snow already, and it continues to drop steadily. It's beautiful right now; tonight the winds are supposed to increase (I think the heavy winds are required if they're going to call this a "blizzard") and the temperatures are expected to drop considerably. I am so thankful for a cozy home.

I'm still knitting little hats and mittens (ornaments). I especially like the red mitten having the cable, and will probably knit it's mate to tie on a gift for a friend of ours who is also a knitter. I still have to decide the fate of the others yet, though they will probably also accompany little gifts...

I also started a pair of Grumperina's "Jaywalkers" using my Kaffe Fassett Design Line Regia yarn. Cynthia G gave me the idea of using a chevron type pattern for the striping yarn, and I had actually been wanting to do that for a long time, so here's where we are so far:

Question: Is this sock ugly so far? I need to know...honestly. I'm thinking about ripping it out. I think the heel looks especially odd the way the colors ended up...

Also, you will notice that I am knitting this sock from the top down, and now, a few rows past the whole heel thing, I'm already wondering if I'm going to have enough yarn. AAUGH! I've definitely morphed into a "toe-up" sock knitter, and you will hear my scream all the way in Indiana if I run out of yarn just shy of the toe... I'm knitting the largest size, because of many reports from other knitters that this pattern lacks stretchiness. I'm able to get it over my heel easily, though am glad I went with the larger size.

And so, while we are debating the ugliness of that sock, I also started another one.

I think this is a prettier color scheme, and it might have even been a better choice for the Jaywalkers pattern, though I'm content to knit this one in 2x2 ribbing on the instep and ankle.

Well, I do have some studying to attend to today. I still have two weeks left of the craziness, and the fun of finals begins one week from Saturday. Nothing like a day off today, though, to re-group and get caught up on some things. I've missed you all, and am thankful for your blog posts so that I can keep up with your goings on even though I've been a blogging slacker.

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Insane Christmas Knitting.......

2009-12-02T17:51:00.001-08:00

Here, for your amusement, (and to answer repeated requests by Knitting@Lunch!) is my current list of knitting to be completed by December 26th!

1. Lace Kneesocks: These are for my sil, and are not a gift. She requested them, and bought the yarn for them last summer, and I've procrastinated and now the cold weather has arrived. They are ALMOST DONE! I have just 2 lace rounds and some ribbing left on the second cuff (toe-up) so I think I can finish them tonight.

2. Sweater for my mom: I finally settled on a pattern by Chic Knits, and I've been in a KAL at Knitting Today. The group is meeting on December 10th to working on sewing up the pieces, and so that would be great if I could do that. However, um, well, I have the back done and I've started one of the fronts...and there is less than a week to go. Sure, I can knit 2 fronts (with added pockets) and 2 sleeves in a week!

3. Blanket for my dad: This is the one that amuses Knitting@Lunch the most. (Altho she also swears that my mom is getting a VEST!) I've been working on the blanket since summer - it was my baseball project for quite a while. The thing is, tho, that it's crochet, which is obviously faster, and it's already pretty big. I was shooting for a very generously wide and long ripple afghan, with the ripples going along the horizontal. HOWEVER, if I make the ripples vertical, it is be enough to be a normal sized afghan, so that can be done with just a few hours of work.

4. Ok, just for fun, in my fantasy world, where I actually get more than the first three things done..... My Godson's 2nd birthday is December 26th, and I'd like to make a "Rocketry Sweater" for him. I have most of the yarn in my stash.

5. I have a great-niece whose birthday is December 22, and so maybe I could knit her a hat and mittens? Crochet maybe??

6. A couple of Soap Sweaters for little gifts.

7. Some fingerless mitts???

Oh hush. What's Christmas knitting without impossible goals???

Today is Knitting@Lunch's 4th Blogiversary, and this was her present! Stop on over and wish her a Happy Blogiversary and tell her just how delusional you think I am! ;)

Keep Knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter!)

-- Post From My iPhone

Miniature hats take a lot less time

2009-10-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Here is the current state of my my "boring tan sock yarn" that matches yours:

I'm thinking about what sort of sock I'm going to make with it -- probably an original pattern. It was soooo great to visit with you, even if only for a couple of hours, while I was in Fort Wayne a couple of weeks ago! Next time we'll have to make sure we have some time to knit...

