little liza jane and a yarn crawl

This is the progress I’ve made on Little Liza Jane, which I’m making for my cousin. Her baby is due a couple of weeks before mine. I’m making the 6 mos. size for her. It will have to be worn over other clothes, since it will be cold out when her baby is the right size to wear it. I made kind of an ironic discovery, which is that the Cotlin feels a lot (to me) like Debbie Bliss’ Cathay yarn, although obviously without the slipperiness of the silk and rayon that’s in the Cathay. What’s ironic is that I have six skeins of the Cathay in an extremely similar color and another six skeins in orange.  I guess that just means I could make more dresses .

in knitting news

I’m behind. Way behind. So much so that I have an unfinished post from a month ago. A while back I bought another skein of Dream in Color Classy in the Happy Forest Colorway. Green is definitely a hot color for me right now.

During the break between Round 1 and Round 2 of Sock Madness, I started on the second sock of my Jitterbug Pomatomus Socks. Everyone loves the Jitterbug and I get compliments on that sock wherever I go. I was trying to continue a trend of finishing projects. First, I finished the Sock Madness Round 1 Zombies and then I finished my plain Socks That Rock Socks.

The arrival of Round 2 of Sock Madness thwarted my attempt to finish a third pair of socks (in a row) in three weeks. I’m not planning on finishing the Sock Madness Round 2 socks. They just weren’t for me. I’m wondering when I’m going to start the Round 3 socks.

They are intriguing, but the pressure is off now. I bet you want to see the yarn for those though. I nearly forgot! It’s Tess Yarns. It’s really pretty. I’m going to have to get some for lace projects some time. It’s an effort not to develop a lace weight stash though. I hardly think my small amount of lace weight counts as a lace weight stash. (I’m crossing my fingers.)

I got the Earth Day Swap going and a very nice knitter (Doulton on Ravelry) sent me a bonus package of applewood bacon flavored chocolate and Silkie Socks That Rock in Pallas Athena. I REALLY want to play with it but I have a lot of other projects in the works. My package arrived but I’ve got into more trouble with registered mail and my husband may need to pick it up.

it’s done!

Pattern: Baby Surprise from Knitter’s Workshop
Pattern Author: Elizabeth Zimmerman Yarn: Fleece Artist Sea Wool
Needles: Size 4, Addi Turbo 20″ Circulars
Gauge: 5 1/4″ to 1″

miters

Finally, all my ducks are in a row and I’ve got the photographs of the miters for you.

 

There are more still coming my way I hear. It’s not too late. Send some in!

 

lizard ridge travels

I got this note from Ann Rubin Afghans for Afghans today.

We thought you would enjoy this photo of your Lizard blanket that is on its way to the newborns at CURE Hospital in Kabul. (Not sure of the arrival date yet. We’ll post to our list when we hear back from Kabul.) The blanket is beautiful, and we think Laura Truffaut looks great, too, with it! (We’re in the AFSC basement, where we sort and pack.) Laura is one of our Bay Area volunteers who regularly helps prepare our shipments for Afghanistan. We all admired the Lizard Ridge.

Thanks again to all the knitters and for organizing the group Lizard Ridge. These cooperative efforts are an inspiration to everyone!
– Ann

I just hope that inspires you all to do more miters for the miter project.

miters miters everywhere

The miters have been steadily arriving. And I’ve been tied up with training and starting the new job. I received a lovely pink and purple miter from Debbie in Seattle. It came several weeks ago, bright and early. Then I received a double Miter from Ms. Mize in North Carolina. Cool, huh?

I particularly like this combination of blue and green from Jessica of Rose Kim Knits in Seattle. Some pretty blue ones came from Marina in Eugene. Have I met you Marina? Blue is a great color to get from someone named Marina.

