Do you see the right sleeve is all done and perfect!
Sunday, October 25, 2015
The story of Tomten #2 and not enough yarn!
The Tomten which is a design by Elizabeth Zimmermann is a favorite of many a knitter. I too enjoy this rather brilliant jacket and I am currently knitting # 2 in the Tomten parade. ONLY, I ran into a bit of a snafu! I was dead on certain that I had one more skein of this wonderful green yarn upstairs! The first mistake of a knitter, is one who is convinced they have more skeins of a certain yarn. Of course I didn't have any more green! None at all! All gone! Zip--zero--none! At which point knitting came to a grinding halt!
Do you see the right sleeve is all done and perfect!
The other sleeve had just run out of yarn, done, none, no more yarn! I thought about making this left sleeve a fun wild crazy striped arm. Then I stopped and thought this out a bit! I could frog the other sleeve back use some of that green to knit a bit more on the other sleeve. Ok, and then add some striping and get this project off my needles. I am almost done with this sleeve adjustment.
Since running out of yarn is a bit of a topic on this post. Here is a completed pair of socks. The goal was to use up some PDS DK Yarn. I purposely knitted them as opposite socks, but ran out of green. I knew I would runout of yarn but the goal was to knit up socks and use up some of the left over project yarn in my stash. I now find this a bit funny as I realized those darn greens are the trouble makers here in my knitting! I used up all the green and blue and tossed in just a bit of what is called fireweed for the toe. I love this bright little toe as it certainly add a smile to any day!
Do you see the right sleeve is all done and perfect!
What can you buy for $10 bucks and 2 moose roasts?
Hmmm . . . not sure?
Not two dogs or a wonderful husband or even an old ski track groomer, but yes a 1997 Skandic snowmachine as they are called out here. Yes our second old very used snowmachine that we groom the ski trails with was traded for $10 bucks, 2 moose roasts, the lucky purchaser had to haul it away.
Not two dogs or a wonderful husband or even an old ski track groomer, but yes a 1997 Skandic snowmachine as they are called out here. Yes our second old very used snowmachine that we groom the ski trails with was traded for $10 bucks, 2 moose roasts, the lucky purchaser had to haul it away.
James Herriot
I recently finished reading a kindle book The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by: James Wight (Alf's son). I completely enjoyed reading this book. It brought back so many memories of reading all of the James Herriot books. I would say these books helped me to become a reader in high school. I remember reading them all slowly over many years and falling in love with the country side, the great stories about the local people, all the animals and James Herriot himself.
Now some 40 years later, I have reread all his books over the years and am now listening to them. I have the first two as audio books and will soon be purchasing the rest. It is a great joy to sit down with my knitting and listen to Christopher Timothy read Alf Wight's writing.Christopher Timothy captures his listening audience with his wonderful voices of the various characters. I am always laughing out loud as I remember reading these same stories years ago.
I also have discovered the joy of audio books when I am out walking on the beach or tundra. It is great to turn a book on on my phone and with out ear plugs I can walk and listen. I wonder if people see me walking and laughing if they think I am totally nuts!
If you are a James Herriot fan I can highly recommend giving this book a read or a listening too!
Now some 40 years later, I have reread all his books over the years and am now listening to them. I have the first two as audio books and will soon be purchasing the rest. It is a great joy to sit down with my knitting and listen to Christopher Timothy read Alf Wight's writing.Christopher Timothy captures his listening audience with his wonderful voices of the various characters. I am always laughing out loud as I remember reading these same stories years ago.
I also have discovered the joy of audio books when I am out walking on the beach or tundra. It is great to turn a book on on my phone and with out ear plugs I can walk and listen. I wonder if people see me walking and laughing if they think I am totally nuts!
If you are a James Herriot fan I can highly recommend giving this book a read or a listening too!