I've had a whirlwind week at school, and let's just say that I survived, even having to leave early yesterday to care for my sick seven year old. 41% of my ortho grade was determined within a span of 24 hours (and included three different, though all high-stress, assessments). I also had to give a 20 minute presentation for a different class on Tuesday, but now I am virtually done with that class for the rest of the year. Big sigh of relief, so today I'm here to tell you about actual knitting progress.

I finished the pair of Tofutsies socks on our way home from Fort Wayne:

I used the "Diagonal Lace" pattern from the Wendy Knits book "Socks from the Toe Up." It's the first time I've used the "heel flap" style on a toe-up sock:

It will be interesting to wear these socks which contain fiber from shrimp and crab shells...

I also finished a cute little hat ornament, shown here with a can of soda for scale:

I *LOVE* the beads! It is from a Blackberry Ridge kit, "Mini Hat and Mitten Ornaments," and there should be enough materials for me to make all of the ornaments shown on the front of the pattern. I'm not sure if I'll keep them or give them away as gifts... Nice to tackle something which I can finish in a reasonable amount of time given my schedule these days.

I am contemplating making sweatshirt/hoodies for DH and the boys for Christmas. Recall that I did this last year, and though I finished them at the final hour, it was not without a certain amount of stress. I get done with classes/exams on December 22nd, I think, so not sure if such an idea would be wise with the rest of my obligations... Well, actually, I'm quite certain that such an idea is *unwise* and *unrealistic*...but isn't that how we knitters/sewers are? Anyway, stay tuned to see if sanity reigns or not...

I hope this finds you all well! I'm going to go make another knitted ornament :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Happy Anniversary!

2009-10-12T12:48:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Oh, it was so fun to get to see you last weekend! Too short, but that's always the way of it. And how fun to figure out that it was 10 years ago in the fall that we traveled to Duluth together and came back knitters! (And you first started suspecting that you were having a baby!) What a great trip. I look back at that time and marvel that so much of how I thought my life would be 10 years later (if I had indeed thought much about it) is nowhere near how the reality has turned out to be. High on the list of "I wouldn't have believed it if you told me" is the size of my stash - not to mention all of the things that I have knitted!

We took a look back at that trip when we started the blog almost four years ago. I thought I'd post a link to your story, and also to mine. I think that if on that trip we had tried to look forward 10 years to what we might be doing, if we had accurately predicted our knitting obsession in any fashion, we would not have predicted the yarn that we both purchased on our Anniversary Trip to the yarn store! Probably even if we had discussed it before we walked into the store, we wouldn't have thought we'd each buy this:

Tan-colored sock yarn! But we have a long term plan that will be revealed in the fullness of time.

As I mentioned, I posted to the blog 3-4 times while I was at Stitches Midwest, and due to some convergence of the planets in the internet arena, all of those posts disappeared into cyberspace, never to be recovered. I'm (mostly) over my bitterness, and I'll catch up with posting soon! ;)

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)
-- Post From My iPhone

Done Done

2009-09-27T18:22:00.001-07:00

Dale of Norway pattern book:

$12.00 each.

Yarn to make Ibenholt sweater:

$100.00 each.

Being completely done knitting two Ibenholt sweaters for the rest of our lives:

Priceless !!!!

(Sharing a great hobby like knitting with your mom: Also priceless!!!! Hi Mom :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Ibenholt Ibenholt

2009-09-19T14:11:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Well, school started about three weeks ago, and I am swamped. It's all interesting, though still a lot of work.

Let's talk about Ibenholt. I knit this sweater for myself about a year ago, and it has been sitting waiting for me to sew in the zipper since then. Also, my mom was making the same sweater at the same time, as a sort of "knit along across the miles." You may remember that my mom reached the point of "being done" with her Ibenholt sweater last spring, when my dad told me to finish knitting it for her because my mom wouldn't let him talk to her when she was working on it, and she was working on it every night...so I brought it home with me at the point of dividing for the fronts and back. I managed to finish knitting most of it while we were on vacation at the end of August, so last weekend I finished sewing the sleeves in:

This means that I now have **two** Ibenholt sweaters, both at the point of being done except for sewing the zipper in... I am motivated to have them done within the next week, however, because we are going to a Brewers game with my parents, and so will see my parents, and I can give the sweater to my mom *in person*. I thought about mailing the sweater to my mom, but I am taking no chances of losing it in shipping...

