I'm still alive

Just not into playing this game at the moment. Life is happening!

Finally I Can Say that My Modified MS2 is Complete

Well here it is. My version of the Mystery Shawl 2. So as to not repeat myself just click on this link and you can see the details for this shawl. The picture on the left is off the needles. Measurements are 28"x60". Well at least this time Blogger would let me post pictures. So, the photo on the right is the dressing frame in use. Sorry such a poor photo, but what can I say (grin) Don't have final dressed out measurements but thinking it is going to be around 60" x 80" Pretty good size I'd say.

SWTC's Silk t

Here is another project for SWTC. It's their Silk t using their new yarn Amerah. It is 100% silk and comes in 50g/89m balls. They requested a size medium for this sweater. Once again swatching proved interesting. Whereas for the Twize I needed to go down in needle size to obtain gauge, the Amerah needed to go up in needle size. The pattern suggests US 5 & 7's, and I ended up using 7 & 9's.

Silk t

Pattern: SWTC's Silk t

Materials: 9 balls SWTC's Amerah, 100% silk (actual finished weight 382g)

Needles: Addi Turbos, 7 & 9's

Size: Medium 40.5 finished chest, 22.5" long, 13" hem to underarm, 9.5" underarm to shoulder.

Dressing Frame Complete and a Success

Well I was going to put a picture here but Blogger has other ideas. If I think of it later I'll try again.

Phew, finally finished up knitting for SWTC and can work on my project of a dressing frame. Once that is done then MS2 will become the beautiful butterfly. . .right now she's still in the cocoon dreaming of good things to come. But for those interested, and me being anal and wanting documentation the material list is included for the frame.

Material & Tool List for Dressing Frame
4 - 1"x2" 7 feet in length
4 - 1/4" Neoprene Rubber washers
4 - 1/4"x2.5" Round head slotted machine bolts, brass
8 - 1/4" washers zinc coated
4 - 1/4" -20 Wing nut coarse, zinc coated
1 - 170g package of 1" (25mm) Panelboard Nails
1 can spray lacquer
coarse sand paper
wood block
drill
17/64" drill bit
hammer
tape measure

Didn't do nothing special. Just measured in from both ends, of a 7 foot length of board, 6" increments (5 times per end. 10 total) Then marked 1/2" intervals along entire length of board. Then using sandpaper and wood block sanded down the wood. Only really did this so as to try to prevent splinters from handling the frame. Then I used the spray lacquer and coated the wood. Like I said nothing fancy just do able. Last then I hammered in the nails in the premarked 1/2" spots. I picked up the rubber washers in hopes that it would help keep the boards from moving. Humf, no such luck. This frame is very movable. Starting to mount a project is not fun at all. But you can do it. Perseverance must used!

Mystery Squares

I've been playing around with 9" squares for Helle. If this woman didn't have bad luck she'd have no luck at all. It's been a rough year for her and her family and a bunch of us from Laughing-Lace Knitting, decided to each knit up some squares. They would then be sent to Liselotte in Denmark where she would sew them together and deliver the finished blanket to Helle and company.

My two squares are a 'modified frostflower&leave design' and 'hugs for the Nie**** family' I'm going to try to drop in my graphs here but don't know if they will work. I decided on the ff&l design as it is an upcoming KAL that the bunch of us are in. Then for the hugs for Helle, just thought that would be appropriate considering the circumstances. Beside, just thought of it Helle signs off her emails with "Big Hugs'

Details:

Material: Galway from Plymouth in a dusty rose. It is 100% pure wool in worsted weight

Needles: Addi Turbos US 8's

Finished size on both: 9" square.

Observations while working on these little beauties:

This Galway is some nice wool. Rather soft, and washes up beautifully. Gona check around for more of this. Think this would be good for helmet liners. Need to compare price. Sorry, always looking for the better deal. And it appears the KP's yarns are cheaper. Oh, well still a very nice worsted weight wool.

