Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Happy Day!

Finally, after a full year of checking out new TVs I finally found one!  It will be delivered Friday and they will remove my very old one.  The owner of the store gave me an additional $50.00 off the sales price AFTER I said I was going to buy it!  So, what to do with the extra money?  He, he, he.  I just ordered Knitted Lace Designs by Herbert Neibling!  I've wanted this book ever since I heard it was going to be published!  YES!!

Monday, November 29, 2010

Late night knitting

I have spent the last 2 nights knitting till the wee hours.  The vest/shrug, or what ever I call it, is now 1/2 done and I have used almost 3 skeins.  The pattern called for 7 skeins and it looks as if I will have a full skein left.  I'm getting just over 3,000 stitches per skein, so maybe I'll consider some fingerless gloves or a hat to match.  I'll have to do some calculating and a swatch for a tighter fabric, if I do gloves.  If I do a hat it will be in the same pattern as the vest/shrug and the stitch count will be easy to calculate.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Ivory colored vest project

Decided to do the bind off on the vest, for the 2nd time, today.  The first time I bound off, seamed and knitted the left armhole rib.  It was way to deep.  So I had to frog back quite a way, besides taking out the shoulder seams and related burried ends.  Now the bind offs are re-done and the shoulder seams re-done.  Now I tried it on and it is perfect.  I enlarged the neck opening, as Sharon wanted it a little larger.  Now to rib the armholes and neck opening.  Picking up the stitches is the only part that will take awhile.  This vest is one I designed, using Sweater Wizard.  I had already done 2 using this pattern but using a different lace design.  The first 2 were identical, except for the color.  One for me and one for Sharon in Idaho.  She told m how elegant the vest would be, done in white!  Meaning, make me a white one!  This lace design stretches lengthwise more than the first one, that is why I had the sizing problem in the armhole area.  The lace pattern, Harebell Lace, is from Barbara Walker's Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns.  For the first 2 vests I used a lace pattern  from that book also, but I tweeked it a bit.  That is the beauty of having books with stitch patterns as you can always change the patterns a bit to suit your own need.

Did a few more rows on the orange/pink/rose varigated Plymouth yarn vest/shrug.  Just enought to finish ball #1.  It should take 7 balls, so I need to work on it a bit each day.  Looks better without the eyelash yarn.  It is on size 7 needles and they are a bit hard on my hands, that is why I'm not making fast progress on it.

My take-along project hasn't been getting any attention this last week.  I am using Baby Star, 100% Merino Linea Baby, white with size 0 dp's.   I haven't decided it this project will be socks, mittens or fingerless gloves, so I did a knitted cast on of 64 sts and am doing a k2, p2 rib for about 1 1/2" or 2".  If I haven't decided what this project will be, by the time I get the 1st one to the rib length I want, I will just grab ball #2 and start on the 2nd one.  I do have more than one set of size 0 dp's.

When Richard, my husband, was alive I would knit in the afternoons.  Now I have become an evening knitter.  Actually, the light reflecting on the screen would bother him when watching TV in the evenings, so I adjusted my knitting time to afternoons.  Now I watch TV and knit but I have the TV set up so that the light doesn't glare on the screen.  This only presents one problem, getting involved in a show!  I find  myself leaning forward, entirely focused on the show, with knitting on pause.

29* with a light wind, just after 10:00 p.m..  Saw a few snow flakes when filling the gas tank tonight.  $48.97!!  Ouch!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Software 4 Knitting is fantastic

Otherwise known as Knitting Softwear/Sweater Wizard, etc, etc

Opened my e-mail and there was an e-mail from Leah Wulster of Knitting Softwear Inc.!!!!  She had attached another copy of the Interactive Sleeve Wizard for me to re-download, if I hadn't found the one I purchased and downloaded on 11/1/10. 

NO, I had not sent them an e-mail.  I had called them and left a voice mail.  Yes, I did leave my name, City and State.  Leah had taken the time to dig through their records and find the sale record.  I did not ask them to do that, I'd just told them I was having problems finding where I saved it!  I had said the I would get back to them, during office hours, if I coldn't find it.  I just figured I'd wait until after Thanksgiving and call next week!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all companies were as reputable and great to work with.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Thinking about my standard techniques

The cast on I prefer is the knitted cast on.  I started using it exclusively for my socks and gradually started using it for almost all of my knitting.  Using the knitted cast on is safe.  You don't have to worry about that tail being long enough for you long tail cast on.  When I decided to do the current vest/cape, I did a bit of research on cast ons.  Darn it, I thought, looks like the best cast on for this project is the long tail cast on.  OK, I figure I need a minimum of 3 finger tips to nose lengths, so I use 4 lengths.  How much yarn, after a cast on of 160 stitches, do I have left?  Would you believe an inch and 1/2.  I think my future will include knitted cast ons for all my basic knitting.  We all have our preferences, and this is one of mine.