Speaking of the Brewers game -- DH is a Phillies fan. He read a book some time ago called, "The 33 Year Old Rookie," and the author, a guy named Chris Coste, was so inspiring that DH started following the Phillies because they are the team that finally gave Chris Coste a chance in the majors. So, for the past couple of years, DH has been trying to figure out a reasonable way to go see the Phillies play. A few months ago, DH purchased tickets to a Brewers vs Phillies game which will be played in Milwaukee toward the end of this month. YAY -- a dream come true, except that about three days *after* he bought the tickets, Chris Coste was traded to the Astros... Anyway, it's been decades since I've seen the Brewers play, so I know the game will be fun, none-the-less...and my mom will hopefully be wearing her new sweater (I *am* going to get that zipper sewn in...).

In completely unrelated news, I found two little home-made sets of shelves at a rummage sale, in a nice lime green color. Here is one of them sitting in our garage:

I painted them white, and now they hold all of my school books and some sewing stuff. It really cleaned up my work room quite a bit, getting rid of three crates and opening up floor space where my school stuff was housed before. I still have some organizing to do in my work room, but this is a nice start:

Notice my Ibenholt sweater patiently waiting for me to sew in its zipper...

Well, I'll take a photo of my mom and me wearing our twin Ibenholt sweaters and share it with you. I hope you had a great time at the Stitches Midwest Market!! Of course I'm expecting a full report :-)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Sock O Rama

2009-08-17T10:21:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Thank you for fixing our blog graphics, and for cleaning it up in general! Much improved! Also, nice to have our header back...

Here is some sock yarn I bought back in May, in colors I wouldn't have normally gravitated to without my mom telling me to get out of my comfort zone:

It probably seems tame to you, but the green in particular seems odd to me, though I'm committed to making socks out of it and wearing them proudly. Also, does anybody have any suggestions for patterns (other than plain stockinette) which would work well with the Kaffe Fasset stripes, shown on the right in the photo above? I was thinking about Monkey socks, but the pattern might be lost in the colors/stripes? (Also, Cindy G, that is a "top down" pattern, just sayin'.)

Second, you've seen both sets of these socks in progress, but now they are finished. This pair is just a standard toe-up short row heel pattern using Trekking yarn, size 1 needles:

They don't match, but that is part of their charm, right?! It's not clear to me that the yarn had actual pattern repeats in it, so it's not my fault :-) so the perfectionist side of myself is being forced to just "let it go."

This next pair is the "Gusset Heel Basic Socks" from the book "Socks from the Toe Up" by Wendy:

A close-up of the heel:

To orient yourself, you are looking at a lateral view; the part on the left shows the back of the heel, and the part on the right shows the bottom of the heel. My 9-year old took these photos, and he told me that I would have to tell you exactly what you are looking at, because it's not otherwise obvious. It is an interesting heel construction, and quite different from any others I've made, though it's much more straightforward than typical short row heels which involve lots of wraps and turns, so in that respect, this would be a good choice for less experienced knitters, or for knitters who are not overly fond of lots of wraps and turns (ahem).

I'm working on another pair of socks from the same book, called "Diagonal Lace Socks." This pattern utilizes a more conventional heel style (Sl 1, K1 every other row, etc), though worked from the toe up, and I only had to wrap and turn 8 times during the whole thing (for eight short rows, while turning the heel).

This yarn is TOFUtSies, made of 50% superwash wool, 25% soysilk, 22.5% cotton, and 2.5% chitin. I was curious about making socks out of something that came from shrimp and crab shells, and I don't know why that makes it antibacterial, but there you have it! Nice yarn, to say the least...

I also have three sweaters which I dug out of hibernation, and which *SHALL BE FINISHED* before I even think about casting on for another sweater. I hope to have at least one of them completed before my next post (which may even happen this week -- just warning you, because I know that it could catch you off guard -- but hey, I have no classes for more than two weeks!!)

More soon!

Have a great week!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Sweater bands, take two.

