Holidays and Lace Reading

Have you started your Holiday Knitting yet? Some may think that if you haven’t started yet, it might be too late. Perhaps…..soo….I have some to catch up. The problem with holiday knitting is the idea of starting new projects and putting aside the ones you’re in love with. It takes a lot of self control to tear oneself away from those project to focus on other people, but nevertheless, necessary to your sanity, especially if your set on knitting gifts.

So, what am I going to do for the holidays? Who am I going to knit for this year? I tend to be a realist and KNOW that I cannot knit for every member of my family. The most immediately circle of family who gathers together for most family events amounts to 15 people plus a new baby.
My fingers are still itching to spin more. I just spun up about 500 yards of superwash roving in a sock weight yarn. I still need to decide how to dye these skeins to make a nice pair of socks for someone.
I had spun up some mohair not too long ago. It came out so soft and I wondered what I could make out of it. Since I was thinking about the holidays, I ran across last years Holiday Issue of Interweave Knits and rediscovered a beautiful pattern for Sugarplum shrug. This would be perfect with the mohair. I tried to start this pattern before and failed. At that time, I had barely tried lace patterns and this one did not have a chart. So through much frustration and several restarts, I quit and ripped it out.

Now, having had some lacework behind my belt experiencewise, I decided to do it right and swatch first. I used a smooth sport wt yarn to learn the patterns and was eventually successful after some experimenting with my style of knitting. If I could not get this to work with smooth yarn, I knew not to attempt it with the mohair, especially because ripping it out would be disasterous. All the fine fuzzy hairs would tangle and felt to no end. What I need was some confidence with the lace pattern! I learned to read my knitting. Read Knitting? What’s that, you might be asking? It is being so familiar with the directions of the decreases and knowing and predicting where a yarn overs should go, to get the outcome or pattern you want. This is a predictable diamond pattern, which makes it much easier than I expected. Of course, a chart would have been very helpful, but I think I have it in my head now. The swatch came out great. However, I think the lace border may still need some work. Luckily, it is made separately and sewn on afterwards. I decided to start the body with the lace pattern and it is coming out beautifully.

On the family front, we celebrated by Mom's 80th birthday this weekend. We had a lovely dinner. My brother gave her a beautiful rose corsage. It was a wonderful day with just a minor shadow hanging over it. More about that later........

Does she look 80?????Never!!!! Always young at heart too.

No Idle Hands

I’ve been sick with a cold all week. Felt it coming on slowly since Monday. I was out from work Wed and Thurs. Back to work on Friday, although not 100%. Today, it’s now it my chest. It’s the pits! Thursday was my 32nd wedding anniversary and I was sick! How the Lord tests me! Hopefully, we’ll celebrate this weekend.

Being home gave me a chance to knit and spin, I’ve spun a lot of skeins of mohair trying to make a dent in the fleece I have. It came out soft and lovely but it seems I’m spinning the never-ending fleece. I still have lots to spin.

I finally got tired of mohair and switched to some left over Romney wool. After spinning Mohair, I felt the Romney was too scratchy, so I plied it with some gold tencel roving. It softened it up a bit.

I’ve been working on a variety of knit projects: the fuzzy feet slippers, the Hey Teach! Sweater, dug out my pink striped socks and tried to fix them-still a work in progress. I’ve been knitting the 2nd sleeve for the Babies and Bears sweater. And when I grew bored or tired, I gazed lovingly at my Gerber daisies which are blooming wonderfully and lift my spirits.

I’ve been reading the “No Idle Hands:the Social History of American Knitting” by Anne L. Macdonald. It is so great to hear the hidden history of the Revolutionary War and the courage of the women who used their cunning and skills to gather women together to knit and sew clothing and wool socks for George Washingtons troups at Valley Forge . They passe through blockades in the middle of war, in the cold of winter, to get these desperately needed items to them. They found the troops, by following the bloody footprints in the snow of soldiers who had no socks and shoes to wear. Women worked to spin and knit 24 hours a day to meet the needs of the soldiers and those of their families, which in that time was quite large. Talk about labor intensive!!!

Happy Color!

My babies, my Gerber daisies, are doing great! I am relieved that they have made it through the hottest part of the summer. The reds and pinks are blooming like crazy. The yellows have made a slow start but I am seeing some small buds starting to spring up and I’m sure they will bloom in a few days. It seems my “brown thumb” is fading. The plants look very healthy. I am wondering how long their season is? It would be nice if I can keep they blooming all year. They are so beautiful.

