Eris V Neck Conundrum

Pattern: Eris by Girl from Auntie

Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool

Yarn Color: Dusty Teal

Needles: 3 for cables, 5 for body

Gauge: 5 stitches/inch, 7 rows/inch on stockinette body

If "error" is defined as a variation from the pattern instructions, I'm sure this collar has a few errors in the triple decrease row down the center of the vee. The errors were an attempt by the knitter to try and make it look better.

The first time I knit the vee, I knit it according to the pattern. After looking at it, I was convinced I hadn't done it right because it looked so messy. I frogged it and knit it again, paying more attention to places I thought I could make it look better. I couldn't. It doesn't.


In an attempt to not completely fray the yarn in the vee, I decided to do some swatching to see if I could improve on things before knitting the vee a third time.

This swatch was knit exactly according to the pattern on with larger needles so I could see the stitches better and determine if it was possible to somehow manipulate them to look more tidy.

I couldn't. It doesn't.

The decreases down the center look like a bad job of sewing the two pieces together.


Is it possible to make vertical double decreases every row and have them look nice? That was the question I was asking as I knit this swatch. Parts of the decreases in this swatch look better to me, especially that chain at the top of the swatch. Overall it's not something I would be proud to say I knit.

I have spent two days on this now. I'm ready to just do something and move on. In other words, I'm frustrated.

The pattern is detailed and well written. If I were to fault it, it would be for lack of good clear pictures of what the more complex details look like when knit without errors.

Maybe I'm missing something important in the pattern and, if done properly, the vee looks orderly and pretty? I can't tell without a picture.


Knowing myself, I can give myself good advice:

Go knit on something mindless until your frustration passes and pragmatism kicks in. Then, you can do what's needed to get past this part of the pattern, realizing you're never going to be completely happy with the way the center front of the collar looks.

Maybe, when you stop fussing, you'll have a brainstorm of something that can make the vee look less messy.

Maybe one of your blog readers will come up with a good solution to make this look nice.

Or maybe this yarn would rather be a beautiful Aran.

Knitting Peace Revisited

Last August, motivated by the stress of having too many things on the needles, I came up with a plan for Knitting Peace.

I've come up with two simple guidelines I believe are going to make my knitting life more enjoyable and productive:

• Have no more than two projects at a time, a weekday project and a weekend project.
  
• The weekend project will usually be CIC knitting, unless I've completed my CIC goals.

If you don't get picky about an occasional pair of socks or a completed project not sewn together for many months, I've done well with Knitting Peace - until last Friday when that evil Dorothy MADE me cast on Eris two weeks ahead of schedule. (Joke)

Seriously, FLAK was waiting for the next installment to be published. I had every right under the guidelines of Knitting Peace to cast on anything thing I wanted. The only project in process was the Catharina Shawl for CIC.

This evening, Janet posted the 7th installment of FLAK which is the entire body from the armpits down. Full of cables. A big, time consuming knit.

I now have two sweaters, FLAK and Eris, going at once and need a plan to maintain Knitting Peace.

So, this is what I'm going to do:

• Finish Catharina and consider my CIC knitting done until the next challenge is announced in April.
  
  Doggy school was cancelled tonight (teacher has the flu), so I spent the time finishing up Catharina until I ran out of yarn. I had to order another skein. There won't be any more knitting on Catharina until more yarn arrives. Then there are only six very long rows to go and the shawl is done.
  
  
• Knit the Eris collar and upper body until I get to the mindless stockinette stitch. If the five day weather forecast holds true and it really is too cold to work outside this week, I may be able to get that far by early next week.
  
  
• Start back on FLAK once Eris becomes mindless. When fingers get sore from cabling, pick up Eris and knit stockinette. Try to stay calm and not mind that Dorothy is getting way ahead of me on Eris.
  
  
• Knit a few linen lace swatches from my Stahman book and start plan my next Faroese shawl. (This does not fit in the Knitting Peace plan at all. But it's spring and I want to knit a linen shawl! It will have to wait until the FLAK body is done or I find a way to rationalize the violation of my carefully thought out Knitting Peace plan.)
  
  
• Knit Heather's Embossed Leaves birthday socks on trip to Idaho, April 19 to 26.

Don't hold me to any of this. It's a plan just asking to be changed. For tonight, it gives me Knitting Peace.

There is no reason to hurry with FLAK. It's heavy, it's wool, and I won't be wearing it until next fall. Hey, that sounds like the start of the rationalization needed to start the linen shawl.

Start of Eris

Who is Eris?

Eris is a Greek goddess whose greatest joy is to make trouble with her Golden Apple of Discord. When she throws the apple among friends, their friendship comes to an end. When she throws the apple among enemies it results in war. In fact, she started the Trojan War with her apple.

This does not bode well for the Eris knitting project Dorothy and I both started last night. I almost wish I never had Googled the goddess Eris. Fortunately, I'm not superstitious about knitting projects named after evil goddesses, so I'm guessing we'll be OK.

For me, Eris is a cool challenging sweater pattern designed and published by Girl from Auntie, twenty skeins of Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool in Dusty Teal, and a fun knit-a-long with Dorothy at Missouri Star.

