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Not only does Jan knit – she just celebrated 40 years of marriage.

August 24, 2010 by Carolyn

There are two stories here about Jan…..the first about the shawl…and the second about her recent weekend away with her husband of 40 years.

The Shawl

The Shawl – Jan and I worked for Skein Lane Studio in the MaggiKnits booth at Stitches West 2009. While we loved what we were selling in the MaggiKnits booth, we were both taken with a shawl that we saw featured across the aisle in a fellow retailer’s booth. On that Saturday I “marched” right over, said that I wanted it, asked that  it be put aside and stated I would pick it up Sunday. Note….Jan and I often have similiar tastes in style and color. She “marched” right over on Saturday and purchased the shawl kit. Imagine my surprise when I went over on Sunday and was told that I had already picked it up!! Little did Jan and I know that only one kit of that color choice was available when we went shopping. She went home with the “Wrap Me Up” by Knitting At Noon kit and mine went on special order. Now it took a while for mine to come, but that was okay as I have been on this knitting marathon for gift afghans… weddings, thank-yous, babies, and graduations. I now am almost ready to start. Jan was the trailblazer on this…I get to follow in her wake! Be sure to zoom in on the photo of Jan’s shawl to see the yarn color (Paintbox from K1C2) and the stitch detail.

Recent weekend away – Some photos of Jan and Steve’s 40th anniversary…a weekend away to Carmel. Jan is such a good and funny writer that I felt compelled to copy her words verbatim. Love and congratulations to Jan and Steve. Enjoy!

Steve and Jan - 40 years!

the photos….the first is our 40th anniversary “portrait” on the Big Day (yesterday – Sunday the 22nd) and the second a favorite photo from Point Lobos where we went on Saturday.  Our fellow guests at the inn were all agog at the forty years.  We smiled and replied that inertia is a powerful force not to be underestimated.  One must be really, really, really miserable to go through a divorce.  That, or delusional about one’s sex appeal to the hot bodies out there who are young enough to be one’s children…

As only Jan could deliver!!

Pt Lobos on the rocks!

The beauty of it all!Pt Lobos

Pt Lobos

detail of rocks, cove walls at Pt Lobos

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38 more rows to go!

August 23, 2010 by Carolyn

The Feather and Fan Afghan

I’m way too excited about this project….fun to knit…love the colors coming together…and love that relatives have had a preview….they like it.

Should be done this week…38 rows to go and then a couple hours weaving in those color changes.

Stay tuned for upcoming “Knit your stash into an afghan” workshop. It will be fun to put all the colors together.

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Yikes – my camera broke!

August 13, 2010 by Carolyn

Oh…..the battery won’t stay in and the power button won’t work….oh when did the camera get dropped??!!!

Off to Staples in the morning (where I bought it….but think the service/warranty contract is over!) Ugh!

How did we get along without digital cameras! Luckily I have a bunch of photos waiting to be posted…so stay tuned!

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Shrug it!

August 8, 2010 by Carolyn

A couple of us, Janie and Trish,  have been inspired by Susanne’s shrug featured in a previous post. Notice the lovely purple shawl pin that Janie has used for a closure for her shrug…a beautiful enhancement. I am now inspired by all three of these shrugs knit by Skein Lane “workshoppers”. What should I pull from my stash? Stay tuned!

Janie tells us that she used the following yarns for her shrug : “For the outer ORANGE color I used RY Classic Yarns, made in Italy, 100% cotton, #Z118000.   For the back GOLD color I used Cotton Classic, 100% Mercerised Cotton, made in Greece, Tahki, Stacy Charles Inc., #3353”. Thanks Janie for this info.

And now words from Trish – “My yarn was Crystal Palace Panda Silk in Feldspar.  It’s DK light worsted, 52% bamboo, 43% merino wool and 5% combed silk.  Kimberly helped me shop for it.”

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Afghans are multiplying!

August 7, 2010 by Carolyn

As always…lots to share…and it often feels like so little time…the fingers are busy knitting!

Some of you may recall that it’s been several years since my dad died…and thus several years since I gave Avril, my cousin’s wife, a gift of Collinette yarn for the help that she and Del gave me to during Dad’s illness. While I was flying to Denver recently, knitting the afghan for the recent wedding gift for Bill’s granddaughter, I thought about what I could do for Avril and Del this time. I was going to be their house guest for a week….and they are without a doubt the most generous hosts as well as such good friends. What I could do that would be thankful? I remembered the yarn and wondered whether Avril had knit the sweater that had been featured in Vogue magazine. When I arrived and we were waiting for my luggage, I brooched the topic…”Ive had an ephinany! If you haven’t knit that sweater yet I would like to knit it for you or knit an afghan. No need to answer me now…think about if for a couple days and let me know.”  Well, a few days went by and it was the night before leaving Limon tor the Denver airport to head back to Oakland….so…”Avril have you thought about the yarn?” She had and decided that she would like to have an afghan.

