Wedding Nightsongs

A good friend of mine is getting married December of 2011.  Being a knitter, the first thing I thought about was, “OH.  I can make her a shawl or something.”  Well, she picked out Gail (aka Nightsongs), a beautiful, yet free pattern that she happened to pick out.  Though I love lace, I do have a hard time connecting to knitting charts which most lace knitting patterns are written as.  As luck would have it somebody actually created something called an “UNchart” which is sort of a part written and part charted pattern.  It was love at first sight!

So, the yarn that Paula pick out is Sterling Silk and Silver by Kraemer Yarns in Tuxedo colorway (black).  63% Superwash Merino, 20% Silk, 15% Nylon, 2% Silver ~3.5 oz./ 100 Grams, approximately 420 Yards.  This stuff is lovely.   Real sterling silver threads run all through this stuff.  Recently, Kraemer’s was forced to give up getting real silver threading because it’s getting harder and harder to get, so now they have some other fake material substituting for the silver…. SO, I am making this shawl, with one of the last skeins available with the sterling silver inside.  Nice gift, eh!

I had completed the majority of the shawl when it got really hot this summer.  Of course, I totally abandoned the project knowing I had plenty of time.  About a week ago, I picked it back up and as of tonight, I’m up to the last 19 knitted rows for the edging.  My eyes were giving me some problems at about 11pm, so I stopped for tonight and will resume tomorrow… I can’t wait to get this thing done, but I’m loving it and watching the leaves develop and I’m really looking forward to blocking this baby using my relatively new blocking wires.  This will be the first project I’m using them for and excited…. Well, as excited as you can get, considering.

Yeah, I was pretty boring tonight, but I did want to document this shawl in some way and have been meaning to do it…. PLUS this will be the first post on my knitting blog in a LONG time, so it really was begging to be done.

Now for something really important.  I have a wedding to go to at the end of March 2012 and I’m considering asking Paula if I could borrow her shawl… hee hee.  We’ll see…. I have no idea what I’m wearing for that yet, but I do know that I don’t have any elegant piece like this to speak of in my wardrobe.  After completing this one, I’ve got some serious Christmas knitting to start, so I can’t even whip out another shawl right now.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ~1 Corinthians 13:2

Oh well, searching for this quote has pushed me past 12 midnight and so I’ve lost the post a day challenge.  That’s okay, though, because I have love.

Slow Start

Sweater Sprint

• Sweet Sweater (Long Sleeves)…. (SS)

Cowl Jump

• Herringbone Neck Warmer
• Red Fuzzy Cowl
• Blue Caterpiller Cowl
• Softest Neck Warmer Ev-A

I am happy to report that I have started all planned projects and they have at least a few rows a piece started.

The Herringbone stitch is so tight and slow going for me, so I feel that I have a handicap right here.  I have about 5 rows done and knitting it on size US 13 straight needles.  Jumped over to the “Red Fuzzy Cowl” and had a couple of starts and stops with this one.  The red Caron Bliss yarn is SOOOO, so soft, but a little hard to work with… so put that down after just a couple of rows to move on to the next project, “Softest Neck Warmer Ev-A” and I’m happy to report that this has gotten off to a good start, after a lot of false ones.  This project was originally going to be one of two Herringbone Neck Warmers, but it was not working out.  I had combined Wool of the Andes in Blue Bonnet with Caron Bliss in Peacock… such a beautiful combination and the blues in these two yarns just BELONG together.  Alas, stitch definition was lost in the fuzziness of the Bliss and because it’s such a time consuming stitch, I had to give it up for this project and adapted a regular stockinette stitch to the pattern… Is this cheating?  Not sure, but all changes were made before the start of the games, and I deleted the original pattern, to say that it’s not any pattern.  Oh, and I plan on making my own buttons for both neck warmers.

Oh… I am remiss.  I just realized that I’ve not started my Blue Caterpiller Cowl yet.  I originally wanted to use home spun yarn, but looks like I won’t be able to do that.  I am still searching for yarn to use with this.  The pattern is called Abstract Caterpiller Cowl… and this is a RAVELRY link to the page, so those of you not on ravelry probably will not be able to access it.  Sorry about that but it looks like its a free Ravelry download and a file and not a link.

On to my next project……the Sweet Sweater (SS).

