Combination Knitting & Noro Scarf

It seems a while ago but our last knit guild meeting was an interesting one with a presentation made by knit author Annie Modesitt.

She was a comical and interesting speaker. She was self-taught and developed a knit style where the purl stitch is created using an under-pull style called “Combination knitting”. Ms. Modesitt had our whole guild group creating knit fabric using this unique stitch. Many of our members found it a bit difficult to switch to this unique purl style, but I think I will try a knit project using this purl stitch before I give it up.

You can see my knit sample results at the left. We were asked to knit the bottom in our usual style then try the “Combination knit style” above it. I did find that my knit fabric is a bit tighter. We also learned a method for creating cables without a cable needle. The saying goes, “make a might X, then pinch, slip, poke.” I could have used the method when I knit a cabled hat earlier this year.

I am also working on a Noro single rib scarf. I was thrilled by the beautiful stripe Noro scarf , which Jared knit on his Brooklyntweed blog.

You can also see a bunch other beautiful scarves by searching for Noro scarf on Flicker.

I have been admiring the Noro Silk Garden yarn for sometime. My daughter was with me during one of my visits to my local yarn shop. She suggested we get it for my up and coming birthday. Well, how could I resist! We brought it home and she hid it until my birthday. Shortly after it was unwrapped I had it cast on. It is a great project for non-technical knitting like car rides and sitting and chatting. This picture shows it half way. After my trip to visit my parents over Easter I’ve got a quarter left to go now.

Blue Koolhaas

It's 5 AM in my house. My daughter is sick with Steppe throat. I can’t sleep, since I’m wondering if the twinges of pain below my ears are caused by her spreading infection. So, I decided to take my mind off of it and catch up on some blogs.

The second hat I knit for our Guild’s hat contest was the Koolhaas by Brooklyntweed . The original directions for this wonderful creation appeared in the 2007 Holiday issue from Interweave Knits. I loved almost every pattern from this past Holiday issue. I made the December Lights Tam from the from the front cover and Jared’s Koolhass hat. I’m seriously considering the cable gloves and my daughter would like me to knit the messenger bag so she can do the needle felting on the front flap. I could go on-and-on, but, in any case. . . .
Nice issue and nice hat! . . .
I had a few question from guild members about the pattern I used for the hat so here are some details.

One of the rules for our contest was that the yarn should be machine wash and dryable (acrylic). After the contest, all the hat entries were to be donated to the Seven Hills at Groton nursing home. Being acrylics makes it easier for the foundation to care for the hats after being used.
My daughter and I really liked the Koolhaas hat pattern. So, I decided to give it a try. The original pattern calls for the Yak yarn made by Shokay, which doesn’t quite fit into the acrylic category. So, JoAnn Fabric came into play again with Lion Brand Vanna's Choice Yarn.

This yarn weight is a bit thicker than called for so I had to make some adjustment to the stitch count. The pattern diamond pattern is based on a 8-stitch repeat so I adjusted down from 104 stitches to 96 in the round using a size 7 US needle.

I was on a road trip in with my brother when I started testing this pattern. The printed pattern in the magazine relies on symbols to chart the actual stich-work used in the 8-by-8-stitch repeat. I’m pretty good with patterns but it took me awhile to figure this one out. (It could be that I was chatting with my brother the whole way.) I would definitely recommend a practice swatch before beginning, though. Once I understood when to hold the single crossover cable stitch in front or when to hold it in back I was able to knit without checking the pattern.

I did find the decrease instructions for the top of the hat confusing. It might have been that the pattern doesn’t translate well since I decreased the stitch count of the round. Now that I’m not tight for time I hope to repeat the hat for my daughter.

Morning Glories!

Our knitting guild the Nashoba Valley Knitting Guild had its’ hat contest last night and my Morning Glories hat won one of the prizes, the one for most beautiful. Yahoo!!! Here is my daughter modeling it. Excuse me if I say that I’m rather proud since I’ve never won anything before, not even a free scratch ticket. Our Guild even offered the winners prizes. How Cool ! I got a cute measuring tape, a fun knitting bag, a craft necklace, and a gift certificate to, The World of Stitches, a local crafts shop.

