Needling

Somewhere along the line expensive knitting needles became must-haves, and I have my share of those.

At my house you will also find a goodly amount of Susan Bates and Boye colored aluminum needles. Rather than stash them away in a needle holder, I like to display them. Because they are colorful. Because they are useful. Because they remind me of my earlier knitting. Because I didn't have to mortgage the farm to own them. Just because.







You won't knit merrily along for 20 rows before discovering that you are using two different sized needles with these beauties because you will most likely notice the difference in color--at least after a couple of rows.

Call me old-fashioned. I consider it a compliment.

PBS Videos

Just a quick post to let you know that PBS has many of their full length programs available for you to watch on your time.

See PBS Videos. Yay!

Thermal Texture

The texture on this sock has captivated me. It makes me want to dive into my stash and find another yarn to knit up in this very pattern. It reminds me of thermal underwear--a fabric I really like--which you see in outerwear as well. If this was done in an off-white, would it look like thermal underwear?

Seed Stitch Border for Socks

Because I received a lot of nice comments about these socks, and in particular the simple seed border, here's a freebie.

Instead of printing a whole pattern for a mostly plain pair of socks, here's the graph for the seed stitch border used on my "Kind of Blue" socks.

Feel free to use this border on your favorite sock pattern--it works well with an even number of stitches.

I'll add the pattern to Ravelry too, so if you use it, please link to it or to this post. I'd love to see your finished project. Thanks!

Kind of Blue

Yarn: Zauberball, 75% wool, 25% nylon,
Colorway: "Stone Washed."
Pattern: Personal pattern.
Needles: #1 (2.25mm) dpns

Comments: I started to do a pattern on the socks that included cables but didn't like the way it looked, so I gave in and made my favorite type of sock. Stockinette! With just a touch of patterning.

There are a few lace and patterned socks in my drawer, but the ones I always want to wear are the plain old stockinette.

A closeup of the toes...

Aren't they the perfect kind of blue?

Still knitting...

Idol/Got Talent Fans, This is Good!

My son sent this video to me, and I was blown away by it, and moved to tears.

Britain's Susan Boyle auditions.

Makes one think again not to "judge a book by its cover."

in Progress...

A scarf for next winter.

You know, I could have made a monkey out of these. Sock Monkey, that is.


Maybe later.













I do love the graduated colors in this yarn.









There's more of this, in browns, just waiting for another pair of socks.
Lots of knitting, not much finishing...still knitting...

But It's Really a Stole...

It looks--and feels--pretty and wonderful as a scarf.























It's really a stole.

Yarn: Morehouse Farm Merino Lace, colorway Silverbirch
Pattern: Verona Shawl
Needles: Size 9 (5.5mm) Addi Turbo Lace circulars

Comments: The color is one of those that's hard to capture on camera. The bottom photo is more representative of the true color, at least on my monitor.

Love the yarn. It's cushy and feels soft against my skin. It's thicker in some spots than others, and some spots are so thin you wonder if it's going to look all right when you finish. But I really like the way it turned out. And the pattern is so simple that you wonder if you really needed one. But Margrit at Morehouse has captured just the right look in so many of her patterns, and this is no exception. They are simply elegant, possibly due in part to her background as a graphic designer but more, I suspect, to her unerring good taste. Here's another project I made out of this yarn: Lace Cardigan. And another photo here.

I started out with regular Addi Turbos, but they were too blunt and slippery. Then I tried some Rosewood straights, but they had too much "grab" for the yarn. Finally, after settling on the Addi Lace needles, the project moved along quickly.

Still knitting...

It's April in Minnesota!

Winter is back! But, of course, one should be grateful for the fact that it isn't a blizzard, which was supposed to hit southern Minnesota.

The view from our deck is just a lovely, soft snowfall that clings beautifully to the trees. Juxtaposing this is the Spring song of returning birds. What a wonderful combination!

And to think I contemplated raking last week.

Organizing Your Projects on Ravelry

I knew I was deep into a hobby called, rather innocently enough, knitting, and I pondered a way to keep notes on yarns and patterns, modifications, tools, etc. This blog was supposed to fill the bill, and along the way I blogged about other things I had organized to at least a modicum of satisfaction.

Then Ravelry came along. Never having been much of a joiner, I stood back and listened to others raving about this social knitting network. I didn't last long as an observer. Soon I joined, too. Today I discovered a neat organizing tool that's been there for some time. Duh. You can organize all your projects with tabs on your project page! Take a look at my project page--you'll have to join Ravelry if you haven't already (and if not, why not?)--and you will see that I have organized projects into the following groups:

Baby
Bags
Gloves/Mittens
Hats
Miscellaneous
Scarves
Shawls
Socks
Sweaters

Why organize into categories? When you get over a hundred projects, it gets slower finding those you need to look up to find the name of the yarn you used, the needles, the pattern, etc. And I am surprised at the number of times I find myself looking up that information I thought would surely remember.

Limedragon has organized hers by year, which I thought was a good idea, and some of my other friends have also done that. I may add that tab to mine as well.

I wonder how many tabs one can have before filling up the whole page.