Stereotype, that's my blog!

Apparently.

Because it's mostly about knitting i.e. "Stories about crap somebody cooked, knitted, or sewed."  

Well, sorry about that. That's all I got.


Onward:

I am currently playing yarn chicken with this hat:

Absolutely everything I have read on Ravelry about this hat assures me that I will not run out of yarn, and my digital scale tells me that I have enough, but I am really, really not so sure.  

This is the designer's photo of the finished hat:

I love it and I hope I have enough yarn because if I don't, I have to mail order more yarn, and WAIT for it to arrive, and as my family can tell you, I am an immediate gratification kind of gal.  If I do have enough yarn, the hat will be finished TODAY and that's my kind of timing.  However, this .8 oz of yarn is all I have left.

So if I've run out of yarn, maybe my next post will be about crap I've cooked because my poor Instant Pot is feeling neglected.  

  

Have You Ever

seen a more beautiful lace shawl?

You have?  You've seen Faroese shawls, Estonian Lace shawls, Orenburg shawls?

Well, OK.  

But have you ever seen a more beautiful lace shawl knitted by yours truly???

No you haven't (because I haven't made any others).

Seychelles from Ravelry designed by Susannah IC

I bought the materials for this four years ago and then put it all aside thinking that it was much too difficult for me.

But I corresponded with a couple of knitters on Ravelry who had made it, and who assured me that it was easy.

And it WAS!  Amazingly easy.

Shhhh....don't tell anyone else.  OK?

Mistakes Were Made

I think.

I'm not sure.

I am working on Umaro by Brooklyn Tweed, and it doesn't look right. I'm not blaming myself (yet) because lots of other knitters on Ravelry have commented on the confusing charts. 

There are several places where the pattern just doesn't work out right, but I think I will need to knit on and then see if I should just trust the pattern (and myself) to get it right. 

The last time I made a blanket, a small baby blanket, I said Never again! and I did mean it at the time, but I love this one; it's huge but worth the time (if I get it right).  I hope.

Stash

Ravelry, that wonderful website for spinners, crocheters, and knitters that has now gotten over three million members from all over the world, has a feature that allows members to enter their stash.  No, not that stash...yarn stash.  It took hours and hours to do this, even though I have a relatively small stash compared with other members.

Large stash:

Large stash:

Large stash:

My stash:

Yep. That's it.  Teeny tiny.

And yet it took all day to enter it into Ravelry.  I thought at one point that I was finished, and then I remembered---

Sock Yarn.

Now knitters know that sock yarn doesn't officially, legally count as stash.  It's true.  But I did want to know what I had, and oh, my, I had more sock yarn than I had realized.  But it's ok.  I love knitting socks.  I just need to move someplace cold enough to wear all of the socks that I can knit.

I have mentioned before that I think all computer technologies are amazing and magic.  I learned that there is a function on the stash page that takes all of the stash information and automatically enters everything into a spreadsheet.

This is a screenshot of part of my spreadsheet:

The thing is, I have no idea why I would WANT a spreadsheet of yarns.

Fringed and Finished

This is my second Annie Scarf (here on Ravelry).  

 

This scarf is made from Tactile Fiber Arts Studio Arcata Lace (silk) and Lang Yarns Baby Alpaca.  It is soft and drapes really well.

And it was, as the Yarn Harlot might say, dead easy!

Before It Is No More

I was reading on a forum on Ravelry about knitters who still had sweaters they had made decades ago, and it reminded me of one I made in the late 60s, when I was in college.  It took me ten months to make and about ten minutes to ruin.  I did wear it for a few years in between the two events, but when, in my later 20s, I decided I really didn't need to take it to be dry-cleaned, that I could wash it myself in cold water, IN THE WASHING MACHINE, well, that was the end of the sweater as a sweater.

I have taken a few pictures to remember it by, before it becomes a pillow.

The Sweater:

                                                                The Inspection:

What's Under Here?

Must Kill This:

It will soon BE killed, but by me, not by Molly.

I can't believe I was so dumb?  Uninformed?  Young, naive and arrogant?  (This will work because I say it will work.)  All of those, I suppose.

Anyone know of good uses for the sleeves?

Who Knew?

There is knitting music!

Found on Ravelry.

Yes, I had too much free time today.

Finished.....

I just finished the Hip in Hemp Skirt that has been on the needles since 2011. I'm happy with the results; I won't hold a grudge---it's not the skirt's fault that it took me so long.

I did take Mere's advice (thank you!) and knit a few extra inches before I cast off, and thanks to Ravelry readers' notes, I realized I had not copied the cast off instructions, which required 10 rows of garter stitch. That added an inch to the length and thank goodness, I had enough yarn.

