Suzann Does It All » Knitting

Afghans For Afghans Socks

suzann — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:07:00 +0000

I think this will be my last pair of socks for the current campaign. The yarn is Ella Rae Classic something. It runs like mad. Five washes before it ran clear. But the socks still seem nice and bright.

Winging Worsted Weight Socks from Stitches of Violet. But I broke out of the box and did Fleegle’s short row heel.

I can’t tell you how proud I am of this heel. First short row heel that didn’t look like Swiss Cheese heel. It is dead easy. And that is saying a lot from someone who only likes to decreases.

Cast on 40 stitches. 1/3% of the 40 stitches for the ribbing. 2/3 of 40 stitches for the leg. Short row heel. 40 stitches for the foot and decrease away for the toe. Done and Done.

Dawn’s gloves. The glove pattern from Ann Budd’s Knitting Patterns. Very basic. Only one change. Instead of casting on two backward loops between the front and back of the finger. I kfb in the last stitch and kfb in the first stitch. I am doing this with two circs. I think it makes a neater join. A lot of cheek since I have never knitted a glove before.

The yarn is Opal Lollipop purple something. The band is long gone. I am using 2.25 needles getting 10spi. Since I have so much yarn, I offered to match the fingers up yarn pattern wise. Dawn told me to get over it. She likes the weird effect. She has been looking at glove patterns at Ravelry.

This would have been much easier if I had some sportsweight yarn. Which I don’t, but I will soon. They fit so far and she likes them. What the heck else could a knitter ask for :-}

oh crap

suzann — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 15:14:00 +0000

I finished the back of the garter knit sweater. As I said before I was using two strands of sock yarn with the Elann highland wool. The carry along yarns are a rather violent mix of yellow, blue, green and red. I am about half way up the front and took a good look at it. The two balls of sock yarn I have left are blue, green, red and white. No yellow. If I had look more closely I would have seen they were different color numbers. But I didn’t
As a result the front look much lighter and cooler then the back. I don’t know what to do. I don’t see much chance of finding anymore of the yarn with the yellow. I tried Elann and Ravelry, no luck. I could frog the back I guess. What do you think?

Done de Done, Done

suzann — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 01:21:00 +0000

I finished the Patons Upside-Downer sweater. This is the first time it has been sunny enough for pictures. There are many things about it I don’t like. Mostly to do with my lack of knitting skills. The pattern is dead easy. My increases do need work.

The next sweater is well on its way. This is Duo I didn’t have yarn that would work to the gauge, 4spi. But then Bets came to the rescue. She told me to beef up the yarn I had with sock yarn. This was pure genius. Awhile ago when Elann has the Sock It To Me Puzzle yarn on sale, my DH gave me two bags of it. It has been sleeping in the back of the closet. I dug it out. Two strands of sock yarn and one of Elann HW equal 4 spi for me. Happy dance all around. I tried the sock yarn trick with some HW Chunky, but it was more like body armor then a sweater and it came out too red white and blue. When the HW was on bag sale I got a bag of a lovely violet. Added to that is a sock yarn with red, yellow and blue. It sounds awful. But is knitting up like confetti. The sweater is done is garter stitch, so is thick and comfy. I have no idea why the picture is blue, but trust me it is much more violet. The back is almost finished now.
I am knitting the largest size and added a stitch on each side for seaming up.
The directions call for 4spi on size 7 needles. I am thinking you would need to be a really loose knitter to get that gauge with those needles. I am picturing someone with thicker yarn trying to knit is with those size sevens. And wondering what is wrong with them.