If I have Dorothy pegged right, there won't be any discord. Not even if someone throws a golden apple at us.


I confess that my past has not been full of successful swatching. Whenever possible I pick up the needles that my judgment tells me will work and start knitting, adjusting later.

Occasionally, though, when I have a pattern I want to follow, I do swatch. Eris is in that category.

Eris is knit top down in one piece and requires three different gauges to make the construction work: the stockinette gauge for the cabled areas, the stockinette back and forth gauge, and the stockinette knit in the round gauge.

I wasted used three skeins of yarn knitting all these swatches. Some of them are the same needle, different gauges, helping me understand that I do subconsciously adjust my fabric tension to meet expectations in gauge.

One valuable reason for swatching is to get the unwashed and washed gauges of the yarn recorded. All calculations, like getting the right sleeve length, will be done measuring the unwashed fabric and converting it into the size of the washed fabric.


Here is the beginning, the start of the right side of the collar.

What fun! Cables and short rows. Just perfect for a Friday night knitting party of one. (Actually it was a knitting party of two, separated by about 2,000 miles.)

I stayed up too late and made it though the first page of Chart B. It was slow going, especially at first, because I didn't find the Eris cable charts intuitive. Substantial time was spent looking at the chart key and taking to myself.

Perfectly enjoyable. Now I want to get this posted and go knit some more.

Winter and Catharina, Both Almost Done

In the past week we've had 60 degree weather, 25 degree weather, thunderstorms, high winds, snow, more high winds, and some minor flooding. Great weather to stay inside and knit if you don't want to get soaking wet or hit in the head with a flying tree branch.

This evening it's winter again - cold, and snowing.

While waiting for Installment 7 of FLAK, the body, I've been knitting swatches for Eris and knitting on Catharina.

The Catharina garter stitch and easy lace pattern are the perfect break from FLAK cables.

Pattern: GS Catharina from Stahman's Shawls and Scarves

Yarn: Worsted weight Peace Fleece, 30% Mohair/70% wool.

Color: Ukranian red.

Note: Knitting this shawl as a working shawl for the CIC caretakers. Red is their most requested color.

Needles: Addi Turbo #7

Gauge: 4 stitches/inch, 6 rows/inch

I'm on row 133, about half way through the amount of lace planned for the border. The present, unblocked length in the back is 23 inches. The wingspan 55 inches.

Right now there are 335 stitches on the needle. By the time I bind off, there will be just a few short of 400 stitches on the needle.

I'm going to be very close to using up every last inch of 20 ounces of yarn I bought. Catharina will have a garter stitch edging because there won't be enough yarn to make the lace edging.

Catharina has been a very enjoyable knit and I'm looking forward to knitting a second Faroese shawl from Stahman's book with linen yarn.

I'm going to swatch a few of the lace patterns in linen before making the final decision, but I'm leaning toward Elizabeth, a pretty garden basket lace pattern.


Did you notice that some of the lace is turned under on the right side of the top picture? I didn't notice until Catharina was back on the needle and it was too late to take more pictures.

I think maybe Pappy turned it under when he jumped on the bed and got in position to join the photo shoot.

Does he look guilty?

No, he looks innocent and sweet because he is.

John's Birthday Socks

Pattern: Basic Sock

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon

Color: Lollipop 1011

Needles: Addi Turbo #1

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

This yarn started out in Idaho. I bought it in Coeur d'Alene last October. Now it's headed back to Idaho transformed into socks for son John to celebrate his March 18th birthday.

Hope he loves them. And hope he feels the love knit into every stitch.


Next family birthday sock recipient is daughter Heather in May. She asked for something in green. I have some beautiful Opal UNI-Solid green in my stash and I have this - Austermann Step yarn with Aloe Vera and Jojoba Oil.

It's a rare day when I buy sock yarn that isn't Opal, but I couldn't resist this so soft and so pretty yarn.

Since I've never used Austermann yarn before, I may knit it up for myself to try it out.

Famous Sweater at Doggy School

It's not unusual for family members to visit doggy school to sit and watch the class. They usually find it excellent entertainment.

A few months ago a distinguished looking gentleman showed up in a drop dead gorgeous yellow Aran sweater. I was totally distracted trying to sneak looks at the sweater while working obedience with Pappy.

At first I thought it had to be store bought, because it was too perfect to be hand knit. After more stolen stares, I decided it must be hand knit because it was too detailed to be store bought.

Finally, during a break in the action, I had to ask. It was the right thing to do because the man, Rick, was so totally proud of his sweater he could hardly wait to tell me about it. He even stood up so I could admire it in more detail and from all angles.

It was knit by his wife, Mary (mother of black lab, Kirby), for her Level III Master Knitting submission. Needless to say, Mary was awarded her Level III. Rich called her over and had her show off a necklace with three diamonds that he gave her to celebrate her success. She had the necklace on under her doggy school duds, so I'm assuming she wears it all the time.

Mary was quiet and a acted a little embarrassed about the sweater kudos, but Rick wasn't shy at all. He told me there had been a magazine article about his sweater. He didn't say which magazine. I assumed he meant Cast On, the TKGA magazine. (TKGA, The Knitting Guild of America, runs the Master Knitting classes.)

