Friday, July 24, 2009

Rain again. The day lilies are blooming and are gorgeous. All the perennials did well this year with the extra water. We however are rusting. Went to Portland today and finally got off of I-295 and took back roads as the crazy drivers weren't slowing down for the heavy rain. There are times I miss the ammenities of a city but don't want to live in one again. Today I watched the three red fox pups wrestling in the field across our road. Don't see that in a city!

Lismore is coming along well. Picked up 3 out of 4 sleeve edge stitches and am about four inches down. I have this love/hate thing with sleeves so really have to force myself to finish them.



Miss Boots the Cat was happy today as I've got piles of quilt fabric all over the work room floor. I want to make a quilt for the camper before fall (HA!). Have the dinette cushion from the camper in the house to guide in color choices. I think it will end up being a cream/white/beige/tan scrap background and a simple 9 patch block with batiks. "Combing through the Scraps" by Karen Combs is a good inspiration and a way to use up some of the fabric in this house.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Knitting again! Home from our western trip and the weeding is almost caught up. Those five weeks away and Maine had rain almost every day. The weeds were huge and dug in tight. Yard really looks good and the day lilies are starting to pop in all their glorious colors.

Joe's brown sweater got ripped back 3" the other night. Simple pattern means you don't pay as much attention so sometimes a cable doesn't get crossed when it should. The back is almost done.

On one of the Ravelry knit groups we've been discussing steeks. There are a lot of ways of making a steek but this is what I do. I make my steeks pretty wide, usually a total of nine stitches with the two outside rows being the darkest colors so I can use those to pick up neck and button bands. I crochet my steeks leaving one full stitch between where I’m crocheting. That stitch is cut exactly in half vertically. This makes a nice neat edge that folds over to the inside easily. This example is Lismore being made with Jamieson & Smith two ply jumper weight wool which is quite sticky. I know many of you just cut and let the edge remain as cut but I like the look of the crocheted edge. I’d also probably wake up at night and listen for the sounds of unravelling coming from my closet if I didn’t finish the edge.

The first photo shows the crochet hook picking up the two adjacent stitch edges. The black vertical line is the crochet edge.



Second photo shows the steek being cut with very sharp scissors with a small blade so they don’t get away from you. Take your time!



Third photo shows the steek cut open with the tight finished edge.



The shoulders are now together using three needle bind off. Next comes the dreaded pickup for the sleeves. Trying to get this one finished as the Ravelry group will be starting another Knit A Long mid September for Henry VIII, a Starmore design.

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The Kangaroo Pockets from "Guy Knits" is progressing. I really like the Berroco Ultra Alpaca in the brown color called Potting Soil. The photo is the back which has a bad cable cross way down about 3” from the bottom. This is one time the mistake is going to stay. The yarn does shed some but is just beautiful. Reviews I’ve read on the yarn says it does stretch lengthwise a bit so I’m making the sweater an inch shorter to compensate. The color is much prettier in person. The photo makes it look washed out. The panels of trinity stitch are smooth, not pucketed as they are appearing. It's a very simple pattern that is perfect for knitting while riding in the truck or watching movies.



I’d started that old panic we all do as in “Do I have enough yardage????”. However I’m not quite through the third ball and have started the arm decreases for the back. I have/had 13 skeins so should have enough even though he has long arms. Right?