47 posts tagged “knitting”

A brilliant person on knittinghelp.com's forums shared something awesome with respect to knitting something complicated like lace.

It's recommended that you use a lifeline at each pattern repeat.

Basically, that's a thinner thread you string through all the stitches so if you lose your place and have to frog back you only have to go back one repeat. She recommended using unwaxed dental floss because it's nice and thin and slick. The awesome bit has to do with the needles.

Knitpicks Options needles have a little hole at the end of the cable where the needle tips screw in so you can insert a thingamajig to help tighten the tips. You slip the thread through the little hole, knot loosely so it won't fall out and as you knit---voila!---your lifeline is automatically inserted for you. Just untie the knot and keep going until the next repeat.

If you're making a top-down garment, the lifeline is nice to use so you can take it off the needles and try it on as you go.

This has been a huge help so far! A lot of the Knitting Help folks are also on Ravelry, in the Knitting Help group, and they're just as free about dispensing wisdom over there.

The preview is up!

You're wondering why on earth I bother posting about it. Hehe. I've loved this magazine and it's the one I gravitate to since I started knitting because I usually like more than two of the designs in them. The one issue I didn't buy since I started this hobby obsession addiction had quite a few patterns, it turns out, that I do like.

Anyway, Roped Shell and Plaid Halter would look really neat in two very similar colors but Imprint Tank is gorgeous just the way it is.

Wow! I'm starting to see things happening. I dropped the needle size to 6 (from 8) because the lace pattern should become more defined. This may matter since the yarn hasn't got the same fuzzy halo as Rowan Kidsilk. There was an oh-so-brief moment when I thought I should have gotten the 3 balls of Kidsilk to make this, but remembered how mohair sheds and all the Butterflies I've seen made with something else.

I'm looking forward to blocking this!

Maybe it's nuts, but I won't be making this in pieces but rather in the round. I think it will do just fine without the side seams especially since I'm not used to sewing up something so fine.

Huzzah for knitting bravely! If this works, I should tackle fair isle next. Maybe even--gasp!--socks. Plural.

So, thanks Anna! My birthday gift arrived late last week. I got myself several balls of Elann Den-M-Nit in black, enough to make an Indigo Ripples Skirt. I really wanted to get the darkest indigo color, but I never had the moolah to get it while it was available...oops.

I also received my yarn order from Webs. It's a cone of 2/14 Alpaca Silk lace weight yarn in the color Sienna. This one will be for Anna's Butterfly tunic which is going to be a birthday and graduation present. I am trying to do a gauge swatch now and, well, this one is gonna take a while! I've never done lace before, at least not like this with super-thin yarn. I'm going to go over the pattern again and see if it's written out instead of charted and see if that helps me at all. I'm also trying to figure out which size I should make. I think lace is very stretchy but I'm not sure how much it will stretch and how much ease is built into the pattern. Suggestions welcomed: do I use the bust or hip measurement if there is a 6" difference (wider at the hip)? EDIT: added photo of swatch. The color is way off.

While I was away, I also started working on a Picovoli for myself in Lion Brand Microspun (black). I liked working with it before and I had five balls in my stash. I'm debating about whether or not to add sleeves to this one, but I've not even gotten past the bust area so it will be a while before I even get to it again, considering the lace project. The way the yarn lays in a very neat |/|/|/|/ pattern is just so cool. Speaking of cool: I want the sleeves to be long-ish if I add them, so they end just above the elbow. The square neck and longer sleeves might look better on me. But I might get impatient. You know how that goes.

I'm getting excited (no, not about the sweater, though there is that)! This Thursday, I get to go to our church's women's retreat. I'm hitching a ride with three other gals I know and am looking forward to lots of knitting time (ahem) and getting to know people from church more and taking time to be alone with HIM.

To that end, I'm praying over what to put on my iPod so I have a few hours' worth of studies to go over. I'm figuring out that I'm more of an auditory learner than I presumed I was. Or is that how it goes? Because if I am listening to a study, if I write down what I'm hearing, I usually retain it really well (don't tell but I hardly ever went over my notes in high school or college before tests and I got decent grades). It's not that I'm a particularly wonderful note taker, but there's just something about writing it down that helps to file it in my brain so I can get at it later.

Of course, that only works if I'm really paying attention. Most often lately, half my brain is listening and the other half is wondering what to do next or what grammar lesson we need to work on or how many angels can dance on the head of a pin? Ok, maybe not that really but more like "should I buy lace blocking needles" or "when is my order of yarn going to get here" or "what project should I finish first" etc. etc. etc. I'm obsessed. And to think that I've come down a few notches. Oy!