Then last week, inspired by my FLAK progress, I started looking through my old Twists and Turns, Janet Szabo's newsletter for lovers of cable knitting. When I picked up Fall 2003, there it was! A picture of and a pattern for Rick's Aran.

I'm tempted to knit it. And, if I do, I won't be wearing it to doggy school.

Start of GS Catharina

There is a Yahoo knit-a-long list for the Stahman Shawls and Scarves book.

Myrna Stahman occasionally posts to answer questions. After reading her book and starting one of her patterns, I place her right up toward the top of my Most Admired Knitters list.

And she gets extra points for being from Idaho, home state of the sweetest grandbaby.


After reading all the glorious, well-written instruction for knitting a Faroese shawl top down, I decided there were so many new things it might be best if my first attempt was not in slippery, fingering weight linen yarn.

I was delighted to see the first patterns in the book were suitable for working shawls that tie in the back. Perfect for the CIC caretakers. So last week I ordered and received twenty ounces of Peace Fleece to knit the GS Catharina Shawl. Even the shawl name sounds Eastern European.


Pattern: GS Catharina from Stahman's Shawls and Scarves

Yarn: Worsted weight Peace Fleece, 30% Mohair/70% wool.

Color: Ukranian red.

Note: Knitting this shawl as a working shawl for the CIC caretakers. Red is their most requested color.

Needles: Addi Turbo #7

Gauge: 4 stitches/inch, 6.5 rows/inch

The caretakers are generally large ladies. They like red and they like their shawls large so they can tie them in back. They work in very cold conditions and need all the warmth they can get, but they also appreciate something pretty. I'm hoping this project is perfect for one of them.

GS Catharina can be lace from the shoulders down. For warmth, I've elected to knit boring garter stitch until the shawl is twenty inches long with 315 stitches on the needle.

Hanover Jacket Done

Pattern: Hanover Jacket from Jean Frost Jackets

Yarn: Elegance, 70% baby alpaca, 30% silk DK weight from Knitpicks

Yarn Color: Barn red

Needles: #3

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch

Isn't it about time this jacket was moved to the completed project list? Yes!

It's been sitting in a knitting bag for months waiting to get sewn together. It feels so good to have it done and in the closet.

It's not that I don't want to show you my head, my photographer chopped it off.




The jacket is truly barn red, like old barns. The color in the top and bottom picture is most accurate. This picture of the back is way too red looking.

The leaf motif is on each front, the middle of the back, and the bottom of each sleeve.




I'm mostly pleased with the project.

The pattern was well written and fun to knit and the Elegance yarn is an easy, smooth knit.

This yarn at this gauge is a little limp and drapey for a sweater that is supposed to be a jacket. On the plus side, it has a beautiful, silky sheen.

I've worn the jacket several times and it holds its shape well. It's not very warm, but that's OK. It's almost spring here in SW Michigan. I saw a robin today. Always a good sign that winter is on the way out.

FLAK Sleeves

Pattern: Follow the Leader Aran by Janet Szabo

Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool

Color: Antique Rose

Needles: US #5

Gauge: 22 stitches/4 inches in Moss Stitch

The sleeves were knit in the round on two 24" circulars with decreases every seventh row.

Oh how I would love to finish up these sleeves by knitting on the cuff, but I don't think it's the right thing to do at this point in the knitting.

The neck without ribbing is so sloppy that I can't be sure about exact length for the sleeves. So, for right now, I'm going to stuff the two attached balls of yarn up the sleeves and leave the cuffs until I can try on the sweater with the neckline and body completed.

My FLAK project is back in the knitting bag until Janet publishes the next installment.


Pappy was all relaxed, sleeping on his back with his feet in the air and his tongue hanging out.

Then he heard me getting out the camera and woke up in case my movement meant it was time for a walk.

I was disappointed that I didn't get the ultra-relaxed sleeping picture, but this is a nice shot of my fuzzy boy.

Spring One, Winter Zero

Spring and winter spent the day duking it out in SW Michigan.

Winter kept up a continuous snowfall.

Spring fought back by raising the temperature above freezing so the snow was unable to stick and accumulate.

This is a morning picture of the wet snow settled on the tree branches. It was beautiful, especially since it was so warm the snow melted off the roads and I didn't have to cancel a lunch date with a friend.

By this afternoon, more snow had melted than remained. Even though the snow kept falling, it was a losing battle for winter. Rah.

The only blizzard type snow we've had all season was the storm on the day before Thanksgiving when Mom and I were trying to fly to Virginia.

Most Michiganders are still expecting a heavy snowfall this year. March isn't too late and we can't believe we're going to get off so easy this winter.

If we do get a big snow, it will be short lived. The ground has started to warm, the days are longer, and spring is fighting hard to kick winter right out the door.

Missing Pictures

These are the pictures I don't have yet and my excuses for not having them.

Picture of FLAK sleeves
I've been knitting and knitting and knitting. Both sleeves are almost done to the cuff. I'm really tired of knitting on them. I am looking forward to knitting on another project for a week or so before the next FLAK installment is posted.

There will be a celebration picture when the sleeves are done. Soon.

