Thursday, January 27, 2005


L to R: White Lopi Sock from Dawn Brocco's pattern, Patons Classic Wool socks from Fiber Trends House Socks pattern

Closer shot of the House Socks

Closer shot of the Lopi socks Posted by Hello

Today's subject is...

Socks! I've posted pictures of the wool socks I've been working on lately. Actually, these are the first socks I've finished. The white Lopi sock is from a free pattern by Dawn Brocco. I made the bulk of it while I was waiting in the hospital for Ariane to be released after her knee surgery. Now I need to make the second one. This sock has a V heel that I'm not real crazy about. It seems a bit narrow to me. Next time I make these, I think I'll try a different heel.

The House Socks by Fiber Trends are made from 2 strands of Patons Classic Merino Wool. They are as thick and warm as the Lopi one. I need to get these socks finished up and sent to Ariane and her two roommates. As cold as this winter has been, I'm sure they could have used them. It's supposed to get down to -18 F tonight. Man, that's cold!

I need to work on the Cascade Fixation socks I'm making for Rachelann. It would be nice to have them all done before her birthday in July. Don't laugh! I'm the world's worst procrastinator. They could easily sit around until the middle of July if I don't make a conscious effort to finish them.

I have Nancy Bush's "Knitting on the Road; Sock Patterns for the Traveling Knitter". I'd like to try some of these socks, too. They're a little more ambitious that the ones I usually make.

I think Sue wants to learn to make socks. She won't have any problem doing them. She just needs a little encouragement on turning the heel. Donna already knows how and has made several bulky wool pairs to be worn as slippers.

Well, I think I'm going to go work on the wristlets I started tonight. They are a simple pair out of Family Circle Easy Knitting Fall 2004. My hands get cold at work when I'm typing on the computer. I started a pair with half fingers but I'm not sure I'm doing them right so I'm going to do this easy pair. But that's a subject for another day.

Tuesday, January 25, 2005


This is a closer shot of the Starlights scarf. Posted by Hello


Starlights yarn scarf Posted by Hello

We're having a heat wave...

After a week or more of subzero weather, it actually got up to about 20 degrees F today. I could go from the car to the house without zipping up my jacket. Unfortunately, we're supposed to have a high of 5 degrees F on Thursday but a little respite is nice.

Last Thursday I went to the knitting group at the library. There were 14 women there including myself. I would have enjoyed it more but I ended up teaching a couple of ladies how to knit. I really wanted to just sit and talk with other knitters but two people showed up who wanted to learn and Mary (the librarian who organized it) asked me to show one of them how to cast on. This lady picked it up really quickly so that wasn't too bad. But the second one didn't have a clue and I couldn't get through to her how to cast on. I tried to show her the long tail cast on and how to do the knit cast on. It just wasn't working. We both got a little frustrated. She ended up leaving a little early. I felt bad but I wasn't impatient with her or anything. She just didn't get it. We are meeting again on Feb. 3 and I am not teaching this time. In fact, there was a lady there who was knitting continental and I'd like her to show me how. I know I can knit continentally since I tried it once but she purls, too. That's what I want to learn. I hope she comes back.

Donna, Sue and I were supposed to go to Albany last Saturday and hit a couple of yarn shops. The storm that moved up the east coast ended those plans. Albany is an hour's drive away and we weren't going to get caught that far from home in the snow. We ended up with about 10 inches of snow. That's not too big a deal for this area but it does slow things down a bit. We had a little impromptu knitting session, though. Sue wanted me to show her how to do 4 needle mittens and Donna wanted to look at my Yankee Knitters sock leaflet so they both came over for a couple of hours. That was fun.

I posted a picture of a cabled hat that I'm working on. Donna got it at knittingonthenet. com/patterns/hatbulkyhat.htm. I'm not done with it yet but the sun was shining this morning so I decided to get some pictures. I'm making out of Patons Shetland Ragg chunky yarn. It's 75% acrylic, 25% wool. I like the way the hat is coming out. I'll probably give it to charity. I'm also going to post a picture of the scarf I started this morning from my Starlights yarn. I cast 16 stitches on size 13 needles and am doing knit 4 rows, purl one row until I run out of yarn. It looks like the drop stitch but not as lacy. I didn't think I'd have enough to do a fan and feather stitch out of this yarn. I do have 310 yards of a nice green homespun that I might try in a fan and feather pattern.

