Annis, Rag Quilt, Baby ‘Leaf Pattern Set’ Sweater/Hat and Lace Leftovers

Here is the Annis that I wrote about in my last post.
It’s one of the ‘viral’ patterns – seems that nearly everyone on Ravelry has knitted one.
It turned out pretty but very small – more like a scarf than a shawl.

Another baby is on its way in our family.  
My niece asked if I’d make a rag quilt for the baby:

I also made the baby-on-its-way a Leaf Pattern Set cardigan and hat;                

I put a few beads on the stems, a little hard to see in this photo:

Ever Since I saw this stitch pattern:  Double Water Lily -  I’ve been thinking I need to come up with a project to use this pattern. 

I love all the stitch patterns that Olga Jasnovidova has posted on Ravelry and on her blog (http://newlace.blogspot.com/).  How generous to provide these charted patterns!

It occurred to me that I have quite a bit of leftover laceweight yarn in various colors and wouldn’t it be fun to see how it would work out to use this stitch pattern with the leftover yarn in an entrelac design similar to the Dianna shawl and my friend Brooke’s design Nuppopoly.

Then I decided to omit the four center squares which would make this a poncho.  I can wear it with the opening like a v-neck or as a square shaped neck. 
Worked a few rows or garter around the neck opening and a simple ruffle pattern (k1, p3 for first round, then increasing to either side of the knit(s) at every second round) for the edging. I really wanted the ruffle to be longer but after 7 increases there were so many stitches that it was taking about 40 minutes to knit each round; just couldn’t do any more.  At that point there were:  4 sides x 8 motifs per side x 16 ruffle repeats per motif x 18 stitches per repeat = … well never mind – I really don’t want to know exactly how many stitches that is, I had reached my limit.

  

  

Next I'm working on making some socks for Emily; when I was there last month her socks kept falling off which says to me that they are too small so I've looked everywhere and the next size looks too big.  Finally it dawned on me I could make her some socks - duh - and then they'd be just right (kind of sounds like a Three Bears story about socks).

Summer 2011

My camera broke last month just when I was ready to write a new post; now I have a replacement so here are a summer's worth of projects.

To pass the time in anticipation of my little girlfriend's visit, I made her a few toys.

This is Celestine, a free Berroco pattern by Nora Gaughan, knit with Panda sock yarn, don't remember which flavor (type) it was.

I think these Amish Puzzle Balls are cool and used this free pattern.  The fabric is from JoAnns.

My daughter introduced me to 'taggies' - someone noticed that babies like the tag as much as the toy and came up with this idea that is used in blankets and toys, this was an easy and quick project and Emily loves it:

I thought this Kwik Sew pattern #3109 was adorable:

The only place to buy it locally is at Hancock's; at over $11 for a sewing pattern that rarely goes on sale, I hesitated.  But I really wanted to make it for her so her mom and I chose the fabric, also from Hancocks.
For the sun hat I used the Baby Sunbonnet pattern.  She looked so adorable we had a photo shoot.

We liked it so much I decided to make the top as a dress in a larger size for the Fall with the look of an Osh Kosh jumper.  The diaper cover was at the request of the Mama.

Carolcp inspired me with her hat covered in paillettes; this is intended as a chemo cap - I used Lion Brand acrylic and Size 6 needles and 80 stitches - not large enough for an adult but hopefully will fit a child.

Jess and Emily attended the August meeting of the Greater St. Louis Knitters' Guild.

Enamored with the yarn available for charity projects, Jess took some home and sent back this blanket:

And Emily was so impressed by all the knitting going on she is now a future fiber artist and a Yarnie:

Rona Shawl Redux

My fuschia beaded Rona shawl at 56" diameter was just too small, no way around it except to frog back and add more rows before the edging. I still had almost a full skein of yarn left. 

It took several weeks and lots of playing in Excel to figure out how to enlarge this shawl.

Finally it dawned on me that what I needed to do was increase until there was a multiple of 16 (the repeat for the edging) and then do the edging. The original pattern has 48 sets of 16 sts at the start of the edging. The edging on the first version was really tight so it seemed to me that there needed to be a lot more stitches allowing for increasing the diameter. I decided to work a simple stitch pattern with increases until there were 96 sets of 16 stitches and then work the edging. This would add about 20 additional rounds.

That went fine for a while and then it became apparent that with twice as many stitches I would soon run out of yarn. So I reworked my spreadsheet eliminating several rounds in the edging pattern but keeping the 'integrity' with the quintuple yarnovers in the edging design.

That decision made it also became apparent that I would soon run out of beads. Back to LadyBug Beads for a third tube of fuschia beads. Surely that would be enough, wouldn't it?

At the start of the final edging row it seemed there were still quite a lot of beads and I decided I might as well use them up, they give the shawl better drape due to the weight and why save them. It was very difficult though to add the beads at the same time as the crochet bind off, so I worked a round slipping two, adding a bead, slipping two, adding a bead, etc.

As I neared the end it seemed there were barely enough beads to finish. Now I had to go fishing down the side of the sofa for whatever beads I could find there (plus three dpn's and assorted crumbs and dust), then my son moved the sofa so I could hunt down more beads that were hiding in the carpet.

Just when I was thisclose to adding the final beads things got a bit hairy. First I accidentally knocked over the container of beads and they went hither and yon across the floor and I had to gather them all up again! Then as I neared the very end I could see I'd be short about a half dozen beads. There had to be more of those little buggers in the carpet. With Ott Lite in hand I went behind the sofa to hunt down more escapees. It's close quarters between the sofa and the bay window and when I stood up I stepped down on the plastic vent cover which shattered on impact. While picking up pieces of the vent cover I noticed red stains on the carpet and thought one of my dogs must have bled on it until it dawned on me it wasn't the dogs - duh - my toe was dripping blood - I had sliced it on the vent cover!