Techniques:

Wanted to have the ( ) with the YO's to the outside all the way around the outside edge. Didn't work. Discovered that by using yo's on the lower edge of the ) only pushed the 'ridge to the inside wouldn't give me the / angle I was wanting. Man this is hard to put into words. So, the yo's have to be to the left of the decreases to provide a faux line to angling to the right. Drats, so much for symmetry. The top of the N on the left looks a little lacking not sure what I should have done to make that better. But end result looks just fine. Quit being so picky....geeesh!

The second thing I played around with was using the knit in back of stitch which provides a crossed stitch. It appears to work the best when yo's are done on an angle as opposed to a straight line. The first time I discovered this technique was doing the lacy pendant scarf. The pattern was written that way and I really liked the end result. To me it make the angled sections in lace more defined, neater. Not so sloppy looking. Set me to thinking what's up with that. So played around with that technique on this square. Planning on playing around with both techniques and posting a pict to this entry so as to document it visually.

I originally created this 10/16/05, but due to it being a surprise I didn't have it displayedin the blog. Now that Helle has her blanket I can post it. Hense the date difference.

Really. . ., I've been knittn'

Phew, not much blogging activity lately, but it's because I've been knittn'!
Managed to complete 3 more Twize Tanks. These have to be some of the quickest things to knit up. I made 2 meds. One in Twey (grey/pink/white combo), and the other in Twue (aqua/lt.aqua/yellow combo). The last one was made as a 1X and it is in Twocean (black, navy, med blue, almost a teal combo). My favorite Twize of the colors I've worked with is the Twue.

Click here for additional information about the tanks.

Knitting for Nyc

Oh, the poor little guy has the hardest time getting things that will fit that head of his. So, Tif was to get back to me. ..which she didn't, so hopefully this will work for the little guy. If not, no biggie, I'll just make him another set. Nyc got a new winter coat that is of the cough, cough Chicago Bears, so thought I'm make the hat and mittens to match.

I ended up duplicate stitching the C and "Da' Bears" on the hat. Not totally wild about how it ended up. Looks poorly done, but it'll work. . .I guess. The hat uses short rowing to make the ear buds. Also, it is double thickness for about 2" of the hat, which should provide additional warmth for the bitter cold that can be found in the mid-west.

Materials for this project:

Yarn: Plymouth Encore 75/25 Acryl*ick*/wool

Needles: Addi Turbos US 7 for hat, US 5&7 for mittens

Pattern: Hat came from Lucia's generator. Mittens: Nothing special, just a basic mitten pattern from my stash.

If you haven't checked out Lucia's site, you have to. Her site is jam packed with really helpful ideas and techniques. In fact there is a new blogknitawards contest going on that queerjoe is hosting and I've nominated this site. She had put tremendous time and effort into her site that is for sure. If you haven't nominated your favorite blog, go check the award information out and submit your nomination.

Whew, Are We Having Fun Yet?

K' so it's been a little while since I've posted anything. It's because I've been knittn' my fingers off. I've just finished knitting the back of the 4th Twez Tank's and it is drying. The plan is that all four will be done and in the mail to Kat on Monday. If I wasn't so lazy I could sew up the third tank. All that needs to be done is that. Heck, I was a good knitter and hid the ends as I went, so the only ends that will need to be taken care of are the ends from sewing up the tank(s).

LACE DRESSING FRAME

I'm planning on making the drive to Phoenix tomorrow. While there, will be picking up the materials need to make me a dressing frame. What I'm going to purchase are: 4- 7' 1X2", carriage bolts with washers and wing nuts, haven't decided if brass nails/tacks or screws are going to be used on the frame. Thinking of spacing nails/screws at 1/2" intervals. Also, going to make the frame adjustable from 3' to 7' using 6" spacing for this. Will post photo when finally get it all figured out. Hopefully by this weekend I'll be able to do something with this.