What was I thinking?????

My sweet Swedish godfather asked me to make him a sweater...we discussed yarn, color and style.  He wanted a turtleneck "fishermans" sweater...his words.  I showed him the fisherman's rib and that's what he wanted in a natural white.  He paid for the yarn, Cascade 220, and gave me a turtleneck to use for measurements and I set to work.

What was I thinking to knit a whole sweater in this rib?  I will be stark raving mad by the end of it!

I even sent him Michele Wang's newest sweater - Squall - to see if I could zing it up a bit but he wants his simple sweater.  So here it is so far...

It's a vanilla sweater which I realized is perfect for him because every time my godmother and I went to Baskin Robins for ice cream he would ask for vanilla - seriously, who has all those flavors in front of them and wants vanilla?  My godfather - that's who!  So onward with the vanilla sweater - I think I'll have to find something tangier to knit in between.

Custom Fit Installment #1

Over the next month or so I'll be giving you updates on my Custom Fit beta testing for Amy Herzog.  This is a huge undertaking for her and I'm so excited to be part of it.  I am in the 5th group to be testing and should be starting my sweater in mid-August.

I swatched - probably not to the entire specs she wanted of 6"x6"...I did plain stockinette and realized I didn't want a stockinette sweater so I found a lovely textured pattern called "Dimples" and swatched that partway through the swatch.  It gives a denser fabric with some interest.

Here's my swatch:

On other fronts, I dropped of my Do You Like My Hat? to the owner of A Hundred Ravens and she loved it...we've started brainstorming for my next design.  Swatch is done and I hope to pick up some yarn this week and get creating.  Stay tuned!

Do You Like My Hat?

Presenting my newest design - the name is inspired by "Go, Dog. Go!' by P. D. Eastman.  Love the hat and the details and love the yarn.  Do You Like My Hat?

Set-In Sleeves Finishing Techniques

I am wondering if there is a debate out in Ravelry land (and I should look) about how to sew sleeves on a sweater.  I think I've talked about this before but I need to re-visit and discuss my thoughts on the process.

I learned to sew before I learned to knit.  When you make sleeves in a sewn garment you sew the sleeve seam first then you set the sleeve into the armhole - that's why they are called set-in sleeves, right?

I have always applied this process for a seamed sweater with set-in sleeves.  However, every now and then I run into instructions which recommend sewing the sleeve cap in then sewing the sleeve seam and under arm and side seam straight down.  I have trouble with this - how are you supposed to adjust the ease of the sleeve into the armhole when you don't have a hole for the arm?

So, I always buck the system and do it MY way which is the sewing way.  Correct me if I'm wrong here as I know I can always learn something new but I have yet to have a sleeve look unfitted.

And while I'm on my soapbox...there is something to be said for careful seaming.  I have two friends who I used to knit with years ago and they would spend a fortune on yarn and would knit gorgeous pieces.  Then they'd slap the sweater together with poor seaming and it would look like hell.  Why waste the time and money to knit a gorgeous sweater and not finish it properly?  It would kill me.  I attribute my finished sweaters to my sewing knowledge...maybe more people should sew before they seam a sweater...or knit seamless.

Farmer's Market Find

My daughter and I ventured out on a VERY hot Saturday to the local farmer's market in Natick Center.  There is a lovely town green right near a great yarn store, The Iron Horse.  As we strolled about and my daughter sampled all sorts of goodies, I noticed there was a yarn vendor.

Well, you know where we ended up lickety-split!  The vendor is an indie dyer with the label name of A Hundred Ravens.  As we are fingering the yarn (okay, I admit it as I am fondling and petting the yarn), I looked at her label and she lives right down the road in the same town.  Check her out also on Etsy.

So, we got to talking.  I told her I have designed a few patterns and she said she needed more patterns to sell with her yarn.  I told her I'd love to design something for her so I let my daughter pick the yarn which is their Danu line in the colorway Morgan.  I'm not surprised at the color choice as you've noticed purple is one of my daughter's favorites.

We discussed her pattern needs and she asked for mitts, mittens or a hat.  I think I'll go for mitts as I'm a bit mittened out right now.  She kindly gave me a designer discount and we were on our merry way.  I'm off to look at stitch patterns and swatch a bit...

Just One More Mitten

I decided it was high time to add more sizes to my Just One More Mitten pattern.  So I pulled out the leftover yarn from the last round of designing and got to work.  Right now the pattern is available in Child Small for $1.99 and now I have finished the Child Medium and Child Large/Adult Small sizes.   The pattern is live and updated on Ravelry and those who purchased it have been sent updated copies.

Here are the Child Medium ones all done and NOT ready to wear in this heat!

Here are the Child Large/Adult Small ones - funny thing is they look like they are different sizes in the photo but I think it is because I tried the right one on my too large hand too many times.  They are the same size.

I can barely contain myself!

Can you tell it is summer and I actually have time to post?  Lots going on and lots to share so I'll spread it out over a couple of days.  Here's the exciting story I have to share first!

