Add One Purpled Stripe

The next steps on the Sweater Sampler are a twisted k1p1 rib and a k2p2 rib to demonstrate how an increase in the number of k’s and p’s in a rib increases the snugness factor.  I’ve seen this to great effect on socks.  I really like a k3p1 there.  

Then there’s the addition of different color stripe.  Here’s where I get to add the purple.

 

I learned something that should be intuitively obvious, but I didn’t know, having never done stripes on ribs before:  knit a solid row without rib at each color change to keep the color addition smooth.  

I love this green and purple combination.  Actually I’m using it quite a lot in my house right now and I learned yesterday that it’s one of the new hot color combinations for this fall in decorating.  I seem to be a bit ahead of the home fashion trends this year.

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Another Border

I don’t have a lot to show for the last couple of days as my work life has been pretty busy. But I did manage to add the pink borders to my Starflower quilt (stack n whack).

Now it will be put aside until I get a little more practice with machine quilting.  I had hoped to take a class in a couple of weeks, but I learned that it’s full, so I may just need to do some more work on my own.  I simply thought a class would give me some of those added techniques and tips that are so useful from people who have more experience.

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The Sweater Sampler 1

I made quite a lot of progress on my sweater sampler last night.  The worsted weight, 4 ply yarn works up very quickly, even though I’ve added some extra stitches to help the knitting flow around the 16″ circular needle a little more smoothly.

So far on the sampler I’ve done stitches I already know:  garter, stockinette, and k1p1 ribbing.  What’s really nice about working this sampler, though, is the way Jacqueline Fee guides the stitcher through thinking about decision points for designing one’s own sweater and in noticing how different stitches function.  

For example, she instructs the stitcher to notice how the garter stitch makes for a wider fabric than the stockinette does.  

On the section on ribbing she points out how each ribbing pattern creates a different level of snugness on the sweater.

Today I pulled out one of my Russian scarves to wear with a white blouse and blue pants to work and it occurred to me that I should put some pictures of these scarves on my blog.

The one I wore today is hand-painted silk with ship and church motifs on it.

 

I have two of these hand-painted scarves by a very talented Russian artist named Larissa (my daughter’s name).  Unfortunately her signature is written in Russian and I don’t know how to translate it into English letters.  

My husband got these scarves for me on two of his many mission trips to Ivanovo, Russia.  I’ll show the other one another day.

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New Project

Well, I frogged the yellow Twisted Tulip socks.  They’re way too complicated to work on right now.  Not especially hard, just requiring concentration and undivided attention which I cannot currently provide.  I think they’re a vacation-in-Taos project.    

They’re going back into the stash for a while and I’m moving on to the Sweater Sampler from Jacqueline Fee’s The Sweater Workshop.  ’Turns out I did not have any appropriate yarn in my stash, so I picked up some today in Williamsburg (about a 90 minute drive) at Knitting Sisters.

 

It was soooooooooo hard not to buy anything else, but I’m trying to keep the yarn stash as low as I can. Good thing I had John along to help hold me back from temptation because they do have some lovely yarns.

It was especially tempting since I just received part of my Knit Picks order which included Victorian Lace Today by Jane Sowerby.  I’ve been wanting that book for a long time and ordered it along with the lace blocking wires which have not yet arrived.  I’m assuming they were shipped in a separate package, being long and narrow and sized totally differently than a book.  

I’m waiting on those wires so I can block my Aspen Grove Shawl.  We’ve had some cool, rainy weather today, and it’s reminding me that some cooler days will be arriving before too long that will be perfect for that shawl.

Another errand today in W’Burg was to get my new bike tuned up.  John has it completed and just needed a little adjusting help from an expert.  So if it’s dry tomorrow I’ll get to try it out.

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It’s Coming Together

I have the body of my Stack n Whack hexagons quilt pieced together with one border added.  

Here’s a picture of how some of the units went together in strips.

And here’s the entire body pieced.

I’m adding a one-inch border in black and I have some great pink/fuschia-colored fabric that I’m going to use to add an additional border that will be 2 or 2 1/2 inches wide.  The backing will be blue and there will be a black binding.  

Now I just have to figure out how to quilt it.

I’ve been thinking about a name and have decided to call this quilt “Starflowers.”

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Working on the Quilt

I’m continuing to work on my Stack n Whack quilt.  I really need to think up a name for it, but nothing’s come to me so far. Here are some more hexagons.

Once the hexagons are complete the rest of the quilt gets put together in units.

Here are the units stitched together ready to be joined with the hexagons.

