Sea Mist Gansey for the 2010 Knitting Olympics

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, the "Yarn Harlot," has issued a 2010 Knitting Olympics challenge on her blog - to start and finish a challenging knitting project during the Olympic games in Vancouver.

My choice for this Olympics is a project that I have wanted to make for over three years.  That many years ago I found the book "Sweaters from A New England Village" by Candace Eisner Strick in my local library. 

The book, published in 1996, tells the story of Harrisville, New Hampshire and Candace's fascination with the beautiful Harrisville Design's yarns, and contains 20 of her original patterns featuring the Harrisville  Designs yarns.  I immediately fell in love with the "Sea Mist Gansey" sweater pattern, to be knit with a worsted yarn.

Shortly after finding the pattern I went to Stitches East in Baltimore in October 2006 and there, to my surprise, was a booth of Harrisville Designs Yarns.  The beautiful Orchid yarn (wool, mohair, and cashmere) in Juniper green appealed to me immediately so six skeins came home with me.  I immediately wound the hanks into cakes ... and the yarn has been sitting in the drawer ever since.

Fast forward to the present.  When Stephanie announced her Knitting Olympics I decided that now is the time to knit the sweater - a winter sweater for the winter games.

Being the accountant I worked up a spreadsheet of the various parts of the sweater and the stitch count (50,143), then set up daily goals.  So far, as of Saturday night, I am ahead of schedule!

Enough blogging - now back to knitting and watching winter sports!

Wrapping up 2009

All Christmas gifts have been finally delivered so I can share photos of the projects.

Scarf for my Dad

Purse knit of recycled sari silk for Kate

Norwegian Snowflake Hat for Caroline

Norwegian Snowflake Hat for Rebecca

Sweater for Kate's dog Emma

Hat, Mitts, and Scarf for Kate to match Emma's sweater

Other knitting completed before the end of 2009 includes:

- a vest for me -

pattern - Fishtail Vest, from "Fiber Gatherings"

yarn - Elsebeth Lavold Silky Wool,

- a baby sweater for the Anchorage Stork Project -

pattern - Tulip Sweater, by Lindsey Pekny

yarn - Red Heart worsted, shaded reds colorway,

- and a winter warmie set for granddaughter Caroline -

patterns: Jacky's Hat, from Rosie's Yarn Cellar

              Toddler Mittens on a String, by Ruth Bendig

               Twisted Toe-Up Toddler Socks, by Casey Newman

yarn - Tess' Designer Sock and Baby yarn.

The final count of yarn I knit during 2009 was ... 127 skeins (anywhere from a 50gm skein to a 200gm skein), 9,745 grams (a few grams short of my 10,000 gram goal) and 20,295 yards (well over my goal of 17,600 yards=10 miles).

2009 Knitting Goals

At the beginning of 2009 I set three knitting goals for myself ... that I would knit 100 skeins, 10 kilograms, and 10 miles of yarn.

On Wednesday, November 25th I reached two of the three goals!  With three projects off the needles during that day I completed knitting 110 skeins of yarn which equal 10.53 miles (18,550 yards)!! 

The third goal will be hard to reach - I'm 1600 grams short of the ten kilogram goal.  It is probably unrealistic to expect to knit that much in the remaining 34 days of the year, especially since the projects I hope to complete by December 31st use fingering and DK weight yarns.

I will admit that the yarn inventory has not shrunk by the 110 skeins since I have bought some yarn during this year, and have been given some yarn for "charity" knitting, but the stash has shrunk some, I think.

Photos of my latest completed projects will be in my next post.

Socktober and other October knitting

"Socktober" was just that - a month of sock knitting, with a little knitting for others thrown in.

The first pair of socks off the needles were my second pair of socks knit from the toe up instead of from the cuff down.  I have avoided this method for several years, and now I cannot imagine why!  The techniques are not difficult and result in a very efficient use of almost every foot of the yarn, reserving just a little for future darning of the inevitable holes in the heels.  The pattern I used is Wendy Johnson's "Sportweight Toe-Up Sock with Gusset Heel" and the yarn is a tweedy Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Socka 6 Fache/6 ply I purchased at Limerick Fibers in Gordonsville, VA several years ago. 

After that pair was complete I dug out the oldest sock yarn in my stash and cast on for another toe-up pair.  Somehow the yarn, a skein of Lana Grossa Meilenweit, had shrunk from 100 grams to 88 grams over the past years.  This is quite possibly because I had started a couple of pairs of socks with the yarn, become frustrated with whatever pattern I was knitting, frogged the socks, and returned the yarn to the back of the drawer - guess I threw away some of the yarn when it tangled too much.  Anyway ... the yarn is now a pair of socks knit with the "Vihtori" pattern designed by Heli Heikkilä in Finland.  I love the opposite swirls of the pattern.

