Just one ball of yarn

I had one skein of leftover yarn from a previous project.

In an effort to use up what I had, but unable to find any more of that exact color, I picked up some coordinating yarns to use in a new shawl project.

I chose a chevron pattern that I though would really be accentuated by using different colors, and I was very happy with the way it started out:

But wait!  What's that over on the right side of the photo?  All this!

Ugh!  Lots and lots of ends to weave in.

In an effort to retain my sanity, I chose to make the middle portion of the shawl a solid gray, and continue with the chevron pattern again when I reached the other end.  After the knitting was done, it took a couple of nights of TV watching, just to weave in all those extra ends.

I laid the shawl on the bed to get a better photo of the pattern, and stood on a stool to get a nice aerial shot.

As I was looking through the camera lens, the shawl began to move....

Caught in the act 

Thankfully, he only got as far as the doorway before he dropped it.  (My hysterical "Oh No! No! No!" as I jumped down off the stool may or may not have had anything to do with it.)  In any case, my shawl remained unharmed, and my dog is still my loyal companion.

Oh, and that one ball of yarn?  I still have most of the skein left, only now it is joined by a teal skein and a gray one too.  Next?

Quick and Cozy Shawl

I knitted up a shawl using simple garter stitch and letting the pretty blue variegated yarn do all the talking:

The chunky yarn was very soft,  and as it grew into a shawl it did double duty as  a nice cozy lap covering.

I find it ridiculously hard to get a nice photo of a long rectangular scarf, but there you have it.

It was only after the photo shoot, that I realized I had forgotten to trim the fringes neatly.  Anyhow, enough with the excuses, it came out quite nicely and will be donated as part of our Prayer Shawl Ministry.

On the topic of knitting, this Bunny Dog sweater pattern was featured on the Lion Brand website.  Think I have time to knit one up for Toby before Easter? :-)

A shawl finish

I mentioned in a previous post that some women at my church were starting up a Prayer Shawl Ministry.

We have been meeting weekly, and I am amazed at the speed in which we have generated several shawls to be given out.  Some of the women have knit or crocheted a couple or more shawls already in the time it has taken me to complete my first one.

Turns out that it is kind of hard to get a picture of a shawl without having it on a model.  (I promise that it is really a nice straight rectangular shape.)

When we finish a shawl, we wrap it up in a cellophane bag and tie it with a pretty ribbon.  Here are the ones that were finished last week.

We have a nice mix of women from the area and I have enjoyed getting the chance to know them.

Halloween is over, but I'm still haunted...

Let me introduce you to the ghost of unfinished sweaters......

Don't let it's friendly appearance fool you.  It's really a relentless spirit, haunting your dreams and your daylight hours, imploring you to go back to that unfinished project and get it done, keeping you from enjoying any other knitting activity until you get this one done first.

So why is this Ghost-of-sweaters-past haunting me?  The answer is this:

It's the sweater I am knitting for my son.  As you can see, the front and the back are done, and the collar is attached.  The problem is that one shoulder seam looks like this:

BUT, the other shoulder seam look like this:

You see, before I could knit the collar, the pattern called for knitting one of the shoulder seams.  I asked my  lovely knitting sister for some help with that, and she sewed it up for me, using a beautifully done seamless shoulder technique.  Although I watched her do it, I have no idea how to repeat it for the other side.  I've been stuck on this for at least a month while busy schedules and various ills have kept my sister and me from getting together again.

It has sat like this for at least a month now. Meanwhile, the sweater ghost swirls and twirls around me, keeping me from knitting anything else.

So what's a gal to do?  Well, my sister tells me the technique she used is called a "three needle bindoff".  A search of the web turned up a few tutorials on how to do it, and I have decided that it is time to defend myself against the evil knitting spirits and give it a try.

Wish me luck, okay?

Just keep knitting, knitting, knitting

The shawl I was working on is finished. (well, except for dealing with some loose yarn ends.)  Here is the front view, on my highly sophisticated hanger-over-the-door display.

This is the back:

As I mentioned in a previous post, this shawl is knit from the top down.  After straight stockinette stitch for many rows, I threw in a row of  (K2tog, yo) just to change things up.  I liked how it looked, so I did it two more times as I neared the bottom, giving it 3 rows of openwork.  The last couple of rows were straight knitting to prevent the bottom from curling up.

I like the way the shoulder shaping helps to keep the shawl on my shoulders.

Alternately, I could wear it more like a scarf if I wanted to keep my neck warm.

As you can see from the green grass coming up in the background,  Spring weather is finally here, but the nights are still quite chilly and I have already wrapped up in the shawl for watching TV at night.

A Girl's Gotta Knit

I've had idle hands in the evening while watching TV.  Hands that like to be busy doing something.  I haven't let myself start a new knitting project until I finish my son's sweater. The sweater that I have come to hate.  The sweater that I just can not make myself pick up and work on. Yeah, THAT sweater!

The torturous tedious task of knitting that sweater has haunted me been my project for almost a year now.  I finally decided that in order to get my momentum back to finish it, I needed to remind myself that knitting can be FUN!   My son is not growing anymore.  The sweater will still fit him whenever I get it done.  He is not shivering for lack of something warm to wear, either.

