July 20, 2011

Operation Kid Comfort Quilt for Haydn in Anchorage, Alaska

Operations Kid Comfort Quilt for Rylan in Anchorage, Alaska

Four hats using leftover Plymouth Encore yarn, donated to Uniquities Hat for Kids

108 red and white nine-patches for swap with friends, to commemorate our trip to the Red & White Quilt exhibit in NYC in March 2011

Knitting Highlights for 2010 So Far

Lillihammer Hat and Berry Hill Fingerless Mittens - Classic Alpaca received from a friend

Tequila Sunrise Socks - Red Heart Heart'n'Sole yarn, Lichen Ribbed Socks pattern by Nancy Bush - given to Kate for her birthday

Railway Stitch Socks - Tess' Designer Super Sock, pattern by Nancy Bush

Cabled Socks - Tess' Designer Super Sock, pattern by Cynthia Levy

Caroline modeling the Pebbles Sweater - Classic Elite Pebbles, a Sirdar pattern

Black "Novelty Stitch" Socks - Tess' Designer Yarns Super Socks, pattern from the 1950's

Three of the seven hats knit for the Anchorage HUGSS project - Lion Brand Wool-Ease

"Tulip" baby sweater for the Anchorage Stork Project - leftover acrylic yarns

"February" baby sweater and hat for ASP - Moda Dea Bamboo Wool

Quilts So Far This Year

For Becky and Jason for their Fifth anniversary

Granddaughter Caroline on Becky and Jason's new quilt

Niece Sarah with the quilt for her high school graduation

Quilt top presented to me upon completion of my year as President of my quilt guild - two years later I have completed the hand quilting

Signature quilt (top) presented to current quilt guild president at end of her term

Big Block Comforter made for Kate of Jinny Beyer fabrics in Pacific Rim and Outback collections

Wedding quilt for friends Kim and Rick (pattern is Yellow Brick Road)

2010 so far has been the year of the "big quilt."

Twined Knitting with Beth Brown-Reinsel

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of taking a class at one of my local yarn shops, Nature's Yarns, with Beth Brown-Reinsel, the author of "Knitting Ganseys" and teacher par excellence.

The class I took was An Introduction to Twined Knitting, aka Two-End Knitting, aka Tvaandsstickning.  The technique is Swedish and involves knitting with two ends of the yarn which produces a thick and warm fabric.  Twined knitting is used primarily for gloves, mittens, caps and socks.

Our project was a "wristlet" knit in the round and we learned different patterning techniques such as twined knitting stitches, twined purling stitches, the Crook stitch, the "O" stitch sequence, and the Chain Path sequence.

Instead of making a second wristlet - don't think I would wear them - I found another use for the wristlet!

Thank you Beth for an excellent class!  And thank you to Nature's Yarns for bringing her to Fairfax!

2010 Knitting Olympics - Done!!!

At 4:45 this afternoon I completed my 2010 Knitting Olympics project.   And it fits!

(from theYarn Harlot's website - my medal for finishing!)

(thanks for the challenge)

2010 Knitting Olympics - Update

Last night (Friday the 19th) during the Ice Dancing compulsory programs I reached the 50% mark on my Sea Mist Gansey sweater.  This is fun and I am on schedule!

This is the front of the sweater - the body is knit in the round to the armholes, then the front is completed.  I am a bit concerned that I might run out of yarn so have ordered another skein directly from Harrisville and hope that it arrives in time.  Because the color may be slightly different I will save knitting the back yoke with the new yarn until last, hoping any slight color change will not be noticable. 

So onto the sleeves starting today.

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!