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

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.......

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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.......

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

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!

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

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

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

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)