Picture of Son John's Birthday Socks
This is my pick up project when I have a spare minute here and there. Or when I need some easy knitting to take a break from the FLAK sleeves.

Both socks are just a few inches from the toe decreases. They will be in the mail by the end of next week in plenty of time for his March 18 birthday.

There will be a picture when the socks are done.

Picture of Hanover Jacket
It's done. It's sewn together, blocked, and it fits.

I wore it to lunch with Mom on Friday. We both shivered while taking pictures out on her deck, but the pictures are all fuzzy and not suitable for posting.

I love the way the jacket turned out. There will be another photo session soon so I can post some pictures.

Picture of Yarn for Eris
Inspired by Brenda, Dorothy and I are doing a very informal Eris knit-a-long starting April 1.

Mine is going to be knit in Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool, color Dusty Teal.

The yarn was shipped Tuesday, but it didn't arrive today, as hoped, or I would have taken a picture.

Fortunately, I have two skeins of the same dye lot in my stash, so I can swatch this weekend even without the yarn delivery.

And now I'm logging off to go knit on FLAK sleeves.

E is for Emerging

10 am on March 2, I went out into the cold, dreary yard to see if I could find little hints of green, little harbingers of Emerging spring.

In this picture the small area of lawn that we have is on the left, in front of the creek. It is dormant and brown.

The unmowed acreage is on the far side of the creek. The trees are bare. The landscape is almost totally without any pretty colors.

We live on a wooded five acres. The oaks shed their leaves after it's too cold to rake so the leaves don't get cleaned up until spring.

I needed to push oak leaves aside in order to check for Emerging greenery.

There are naturalized daffodils scattered here, there, and everywhere. They are the hardest and most dependable sign that spring is actually going to happen.

They don't let oak leaves stop them from their quest for sunlight. The daffodil leaves are strong enough to chop right through the dead leaves and keep on growing.


In an almost sunny part of the yard, the daylilies are Emerging.

They are anemic looking from being hidden under the oak leaves. The next mild day we have, I'll get the rake out and uncover the shoots so they can get some sun.

There is snow forecast for this afternoon. For today, the daylilies are probably happiest buried out of the weather.


I never would have thought to look for sedum in early March until Kim in the mountains of New Hamshire showed her sedum heads poking out of the earth.

Shoving a few oak leaves aside (do you see a pattern here?), there they are! Little sedum plants Emerging from the frozen ground. They don't bloom until August, so they're really getting a head start on the season.

Experiment in Linen

I love knitting lace. I hate blocking shawls. If blocking was a one time deal, I would just do it. But, if I knit beautiful wool shawls they need to be blocked every time I wash them. Since I live in fear of moths, that would be often.

To further feed my reluctance to knit wool shawls, my family and friends don't want them for gifts. They don't want to hand wash and block a shawl, even if it is beautiful.

Now I have this wonderful new book, Stahman's Shawls and Scarves, full of lacey Faroese shawls. I want to knit every one of them.

After Fluffy Knitter Deb raved about knitting with linen - no blocking, throw it in the washer and dryer and it looks beautiful - I have to try it. That's how I ended up with the UPS man delivering this today.

Two 100 gram/580 yard cones of fingering weight, Euroflax linen in grey.

According to Louet Sales this yarn is machine washable and dryable. After washing, the "yarn will become very soft, with a beautiful, lustrous silky effect."

If all goes well and I have time, I'd like to have a shawl done to wear to my nephew's wedding the end of May. But this is not at the top of my project list, so I don't know if I'll make that deadline or not.

According to Deb, linen is challenging to knit because it's slippery and maintaining tension is difficult. She recommends using Inox Gray (Teflon) needles to help the situation.

I'm looking forward to having a swatch party with this yarn. But, for now, back to my FLAK sleeves.

Partial FLAK Sleeve

Pattern: Follow the Leader Aran by Janet Szabo

Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool

Color: Antique Rose

Needles: US #5

Gauge: 22 stitches/4 inches in Moss Stitch

Here it is! A partial left sleeve.

It's about three inches from the cuff. I've switched sides now and just started the top of the right sleeve. When both sleeves are almost done I can try the sweater on and get the sleeves exactly the length I want.

I would like to get the sleeves finished before I show you FLAK again. But, if I get desperate for blogging material, you may see more partial sleeves in a few days.


Eek!
This is the start of the two week period when ABC Along members are charged to photograph and write about something starting with the letter E.

It has become obvious that my life is severely lacking in interesting, or even uninteresting, things that start with the letter E.

Yesterday I sat down with a dictionary and browsed E words. Now I hope my subconscious is working on the E problem, because I still don't have a clue what my E entry is going to be.

Time to get creative.

5 Quirks

Lisa tagged me with the 5 Quirks meme.

List 5 quirks about yourself.

This should be easy because I have many many quirks. Unfortunately, I've had them for so many years I don't think of them as quirks. I had a hard time coming up with five - at least 5 I will admit to in public.

Thinking Bob, husband for 30+ years, should have no problem coming up with five of my quirks, I asked for his help. Quirky minds think alike. He said he was so used to my quirks he couldn't think what they might be.

We had some fun today thinking and talking about quirks. Thanks Lisa.