Saturday, October 10, 2015
Fall Knitting
"I wonder why we battle with our knitting——a baby sweater should be easy to knit and fingerless mitts should fly off ones' needles . . . but NO! Amazing how many mistakes and challenges 2 sticks and some string can be——even more amazing is how knitting ever got invented—early knitting must have looked frightful!"
Above is a little piece that I wrote to a friend of mine back in September about our knitting. There always seems to be an endless supply of knitting mistakes a knitter can make. I have been knitting over 20 years now and I still mess up and I still find new ways of messing up.
I was knitting a hat and fingerless mitts for a trade. My niece has a friend who makes wonderful goat's milk soap and has fantastic honey. This friend also likes my knitting and thus a perfect match for a trade. I knitted her a Crown Jewel hat which happens to be #6 for the year! I will say knitting this hat is addictive, fun, and with enough little design features to keep a knitter interested in the project.
Knitting mistake #5,106 these mistakes seem endless if you have been knitting for years. No, I don't keep track of my mistakes but I do joke about them! One always needs to remember humor when knitting or you might just have a full head of grey hair. I had knitted one fingerless mitt and it was done other than the cast-off and cast-on tails needed to be weaved in and trimmed. I was on the second mitt and had picked up the sts around the thumb. As I was knitting in the pattern with the Whiskey Spring color (which I love and I am not even a brown person) the other mitt kept getting closer to me and I kept pushing it away. One would think, I would have stopped and looked at what was going on but, NO I just kept knitting. I am knitting away on my thumb and getting excited that "I am almost done!" First mistake to think one would be done soon! The curse of an over confident knitter about to be humbled once again! I am knitting around on my thumb and SUDDENLY! I realize the reason the other mitt is closing in on me is because the cast-off tail of mitt #1 is what I am knitting with on thumb #2! WHAT THE HECK! Yes, I really did pickup the tail of mitt #1 and I am knitting with that on mitt #2. I thought for a minute I would frog the thumb back but then I stopped! "Just cut the yarn tail and weave those tails in!" Take mitt#1 and set it on the other side of the living room and grab the ball of Whiskey Spring and knit-on! I have to admit I wanted a bottle of whiskey and not a ball of yarn at this point . . .
A rather long term project was completed in early October! This project lingered far to long on my needles. Finally, I went to retrieve it out of its storage bag only to realize all ends had been woven in and it was even blocked. All I needed to do was sew on the buttons! What have I been waiting for who knows!?
Kate Davies Bláithín sweater is off my needles and joins the DONE pile! This is a wonderful design full of all kinds of finishing techniques I have never applied before. The most challenging part was the sandwich steek. I have used steeking often but have never heard of or used a sandwich steek. This is with out a doubt is a very fussy bit of finish work that is well worth all the fuss. At one point, I must of had about 6 circular needles on this sweater doing various important jobs. The other part I found a bit daunting was the icord trim which was also the button band. This part of the design brought be to a grinding halt. I really procrastinate over button bands as I don't like frogging out those suckers more than I have to. I really had to make sure, several times over that, I had all the math correct for the button placement. There was no way I would be frogging out an icord button band that was also the trim for the whole sweater!
The back ground in these photos is what life looks like in a rural Alaskan Village. The palettes we use for snow fences to help us make ski trails so the ski team kids do in fact have snow to ski on! It is a bit of a story. I will write more about trying to run a cross-country ski program out here.
I still have a sleeve of Tomten #2 to finish and I have 2 more Tomtens to knit! I love knitting the Tomtens as that is another great EZ design.
Next project I just casted-on is a Shetland Chunky weight vest. The theory behind this vest is it will be close fitting and used as a layer for skiing and hiking. I am thinking I might do some embroidery on the vest just to jazz it up a bit. I am planning on a zipper front. It will be knit int he round and steeked.
Above is a little piece that I wrote to a friend of mine back in September about our knitting. There always seems to be an endless supply of knitting mistakes a knitter can make. I have been knitting over 20 years now and I still mess up and I still find new ways of messing up.
