Tulip Sweater Finished!

I didn’t take the Tulip Sweater with me to Boston, as I had planned. It was mostly because I was working on the sleeves, and they required double pointed needles. I know you can take knitting on airplanes again, but I wasn’t sure about the dpn. I knew circular needles were okay, so I took something on circulars. So I didn’t get to work on the sweater until I came back. Here it is with the sleeves almost finished:

 The second sleeve went pretty quickly, with all the info I had garnered from doing the first one. But I still messed up and had to rip some of it out. Namely the brown cuff. I knitted it with the larger size dpns. Argh. Frogged it. Redid it. Then, at last, the sleeves were done:

I was so happy I took the sweater outside to take its photo. Sorry about the shadows. You can see the I-cord a little better down the front, though. And that’s all I had left to do then. The I-cord around the neck, and what comprised the two ties. Of course it didn’t go smoothly. The I-cord down the front and around the bottom edge was done by connecting with stitches that were on a stitch holder. On the collar I-cord, you’re supposed to pick up stitches along the edge. Well, the edge is not even, like the front and bottom (for the most part). So I tried it, but it looked like dark brown fangs biting into the cream colored area. I don’t think so!

So what I did was grab the normal brown yarn (not the sparkly stuff), and picked up some stitches with some help from my trusty crochet hook, and THEN I worked the I-cord from that. It looked much smoother. Although you can see at the back of the neck that there’s a chain of cream colored stitches. I hope it won’t be too uncomfortable for the baby, but it feels like it won’t hurt. In spite of all the frogging, this was a lot of fun. At last! Finis!

Tulip Sweater Update

It took me quite awhile to figure out the instructions for the I-cord trim that goes down the front and around the bottom and back up the other side of the front. Actually, the instructions are written well, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around them. It’s a little klunky, but it comes out looking alright. I used a more sparkly dark brown yarn for the I-cord.

I had started on the right sleeve, too, undoing the bow-tied scrap yarn that was holding the stitches together as you can see on the left sleeve.

But there’s a problem you can see in the sleeve closeup. The yellow yarn is only supposed to be knit for two sections, and you can see I’ve started into the third section. I didn’t discover this, however, until I had completed the third section and was beginning to add the caramel colored yarn. Argh. Had to frog that third section and start again with the caramel color.

There’s another goofy thing going on here in this photo I took when I finished the right sleeve. Can you see it? Yes, there’s only one green section. But I guess we can’t have sleeves 8 feet long. How many babies would stand for that? So, it’s one green panel only. Sigh.

I have started the second sleeve much better informed. Then all I will have left is to finish the I-cord around the neck and create the ties. The baby this is for has been born already, and it’s a girl! That makes me feel better about my use of the sparkly yarn, but I could always frog it if it was a problem. I hope to finish it next weekend, but we’ll see!

Stay tuned!

Pink baby hat

I was so pleased with the white baby hat that after I finished it I found a simple baby hat pattern out of one of my pattern books just to make another one in a different style. It was much easier to make as you can see by the pattern. Just ribbing at the bottom and stockinette stitch all the way to the top with only one color. This one is knitted from the bottom up on straight needles. Soon I will be ready to progress to baby cardigans and socks I hope!

Felted bag

Here is the felted bag I started at Stitches with the photo after it was knitted and before it was felted and then after it was felted. It was really quick and fun to do. It is my first felted project. I did the felting by hand as we were taught in the class and because it is such a small project, but it can be done in the washing machine. It did make my arms a bit sore during the felting process though – a good workout! My second felted bag is in process. We were given two kinds of novelty yarn in the class so I’m using the second yarn on the next bag. I will let you know how that turns out.

White baby hat

Here is the completed white baby hat that I started at Stitches and finished when I got home.  It was surprisingly easy to knit despite my never having used double pointed needles before.  It is knitted from the top down beginning with an I-cord.  It was really fun to see the design at the bottom of the hat develop as I was knitting it.  With the leftover yarn I plan to make a blue hat with white accent. 

Stitches Midwest

It’s been awhile since either of us has posted. Sorry about that, it’s been a busy month or two.  I had the distinct pleasure of having Catwoman come north and east to stay with us and attend Stitches Midwest in mid-August. We figured it had been about 10 years since we’d seen each other, penpals since we were little girls. But as always, it’s as if we just pick up from where we last left off. She’s a dear friend, beautiful, with a great sense of fun and lively intelligence, as well as a great sense of humor. I am grateful for her friendship and delighted to call her my friend.

That being said, we had a wonderful time. We both took classes on the Friday morning of Stitches, and managed to look around the Marketplace in the afternoon. We were both good (she better than I) and mostly looked. I ended up with a book and a pattern, and considered myself full of willpower as I had escaped buying any yarn. Not for long! Could there be a more tempting place?

We didn’t return on Saturday as we had some other activities planned, which I must say I enjoyed just as much. But we did come back to Stitches on Sunday for all day classes. My class on Friday, I’m sorry to say, was a disappointment. It was the Aran Knitting class. We spent much too much time on “learning” to cable, which of course you need to know to do Aran knitting. There were 3 exercises for a 3 hour class, the last one being what everyone had shown up for — to make a small Aran sweater — doll size. I think they should make cabling a prerequisite for the class so that you get an opportunity to do more of the sweater, more of the actual Aran knitting. We did the ribbing of the sweater for homework, and in class I only got 3 or 4 rows of the sweater knit. I was most disappointed.

But my Sunday class was great. I had taken a class with the teacher before, Susanna Hansson. She’s wonderful. Very organized, everything paced well, and amazing examples and a little bit of history. Not too much, but enough so you get an appreciation of what you’re doing. The class I took was called “Bohus Stickning.” Stickning is Swedish for knitting, and Bohus is the county in Sweden where this type of knitting was developed. It was great fun, and I learned a lot. We worked on wristlets, or cuffs, which was good because I don’t think my hands could take a whole sweater of this, beautiful though they are. Here are some of the sweaters Susanna showed us.

Considering we were using size 0 (zero) needles, I’d say a sweater is quite ambitious. Susanna told me I probably should use 00 (double zero) needles, but I had enough difficulty with sore hands by the end of the day using the zeroes. Here is the start of the wristlet:

The changing of color was interesting too. In the slideshow Susanna showed us, there were various ways of keeping your yarn from twisting around each other. Susanna recommended that you always move one color over (above) the other and never stray from which one is where. One of the women in the slideshow used an egg carton to keep the little balls of yarn separate. I finally got up and got some of the water cups Stitches had beside the water jugs and used those to keep the balls of yarn in. It worked pretty well. The balls of yarn were only an inch or two in diameter. 

All in all a very interesting and informative class.

We walked around at lunch time and my willpower melted. I had bought a “Getting Started with Socks” book on Friday, and a pattern for an entrelac shawl in pastel colors. Simply gorgeous. If my grandmother was still alive I would make one of these for her. Now, I don’t know how to do entrelac knitting, and I have never made socks either, but apparently I have an interest in these types of knitting! On Sunday, I bought Cat Bordhi’s new sock book, which looks excellent, and some sock blockers. I bought some sock yarn (4 skeins, 2 each of 2 patterns), some beautiful yarn from Brooks Farms, and a little Trendsetter Aura in purple to make something for my niece. Willpower definitely nowhere to be found!!!!

And I was going to be so good! I guess the trick is not to come back!!!! At any rate, I think we both enjoyed the show and learning about new things. Spending time together was also wonderful. I met some really nice people. Knitters are so friendly and happy to help with a tip here and there. I really enjoyed the camaraderie. However you spell it.

Up next: More on the Tulip sweater!