Finally

I have tried for over a year to knit a pair of warm mittens for my daughter in her school colours. Last year I knit two pairs. The first were stranded and the second one used an inner and outer lining. Both times I just did a simple home made design. While she appreciated my effort on both I could tell by the look on her face that neither was something she was going to wear. Yes, sadly they would end up in the same box as the hat I made for her.

Crushed.....well not that bad. So this year I decided that I would follow a pattern. I chose the "Salt and Pepper" mittens from Robin Hanson's book, FAVORITE MITTENS. This has been my favorite mitten book. I have knit the checkerboard and the striped mittens, so this would be my third

It is a simple stranded project that alternates colors. This means you don't have to worry about long floats. I added a third color to match my daughter's school colors. I really liked the way they turned out and guess what. SHE DID TOO>..YAHOOOOOOOOO

I have told many people that this is a great book for mittens. The only thing is that some of the instructions are hard to get when you read them. What you have to do really is just follow what she says, word for word, stitch for stitch. When you do this it works out and then it all makes sense.

Of course, given my success I went out and got some more school colors, eager to start knitting the "Newsprint Cowl" using the new Two color Brioche technique I just wrote about.

And yes, you can guess, when I told her about she again rolled her eyes and said, "Dad, don't you think I have enough school color stuff". Yes, after spending another $60 I was again back at square one. She instead just wanted something in Off White.

Oh, well, I guess someone else will just be the recipient of the new cowl.

Kids, SHeeesh

New Brioche E-Video

I was lucky to be chosen as one of a few to review a new Video E-book on Brioche Knitting. This book was done on Ravelry by "Liatm".

I have done some basic Brioche before I had reviewed this book. Basically a flat scarf in one colour. Brioche stitch makes a fantastically plush and elastic fabric great for all sorts of things. It was with great interest that I began to review this e-book.

First off, Liatm takes each step and illustrates the instructions with a close up and clear video. She moves slowly and explains really clearly what she wants you to do. It starts off with a cast on, and then with a set up row. She then moves into a basic stitch knit flat, and then in the round.

The real fun begins when she introduces a second colour in the round. This makes a great looking fabric. There is also a few suggestions for patterns. Finally she ends off with knitting the stitch flat.

I have to give this high marks in the way that she moves through each area. Perhaps the best part of the whole book, in my mind, is that she takes the time to explain how to READ your stitches on the needle.

Many people who love Brioche, hate the fact that when they make a mistake it can be so difficult to fix it and get back on track. By showing her viewers how to READ the stitches, she solves this problem. Now you can see a mistake before it gets to the point of no return. And better yet you can fix it.

I am just checking my stash so that I can cast on a two colour brioche hat or cowl. Can't wait to see how it goes.

If you have ever wanted to try this great stitch then I highly recommend that you get this book. You can find it at KNITfreedom in the Brioche Videos area.

Good luck with it and thanks to Liatm for a great job.

Every Piece Has a Story

It's funny how every piece that I knit seems to have it's own story. Case in point. I decided to try my hand at knitting another sweater. I have only knit one so far in my short knitting life. It was a baby sweater. It wasn't for me, obviously, but I just wanted to learn how to knit one. It turned out pretty good but I haven't knit one since. One of the main reasons is that I don't really wear sweaters. The last one I wore was one that my mom knit for me.

Well, I finally got my SO to come with me to the LYS and pick out a pattern and some yarn. The pattern was pretty easy and I couldn't wait to get started. The first problem was that I was having a hard time getting gauge. The pattern was 6 st per inch, and suggested 4mm needles. Well I started my swatch and found that I had to go down a needle. Then another needle size and then another until I found myself knitting my swatch on 2.5 mm needles. Yes that would be fine if I was knitting a sock, but this was a sweater. How on earth could I knit a sweater on 2.5mm. Yes you guessed it, I can't. So I switched from my regular continental and tried out Portuguese knitting. This worked better although I was still on 3mm needles. So be it, if that is what it had to be then I was game.

The pattern was pretty much all "Moss Stitch" which mostly meant a ribbing type of deal. For continental this was easy but not as much fun with  PK. Oh well, if that is what the knitting gods wanted who was I but a mere knitting mortal to argue.

Things went well and I finally got to the part where I was going to do a 3 needle bind off on the shoulder seams. No problem and so I went ahead and did it. The problem was that I forgot to make sure the "right sides" were facing. Yes, now I had a big seam ridge on each shoulder. Of course that would not do so I pulled out the seams, turned the pieces around and then seamed it up again. There, now that was finished. Well of course is wasn't.  You see when I was shaping the shoulder I did not follow pattern on the last few short rows so here I had a moss stitch sweater with this ugly stockinette part near the seams. I thought about it. Who would notice. Would it really matter. Let's just keep going. And as I had these thoughts I could feel the knitting gods glaring down at me. It was like having a good angel in one ear and a bad in the other. I knew that I could not let this be. If I kept going this sweater would end up on the bottom of some drawer or closet with no friends and nowhere to go.

So, for the second time I ripped out the seams. Then I knit back on each of the short row pieces and of course that meant three pieces. And then knit it back up in pattern. And finally seamed it all back up. Whew.....now I could move on to the border ribbing.

Well I picked up 300 stitches around the neck line and began to rib. I could see the finish line clearly in sight. I couldn't wait as I ribbed the border with extra ferocity. I got about 1.5" of it done when I noticed there was a ridge where the border started. Hmmmn?  I turned the piece inside out and of course you know what I saw, or rather didn't see. A ridge. So back into my ear went the good and bad people. Keep it, RIP IT OUT, Keep it, RIP IT OUT. I knew what I had to do. So once again I ripped out hours of work. I then proceeded to pick up 300 stitches, but this time on the proper side of the work. And this time there were no ridges. I have really come to hate ridges.

