Category: My Knitting Life

Just things I’m working on along with general thoughts on knitting!

My Knitting Life

Itchy

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I almost can’t stand it anymore. Everything I have on my needles are projects I’m tired of, or long-term projects that I’ll be working on for years to come.  The “years to come” projects are two afghans made of tiny mitered squares.  So I’m waiting for deep winter to work on those.  I also have three sweaters on the needles. Oh, and I have two pairs of socks on the needles.  And a laceweight scarf, Kernel.  Plus a cotton table-runner.  You can check these out on nancyknit’s Ravelry page.  I like these projects. Well, I love these projects, but not now.  I’m itching to start something NEW!

I want to knit some gloves

and a vest

and I want to start a new sweater.

But I guess I’ll be disciplined and try to finish some things.

Here’s my dream list of items to have on the needle.  If I can keep these items on the needles, then I feel my knitting is under control:

Socks: 1 ladies” pair and 1 men’s pair, plain, ribbed, or simple cable

Fingering: 1 lace project like a scarf or socks, or 1 pair of stranded socks

Sweaters: 1 ladies’ sweater and 1 men’s sweater

Home: 1 project for something around the house

So, I guess I’m doing well, except I have one too many sweaters on the needle right now.  I guess I’ll wait to start something new. Hmmph.

My Knitting Life

Green Tea…um…Tee

nancyknit2 Comments


I just rarely knit for summer. I mean, really, a sweater in SUMMER? But of course, this is my Michigan upbringing coming in to play, because there are many lightweight and short-sleeve or sleeveless sweaters to wear. Add to that the fact that every place is over-air-conditioned, sweaters really ARE practical in the summer!
So here’s a T-top that I knit this summer out of Plymouth’s Grass yarn, a blend of cotton and hemp. It’s got these great color variations in each skein so the yarn looks tonal depending on the angle.
My crochet skills (I’m using the word “skill” here very loosely) had to come into play in that I needed to crochet around the neckline and sleeves to tighten up the picots. I just chained around the neck with the chain side showing. That helped, but it needed more, so I chained one more row above that to make the picots look less like fingers and more like bumps. Then the sleeves needed something, so I loosely chained around the sleeve picots and it’s done! I think it’s very cute!

My Knitting Life

Fanfare Scarf

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My daughter is spending the summer far away being an intern.  She’s living with a friend whose family was kind enough to take her in for the summer!  We are so grateful to them and the expense that she was spared.  I decided to honor the friend’s mother and father with hand knit gifts.  What could be better?

Father Gift:

OK, so guys’ gifts aren’t so difficult to figure out.  I knitted a pair of socks from Regia Silk, graciously modeled by my husband.  Easy.

Mother Gift:

Not so easy.  Well, friend and daughter suggested a scarf.  That sounds good because I can do that.    I decided to make a simple feather and fan scarf.   OK, so I switched the color after texting back and forth and some sleuthing on daughter’s and friend’s part. I used Shepherd’s Wool Fingering from Stonehedge Fiber Mill.  It’s all done and I hope she likes it!

I’d rather give her the other scarf I’m knitting, called Intense Scarf, but the colors are very bold and I don’t think the mom would like it. Plus, Intense Scarf is not finished yet. It’s a pretty complicated pattern that’s taking longer.  And I love this Malabrigo yarn. It’s so soft.  Oh, and I like it too much to gift it.

Problem solved.  I’ll make the supreme sacrifice and keep it.

My Knitting Life

African Violet in Full Bloom!

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OK, you caught me on a knitting binge. Sometimes I’m just so motivated to get stuff done, and this project was one that motivated me! So, here are the pictures. It looks great on, but I don’t have anything to put on underneath it since I’m on vacation and have a limited color/shirt selection. I’ll post pics of me wearing it in a few days! By the way, if you want to see the pattern I used, I’ll post a link in the right column. Look for Knitty: Leaflet!

Remember! Check your gauge if you decide to use worsted weight yarn! This fabric on this sweater is a lot looser than the one on Knitty! So if you desire a stiffer fabric, you’d best choose an Aran weight yarn.

My Knitting Life

African Violet

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I guess I like purple. It’s not an overkill thing, but if there’s a choice of yarn, I always lean toward the purple. I don’t always buy the purple, I just lean toward it.  So, when my LYS had three skeins left of Brown Sheep’s Serendipity Tweed yarn in the African Violet Colorway, I knew I had to have it.
Hmmm, now what should I knit with it? I know, I’ll knit Hey Teach from Knitty. That was my first idea. I started knitting and finished half of the back. The next night when I was about to pick up the project again, I decided to surf the web. Unfortunately for Hey, Teach, I noticed that Knitty First Fall 2011 had just been e-published! Oh, My Gosh! I found Leaflet by Cecily Glowick McDonald. In 2.3 minutes, I had ripped out the back of Hey,Teach, in order to start Leaflet. Not to worry, Hey, Teach, because I’m going to come back to you some day…some day soon with the Steel Blue colorway of Serendipity Tweed. But first, I need to finish Leaflet! Here are some of the notes I posted on Ravelry:
I know, I know. The pattern calls for Aran Weight yarn, but I want to use Worsted Weight. What did I do? Well, I didn’t check gauge until I was about 4 inches into the project, and there was a small problem. The row gauge was perfect which is great, because this is a raglan sweater, and the raglan increases should make for a sleeve hole that’s not too tight and not too droopy. BUT, the stitch count was off. I need 15 stitches per inch, and I was getting 16 inches per stitch, meaning that the circumference of the sweater would be too small. So, on this top-down sweater, I worked one more body increase above the medium size because I calculated how many additional stitches I would need to obtain the medium size.  I’ll not bore you with the math, but if you have a non-Barbie mind and can wrap your brain around numbers, you can PM me and I’ll give you the numbers.
6.29.2011 I’m just a few rows from the bottom ribbing. I keep trying this on to make sure it fits, and it does!

Knitting Patterns For Sale · My Knitting Life

Nine Patch Mitered Square Blanket

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I continue to work on this blanket in a mitered square. I originally was going to use only superwash worsted scraps for this blanket, but once I got started and decided to make my own pattern, I decided I should BUY yarn for it! But I haven’t bought that much, and I’m waiting on some more superwash at my fabulous LYS: Knitting Today! Check it out in my links!
You can buy the pattern for just $1.00 on Ravelry!