All about Lifelines

Lifelines are according to some people completely unnecessary, and others will tell you it is the only way they can do any kind of lace knitting. Yet others will have never heard of them. So, I thought I would include a small tutorial for the last group, while showing off my progress to everyone who would like to see.

I finished the center part of Oregon. Now, that does not mean that I am almost done, I now have an 81 row minimum edge, and then the knitted on border. So, I will be busy for quite a while longer. Here is the progress shot:

A lifeline is something you can use to safe your sanity when you make a mistake. Note, I said when, not if. I would be incredibly impressed if there is anyone who does not make any kind of mistake, whatsoever knitting. Not me, for sure, especially not with 2 children under the age of 3 around. Now, there are a couple of ways to fix a mistake that happened a few rows back.
1. Take your work completely off the needle, and rip it back until you get back to where the mistake happened. While this is very quick, it can be really hard to get your stitches back onto the needles. Some people will resort to a slightly different approach and rip out their entire project in this case. A life line could have prevented this necessity, and make it a lot easier to get the work back onto your needles, stay tuned…
2. Undo your work stitch by stitch until you get to where the mistake is, which can be a very long process, because it may be rows and rows back. But you are less likely to have to rip everything out.
3. Call it a design feature and leave it be. This is the easiest, but not everyone will be able to live with the resulting project, especially if it is a (in our opinion) glaring mistake, like a sweater where you forgot the arm hole on one side completely.
4. Drop the stitches above the mistake as many rows as necessary, and work them back up correctly. This is undoubtedly the most difficult but depending on how big the project is and how far back the mistake is, also the fastest approach, and I would recommend practicing it on a swatch at some point.

I am pretty good at the fourth option, and rarely undo a large amount of work to fix a mistake. But there are times I believe it makes sense to add a lifeline. Like at the end of a specific part of a project. Case in point being the center of Oregon. The next step would be to pick up stitches on both edges, and undoing the temporary cast-on on the bottom. I decided to add a lifeline just before this point, just because I might mess up all these new stitches somehow. Therefore, I added a lifeline in the last row that is knitted for the center. I am using interchangeable needles, which make adding a lifeline a lot easier. If you would like to see a step by step tutorial, I am planning on adding one right here. I have never made a file like that, but we’ll see. I am planning on adding lots of pictures, which would just make this post much to big to load quickly. Stay tuned, I will let you know when it goes up.

Trick or Treat

Not anything knitting related today, but I wanted to share my two trick or treaters, both of whom went out for the first time on Halloween!

Two little Zebra’s. We made the costumes ourselves, see the sewing machine in the back ground?

The baby didn’t care what he was wearing, just went on his happy way.

Ready to go out trick or treating for the first time ever, and especially the 3 year old had a ball!

I must be out of my mind

It is a wonderful day outside, temperatures in the seventies, sunny, nice breeze. The kind of day that makes you want to scoop up your lace project, and go outside to work on it. So….. Can someone explain to me why I have started a Bulky yarn project?? I must be absolutely out of my mind. First of all I am cheating on Oregon, even though I said I would try not to do that too much. (Notice the operative word? TRY I left myself a way out! I should have known better) And second, I am going to be doing two projects, one in Lace weight yarn, the other in Bulky! Do you have any idea what it does to your tension when you switch between the two?

But DS#1 said that he would like a hooded cardigan like his brother. Brother’s cardigan was a lace pattern in cotton, and I thought it might make more sense if this one would be at least wearable through the winter. I wanted a quick pattern that would not take too much brain power. So I can up with this one. I will be using some Lion Brand Homespun in a nice dark red color. I am slowly “collecting” the 3 skeins needed from Joann, and only payong half price for them. I knitted a swatch, and it is clear that this will not be easy to knit with. I would not recommend this for a beginner. Homespun consists of a rather loose polyester plied with a thin polyester. This causes bunching if the yarn is tensioned too tight. I have also heard it does not stand up to frequent washings, as it will start to pill and look ratty. But I don’t intend to wash it often, and would be shocked if DS would not have grown out of it by spring. So I think it will be okay. It is bulky, I am getting about 11st per 10cm/4 inches, and about 18 rows. This is about perfect for the pattern, but not what the skein said it should be, even though I usually knit mostly to stated gauge on the skein. It comes in 6 oz balls (170 gr.) and has 185 yds. (169 m.) It consists of 98% Acrylic, 2% Polyester. At $5.99 it is not expensive, and with a coupon you an get an even better deal. Though it feels nice knitted up, I don’t think I will use it frequently. Further, I have noticed that when you knit with it, it splits rather easily, it is very difficult to see your stitches, and even though there are 66 colors available, Joann only carries five in the store I was at.

Simply Saturday

The boys are taking a nap, which allows me to update you on my progress on Oregon. Haven’t been doing much else, so there wasn’t much to report on. But I made my goal, I finished the 9th repeat of the center pattern. Here is the proof:

I believe there are 4 more repeats to go. While it is very tempting to say I am going to try to finish those this coming week, I think think I will do that. I have guests coming this next weekend, and I should clean the house a bit more then my usual “hobby addicted” way. And my guests will stay for a week, so I think my goal for the next 2 weeks will be to finish the center. I will try to give an other update next weekend, but I can’t promise as I won’t have as much time while my guests are here.