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Stack n Whack Hexagons, Continued

Here are some more of the hexagons I put together yesterday:

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Back to Whack N Stack

John headed up to Northern Virginia to spend the day with our daughter today.  Larissa wanted to take him to the new Air and Space Museum at Dulles and to a film about flying.  So it was Dad and Daughter day for him.

That gave me a nice chunk of time to get back to work on my whack n stack quilt.  I hadn’t touched it since the workshop at the beginning of the month and I was afraid I might forget how to do it.

 

I completed the second set of 12 hexagons.  Then I had to decide which 6 to leave out, since the throw-size quilt I’m making only needs 18.  I’m thinking those additional six would make a nice table runner so I’m setting them aside for that.

 

Then I got to work cutting out the the rest of the quilt.  The hexagons are set with star points and then the stars are set in a background, all composed of 60 degree triangles.

I’ve gotten nearly all of the star points and background pieces sewn together.  Then everything will be pieced in rows.

 

While I’m working over the next couple of days on this–I’d like to have the top done to show at the next Quilt Guild meeting this Tuesday–I’ll show some more of my hexagons.  I hope people don’t get tired of looking at them.  I’m just so amazed at how different each one turns out.

I still have two more pictures of hexagons made by other people during the workshop, but those pictures are on my old computer and I haven’t learned yet how to get them onto the new one.  I hope to show them sometime soon, because they’re really beautiful.

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A New Project!

Well, not exactly.  It’s a start over of a project I began during our move.

I frogged the few rows I had completed on my Twisted Tulip Socks and have now knit a few more beyond what I took out.  This is a pretty complicated pattern that makes very fine cables with a cable needle and two stitches at a time to develop the design.  If you look very closely you can see some of the pattern beginning to emerge at the crossing of the two needles in the foreground.

 

Wasn’t I looking for something that didn’t take a lot of concentration?  This would not qualify, but I’m still going to keep at it, because I think I’m going to like these socks a lot.  

The yarn is Panda Toes, a hand-dyed fingering weight sock yarn made out of 65% superwash merino wool and 35% rayon of bamboo from Crazy Monkey Creations.  Some people may remember I got this yarn from Chris at the Pagosa Springs Fiber Festival.  

The colorway is Grapefruit Diet, and it looks exactly that.

When I finish here I’m off to do the last touching up on our very green living room.  It’s taken three coats–we’ll not use this brand of paint again, and no, I’m not saying what it is.  Then we can pull off the blue tape and put the furniture back and sit with smiles on our faces waiting for our sofa and ottoman to arrive on Wednesday.

With our latest furniture fiasco I’m happy that they’re coming from a company we’ve ordered furniture from before and have had excellent service from.

Oh, I do have to decide what to do with that big window.  It has a wooden cornice, or valance (not sure what you call it) that’s painted the color of the trim, that I think we’ll have to put back up, since it’s not really our house.  But I can envision silk dupioni or linen draperies on the sides up to the ceiling.  Hmmm.

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Aspen Grove Shawl Stitching CompleteI

I have just finished knitting my Aspen Grove Shawl that I started for the Seasons of Lace Summer 2008 Knit Along.  I’m pleased with the way it’s turned out and am anxious to get it on the blocking board.

However, I decided this would be a perfect project to try out lace blocking wires on, so rather than getting to it right away, I’ve ordered a set of blocking wires and will need to wait until they arrive before I can get started.

It feels good to have this project almost complete, and I’m ready to move on to something new.  I do, of course still have my Stack n Whack quilt top to finish cutting and stitching and my Star of Hope table runner to finish quilting.  

But as far as knitting goes, I’m heading back to pick up on my yellow Twisted Tulip Socks that I barely got started during our move.  

I’m also going to check my stash for worsted weight wool to start on the sweater sampler in The Sweater Workshop.  This is not actually a sweater but a sampler of stitches and techniques.  

Thanks to all who sent along tips and encouragement on my quilting table problem.  It’s just gotten worse by the day, but today I finally called Horn of America and spoke with someone who I hope will get it solved. Problem is that I STILL have to work through the dealer.  I told the person at Horn that I was leery of doing that, but agreed to it anyway, with grave reservations I might add.  I expect I’ll be another couple of weeks getting this resolved.  

I have to say that I really like the looks of this furniture and think it will be very nice once I get it fixed, but I most certainly will not recommend this company to anyone in the future.  Their policy of working only through a dealer is quite problematic when the dealer is unwilling to be cooperative.  I even asked if I could work through a different dealer to get it resolved and they said no.

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