Two Weeks Later

My latest projects:


I only knit the hats for this set & the one below. Dee, a member of our K4 group, knit the scarves. Both are double yarn on big needles so I made the hats with the same doubled yarn on a size 15 circular. I used Quaker Stitch (knit 3 rows, purl 3 rows when worked in the round) to give them some texture & an every round decrease to make a flat top.




This set started with a beautiful ball of yarn that shaded from greens to golds & back again. The hat is the same style as the ones above but it left only about 1/3rd to 1/4th of ball when I finished. I made a narrow scarf with double yarn overs every six rows both to make the scarf as long as I could & to allow one end to be slipped between the elongated stitches to fasten it around the neck. Necessity is the mother of invention.. {g}


Above & below are the two latest of the knit lap robes for the Veteran's Hospital. I'm working on another one now with five strands of thin coned yarn in black (2), navy, purple & royal blue. Held together, the yarns approximately equal an aran weight & the resulting knit is pretty. Only problem is that with five cones of yarn being attached the project doesn't transport very easily so it has to stay by the chair in the front bedroom where I watch TV so it's going slowly.


In other adventures, DH's sweater is coming along nicely now that I'm reworking it on size 13 needles. The body is complete & after using a 3-needle bind-off on the shoulders & working the neck ribbing, I've picked up stitches around the armhole for the first sleeve & am about half way down to the cuff. It has gone faster this time because I'm working it in plain old stockinette instead of the aran patterns that I had to frog.

Photos, Photos, Photos!!

I finally got around to taking a few photos of recent projects - these are all for my K4 group.

The first is a hat & scarf set knit from WoolEase knit together with a Lion Brand fancy yarn with little pompoms. The photo of the hat is from the top. The WoolEase has flecks of the same colors which made for a neat pairing. This set & the following scarf will go into the case at the Sr. Center in hopes of raising $$ for more yarn.




The second scarf is knit in Simply Soft on the diagonal with garter & elongated stitches for interest. I haven't measured it from end to end, but it's long enough that I had to fold it to get it all in the picture. Max, as usual, is interested in anything I put on the floor.


These two sweaters will probably be the last of the Knit4Kids Toddler sweaters I'll make this year. I'll turn them in on Thursday, then in a week or so, they'll be travelling to the Red Bird Mission in Kentucky when a group from the local Methodist Church travels there for a week of volunteer work.





I'm also working on a sweater for my DH - adjusting the pattern because I think I'm a skein shy of having enough to make it as long as the last one that had pockets & a wide collar. This one will be a bit shorter, no pockets & simple ribbing around the neck. Also on the needles, a knit lap robe (my hands have been hurting a bit when I crochet lately), dishcloths & a pair of socks. I'll try to get some more photos before the camera batteries discharge and/or the cats shed so much fur that I have to run the sweeper again.

Back Home Again

Caution - lots of photos in this post!

I flew back to Michigan from California on Wednesday, starting at about 7:30 California time at LAX as my son-in-law dropped me off on the way to work, and finally getting into Flint about 10:30 Michigan time. I think I'm still recovering from jet lag plus a low grade cold that I might have picked up on the plane.

Anyway, here's where I was - in the San Bernardino Mountains on Highway 18. The scenery was beautiful.


At this spot, they cut through a ridge, but as you can see below there are plenty of places where the roadway hangs on the side of the mountain and from below you're looking up at the underside of the section above you.


The shot below is from a turn-out and is looking down the mountain toward San Bernardino which on a clear day (this one wasn't) is laid out like a toy town below.


And this one is looking back the way we came. The first time I went out after my daughter's family moved "up the hill", she offered to bring a blindfold to the airport in case the drive was scary. I've never found it so but love the changing scenery and the rock formations.


Here, from another day, the fog at lower elevations only lets one see the mountain tops sticking through.


This is my favorite sign - the curve isn't quite that sharp but it does turn 180 degrees in the length of a van while climbing the side of the mountain in Crestline.


Because I didn't finish the red sweater for my grandson until after the weather had started to warm up, I waited and took it along. He was kind enough to model it and, as I planned, there's some room for growth - especially in the sleeves.


Granddaughter's sweater was also modeled. She tells me that she wore it a lot this last winter.


I didn't take any knitting along but Daughter had several skeins of yarn that she was planning on taking to Goodwill - I claimed them for our K4 group instead and used one to crochet a granny square vest for Grand-daughter.. I was her "show & tell" topic at school on Friday and she wanted me to bring along the partly finished vest. I started on the back just before class and continued working on it while fielding questions - most of them about knitting & crocheting {g}..


On Saturday we attended the Munchkins' track meet where Grand-daughter showed her heels to the competition in the relay & hurtles races and tied the 100 meter dash.


Grandson received the Student of the Month award for his classroom. His teacher was kind enough to slip his 3rd grade class into the K-1 assembly so I could be there for the presentation.


When I returned, I found that in my absence, my DH had continued to check garage sales for yarn for our K4 group and had scored a couple more large bags. Here's the back of the car on Thursday when we loaded it up to go to the Sr. Center. I counted while sorting the worsted weight yarn into the cupboards and there were over 100 skeins plus an extra large bag of baby & sport yarn that went to Pat that I didn't count. I think it worked out to about 10¢ a skein!

Another Quiet Day On The Homefront

A very quiet day compared to yesterday when it felt like I was running all day. I started another baby afghan in a soft pale pink this morning and took it along to bingo. Knit another pair of booties out the variegated yarn and cast on yet another pair. The last two nights I worked on the Clapotis while watching tv and it's coming along. I'm glad that I picked up the second skein of the Rosy Forecast as on the bigger needles, it does seem to be taking more yarn, but the drape is much nicer - not that stiff feel of the first one in Jetstream. DH has been wearing his hybrid Fuzzy Feet - non-felted acrylic toes and all and has been saying that he'd like a pair that was completely felted. I ran across this site on How To Recycle A Sweater and as soon as garage sales start up again, I'll keep an eye out for a wool sweater or two that I can recycle and get the yarn to make him a pair.

I see that there's a new KAL - the Pure & Simple Neck Down that's tempting. I love neck down patterns because it's easier to add a sleeve working in that direction than it is to knit the sleeves and then incorporate them into the sweater - you have those three or four rows where it's a fight to compress the sleeve stitches into the 10% or so of the stitches that are for the underarm. Working neck down, I do the sleeves first and then pick up the underarm stitches to go on with the body. My favorite pattern is from an old (1970s) Mon Tricot for a circular yoke ski sweater. I think I must have made over a dozen sweaters using this pattern and either playing with the colors in the yoke or designing my own patterns. Here is one of the versions - I made this color combination first for DYD (Darling Youngest Daughter) and I liked it so much that I made one for myself. She lives in California, so there's no risk of embarrassing her by showing up in the same sweater that she's wearing {g}.



Here is the same yoke pattern in a different colorway.



And, finally, the same sweater pattern with a yoke of my own design.