This skirt kept getting fuller as it got longer, and I was worried that I would need one of these to wear it properly.

If only I had read the other knitters' comments on this skirt BEFORE I started the skirt I would have known how to make it longer without making it wider, and at the same time, maintain the desired shape of the skirt. And I could have skipped all the math and logic and painful thinking that doing the calculations myself entailed:

If I were a more experienced knitter, I would have been able to figure out with my own little brain how to make the changes I needed to make with. It was embarrassingly easy! Just add one extra stockinette row between the increase rows---4 rows instead of 5. Duh.

This skirt took forever and a month to knit, has one bazillion stitches and I LOVE it!

Fifth and Final

This is the last hat I am making, at least for now, from the same yarn (Cascade Quatro, color #9433) and the same pattern(Meret-free on Ravelry). I cannot get the color to look like the actual color, no matter how much I play with it in iPhoto. And the lace doesn't show up well. I'm an amateur photographer, in case you couldn't tell.

The pattern is so easy that it's ideal for someone who wants to learn lace knitting. And it is SO easy that after the first couple of rows, I didn't need to look at the pattern any more.

But after five of these, plus one hat without lace for my grandson, enough is enough. Time to move on.

The Yarn Spoke!

I finally made something out of the yarn (Pagewood Farm Hand Dyed Yarn, Willow Creek, in greens) I bought in LA many, many months ago. It was supposed to have been a scarf, but I learned the hard way - on size 2 needles no less - that there was only enough yarn for a very small scarf.

But the yarn finally told me what it really wanted to be: Autumn Leaves Fingerless Mitts designed by Abbie Tilden (available on Ravelry). See the leaf?

And Baxter vs Miss Babs? Because inquiring minds want to know:

Baxter is alive and well and continuing to tear up our home. The Miss Babs yarn has yet to appear in any form. I don't know where it is. (Although I admit that since Baxter seems fine, I'm not looking very hard.)

Three Miracles!

First, there is my lamp. DH repaired it and this is the side where the break and repairs show a little.


So all I have to do is turn it to this side! And it works, too. I am thrilled that it was salvageable. Also, I think the breakage and repairs may constitute patina, so now it's an antique, right?

Thanks, DH!!! (And no, it will not be residing on this hutch, where bad, bad Baxter knocked it from.)

And now for a second miracle. I finished the scrapbook for my oldest granddaughter, who will be ten in October. It covers the first five years of her life, and I have decided that I will stop all the rest of the scrapbooks at age five, as well.

It only took me these past five years to catch up.

I have three more grandchildren to make scrapbooks for, and I am going to be more faithful about getting them finished. (Maybe) Second granddaughter's scrapbook is current to age two and a half. I have the first page of my grandson's finished-he's going to be four this Friday. And I do HAVE the scrapbook for my third granddaughter--it's still in the Michaels' bag. She will be two in October. Impressive, yes?

The third miracle is this hat---not because I made it but because it's made of wonderful 100% cashmere, not something I have ever used before. It was on sale for 75% off at my LYS just before the shop moved to a new location. There was no way to let the yarn stay in the shop! And it is, as the Ravelry group Selfish Knitters would say, MINE!

Knitting Lesson No. 214

In which older daughter proves she is smarter than I am. (Younger daughter no doubt is as well, but she wasn't part of this project.)

See the pretty yarn? It's going to be the Shaelyn shawl, pattern available for $5.00 on Ravelry.

(Baxter WANTS the yarn. No, Baxter)

I had two questions after I read the cast on instructions: No. 1 What the ....? and No. 2 If I want 7 stitches, why can't I just cast ON 7 stitches?

Here are the cast on instructions that I did not understand AT ALL and read over the phone to older daughter, so that she could say, "What the...?" with me.

With length of waste yarn and crochet hook, chain 4 stitches. Using knitting needle and your shawl yarn, pick up and knit 2 stitches in the bumps at the back of the 2 middle chains. (This I understood.)

Then, knit 7 rows in garter stitch (knitting every row). At the end of the 7th row, do not turn. Instead, rotate work 90 degrees, pick up and knit 3 stitches in each of the garter bumps, then release the 2 stitches held by the waste yarn and knit both stitches. (7 stitches now on the needle)

But instead of saying, "What the....?" she explained to me what the instructions said.

First of all, here is the crocheted chain:

Here are the two stitches knit into the chain:

This is the mess I made while trying to knit into the purl bumps on the side of the garter stitch knitting. I'm not really sure what I actually DID knit into:

Here are the required seven stitches. At first I had eight, but I dropped one. No harm, no foul, I say.