I was rather worried since after washing and drying it was not very shapely. I hadn’t knit with multi-stranded colors in awhile. I was rather rusty in the beginning. I was forcing the stranding at the back to be looser than I should have so the bottom was more floppy than I would have like. I was actually going to rip it out and my daughter convinced me to keep it. So I pressed it and wet it and dyed it with a cord and towel. Then it was much better. . .

I bought the yarn on sale in September at Jo-Ann Fabrics. When I bought the yarn I was thinking I might use it for making a hat for the contest. I had been on the prowl for something to use and at $1.97 who could resist. I got one of each color. I bought the yarn thinking of stripes or something colorful. When I took the library hat book home I was immediately inspired by the Morning Glories pattern. Now the saga begins . . .

I had the most of the colors that I needed for the pattern except green. So, coming from a crafty family, I chose to dye the white yarn green. (My mother is a rug hooker extraordinaire and dyes a lot.) Alas, I had only one white that I ball that I needed for the background! Back to Jo-Ann’s for more, what no more! . . . I had to go up to Tewksbury for more. I got it and dyed it!

So in my usual distracted fashion. I finished the hat and got around to the flowers but didn’t sew them together. Yup, Thanksgiving came and went, then Christmas. In between I cleaned up the house for company. The end of January is coming up and “Uh, Oh” I better finish the hat for the contest. After much searching I found the hat part with a bag of unfinished projects but no flowers. I spent one Saturday searching through several boxes of yarn. I finally turned the boxes over and found the flowers hiding in the bottom. Well the pieces are together and I’m happy with the results. All the members who knitted hats did a great job. Take a look at the tableful of hat contest entries. I sure hope all the lucky people at Seven Hills will enjoy them!

Project Details: Morning Glories hat found in the book
Knit Hats! by Gwen Steege

It’s one of the books our Guild has in its collection of lending books.

Yarn: Bellezza Collection Stellina
white, blue, orange, pink, lavender, green (home-dyed)

Needles: 6 US double pointed

Thoughts/Modifications: It was fun. I giggled as I made the flowers. I didn’t totally follow the flower directions though. Since the directions were well written I’m sure the directions would have made fine flowers except it called for knitting them flat. I already knit the hat in the round so why bother with stitching up a seam when I can just knit them in the round.

Finished my Alligator scarf

Hurray! I’ve finished the Alligator scarf. I have so many projects going it is nice to accomplish one.

I enjoyed knitting this scarf because it was fun to create forms such as the bumps just by increase and decrease stitches.
The yarn is Merino but it not as soft as other Merino brands that I have knit with. I found a few bits of grass within the twists of yarn. The kit definitely has enough yarn. I have about ½ skein remaining. If knitted for an adult I would recommend adding a few extra rows of middle bumps to add enough length to be able to tie.

As you can see it is a scarf fit for a child. I’m sure a young boy would really like it. On me it drapes around my neck but is hard to knot. My friends all have said how great the color is. The sage green color really makes it look like an alligator. When choosing the pattern on the
Morehouse web site there are 14 colors. I’m thinking in the future I might enjoy a scarf of one on the other colors such as gold or purple.

All in All I would knit this Alligator again and have even looked into some of the other fun scarf patterns that Morehouse offers. There is a funny one, which looks like a bunch of foxes linked together. Well, it’s a thought that I’ll consider during the summer. I’ve got too many other projects to finish.

I did finish one more hat which will I’ll show off after our Guild’s hat contest in two weeks.

Happy New Year!

I resolve to be a more consistant blogger. I resolve to knit more. I resolve to pull out my knitting machine and “blaze” away . . . maybe loose weight . . . clean out the closets . . . organize my stash . . . All right; nice dreams! . . . I’ll start here.

We did have a nice holiday season that came and went.

I finished my December Lights Tam in time to wear it for the holiday. It’s cheery red-green combination helped brighten the season. Almost every time I wear it I get compliments. I’ll post my summary soon.

