June 13, 2009 at 8:45 pm (Knitting)
I just got bright blue sock blockers from Knitpicks. Not for blocking socks, I can’t see the point of that, but for taking photos of socks. Crazy, I know. No, these socks are not a pair. They are both Opel sock yarn, superwash wool, with some cotton, can’t remember the percentage. They feel like socks you could wear on a cool summer evening and they’re in lighter colors than I seem to generally knit socks from.
The most exciting part of this post though is that the sock on the left is my first ever toe up sock!!! I’ve been trying to figure out how to accomplish this for a long time. Have studied and tried many patterns. Provisional cast ons, wrapping… good grief. I can do the first part of the technique called wrapping, but not the 2nd. Suzanne (leave it to a kid) sent me a link to the Turkish cast on. http://fluffyknitterdeb.blogspot.com/2005/10/knitting-made-easier-turkish-cast-on.html This requires using 2 circular needles, but is easy peasy. Eliminates needing to do the Kitchener stitch that you generally do to close the toe when you knit top down (though I’ve not had a lot of trouble with it). When you use circular needles you can try on the socks-in-progress. I haven’t perfected this sock technique yet, but will be using it a lot. This pair is going to be for Suzanne because the foot of the sock is quite long and Suzanne’s foot is quite long.
I’ve liked the idea of using 2 circular needles to make socks (and I think I’ve talked about this a bit on this blog), but always had trouble with gappy stitches between the needles, so I’ve been using 5 dpns. But I discovered that I could do the same thing I do with dpns, which is to knit off stitches from the next needle on to the previous needle and eliminate gaps. (Too complicated for me to figure out how to explain at the moment). BUT, I think I am figuring out that a) these gaps I’ve been hating may only be visible to me and b) maybe what I’ve read about about tightening up the 2nd stitch of a row works better than trying to tighten the first (when you tighten the 2nd you actually are tightening up the first) and c) maybe what I’ve read about gaps mysteriously disappearing eventually is actually true.
The sock on the right is my “can do this in my sleep” top down garter rib pattern. I can’t tell you who these are going to be for just yet, it’s a secret, sometimes the person reads my blog.
Funny thing about the yarn for the left side socks. A friend got this yarn to make a Baby Surprise Jacket and somewhat untactfully, I said that I didn’t care for the yarn for socks — the wide stripes, I just didn’t think it would look good on socks. Well, when I was looking for a lighter color yarn for socks, this was all I saw at Knots and Bolts. And I really quite like the effect.
Leave a Comment
June 9, 2009 at 10:21 pm (Family, Knitting)
Stefanie’s socks, in Trekking yarn (I think). Size 1 dpns, garter rib stitch
Cathy should recognize this yarn. Thank you, Cathy!
When I first started knitting socks with self-striping yarn I couldn’t figure out how in the world you could ever get the socks to match. And at first I didn’t care if the stripes would match or not. BUT, then I realized or probably read somewhere, that you simply start the cast on at the same place in the yarn. For example, looks like I must have started where a stripe of gray ended and the stripe of orange began. I’ve had really good luck with making the right sized socks for people. When you buy socks at the store it’s pretty much a one size fits all deal. When you knit them, you can knit them to custom fit. Back when I was a kid, you actually bought socks by size. I don’t think the socks exactly corresponded to shoe size though. I can’t remember when it started being a one size fits all world.
1 Comments
June 9, 2009 at 10:14 pm (Grandchildren, Knitting)
Darren Cash in his Charlie Brown sweater
Darren got his Charlie Brown sweater! He is my youngest grandchild. He will be a year in September. The 3rd photo is Wyatt, a co-worker’s son. I asked her to have Wyatt model the photo. As you can tell, he’s a bit smaller than Darren. And Wyatt is almost 2 months older than Darren.
1 Comments
May 27, 2009 at 11:42 pm (Needlework, Quilting)
I participated in a MQ Resource (machine quilting) postcard exchange. The theme was Home Sweet Home. If you need an explanation of any of the acronyms, let me know.