When I saw that Amy Herzog was looking for Beta Testers for her new CustomFit software, I knew I wanted to be one of those few who was chosen.  I immediately emailed her and gave her my Ravelry ID and all sorts of other info including the fact that I worked for IBM years ago and was involved in purchasing ad space on the internet and am used to seeing roughed out software.  I also mentioned (timing is everything) that I was currently working on her Asilomar pattern.

Well, an email came through on Friday and the opening said this:

Hi everyone!

Hooray, we’d love to have you as a CustomFit beta tester! I’m so very, very excited to be working with you on this. Eeee! 

I could barely contain myself and my family thought I was a lunatic.  I get to pick a design from these options.

I have a sweater's worth of Cascade 220 in a lovely denim blue.  I'm leaning towards the first one and have swatched up a lovely textured pattern.  Here it is soaking - love that my Ziploc container is perfect for a swatch soak.

Last bit I realized (and I do believe things happen for a reason) is that Amy lives about an hour away.

More to come.

Little Knits

I've been knitting some little knits lately - no, there aren't any babies anywhere on my horizon friend-wise (and I am certainly done with baby making).  I just like making them for stash busting.  I recently cranked out 2 over the past few months - I'll probably sell them at the Wayland Depot like I did with my ornaments at Christmas.

This one was an invention of my own - simple top down cardigan - I love stripes and you'll see that I kept it up with the other baby sweater.  This yarn was used for another cardigan and I had lots leftover so I plugged the colors into the Random Strip Generator and voila!  I love it.

This lovely little newborn cardigan used some stash yarn I had that once belonged to Kate Gilbert.  It is incredibly soft.  I used a free pattern but instead of 2 colors I went for 3.  I love the combination - it looks like something from Provence.  It needs a good blocking but otherwise it is good to go.  Again, the Random Stripe Generator came to the rescue.

Right now I'm working to make larger sizes for my Just One More Mitten pattern.  One pair down, several more to go.

I also have put my name into the ring to beta test Amy Herzog's new CustomFit software.  I find out next week...keep your fingers crossed as I would love to do this.  Kind of funny that I happen to be knitting her latest Asilomar pattern as this opportunity came up.

Two Sleeves At Once

Right now I'm knitting (and loving knitting) Asilomar by Amy Herzog.  It is for my daughter and she chose a lovely color called Doe Heather in Cascade 220.  I'm at the point where I knit the sleeves (this is a pieced/seamed knit).  When I knit sleeves I tend to do them both at once on a long circular needle (I gave up on straight needles years ago).  Anyway, sometimes it is easy to flip the piece over before knitting the second sleeve and then I am off by 2 rows when I get back to the second sleeve.  So, I came up with a solution:

I simply join the two sleeves with a locking stitch marker - this keeps me from separating the two and knitting them unevenly if I'm not paying attention.  I often knit without looking especially while watching TV or a movie (heck, I even read while I'm knitting).

This clever solution I figured was worth sharing!  I'm sure someone else has come up with it too.

Onward on my sleeves.

Don't Faint

I'm posting 2 days in a row after a month of but after seeing Carole's 10 on Tuesday I had to post again.
Here goes!

10 Things I’m Looking Forward to in the Month of May.

1. Warmer weather - it is slowly getting warmer here in MA and I'm so happy.

2. Lily of the Valley - my favorite flower blooms in May.  I carried them as my wedding bouquet.  I love their delicate stalks and flowers and the scent is divine (however, I will admit I don't like lily of the valley perfume or lotion and for some reason I am given it too often).

3. May Fair - our church in CT has an amazing fair the Saturday before Mother's Day.  It is an all day event and is the largest one day fair in the state of CT.  If you live in CT, it is worth the field trip.  In fact, I'm considering trekking back to CT for the day just because it has been part of our lives for years and I don't want to miss it.

4. My birthday is in May - often it falls on Mother's Day.  It did last year which was fitting as it was my 50th birthday and I was born on Mother's Day.  Here's a photo of my kids and me on my 50th.

5.  Mother's Day - I love sending my mom a special little gift on our shared special day.

6. Our anniversary is in May - okay this was the crazy trifecta...our anniversary is the day after my birthday as it was the only day the church was available.  I told my husband that he could easily have my birthday, mother's day and our anniversary right in a row or stacked up on each other.  He's handled it well in spite of breaking the "separate gifts, separate cards, separate wrapping paper" rule for all 3.  He sure can't forget our anniversary ever!

7. Memorial Day - we spend Memorial Day at my husband's family home at the Jersey shore (not the Snookie part) every year.  We open up the house, go for walks, barbecue and if it is warm enough don bathing suits and start the summer season.  This year, however, it is going to be different.  Our house had 3 1/2 ft of water in it during Hurricane Sandy.  We hope to be back in by Memorial Day but we probably won't have any furniture...heck, that's what beach chairs are for!  Here is a photo from the Memorial Day service at the local club - it is lovely and so patriotic.

8. Changing my wardrobe - it is so nice not to wear a heavy coat everywhere.  I love breaking out the spring colors, skirts and baring my toes to the world.  Which leads to:

9. Beginning of the season pedicure!  I love to have pretty toes in the spring and summer and a pedicure is the right way to start the open toe shoes and sandal season.