Cabled hat


Cabled hat from Paton Shetland Ragg Posted by Hello

Tuesday, January 18, 2005


Isn't this yarn pretty? Posted by Hello


Ironstone Yarns "Starlights" on my antique yarn swift. The swift is pretty cool, isn't it? Posted by Hello

-8 F is ridiculous!

Where did this cold snap come from? Work is going to be insane with all the no heat calls. Oh, well, that's what keeps us in business.

I just photographed the Ironstone Yarns "Starlights" yarn that I bought before Christmas. I bought it to make myself a scarf. Can you believe I don't have a scarf? Well, I do but I don't like it so I don't wear it. The Starlights is 50% mohair, 8% wool, 36% rayon and 6% nylon. I'd love to make the Misty Garden scarf from Pam Allen's "Scarf Style" (which is a fan and feather stitch) but I only have 143 yards of the yarn. The pattern calls for 285 yards. And it cost me $25 for that one hank. The yarn recommended in the pattern is Jo Sharp's "Rare Comfort Kid Mohair Infusion". Maybe if I make it narrower than the 7" and shorter than the 59", I will get a scarf out of one hank. Because I really don't want a $50 scarf. The gauge on the yarn label says I can get 2 sts. = 1" on size 17 needles. But then I'd have to make a plain garterstitch or stockingette stitch scarf and I really want a pattern. I guess I'll have to wind it up and try the fan and feather pattern. I just hope it's not too much of a bitch to rip out if I don't like it.

The first photo shows the yarn on my antique yarn swift. I bought it at an auction probably 20 years ago when I had the antique shop. I liked it so much I never put it in the shop. And I never used it until last year when I bought some Bartlett's Yarn and needed to wind it into balls. It's a pretty cool swift and it works just fine.

I did not knit at all yesterday. We were cleaning out the basement (yuck!) and when I sat down last night, I read instead of knitting. I haven't done that in a while and it felt good. This morning, though, I worked on the latest Precious Layettes sweater that I started on the way to Oswego Sunday. This time I have two skeins of the Patons Canadiana yarn so I can make the hat and booties (or socks) to go with the sweater. I won't make the mistake of only buying one skein of yarn again for one of these sweaters. Granted I can make the sweater out of one skein but I can't get a hat or booties out of what's left.

Friday, January 14, 2005


And last, but not least, Scott opening his XM Satellite radio. Posted by Hello


And if Ariane is on here, Alek must be, too. Posted by Hello


Yeah, Ariane is going to be so happy this one is posted. Posted by Hello


Alek helping Isabella open one of her presents. She does a pretty good job by herself, though. Posted by Hello

It's snowing!

You what they say about the weather in the Mohawk Valley? If you don't like it, wait a couple of minutes and it'll change. So true! The beginning of the week we had ice, then rain, now it's snowing - a lot. Figures since we have to take Alek back to Oswego on Sunday. And since the college campus is right on the banks of Lake Ontario, it gets a lot of lake effect snow and wind. It's a beautiful place to be when the weather's nice but it really sucks in the winter. I hope it isn't snowing on Sunday.

I very happily packed my knitting bag last night and headed down to the library to the knitting circle. I very unhappily looked through the window of the meeting room and saw lots of little girl scouts. At first I was afraid that they were all there to learn to knit. That's not a bad thing but I didn't want to be one of the ones teaching them. Turns out the sign in the showcase was wrong and the knitting circle meets next Thursday night. Phew!

This time I'm going to post pictures of Christmas morning 2004. If the kids ever see this blog, they won't be really happy that I posted them but too bad. Although I might not even post any of them. Maybe it'll just be the silly dog.

Naw, I had to put them all in. How nice that no one took any pictures of me, though.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005


The lavender and taupe bag is made from Cascade 220 and Patons Classic Wool. The black bag is made from Patons Classic Wool with a red stripe of Nature Spun Wool. Posted by Hello


These are the two Lopi felted bags I made for Christmas gifts. Posted by Hello


Felted bags drying. Black and pink is Lopi. All black is Patons Classic Wool and lavender and taupe is Cascade 220 and Patons Classic Wool. Posted by Hello


Close up of cabled scarf Posted by Hello


Close up of Megan's scarf. Posted by Hello

Icy weather

This is the craziest winter weather. First it's below zero, then it's almost 40 F. It snows, then it rains and freezes. I wish it would make up it's mind. Preferably to 60 and sunny! Not going to happen in central NY in the winter but I can dream.

