Live Models!

Last night I finished the collar on Rich’s sweater. He modeled it for me today:

I think he likes it! I used 7 skeins of Plymouth’s Galway worsted.

Right after I took Rich’s photo, I headed south to meet up with Pam. We landed in the middle of a suburban shopping paradise. We ate lunch and caught up on all of the news. She modeled her new scarf for me:

The leaves are at peak color so driving was unusually delightful.

In the weird department, I saw a dead bear on the side of the highway heading south on I-95. I have seen live bears in the woods back home, but this was a first.

 

Take Two

After knitting about 4 inches all around on the Kureyon 95 pullover, I reconsidered my plan. It’s now a top-down design. The last few nights have been filled up - preparing petition packets at Hillary Clinton’s national campaign headquarters, working in the clothing room at ECHO - but this weekend should allow a little time to sit.

All four of us are driving over the mountain tomorrow morning to visit my mom for her 80th birthday celebration. We are taking her out for lunch, then dinner and cake will be at my sister’s place. I am really looking forward to finally giving her the feather and fan shawl. We are going to have good weather and the leaves should be turning colors up north.

The other big excitement this week was actually meeting Hillary Clinton in person. I attended an event at the Carnegie Institute of Washington, where she gave a science policy speech. She spoke about putting facts before ideology, creating a research institution for renewable energy, restoring NASA’s mission of protecting the planet - it was very inspiring to hear her talk.

 

weekend knitting

We enjoyed a very relaxing weekend. On Saturday we drove up to Shepherdstown WV for a fall festival. The weather was perfect. I grabbed some sock yarn and started a new pair of socks while I sat in the sunshine and listened to bluegrass music.

Yesterday, though, I needed to start something a little more long-term. My mom’s shawl is finished, and I seamed the pieces together on Rich’s sweater and just need one evening for a collar. I have had some Kureyon marinating in my stash for a few months.  I often use Ann Budd’s Handy Book of Sweater Patterns along with my stitch dictionaries.  I am starting with some basic ribbing. The last time I did a sweater in the round with Kureyon, I ended up frogging the entire thing after the body was completed because the stripes were too narrow. I re-knit, using multiple skeins that I re-wound in order to get similar colors together. I will be doing the same thing on this sweater.

This colorway does not have as many wild shifts in color as some of the other Kureyon yarns, but the close colors still have lots of subtle variation.

 

one stitch at a time

Last night I met a Ravelry person 3D! Rich and I went to Wolf Trap to hear Nancy Griffith and Judy Collins. Two rows in front of me I saw a woman knitting socks - and using yarn that I have already knit into a pair of socks that I love. Imagine! We chatted briefly during an intermission. On the way out to the parking lots we met up again and struck up a bit more conversation. It was nice to meet another knitter. We discussed the finer details of what counts as stash - yarn for charity projects does not count, sock yarn does not count. As I stated that “ebay yarn does not count” I realized that Rich was indeed listening - teehee. I am sure that I will have a chance to remind him that model train cars purchased on ebay take up as much room as train cars from other sources.

After at least four false starts, some with considerable amounts of knitting accumulated, the shawl for my mom is growing and I love it. It is warm and so soft, lightweight but snuggly. I devised a method for keeping track of my repeats (modified spreadsheet scribbled on an index card) and that has eliminated the need to unknit, finally. It was only a week ago that I started the version that is the keeper. The stitch detail:

The flickr version of the photo has notes showing the yarn details.

Rich’s sweater pieces are completed. A Red Scarf is underway and I have swatched two other stitch patterns. With any luck, all three of these projects will be completed before Oct 6, when we visit my mom.

 

sweater progress

Last night I finished the first sleeve for Rich’s sweater. Second one will be cast on tonight.

My Interweave Press hurt books arrived today via FedEx. The one that looks most exciting to me is Knitting Ganseys, by Beth Brown-Reinsel. When I began to knit again a few years ago, I used patterns. That only held my interest for a little while. Now I would rather pour through stitch compendiums, make swatches and sketches, and do calculations. I would rather know the frameworks and then modify to suit my ideas. I know that I learned this from my mother decades ago. I would sit next to her at the pattern counter at the Penn Traffic department store while she looked at the Vogue, Butterick, and Simplicity books. Mostly she liked Vogue. Then she would explain to me what she would change - the sleeve, the collar details - and why. My mom found a way to express her individuality in that way and it rubbed off on me. I’m glad.

