Sister Sock.

My twin sister was at a quilt show on Friday and Saturday helping a friend with her booth. She drove past my house and stayed here Saturday night. To my surprise while we were chatting the evening away, she pulled out a knitting project that she was doing. She said that she just started knitting again last fall and this was her third project. She is making a pair of worsted weight slouch socks. In her favorite color. . .orange. She also bought another shank of beautiful sock yarn to do her next pair. . .also orange.

Now the title of this post has two meanings. I have already mentioned the first meaning; the second is that she left the "sister" sock at the quilt show. She called her friend who promised to rescue the sock and return it to her.

Knitting updates and lessons learned

First the lace project.  As you can see I have made a little progress.

This now represents about 100 rows of knitting. However, most of them were frogged. Thankfully, I started using life lines or there would be even fewer remaining representatives.  

LESSON LEARNED: This lace has one row of pattern (the even numbered rows) , then one row of all purl stitches (odd numbered rows). I was putting the life line in every 4th row: 4, 8, 12, and 16 but with all of the  jigs and jogs created by the various stitches, when I had to follow a life line back, I had a real problem getting all of the stitches back on my needle. So then I had the idea of putting the life line through the purl stitches. This works much better! Now I put the life lines through rows 1, 5, 9, and 13.

My bamboo sweater is about half done -- the easy half! The back is complete. It only took about 3 hours to knit on my Bond USM. 

The Bamboozle yarn is soft and smooth and I imagine that it will be very comfortable to wear. But it had some issues with knitting on the machine. I had a hard time getting an e-wrap closed hem on it because as I wrapped the yarn around the needles, it took the twist out of it and the 8 ply yarn split up. I modified my method and used waste yarn at the bottom of the sweater. When I was done with the entire sweater back, I rehung the bottom of the sweater and back stitched an edge before removing the weighted hem and waste yarn. I think that it turned out pretty good for an "on-the-fly" change.

Since I am estimating that the cable may add as much as 2 extra hours of time to the front of the sweater, I am going to wait until next weekend to knit the front. I know that I won't have time to do the front of the sweater in one sitting and I don't want to leave it (pardon the pun) "hanging" for a week. I know that I could leave it by taking the weight off of it, but since my Bond is on the dining room table, I would be afraid that it would get bumped or knocked and will fall off of the needles.

Cash no substitute for missing quilt - Times Union

OK, maybe the handcuffs are hyperbolic -- but sometimes I deal in hyperbole! In an earlier post, I featured an article on some stolen sweaters by a designer who featured them in her pattern book. In this post, I am pointing you to a missing quilt. This quilt is featured in the June/July issue of the national magazine, Quilter's Newsletter. Cash no substitute for missing quilt - Times Union. If you happen to see the quilt, I am sure that you will make someone VERY happy.

"Knetting"

A recent article in the Yarmouth County Vangard of Nova Scotia illustrates that knitting wasn't always a womanly art. Knitting was and is a tool used by fishermen in their industry. A quick "google" and I came up with an historical site for net making and an online YouTube video on how to make a fishing net.

Happy Knetting. . .um er, Knitting!

I've been Bamboozled!

Bamboozle in Blueberry/Grape
55% Bamboo, 24% Cotton, 21% Elastic Nylon

It's here!

After a (what seemed like) a long wait, I have finally gotten the Bamboozle that I ordered for my summer sweater. Isn't it beautiful?

This yarn by Crystal Palace Yarns has a tight twist and feels quite dense. It does have stretch provided by the elastic nylon. I have heard that clothing made from bamboo yarn can sag and "grow" longer, but Crystal Palace's website says that the elastic nylon assists in  keeping the garment's shape. In my earlier post I put a link to the pattern that I am going to use which was also created by Crystal Palace Yarns.

I posted a question on Knitting Paradise forum requesting feedback on what people thought about bamboo yarns and if they had any tips on using it. Got a lot of good tips on using bamboo yarn (which is always the case on that forum) and some great feedback on Crystal Palace Yarns, too. Interesting note, on that thread, I "ran into" the knitter that knitted the pictured example in the pattern. Fun!

