A Break

I'm taking a break from knitting the skirt. I swear that I just keep knitting and knitting and never seem to make any progress. I have no idea how SallyKnit finished hers so long ago and I'm still struggling. (She's a faster knitter, perhaps?)

The LYS has this sweater on display and I love it. So I'm making it for Elizabeth's second birthday in October.
But I'm not using Noro; I have problems with Noro. The yarn breaks on me. Where there are changes in the strand and one is tied to another, the staff at Noro seems to make no effort to match up the colors, and I end up with an abrupt color change. I love the colors but not the yarns. Instead, I am using Rowan felted tweed, which I love knitting with. It's a beautiful raspberry color, which doesn't show up well in the photo, but it really is pretty!

I do realize, however, after spending a fair amount of time this afternoon frogging rows of the lace, that had I used the Noro, mistakes wouldn't have been so obvious as they are in this yarn, and I could have CHEATED and faked the fixes!!!

Elizabeth will just have to be happy with a perfect sweater.......

It is knitting up really quickly and I may even have it finished by the end of the weekend!

Another Addict Waiting to be Born

I recently received an e-mail from my niece, M, who complimented me on the hat I knit for Elizabeth. She also commented on other projects I have written about on my blog, and used lots of words like gorgeous, beautiful, I love it and so on.

Then my favorite niece said that she would like to learn to knit and that maybe I could teach her the next time we get together. Well, yes I can! However, she lives in Florida, has two children, and I live in Georgia. Getting together anytime soon may not happen and so I am searching high and low for a knitting CD or DVD (I never can tell the difference) that I bought a few years ago when I was trying to refresh my memory on various knitting skills. I can't find it. I'm a big believer in a place for everything and everything in its place, and I am really, really frustrated that I can't find this CD/DVD. I thought that maybe I had sent it to older daughter when she started knitting, but she claims that I didn't and that she doesn't have it. Hmmmm....

I can direct M to the web for all sorts of knitting videos and they may help. But she will be in big trouble if she does take up knitting. She said that she sees beautiful yarns at Michaels, and wishes she could use them for something. I know there are some pretty yarns there, but WAIT till she sees what is in specialty yarn shops. All the beautiful Noro, Araucania, Be Sweet, Rowan, and too-many-others-to-name yarns. Once she sees those, and breathes in all those yarn fumes, she will be an addict.

So I'll keep searching for the CD/DVD and keep encouraging her to look up online instructional videos. I'm nothing if not an enabler!

[Fair warning: Do NOT go to any knitting/sheep and wool festivals with me unless you want to come home with lots of yarn and yarn accessories (with a nod to King of the Hill).]

Half a Project Finished

As in, one sock knitted. But I have never had Second Sock Syndrome, so I have no worries about finishing the pair. I love wearing hand-knit socks and the weather here is suddenly warm; I do worry that spring and summer will be here and I'll have to put all my wool socks away till next fall. I know there are people who wear wool socks year around, but it's too hot here to do that.

This sock, I mean pair, is knit from Regia Design Line by Kaffe Fassett. It's the first time I have used this yarn, and it's nice enough. It is supposed to be machine-washable in cold water and machine dryable. I doubt I'll try that since I wash all my hand-knit socks together by hand anyway.

However, there is nothing exciting about the yarn and I will probably try the Crystal Palace Mini Mochi next---once my LYS gets some in. I had read about it on a Yahoo sock-knitting list serve (or whatever it's called) and when I asked about it last Thursday at knit-night, the store had just sold the last two skeins --- and I had just learned that it exists! I am told that the colors are as good as Noro's colors are, but that the yarn is nicer, very soft. The Crystal Palace sales rep. was at the store when I arrived, and he told me that the yarn is so popular that it may be April before he can get any more of it to my LYS.

So I'll finish this pair, and then pick out something that has been languishing in my stash for awhile...

Latest Project

This is my most-recently finished project:a pair of socks made from Araucania Ranco Multy yarn, color 314. So far, this yarn and the Paca-Ped yarn are my favorites to work with. They are both soft, and I love the colors. Noro colors are gorgeous, but the yarn is scratchy and the thickness varies throughout. The Araucania and Paca-Ped yarns are just nicer to the touch and soft to knit with.

Finished Objects

Yay! Two projects finished---finally! After spending two months knitting a pair of socks, I was able to get busy on two other projects-one, the dreaded beaded scarf, and the other, a scarf I had bought the yarn for about four months ago. It was nice to knit on something other than size two needles for a change.

I like the beaded scarf, and knitting it was much easier than the beading process was. Sixteen-hundred beads on yarn a bit too thick for the holes in the beads---not fun at all! I used the kitchener stitch to graft the two ends together, and it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. The seam is quite visible and since the scarf could conceivably be worn with either side out, the seam detracts from one side a bit. I know (now) that the kitchener wasn't designed to work with a combination of knitted and purled stitches.

The second project is a scarf (Horndal Scarf from Noro Revisited by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton) and it's an easy project. The garter stitch sections are knitted in Noro Kureyon and the ribbed sections are knitted in Noro Blossom yarn. As always, Noro colors are gorgeous, but I don't like the sudden surprise of knots, especially knots that cause a sudden shift in color. When I use Noro in the future, I will re-wind it into balls so that I can look for knots and color shifts before I knit.

Next project? I am starting on a sweater for grandson, who will be two this months. I bought that yarn last fall to make him a sweater for Christmas. Ooops......

Finished Socks!

I have just finished the socks that gave me such a hard time and they are almost identical. I don't really get too fussy about identical normally, but after the not-even-fraternal Noro socks (because of a knot in the yarn, resulting in a sudden color change), it's fun to have something come so close to working. These are made from Online Supersocke 100 Holiday-Color.

Now I'm on to another skein of Noro. :-)