I don't remember learning to knit.  Everything that I have, that I knit, only dates back to 1977.  There was one black and gold wool fair isle sweater that I never finished.  It was started for my one and only brother as a ski sweater.  Bear Brand Yarn.  When I finally got back to it the pattern was long gone and I set it aside again.  Finally, in 2009 I frogged it and used the yarn for worsted weight heavy socks for myself.  I must have started that sweater in the 1950's.   I knit in a modified Continental style which makes me think I must have crocheted first.  Since I know I learned to sew in high school, I know I didn't learn there.  When I look back at the various craft books I have I have to assume that I am totally self taught.  I've always been a very very technical person; 1 + 1 must equal 2, angles must be perfect, etc.  In my sewing I remember that even the plaids and stripes had to be a perfect match.  I crochet, embroider, do crewel and cross stitch.  I began charting my crochet and knitting long before it was standard practice.  I remember one crocheted edging that just didn't work, so I graphed it and found the error in the pattern.  Of course that was before computers and the Web.  Now you have the luxury of searching the Internet for corrections.  

I found, in my sewing, that I am not a follower.  If I ran across a great technique in one pattern I would incorporate it into another pattern.  I've always had that independent urge to design.  It started with Stretch n Sew and now I use Sweater Wizard and most all of Carol's other programs.  I bought, over the internet, the new program for sleeves, Interactive Sleeve Wizard,  and promptly downloaded and lost it!  I know I downloaded it but I sure can't find where I saved it!  Maybe I just didn't do it right.  So now I must humble myself and call and beg for a new download code and further humble myself and beg for instructions so I won't lose it again.

Monday, November 22, 2010

Hello Knitting World!

I've decided to start a knitting blog for my own personal satisfaction!  Some may say this is wrong, but think about it, this is saved as a blog, not on my computer.  This blog would have to self-implode in order for me to lose my pictures and projects.  This will give me a record and keep the occasional reader laughing at how my designing and knitting projects progress.  Will this blog curb my spending on yarn?  No, very doubtful.  Not even my budget can stop me when I see something I want for knitting!  For instance, let me start this blog with last Tuesday, November 16, 2010.

November 16, 2010:  I checked my mail box and low and behold a check!  Wow, $240.00.  Don't have to include this in the budget!  Wheee!

November 17, 2010:  I went to Erie, PA to sit with my wonderful friend, Mary, in the hospital.  Of course I just had to stop in Waterford, PA at Butler Country Knits, to look at yarn.  Initially the stop was to see if she had a very light pink in Plymouth Yarn's Mulberry Merino.  I have some in an ivory color and wanted to do a fair isle sweater in the ivory and light pink.  Darn, no light pink.  Oh well, I might as well look around.  Bad girl!  Marge has a cape/vest on display, in Plymouth's Baby Alpaca Grand, pattern #26, vest.  She has tweaked the pattern with an inset of ribbon yarn, over and back, about every 10 rows, 3 times.  It looks fantastic. Hmmmm, maybe I could use a variegated yarn and get a different look.  The pattern is 4.00, the yarn, for the large size (7 skeins), is $111.93.  Why not!  OK, I buy the yarn, after all, I have the "non budget" money.  Well, Don had me make out the check for $111.93 - whoops, hey, how about the pattern?  Well, I didn't catch that and neither did Don (Marge's husband and a wonderful guy).  Result:  I still owe Marge $4.24.  An excuse to go back! 

November 20, 2010:  I take the yarn, pattern and needles to the Meadville Knitting Group meeting and do the 160 stitch cast on and get 3 rows done.  We talk a lot and I get very little knitting done, but so what, it is a great group and the socializing is worth the trip. 

November 21, 2010:  A afternoon for knitting so I pick up my new project and knit, knit, knit.  I get up through row 11 and think about checking out my stash of eyelash yarn.  Ah, yes, I do have 2 skeins that just might work.  OK, I get the eyelash yarn knitted in and now I'm not to sure it looks all that great with the eyelash yarn insert, but I continue on.  Stopped for the night after row 21.

November 22, 2010:  Picked up my project and looked at it.  Nope, the eyelash yarn just won't work.  Seems to make it look cheap and for something that is costing that much, well, that just won't do!  Frog time.  Now, after taking the 1,600 stitches out I will start row 12. 
 
It isn't like this the only project I have on needles, it isn't!  There is the ivory colored lace vest for Sharon in Idaho, 2 pairs of socks, also for Sharon, that need the toes kitchnered, my fair isle jacket that is done in the round and will need steeking, eventually.  I did the sleeves first and am not happy with them, so they will be frogged and re-done, top down, once I get the body finished.  Of course there are other projects that aren't quite done or need more thought as to the design.