So now I am almost finished the ribbing. Almost done. Yes, it seems every piece seems to have a story. Some story's are not as great. But in the end, when you look at the finished piece you know the trials and tribulations that you shared. And in someway I guess this brought us closer.

Couldn't Help Myself

Last time I talked about picking up a new foster dog. Well, now he is my adopted dog. I really couldn't help myself. Actually he had me from the time he sat with his rump on the back seat, his front paws on the ground with his head sticking through on the console. What a great dog. I take him everywhere and am really glad I kept him. Archie is his name. Don't remember if I said it last blog. Anyways, he really makes me happy, even if I do have to get up every morning early just to walk him Even in the winter.

I thought I would be near the end of my sampler blanket for my daughter, but looking at it I really think I should go just a bit more. You know how you get tired of the project and then want it to end. So you talk yourself into that the blanket is large enough. And then you end it. And you are so happy until......you realize that it really was not big enough. Of course you know that before but you are so busy convincing yourself otherwise that you just pretend it's okay. Well this time I am not going to pretend. I am not going to end it yet. Nope...Bigger and bigger it goes until it really makes one great cover my daughter from head to toe and even more blanket. She is off to year 2 of University soon so I gotta get going.

A New Dog and Old Blanket

Well my first foster dog was adopted and his name was changed. The great thing here is that a dog went from being scheduled to be euthanized to finding a great home. Have to give credit to the lab-rescue team of ladies who do such a good job.  I was missing have a dog again, and so on Saturday I was at Chapters looking through books on dogs when I got a call. Seems there was another dog in London in need of rescue. Now this was about a 2 hour drive and I had already made some arrangements to go to Kempenfest in Barrie. I don't think my SO was to happy when I came home from chapters with a change of plans. Anyways it took about 6 hours but today I am hanging out with my new friend Archie. What a great guy and disposition.

I finished my Traffic Island socks and have blocked them. Now it is just the blanket I am still working on. I will probably start something else. I have a bunch of shawls in mind but we'll have to see which one and what yarn I have in my stash. There are no pictures today as Blogger or my computer seems to not want me to post any. It seems every time I try it will not bring up my files. Oh well. Sometimes I guess the sites have bad days just like we do. Congrats by the way to all who attended the sock summit. Looks like they had fun.

Public Knitting

Timberline socks

 Today I took my father to one of his doctors appointments. While I was waiting for him I brought with some socks that I was working on. It's funny because most times I seem to be very shy about knitting in public. Is it really the stigma of a guy knitting that gets to me. I am embarrased to say that it is.

Even in the waiting room I found a corner of the room where I could work on the socks while waiting for my dad. After a while one of the girls at the front desk asked what I was knitting. I brought up my sock and we then had a great conversation about projects I was working on and how I was a bit shy to knit in public. The one girl said that she believed a guy who was not shy to show his feminine side was really one that was confident about himself.

My Daughters first Sock

Given that in fact I was shy I am not really sure what that means for me. LOL

The first picture was a quick knit of Lucy Neatby's Timberline socks. It's the second picture (the one with the thumb) I am most proud of. The reason? Well it is the first sock that my daughter knit. I have urged her to try socks and for a while she was intimidated. That is why I was so excited that she made this one. Of course the second one is still yet to hit her needles but that is okay.


I guess being a male knitter is still a complicated matter to me even though it is something that I really love and enjoy doing.

Shawl Marathon finally done.

 It feels like it's been years since I finished a project. Normally I was used to doing 2 or three projects a month at a minimum, but that was before I caught the Shetland Shawl Marathon Bug.

It is a given that I love doing lacework. Funny thing I think for a guy to say but I find it so artistic that I love the finished projects. I have done quite a few works of Estonian Lace, so awhile back started checking in on Shetand lace.

It wasn't long before I purchased Sharon Millers Heirloom Knitting book. Wow, was it ever filled with great stitch patterns. Not so many finished patterns but I decided to try one of the easier shawls in the book.

What I didn't realize was how long this one would take me to finish. It was knit in the round, so the first thing is that you have no idea what it actually looks like while you are doing it. Scratch that, actually it looked like a big lump of knitted wool. It was only when I got to doing the edging that little by little was I able to get an idea of how it was coming along. This after over a month of knitting. The pattern was actually quite easy, and it was just the edging at first that I had to get used to. Normally I did a pick up all stitch edging, but this one worked it's way around 1 stitch at a time every other row of edging. I already spoke in a prior entry about how many stitches that took.

I originally had 2 skeins of Zephyr lace, but ended up going back twice more for another 2 skeins. Luckily this was available in the dye lot that I had to match.

The shawl marathon, or at least this one is now finally over. I don't know if I am as excited on this piece as I was on others or just relieved to be done. Either way it certainly is an interesting piece. It is done in the colorway of sage green, which is hard to tell by the picture. Here you can see the edging up close. It is just finishing blocking, and I will try and get a few more pictures soon of it wrapped on something the way it was meant.

Well, now that it is done I just have to finish my sampler blanket. In the meantime I have started a quick pair of socks for my kid. I am doing another of Lucy Neatby's socks called "Timberline Toes". A very easy quick knit. This sock has the garter short row heel. I just finished the first. I am still not convinced I like this type of heel better then the heel flap, however, it does work nice for variegated yarn.

I also will probably end up doing another Estonian project from Nancy Bush's book. I must say that book has more projects that I like than any other book I own.