2009-08-08T09:20:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

First, I don't know where our blog header is. I suspect my DH might have done something with our web repository (moved it?....so the blog can no longer access the proper files??) - I'll try to figure out what is going on with that so our graphics return to their rightful places...

Second, you have some of the most unusual projects I've ever read about. I think you're the only person I've ever known who has assisted in building a windmill. Also, the only person I've ever known who had to retrieve her sheets out of the treetops. And, there was that cow sling thing that you knit... My sweaters/socks pale by comparison. Maybe I'll try to knit in a tree or something...

I have two very large tests next week, so I thought I'd take a little time right now to procrastinate by posting to our blog. After Wednesday, I'm *DONE* with school for the summer. Then I have two weeks off to clean our bathrooms, mop the floors, haul the dust away, and get myself and the boys ready for school... I've got lists of things to accomplish; if I get even half of it done, I'll be thrilled.

Remember my Basic Chic Hoodie? I really love the pattern and the way it's turning out, and as I work on it, I keep thinking about what other colors or stitch patterns I'll use when I make the next one of these. For now, however, I really should focus on what I'm doing...for example, when picking up needles to knit the front band, I maybe should have checked the actual needle size called for in the pattern *before* I completed the entire front band. Here it is with size 6 needles:

Difficult to see, but perhaps you noticed, ahem, some significant puckering, which didn't look nearly as bad when it was on the needles, really....but it was too much to try to block out and live with, so I ripped it all out and re-knit with size 7 needles, as called for.

I used "one-row buttonholes", which are my favorite ever buttonholes, over three stitches. And, instead of following the directions for number of stitches to pick up, I did my usual "pick up three stitches for every four rows" method, and I came within two stitches of what the directions suggested. Also, the directions have you make the left front and right front bands separately, and then seam the right band to the left band where the hood seam is. I decided to pick up all of the stitches at once and make both sides at the same time, so no seam. Just a few more stitches to bind off of the front band, and some additional finishing, and I'll post a picture of me wearing the completely sweater (which seems to have taken forever -- school has really cramped my knitting productivity).

It's a rainy, rainy Saturday, and I really have to get back to studying. In my next post, I'll have some sock yarn stash enhancement from a couple of months ago when my mom made me buy bright colors I would not be inclined to purchase on my own (which I know you don't believe actually happened), as well as two pairs of finished socks.

More soon!

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

Tulips it is!

2009-08-07T07:28:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for helping me decide to make this lovely sweater for Katelynne. I didn't quite get done on time for her party, but they came to visit a few days later, so she is all set for cool weather.

I made the 4T size, which is a bit big but all the better to grow into. I still love this pattern, which is good since I have so much of this yarn!

I was delayed in starting this sweater when I took a few days of knitting time to work with my brothers on some windmill repair for my aunt, and to help haul away the remains of a tree they took down for her. (My brothers are grand men!) My part of the windmill consisted of painting the red on the fins and taking pictures. My parents and two nieces came along for the installation and we had a great day! More pics can be seen here.

Great job on the slippers! I've been trying to decide how to make my moms slippers 'non-slip', so thank you for posting about that.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia

-- Post From My iPhone

Summer of slippers (update) and appendicitis

2009-08-03T05:17:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I have a free moment today, because the rest of my family is out of town right now. School has been extremely busy, but great. Only a week and a half left of the summer session...

First, status on the Sand Hill Crane family which hangs around in our neighborhood:

They walk through our yard once or twice a day, going from pond to pond in the neighborhood, and eating flowers on their way (which has been annoying to our neighbors). These birds are great fun to watch! The little guy is getting so big!

Okay, so when I last wrote, I had some ballet slippers knit but not felted. Here are two pairs of ballet slippers, both knit to be the same size, one pair felted and the other pair not felted:

Here is another pair, which I felted at the same time as the ones in the above photo, and which were knit to be a smaller size, but which ended up being about the same size:

I am wondering if that is because they are a lighter color??...since lighter colors often don't felt as well?

And, I made two sets of clog slippers (one for my nephew, and one for my 6-year old) that look a lot like this:

I wanted all of these to be anti-skid, so I did some research.

I read about using puff paint on the bottom of the slippers, applying it as cute little shapes, which then dries and is non-skid for a short while, but which would have to be re-applied every so often.