I was knitting a hat and fingerless mitts for a trade. My niece has a friend who makes wonderful goat's milk soap and has fantastic honey. This friend also likes my knitting and thus a perfect match for a trade. I knitted her a Crown Jewel hat which happens to be #6 for the year! I will say knitting this hat is addictive, fun, and with enough little design features to keep a knitter interested in the project.
 | |
| Crown Jewel #6 in Noro Silk Garden from the Knit 'n Needle my FLY shoppe in Montana. |
Knitting mistake #5,106 these mistakes seem endless if you have been knitting for years. No, I don't keep track of my mistakes but I do joke about them! One always needs to remember humor when knitting or you might just have a full head of grey hair. I had knitted one fingerless mitt and it was done other than the cast-off and cast-on tails needed to be weaved in and trimmed. I was on the second mitt and had picked up the sts around the thumb. As I was knitting in the pattern with the Whiskey Spring color (which I love and I am not even a brown person) the other mitt kept getting closer to me and I kept pushing it away. One would think, I would have stopped and looked at what was going on but, NO I just kept knitting. I am knitting away on my thumb and getting excited that "I am almost done!" First mistake to think one would be done soon! The curse of an over confident knitter about to be humbled once again! I am knitting around on my thumb and SUDDENLY! I realize the reason the other mitt is closing in on me is because the cast-off tail of mitt #1 is what I am knitting with on thumb #2! WHAT THE HECK! Yes, I really did pickup the tail of mitt #1 and I am knitting with that on mitt #2. I thought for a minute I would frog the thumb back but then I stopped! "Just cut the yarn tail and weave those tails in!" Take mitt#1 and set it on the other side of the living room and grab the ball of Whiskey Spring and knit-on! I have to admit I wanted a bottle of whiskey and not a ball of yarn at this point . . .
 | ||
| Knitting mistake # 5,106! |
 |
| The two yarns I used for these fingerless mitts are PDS Whiskey Spring and Ptarmigan. |
 | |
| Done! With no "Idiot String" between the thumbs! |
A rather long term project was completed in early October! This project lingered far to long on my needles. Finally, I went to retrieve it out of its storage bag only to realize all ends had been woven in and it was even blocked. All I needed to do was sew on the buttons! What have I been waiting for who knows!?
Kate Davies Bláithín sweater is off my needles and joins the DONE pile! This is a wonderful design full of all kinds of finishing techniques I have never applied before. The most challenging part was the sandwich steek. I have used steeking often but have never heard of or used a sandwich steek. This is with out a doubt is a very fussy bit of finish work that is well worth all the fuss. At one point, I must of had about 6 circular needles on this sweater doing various important jobs. The other part I found a bit daunting was the icord trim which was also the button band. This part of the design brought be to a grinding halt. I really procrastinate over button bands as I don't like frogging out those suckers more than I have to. I really had to make sure, several times over that, I had all the math correct for the button placement. There was no way I would be frogging out an icord button band that was also the trim for the whole sweater!
 |
| I used one of my favorite American yarns for this design. Harrisville Design yarn Highland which is worsted weight yarn. Purchased at Knit 'n Needle. |
The back ground in these photos is what life looks like in a rural Alaskan Village. The palettes we use for snow fences to help us make ski trails so the ski team kids do in fact have snow to ski on! It is a bit of a story. I will write more about trying to run a cross-country ski program out here.
I still have a sleeve of Tomten #2 to finish and I have 2 more Tomtens to knit! I love knitting the Tomtens as that is another great EZ design.
Next project I just casted-on is a Shetland Chunky weight vest. The theory behind this vest is it will be close fitting and used as a layer for skiing and hiking. I am thinking I might do some embroidery on the vest just to jazz it up a bit. I am planning on a zipper front. It will be knit int he round and steeked.
 |
| The beginnings of a swatch. |
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