And here are five to meet the requirement:

1. I'm superstitious about numbers and have a strong preference for even numbers. 22 is my favorite.
   
   
2. When I'm annoyed, I hum. Bob has trouble understanding this. He thinks I hum when I'm happy although I've told him many times that the opposite is true. Fortunately, I don't have a quick temper or he would have been beheaded by now.
   
   
3. I believe that Pappy understands a large percent of what I say to him. Not only that, but he's a very vocal dog and tries to talk back. Really.
   
   
4. I'm moderately phobic about driving or riding on a road with water on both sides. It doesn't bother me a bit if I'm on a bridge above the water, only when the water and road are on the same level.
   
   
5. I peel a grapefruit and eat it like an orange. Why not? It is like an orange.

If anyone needs a quick blog post because they'd rather be knitting than posting this weekend, you're tagged.

Now back to knitting FLAK sleeves.

Finished Aguave Pictures

Pattern: Aguave by Katherine Hunt in Summer 2005 Knitter's

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine, 60% pima cotton, 40% model

Color: River

Needles: Addi Turbo #4

Gauge: 24 stitches/4 inches in SS after washing

This afternoon during a brief interlude of sunshine, I put on Aguave and headed outside to have DH take some pictures.

His method of taking pictures is to fumble around until I get a weird look on my face and then snap it. Sometimes it doesn't matter what my face looks like, because he chops off my head.

But, he's willing to do it and I appreciate his efforts. These are the best two.



In these pictures, Aguave is over a navy cami with a shelf bra. I think it would look better over a dark blue tank top worn with a real bra, so I have some shopping to do.

My goal was to assemble and block the Aguave and Hanover jacket before the next installment of FLAK is posted.

Hanover is sewn together as of last night and this afternoon I finished weaving in the ends. It's ready for a bath which may or may not happen tonight.

Aguave is in the closet, I have a sweatshirt on, and Pappy and I are off to doggy school in a few minutes.

Knitting Log for February 21

Pattern: Aguave by Katherine Hunt in Summer 2005 Knitter's

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine, 60% pima cotton, 40% model

Color: River

Needles: Addi Turbo #4

Gauge: 24 stitches/4 inches in SS after washing

Aguave is assembled, washed, and still damp. It appears it's going to fit well and I'm looking forward to wearing it. When I do, there will be one more picture.

This was a fun knit. I never got tired of the pattern or the yarn. Well, maybe a little impatient on the endless sleeves, but not ready to throw it in the basket and work on something else.

I will happily use Knitpicks Shine again the next time I get the urge to knit something cottony.


Pattern: Basic Sock

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon

Color: Lollipop 1011

Needles: Addi Turbo #1

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

These are son John's birthday socks, cuffs done, ready to start the heel.

John is very tall and slender. So slender that I knit his socks on 64 stitches.

The foot needs to be 80 rows long from the gusset pickup to the start of the toe decreases. I'm a bit concerned about the size of that ball of yarn. Is it enough? (There's a second ball attached to the other sock.)

The front of the sock is facing the camera to show how I'm doing the ribbing. Most of the sock cuff is knit in a k3p1 ribbing, but there is a 14 stitch panel of stockinette down the front to display the handsome Lollipop stripes in all their beauty.

Gail the dog trainer has a birthday the same day as John and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to knit a pair of socks for the occasion. She got a pair for Christmas which I've never seen her wear, even though she told me she loves wearing them. Was she just being polite? I see her twice a week. The socks should have made an appearance by now. It would give me great pleasure to knit another pair of socks for her, but I don't want to give her something she doesn't really like.

I normally don't give knitted gifts unless asked. It's too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just because I want to knit something, the recipient is going to be delighted to received it, wear it, and care for it.

Answers

Diane asked . . .

Wherever did you find to order it? (Stahman's Shawls and Scarves)

This book was on my mental list of things I needed to buy someday. I wrongly assumed there was no hurry.

They had it at Knitpicks a while ago. When I went to add it to my last order they didn't have it anymore.

Amazon only showed three used copies, the lowest price was worn and $50! Highest price $193.

Fortunately, there are still some yarn shops that have copies, and I was able to Google and find it for the regular price, $30, at Knitter's Bookshelf. I ordered it immediately in case Rocking Chair Press doesn't do another printing.


DebbieB asked . . .

Does CIC accept donations from people who don't belong to the organization?

With gratitude!

There are approximately 700,000 children in Eastern Europe living in orphanages with winter indoor temperatures hovering around 45 Fahrenheit (that's 7 Celsius). They can never have too many sweaters, vests, and socks, in at least 70% wool. (I use 100% wool.)

The knitted items are sent to a central location (Kathy’s garage). They are then packed into suitcases and taken directly to the orphanages by couples traveling to the area to pick up a child they are adopting. This prevents the donations from being "side tracked" and sold, never making it to their intended destination.

e-mail Me for Kathy's address.

Just for the record, I do not belong to CIC. I do belong to the CIC Knit List, a Yahoo group to support and encourage each other as we knit for the kids.


Dorothy asked . . .

Did you notice that the new Interweave Knits has two patterns for fingerless gloves?