I started and tried to finish a Nordic design pair of mittens for my daughter. They turned out to be way too big so I had to rip them out. I’ve told a few people but was trying to keep it a secret from my daughter for a present. Well she found out by snooping through my knitting bag. So I guess I can talk about it out in the open.

I found a design of mitten with a reindeer motif that I liked. Since my daughter is madly in love with her dog, I thought it would be cute to replace the reindeer with a black lab silohette. I could not find the right silohette that I wanted so I used my Photoshop skills to recreate a new image. I took the legs from one image, the tail from another and the head from a third. I liked how the designed graphed using 35 stiches across but now that I am using less stiches total for my mitten the image is rendered using 25 stiches. With fewer stiches the dog image looses detail. The legs used to be two stiches wide and now they are only one. I’m sort of stuck at this point. I might just continue to knit the less charming dog or try to re-design it.

Any way, I’m putting it aside to work on a hat for the NVKG knit hat contest. Sorry, I won’t post any of those pictures until after the contest since the knit hat owners need to be secret until after the contest.

Hello NVKG

Knitting Blogs
presentation for Nashoba Valley Knitters' Guild

Personal blog: http://knitmoreand.blogspot.com/

Favorite Blogs:
Socktoberfest KAL creator http://lollygirl.com/blog/
Brooklyntweed http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/index.html
Grumperina http://www.grumperina.com/knitblog/
Free Patterns http://www.knitty.com/
Wyoming Knitter http://www.unwindknitting.net/
Master Yarn Dyer Blog http://purlywhites.typepad.com/purly_whites/
Brookline Group Blog http://www.knitsmiths.us/
Circumnavigated Cardigan Project http://www.ample-knitters.com/cnc.html

Start your own Blog
Free site: Blogger by Google https://www.blogger.com/start
Check Comparisons: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_software_comparison.cfm

Knit Alongs (KAL) Examples
Soctoberfest http://lollygirl.com/blog/2006/09/18/socktoberfest-questions
Zimmermania http://zimmermaniacs.blogspot.com/

Web Rings
New England Knitters http://newenglandknits.wordpress.com/
Knitting Blogs http://knittingring.blogspot.com/

Pictures
Upload Low Res Pictures
Another Picture Venue
Flicker is used for online photo albumshttp://www.flickr.com/groups/socktoberfest/

Podcasts:
Place to search for Podcast News http://www.podcastingnews.com/
CraftSanity Podcast http://www.craftsanity.com/podcast/
Craftcast with Alison Lee http://www.craftcast.com/

Halloween '07

My other domestic skills came into play this week for Halloween. Every year I make a costume for my daughter. This year it was a geisha kimono. It came out very nicely if I do say so myself. Even thought the costume will probably be worn once or twice I always mind the fine details. It takes longer but I prepare a quality-sewing job. I always back stitch at end of seams. I knot the end threads and sew them into a hidden seam. My daughter doesn’t appreciate these things and I wonder sometimes why I bother especially for an outfit that will be worn only a few times. Oh well, at least I enjoy the process.
We had a nice night here in New England for trick-or-treating. My daughter had some of her friends come over. They claimed to be the “Asian” sisters with the Queen Marie Antoinette. It was fun and the girls were very tired once they got home. I must say even I, who am not a great sleeper, slept well last night.

Alligator Scarf

I am thrilled with this cute scarf, although I don’t think my daughter (11) is. She asked why I would want an alligator wrapped around my neck. The directions are easy to follow. The main pattern workhorse stitch is an increase stitch. They have a very detailed explanation for this stitch and other details.
I was reading the back pages of Interweave Knits and came across the ad. I followed the
Morehouse Farm Merino Link
and found this scarf in many colors of 100% Merino. I chose the Sage color because I think it is closer in color to the real thing. I made some swatches and found that the suggested 5 US came close to gauge. Even though, the gauge swatch made in 6 US felt softer I went with the number 5 US needles. I’m sorry I did since, I was struggling to slip my needle into the increase and deceases stitches.