Could anything else go wrong? I so wanted to get this shawl done and over with.

Finally I began the crochet bind off which was taking about 5 minutes for each repeat even when I didn't accidentally drop a stitch or two and have to take time to recover the stitches, that meant it would take about 8 hours just to bind off! Not only that - the yarn supply was getting suspiciously low.

In the end there were two beads left and several yards of yarn - whew! I decided I had better carefully check if there were any dropped stitches at the bind off before blocking the shawl. Good thing I tugged on it all the way around not once but twice and found a couple dropped stitches the first time around and a few more the second time around. Quickly repaired those with a length of yarn at each occurrence and then spent a couple hours blocking.

I am pleased to say that this Rona Shawl is finished for the second and last time...........it now measures 60" across, only a few more inches than before but the extra stitches made all the difference.

 

Parade of Finished Objects

Looks like I've got some catching up to do since I'm a Blogger Slack-off.

Haruni Shawl

I've been forever trying to decide what to do with two skeins of Malabrigo variegated laceweight, when I saw this pattern (Haruni by Emily Ross) go up on Ravelry it was destined to become a Haruni. Maybe not the best choice for showing off the pattern stitches but it turned out okay (remind me not buy this type of variegated color, not really my style, always looks better in the unwound skein than it does knitted up). The revised version of this pattern is easy to follow and fun to do, didn't take too long either.

Bayerische Socks
This pattern is by Eunny Jang, currently the editor of Interweave; the pattern is here.


I think this sock pattern is gorgeous and tried several times to begin these socks. The problem was that there are four charts and it was tedious and confusing to work from one chart to the next without losing your mind. Finally I took the time to chart it myself in excel and once I printed it out it was smooth sailing........one sock done and one to go. The yarn is Cascade Heritage which I really like for this type of pattern as it shows the stitches nicely.

Starry Night Baby Blanket

Two neighbors' daughters are having babies soon, this will go to one of them for a shower gift. It is really cute but a bit puckery, not sure how great it will look if it just gets tossed into the dryer, I'll put a note with it that it should be dried flat for best results. It was fun crochet project, took a little longer than I thought it would and got a little tedious/boring once I got past the cloud section but I'm happy with the way it turned out. Pattern here.

Carol's Clever Little Shawl

I thought this was a nice idea but it's written for worsted or DK weight and I wanted to use Dream In Color Baby that I recently purchased. I only had one skein and wasn't sure there would be enough yarn (I worry about that for every project!) but there was actually plenty. Had to make some adjustments to the pattern to accomodate the lighter weight yarn and also to mirror the edging in a left and right direction, notes on my Ravelry project page. The flower is from my Flower Scarf pattern and it still needs to be steamed.

Shetland Shawl Redux

I love my fingering weight brown Shetland Shawl but as I wrote in a previous post it was not large enough, I want to be able to wrap/snuggle into it. So I'm glad that I took the time to add some length to the edging, it's much better now. I'm working a better version of this pattern as I'm still trying to work out a nicer transition of the interlocking diamonds around the corners.

A good day to write a blog post....

....because this is the view out my front door:

I apologize for the photo quality - I am having issues with my camera.

For example, even after consulting my photographer daughter I couldn't figure out how to deal with all the whiteness of snow.

The next two photos were taken with my camera phone because that day I couldn't get the digital camera to work at all and I needed to get these gifts wrapped.

Katie's Scarves
Two scarves for Katie (son's very sweet girlfriend):
First is another pompom ( Gnocchi by Lana Grossa) scarf in turqoise;

Second is a scarf knit in fisherman's rib with a ruffle at the edge. The yarn is Kollage's Glisten (although you can't see the 'glisten' in this photo) purchased at Kirkwood Knittery.

During my last blog photoshoot I managed to break the tripod, so the rest of these photos are not as clear as they could have been and obviously it's too snowy and cold outside to shoot in natural light.

Isager's "The Fan"
This is Marianne Isager's "Viften [the Fan]" from Japanese Inspired Knits

This sweater is knit in Southwest Trading Company's "Optimum DK"purchased from Flying Fingers. Other than the sleeves being way too long it was a satisfying project and a sweater that I might actually wear.

Rona Lace Shawl
Next up is "Rona Lace Shawl" by Anna Marie Jensen, knit in Jade Sapphire Lacey Lamb from Kirkwood Knittery.
I really like knitting with this yarn although I had to take care not to snag it, especially withe tiny crochet hook that I used for beading.

The yarn is really fine and I'm a loose knitter so I used a Size 4 needle even though the pattern called for Size 5 for a 52" diameter shawl. I admit that I didn't swatch. It was a fun knit and the first shawl I have done that I added beads. It is gorgeous; however - it seems too small even though it blocked to 56" before I unpinned it, which is larger than noted in the pattern. I plan to undo the bind off and enlarge it somehow, there is plenty of yarn left on the second skein.

A gift for me...

I received a lovely pair of hand knit mittens from Fran and she even knit them in my favorite color: Pink. Luckily she takes better photos than I do (photo swiped from Fran's blog).

Barb and I modelling our new mittens:

Lerwick is Finished!

Blocking..........

Done Done Done ...................

Lerwick

By: Sharon Miller

Heirloom Knitting

Yarn: Wool/Silk from Colourmart

Worked on Size 1 U.S. 24" needle

The book is $43.00 plus shipping from Schoolhouse Press.
I will sell this book for $30.00, there are no marks in it, contact me if interested.