Not until the entire knitting community was done getting their copy delivered before mine arrived, finally, on Friday.

The Rib-and-Cable Mitts are on my list to knit. I'll make the cuffs longer to provide more coverage for the CIC caretakers.

I didn't think the Pom-Pom Fingerless Mitts were attractive, but the pattern is of interest because it's knit from the knuckles down to the cuffs, just the opposite of all my other fingerless mitt patterns. Next time I'm using balls of leftover worsted, I'll give this a technique try so I don't run out of yarn mid-hand. But I'll use a different stitch pattern.


Loren asked . . .

Your FLAK is looking good. How large is your neck opening? How many stitches did you have to pick up and knit on each saddle?

My saddles are 2.5 inches wide and 4 inches/31 stitches long. I picked up 31 stitches.

To get a front neck drop of three inches, I subtracted half the saddle width, 1.25 inches and did a drop of 1.75 inches. The width (without the neckband, of course) is 7.5 inches.

All these measurements are calculated from my washed and blocked swatches, not the actual unwashed and unblocked knitting.

Since we are each calculating our own pattern based on our own measurements, I'm not sure how much good this information is to anyone other than myself. If you want to compare your calculations with mine, you need to know that I measured 15 inches across the back. I added a half inch so as to get all the cables in and have the cables fall where I thought they looked best at the neckline. Since a half inch is only a quarter inch on each side, I don't expect this to be a problem. It may even be a blessing since I don't want this sweater to fit tightly.

Where Do I Begin?

It's cold, cold, cold here in SW Michigan. As long as we have power, I don't care because I have so much fun stuff to do that I'm not sure where to begin.

The Aguave sleeves are finished. Now it's time to sew this sweater together, wash and block it.

Did I say fun? Sewing my knitting projects together has never been fun for me.

I do know how to do it moderately well, but I'm very very slow at it. It's my least favorite part of knitting and something I avoid by knitting in the round and/or picking up stitches and/or doing three needle bind off whenever the pattern design allows. Not this time. Aguave was knit in four pieces: front, back, 2 sleeves. They need to be sewn together.

And there's a Hanover jacket in my knitting basket that also needs to be sewn together. I've promised myself that both Aguave and Hanover will be assembled before I start a new project. Except for John's birthday socks. They have all ready been started. Sock picture in a few days. I want to knit a little more on the cuffs before I show them to you.


My Knitpicks order finally arrived. First thing I did was grab a ball of Andean Treasure in Fog and finish up the last inch of the first pair of fingerless mitts I started several weeks ago.

For those of you who did the math in your head and wonder why I didn't have a $40 order to get free shipping, I did. The part of the order not pictured belongs to a knitting friend and will be delivered to her at church on Sunday.

The Grape Sierra on the bottom of the pile will likely become a CIC sweater. I want to write an easy, no sew, top down pattern for CIC knitters.

The other five balls are Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca, sport weight. This stuff is so soft, warm, and pretty I want knit myself a sweater from it. I don't have a pattern in mind, though, so I'm looking forward to browsing sweater patterns for something classic and a little lacey.

Something with little or no sewing together required. Any suggestions?

This just arrived in the mail, also.

Oh my, oh my! What a wonderful book! Gorgeous lace projects. I want to sit down and knit everything in this book. Now!

And, if that's not enough, I have a pile of library books to read and a new, unopened Interweave Knits magazine.

So, where do I begin?

D is for Dumbbell

Hobby Advanced class at Briarwood Dog Training has started working with doggy dumbbells again. My dogs have been though the dumbbell training before. They are still flunking.

The dumbbell forced retreive is supposed to be a fun thing for the dogs. Some of the dogs who have learned how to do it in previous rotations of the class do appear to enjoy it.

The desired sequence of events goes like this:

• Dog sits on left side of owner about six feet in front of a hurdle.
  
• Owner tosses dumbbell over the hurdle and says "Take it."
  
• Dog enthusiastically jumps over the hurdle and takes the dumbbell in his/her mouth.
  
• Dog jumps hurdle with dumbbell in mouth to return to owner.
  
• Dog sits in front of owner and gives his/her owner the dumbbell.

Take your fingers out from under my chin so I can spit this thing out!


The sequence of events when Sunny does the dumbbell exercise:

• We don't bother standing in front of the hurdle.
  
• I stick the dumbbell in front of Sunny's nose and say "Take it."
  
• Sunny ignores me.
  
• I gently push the dumbbell into Sunny's mouth.
  
• I hold Sunny's chin up for about thirty seconds so the dumbbell won't fall out.
  
• Sunny agrees to this because she is being bribed by little pieces of turkey dog.
  
• After two tries at holding the dumbbell in her mouth, Sunny insists it's time to go out for a potty break.

The theory is that I will need to spend less and less time holding up Sunny's chin as she learns to hang on to the dumbbell without assistance. Gail the trainer thinks Sunny is making progress. We have practiced at home this past week, and I'm spending just as much time holding up Sunny's chin as I was last week. Sunny is starting to like the practice more, though, because she can guilt trip me into a great long game of tug afterward.

When Sunny's class did dumbbell training two years ago, she hated it so much that I used dumbbell time to take her outside for a potty break. This time around we're going to stick with it and see if we can get to the place where it's fun for her.