Hello Out There

suzann — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 13:56:00 +0000

It has been awhile, I know. Lets see I was a bit under the weather for awhile. The fires in the Great Dismal (which it isn’t) Swamp kept filling the air with smoke and the smell of wood burning. Not helpful if you are trying to recover from anything chest related. Not of course that it happened just to bother me. The fires in the Swamp and in North Carolina have mostly died down. But they are peat fires so they will be smoldering for awhile. I don’t live near the swamp, but people who do found brown bears in their back yards. Eagles and hawks and other critters escaping from the fires.
I knit a square for Benne’s blanket. The only thing I knew I could finish a garter stitch log cabin square. My daughter sewed in the ends and posted it off for me. Wonder child that she is.
The colors are so faded in this picture. They are really dark. Chocolate brown, Spiced Wine and Harvest something, Elann Highland Wool.

The other project I was working on was a shawl for the new mothers at the Cure Hospital. Afghans for Afghans. I started it, but then I just couldn’t work on it much. As it required more brain power then I had available. Elann Superwash Merino in Ruby. I frogged back to the Candle Flames and started the straight part again. It is now about half done. I have put it aside for now and will continue to work on it as I can. There is no way I could have met the deadline.

I saw that someone had done this with the Candle Flame shawl pattern at Ravelry. The body is simple Yo, K2tog. With the Candle flames at each end. I have one candle running up the edges on each side of the body. I reduced the size of the candles for the edging as the ones in the body looked to large for an edging.
I am now working of a top down raglan sweater for the Afghan for Afghans Youth project. This is a first for me. And you can see my raglan increases needed work. I considered frogging back to improve the increases. But I realized that I would miss another deadline if I kept frogging. When I die they are going to put Born To Frog in my tombstone :-}
The body color is a sort of denim blue, the cuffs are Elann Highland Wool in Ruby. I threw in some mosaic patterns in the body, more red and some golden color. I will repeat on the sleeves. The body in almost done. Then onto sleeveville.

My dishwasher broke, my mouse died and then the headset. I hope nothing else decides to throw itself on the sword.

Cause You Know You Want To

suzann — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:01:00 +0000

It is time again for the Wee Tiny Sock swap. This is the most fun, the quickest and least expensive swap going. Make you tiny sock, stuff it in an envelope and mail it off. Soon one will be heading your way in return. So if you are slogging along with a big project, take a half hour out and have some fun!

Head over to Yarn Miracle for more information.

Thanks for the kind words on the socks. I got the call from Afghans for Afghans and they needed socks. I undid the round toe to make them a bit shorter and mailed them off. It must have been meant to be. Since they had been sitting in the bottom of my basket for almost a year.

Another pair of Socks

suzann — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 02:48:00 +0000

I was not sure if I would have enough yarn to complete the socks. I had used some of it to make two pairs of baby socks for Afghans for Afghans. The first socks was stuck in the bottom of my basket. I really needed something mindless to work on, in between my nursing duties and waiting at the doctors. As I was knitting the first sock the yarn was coming out so tangled that I decided to rewind it into two balls. I weighted the yarn that I had and the part sock. Took a leap of faith and divided the yarn. When I finished the first sock I had 8 inches of yarn left. eek. I weighted the completed first sock and decided I would have enough to try and match the pattern on the second sock. Gulp, I cast on the second sock. I was about two rows off in the pattern. To match better the cuff is two rows shorter then the first sock. After that the patterns between the two socks matched up perfectly. In the picture they look a tad too long. They fit fine, except my photographer was in a hurry and didn’t give me a chance to pull them up all the way.

And to the brat snapped this picture while I was trying to get the socks pulled all the up. I look like Thing from the Addams Family I had just washed my hair, which is why it is all over the place. Usually it is neatly braided. She thinks it is hysterical. Sharper then a serpents tooth. See if I refrain from posting pictures of her in her diapers from now on

Oh By Gosh By Jolly

suzann — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 02:13:00 +0000

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

This isn’t really Christmas Knitting. I don’t pile that on my back. My daughter asked for one of these, and like potato chips we couldn’t stop.
Calorimetry so simple that it confuses us. I did the first one the solid blue with the pattern cast on number 120. It is a bit long, but I like the width. My daughter fell for the Paton’s SWS and she picked out two colors she liked. This is really a fast knit. And if your tolerance for ribbing is greater then mine, enjoyable. But after all the ribbing on the Cabled Hoodie and a bunch of these I am off ribbing for awhile. We got the buttons at the house of high class, Wal-Marts. The little headband does keep the ears warm and is fairly non invasive to hair dos. I have very long hair so it isn’t a problem. But dd has short hair and she likes wearing them.The two SWS are made using 104 stitches, which seems to fit her larger head better.