This was lots of fun, I will definitely participate in more exchanges. I sent out 11 cards and have received 8 so far. I don’t know where the other 3 are, the deadline to send was the first week of May. I couldn’t believe it, but I scorched Suzanne’s when I was putting it together, tried to evenly scorch the rest of the card.
The reverse side of the card says:
Dear GF,
What do you think of my new pad? The kids grew up and moved out,
so I sold the old place and won the lawsuit against my ex who accused
me of being an unfit mother. Sure, there were a lot of kids and it wasn’t
easy, but I did my best as a SAHM.
I debated between a strappy Jimmy Choo sandal and a chic Manolo
Blahnik, boot, but finally decided on this cute pump. Come visit!
TTFN, OW
3 Comments
April 22, 2009 at 1:53 am (Grandchildren, Knitting)
Just finished the zigzag stitching on this sweater. Pattern designer Jennifer Hagan, Figheadh Yarnworks. Cascade Superwash Wool.
I need to press the stripe. The sweater itself was quick and easy. For some reason my stitches are loose around the neckline, right in front there. 4 buttons on the right shoulder, they were supposed to be on the left, but no baby will be putting himself into this sweater. The pattern has you do duplicate stitch for the zigzag. Duplicate stitch is also called Swiss darning. It took me 3 times starting it to finally find out the proper way to do duplicate stitch. My tension wasn’t real great. If I’m ever to make this pattern again, I’d want to try knitting the stripe in, I’m thinking that would be much easier.
Overall I’m very happy with the result and I can’t wait to see a little baby boy named Darren modeling it. I will get it to him just in time for the weather to be very very hot. Hopefully he’ll be able to wear it for at least part of next winter. I’ve got lots of the blue yarn left, he really needs a matching hat.
4 Comments
February 8, 2009 at 8:20 pm (Needlework, Quilting)
Suzanne often told me that she thought I’d enjoy hand applique. I took stabs at it, but it didn’t look as perfect as I thought it should. I had seen a lot of what I thought was “perfect” needle turn applique and I was in awe. I started looking more closely and realized that yes, there are people who do exquisite hand work, perfect curves and inner and outer points. But there is lots of applique that is less than perfect. It’s the over-all effect that counts. And of course, it does take practice. 2 or 3 Christmases ago Suzanne gave me a kit and a pattern to make this sweet wallhanging. She didn’t just give me the kit and some fabrics. She had already traced the patterns onto the fabric!!! All I had to do was cut out the shapes she had traced and start the applique. Applique and embroidery, I find this to be a very pleasing combination. I loved working on this quilt. I just got the borders on today. It sometimes takes me quite awhile to get projects finished. I’ll let Suzanne machine baste this and then I’ll hand quilt it with pearl cotton and big stitches.
Update on yesterday’s new project — I think I’m going to put the word F L E U R on the flower wall hanging, big letters across the top or down one side.
I went down to the shop this afternoon to cut out the borders for this Hearts and Flowers quilt and was going to sew, using my Bernina 830 that is down there. But the foot pedal and cord weren’t with the machine. I was also going to work on a quilt that I had bought fabric for a couple years ago to make for our church’s auction. I got it started back then, but didn’t finish. Now the pieces have traveled around to more than one place in my house I think. It’s a Trip Around the World and needs to be pieced just so. It’s in lovely dark batiks. I’m somewhat overwhelmed by it, because I didn’t keep the sections organized. Why do I do these things? Who knows! I’d really love to get it done, but other projects keep calling out louder. And the knitting needles have been speaking much louder than the sewing needles. I haven’t finished a quilt in way too long (and then I can’t resist starting a new one).
1 Comments
February 7, 2009 at 11:23 pm (Quilting)
I’ve been working on the brown/purple pink quilt for several weeks off and on. All right, probably a couple months. I can’t remember the book the pattern comes from, the blocks were fun to piece. I used my seam ripper once or twice because it’s easy to get things going the wrong way. One strip of the brown border stripe goes on each block. Fine. Then I started the longer borders. I cut the wrong lengths once and put the thing away for a couple more weeks. Today I once again cut the wrong lengths. Then I thought I had everything under control. Then I went to the ironing board and realized that I had cut the stripes the long way — you can easily see this at the top of the quilt, much more effective to have cross-wise stripes for a border. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish this thing. It’s not the most beautiful quilt in the world, but I don’t go for beautiful, I go for interesting.