Pappy hates the dumbbell even more than Sunny hates the dumbbell.

I would do almost anything for you - except this.


The sequence of events when Pappy does the dumbbell exercise:

• We don't bother standing in front of the hurdle.
  
• I get down on the floor and secure him between my legs.
  
• I make all kinds of encouraging noises to let him know this is fun.
  
• He clamps his jaws shut. Very tightly shut.
  
• I pry his mouth open while he's playing keepaway with his head.
  
• I insert the dumbbell and hold his mouth shut around it while I continue making encouraging noises.
  
• When I can spare a hand, I rub his chest to calm him down.
  
• Pappy tries to spit the dumbbell out and run under the nearest piece of furniture.
  
• After about thirty seconds, I let him drop the dumbbell.
  
• I get very exited and feed him multiple little pieces of turkey dog.
  
• Pappy is excited too because maybe we're done with this exercise.

Sounds cruel, doesn't it? I feel like an unfit doggy mother everytime we do this.

All the activities that Pappy now thinks are wonderful fun started out with him balking, so I'm not ready to give up yet.

Fortunately, dumbbells only take about ten minutes of the two hour class. If things don't look better soon, I may teach Pappy that dumbbell time makes a good potty break time. Stay tuned.

Fingerless Mitts III

Pattern: Diamond Handwarmers from CIC knitter Ruth

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, worsted weight 100% wool

Color: Candy Cane Red

Needles: #4 double points

Gauge: 5.5 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch


Saturday evening I picked up Ruth's pattern and knit the first one of these in a little less than three hours. Sunday afternoon I cast on the second one and it went even quicker.

These are large on me, which is what is wanted. Most of the caretakers have larger hands than I do.

These are very pretty, practical, and warm for the CIC caregivers. The pattern is easy to follow with detail instructions for every row where there is thumb gusset or the diamond pattern. I followed the pattern word for word and didn't find any errors. Thanks Ruth!

Fingerless Mitts II

Pattern: Open Finger Mitts from Garnstudio

Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Treasure, sport weight 100% baby alpaca

Color: Lagoon

Needles: #3 double points

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch

While waiting for the yarn to finish my first pair of fingerless mittens for the CIC caretakers, I knit up a second pair.

The CIC_Knit List challenge is 150 pair of fingerless mittens sent by the end of March. My personal goal is 4 pair.

The fingerless mittens are super quick to knit. This evening I finished a third pair, picture tomorrow, and now I'm back to knitting on the endless second Aguave sleeve.

Saturday Lunch

This afternoon the eldest three generations of women in my family met for lunch at the Oakwood Bistro. Granddaughter Kimmy was elsewhere with her dad. We missed seeing her, but it was nice to have an adult lunch.

Daughter Heather (in picture) treated for a belated my birthday lunch. Our family is not always prompt about things like that. We do things when work schedules permit.

Oakwood Bistro is an award winning restaurant. Its creme brulee is the best I've ever tasted. I don't want to know how many calories it has, but today it didn't have any because it was a birthday treat.


The other purpose for the lunch was delivery of professional pictures taken of John, Anne, and Sydney in Idaho.

The pictures were framed, wrapped securely in bubble wrap, and all sent to my house for Michigan distribution.

Here you see Mom (my mother, Heather and John's grandmother) trying to liberate the large picture marked for her. Heather is doing the same in the top picture.

Everyone loved their pictures. Thanks John and Anne and Sydney.

FLAK Part 5 Done

Pattern: Follow the Leader Aran by Janet Szabo

Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool

Color: Antique Rose

Needles: US #5

Gauge: 22 stitches/4 inches in Moss Stitch


Once again I'm caught up with the FLAK assignments. This part was fun. My analytical mind got a nice work out charting the cables and how I wanted the neck increases to fit into the pattern.

Since I'm a novice at this type of planning, I made several charts over several days until I finally had it the way I wanted it. Only time and the addition of a neckband will show if my thinking was right or not.

Someone, sorry I don't remember who, posted a suggestion to the list about blocking. She said that we could wet down our FLAK at anytime to block the part that was done in order to make sure we were going to get a good fit.

I may end up doing that. Otherwise, I have to trust that the stitch and row counts calculated from my blocked swatch will bring this sweater up to the size I need.

At this point the front and back are both knit to approximately 1/3 their total length. Adding the sleeves, I roughly calculate the sweater is 20% done. Lots and lots of cable knitting to go.

Now off to knit on something else until the next installment of FLAK is posted.

C is for Cosmetology

I graduated from high school with a math scholarship to Olivet College. To my 18 year old mind in 1963, this was not a cool thing.

What did a girl do with a math degree? And, since it was 1963 when girls did not do much, no one could answer that question for me. When they tried, it came out sounding like “develop your mind and find a husband.” Surely there were easier ways to find a husband than four years of college math.

I enrolled in the fall session of Wright Beauty Academy to become a Cosmetologist.

Nine months later I passed the state test and went to work for the best hair styling saloon in Battle Creek, Michigan. Hair Styles by Ferrari.