We are off to the beach on Friday morning for a long weekend. I will work on my mom’s shawl while we are there. The weather will be cooler and we might have some rain - good knitting opportunities.

 

FO!

It turns out that it is not so easy to knit on the train and also carry on a discussion with colleagues, at least while also trying to do a stitch pattern and keep track of increases and the changes it causes to the pattern. Last Sunday I knit far too many rows twice while the Acela sped toward our destination. On the return trip I stuck to the Kureyon striped scarf that I started as a respite from too much green. Still needs to be blocked:

It is one skein each of Kureyon 95 and 164. Not very long, but still a nice size for me.

I also had to use free time for some household projects, and I got to spend an evening with each of my girls. The sweater lagged but I made a little progress on the first sleeve. The front is finished also.

No travel this week, but lots of activity getting the last baby bird off to college for the first time. For anyone who is counting, that is three kids in college at the same time.

The gardens are coming back to life with a little water and some easing of the hot weather. I am expecting a second blooming of the bee balm any day now. The hummingbirds just flock to it.

 

knitting: perfect antidote for a working weekend

On Friday at 5 I found out I would working part of the weekend. It’s all good.
The weather is breezy and not too warm, so I have been taking breaks out on the deck with my knitting. Yesterday evening I finished the back of Rich’s sweater. The stitch pattern is not terribly visible in this photo. The basketweave makes a subtle contrast in the shading of the yarn.

While we were at the beach I fooled around with yarns and gauge on my mom’s shawl. I finally added two plain yarns. Intermittently I am varying the number of rows with each color. It’s a very soft and springy fabric.

The sweater due date is mid-August, and the shawl is early October, but I find myself knitting on both of them when I should probably concentrate on the sweater first. I find myself browsing lace patterns and knitting little swatches. While we were at the beach I made several. Love those Barbara Walker books.

 

beach knitting coming up

We are headed to the beach for a few days. YAY! The beach knitting is ready to go.

My mom requested brown and heavy for a shawl. Much as I want to make her happy, I can’t knit a rug when I was planning to knit lace. My compromise is that I will knit something with a dk-weight, not make too many holes in it, and find something in the brown/tan family that I can look at. An important requirement is easy washability, but I wanted mostly wool. I spent time at Uniquities after mulling over several possibilities. I came home with this:

and also some Lamb’s Pride Superwash. I started swatching with two strands held together. When I liked what I had, I used the ball winder and now I have this very portable little project:

The yarn repeats cover my horizontal rows nicely, the solid yarns match perfectly with the Trekking, and I have a dk weight. Mom’s birthday is not until October so I will have a great headstart on her gift. Bonus, the weather will not be too sticky for knitting outdoors.

This is probably not going to the beach:

I hope to finish up the back today. I started armhole shaping last night. I ripped out the entire back after my last photo because I hated the stockinette that was between the ribbing and the main pattern. I also knit two rows yesterday morning while I was waiting for the coffee to be ready and did not find my pre-caffeine mistake until many rows later. dang.

 

Designing a Sweater

Rich’s birthday is coming up in 5 weeks. I have had some yarn stashed to make him a sweater. After swatching for a couple of days, I have a plan. Here’s the bottom of the front:

I have designed some baby sweaters but this will be the first adult-sized attempt. I’m using Galway Highland. It’s plain, very soft to the touch, but seems to have enough twist that it will wear well. I hope to use the rest of my time off to make some progress.

In other news, we visited my mom last weekend. It’s not possible to escape without a box or a bag of stuff, right? This time the haul was a stack of 1990’s Vogue Knitting magazines and a book on Knitting for Barbie. I showed her the lace swatches that I did, but she wants something more like a heavy blanket instead of a lace shawl, and she wants brown. I was going for brighter, lighter, and far more lightweight. I left her with a knitted log cabin dishcloth. She called yesterday to report that she had taped it to the wall above her sink. I can’t get anyone to actually wash dishes with these things!