The final knit head is fun though (see left). The yarn has a nice smooth feel. I do find the knitting on size 5US feels too hard for my taste, especially if the scarf will be wrapped around my neck. So I decided to go up a needle size. I’m not afraid to rip out. I would rather have a knit product that I will wear than to worry about the time already spent.

I had heard some discussion in my Knitting Guild about a “lace needle.”
Since I already decide to go up a size I thought I would try it out. I bought an Addi Turbo 'Lace' Circular. It’s amazing how this one small adustment can make the knitting process simpler. This pattern has a great deal of increase stitches. The extra sharpness of the point allows it to slide through the tight loop without as much struggle as I was having with a normal needle. I took a picture so you can see the difference between needles.

The pattern is basically garter stitch with increases and decrease stitches of knit 2 stitches togethers. It’s just plain fun knitting and then suddenly you have some eyes and a snout. The yarn thickness to the scarf is good enough to retain the animal shape.

Guild Project - Circumnavigated Cardigan

Our knitting Guild has chosen to work as a group on Meredith Glover’s Circumnavigated Cardigan (CnC). Our Guild purchased the pattern for every one this year using a part of the dues. You can check out Meredith Glover’s patterns Here . During our most recent Guild meeting one of the members was explaining the construction methods and has us working on specific techniques by generating a mini one-arm sweater. I’m excited to work on it together since everyone will generate a unique one with his or her own yarn and styling.

It seems like a fun sweater with side pockets. They have an interesting creation method of knitting a longer bottom edge, which includes the pocket fronts on the sides. The pockets are then folded over and the sweater is then knit with normal sizing for the middle section. During our meeting we were also instructed about the “i-cord” edging. It adds a nice finish to the edge, but I found from my sample swatch that I need to knit the pocket edge very loosely or it bunches up.


Now, to my current concern . . . .
I can’t decide on a yarn to use yet.
I’ve been playing around with a variety of yarns thinking of different textures and yarn qualities that I might want in a sweater. On top of that I have a desire to use my stash.

Well, as you can see from my examples I have a variety of options to choose from. I really like the red tweed. I definitely want to make a sweater out of this but, after seeing the pattern and it’s alternative leaf edge lace option, I’m thinking, I would like to use this red tweed yarn with a bit of extra detail along the button edge. Since the lace edge pattern suggest that you have made one before altering the basic pattern, I think I might use some thick yarn to knit one fast. If I do this I can work out the construction details then use the red tweed with a flourish.

It just so happens I went to JoAnn Fabrics looking with my daughter for Halloween costume suggestions. While we were there I couldn’t just walk past the yarn section with out seeing the pretty colors, now could I? I just so happened to find some really chunky yarn for .97 cents a skein. See, it actually knits up “Fun”. So I think this will be my yarn for the CnC.

I'm Back . . . .

I know, I know, I’ve been away for a while. Well, I’m back. I’ll try to be more blog faithful. I don’t know what it was; maybe getting used to my new job, summer, garden, dog or all of the above. While I was away I hardly knit and I only picked up my shadow-knitting project 2 weeks ago.

Since then I’ve been busy knitting though. I’ve knit 5 inches of the second front to my shadow vest (see picture).

Our knitting guild is knitting the circumnavigated sweater together, so I was working on swatches for that as well. While we were traveling up to Maine I was busy swatching. I show the swatch samples on another day. Until them . . . I can say . . . I’m . . .B A C K . . . .

Eye Candy Friday 5.11.07

Jessie found that she likes asparagus. In this picture she is laying down and licking the stumps where I cut some stalks. The bed is messy with old stalks laying around. I was late mulching the bed. I'll have to weed soon.

Jessie has been trained to lay down by following a treat past her nose down to the floor. Until last week this was the only way to get her to lay down. Just last weekend, my daughter taught Jessie to lay down by just pointing to the floor. She used an asparagus as a treat.

Eye Candy Friday 5.4.07

We have daffodils! I love these spring flowers mostly because they keep coming back year after year. I love gardening but the Spring always seems so busy. Last weekend I weeded and mulched our strawberries. I tend to keep the perennial beds for later in the year.




