Haven't posted in a few days. The weather has gotten a little nicer and I've been working in the yard the last two days. Have almost all my spring yard work done. Roses, hollyhocks, alpine strawberries, which have little blossoms on them, butterfly bush, lilacs, which have green leaves, and french tarragon. I was digging around in one of my flower beds and found a lily and accidentily knocked off a bud! Ouch! I planted it back and made a wish for it to grow! We'll see. I was going to move it but it had so many buds on it I think I will leave it alone! It's the 'Black Dragon' strain and they are lovely lillies! My Copper King is coming on like gangbusters! It was sooo beautiful last year. It got almost 6 feet tall and large copper colored blooms all over it. I guess it likes where it's at! I just love getting out in my yard and digging around! Sometimes I hate to come inside when it's nice. Speaking of nice, I better enjoy it, in a couple days we are supposed to have 25 mph winds. Geesh!
Now for my knitting! I got the top finished that I was doing circular. I didn't take a gauge swatch in circular, shame on me, but I didn't think about it until I was already knitting it. I couldn't figure out why the knitter was so hard to push. Tried oiling it, spraying the yarn, no luck. Then I got to thinking about the directions in my book and it had the ribber at 6, knitter at 7, so I thought 'that must be it, I've got them on the same tension'. I changed the knitter to a looser number and that worked better. Luckily for me the top is only a little uneven. Thank goodness for boobs!! LOL The long side will be the front! haha The picot, cabled rib came out really nice too! I'll have to take a pic and post it. Hope it doesn't shrink up so much it doesn't look good. I put elastic in the top part but I'm still going to put straps on it. I found a strap I like in one of my books that I think looks good with the ribbing. It uses five stitches, and you transfer 2 over by one and leave the empty needle in work, k 1 row and transfer on the other side. It makes an eyelet row on the outside with a raised stitch down the middle. Started the strap this morning waiting for it to warm up enough to go work in the yard, then I was too tired to work on it this evening. Maybe in a day or two I'll get pics up.
Oh yeah saw a baby lizard today! He was so pale from being dormant, poor thing! I'm sure it's been a long winter for them too! Go eat some cut worms and get fat! LOL
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
AllFreeCrochet giveaway!
AllFreeCrochet is doing a nice giveaway! They are giving away one set of three skeins of SERENITY Chunky Weight yarn to one lucky winner.
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
New top for me!
Finished K's socks, will drop them off tomorrow when we go to town. Can't wait to see them dyed up! I was thinking, I have some natural wool and some Ukrainian egg dye. Wonder if they would work? They are good quality dyes.
Decided to start on a summer top for me. I'm using Bramwell 'Savannah' cotton. It's a sea green, nice color. I went through some of the books I bought from Marge years ago that have edges and trims in it and picked out one that is a picot edge with cables. I tried the 2x2 cables but even with some needles out of work it still pulled on the needles too much. The bad part about cotton. I cast on some yarn and started playing around and decided to do a xxxxoxxxxo design but I'm only going to do a 1x1 cable in the in work needles. I think it looks nice. The out of work needles will be latched up on every other ladder to create the picot edge.
Then I started getting all kinds of ideas in my head about making the rest of the top. I wondered if I could do the rest in circular so I tested it out on a swatch and it worked. It will be tricky hanging stitches back on the ribber, but hey I'm in no hurry! Then I wondered if I could do a folded hem doing the slip stitch on every other needle technique. Tried that on the swatch too! It worked! It may be a little tricky but doable. I'll just have to take my time. I'll have to drop the ribber one notch and use the hook for catching the thread when threading the ribber up. Don't know what they call that little tool but I like it! It looks like the latch tool but the end is 'L' shaped and no latch. Sometimes I use it to pick up a dropped stitch when I'm ribbing too. Grabs that little loop and I don't have to worry about catching the latch on anything.
Can't start on it till Thursday. Got a lot of running around to do tomorrow and I get to go to thrift stores! Yeah! Hope I find something good! LOL
Had some really nice weather today too so maybe spring is really here!
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Decided to start on a summer top for me. I'm using Bramwell 'Savannah' cotton. It's a sea green, nice color. I went through some of the books I bought from Marge years ago that have edges and trims in it and picked out one that is a picot edge with cables. I tried the 2x2 cables but even with some needles out of work it still pulled on the needles too much. The bad part about cotton. I cast on some yarn and started playing around and decided to do a xxxxoxxxxo design but I'm only going to do a 1x1 cable in the in work needles. I think it looks nice. The out of work needles will be latched up on every other ladder to create the picot edge.
Then I started getting all kinds of ideas in my head about making the rest of the top. I wondered if I could do the rest in circular so I tested it out on a swatch and it worked. It will be tricky hanging stitches back on the ribber, but hey I'm in no hurry! Then I wondered if I could do a folded hem doing the slip stitch on every other needle technique. Tried that on the swatch too! It worked! It may be a little tricky but doable. I'll just have to take my time. I'll have to drop the ribber one notch and use the hook for catching the thread when threading the ribber up. Don't know what they call that little tool but I like it! It looks like the latch tool but the end is 'L' shaped and no latch. Sometimes I use it to pick up a dropped stitch when I'm ribbing too. Grabs that little loop and I don't have to worry about catching the latch on anything.