I haven’t been blogging much because I’ve been too busy working, knitting and spinning. I have two new projects on my needles. I’ve started to make some Christmas presents, again knitting some fuzzy feet for special people. This time, however, I tried adapting the pattern to do “toe-up”, which means I won’t have to finish the toe. Kitchener stitch is not a favorite, and toe-up means no kitchener. Yea! So far they are coming out OK, I tried to make them a little bigger as to fit a large male foot. It’s not easy to know for sure if they will shrink enough in the felting process, but I am keeping my fingers crossed.

I started organizing my paper patterns in binders……yes, bindersssssss! I had no idea how many I had. I created a database to inventory all my patterns and search where they are located. What a chore! I had no idea I had so many. Too many to actually make them. Still they inspire me.

The other project I started was a sweater I found on Knitty.com called Hey Teach! It looks like it would look great on any body shape. I found some stash cotton I had and cast on. This time I started with the sleeve to determine if it was doable before I knitted several skeins worth of stockinette. It ended up very easy and I can’t wait to get to the pattern again.

Approaching Fall

I was going to write that I don’t have much to share this week. On second thoughts, perhaps I do.

I’ve had a busy week at work, conducting Health Trainings for teachers, trying to plan for the start of school this week. It has been a week of tragedy for me and one of my co-workers. She got news that a close family member was very ill and had to leave the country to be with family. I received news that my Godmother passed away. She was 82. She had Alzheimer’s. I’m just thankful, my mother, who was one of her best friends since childhood, and I had a chance to see her in January. We drove down to San Diego where she was living in an assisted living center. It still confounds me how her daughters could send her so far away from friends and family in Los Angeles County. At that time, she remembered us and was happy to see us. The memorial service was very nice, much nicer than I expected.

On the crafting front, I’ve been knitting baby booties and spinning mohair. I haven’t felt like doing much else. I’ve been too tired.

Now that Fall is about to start, I am going to have to start thinking about making Christmas gifts. I want to try to make things from my stash. Can I do it? It’s a mighty thing to consider. Neverthless, I really need to make an effort to use my stash or I will be forced to give it away.

Ravelympics Closing Ceremonies

Ravelympics close

Out of the 4 projects I planned to complete from my Event WIP (Work in Progress) Wrestling for the Ravelympics 08, I finished 3. So I have earned “3” Gold Medals and posted my Bobicus Avatar on my blog. Bob is the Ravelry dog and Mascot. Isn’t he cute?

The main one was the Cotton Sampler Vest. It came out beautifully. It is somewhat big but for me this is what I like. I think I was meant to finish it at this time. When I began it several years ago, I weighed less and it would have been like a balloon and I would have tossed it then. Having gain 10 or so pounds over the years, this Vest now fits me better. The different stitch patterns were very interesting to do. It was a mix of easy, such as the Box lace pattern to a Medium difficulty of Feather and Fan, and to the more difficult Arrowhead lace pattern. Unfortunately, it does not progress in the order of difficulty. The expertise level of the pattern was “Intermediate” and I think this was correct. I would not recommend this pattern to a beginner.

My second project was the Pinwheel Baby Blanket I was making for my new grandson, who was born Aug 19. It was a lot of stockinette with yarn over increases to increase the circular blanket. I was trying to estimate how big to make it. It ended up being over 500 stitch and about 4 ft diameter. I added an easy crochet lattice border which came out quite nice and helped the edges from curling. I wet blocked it, but it probably need a little steam blocking to relax the curl more. I love the light green color.

The third project was finished the Baby Kimono from Mason Dixon Knitting. I made it with Sugar and Cream Cotton that I had handpainted with green and pink Procion MX dyes. This knitted up fast, but I’m not a big finisher and put off sewing it up until now. I think next time I would make it in a sport weight cotton rather than worsted weight. It seems thick to me for a baby.

Introducing the newest member of our family B.A. H. Weighed 8 lb 10 oz. 22 inches long, just

like his dad, my eldest son.

He has a lot of hair, but this tends to run in my family. Mom and baby are doing very well and his sister is happy too.

Doll Clothes

Here I lay 12:30 on a Friday night, oops Saturday morning, just full of thoughts….Where do I start?

