Repair and Renew - My Very First Wallaby

Many years ago - about 11 - my niece was expecting her first baby. I wanted to make her something special for that new baby. I had been itching to try the "Wonderful Wallaby" ever since my good friend Robin had shown me the pattern. So I chose some yarn - washable, of course, and off I went. It was a huge success and I had so much fun making it! Fast forward 11 years. Now, baby number six is wearing it and it still looks as good as new except for one small detail: baby # 5 (who is now four years old, found a pair of scissors. You can guess what happened next! Momma found the sweater with a hole right in the center front! No hiding it either. She sheepishly came to me and asked if there was any way to mend it. She didn't care that it showed - she just wanted a fixed. Well, I always like a challenge! So, yes, I was able to fix it in record time. The next time I came their house, #6 put it on and didn't take it off til bedtime when he put his pj's on. For all I know, he put it on over his pj's when he went to bed! He likes it that much. 

Notice the "clutch".

Books Books Books

Because we home schooled we have a plethora of books. I can't seem to get rid of them. When we moved I gave a ton of stuff away to families who were beginning to home school their own kids. But I still have a ton of books. (If I actually weighed them I'm sure it would be close.)

I like books. If it weren't for the fact that we were not suppose to love any thing I would say I love books.

I collect children's books. The ones with pretty pictures. The ones that were favorites of my kids when they were little and the ones that were my favorites as well. The ones that are classics. Some are new books. Some are very old books. and some are from the used book store that caught my eye -- or the eye of one of my kids.

I collect reference books. If you want to know all the acceptable two letter words for Scrabble I have a book that will tell you. If you want to know about wolves, mountain climbing, knitting or golf I've got a book for you. My whole family likes books. Now we have too many books. They are spilling out of the bookshelves. I've tried to get rid of a few recently. But how do you cull a bookshelf that has already been culled many times before?

Maybe my kids will move out and I can fill a box with books for a going away present. (Edit: they did move out but did not take (m)any books with them - at least none that I can see.)

I have thought of turning one of the rooms of the house into a library. A cozy chair, a nice bright light and a warm afghan. My idea of bliss. I could stay in for the winter. Oops! Bruce just suggested going for a walk.

I started a new program.

1. Do not go to the library.

2. Read through your own library.

3. Methodically go through the bookcases culling books you haven't read but want to read.

4. Set them in a special place.

5. Read the books one by one.

6. If you can't get through it, give it away. Do not save for another day when you might be interested in it.

7. If you find a book that you value, keep it and put it in a cleaned out bookshelf  (read: empty)

8. If you can do without it, get rid of it by putting it right into a box to give away.

9. Go through the bookcase again and give away all kids' books (that don't belong to your kids) to someone who can really appreciate them.

I'm using this as reference.

Hmm, it's a library book.

A Swatch and a few WIPs

So, I knit a swatch as promised. I think I'm going to like this sweater. But, I have a lot of figuring to do before I get started.

#1. What is the back neck measurement?
#2. How many stitches do I knit per inch?
#3. How many stitches do I cast on for the back? For the sleeves? For the front?
#4. Is this a cardigan or a pullover?
#5. How deep do I want the front neck-line to be?
#6. How far apart do I want the stripes to be?

You can see that I've decided to do the sweater from the neck down and that I'm going to wing it. Freestyle, in other words.

So, since these things take time I've thought I would put it aside and let it simmer on the back burner for awhile. I'm not going to start the sweater until I get a few other things taken care of.

This afghan has been languishing in my WIP drawer for quite a while. I put it away because I thought it was too lumpy and would not block properly. Well, I took it off the needles, got it wet, wrung it out, stretched it as far as it could go and pinned it for all it was worth. After it dried, I spread it out and lo and behold, it was fine! So, back on the needles it went and I've been plugging away at it ever since. Because it's an afghan it will take a while to finish. I had five balls of yarn and I'm almost done with the second. It's not a car knitting project since it's so large so will only be done at my leisure at home.

Hemlock Ring Afghan

I've started my "Grace." I could not resist! The yarn is lovely and smooth - such a joy to work with. But I need to put that aside and let it call to me until I finish the button bands on the pullover I have steeked.

My "Aspen Yoke" will be finished in time for summer. Too bad it's 100% wool! But I think I will get a lot of use out of this one, that's for sure!

I'm working on the second sleeve of my "Periwinkle" cardigan. Not sure if I really like it any more but it's something I can wear with black. After I'm done with that sleeve I will be working on the neck and then the button bands. It won't be long - maybe tonight - that I'll be finishing this, since this is the project I'm concentrating on the most.

You will be seeing a lot of these objects in the future because I am determined to finish them all before I start anything else. Oh, I do have three car knitting projects but that's for another post.

