Things are looking up

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...

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

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 :-)

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 !

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

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

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...

...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

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

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"

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?

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...

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)