And that fits with another goal – as some of you know niece Betsy graduated from high school recently and she is headed off to Fresno State in just a couple more weeks. Her gift for this milestone in her life…you guessed it – an afghan! And yet another feather and fan pattern. This one is a kit from Universal Yarns….and while I love the choice of fiber I am already making changes to this pattern. The pattern calls for changing colors every 2 rows, but I am not liking the fussiness of the yarn joins for every two rows…I am changing the color changes to every four rows…much like the AbFab Kit. The first 3 inches has color change happening every two rows…but I am not inclined to take this out so it is now a design feature to be repeated at the end of the afghan.

Knitting moral….be inspired by a pattern but not “married” to it!

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The “donut” revisited

July 22, 2010 by Carolyn

This lovely design, the knit-round scarf, by Sally Melville in her Knit Book has become a classic in the Skein Lane knitting community. Sally says in her book that the design was inspired  by a yoke collar that she admired.

I have three of these wonderful knit-round scarves which was affectionately named “The Donut” by the wonderful Sandy Lee who use to work and knit at the Skein Lane retail shop. Recently, several more of the round scarf-shawls have been created. Helen has knit several and

Helen - in her Round Shawl knit with Noro Silk Garden

Trish - Round Shawl knit with Kathmandu and a novelty yarn

Trish, a newbie knitter,  has just finished her first one.

Marsha - her Round Shawl knit in Kathmandu and MaggiKnits Mohair Loop

Marsha is knitting yet one more as is Diane….she is also using Queensland Collection Kathmandu with a ribbon yarn and beads. Photos coming soon.

I am sure there are more of you out there being creative with yarn choices for this wonderfully simple yet elegant design.

While my three are winter shawls…I do see one in the future that is knit with MaggiKnits linen….which would be a wonderful wear for this Bay Area summer climate. 

This quick and simple design requires about 350 yards of worsted weight yarn. It is all knit…knit in the round thus creating circular stockinette or reverse stockinette…whichever look you prefer.

Knit in a Noro discontinued yarn - one of my favorites to wear!

The Round Shawl knit in Trendsetter's Dune

The Round Shawl knit in Noro's Silk Garden

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Marathon Knitting

July 19, 2010 by Carolyn

Has it really been five weeks since my last post? What’s been going on here? Well, I was gone for a week over the July 4th weekend for a family reunion in eastern Colorado…and it was one of my best trips re: seeing cousins, aunts, uncles, and long-time friends.

The “knitting marathon” began before my travels. I embarked on an Abfab (Absolutely Fabulous) Collinette Afghan for Bill’s granddaughter’s wedding present and was more than half-way done before I boarded the airplane for Denver. I was able to knit on the plane both going and coming. So…that was just fine, but no knitting while on the ground…too hot and many local travels to divert me. For the week before the wedding, which was the 11th, I knit feverishly and would have made my marathon deadline except I made a mistake on the Friday night before which required unknitting. This afghan had mohair and the only easy way to undo is to literally unknit. Ugh! Thus, it was on Saturday afternoon (after knitting workshop)  that then I cancelled all social engagements and knit to within 5 rows and 1 hour of being done by 3pm on Sunday afternoon (the wedding was 5pm)…of course, the ends from the 7 color joins needed to be woven in.

Now I realize that there is a grace period for giving wedding gifts – some say a year – but this was Bill’s granddaugther and I wanted this finished in time. I almost made it! All that knitting didn’t bother my fingers at all….it was my back from sitting in the same position for almost a whole weekend.

The afghan is now packaged (with care instructions) in one of the decorative storage boxes and is ready for delivery when the couple returns from their honeymoon.

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Do the math!

June 10, 2010 by Carolyn

Yeah! I’ve completed several of my UFO’s (can hardly wait to tell you about one of them in my next post)and now I’ve treated myself to a new knit….a sweater that I have been wanting to knit for a long time. The yarn I chose for this new project is Queensland Collection Kathmandu – 85% Merino Wool, 10% Silk, 5% Cashmere.

The Body of the Tunic Style Sweater

The body is done and now it’s time to knit the sleeves. Whenever I knit I always customize the fit….and then sometimes as I knit through the garment I forget about the rest of the math and startle myself along the way. In this case it’s the sleeves.