A Little Time Out For Some Crochet

So, I took some time out to finish an old project. It goes in my guest room and thankfully, it still matches the decor. Sort of. But it will do. And I don't think my company minds. After all, it will still keep them warm and that is the point of afghans, isn't it. Oh, by the way, it's crochet. And Saturday night's company did use it.

Guest Room Afghan

Start with a quilt.


 

Add some yarn.



And a crochet hook.




Decide to change the blue to a color that actually matches the quilt.
Work on it for a long time. A really long time.

Pretty soon (or after a long while) you'll end up with an afghan.

Periwinkle

Periwinkle has been one of my favorite colors for a long time. I made a sweater years ago that just turned out too big - (or it could have been that I lost weight). Anyway, I decided to rip it out and re-use the yarn for another sweater. The pattern I'm using is a modified "Brick". I basically cast on the number they used to cast on. I knit a few rows and started to increase at the front, sleeves and back for a total of ten increases. I did that on every right side row for about ten rows. From that I figured out my gauge. That would tell me how much increasing I would need to do. Since I want my sweater to be comfortable and not tight, I added a few inches to my total measurements. Now, I'm knitting until the sweater reaches that size and will separate the sleeves from the body of the sweater. At that point I plan on casting on another two inches worth of stitches for each of the underarms.

So far, so good.

Reyna Shawl

This shawl turned out better than I expected! I often wonder about a project's beauty when I see a skein of yarn. Will this make something beautiful? Or is the beauty all in the skein? What sometimes looks great all wound up often looks like a mess when knitted up. I think this one worked.

I don't usually like garter stitch but for this yarn I was pleased with how it turned out. The yarn overs and knit two together almost did me in but I persevered and was rewarded. 

P.S. Some day I will edit my pictures so that they all turn out the same color. It would help if I took them all at the same time and in the same room with no clouds. Alas, two were taken in BC and one was taken in SK - all with varying degrees of cloudiness, Say la vee.

I Fixed It!

So, I fixed the sleeves and now it's wearable. Still not happy about it but at this point I'm not going to rip it out and start all over. No, I'll just chalk it up to experience. Now I know to knit with a yarn that I like, i.e., 100% wool. Whenever possible. Also learned to stick with a pattern. I don't mean necessarily sticking to the shape of the garment but stick with the placement of the color. I would have liked this better if the stripes were a little higher - maybe two inches. Same number of stripes but placed differently.

Now, I'm worried about my next sweater project. I have the yarn all picked out but I'm using two different weights. One is a sport weight and the other is sock weight, Well, the only way to find out is to knit a swatch. And that I will do! Stay tuned.

Reworking WIPs

Yep, I'm doing it! I'm getting them done. It's like a food diet. You just have to bite the bullet and do it. So, I'm demolishing WIPs left and right and forcing myself to NOT start another project until these old ones are under control. To make myself feel better I have even consigned some projects to zzzz on my Ravelry page. That way they are out of the way at the end of my project page and then all I see are a few WIPs at the top. So, then, as things come under control I can bring up a few more zzz's and promote them to WIP's. What mind games I play!

That said and taken care of I have even decided to rework some done projects that I'm not happy with. The Brick/Ravello is an example. The sweater looked sloppy. Too sloppy. Now, I can deal with a little bit of sloppy but when I looked in the mirror with the sweater on it looked so wrong. Just plain wrong. I thought of ripping out the sleeves to the arm pit as well as ripping back all the grey (up to the armpit) But wondered if just redoing the cuff would work. Well, that's just what I did. I ripped out the "k2, p2" cuff and replaced it with six rounds of stockinette stitch in needles four sizes smaller and then just bound off. It worked! The reduced size of needle cinched the cuff just enough that made it pleasing without it being overly gathered. I think I'll wear it tonight.

I want to do another rework but that involves a steek and my brain is not yet up to it.

In fact, I have two sweaters that could be more wearable if I inserted a steek down the front. We'll see.

In 20 Minutes

In 20 minutes I will hop in the car and drive to the airport! No, this is not a spur of the moment trip. Ever since one of my girls called last week I had been hemming and hawwing about whether to go and visit them. Well, last night I decided it was time to go. I'm only going to be there for a few days but it's the weekend and both of them have off. Heidi even has this Friday off - one of her regular 2nd (or is it 3rd?) EDO or Earned Day Off. I'm looking forward to it and have brought my knitting. Nothing involved and an extra ball of yarn just in case.

"Reyna" in Ancient Arts "Landscape Artist"

And a little sustenance.

Now, there are only five minutes to go! Must put my bags in the car.

Snowy Dragonfly Wings

I started this shawl for Jailgy last month and thought I would finish it while visiting her. I soon realized that knitting took second place next to her new quilting machine. We had so much fun! I think she said we finished five quilt tops altogether. I wish I had pics of them all but alas, I was only selfish enough to get one of mine.

This English paper piecing, basted on to a peach background and quilted on a electronic quilting machine.

