magic happens with a good-fitting bra...

Was that me just bragging about meeting deadlines and enjoying being under pressure? LOL! My daughter-in-law  came for a visit yesterday and sort of hinted that it would be nice if Rhiana, my eight year old granddaughter, had a cape to wear for her First Communion - it's on May 3rd and I did know about it - the first communion, that is - but knew I'd be away and miss it...She apparently has a sleeveless dress in pure white and wouldn't it be nice to have a back-up plan if it was on the cool side - HELLO! this is Northwestern Ontario, early spring and we're talking 10 am - cripes, it's going to be cold in the church no matter what the day is like!
It's actually a miracle that I have any white, white yarn of any sort on the shelves, but I start digging - I have a medium sized cone of Honiburd cotton rainbow that if we were  making it mainly for warmth, that's what I would choose. I have Bramwell's Silky which would mean, like triple-stranding it (not!). There is also a fair sized cone of a 'Lorraine' which would require doubling, at least.  And a hughmongous (sp?) cone of some 100% rayon stuff that came from Bonnie Triola Yarns  a zillion years ago. I swatched the Honiburd, it'll work but I know she is looking for something a little dressier so I reluctantly try the rayon. It's one of those coarse yarns that sort of falls off the cone and pools around the bottom and gets stuck and you swear and swear...Sigh! There is a solution to this, I know, but where are they? Sue Jaloweic at 'Knit It Now' sent me a  package of yarn bras - they come in THREE sizes - surely one will be right... I am going for Grama of the year and/or mother-in-law on this one!

manfriend hoodie...

I've been away from  my knitting machines for over two months and I am going to San Diego at the end of the month to do a workshop for the Machine Knitting Guild of San Diego  on May 2 , 3, 2015. OMG! I feel like I'd better get doing something to get me back into knitting mode. I did make a pair of socks the other day and repaired a pair - knit new feet onto the good-forever ribbed tops - (see blogpost 'Happy feet...April 14, 2009)  to get warmed up and I got energized. I had vaguely promised a man's hoodie pattern around Christmas but I got bogged down with trying to make it too complicated and then tried to simplify and then kind of abandoned the project. On Wednesday, I decided that I had time to make one, mainly because I always like to have something brand new for a seminar and I did get a message from the guy who I had made the vague promise to and it seemed like he was worried about me - it was enough of a push to get me going - I used to work well under pressure and meeting deadlines was my thing! I not only got the man hoodie made (just need to darn in ends, wash and dry and sew in zipper) and the pattern almost finished but I decided that it would make a great session for the workshop and I am madly knitting pieces that I can take to San Diego and use to show the putting-together-on-the-machine techniques - truth, actually, the man hoodie turned out so nice, I was feeling left out and wanted one for myself!
Although fairly basic, it has all the good parts of a nice hoodie, made in mercerised cotton (Bonita from Knitcraft), features zipper front (with a couple of installation options), outside seaming details, including a sturdier, re-inforced neckline for careless wearers, and pouch pockets attached while you knit, all in stockinette...will let you know when the manfriend and girlfriend pattern is ready! two for one!

 

happy faces...

I've been away for so long, sorry - thanks to everyone who missed me - I'm okay! My little sister, Marnie, is okay. I'll try to catch you up on some of the things I've seen.
My big/little sister, Janet, took me to Europe. We started off in Vienna and we had a small studio apartment for the first week, in Hietzing 13 (if anyone knows Vienna).
I spotted some knitwear in a local shop by an Austrian designer -  I figured she was using the Silver Reed fine gauge machine and rayon yarns - lots of drop lace knit loosely, lots of sheer-looking things - very simple but nicely done, not a lot of shaping. I sure would like a photo or two for my blog when I get home, but realize it is frowned upon to photograph designer clothes. I do have a small digital camera with me but forgot to change the batteries and I do have my ipad mini but I promised myself I would not use it in public! I'll think about it  and get back another day, maybe...
Back to Schonbrunn castle (one of the biggest tourist attractions in Vienna) grounds, we walked from our apartment to the castle, in the back way and then went up the hill to the highest point to look at the castle and out towards Vienna city centre. While there we noticed that many people had these weird lens/paper-frame glasses - it was a bright sunny day, a bit hazy. It was only later, in a cafe for lunch, Janet googled and apparently there was a partial eclipse of the sun that occurred at 10:25 am local time. We were absurdly pleased to note that we had missed it entirely because we didn't know, but those people, many of them were, by then still waiting for it to happen!
,
My lunch - I ordered sausage with mustard, horseradish and a roll, expecting a sausage, like a bratwurst - what I got - a wiener!
Went back to the shop in Hietzing, snuck in the door and quickly took a photo of this one in the window that had caught my attention - red, sleeveless, long vest with 'smiley faces' (can you see the heart-shaped eyes? - click on the photo to enlarge it) in drop lace running vertically down the back! How bizarre - who would want to wear that? And at €279??? (that translates to $390 Canadian...)