So, with clear conscience, (the yarn was on sale!) I started a new knitting project.  A lovely green shawl.

The pattern is knit top down.  It starts at the neckline with about 20 stitches, and then increases every other row after that.

It has two pattern stitches that consist of a simple yarn over, knit 1, yarn over to create a bit of shaping in the shoulders that helps the shawl stay put when wearing it, and also creates two lines of openwork that run down the length of the shawl.  The rest is just a comfortable, relaxing, back and forth knit-a-row, purl-a-row.

It's hard to get a pretty picture of it, because the fullness gathers up on the circular needle, but I think you can get the idea.

There are no pieces that have to fit together.  I can just keep knitting until I think it is long enough, or I run out of yarn, whichever comes first.   It's been so enjoyable to sit and knit without having to put a lot of thought into it, or stopping to check my directions every two minutes.  

Oh, yes!  

It's all  coming back to me now.  

Knitting is fun!

In what seems like no time at all, this shawl has already grown many, many inches.  I may just keep knitting  until if becomes a full blown cloak!

Progress

At long last there is forward progress to report on the sweater I am knitting.  I successfully reshaped the cap of the sleeve from long and narrow, to short and fat.

The sleeve on the left is the original sleeve that resulted from following the pattern.  On the right is my own version with shaping that I hope will better fit the armhole.

Now I just have to rip out about 8 inches on the sleeve on the left, (down to where the sleeve cap shaping begins), and re-knit to match the other.  Then I will have a front, a back and two sleeves ready for the next step which is to figure out how to sew them together, and then pick up stitches for a collar.

My son might just get to wear this sweater this very winter!!!
(Shhh!  Don't tell him I said that!!!)

Over in the far left of the photo are two UFO's that I hope to complete during the upcoming "Drop and Give Me Twenty" challenge.  The purple and green is a card trick quilt that is basted and ready for quilting.  The bit of brown fabric on top of the green and purple is a basket quilt that needs some rehab to give it flat borders.

Hope to get lots finished this February!

Knitter's Knightmare

Almost a year ago now, I was "persuaded" by my son to knit him a sweater.  It has turned into a monumental task.  There were many, many times where I had to rip out and start over.  There was one wrongly twisted cable that involved tearing out the entire top of the sweater, right down to the armhole shaping.  After a multitude of false starts and much frustration, I got the front, the back and one sleeve done. Alas, the sleeve would not fit into the armhole. 

At that point, I needed to just walk away from the sweater for a while.

Summer came.  I told my son it was too hot to knit.

Autumn rolled in.  I told my son "after the holidays".

Now here I am, with the one year mark approaching.
  
I need to get this thing finished so I can move on to knitting fun things again.  I spent a whole day trying to figure out how to re-knit the cap of the sleeve so that it will fit into the armhole.

There was much measuring:

There were calculations:

There may have even been some voodoo involved:

Unfortunately, (oh, you thought this post had a happy ending?)  I have not figured out just how to solve my sleeve problems, but  I'm still hoping to work it out.

In the meantime, I did create a cool new knitting tote to store my project in:

It's just your basic tote, with some roomy pockets on the inside,

and  an awesome  matching button for the closure:

I may not be the most savvy knitter, but at least I can look cool when I carry my albatross knitting project around.

Swiftly fly the yarns....

I bought a lovely blue hank of lace yarn in anticipation of my next project.

This was the first time I bought yarn that wasn't already rolled into a skein or ball, and I knew I had to tame it into something manageable before I could start to knit with it.  Thankfully, my knitting sister had just the equipment I needed:  a ball winder and a swift.

This is the swift:

Technically, it is an "umbrella swift" because it expands and contracts with the touch of a button like an umbrella.  You fit the hank of yarn around the swift and adjust the width to keep the hank in place.  With just a gentle pull, the swift rotates around, and the yarn unwinds.


This is the ball winder:

You feed the yarn from the swift, and around the spindle of the ball winder.  Then, by turning the crank, the ball winder turns and the yarn is collected on the spindle.  The result is a tidy ball of yarn that can be pulled from the center.

I found a great video on Youtube that showed how the whole thing worked, and felt pretty comfortable about giving it a try.

Things went very smoothly until I finished the first ball of yarn, and it was time to remove it from the spindle.  What I didn't realize was that as soon as the ball comes off the spindle, the center collapse into itself.  Oops!  Forgot to be sure to keep hold of the start of the yarn, and it disappeared into the center of the ball.

Searching around in the center of the ball to find the starting yarn resulted in a mess, so I decided to start again, and rewind the whole thing.  This time I tied a small bead onto the leading edge of the yarn, and taped it to the middle of the spindle for insurance.

When I removed the finished ball from the spindle, I knew that even if I lost the starting end of the yarn, that the bead would help me find it.

Now I have two cute little balls of yarn ready and waiting.  I am determined not to start the lace project until I finish the sweater I am desparate to finish determined to finish.

Wouldn't you be inspired by these cuties?