A couple weeks ago I had picked out fat quarters for my next quilt top. But after the brown/purple fiasco I put the fat quarters away, deciding that I just wanted to sew, for goodness sake!!! I didn’t want to measure too much. So I pencil sketched a vase and flowers and then went to the closet at Knots and Bolts today and pulled out fabric. I took a fat 1/8th and cut a square, then just started cutting 3″ strips from the scraps and started adding them around the center square. The only measuring or real thinking involved was the center square and the width of the strips. The piecing was pretty much truly random. I wanted to end up with a busy background, but hopefully the flowers will still stand out. Started cutting circles for big fried egg type flowers and strips of a pretty green for stems. I think I might just let the stems hang into the border and not tuck them in. At first the flowers were going to be in a vase, but I decided there were fabrics in the background that I didn’t want to cover up, especially the silhouette fabric.. The borders aren’t all sewn on yet because the bobbin ran out of thread and I haven’t mastered changing the bobbin on the Featherweight that Suzanne has at the store. The border fabric wouldn’t be just any one’s choice I know. It reminds me of 50s era curtain or upholstery fabric. I will probably change out some of the flower choices, some aren’t bright enough. I’ll probably do some rearranging. And then I’ll find a backing, batting, slap it all together and get out my pearl cotton and needle and utility quilt by hand.
There weren’t a lot of customers in the store today, but I had a grand time sewing and cutting and creating after I figured out that I just needed to “doodle” with fabric.
2 Comments
January 17, 2009 at 4:57 am (Grandchildren, Musings)
I hung out with the boys for a couple hours while their folks went to the local movie theater. I watched them play with their Lego robot for awhile. We listened to a podcast I have called “Stuff You Should Know”. This episode was about how body armor works. Quite interesting. We watched Tom & Jerry cartoons. Are there any good cartoons being made these days? There’s nothing to compare with watching characters get blown up, burned up, tied up in knots, exploded, and then appear good as new. The boys (and frankly I) love The Pink Panther, Popeye, Tom and Jerry… I have to be knitting while I’m watching/listening. But I know when a good part occurs because Joe will say, Grandma, watch this.
Before they started getting ready for bed I told them each to go get a story book for bedtime stories. I suppose that eventually I won’t be able to talk them into letting me read to them, but I’m going to hope that maybe I’ll be able to get in occasional poems or random picture books squeezed in somehow for a long, long time. They each picked out a Dr. Seuss book. Well, Will actually picked out a “faux” Dr. Seuss book. It was written by Jack Prelutsky and someone else, in the style of Dr. Seuss. Hooray for Diffendorfer (or something along those lines). Sorry, I’m not taking the time right at the moment to Google and find the right name. Here’s another thing I’m not Googling — maybe someone can let me know the answer. Their home history lesson of the day was about St. Augustine, Florida. Is St. Augustine the capital of Florida or is Tallahassee?
Will took all of today’s photos with my camera. First one here is the Lego robot thing they’re building. Pretty clever. He took photos from all angles.
Photo two is of Joe in a red hat I knitted, family laundry in the background on the drying rack. Photo 3 is one I took actually, Will on the couch in his favorite corner of the couch cuddled up with their flannel popcorn 
quilt. By the time I took this photo I had figured out how get the date stamped on photos on my camera. Photos 4 and 5 are the same photo of Joe, one I let Windows “fix”.
1 Comments
January 15, 2009 at 2:08 am (Family)
I’m guessing this was in 1973 when Suzanne (Suzy at that time) was 1 or so and I was 21. Wow. The glasses, the cheekbones, the youth.
3 Comments
January 15, 2009 at 2:05 am (Family)
Christmas in Connecticut, I think this might have been Mark’s first trip to Connecticut, our first time meeting him. I remember picking Mark and Suzanne up at the airport in Warwick, RI and seeing this very tall, handsome, slim young man for the first time.
2 Comments