As the birth of my grandson approaches…on Tuesday, the waiting has got me very ansy. It’s sort of like being pregnant myself, the nesting sets in and you want to do things like cleaning and making things, to bide your time until the blessed event happens. It’s like a mother hen knitting while waiting for her chickens to hatch. No one told me this happens to grandmothers too.

I have been meditating on my granddaughter lately. What will she think of a new baby brother? Will she be jealous? Will she be gentle with the baby? I gave her a new baby doll and doll stroller for her to be busy with while mommy takes care of the new baby.

This worked well for my boys when they were 2 ½ yrs old and taught them how to be caring fathers. Well, at least my eldest remembered this lesson in nuturing his daughter. The other’s have yet to have a real experience, but they are very caring and playful with children and babies. Even my youngest son took his turn as a toddler in dressing the baby doll until he started school and lost interest. Look!, I don't think he forgot the experience either. Here he is with baby C, my granddaughter at 1 week old.


Anyways, a doll is only interesting for so long. What keeps a little girl’s interest in a toy? Something new, like …….new clothes? So my knitting has detoured a bit, while I am sewing some new clothes for my granddaughter’s new doll. I used to make clothes for my dolls as a child and my sons’ baby doll when I was a young mother. So I dusted off my sewing machine and searched around for some left over scraps of fabric. I purchased a Simplicity pattern to make doll clothes.

Remember when life was so self productive?. Heaven forbid that the youth today would have the skill or even the passion to learn how to sew doll clothes? They would rather buy it at Walmart or go to the Mall, or better yet order it on Ebay! What a shame for this generation to have lost a valued character trait called “resourcefulness” that our parents, who had experienced the Depression, took time to remind us Baby Boomers about, as we grew up.

I started making some outfits for a medium size doll about 16”. I couldn’t remember the exact size. As I finished the first outfit, I realized it was probably going to be big. The first outfit was a Fleece Jacket and pants set made out of some left over Black Fabric. It actually looks like a Ninja Suit. I added a removable hood. Well, if the doll can’t wear it, perhaps the new baby can.

Today, using the small doll pattern, I made a cute pink print dress, with white tights. I love this outfit, my favorite. I love the trellis of little red roses.
The next outfit I just finished as midnight was approaching was a little white blouse and rose colored jumper. Tomorrow I will try to make a sleeper suit. I plan to go to my granddaughter’s house for delivery on Sunday.

This has been very fun and I hope my granddaughter likes the new clothes. One thing about the experience is that I remembered why I do not sew much anymore. These old eyes are shot! It is getting harder to thread a needle and on a sewing machine, one does that a lot. Perhaps this is why I picked up again “knitting”. Knitting is so much easier on the eyes.

Thoughts of Enlightenment

I had a thought of enlightenment today!

How does one know when they are a fiberholic? When one gazes at the clouds in the sky during sunset and sees fluffs of teased mohair locks ready to be spun. Can you tell which one is the fiber and which are the clouds? If I wasn’t there myself, it would be very hard to tell.

Answer: On the left are the clouds, the right are the mohair locks.

My babies….the Gerber daisies are needing a lot of care. I had to buy a flower spray to kill the white flies that were attacking them. Many of them cannot cope with more that 3 hours of sun. They suffer sun exhaustion and drop so sadly. I am hoping that if I keep them somewhat watered they will be able to get through the hot sun.

So what do I know about a drip irrigation systems? ….Absolutely nothing. To Home Depot I go, and low and behold I find the perfect system, “Drip Irrigation for Dummies”!. Perfect! It has everything I need. I plan it out and cut the hose to the proper lengths and connect everything and hope for the best. Everything worked except one connection, but with my husband’s help we fixed the leak and where in business.

I had a lovely lunch out with two of my friends from high school. We shared what was going on in our lives and compared each other’s grey hair that our grown kids seem to be giving us. The fact that the years are passing ever so quickly now, simply seemed to escape our thoughts. ;) I wish I had remembered to take a picture. We need to meet up more often.

Ravelympics: I am on the home stretch for my Sampler Vest. I finished the Button band and one armhole. I will start and hopefully finish the other armhole tonight, weave in the ends and sew these cute daisy buttons on. I must be in a happy mood, or be obsessed with daisies this summer. I am really liking being home on vacation. It is going to be hard to go back to work on Monday.