I can hardly believe that I am getting to the end of the center. When I started it, when I was doing one repeat a week, because that was all I had time for, I thought it was going to take me for ever. And now it is almost done… As you might have been able to tell from the pictures, I have not used any stitch markers so far. I do plan on using some while picking up the border, and probably while knitting the border. hmm, I might have to make me some. That sounds like more markers then I have inactive right now. And I won’t put this on hold until I get more stitch markers freed up, they are too easy to make.

Well, the boys are still asleep, DH is working on his wish list, I think I will take this opportunity to get some rare weekend knitting time! Until next time!

I WON!!!!

Well, the Design Contest got really exciting, and I won by 3 votes. I want to thank everyone who voted. Here is the winning entry:

It has been the first time that I designed anything. I have “adjusted” other people’s patterns before, but never started basically from scratch, with just an idea in my head. I am so excited, I hardly know what to write. This will be a present for my brother who is expecting a baby sometime this month. Hmm, I’d better get onto wrapping presents so I can send them when needed!

I have been working on writing up the pattern, which has turned out to be more difficult then actually knitting the pattern. I am so excited, I keep jumping from one idea onto the next. Hopefully I will be able to find time to design some of the other things floating through my head, and maybe you will be able to see some of them appear right here before too long! I still need to pick my prize, so I can’t share yet what I won, but it will be some nice knitterly goodies. I promise I will share what I won, as soon as I know what I want. The prize closet on Lonestar State Knitter’s website is always full of wonderful goodies! Choices, choices….

To keep my mind off of the contest

I have tried to keep my mind off of the contest this week. It is quite scarry, now that the contest is in the voting stage.

But I have been busy. First there were the baby blanket squares that I made for online friends of mine:
. The lighting is awful. But it was the clearest picture I could take. There are 2 suns and 3 teddybears. They are made using Cotton Tots The yellow color is called Sunshine, the white was (I think) Wonder White. I can’t find the wrapper right now. I used US#8 needles.

Also, I have been working on the Oregon Shawl. I sorta lead a KAL on Yahoo, the Oregonshawlkal. Previously, I had managed to knit 3 repeats of the center pattern. This is a wonderful Shetland style shawl, which means that the first part that is being knitted is the center square. Then stitches are picked up on all sides of this square to knit the often large border. On the Kal I said I was going to do 3 repeats on the center this week. Well, I almost managed. I did two and a half. Here is the proof:

My goal for next week is another three repeats, for a total of three and a half repeats. I have five and a half repeats done of the total of 13 repeats needed. Okay, enough with the technical specs. I have enjoyed knitting this sofar, and it is not going to go back to the back burner. I am determent to get this shawl finished without any more interruptions. There, I said it. Now we will see how long that is going to last.

A Contest

I just had word that the contest is open to voting, so I will post here about it too. I have entered a design contest with a design of my own. I of course can’t tell you which one is mine, but please visit this website:

http://www.lonestarstateknitters.org

There is a button on the left that says design contest, and if you click that you get taken to the participating designs. Vote on the one you like best. There is a button underneath the designs that says “Vote Here”, and on the next page you can select the design you liked best, and click “Vote Now”. May the best design win!

On the knitting front, after I finished this entry, I have been working on some socks I will tell you about some other time, a dish cloth, and quite a few other things. None of my own design though. That designing takes quite a bit of time! But it was fun, so maybe I will do it again. I have also been working on some squares for a baby blanket for a great yahoo group I have been connected with, LoneStar State Knitters. They make a baby blanket for members who are having their first baby or grand baby while being a member of this list. I got a blanket when my youngest was born, so I am doing my part to get a blanket for some of the other members. There seems to be a baby boom, because I am knitting a square for 5 different members! But it is quick and fun. I will take a picture before I send them out, hopefully Monday.

Finally, the socks

The saddest part is that I have attempted to write this blog post for more then a week now! Things have been a bit chaotic around here. I have been working hard on a secret project that I can’t tell anyone about, therefore I can’t write about it here either.

But about a week and a half ago,( or was that 2 weeks ago already?) I finally finished the socks for my toddler. Here they are:

And from the side:

They were a lot of fun to make, they are called “Coriolis”, a pattern from the “New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One“, by Cat Bordhi. The Toddler loves them, and has hardly been willing to let me wash them. I really feels good when someone appreciates your knitting that much. Of course right at this moment I may have a bit of an issue, related to this love… The Toddler took the socks out of the laundry, when I was sorting, and so far I have only found one of them. I sure hope to find the other. I have plenty of yarn to make a 3rd sock, but would rather move on to something else. Of, by the way, these socks were made on US 6 bamboo dpn’s, from a yarn called “Wildflower D.K.” by Plymouth, which apparently has been discontinued. It was a bit splitty to say the least, but the colors are really nice, and I would think the cotton/Acrylic would hold up pretty well. We’ll see. It shows the stitches very nicely. Now off to see whether that sock was in the last load of laundry…