10. Sleeping with the windows open.  It is too cold to sleep with the windows wide open or even cracked during the winter...however, just in the past few days we've cracked them open.  The fresh air gives me a lovely night's sleep and I love hearing the birds in the morning.

Happy May everyone!

Oh My...What a Bad Blogger

I just noticed my last blog post was almost a month ago.  I am a bad blogger!  I apologize for going radio silent yet again.  I've had a crazy few weeks that have made it so my time is not my own.  Two plus weeks ago I got a call from the middle school - a teacher was about to go out on maternity leave and their coverage fell through.  I went in and interviewed for the job (some of the interview was in French as it was to teach her French classes).  After some back and forth and reswizzling of the job and the pay I was awarded the long term substitute position.  THEN the teacher started a false labor so one week after the interview I was starting the job.  I covered her classes for 3 days then the job started right after our vacation week.

My first week of work was this past week - as a result, my time is not my own.  This is something I full well learned last year when I subbed for a teacher on maternity leave - hence, the need to reswizzle the pay!

This explains yet another radio silence...I am out of the house by 7am (up at 5am) and not home til 2:30.  Then mom duty begins which I don't need to explain to any of you.

I've been too tired to knit much this past week but I did finish a lovely knit.  I had some Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool in my stash and I started this project at the end of March - it is by Bonne Marie Burns.  Vonica is a fun knit with an interesting pattern that is easy to follow.  I love the color, the cut, the weight of the yarn for a spring knit.  I quickly blocked it and wore it the next day.  I'm in love with this sweater.  Apologies for the photos - taken on the computer but better than no photos.

What am I knitting now?  I have a design idea in my head.  I've also ordered some yarn from the Webs sale - Cascade 220 of course.  I got enough to make a stocking for my nephew and a sweater for Miss America.

I'll try to post here and there - it is hard when my days are not my own.  Tell me, what are you knitting these days?

To answer Millie's questions in the comments section - this was our first winter in MA.  It sure was a doozy!  We live in a town that is known for not cancelling school often and we had to cancel I think 2 days due to snow/weather.  As for my subbing here, all I had to do was apply.  Substitute teachers surprisingly don't need any special degrees or training - just a college degree.  And as for new projects, I just cast on a stripey baby sweater that I'm making up as I go along.  More to come.  I love baby projects as you feel like you've accomplished so much in so little time.

Perfect for Easter

A while back, we went to the ordination of our youth minister.  His 4 year old daughter, Elana, reminded me I knit a sweater for her baby sister.  She had the color and buttons down cold and described it to a tee.

So, I said, "Would you like me to knit you a sweater and what color would you like...pink?" - knowing full well pink would be her choice.  She told me she wanted a sweater with buttons and yes, pink would be her choice.

So, when I went to Windsor Button I picked up some Plymouth Encore in a pink that borders on Pepto Bismol pink.  I got some white and then used some purple I had in my stash.  I combined two patterns to make the cardigan - I used Drive Thru for the sweater directions and Isabella for the yoke pattern.

Originally, I wanted to find flower buttons but nothing appealed to me so I ended up with matching pink buttons that actually let the flower yoke stand out better.

It went in the mail and should be her Easter surprise - what a perfect Easter sweater!

I won a prize!

Leslie, A Friend To Knit With, was having a contest for a Lilly lint removing brush.  I put my name into the hopper of comments and imagine my surprise when I saw her post saying I was one of 10 winners.

I love Leslie's blog and love her knitting - she's inspired me to make several items including my favorite Inca Marl Coat.  The small world thing we learned is both our parents live in the same small town in Florida.  One day I hope to meet her in person - virtual friendships are lovely but sometimes you just have to meet the person like I did with Major Knitter.

Here's my prize - now to get some sweaters out and give it a whirl!

Finished

Well, the friendship blanket is finished - we had so much fun doing this and the coordinator, Leslie, lovingly seamed it together.  Then a quick crochet border was added and voila, it is done.  The plan is to give it to the family on the Greek Orthodox Easter which is in May.  What a loving gift for a family that lost their mother.

My new knitting group

As most of you know, I participated in the most amazing knitting group when we lived in Connecticut.  In fact, when asked if I miss where we lived, I reply that I only miss our church and my knitting group.   They are the ones that lovingly made me my friendship blanket.

Thanks to my cousin, I have a new knitting group here in Massachusetts.  Shortly after I joined them, one of their members lost her battle with cancer.   The group decided to knit a blanket for her family. The lady organizing the effort, Leslie, asked for my help in selecting yarn.  We picked Cascade 128 Superwash which is bulky and knits up quickly.  Each skein easily made two 10" x 10" squares.  I took my swift to Leslie's house and I spent a morning winding 24 skeins into cakes.

Today we placed all the squares in order for seaming.  The wonderful thing is the center square has a heart.  So much love went into this.  Some of the women are novice knitters and this was a delightful challenge for them.  Funny thing is I never met the woman or her family but it doesn't matter...that's what we knitters do.

Here is how it looks...I know it will be loved and cherished.