Time to post a few more pictures. I have a couple close ups of the two scarves I've previously posted so I'll try those first. The next series of pictures are the felted bags I made for Kelcie, Corey, Allison and Rachelann for Christmas. I used a Plymouth Yarns pattern for these bags and intend to make more of them.

Tomorrow night the library is holding their first knitting circle. It was supposed to be last Thursday but we had sleet, freezing rain and snow so they cancelled until this week. And we got the freezing rain out of the way today. I'm looking forward to going to this group. Even though I have a nice knitting support group with Sue, Donna, and Carol, it will be nice to interact with other knitters.

Well, now I'm going to post this and see how the pictures turned out.

Sunday, January 09, 2005


Cabled scarf from merino/mulberry silk yarn Posted by Hello

More pictures

Okay, I'm going to try and post some more pictures. They might show up in this post or they might be in the next one but that's okay.

The first one is a cabled scarf I made for Carolyn for her November birthday. The pattern was from the knitlist gift list and is titled Japanese Quick and Easy Christmas Scarf (or something similiar). I used some Plymouth Yarns merino/mulberry silk blend yarn that I found in the bargain bin at The Ladybug Yarn Shop in Dennis, Massachusetts.

Well, obviously, the picture was posted first. But it is now here for all to view.

I have to run since Sue and I are heading for Little Falls to exchange some Christmas gifts. It's a cooperative of shops and one of them has some Patons yarn so I may just come home with more yarn. Just what I need!!

Pictures!

Yeah! I had Alek help me transfer pictures from the digital camera onto the computer. And then I figured out how to post them here and to some of my yahoo groups. I only posted the one picture here for now. But now that I know I can do it, look out!

The scarf is one I made for Scott's 21 year old niece, Megan. I made it out of Skacel Gatto which is a very soft eyelash and Skacel Poker which is a neat mix of ribbon and unspun. The scarf was incredibly soft to work with and she loved it. I just put a little garter stitch border on the ends and knit it in stockingette stitch. It was a pricey little scarf, though. I made it a little wide and it took 2 skeins of the Gatto at $4.95 each and 2 1/2 skeins of the Poker at $8.95 each. So it was about $30.00 to make. I bought both yarns at Indigo Yarns. I think it came out nice.

I hope to be posting more pics in the next couple of days.

Saturday, January 08, 2005


Megan's scarf Posted by Hello

Saturday, January 01, 2005

Happy New Year!

Okay, so it isn't an original title but it's appropriate.

Much time has passed between posts again. I did finish all my Christmas knitting before Christmas day. Well, almost. The bags were all felted on Thursday night. They turned out really well. I finished knitting Megan's scarf at 1:30 a.m. Christmas morning. I fringed it after we opened our gifts.

We take forever to open gifts. The four of us sit around the living room and Scott gives everyone a gift. We each take our time opening the gift we have and then we discuss what we got. Then we go on to the next gift. We started at 9 a.m. and finished at around 12 noon. That includes the half hour breakfast break we took at 11 a.m. I hear about families that tear through their gifts and can't understand it. We really enjoy taking our time. Makes Christmas last a little longer.

This past Wednesday Ariane had knee surgery in Rochester. We got up a 2:45 a.m. and left here at 4 a.m. We got to the hospital around 6:15 a.m and saw her before she went in for the operation. She was in surgery for 3 hours and recovery for 1 1/2 hours. We spent the rest of the day with her, then went to dinner and back to her apartment for the night. We got back to the hospital around 8 a.m. and found she had been throwing up a lot. Apparently the morphine drip didn't agree with her. They finally got some anti-nausea medicine in her that worked. Then we had to wait for the physical therapist to visit. She was having calf pain so the resident doctor ordered an ultrasound to be sure she didn't have any other clots. She was clear so we finally checked her out around 2 p.m. We brought her back here to Herkimer for the weekend. She can't put any weight on her leg for a month. She has to be back in Rochester on Monday to begin her physical therapy. After that she'll be on her own. Luckily her roommates are really good about helping. She should be able to drive since it was her left leg that is incapacitated.

In the waiting room I made a little cabled bookmark and 3/4 of a two needle mitten. The second day, I started a sock out of white Lopi. The sock is coming along very well. I'm using size 6 needles so it's very tight. I think socks are going to be my passion of 2005.

It's getting late and I'm very tired. I still haven't played around with posting pictures but I hope to soon. Life has just been way too hectic around here lately.