Well, the Sweet Sweater is a crocheted object and the pattern is not really a pattern, per se.  It’s more of a formula to get you started making a top-down sweater, then leaves a lot of the designing to the crocheter.  This is what I love about it.  Gauge is really important.  You are setting your own gauge by choosing the yarn and size hook you want to work with, but once you make a swatch, which is essential, you need an accurate gauge.  Row gauge is not really important here because you are working from the top down, and you decide how long you want the sweater, midriff, hip length, tunic?  You decide.  But the stitches per inch gauge is really important.

Anyway, my gauge came out to 3 stitches per inch, working with a US-K hook on Red Heart Super Saver Solids in Lavender.  This is for Team Red Heart, and so it must be Red Heart yarn.  Originally, I wanted to use Red Heart Soft, but I could not find the colors I wanted to work with, and that bummed me out… so at the last minute I turned to my stash and this is what I found.  Since it’s worsted/aran, I decided to make a larger pull over or cardigan… though I really don’t need to decide until I get to the point where the V-neck is closed.  When I get to that point, either I close it, and it becomes a pull over; OR I don’t close and continue to work back and forth and it becomes a cardigan.

So, I managed to get a minds eye picture of what stitches I wanted to use, do swatches, calculate the formula, in what took the better part of the afternoon…. in between interacting with my kiddie.  Then really got into the beginning of it.  I completed about ten rows when I noticed that two rows back, I placed an increasing shell in the wrong stitch.  I was so, so tempted to just leave it and move on, but it was eating at me so I ripped back two rows to the offending shell and fixed the mistake, then continued.  I spent the evening crocheting while watching the Horse Whisperer… not the best since there is a lot of suspense and must be seen by-the-eyeball scenes, but I managed since this was not my first viewing….. whew.  Today my crochet group is getting together for our monthly meeting and I’ll have the day to work on my Ravelympics projects…. woo hoo!

No pictures yet, but soon… once I get enough on all my projects to be worth taking pics.

Oops, I’ve gotta run… don’t want to be late!

Public Display of Crochet

Okay the holidays are officially over. What’s a girl to do? No more deadlines to meet for half a dozen gifts…. well, I am still working on my Harry Potter scarf for our nephew, but it’s almost done, and I feel no pressure. Just a few more stripes (yeah, I said that over a month ago!)

What’s on the needhookles? (needles, hooks)

I am still working on my Comfy Shoulder Shrug, from Creative Knitting, Sept. 2007. I can’t seem to get a picture from the internet, but here is what I had in December. I really love these colors and texture of the pattern. If you can’t figure it out, this is one of the sleeves. You knit your way up the arm, around the back, and down the other arm. I’m stoked because this is my first “real” garment, for me.

Here is where I’m at today:

I’ve got one whole arm done, and a bit started on the back. What really has me bummed is the very noticeable color change when I went to the second skein. The colors are not as dark, or intense as when I first started out. Because I added stitches to bot sides of the arm, I am guessing, is the reason that you can see some pooling of the colors… but I really like that. I’ll have to get over the color change, though, because I’m not about to frog this and start over. Plus, it’s something that I cannot correct because both of these skeins lost their labels long ago. Red Heart is not supposed to have dye lots, but I heard they are having a hard time with it now, and they DO have dye lots for some of their yarns.

I just started a Christmas Afghan for next year. I am thinking about gifting it to someone, but I’ll see. I really love this for myself, too. (Isn’t that always the way?) This is a free pattern that looks like squares of holly leaves. Here is my first completed square. You need 70 of them… whew! I thought I’d be safe starting it from now.

Oh, on a side note, this pattern looks like it was designed with Red Heart Super Saver in mind. Why do I say that? I’m so glad you asked…. It’s because all of the names of the colors match Red Heart Super Saver colors: Burgundy, Hunter Green, Soft White, Cherry Red, Paddy Green, and Soft Navy.

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Okay, so lets finally get to the shameful public display of crochet. So, I attended a bridal shower today. You know how you can get antsy while the bride is opening her gifts? Well, before that could happen to me, I pulled out my burgundy RH yarn and started 8-10 squares for the x-mas afghan. Pretty simple. I didn’t want to have six skeins of yarn with me, so I decided to make the start up color. Oh, and I did manage to snap off some pics of the shower……Pretty decent. Then tonight, I was unexpectedly invited out for coffee at a local diner with my neighbor. As soon as I sat down, I pulled out my crochet and whipped out 8 more. Woo hoo… I’m on my way! Sure I got the usual questions of “what ARE you doing?”… “oh, what are you making,” etc. That part is fun and I get to answer a lot of questions and casually also tell them that it’s SO easy and that they can do it, too. That’s normally when the conversations ends because nobody really seems interested enough to take the next step. I can’t blame them, though, because it took me a long time to get over my fear of more sophisticated than what I was doing, like scarves and unattached granny squares, destined for nowhere.