It was the decade of beehives, backcombing, French twists, flips, and lots of hairspray. Shampooing once a week was the norm.

In 1964 a haircut was $2, a shampoo and set was $2.50, and a perm was $10. Since we worked on commission, we tried to sell the more expensive perms for $15, but most of the ladies (our license did not allow us to work on men) thought the $10 perms were just fine.

I had red hair with the crown bleached out platinum. With the help of color rinses on the bleached part, I could have all kinds of outrageous color combinations.

In this Christmas picture, the top of my hair was a pale green color.


When I got married in February, 1965, I had a temporary auburn rinse put on the bleached hair. Since I was paying for expensive wedding pictures, I thought I might want to look as normal as possible so my kids wouldn't laugh at me in the decades to come.

When my daughter sees the wedding pictures, she is too busy laughing at the hairstyle to even notice the color.

4 Things Meme

All my projects are in mid-stream. Too early to take a picture.

Even my ABC Along post is waiting to see if I can find a picture to post with it. It's about something that happened 40+ years ago, and I need to dig in the archives. And, if I do find something, I need to load the scanner software. I've been procrastinating that since my big laptop crash last October.

If I don't post this afternoon, it isn't gonna happen today. Blogger is having an outage tonight starting when Sunny and I get home from doggy school.

What's a blogger to do? How about a meme that I've seen on almost everyone else's blog but haven't done yet?

List 4 Jobs you have had in your life:

1. Hair stylist
   
2. Geriatric nurse's aide
   
3. COBOL programmer
   
4. Systems Analyst

4 Movies you could watch over and over.

1. Blue Hawaii
   
2. Any romantic comedy with a happy ending, including Shreck
   
3. Shirley Valentine
   
4. ET

4 Places you have lived:

1. Arlington Heights, Illinois
   
2. Vicksburg, Michigan
   
3. Marshall, Michigan
   
4. Battle Creek, Michigan

4 TV shows you love to watch.
(We don't watch TV, so these are favorites from the past.)

1. Star Trek
   
2. Quincy
   
3. Johnny Carson
   
4. Laugh In

4 Places you have been on Vacation:

1. New Orleans
   
2. Atlanta, Georgia
   
3. Chatfield, Minnesota
   
4. Michigan's Upper Peninsula

4 websites you visit daily:

1. Jig Zone, Daily Puzzle
   
2. 5 Day Forecast for Paw Paw, National Weather Service
   
3. Bloglines, and many of my favorite blogs
   
4. Engrish

4 of your favorite foods:

1. Creme Brulee
   
2. Prime rib
   
3. Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich
   
4. Strawberry shortcake with fresh, Michigan strawberries

4 Places you would rather be right now:

1. Post Falls, Idaho
   
2. Working on my FLAK
   
3. In a lobster bib cracking and eating fresh buttery lobster with a good friend
   
4. Sitting in a hot bubble bath with a shot of blackberry brandy

Anyone who hasn't done this and is desperate for an easy blog post, consider yourself tagged.

Knitting Log for February 4

Pattern: Fingerless Mitts

Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca, along with Blackberry Ridge Silk Blend Lace weight, two-ply, 25% silk, 85% wool.

Color: Fog and Medium lilac

Needles: Clover bamboo #5 circulars

Gauge: 20 stitches/4 inches

Our CIC challenge for February/March is fingerless gloves for the caretakers.

Amazing as it sounds living in Michigan and all, I have never knit a mitten. So this was a fun new something to knit for me. I selected a pattern with a thumb gusset because I think they look nicer than a buttonhole for the thumb hole. Even with the gusset, the pattern is super simple.

Since the Andean Treasure is sport weight and the pattern is for worsted weight, I added a strand of the lilac lace yarn. The lilac has the additional benefit of making the mitt much prettier.

The mitt looks a bit big on my hand because it is. I have small hands.

According to the CIC_Knit List

"Any size is acceptable, but more of the caretakers fall into the medium to large category than the more petite sizes."

I should have done a more petite size, anyway.

My kitchen scale says I'm going to be one-tenth of an ounce short of having enough Andean Treasure for the second mitt. This means I may need to come up with a $40 Knitpicks order when all I need is a few extra yards of yarn. Have to order enough for free shipping, right?

Note to non-knitters: Coming up with a $40 Knitpicks order is not something that requires sympathy.


Pattern: Aguave by Katherine Hunt in Summer 2005 Knitter's

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine, 60% pima cotton, 40% model

Color: River

Needles: Addi Turbo #4

Gauge: 24 stitches/4 inches in SS after washing

I'm working on the second sleeve which looks just like the first sleeve. Next time I knit something with unattached sleeves, I'm going to try knitting both sleeves at the same time to see if it helps reduce sleeve boredom.


Stitches of Violet Word Cloud

Seems like everyone in blogland is creating a Word Cloud.

How could I resist?

Dreamcatcher Socks Done

Pattern: Basic 56 Stitch Sock. k3 p1 ribbing with a 14 stitch stockinette panel down the front, 8 stitch stockinette panel down the back

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon

Color: Dreamcatcher 1235

Needles: Addi Turbo #1

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

Done and on my feet. I wore them to doggy school tonight and they were warm and comfy.