A side note: I've started watching One Night With the King on Netflix. I'm trying to figure out if I know the actor who plays the king because he looks somewhat familiar and it's driving me nuts. But I'm too stubborn/lazy to bother looking it up.

It's done! And just in time for summer. LOL! Well, maybe I'll win the lotto and we can go to Australia or New Zealand just so I can have an excuse to wear this!

Yes, I am excited. I put it on before it was dry and it smells so much like wet dog. I sprayed it down with some water then steamed it and laid it to dry (should be done in a little bit). That fixed the excessive rolling of the hem.

Other than adding length to the hem and doing the sleeves as prescribed in the Knitting from the Top book, I made no changes to the pattern. The cable fits just under the bust line where I wanted it (the pattern calls for it to be at least an inch higher, but I'm not built that way ;). One more mod: the neckline is knit in the round and not back and forth then seamed.

The yarn is Elsbeth Lavold Classic Al and very soft. I have to wear something under this anyway so the wool content isn't that big of a deal. It's so soft!

Ravelry details here.

Yarn: Lion Brand Cotton-Ease in lime, almond, lake and maize. The panels in the color lime needed 3 balls, the rest only two.

Knit with size 8 needles (pattern calls for size 6 and a DK weight yarn, I believe).

This is my third Moderne Baby Blanket because it's such a fun, quick, no-concentration needed knit. I love the asymmetrical blocks versus the usual log cabin style of working.

The first two I knit in Peaches n' Cream cotton and they have held up well but I do like this yarn much, much more. It's a lot more drapey and it's just so much softer. The colors are so yummy, too, it was hard not to *squee* when I held the different colored balls of yarn together (I am an odd fish, I know).

This blanket is huge compared to the others. Of course, the second was just that much bigger than the first, too.  I think it might be a tad bigger than crib size, but I'm not sure.

Wow...Amazon delivered and we received both sets of book orders on the same day. It was like Christmas! Hubby has been wanting to read The Bourne Identity for a while now and decided to go with paperback once he found that hardbound was never made or is no longer in print and cost too much.

Sign of the Bear (I don't know if I linked to the right one) is for NM and is one of his reader books. He'll get to read it after he finishes Pocahontas and the Stranger which he is more than half-way through. He's a quick reader and to his credit, he gets what he's reading. I hope he's not like me and going through quickly and just getting the gist but more like his dad who reads with closer attention to the language and subtleties that the writers use.

Samuel Eaton's Day was a book I came across on Amazon when looking  for Sign of the Bear. It's a story book with photos of the day in a life of a pilgrim boy, Samuel Eaton, who really was one of those who sailed on the Mayflower. It's been hard for him to listen to our history reading so I went hunting for books more to his liking to help him understand.

The rest of the books are mine :) Stardust, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated---gorgeously---by Charles Vess. I came across the movie trailer first, not realizing that it was a book first. Since it was reviewed as being storytelling in the vein of Princess Bride, I thought I might enjoy the book. I did! There are two brief moments that make the book something for older audiences but they're easy to gloss over. And I finished it already. LOL.

Barbara Walker's book seems to be a must-have for knitters, much like Elizabeth Zimmerman's material. In fact, EZ endorses her. I'm mostly interested in how she does set-in sleeves. If she explains how to knit the sleeves on the bodice instead of knitting separately then seaming them together, I'll be a very happy camper. Seaming is simple but tedious and I'm not quite sure why so many patterns don't try harder to eliminate the need for it if at all possible. I'm sure there's a good reason but I just haven't come across it yet.

Romantic Style has the pattern for my SIL's birthday and graduation present. She asked me once, after I had been knitting for only as many months as I have toes on my left foot, if I've ever tried Norwegian Lace. I hope my eyes didn't cross because the thought of that was daunting. But this is the Year of Knitting Bravely, so says Knitting Daily Blog so I might as well comply. I'm arming myself with this pattern, very nice lace-weight yarn, dental floss (that's for my life line), gumption and patience. That, and some time, should result in a gift-worthy Butterfly like the book cover's only not as long.

This yarn was supposed to be a Central Park Hoodie but I changed my mind and am making Gathered Pullover instead since I wasn't getting the right gauge without the yarn looking to "holey" for a CPH.

I love the this yarn, Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al in color Artic Night (misspelling from label). I might end up using up only 6 of the 11 balls I got so I will have to figure out what to do with the remainder. So far, only almost 3 balls used.

The stockinette is supposed to roll a lot, but this seems to be a lot more than I wanted. I'll have to see if blocking will eliminate some of that or what. If not, I might cut off the cast on row and knit down from there. I like that knitting is the same upside down as right side up :)

A post in which I seek, once again, to justify my obsession hobby by quoting the bible.

Nah...someone else put together a nice compendium. Saves me the time. Now on to my next CPH...