 

a rookie mistake...

so there I was, the week before Christmas, trying to come up with a quick gift for a forty-something man, the operative word being quick. No time for a sweater, need something fast, not too complicated using what I have on hand. He already got socks.
Now, I'm not really a scarf person and not sure if he is but maybe it's time he had a nice scarf...
I have some absolutely scrumptious baby alpaca grande in black that isn't enough for anything else...actually have a bit of winter white too.
Now what is the criteria for a good scarf? not too thick, two-sided or looks good on both sides, doesn't roll...I looked online and there were some eternity (or is it infinity?) man scarves. I kind of ruled that out - he's not exactly the metrosexual man variety, but not a redneck and not really hipster either. So, just after the AK cardigan, I thought, I know! a tuck stitch might do it - I had done a great article for KnitStyle that remains unpublished, dealing with easy tuck stitch fabrics that could be used knit side or purl side, along with suitable edgings that worked  without garter stitch or ribbing. All the swatches were made in a mercerised cotton and were all nice and flat.
Did I forget to mention that I would be using the LK150, based on the yarn, of course?
I quickly zipped off a fast swatch and bonus! it looks like a hounds tooth check! totally current (for girls anyway)...but it was sort of tight and quite firm. I was knitting at T9, the largest stitch size. No problem. I rewound everything (can't afford to waste this stuff on a bunch of swatches) and made another swatch on every other needle. Oh darn, after knitting about 60 rows I can see that the edges are really curling  - must be too loose. Starting over, I knit again on every needle, hand feeding the yarn to get a looser stitch. This is okay, but after about 70 rows, it looks like it is curling in again (it's the alpaca), but now, I'm totally in love with both sides of this fabric. I'll sleep on it...
How about the scarf is squares, with knit and purl side alternating AND the stripe factor is alternating...brilliant! On my new third piece, I decided that changing the yarn would be quicker and easier if the carriage was on the right side for the colour changes...oh crap! now this just looks like stripes! what happened? AND it was all rolling to the same side! Then it dawned on me. I should have known better!
Okay - here's the stitch pattern:

Cast on waste yarn and ravel cord, ending carriage at right (CAR).
Black, K1R. Set russell levers ll - l.
Select every other needle (EON). K1R (this makes a tuck row).
Change to White. K1R (stockinette). Select opposite EON. K1R (tuck).
Repeat these 4 rows throughout.

When I decided to change colours with the carriage at the left, I used the same sequence, but now the second row was stockinette instead of tuck and that changes it into an awkward stripe instead of the two-colour tuck pattern... a rookie mistake with the yarn changer on the standard gauge machine.
Efforts to create that 'quick' scarf were abandoned and I went with some black and white tweed texting mitts on the standard gauge instead. All was good for the gift opening.
Pieces of scarf are still hanging on the LK, awaiting more bright ideas...
Yeah, happy new year to you too!

8(??) days to...

did you catch Ashton Kutcher's cardigan sweater on Ellen last week? I don't really care about Ashton and in fact I don't watch Ellen that often - it just happened to be on when I came downstairs to do a little hand stitching and get a cup of tea. Back to the sweater - it was  a cardigan and not just any cardigan, but a shawl-collared cardigan in a printed pattern - I say that because I've become obsessed with trying to decide whether it is fairisle, jacquard or tuck mosaic - I'd be happy with any of them but I'm hoping for the latter - anyway, I love it and not just because it's gray on grey  with an accent of red, I'm thinking alpaca and mentally  planning/designing/knitting in my head but keeping it in my mind until I can really attack it after Christmas...more later and I'll also give you an update of my last minute gifty things! oh yeah, something I just learned, if you look at my pictures or anything on the internet, with the ipad or ipad mini or whatever touch screen device you have, the photos can be greatly enlarged, better than with the computer... yeah, I know you already know that but give me credit for figuring it out on my own!

what's a few less stitches...