When I got home from my three day training session Wednesday night, I had several more miters. These include a pink and maroon one from Erika Castro of Fredericksburg, VA, four blue garter-stitch miters from Marianne of Gardena, CA, five assorted miters from someone Greene in New Haven, CT and four purple and green miters from Morganville, NJ. I can’t photograph them right now as there is no light, but I will soon.

I’m enjoying building the blanket in my mind. It might mean a lot of sewing, but this is going to be a lot of fun.

If you were counting, that makes a total of 25 miters. I’d really like to have at least 48, so please keep them coming.

good friends give good yarn

Good friends give yarn when saying goodbye. Not that anyone who didn’t give me yarn isn’t a good friend. I’m just thankful to Devin and Rebecca for their wonderful surprises. Last Thursday night, I went out with some of the Knittin’ Kittens at Lyle’s and Devin gave me some very beautiful handspun! On Friday, I went to my last real knitting night at Knitter’s Palette and Rebecca gifted me with some Noro for my very own future Lizard Ridge. Now that I’ve got 5 skeins and a bunch of ends, I’m going to have to start a little pile of squares…Thanks again guys!

There’s been some problem with post office and the Hurricane Swap. I was given the wrong zip code and never thought to check . And of course it’s the first time I didn’t send the package registered mail. I’ve decided that if the package doesn’t turn up at either of our houses by Thursday that I am going to put together a package (this time insured and registered mail)! It will be a good one, so I’m almost hoping it got lost. But I don’t really want all that work to go to waste. (Thursday is the day my mail gets stopped here in Minnesota. If it bounces after that then it won’t turn up until August if at all and that’s crazy.)

must be fo week – puff baby

Pattern: Heavily modified version of Puff Baby from Jill Eaton’s Minnies
Yarn: Lane Borgosesia dal 1850
Yarn Source: Probably Holly Berry Needleworks or Green Valley Weavers in Colorado Springs
Needle Size: US 11
Started: 2004? Completed: 6/26/2007

It must be FO week. (This does not mean that there will be an FO tomorrow.) Note the total lack of a rear side and the absence of the 272 bobbles. I conferred with Josh and we agreed that the bobbles, in fuschia, would be ‘a little over the top.’ Now that’s an understatement. I also replaced the i-cord edging with the ruffles to make up for the lack of bobbles. I also left out the second side, which I thought would be too warm. Besides, I had planned for it to be teal god, the color would have been awful. I’ve taken the nearly 3′ x 3′ square of stockinette, frogged and some of it and wound it (go ball winder go). I’m sure I can felt something nice out the remainder. I originally had a second blanket planned in Lamb’s Pride Bulky and I felt that it would have been a better color choice, but I sold that one.

Maybe tomorrow you’ll see a giant teal bag (or not – it’s super wash). Moving sure is inspiring.

multi-madness

I finished my HUGE job application last week and spent the weekend in recovery. I’ve been a bad blogger and left you photoless recently. I bet you’d actually like to see the scarves I’ve been working on. The first two shots are of one scarf that’s made of scrap Noro Kureyon.

Spartacus among the saffron

Spartacus among the saffron

Originally uploaded by moiraeknitting.

Maybe a skein a day is a tad ambitious. My slogging has come to a dead halt. See why? Maybe she’ll do a few rows for me? That would be great! The row I’m on, 27, is a doozy.

slog and other random things

I think I got sick of ribbing and garter stitch. That last sweater I made may have looked like a cable nightmare, but those cables are 16 rows apart. So it was a lot of ribbing.

I’ve been on my saffron cables blanket for the Mason-Dixon Slogalong. Yep, just in time for summer. I’m on ball 2 of 18.