Dawn got a high powered camera for Christmas. Her other camera was stolen while she was in Alaska. So she took the pictures

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas

Street Smart Cable Hoodie, sort of

suzann — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 17:35:00 +0000

I love Elann Highland Wool, but I could not get 5 spi that didn’t feel like lace. It always knits up like a dk for me. So I got some Paton’s Classic Merino and started over. This is the what 5th sleeve. But since I had to start over, I considered the cable and bobble pattern that the original uses. I am just not a bobble person and the cable is sort of boring. I searched and found a loose sort of cable that had the similar drawing in as the original. The new one is 18 stitches the old one 15, so I had to redesign the stuff around the cable. I was careful to keep the edges the same. I have never done set in sleeves and had a strong feeling this was not the place to start playing around. YEAH finished one sleeve

I am sick of sleeves so I decided to cast on for the back. A few more changes. I was sick of reverse stockinette stitch so I swapped it out for seed stitch. Three cable columns instead of the original 4. And got this

I had to go up to a size 8 needle to get gauge. Then I stabbed myself badly with the Options needles. Had a tetanus shot and was off knitting for a few weeks. I then changed to my Denise needles and had to go up another size to a 9 to get gauge. oi
I know it isn’t perfect and some of the stitches are a bit wobbly, tension is off. I don’t care. I hope to finish this in my lifetime.

I guess it would help if you could see what it is supposed to look like

Cable Hoodie

suzann — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:03:00 +0000

I decided I had better start with a sleeve and see how it goes. The first sleeve I cast on for was Extra Large. The cuff was so wide I could put both wrists in it. My wrist and hands are small 6 3/4 inches around. ( how I wish the rest of me still matched the wrists) Frogged the first one. And that hurt, all that damn ribbing for nothing, grrrr
I then cast on for the small wrist, knit the damn ribbing again. I have done two repeats of the pattern, but I am increasing for the size large. Unlike Bets and the rest of you sweater knitters I have never knit a sweater that has to fit someone in particular. Since the sleeves are set in, I know from sewing that the sleeve cap has got to match the body arm. Not wise to fudge in that area.
I left off the bobbles. I like doing bobbles, but not on something I am wearing. I have enough bobbles of my own, thank you very much. Without the bobbles the cable is a bit boring. So I think I will hunt up a loose cable pattern for BW. Something more interesting to knit. Just leave the pattern cables on the sleeves and maybe two on the back. Of course I may not get to the back until 2010. If they let me play with sharp things at the Old Ladies Home
I love the Highland Wool (no itchy stuff) and I love the color. Not much to look at yet. That is with the cuff turned up. I think if I were doing it again, I would skip the turned up cuff. But I ain’t doing that cuff again.

Cuff down

Afghans For Afghans baby socks

suzann — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 16:19:00 +0000

Three more pairs of socks for the baby push. All are done with 2.25mm needle over 40 stitches. 2×2 rib for 2 or 3 inches. One pair only has ribbing for an inch. Cause we all know how much I love ribbing. And I am lazy.
From left to right, Elann sock yarn, The Opal Bets swapped with me. This is what was left after doing a pair of socks for me. This pair doesn’t match. I was afraid I would run out of yarn. Last pair is some Opal Petticoat in pink. Both the Opal socks have garter stitch heels (which I do not recommend for adult socks) I thought this might make the socks easier to put on the babies and allow for a bit of wiggle room size wise.

The colors are brighter, but it is really cloudy outside.
I think I am socked out at the moment. Time for a break