And this is the sort-of triangle mess I made after the first row of increases:

And now on to question # 2:

Why, if I want seven stitches, can't I just cast on seven stitches?
Aha! I can! I just won't have a triangle beginning to a triangle scarf.

This will not bother me in the least, so I'm off to rip this sucker out.

Knitting

Knitting and I are not getting along lately, and so I am taking the day off. We’ll see how that goes…

First of all, there is the $%^&* skirt. It is a bit snug. It’s more than a bit snug. The swatch is lying in the bottom of my knitting basket, abandoned, lonely, and angrily shouting at me:

I told you so. I told you so. But did you listen??? No, you did not, and look where you are now.

I admit it. I did do everything involving the swatch correctly, but when it told me that I had one stitch too many over two inches, I scoffed and thought, “No big deal.” But it is a big deal over 205 stitches. Maybe I’ll try blocking it before I start the bottom ruffle, where the knitting becomes fun and interesting, using a lace pattern and hand-painted yarn.

But not today.

And the gorgeous raspberry colored yarn? That too is at the bottom of my knitting basket, shouting out, Make a decision already!

I meant to use it for the Glitzy Cat's Paw Wrap with more stitches so it would be wider. But after I made a bit of it, I just didn’t see the pattern as well as I would like because the yarn is so thin (lace weight). So I took that out and started on a Bit of Fluff wrap, using three times as many stitches so that it would be wider. But on two different sizes of needles the fabric was SO light and fluffy that I wasn’t sure it would stay on my shoulders; I’m pretty sure it would just lift up and float away.

Then I checked on Ravelry, entered the type of yarn and found over 500 projects listed. I checked through some of them, found a pattern I liked, downloaded it, studied it and decided it wasn’t something I would like to wear.

So I am stalled on that project as well, and that is it for today. No more knitting.

As a bonus to my day, I received an e-mail this morning from my nephew, who is getting married in November, and I thought the link he sent was for a wedding site. There was nothing in the message line, so I should have known better, but I opened the e-mail and the link anyway. The link took me to a pharmacy in Canada that has, so they claim, great prices on Cialis. Obviously some program has hijacked my nephew’s address book. Yay.

I’ll run the anti-virus program and the spy-bot program and then draft a letter of apology for anyone who gets an e-mail from me offering them a great deal on Cialis!

**********************************************************************************

And now for something completely different. In one of today’s NYT wedding announcements, the groom, in discussing the couple’s first meeting, said “It was not a good first impression,” adding that they were each dating other people then, and glad to be rid of each other.

All righty then.

Glitzy Cat's Paw Wrap

It is finished! I used just five skeins instead of six. It's long enough...

I am not going to block it because I like the texture. There is a blocked version at the LYS and it shows off the lace pattern better, but I like the texture more than the lace. So it really is finished.

Lace!

I have discovered that I love knitting lace, as long as:

a. the directions are written, not charted

b. the wrong side rows are all knit or purl, so I have a safe row to frog back to if necessary.

This pattern, the Glitzy Cat's Paw Lace Wrap, (available for free on Ravelry) fits my requirements! And I've had fun so far knitting it. The patterned rows are only three in number; the rest are purl. However, the designer did warn that it is a LOT of knitting, and she is right. I'm only into the third of six skeins - of wonderful Blue Sky Alpaca Silk (50/50) - and I'm starting to think there is no end in sight. But I want to wear it to a wedding on May 22nd, so I shall persevere.

Well,

I am just altogther too smug about this hat:

Yes, I did knit it and I think it's beautiful. It's shown being blocked over a dinner plate but is almost dry. The color is a bit deeper than it appears in the photograph.

I think the real genius, however, is the designer, Desi Knitter, and those of you on Ravelry can get to the free pattern (Cabled Rangoli Hat) by clicking on the "Desi Knitter" link. The pattern is stitch perfect and I am amazed by that. I think that pattern-writing is difficult and this pattern is particulary fussy, with the cables moving around on the hat. I followed the advice of another Ravelry knitter and made the bobbles larger; they were small and not very noticeable in the original pattern. The only caution: the pattern calls for dk weight yarn, but the hat the designer and others on the site made were all knit from worsted weight, as is mine. I think it must just be a typo.

The yarn is Malabrigo, kettle-dyed worsted, 100% merino wool, and it is wonderfully soft. The designer suggested using a tightly-spun yarn so that the cables will show up well, but this Malabrigo is in spots almost just roving and it worked out fine anyway.

The hat is for younger daughter, and I think she will love it too.

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......

To Older Daughter:

I take back the Ravelry access information I sent you. Delete it from your memory and your computer's memory.
Why?
Dad told me that you have picked out names for New Baby and you won't tell the grandparents what they are.
Mean, I say. Just plain mean.