I read about using some stuff that can be purchases at Menards which people use to dip tool handles into in order to achieve a rubber coating on them, but this looked messy, and if I messed it up, there was no way to get it off of the slipper (and to be honest, it looked rather industrial, and not like a cozy slipper).

I read about using caulk (as in caulk like you apply around the top edge of a bathtub), but this also looked quite messy and industrial.

I finally decided I'd go with some anti-skid fabrics. I tried two types.

The type which has the little raised foot shapes was made out of canvas, having edges which unravelled significantly, so I serged around the edges in order to contain the threads, prior to sewing them onto the slipper bottoms.

Yesterday was the big party, and I gave away four pairs of slippers to all of my nieces and nephews, and they were LOVED by all of the recipients (they all put them on their feet and started walking around with them on outside).

Also, by some strange twist of fate, they all *FIT* the feet of their intended wearer, too! I felt like I won the lottery, except without all of the money...

In unrelated news, a few weeks ago, my brother noticed a slight pain in his lower right abdomen. Then he put in a new floor. Then he ran a 10K race. More than a week later, he thought he should maybe have it checked out by the doctor, but he had two days remaining to work in order to get a perfect attendance (for the quarter) award, so he went to work for two more days, and finally took himself to the emergency room. They determined that he *may* have an appendicitis, so they took him to surgery that night, where they realized that his appendix had ruptured, who knows how much earlier, but sometime during the prior week, and his insides looked like hamburger. So, after a much larger incision was made to scrape out the infection and rinse his insides, he ended up with a six night hospital stay. He lives in the area, so I was able to visit him in the mornings and walk around the unit with him... He's doing much better now, and we're all breathing a huge sigh of relief.

I've actually finished some other projects, and have made some progress on some languishing sweaters. More on that very soon! (Did I mention that I have only a week and a half left of school for the summer?)

Have a great August! (August?? -- already??)

Warm regards,

Laura (YarnThrower)

What do YOU think??

2009-07-14T12:16:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Well, I'm almost finished with my current toddler sweater! I just need to knit the sleeves and do the finishing, which you know in my fevered imagination will only take a couple of hours..... ;)

And so obviously it's time to decide on my next project. My great niece Katelynne will be turning 4 at the end of the month, and so I have a couple of choices. I had planned to make 'Kitty,' the sweater that I made for Lydia's 4th birthday last May. However, I've made FOUR toddler sweaters in the last 4-5 months, and they have all been raglan sweaters with lace skirts, so it's possible that I should shake things up a bit. I do also have the yarn and pattern to make another 'Tulip' sweater, so that is an option.

It all started with the One-Skein Sweater for a baby shower:

I modified that (my own design) for Josie:

Then I did 'Kitty' for Lydia:

And finally, I'm doing 'Helena' for Maya:

So, please help me decide!! (Oh, and I have to get started in the next few days....just sayin')

Online Surveys & Market Research

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Let's try again!

2009-07-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Hello - I hope you're still enjoying your summer. I suppose you're keeping busy - how are the slippers coming? I just realized last night that I have never felted mom's slippers - I gave them to her big - so I'd better get busy on that!

My current 'project of focus' is a top down raglan sweater with a lace skirt for a toddler. Yes, it should sound familiar, I've done at least 3 variations of that in the last few months. This differs in that it called for DK weight instead of fingering. I'm modifying it by using an Aran weight (Debbie Bliss Cashmerino.) Since I'm using a larger yarn, I'm making a size 18 mos in order to get the desired 4T size.

A dear friend of mine and her husband are currently in Haiti, finalizing the adoption of a little girl. I think she was 6-9 months old when they began the process, and now she is somewhere close to 3 years old. I remember that she was pretty big for her age when they first met her, so I'm hoping the sweater is a little roomy, but at the least not too small!

I remember when our friend Ross came back from spending a few years in Panama, he could no longer tolerate any air-conditioning or cool weather for quite some time. Makes me think that a little girl who has spent her whole life in that climate is likely to find Northern Minnesota rather chilly on summer evenings and once fall/winter arrive, so I'm hoping this merino/cashmere blend will be snuggly!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

-- Post From My iPhone

Technical difficulties

2009-06-25T18:42:00.000-07:00

Greetings Dear Readers:

Yes, we are experiencing some formatting weirdness. We'll endeavor to figure it out and get back to normal as our schedules allow. (I'm really hoping that posting from my phone wasn't the culprit -I really like that convenience!!)