I have been working on my Mermaid socks from the book the
Cool Socks Warm Feet book. I needed a simple project that I can knit without thinking too hard. My Shadow Knit vest requires too much consentration that I can’t listen to people talking, knit and count easily. The basic socks knit pattern is K2, O, K2tog, K2. The O and K2tog (yarn over and knit 2 together) make the socks have a sharp right slant ridge. The self striping yarn looks interesting with the knit pattern. Because of the slanted ridges the striped look broken up into slanted squares. I like it.



I was knitting this sock during our
NVK Guild’s May meeting. (See picture.) At the end of the meeting four different people came up and wanted to know about the pattern. It does intrigue you. It’s pattern is deceptively simple. I think from afar it looks like it is a knitted basket weave.

Something Else

We have built a kennel for our dear dog Jessie. She needs a place to stay while I'm at work. My husband is now traveling more and is away for several days at a time. This project went together fairly simply. The kennel itself was a kit from Home Depot. The hardest part was gathering the materials. The stones alone required two trips from the hardware store. Its a good thing that my husband finished the trailer kit last summer. We have used it alot for hauling things such as building supplies and even stage scenery for my daughters plays. For our kennel, you can see my husband and daughter did most of the base assembly. They were working on the stones and pavers while I carted over them all over from the driveway. My shoulders hurt the next day. Jessie is quite comfortable in the pen. My first two days at work I was worried since we didn't get a chance to try it out before Jessie needed to stay inside. She did fine! This week it rained a bit while I was at work and with her umbrella and the dog house Jessie stayed quite dry and comfy. Its two weeks now and I'm not as worried as I was at first.
By the Way:
I have been knitting. I am working on my shadow knit vest. I'm almost done with the front left panel.

Eye Candy Friday 4.13.07

Isn’t she cute? Well, sometimes! I was trying to photograph the Lace Top directions picture for this Blog and Jessie couldn’t resist being the center of attention.

I must say, being black, she is very hard to photograph. I rarely get a photo with good detail. She usually ends up being a black blob. This one was made using a flash, which sometimes washes out the rest of the picture detail.

It’s Friday the thirteenth. Should I be worried because my black dog crossed my path? (Or sat on my work?)

I wanted to show an idea for a future project . . . . I like it, but might not look very good in it because of arm flab. My daughter really likes this sweater also. I first saw the finished sweater as a completed sample when our knitting guild had the “Yarn Tasting” in the Fiber Loft. (I wrote about that in the last blog entry.) The pattern is in the Nashua Handknits North American Designer Collection No. 4. Pattern book.

It is planned to knit using Nashua Natural Focus Cotton yarn but I might consider using some of the Bamboo yarn that I sampled. We’ll see when I get there. . .

Spring Sampler

Wow, it’s been awhile since I added into my Blog. I hope they won’t kick me out from the knitting rings. I started a new job and I’m trying to get my schedule squared away. Alas, my knitting is low on the totem pole. This past weekend we drove to my parents on the Cape. I usually like those drives because I can get two solid hours of knitting in. I’ve been slowly adding rows onto my Shadow knitted vest. The size two needles make the going slower than most projects.

I did sneek-in a bit of a different project. You can see the pictured sample swatch that I made.

Our April guild met in the Fiber Loft instead of our usual library room. Jessica Oas from Westminster Fibers provided a 'Yarn Tasting' of yarns. She brought samples of many yarns, including Gedifra, Yaeger, Nashua Yarns and Rowan. She set them out on a table with the name, fiber content and stitch sizing. There must have been about 30 samples of Spring yarns. We could select any of the samples to knit-up. Jessica supplied white tags so we could record the yarn information and attach it to that specific stipe of yarn. I used only two needle sizes of 9 and 11 since I was mostly knitting to check out the “feel” of the yarn. I must say I enjoyed this project. It was fun to try many of the new “springy” pastel shades of yarns.