Sometimes it pays off to pay attention

and sometimes you just have to do a do-over. Anyone see a problem with this picture:

Okay, so it may be a little unclear in this picture. Let’s try a close up:

Yup, you should be able to tell from that picture. Did you see the mistake yet? Yup, the one light blue square is up side down. I couldn’t believe it! I had been so careful when I attached the squares in horizontal rows. Then I attached them vertically together, and now look at what happened

Oh, I should probably also tell you what this project is? The squares were sent to me by members from the Lone star state knitters group. It is an e-mail group I belong to. They are lovely and very colourful. And all I have to do is attach them together. I am was almost done, and now I have to rip back several of the seams. Fortunately I crocheted them, so they are relatively easy to rip back. Hopefully the heat will back off one of these days, and I can finish the border around it. It is pretty hot underneath that blanket! But I can’t wait to be able to look at the finished blanket. My baby will be wrapped in a blanket made from squares from sent from the whole state of Texas.

The Yarn Harlot

I don’t know how many blogs have a post with this title… For those of you who are not familiar, the Yarn Harlot, a.k.a. Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is an author who also keeps this blog. She writes books about knitting and knitters, and I think they are very funny, as is her blog. I had never had the illusion that I would actually get to meet her, or a book signed, especially when I was living in a little town, far, far away. But the other day, there was an announcement on her website, that she was going to visit Legacy Books, a bookstore in Plano, TX. This happens to not be terribly far away from me! So I asked my husband whether he was going to be home at a reasonable time on Friday, May 29th, because I wanted to go to this book signing, and if I had to I would have gone with 2 little children by myself. But he said he would come along! Woohoo. Well, things did not go as fast as I would have liked on Friday, and after getting dinner at a fast food place which shall not be named, we finally got to Legacy books around 7:15pm. But then we still had to find a parking place, and even though in the morning there were plenty, that evening there was absolutely nothing. After someone stole a spot we were waiting for, we finally got one after someone else left.

It was now very close to 7:30, the time Stephanie was going to appear, and I didn’t want to miss anything! So I ran ahead with the baby, and husband and toddler were “right” behind me. Of course at this point there was standing room only, but I found a spot from where I could see reasonably well. Husband told me when they finally caught up with me that there was a children reading time going to start downstairs in just a little bit, and that toddler and he were going to go there. Great, no problem. At this point I realized I had forgotten both my camera, and my knitting! Oh well, I was there, and Stephanie had not appeared yet. I could survive. I did make one really crappy picture with my phone, but I have no idea how to liberate it. If I ever manage, I will post it. I also still had baby with me, and I really did not believe he would be sleeping in his carseat the whole time.

It was wonderful to see so many people knitting and spinning. A lot of socks, but also some shawls and other objects. I saw a couple of friends, some of whom I had only met through the internet, and it was great to finally meet them in person. Finally Stephanie appeared, and first gave a wonderful and funny talk about knitting, and the fact that there are studies (one from Cambridge, England no less) that proofed that knitters are getting smarter every day, deal better with trauma, and are happier. I also learned that another term for knitting is “repetitive, visual and spatial task”.

And then Stephanie went to sign books. The Legacy Bookstore had a really good system for which they handed out colored numbers to determine the order in line. I had number 5. Going in early that day to buy my book The Free Range Knitter paid off, and not just so I made sure I had the book, and it wasn’t sold out. But Stephanie trampled all over their “rules” though, by doing some “pre-boarding”. Elderly and the very young first. Or if you had a $25 per hour baby sitter or any other good reason. I didn’t hurry, because my kids were doing well, husband had come back, with toddler, and they had made a very nice coloring picture, and apparently toddler had decided he had to have a book about the cars from the Disney movie Cars. It is one of the few movies he has ever seen, and he loves it. So he got a new book out of it. But eventually I did make it to the line, and to Stephanie, and then I made a complete fool of myself. I was holding baby, and Stephanie looks up and asks: “Did you make that your self?” I thought she was talking about baby’s clothes, which were sewn and store bought, and said eeuuhm, no. And then I realized based on her reaction that she was talking about baby, not his clothes! So I rectified my answer (Euh, yeah, I did make him), but I felt so foolish! Fortunately she still signed my book, and even took a picture of baby and me! (Stephanie loves babies, and they almost always get a picture on her blog).

All together, not counting my very foolish behavior, it was a great evening. Husband had promised toddler that he could go to the children’s section one more time before we left. I had been looking for one more lady whom I wanted to meet, the organizer of a knitting group in my area. but I was not entirely certain what she looked like, though I knew she was with her family. I had however at this point harassed every person with a child, and had not found her, and basically given up. There was a lady downstairs in the children’s section, and we got to talking a bit, and I not only discover she actually belongs to this group, she was actually the organizer, and the person I had been looking for. Her family had done like mine, and stayed downstairs. LOL We had a wonderful talk, and our kids had a wonderful time on the “Fatboy” pillows that were there. We got home pretty late, but the kids didn’t seem to mind, and I had a wonderful time.