**Edited to add: Well, it seems my last post was somehow the culprit, so I've taken it down. Guess we'll have to do without the picture of the Fuzzy Feet! I'll try to show them to you when they're felted!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Much ado about nothing...

2009-06-20T08:53:00.001-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

Before I forget, YAY that your mom now likes hand knit socks. It's always a gamble when I make socks for somebody (and I've had one recipient who point blank told me that she is not going to wear them, then kept them anyway), so I'm so glad that your mom is recognizing their virtues!

Nice to have this past week off. The boys and I are in that "zone" in which we are trying to figure out how to coexist together again 24x7 without driving each other mad. I estimate that two weeks into the summer, things will resume their even keel; until then, I imagine a continuation of conversations similar to this one (an actual discourse at out house yesterday):

6-yr old: Mom, my cereal smells weird.
8-yr old: Maybe you slept in too long...
me: ????

In the early evening last night, my 8-yr old asked me if I was having a bad hair day... I don't know what might have caused that...perhaps the baseball cap I was wearing earlier in the day, or the tennis I played in the heat and humidity, or the laundry which was enough to work up a sweat, or maybe getting rained on as I was waiting for him to get out of the pool when they called it quits due to thunder during swim team practice in the morning....

I've had some time to knit as I've been waiting for my kids during dentist appointments, sports stuff, etc., though given that it is only short bursts, it has been mindless knitting. And, in my efforts to pull together and develop a plan for completing all my works-in-progress, I've only succeeded in starting a new one, because all of my mundane WIPs are at points requiring thinking, such as turning a heel, picking up buttonhole bands, etc, so I reached for the dishrag cotton. Here is the Circle Dishrag, which I saw on somebody's blog (though my brain has been on the fritz this past week, so I can't remember whose blog it was) and decided to try it. It is probably one of the most "three dimensional" dishrags I've made, and is an easy pattern to memorize. It was going to be very large, so I cast on 34 stitches instead of 46.

Later today, I hope to felt my ballet slippers, so I'll try to post some before/after snapshots yet this weekend...

I forgot to mention to you that during my clinical, I had the opportunity to observe an entire surgery! I watched a "hip resurfacing," an operation taking about 2.5 hours, and something that I was working with patients on beginning "post op day 1" to start their road to recovery. I credit my cadaver lab of a year ago as giving me the "stomach" to not get at all woozy during the procedure. Really, it was very interesting, and gave me some insight into what goes into some orthopedic surgeries.

Coincidentally, I've been noticing some minor hip soreness the past few months which I really can't attribute to sore muscles, and I'm beginning to be concerned about the possibility that I may be developing some osteoarthritis. To give my hip joints a break, I decided to take the summer off from running, and so will be biking to school every day (as weather permits) as well as using the elliptical trainers at the gym instead of the treadmills. (My anatomy professor from last summer always used to tell us, "Exercise is bad for you." As you already know, I don't believe that, though I think we should listen to our bodies, too...)

Here is a sandhill crane in our back yard, eating some of the bird feed we put out there:
I didn't want to scare it away, so the picture is through a window/screen... The neighbors have named it "Rupert," and it typically traipses through our yard every evening between 7:00 and 7:30pm.

Okay, so I really have to crank on some filing this weekend, so that's it for now. Have a great weekend!

Laura (YarnThrower)

My Mom and socks....

2009-06-18T08:24:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

My mom has been on my 'No socks for you' list since I was knitting my first pair of handknit socks, and she laughed at me and wondered who on earth would want to wear wool socks. Even when other people praised the socks that I made for them and she started to get curious, I told her no. (I lent my dad a pair after his surgery when his feet got cold but he never wore them.)

Mom had been dropping hints that she needed new slippers. (One of her friends made them for her out of Red Heart, but she has given up knitting, so the worn ones can't be replaced.) Dad just asked if I could knit some for her, but mom explained that she'd blown that years ago. (They don't know that I'm making Fuzzy Feet for her up-coming birthday!) When he mentioned again about her cold feet, I agreed to lend her a pair of my wool socks.