So I had two 100g balls of Diamond Select Footsie sock yarn. When you look at the ball of multi-coloured sock yarn, you don't really know how it is going to knit up, you just hope for the best. The colours here, navy, green, white and grey don't look all that bad in the ball, but what happens when it is knit? Well, I have to admit, I wasn't too impressed with the first pair and left sock knitting for a couple of days, putzed around with some other stuff and kept thinking, who can I give these to? someone near the bottom of the list...that's not really fair and in reality, anyone getting them will probably like them just fine - it's only me being extremely picky, but that wide white stripe really bugged me. I had made it for size 8 wide, which is like my standard size, 36-0-36 sts for the  cuff. When I decided to get it over with and use up the rest of the yarn. The next pair, I made slightly narrower and went with 34-0-34 sts. I was mildy pleased with the result, the 'white stripe' was a little thinner. For the final pair, I purposely made these for my niece who is a size 7 narrow and went with 32-0-32 sts - wow, who would have known? I love these! And the way a diamond pattern appeared in the ribbing because of the tighter tension! 7 pairs down!

ideas and inspiration?

We have a very good farmers market here in Thunder Bay - it runs virtually year round - I think they are off for maybe a week beginning of January, but open every Saturday morning of the entire year and the cool thing is it's not just farmers with produce and meats - it's actually called the Thunder Bay Country Market - but many local artisans, bakers, craftspeople and any one with the courage to put something they've made up for sale - you can find a full breakfast or just a snack in a variety of ethnic cuisines; get farm fresh eggs and local lamb; sample and buy local cheese or wild boar sausages; get all sorts of fresh breads and baked goods, preserves and other goodies; and check out what other people are doing in the way of crafting. There is a stained glass lady who purchases handmade snowshoes from somewhere and then cuts out the centre portion and she adds in one of her own local scenes, like her rendition of the Sleeping Giant, in stained glass - totally cool! A shout-out to the Pie.ology girl who makes butter pastry turnover-pie things filled with either sweet or savoury fillings!
This past Saturday, I found a cute old guy who was selling a basic pair of homemade wool socks for $7.50 - WHAT? How can he do that? The sock yarns that I'm buying, a 75% superwash wool/25% nylon blend, are costing me $18 to $22 (with the tax) for the raw material! I took a closer look and got to chatting with him - he has an old Harmony sock machine and he uses Briggs and Little sock yarn Durasport, 80% wool, 20% nylon - it comes in a 4 oz/430 yds skein in 7 colours (24 sts to 10 cm) - he told me he takes the ecru and dyes it with Kool-aid! I almost fell over! This guy is like a hundred years old! His variegated ones were quite pastel-ly pale green, orange and yellows and not really my thing, but I did buy this pair of denim socks from him. I don't particularly like the length of the top on them - they come up too high and the cuff isn't really stretchy enough and I have to fold them down twice - I'm pretty picky, and, sensitive about my chubby calves, so I like the 2X2(2X1) rib that I use on my socks better, but for $7.50, OMG!
So, Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat... You know, this is the time of year I become fixated with socks - I have been collecting sock yarns for my Christmas presents and I don't know about you, but it seems to be harder to find pretty colourways - my favourite is still that Schoeller Stahl Fortissimo in the denim-y shades but not sure if that is discontinued or just the shops I have gone into just don't have... Anyway, it is getting to be quite an expensive habit, this sock-giving thing and I have 20 pairs on my list this year - I have an order in at my LYS for some B&L - they don't stock it because she says the hand knitters want the fun, softer stuff! I ordered oatmeal, denim and some of the ecru - Kool-Aid man, look out!
I told a couple of my regular sock-receivers that they would have to hand wash these socks because it's not superwash anymore and they said  hey, we never put these in the dryer anyway - didn't want to risk it! LOL!
I have found that by buying 2 - 100g balls of the same shade, I can get 3 pairs of ladies 7-9 size out of the 2 balls - previously there was quite a bit leftover, but not enough for a pair. By making the cuffs 45 rows instead of the 60 rows in my original pattern (can be found under Freebies on the knitwords website). I can use the leftover Opals from last year to make the feet and use the B&L denim for the ribs...


One last thing - I know you still haven't tried my pattern but I live in hope that someday you will and here's another little add-on. (I got this tip from Ev McNabb's Passap sock pattern that was in KW#49). At the end of the sock, when you have 5-0-5 ns in work on each bed, to take the corners off the final grafted end seam, before removing on waste yarn - transfer rib bed end stitch up and knit through end stitch on main bed on each side - then take off on waste and do your grafting however you do. Mucho bueno or however you say that!