Can't start on it till Thursday. Got a lot of running around to do tomorrow and I get to go to thrift stores! Yeah! Hope I find something good! LOL
Had some really nice weather today too so maybe spring is really here!
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Monday, March 28, 2011
Portuguese Knitting
When I was at K's this weekend she told me that the way I had been hand knitting I was twisting my knitted stitches so I got out my DVD on Portuguese knitting and practiced on that technique. The item I took to her house was a pair of pants that I had put hand ribbing on. On one leg I had used straight needles, on the other I used a circular needle. I was wondering why the circular ribbing had a lean to it then it dawned on me it was probably because I was twisting my knit stitch. I practiced all day Sunday and part of today and I think I'm pretty comfortable with this technique. The problem I was having before was on the tension of the yarn but I think I've got it. I still have a little trouble when I switch from one row of knit to the next row of purl but I guess that will just take practice.
If you're not familiar with the Portuguese technique they use a pin with an open hook that is attached to your clothing up on the left shoulder and the stitches are worked with the yarn to the front. The knit stitch has the yarn over the needle and the purl stitch has the yarn under the needle. So it goes from the left hand, over the hook, then to the right hand, on to the yarn ball. The yarn is put over the second finger on the right hand for tension control. I was knitting it way too tight to begin with but finally got to where I'm a little looser. I like the bind off they do too. You don't have to pick up a stitch and try to slip it over another stitch. You basically knit one stitch, put it back on the left needle, then knit 2 together, or something like that, going from memory here! I practiced the yarn overs too and they came out ok. I think I will try to stick with this technique for now. I've done the throwing method, continental, half of the eastern Europe method where they work into the back of the stitch, and now this technique. I like the eastern European method for knitting but the purl stitch is kinda funky to do.
Well I was almost finished with this post and the power went out, again! Just long enough to muck up all the clocks. I swear I don't know what's going on with our power lately. This is the 3rd time in 10 days we've lost power. The first two were brown outs and now this one. Thank goodness I didn't lose my post!
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
If you're not familiar with the Portuguese technique they use a pin with an open hook that is attached to your clothing up on the left shoulder and the stitches are worked with the yarn to the front. The knit stitch has the yarn over the needle and the purl stitch has the yarn under the needle. So it goes from the left hand, over the hook, then to the right hand, on to the yarn ball. The yarn is put over the second finger on the right hand for tension control. I was knitting it way too tight to begin with but finally got to where I'm a little looser. I like the bind off they do too. You don't have to pick up a stitch and try to slip it over another stitch. You basically knit one stitch, put it back on the left needle, then knit 2 together, or something like that, going from memory here! I practiced the yarn overs too and they came out ok. I think I will try to stick with this technique for now. I've done the throwing method, continental, half of the eastern Europe method where they work into the back of the stitch, and now this technique. I like the eastern European method for knitting but the purl stitch is kinda funky to do.
Well I was almost finished with this post and the power went out, again! Just long enough to muck up all the clocks. I swear I don't know what's going on with our power lately. This is the 3rd time in 10 days we've lost power. The first two were brown outs and now this one. Thank goodness I didn't lose my post!
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Whole Day Knitting!!
K and I had set up a time to get together for some knitting. I had some 3 ply that needed to be put in a skein so she let me use her swift to wind it up. Then I can wash it and get the crinkles out from the frogging. Then we snacked on some cheese, meat, crackers, and some great dip she made! After that we talked about knitting, hand and machine. Next I showed her how to make socks on her Bond, made her a pattern with the Magic Formula and gave her some tips on using it. She was surprised how fast we got it done. ( I knew she would be surprised as she is a hand knitter!). We only made an anklet but even with going over the directions and teaching her short rowing it still went pretty fast! Then we ate some more, drank some tea, and knit some more! It was so much fun being able to share knitting with someone else! Then we started playing with yarn just making cables, eyelet transfers, and tried some bobbles. We made another date for next month and she's going to come over and teach me hand knitting. I'm doing my knit stitches twisted because of the way I'm knitting. She has picked out an easy scarf pattern that we are going to do. I crammed her head with stuff this time and she gets to do it to me next time! LOL Oh yeah, she has some natural sock yarn she bought for dyeing and I brought home a skein to make socks for her on my standard gauge. A really nice knitting day!
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Black Sleeveless UFO Not!
When I was cleaning up my knitting room I came across a top that I had made with Knitware that didn't fit right. I made it sleeveless and the armholes were too big so I stitched the shoulder seams together to pull up the armholes. I had never finished it. I tried it on and it fit rather nicely so I decided to put some trim on it. I crocheted a filet type border on the neck, and made up a design for the armholes, and found an edge I liked in one of my crochet edgings book for the bottom. Here are pics.
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
This is the bottom.
This is the full top.
This is the neckline.
This is the armhole trim that I made up.
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
March snowstorm
This is what we woke up to on the 21st of March! When I finally got up and got outside it had already started melting but I still measured 5 1/2". It's almost all melted off of the ground now but the mountains closest to us to the south are still all white. Supposed to have another storm thru to the weekend. Looks like another late year on the garden!
http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/photolibrary
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