I kept forgetting to ask how she liked them, but last night she sighed and said "I may as well get this over with. Do you want these back or can I keep them?" I just laughed and told her she can keep them. I asked if she likes them, and she admitted that she does. She said that she always thought they would be itchy but they didn't itch a bit! I told her, "Mom, you should know I only knit with good yarn!"

So I'm working on felted slippers for her, using this Lambs Pride Worsted Paint in a pretty Cranberry Swirl colorway. I think she'll like them.

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

Back to work!

2009-06-17T07:40:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

Well, not nearly so much fun as last weekend. We are having our company picnic today, so that is some fun at least. If I get a good picture of Lauren winning the three-legged race with knitting needles in her hand, I'll post that tomorrow!

For today, here is another FO from the archives. This is 'Mable,' also from Heirloom Stitches. They really have wonderful patterns! I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece and it was a great yarn for the pattern. The lace kicked my butt a LOT but I finally got it.

And here is a picture of the birthday girl on a cool spring day, wearing her new sweater!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

-- Post From My iPhone

The highlight for today....

2009-06-15T06:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

The theme for today will be driving, as I am heading for home soon. Before I hit the road, I thought I'd give you a peek at one of my finished objects from the last month or so.

Introducing 'Kitty' from Heirloom Stitches. I used 'Feet First' yarn from Cottage Fiber, which is a wonderful yarn. It's put up with 490 yards, which is the most generous I've found, and one skein completed this sweater. I made a size 4, for my great-niece Lydia. I didn't worry about stopping at the proscribed length, I just kept going until I judged that I didn't have enough yarn for another pattern repeat. The part of the project that gave me fits was that the pattern asked me to do purl/yarn-over combinations, which I'm not a fan of. I'm planning to do this sweater again, but I'm going to change it so that the yarn-overs come after knits, and I purl two together instead of knit two together. The sweater looks really good on Lydia tho!

And now I'm going to take Renata on a quick trip to choose yarn for a bag that she wants to knit and then I'm heading for LaOtto. I'll leave you with one last picture of my two new knitters and I!

Keep knitting!

Cynthia (aka Designated Knitter)

New Knitters

2009-06-13T19:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

I'm really enjoying my visit in Kenosha! Today my Goddaughter Isabella (5) and I visited Fiddlehead Yarns. I was looking for some DK wool for a crochet project and I found some Dale of Norway Falk in 7 colors. I already have 3 colors of Rowan Pure Wool, so I have 10 of the 13 colors that I need.

I brought a learn-to-knit kit with a book called "Gigi Knits" for my Goddaughter Renata (8). After lunch, we did the first step, winding a ball. Later she cast on 25 stitches and has worked about 2" of garter stitch! She's doing really well, and she's already learning to decide what level of wonky she would rather have than frog. Isabella is also learning and doing well. She's still more comfortable if we work together, but she's learning the motions and steps.

-- Post From My iPhone

Slipper-o-rama

2009-06-13T15:14:00.000-07:00

Greetings, and Dear Cynthia,

I love your idea of posting shorter posts more frequently! Fun to see what you're up to, and I hope you enjoy your stay in Wisconsin (though seeing as it is "God's country," how can you not?)

My clinical finished up yesterday. I was "working" in a hospital for four weeks, and similar to my hospital clinical in January, I was reminded that smoking does really, really bad things to your body (not just in the lungs), and if you're going to drink excessively, then don't try ascending/descending stairs, or you may fall and break your neck, quite literally. It's always sobering for me to spend time in a hospital, and it makes me thankful for my relatively good health, and also gives me ammunition to use when I'm trying to teach my kids about making good choices.

I received a $25 gift card from Barnes and Noble, and so I purchased a book I've had my eye on for months:I don't spin (yet, and really, I won't until my kids are out of high school, really!), but the book offers manufactured yarn alternatives, and I loved so many of the designs in the book.