There was an interesting selection to choose from. I deliberately chose some yarns that I might not normally knit with. I knit two samples with bamboo fibers. They felt soft and I really liked the last extra soft “RYC” yarn I tried.

My daughter asked me to knit her a sweater using this RYC bamboo soft yarn. (One of the other Guild members brought up a point about this yarn, one that I didn’t suffer too strongly from. Since the yarn is twisted from eight small thread it does tend to split easily if stabbed with the needle.)



For a fun textured sweater I might try this Rowan Cotton Braid.



I personally liked the Jaeger Roma yarn sample that I knit. It knit up as a smooth, soft sample. I’m not sure how I feel about the 63% Viscose content since I tend to be a “natural” fiber knitter. So all in all I like the sample to use for trying to select yarns for future projects.

Lunch Bag Shrunk!

The Lunch Bag is shrunk! It didn’t shrink down to lunch bag size though. It shrank to the right height but the width is much bigger than I calculated. I guess that is the unpredictability of felting. I like it and will make a hand bag out of it. I still have to make a clasp on the fold over edge. I’m still recovering from my daughters sleepover party so I’ll give the summary after I process the pictures.

Birthday News

My dear daughter was a bit disappointed with this year’s birthday. It seems the fact that her presents were not a surprise and being on a Monday her friends forgot it was her birthday. We had purchased all her presents together. That’s me, Mom being too practical and not thinking as a kid might. I wanted to make sure we got what she wanted and that the clothes fit. I think she was still hoping I would find her something special. Well, to be honest I had hoped too, but I just couldn’t find the time. I hope I can make it up to her. This weekend she is having a birthday party with her friends and maybe I’ll be able to find something special to slip in the stack of presents that her friends bring.

There were some other details, which detracted from my daughter’s birthday. Our sweet dog Jessie was scheduled to be spayed. Jessie came home from the surgery totally drugged out. When she finally came too Jessie was whimpering. Even I was upset so, I can understand why my daughter was crying. Thankfully, Jessie is reviving abit. She doesn’t whine any more but the medicine really knocks her out. She can’t seem to wake up in time to pee outside. The last two days I’ve been making sure that she has a towel under her butt in case she leaks. I hope Jessie is better in time for my daughter’s sleepover this Friday.

Even though my daughter knew I was running behind on the lunch bag I think she was disappointed that I hadn’t finished it on her birthday. She helped me to pick out the wool and knew I was shooting targeting her birthday as a finishing point. Shopping, shoveling snow and taking care of Jessie were taking longer than we thought. I finished all the tying in of yarn ends and the edges this morning. Take a look at the before felting view. It’s huge! As soon as my daughter comes home from school I’ll shrink it in the washing machine

Eye Candy Friday 3.16.07

Our backyard bird feeder in snow. We are in the middle of another snow storm. We've had the wierdest winter. It was warm through December. NewEngland got their first snowfall after Christmas. So now it is snowing still into Spring.








I thought I should check in with some knitting news. See Below to see how far I have gotten on the lunch bag. I'm a little more than half way.

Eye Candy Friday 3.9.07

A "Sheeply" Delicious Cake!
My daughter and I made this chocolate cake. She couldn't wait for the cake to cool and stole a piece before it was ready for frosting. Because of it's misshape and that the frosting became lumpy we turned it into a sheep shape. "Ace of Cakes" Beware!

Jessie is a sneak

I get up from the sofa and look who is sneaking my knitting. I sometimes think she is a playful cat instead of a dog. She just loves balls of yarn. The other thing she likes is the chase game when you RUN to catch Jessie and the knitting project before it completely comes off the needles. There is one nice thing about her though. She doesn’t chew to destroy things. She has never torn any yarn or toy, she just mouths them.

If you can see she has the beginnings of the Lunch Bag. I am still working on the bag’s bottom. I thought I had the gauge down, but after casting on and knitting about 12 rows I realized that I was 2 inches too big. I find figuring gauges for really big needles such as US # 15’s tough. If you are off by a stitch or two it can add up to several inches, as was the case here.