My October knitting ended with another baby cardigan and hat knit for the Anchorage Stork Project.  The yarn Red Heart worsted is from the estate of Norma Jean M. whose son graciously passed along his mother's yarn stash to some of us who knit for community service organizations.  The pattern is one of the "5-hour baby sweater" patterns found free online.

An October day in New Orleans

The next to last weekend in October I traveled to Baton Rouge to spend several days visiting with Kate.  That Saturday we drove to New Orleans to spend the day wandering around the French Quarter.  We walked along the Riverwalk, through the open-air French Market, and around Jackson Square. 

Because the line was so long at Cafe du Monde we bypassed that for a cup of coffee at a smaller coffee shop near the French Market.  I was surprised by how crowded the area was ... perhaps the crowds were drawn to town by the "Krewe de Boo" (Halloween parade) that was to take place that evening ... and we saw a lot of prople wearing LSU and Auburn tee-shirts (the football game at LSU did not start until 7pm). 

While we were around Jackson Square we watched a wedding party parade - the strolling jazz band was followed by the bride and goom, then the attendants and parents, then the wedding attendees.  We presume the wedding had just take place either in St. Louis Cathedral or in Jackson Square. 

After walking for a couple of hours we stopped for an early dinner at a small restaurant called the Gumbo Shop (thank you Lia for the recommendation!) on Saint Peter Street.  I thoroughly enjoyed the Crawfish Etouffee, while Kate had the Combination Platter with Shrimp Creole, Jambalaya, and Red Beans.  While dining in the open air courtyard under a huge banana palm we listed to the jazz bands playing for the wedding parties going into and coming out of the Cathedral.

We concluded our day in New Orleans with a drive along Bourbon Street, a drive through a few streets of the Garden District, then across town to a drive through what remains of the Lower Ninth Ward where the total devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina is still so evident.

Kate - thanks for being such a good tour guide and braving all the traffic!

Fall Retreat Quilts

Early in October I attended my quilt guild's annual Fall Retreat in New Windsor, Maryland.  Twenty-four of us spent four wonderful days in the Maryland countryside sewing and quilting from early morning until late at night.  Thursday and Friday I spent working on a large project that will have to remain "under wraps" for the time being.

Saturday and Sunday I completed six small quilts that will be given to the Fairfax Hospital Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit for distribution to babies there.  The first five quilts were made using the "Yellow Brick Road" pattern; the last quilt used leftover 4-patches from a quilt made many years ago and red calico fabric which came from ???.

 

September Socks

I'm really not sure how I become ensnared in the Sockknitters Anonymous and the Solid Socks groups on Ravelry at the beginning of September ... but I did.  Each group has a "challenge" each month and umpteen members try to finish at least one pair of socks using the designated technique, pattern from a particular designer, or color of yarn during the month. 

First of all, the Sockknitters Anonymous group's "technique" for September was to knit a pair of socks using yellow yarn.  Well, I just happened to have two skeins of Brown Sheep Wildfoote in "Lullaby Yellow" that have been languishing in the stash for a couple of years.  Nancy Bush, a world renowned sock designer, graciously designed a mystery sock for the group and the clues were released weekly during the month.  I cast on the first sock on September 2nd and bound off the second sock just in time on September 29th.  The pattern is called "Fox Faces" and creates a beautiful lacy design.  I had thought I might give these socks away because I don't see me wearing yellow socks, but as pretty as these turned out I think I'll keep them.  (The yarn is really much more of a pastel yellow than the photo shows.)

Then the designated Solid Socks group color for September was red.  And in my yarn inventory was a rich red skein of Bearfoot by Mountain Colors.  The yarn is a mix of wool, mohair, and nylon, and the mohair adds such a nice softness and halo to the knit.  For this sock I chose the Yarrow Ribbed Sock pattern in the book Knitting Vintage Socks by Nancy Bush.  But since I have knit this pattern before, and have been wanting to teach myself to knit socks from the toe up I switched directions and used Wendy Johnson's toe-up techniques for the socks.  I have avoided toe-up sock patterns in the past ... no more!!  I had a few problems but none that I could not overcome.  And my good friend Cindy M showed me a very stretchy bind-off that works wonderfully.

The only problem I foresee with these red socks is that I have to remember to always handwash them.  When I washed them for blocking the water was a very bright red through the washing and all four rinses.  The yarn must be super saturated with dye! 

Tomorrow, October 8th, I am off to my quilt guild's annual Fall Retreat.  One suitcase is packed full of fabric, thread, patterns, batting, and miscellaneous supplies.  I am probably taking two to three times the number of projects I can reasonably get done in the four retreat days, but better to have too much than not enough.  Of course I am also taking along some knitting for the quiet times - the one pair of socks left over from the September challenges and two pair of socks I've cast on for the October challenges.