Grace and Grace Modified

This sweater was a lot of fun to make! It was easy as long as I followed the directions carefully. Having said that, yes, I did have to rip out about 20 rows at one point. It probably wouldn't have mattered in the end but I, and anyone sitting behind me, would know that the lace did not line up properly. And that would bother me. Not that someone sitting behind me would notice but that I would know. If something is not done right and I have it in my power to fix it and make it right I will do it. So I did.

I used three skeins of Malabrigo Sock in "Playa".

Now about this next sweater... I've had this Plymouth Encore DK yarn for a long time. Eight skeins of it that I picked up on Ravelry for a song. But I have a love/hate relationship with it. Sometimes I like it and sometimes I relegate it to the back of the closet because I detest it so. Now I like it. I'm thinking it will be a work horse type of sweater. Something I can throw on when I need to get cozy and just relax. So, I thought I would try making another "Grace" because I liked the outline of the sweater so well. But this time I would do it without the lace. Well, I didn't know that since the lace was expandable that there was a reason that the pattern had you do a massive increase along the body of the sweater after the underarm stitches were cast on. I know now after knitting about three inches of the body under the arms. (This is a top-down sweater) Huh. I had to rip out those three inches as well as all the stitches up to the raglan ending and then continue the raglan shaping (eight stitches increased every other row) until I had enough stitches on my needle to wrap around me with ease. Phew! That was not fun. Lesson learned. Count your stitches and check your gauge.

And hurry up and knit before you think you hate it again!

It Pays

There are so many reasons I love to visit Southern California. One of them is that I get to spend time with my sisters! This trip all five of us got together to shop. What an experience that was! At least four of us had been losing weight so were anxious to shop. And shop we did!

There is nothing like having one sister say yes and another say no when you try something on. Who do you listen to? In the end you have to decide. Do you like the color? Will it fit in with what you have? Is the price right? And did at least one of the sisters say yes? Then buy it. Or not!

Another thing we do is sew. All of us sew but I often bring my projects to So. Cal when I'm stuck. As you know I was having difficulty figuring out what to do with my hexies.

So I sewed them together and just stared at them.

Well, Janet and I went to JoAnn's where we brainstormed throughout the store. We ended up getting a pillow form and some bronze colored ric-rack. When we got back to her house she pulled out some of her stash for the background. Before I had a change of heart I appliqued the hexies to aforementioned background . But it was a joint effort. She rounded the corners and sewed on the ric-rack. I ironed it all smooth. She stuffed the pillow into the case. I basted it closed. And she top-stitched all the way around. Ta-Da! Done.

Next up was a conglomeration of four-inch squares that I salvaged from a scraps leftover from a quilt that my mom made me years ago. You can see that this quilt is well worn and well loved! So much so that it's actually falling apart and has been mended numerous time.

 What in the world could we do with this?!

Janet had a great idea and I love it!

So goes my sewing for the time being. I'm off to knit a few rows.

Psst! I can't wait to get to California again!

Hexie delema or "Now What?"

I really like making hexies. I hand sew all my hexies just because to me, it's very relaxing. And there is a lot of hand sewing when it comes to EPP or English Paper Piecing! The only problem is, is that it takes a lot of time. And in this day and age who has a lot of that!? (Interobang) Well, I do when I sit in the car on a long trip. Bruce does all the driving and I don't get car sick in the least - unless we're pretending to be race car drivers whipping around corners and I'm looking down. Then I feel sick. But besides all that, a long trip to Regina or to So. California indulges me my need of hand sewing.

In one of my last posts I showed you a picture of all the hexies I made with a charm pack. I picked up this pack because all the material matched my family room perfectly! Well, at least it matched the rug. But I didn't want to start on another hexie quilt as I knew I didn't have the tenacity to finish it. Besides, I only bought one package of squares which has about 40 pieces.

So, now that I have the hexies all sewn together I've got to figure out what to do. The first thing that comes to mind is a pillow. But the sewn piece is not in the shape of a pillow! Maybe, I can sew it to a background material to square it up and then make it into a pillow.

This deserves a trip to California where I can coerce my sisters to help me figure this one out. In the mean time I'm off to the eye doctor.

Ginkgo And Squares

I finished my "Ginkgo" shawl with six grams of yarn to spare. That's enough to do a couple of stripes in a sock. So, I'll be saving it for some crazy socks. (Multiple stripes with scrap sock yarn).

I've got some pictures of the unblocked shawl that I'll show you. And when it's blocked I'll show you that as well. That way you'll appreciate what blocking does for lace. It really is amazing! Both the following pictures are of the unblocked shawl. I've got to get it in the bath before I can block it and show you what it really looks like!

Since I'm finishing projects I'll show you my progress on my latest weaving. I've made 110 squares from this yarn and am now sewing them together. It's not really exciting yarn but I felt like making squares and had a lot of this left over from a pair of socks I made for my brother. After all, you do not need six balls of yarn to make socks! Or was it seven?

It's tricky to get these squares together since their edges are so uneven so I've devised a system of sorts. Each square ends up with one short string and one long string. I match them up with the long strand in the back on the right top and the short strand on the bottom left. I then place the next square on top with the strands flipped and face to face. Keeping them consistent I haphazardly sew them together. Sigh. It's the best I can do. At least they are together and I'm one step closer to having another woven afghan for my "navy" colored house. 

What a life!

The Direction of My Hexies

I'm really not sure which way these hexies are going. By that, I mean I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them now that I've sewn up the whole pack. Sadly, the finished product was not as large as I thought it would be. Therefore, it will not be a quilt. Not even a small lap quilt to warm my knees. Sigh. So, I'm looking for inspiration. It may strike me in the middle of the night but truth be told, I'm expecting it to strike while I'm sitting in my sister's craft room while she looks at it. May that day come soon,

Your're

I'm one of those people who is terribly irked by the use of your for you're, their for they're or even there for they're. Come on, people! Get your act together and think! It's really not rocket science. Sound it out even! Un-contract the word. (There. I've made another word.)You're is you are. Simple.

But if you can't be bothered to think. Hehe. Then, here. I've invented a new word! Yourre. And put the apostrophe at the end. That's easy. Yourre'. Or even two. Yourre". Or even somewhere in the middle. And use it for both.

 I think it will help to solve the dilemma many have trying to figure out weather to use your or you're.

Your're welcome.


The beginnings of my latest hexie creation:

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!