In a moment of insanity, I decided I was going to make slippers for my nieces and nephew for a "cousins birthday party" which has become my family's tradition in August. Instead of holding six separate parties for all of our kids during the year, my mom invites all of us over for one big party which is more about being together as a family than it is about giving big gifts to each of the kids. And so, I'm making some little gifts out of stash yarn (Cascade 220). I'm using this cute pattern for the girls: ...though I don't know which pattern I'll use for the one boy. (Any ideas out there?) I'm sort of "winging" the size on these (note that these are really the same size, but due to my "trick photography, they look different):I will go ahead and felt the first two pairs as soon as they are knitted just to make sure I'm in the ball park.And, still plugging away on the socks: I love it when I get past the heel on a toe-up sock, because then it's just about mindlessly knitting around and around, which I actually like.

That's about it for the knitting news. I have next week **off**, and plan to do two big things with my time:
1.) figure out what I have "on the needles" in the recesses of the house, and make myself a "schedule" to finish it -- I always do better when I create a little urgency on something, and I know there are at least two or three sweaters sitting around which are very "close" to being finished
2.) clean the house! (yeah, right, like that will happen, but if I don't at least put it on a list of things to do, then there's even a smaller chance that it will happen...)

Have a great weekend!
Laura (YarnThrower)

Hello from chilly Wisconsin

2009-06-12T19:47:00.001-07:00

Greetings and Dear Laura:

The news for today is that I'm having a lovely visit in Kenosha! I arrived this evening, and soon after Kathryn and the kids arrived back from a week in MO. I'm looking forward to a fun weekend.

Here is a picture of my stash acquisition from Three Bags Full in Northbrook IL, my Chicago stop when I come north. It's Malabregio sock yarn in a rich mossy green colorway. Mmmmm.

-- Post From My iPhone

Found object

2009-06-11T13:27:00.001-07:00

So I'm just going to try quick bits instead of official BLOG POSTS.

I've been really overwhelmed lately, so I've been cleaning closets and storage areas to help cope. Today I finally found this bowl, which sat on my Grandma Schroeder's dining room table when I was a child. It had wax grapes in it, but I loved the grape-purple color and the interesting shape. After it became mine, I bought beaded fruit for it, but it has all been packed away since my last move (2003 or 2004.). I knew it had to be somewhere and today I hit the jackpot!

-- Post From My iPhone

Pickin' and Throwin'

Oh my!

Time flies!

Knitting for Christmas

Water Bottle Holder/Carrier Sewing Pattern

Christmas in August

All Done!

Another sock already?

Thank you!

I posted! And I kitchenered!

Valentine Craft - woven felt hearts

Things are looking up

The year of ripping...

Gift card holder / pouch

Mittens for me :-)

Things that make you go AAUGH !

Easiest ever sweater requires ripping

Christmas Knitting - The exciting conclusion

We interrupt your regularly scheduled knitting...

On the way home

Trying new technology

Kauni in "time out"

Riddle: What has two sleeves and is blocking?

The end of an era...

I am going to cheat...

There is a reason...

All I can say is that I was unprepared......

Home Stretch on Ene

I still don't like chunky yarn....

Catching up!

Stitches Midwest 2010 edition

We have a Winner!

Ene's Scarf...and a contest

Diary of a knitter on vacation...

"Winner" Sock Pattern

Doorbells and exhaust fans...

All the news that isn't...

When is a pair of socks *NOT* a pair of socks?

"tink" is "knit" spelled backwards...just sayin'

A Rip-Roarin' Time

Diary of a lady waiting for a repairman...

If I was a person who bought lottery tickets...

Attention Deficit

Sometimes it takes two tries...

Wow!

Silky Wool Seafoam Scarf

We interrupt your regularly scheduled bag sewing...

Sweet Harmony

Three hours

Always Listen to Lauren

Birdie Sling in progress

Welcome back!

FInished object...

I am a SPT-3

You should probably sit down before you read this.....

Almost.......

Two Hearts update

Two Hearts

Goals update

January already?

First Goal Achieved

Happy New Year

4 days left

Is this sock ugly?

Insane Christmas Knitting.......

Miniature hats take a lot less time

Happy Anniversary!

Done Done

Ibenholt Ibenholt

Sock O Rama

Sweater bands, take two.

Tulips it is!

Summer of slippers (update) and appendicitis

What do YOU think??

Let's try again!

Technical difficulties

Much ado about nothing...

My Mom and socks....

Back to work!

The highlight for today....

When is a pair of socks NOT a pair of socks?