Knitting Lace -- or starting another project before finishing any of the others.

I know that I shouldn't have done it -- but I did. I started another project before finishing any of the others. This seems to be a trend. Let's not talk about the 12 partial quilts in the basement, or the needlepoint picture, or the crocheted afghans (two that I can remember), or the still unfinished baby overalls with the cute little ladybugs on them, or the tatted lace, or the . . .like I said we won't talk about it!

Today we are going to discuss my new project. This is as far as I have gotten in a week. I have done several more rows than this; however, you don't see them because they were frogged* -- repeatedly. First I knitted 12 rows only to find I did something wrong and had to rip it out. Then I started again, knit 15 rows and looked at the pattern again and realized I was right the first time. After a 2 day break, I started again, this time adding life lines every 4 rows. It is hard to see the life lines in this photo as they are white yarn. Adding the life lines have helped as I am ripping out fewer lines when I make a mistake. I think that I have knitted close to 50 rows altogether, but you only see 20 rows here.

I read somewhere once that lace didn't look very good until you blocked it. That is an understatement. I can't tell what this lace will look like -- and right now it looks like a "dog's breakfast"**.

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As for some of my other UFO projects:

Actually, I DID finish the scarf that I had started some hundred years ago. And I have enough yarn left over to do a hat with the same yarn to "match" it. I found a pattern for a lacy slouch beret -- I just need to get size 7 dpns.

The old afghan I found in a drawer has been stagnating in my knitting bag. I am beginning to think that I have two choices: frog it and use the yarn for something else or try to run a life line past where I lost the pattern and begin again.

I have a partially done baby sweater which I am knitting on my USM knitting machine. I have done one of the sides and the back, but it too has been languishing waiting for piece number three to be completed.

I have done some work on the mittens, errr, mitten, singular as I have not gotten past the first few rows of the pattern. I think that this evening, after dinner is done, it will be me, the mittens, a baseball game and a glass of wine. 

It is very slow going and I keep finding more patterns to save and dream about doing. Not to mention all the time I spend writing this blog.

Happy knitting!

*Frogging is to rip out the previously knitted work. As in Rip it, Rip it.
**Dog's breakfast is British slang for a complete mess.

More Extreme Knitting -- Finger Knitting that is!

I remember Karen K. taught me to finger knit in 2nd grade. We used string and spent several days at recess working on long knitted tubes. I didn't really know that it was knitting -- in fact, I did not connect it to the "real" knitting I learned only 3 years later until I was an adult.

WCAX.COM Local Vermont News reports this week that the Monkton Elementary School's first and second grade classes created a 45 pound ball of finger knitting which totaled over 5 miles of knitting.

Tumbling Teddy Bears -- Latest Baby Quilt

Tumbling Teddy Bears 2011

Tumbling This Way

When I started at my present company,  I made a baby quilt for one of my new co-workers. I thought that I would make one for every baby born to someone on my floor. My mistake was that I did not take into account the average age of the employees on my floor -- late 20s to early 30s -- prime baby making years!

So in the last couple of years I have made 9 baby quilts for co-worker babies. I did this pattern for someone a couple of years ago and it was really easy and fun to make. So since that person has since left the company, I decided to make this one for another company baby.

The first teddy bear quilt I made, Dancing Bears, was for a girl. Some of the bears on that quilt were girl bears wearing dresses and some were boy bears wearing pants. This baby was a boy and all the bears are wearing pants.

Tumbling That Way

I have at least one more baby quilt to make this year for a colleague who is due in October. She wants to be surprised so I will have to come up with a quilt that is good either way.

My favorite technique for making quick baby quilts is to Google "coloring pages" and look for a simple animal or baby toy motif as a pattern. I then use fusible paper to appliqué the motif -- here the teddy bear -- to the background fabric. The most time is spent actually sewing around each object with a blanket stitch. No, I don't do it by hand anymore, I use my Bernina! It does a much neater job than I can and is way faster.

My sister, Brenda, then machine quilts the finished top with her long arm quilting machine. I have hand quilted before, but again, her long arm is much faster! I have too many babies to make quilts for than I have spare time.