When I got home I was able to finish her shawl but had trouble blocking it. I thought I could block it the usual way - the way I block wool. Get it wet, wring it out, pin it to a towel and wait for it to dry. Well, dry it did but when I unpinned it, it immediately curled. Grrr. I then remembered that that was not how you blocked acrylic! Silly me. What you are suppose to do is to pin your garment to the ironing board or some other smooth surface, hold the iron one to two inches above your work and steam away! And that, she said, worked. Voila!

When I Woke Up

This morning I wrote my list without even thinking. I wanted to get down as many things as I could think of before I forgot. Needless to say, most of these items will not get done. But I will try. So far, I've dropped off the vacuum hose to get fixed and expect to hear back from them later today. Good thing too since I'm expecting company. It never fails. Something goes wrong right before the company arrives. That's okay. This company really knows us and couldn't be bothered by such insignificant details as crumbs and cat hair on the floor.  Now, in the guest room I've had a shawl on the bed being blocked. (See number 10).In case you don't know, you use many straight pins to block a shawl unless you have blocking wires, which I do not. Hopefully, the company will not find any stray pins on their bed. Yikes! 

So this leaves me with an almost undone list and it's 3PM so I had better get busy. 

Winter Frost Not Snow

I may be repeating myself here. But bear with me as I get my blog in order and sort out the old drafts - culling, deleting and posting a few.

 We've had weird ground cover lately. It's almost as if it's trying to snow but not quite. That is frost, not snow. A closer look will reveal crystals unlike snow.

So I've been sitting by the fire enjoying working on my "Brick". It's so cozy inside the house - I don't want to leave. Not even to take a walk.

That's a good thing because I get a lot done. 

I'm not real happy about this sweater. There are at least three reasons but I'll chalk it up to a learning experience. First off, it's too big. I'm ok with that, I guess because then I can wear layers to keep warm. I can even roll up the sleeves. But still, I would like to someday make a sweater that actually fits. Second, the white yarn is gross. I don't like the feel of it. Even after a good wash it still feels pretty stiff. Also, the white should have been whiter. By that I mean the color, which is really cream, doesn't actually go with the grey. It looks ok on the computer monitor but in real life I don't like it. 

You would think I would have known this after putting together a quilt that mixed cream based and white base fabric. My sister fixed it by taking it all apart and separating the fabric into two piles - one white and one cream. This is what she did with the cream. Or was it the white? I'm not sure, but I guess I didn't learn.

She's really good with color. Me? I'm still learning,

So, I will knit.

At My Sister's House

One of the fun things about going to my sister's is that I get things done! Since I've been here I've worked on my slipped stitch socks and they are finished! They were my "car knitting"  project but I was getting tired of carrying them around the country (read: continent) and was glad when they finally came off the needles.

Heidi will be pleased!

I had been waiting a long time to finish this quilt. And when my sister told me she got a new (to her) quilting machine I asked if she needed another practice quilt. She did! We were both pleased with how it turned out.

The back is as pretty as the front! Maybe even more so. 

It only helps that my sister has a wonderful craft/sewing room. 

We come up early in the morning and only leave to eat and sleep. Well, maybe to quilt with the machine which is actually in the garage. What a great place to spend the day!

BTW, that's my finished quilt on the ironing board.

Autumn Socks

I like variegated yarn. I like it a lot. But it's usually when it's still in the skein that it's so appealing to me. Once I start to knit with it, I find it's not so pretty after all. There must be a trick to making it look as attractive in the project as it is in the skein. I'm wondering if that has to do with one of two things... or maybe both. The first may have to do with the actual stitch pattern. By that I mean some yarns fight with a pattern stitch and vise versa. A bobbly stitch does not look good in a variegated yarn. But if you do a plain stockinette stitch it will "pool" more often than not. And that's just plain ugly or homemade looking. The key is to find out the color repeat and find a project that corresponds to the number of stitches you have for a round or a row. If you can get the yarn to "stripe", you've won. I think I won.

Goals for 2016

So, no, I did not finish my temperature scarf. I really didn't even try. That was because I've been working feverishly on my "Brick" sweater.

It's almost done. All there is to do is to finish the first sleeve, work the second sleeve and finish off the collar. I'm still thinking about how to do the collar. I really don't like the look of the rib that the pattern suggest you do, so that's out. I've worked a single crochet on other sweaters and it's worked out fine. Another option is the seed stitch  - k1, p1 and alternate each row. That means where there is a knit stitch on the previous row, you do a purl stitch on the next row. And vise versa. Or I can do a garter row or two. Well, since it's easy to rip out I can try all three! There may be even a 4th option. I've got a book that has all kinds of ideas.

So that really brings me to my goals for 2016.

1. Love my children.

That's it! I don't want to set myself up for failure and I know I will always love them. Well, maybe I'll plan on finishing a few WIPs. Maybe.