I’d gotten stuck around row 25 or so for a while. I ripped back multiple times and I went down to 19 the other day and now have a mistake free (I believe) project. I’m up to row 26 of 225. There’s only 141 yards in a skein, so I’m wondering if I could knit a skein a day and still have time for my other projects. (That baby is probably getting too big for the outfit already. NEVER make newborn sized clothing.) And I’ve got some sewing to do on Lizard Ridge. And I want to make the second perfect fitting sock. I’m on the toe.

some sheepy fun

I did some knitting, but there’s really nothing to show you. I cast on for another One Skein, One Day Wonder Hat and am thinking about writing up some picot tips for you all. There are two reasons I’m knitting up another hat. First, my mother-in-law needs one. Second, there was one thing I didn’t like about the first one and I’m fixing it in this one. If it comes out right, I will work on writing up the pattern for you all and writing up one in baby/children’s sizes. I’m pretty sure that a skein of Lorna’s Laces will make one adult and one baby hat, so I just need to work out the smaller hat using the remainder of the yarn. Wouldn’t that be cool? Of course the pattern will be free, but I’ll probably put down a suggested donation figure to subsidize my yarn habit. I’m also thinking about writing up a mitten pattern with picot edging so you can’t have a matched set.

I blocked a few more Lizard Ridge squares and there are four more left for me to block before I can start sewing. I also took the skein I’m using for the border up to the yarn shop and wound it into a little cake using the ball winder.

I’m also making some mitered corner squares out of Noro Kureyon for a little felted bag based on a pattern by a designer whose name totally escapes me at the moment. I have nothing to show you at the moment due to the oppressive darkness and my own lack of courage in facing the great outdoors.

In lieu of actual knitting content here is some sheepy fun for you.

the first of the lizards

The first batch of Lizard Ridge has arrived, which is really reassuring. Pattern author, Laura Aylor sent one in Kureyon #170 along with a Peacock Blue skein of Cascade 220.

Not to be outdone, Kate sent me two squares (I’ll publish their colorways as soon as I know them). I compared square sizes and they all are about the same size.

a few notes on Lizard Ridge squares and other KAL updates

Lizard Ridge Notes
I’m on my third lizard ridge square and have a few notes for you all.

Please consider taking a picture of yourself with your squares or knitting your squares and posting it on your blog or other downloadable spot like our flickr group – I could send some pictures along with the completed Afghan.

I’m also accepting Kureyon scraps, though you would have to send a lot of scrap Kureyonto get a ticket in the raffle.

The official blocking size is 10.5″ by 10.5″. Block it however you want, just don’t iron the wool.

If you are going to slip the first stitch of every row, you probably don’t want to do it on a color change row, because it won’t have the right color and may detract from the overall design (probably not), even if that stitch is part of the sewing.

If working with only one skein of Kureyon at a time it may be good to designate the inside strand as rows 1-6 and the outside strand as rows 7-12 (or vice versa) and do it consistently so you always know which set of six rows you are doing. Sometimes the colors are very close to one another; and I’ve never been great at counting rows, even though I know how.

Eucalyptus wool wash seems to keep my cats off the wet wool. I know this because the main culprit (depicted here) has a chronically dry nose. At one point we took the vet’s advice and attempted to help out his poor nose by painting it with Eucalyptus balm. From the first minute he saw us open up the balm, he hated the smell and he still hates it. I’m not even sure if I’ve ever got it on his nose. Yesterday, after soaking the wool in wool wash I got a little on me. Elmo came over to say hi, took one sniff and ran for his kitty life. I picked it out because the lady at the shop thought that there was some anecdotal evidence that suggests that it repels moths, but apparently it also repels cats!

Sock Wars and Socktober Fest

saffron cables

I can’t help but notice that I’m getting a little traffic from people looking for others knitting the saffron cables blanket from Interweave Knits. I also can’t help but notice that only one other person out there (to my knowledge) is really posting about working on it. So as a little incentive, let me announce the saffron cables knit along.

Knit along with me and I’ll post a link to your blog and a link to a photograph of your blanket (when you have a photograph of your blanket in any stage) on the saffron cables gallery. Please let me know the brand of yarn, color of yarn and needles that you are planning to use. Also if you are planning any modifications let me know!

I think we lonely few could stand from a little encouragement from each other.