KNIT IT UP!

Christmas Knitting….

Is another reason why I’ve not been able to get back here. Good Grief!

I am struggling through a clapotis scarf for a friend. I’m making it with Wool of the Andes, Blue Bonnet yarn. I really love the color. The problem is that I’m running out of steam. I am bored to tears! A cloche made with matching yarn was in the works, but has stopped because I wanted to finish the clap first, to make sure that I had enough wool. Now, I’m going to have to finish the hat, regardless, because that clap is not getting done before Christmas. So, at least I’ll have the hat.

Next thing I’m working on, and have only just started this week, is a Hogwarts scarf for our nephew. I feel horrible because this is not the scarf I wanted to knit TWO years ago! I wanted to design a logo that shows the logo for his hockey team. I’ve not learned how to do colorwork yet, so I had to compromise and do “something”. The problem is that I am sure that his brother would like this scarf better than him, and I definitely do not have the time to knit two scarves. As you can see, I am knitting it in the round and so, will take a mite longer than a normal knit scarf. They live in NH so, it’s the least I can do… LOL… Anyway, my goal is to knit at least one stripe a day, and it should be good to go before xmas, right?

In the midst of all this, I have been crocheting some sweater dresses for Hugs4Hope, a group dedicated to supplying hospitals with items for newborn preemies and full term babies.  I love this pattern and can almost make a whole dress without looking at the pattern… so cool.  As a matter of fact, the jacket from the green outfit for my new niece, is a modification of this same pattern… I just didn’t make the skirt part.

Oh, another gift I am making, and is almost finished, is a cute kid’s vest I am making for Isabella, the little girl I babysit sometimes.  She lives right upstairs and I just had to make something.  This happens to be my first foray into following a pattern for an actual garment.  I will have to update this post to post a pic as I do not have an up-to-date one  that illustrates the garment… wow, did I say g-a-r-m-e-n-t ?

There is a whole slew of things I want to start.  Being on Ravelry is not helping matters.  I love that place.  In case I have not posted it already, my name there is DebbieKos.  Recently, I’ve become a volunteer editor and, most recently, a co-moderator of a group there.  Should be fun.  I do also have my own group that is geared towards identifying those oddball yarns, called, what else but “Mystery Yarn”.  I thought a group like that would be needed in a fiber community.  I am amazed at how resourceful and creative one sometimes must be in order to just find out what kind of yarn one has.

Last Thanksgiving we had some of both families here, at our house.  I thought it might be fun to give out favors… or something to thank everyone for coming.  After a long story, I decided to crochet dishcloths, and this is the Diamond Dishcloth.  Great pattern and very easy to make.  I made eight of them and arranged them in a small yellow basket so that they resembled flowers, and had that on the table all night.   I wish I had stopped to take a picture!  Alas, no.  Maybe when I get more made for myself, I’ll do that again, but it still would not be the same, know what I mean?  As a matter of fact, I took NO pictures that day… nada.  What the heck is wrong with me?  Just a busy, busy gal, I guess… with brains of jello.  I’ve decided that I need to make at least one of each color I made for Thanksgiving.  So bad, as this was meant to be a DE-stashing exercise.

I guess you guys never saw THIS… my beautiful Booga Bag!  Made with Araucania Nature Wool Chunky.  I do not believe the colors are named, just numbers.  Too bad.  I would put a link to the pattern, but not sure if I can.  The pattern states:   This pattern is for personal use only. It may not be copied and distributed in any way and bags cannot be made from this pattern and then sold.  So, I’ll just tell you that I got it from “Black Sheep Bags dot com“.  I actually made that “thing” that is hanging off the bag.  It’s supposed to be some sort of clasp to hold the flap down.  Just something I flubbed…. buuut… I still love my bag!  I will NEVER, EVER give this one away!  I’m in love!

Until next time, KNIT ON!