The designer’s vision of this drop-sleeve sweater was for it be more oversized than I like…..so I customized the size of the pattern to a fit that is good for me. The shoulders have a slight drop which affects the length of the sleeve. The pattern calls for the sleeve length to be 17″ but my rework of the pattern requires the sleeve length to be 22″. Big difference! The top of the sleeve remains the same – 19″ to fit a sleeve opening of 9 1/2″ depth. But I will knit more rows to reach the desired length so I must adjust the interval of increasing from the wrist to the top of the sweater. How does one do that? I calculated the following:

  • Stitches (sts) to the inch (wanted to test to be sure that the top of the sleeve would indeed fit the armhole) = 4 sts to the inch. The pattern called for increasing from a cast on of 41 sts to 83 sts. The math = 83 sts divided by 4 sts to the inch = 20.75…..this won’t do. I want 19 1/2 stitches across the top so let’s do the math again a different way. 19 1/2 stitches times 4 stitches to the inch = 78 sts. Now you might say….it’s only 5 sts! But it means that you have an inch+ to squeeze into that armhole. Do the math! I need to increase 37 sts from cast on of 41 sts to cast off of 78 sts…..to make the increases symmetrical I will increase 38 sts to a total of 79 sts. How will I know how often to do my increase? I need more information to answer that question.
  • Rows to the inch = 6. How many rows does it take to knit 22 inches? (22 x 6 = 132 rows). But I want to start the increases 1 inch above the cast on and stop 2 inches from the top of the sleeve. You might wonder how I chose 2 inches…..I have slender arms that taper from the wrist to the top of my arm….so I want a gradual increase with no “blousing” anywhere along the sleeve. More math! 22 – 3 =19…..this means that I want to increase 38 sts over 19 inches ( 19 x 6 = 114 rows).  I will increase twice on a row – at the beginning and at the end – so I will need to increase on 19 rows (19 x 2 = 38). So….how many rows will I knit between increase rows? The last of the math.  114 rows divided by 19 rows of increases = increase on every 6th row. I know….it’s a bit mind boggling that this number of 6 is also the row gauge…a fluke…don’t get caught up in it.
The Neckline

The Neckline

A couple more thoughts about customizing this pattern. It was written so that the front and back were knit as two flat pieces and then seamed together. I avoid seams where I can so I knit this sweater in the round to the armholes and then converted to flat knitting for the tops of the front and the back. I then joined the shoulders with a 3-needle bind-off. I don’t like high necklines….my knitting groups reminded me of that when I was discussing the neckline…so I changed the neckline. And I love the result. I toyed with the idea of knitting the sleeves from top down but knew that I didn’t want the weight of the whole sweater on my hands as I knit the sleeve. But what I will do is pick up stitches around the armhole (that number should be 78) and knit those together with a 3-needle bind-off with the top of the sleeve…no hand-sewn seams!

Hurray! My sweater will be done and ready to wear whenever it “freezes” over. Now onto baby booties for a new baby arriving any day in Bill’s family and an afghan for an upcoming wedding also in Bill’s family.

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Another beautiful baby sweater!

June 1, 2010 by Carolyn

Jean…..one of our many accomplished knitters here at Skein Lane Studio knitting workshop…has just completed another great looking baby sweater. This sweater gift has extra special meaning as it has been knit for friends who are “really wonderful, special people” who are in their early40’s. The father is very ill with cystic fibrosis and is awaiting a lung transplant;  the mother is a doctor who is particulary interested in cystic fibrosis. Their baby girl is to be born in August and she does not have the gene for CF…a blessing.

And now the sweater…the pattern is Kelly, designed by Kerry Palm of Northern Palm Designs and the yarn used is Lisa Souza’s Dyeworks Hardtwist Merino. Jean says, “it was fun to knit”…..and it is really a beautiful sweater. We were all oohing and aahing!

 

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The Cloche for Betsy

May 30, 2010 by Carolyn

Betsy and her parents - Honara and Scott

My grandniece Betsy graduated from Manteca High School yesterday…what a proud day for her parents (my niece Honara and husband Scott) and for all the family. Earlier this year Honara “suggested” that an afghan for Betsy as she goes off to college would be a great present. Well…good thing she said “when she goes off to college” because I wasn’t ready for graduation. So…I sought out a present that I described to Betsy yesterday as the “appetizer” present to celebrate this great accomplishment and milestone – high school graduation. I am particularly proud of Betsy and her parents……Betsy graduated with honors.

Now back to the “appetizer” graduation gift.

Betsy graduate - her cloche

I decided to knit a cloche in red for Fresno State – the college that Betsy will be attending this fall. It was such a fun and quick gift to knit inspired by Phyllis, one of our Thursday night Skein Lane knitting workshop group. The yarn – Cascade Venezia –  70% Merino Wool and 30% Silk. It was a joy to knit – great- the yarn was a pleasure going through the fingers, the yarn has great sheen, and the results are great  for such a simple pattern.

It was really fun for me when Betsy said that she was going to wear the cloche to her grad party. Yes….the kids were dressing down for their celebration.

Betsy - the side view

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