Have fun!

baudelaire socks, needles & saffron cables

Baudelaire

Let me start with the Baudelaire socks since they’ve driven me crazy six ways of sideways. I was having some trouble again and I decided that the yarn has been reknit a few too many times. So, I wound the other skein and started over on that one. I will “refurbish” the old yarn by unraveling it, wetting it and hanging it to dry with a weight, as recommended by Vogue Knitting. It’s just been stretched too many times from the frogging and I’m afraid my socks won’t match unless I do this. The new sock is going well.

In the proces I realized that some of the trouble is due to the fact that I was using my Addi Turbos for these socks. Now they say they are US #2 on the package, but they also say they are 3.0 mm. My Brittanys are 2.75 mm and the pattern calls for 2.5mm. All of which claim to be US Size #2.
I actually have never really considered this before because I do gauge swatches. As long as you do the gauge swatch it shouldn’t matter. It just means more tools in your arsenal. FYI, US #2 knitting needles are 2.75 mm, 3.0 is nothing in US and I think Cookie & Knitty just dropped the 7 in the 2.75mm.

The real trouble stems from the fact that this is a toe-up pattern in a yarn I’ve used before on Addi’s. I used the toe-up as sort of a rough swatch since I generally know how Lorna’s Laces knits up with Addi’s. But the toe didn’t really fit on the Addi’s so I did the toe on the Brittany needles. Oops. This explains a lot why the sock part seemed a little loose. Normally I use the Brittany’s to finish off the sock and if it’s a little tighter around the toe it doesn’t matter because I have little feet.

I’ve switched to the Brittany’s for this pattern and now it’s going much better. I love my Addi’s but from now on I’m going to be more careful.

Saffron Cables

I’m trying to do about 5 rows a day. I’m about fourteen rows behind, including today’s five rows. I’m at 6 1/4″ including the 3″ border (skein 3/18 and on row 19). I’m using a whole host of the stitch markers I made recently and they are doing their best to slow me up enough to recognize what graph I’m on. I’m sort of wishing I’d made some alphabet stitch markers so I could have an A in front of chart A and a B in front of chart B and so on. (Although, how would that work on the reverse side?)

The cables are going well now that the cable rows and seed stitch patterns are set up. I don’t have to look at the chart as often as I thought I would. This is because there are only three elements to these cables, all of which can be determined by looking at your work as you go. The cables are either four-stitch or six-sitch cables. They go either left or right. In the four-stitch cables the 1-sitch part of it is either a knit or a purl and you can tell this because the reason it’s either a knit or a purl stitch is because that fourth stitch is part of a seed stitch pattern. Finally some of the cables are part of an increasing/decreasing V and some are vertical. If you know what’s what, it’s not so bad.

In short it’s going faster now and I’m not unventing and redoing cables from previous rows anymore (fingers, toes and eyes crossed).

Another Shopgirl is also knitting Saffron Cables. We’re both crazy.

I hope my battery will be here next week. I miss being able to illustrate my blog.

low energy

Alas, the battery people tell me my camera battery is on backorder until August 27th, so I have no pictures to show you. I think this may be a ruse on their part, but we’ll see. I have some kind of chest cold so I’m running on low energy too. Going out for half an hour make me exhausted.

In the mean time, for no apparent reason I’ve decided to work on the Saffron Cables blanket from this fall’s Interweave Knits, despite the fact that I have a fever. I decided that I’m hot and I’m going to be hot and it doesn’t matter how hot… I’m using the Valley Berkshire from WEBS in Blue Ming. I can’t imagine what I’d do with the orange in my house, although it would be nice for a Bronco’s tail gate. It’s 85% Wool and 15% Alpaca. I’m also glad that I ordered the 40″ needles to go with it. The largest size I had were the 32″ needles and I would have had stitches slipping off the needle left and right. I can’t imagine what the project will be like when I have 10 square feet on the needles. (That’s half the blanket.)