A New Toy

Christmas brought a new toy to our home. Under the tree was a wonderful surprise - A Baby Wolfe - a floor loom that is!  A loom already lives in our home. About a year ago, I received a Schacht 10 inch Cricket Loom, sometimes called a knitter’s loom. I have had fun with it making scarves and spa cloths. It’s great for small projects and for traveling. 

Tartan Scarf on Cricket Loom

My husband, Tom, noticed how much fun I was having with it, when I wasn’t knitting or babysitting our grandchildren. He also noticed that there were times that I was quite frustrated when I wanted to do more than plain weave and it took so much hand manipulating of the yarns.

During show and tell at our local TKGA guild meeting, I showed my finished knitted projects and some of my weaving projects. I mentioned some of my frustrations. One of the members, Barb, a knitter as well as a weaver, noted that one of the other members of the guild, Jean, was looking to sell her floor loom. I contacted her and she sold us her Baby Wolfe with a few accessories.  

The new year started with me reading weaving books and watching several DVDs. I have a fairly large stash of yarn. Many of the skeins were purchased before I became a yarn snob. There is a good amount of acrylic and dishcloth cotton.  I also have a few cones of cotton yarn from my days of machine knitting. 

I opened Peggy Osterkamp’s book Weaving for Beginners  and warped the sampler on the loom with some sports weight acrylic in (horrors) pink and white. I hate pink. Why was it in my stash?  I thought this would be a great way to get rid of it. 

Boy, there is a lot to learn to use the floor loom as compared with the Cricket. For one, weaving is such a small part of the finished product and I am all about the finished product. 

While watching Marilyn Van der Hoogt’s DVD Warping Your Loom she comments that if you can learn to love winding the warp, sleying the reed, threading the heddles, tying up the treadles and tying the warp to the beams, then you will love all the parts of weaving. 

So heeding Marilyn’s advice, I put on some easy jazz music and started dressing the loom. I had my second warp on the Baby Wolfe - dishtowels using dish cotton. The are finished. I’ll post pictures soon.

Until next time . . . . 

Finished Objects

Still under the weather. Bronchitis. No energy. Fourth round of antibiotics and steroids. Staying at home so as to not pick up another infection from all the sick people walking around sneezing and hacking.

Got a little knitting done. Finished my Five and Dime Scarf. Made from The Great Adirondack Yarn Company’s Cotton/Bamboo in the Smoky Mountain colorway on size US 8 (5.0mm) needles. Wrote up the pattern and put it on Ravelry. It’s a pretty simple second project after you are tired of plain garter stitch scarves and have learned to purl.

Five and Dime Scarf

Also finished a self-designed cabled beret/tam/slouchy hat (Journey) for our daughter who lives in NYC. Made the hat with intermittent 2x2L and 2x2R cables on a stockinette base to look like paths leading upward. Will not be writing this pattern up as I was very ill while making it and didn’t write down what I did where. Made from Debbie Bliss’ Andes alpaca yarn, bought at the Yarn Company in NYC on a size US 7 (4.5mm) needles. Used a swirl decrease pattern. She should get the hat tomorrow. Hope she likes it and it is exactly what she asked for. My head was quite muddled while knitting it, so you never know. The yarn is very loosely spun almost no twist at all. Had to be very careful not pull or tug too much while knitting. Made a good looking hat though.

Journey Tam

I also finished and sent her the Hermione’s Midnight Socks. I used the Hermione’s Everyday Socks pattern but made it toe up. Just used JMCO and a Fleegle Heel. The socks are made from Knit Picks Andean Treasure alpaca yarn in the Midnight Heather colorway. Daughter wanted warm socks and knows I can’t knit with wool, so alpaca is the compromise.

Hermione's Midnight Sock

Following the lead of Sheila from the Knit1Heart Too podcast, I made the Bandana Cowl by Purl Soho out of some bulky acrylic from a deep stash dive. I think it is way too big for me. Don’t know if I will ever wear it.

Bandana Cowl

Haven’t finished the grandkids mittens. Still have three pair to go. They may get them next year. We’ll see.

Current WIP is the wurm in Knit Picks Andean Treasure alpaca yarn in the Meringue Heather colorway on size US 6 (4.0 mm) needles.  Pictures later. I am only knitting 8 repeats. I have 11 rows to go. Should be finished the next time I pick up the needles.

Going to take a nap. 

Until next time. . . . 

Under the Weather

Sorry it has been so long since there has been a blog post. We had been visiting our children and grandchildren for a few weeks,  when I developed a nasty case of pneumonia. After 10 days of antibiotics and 5 days of steroids, I am still not well. Most days not even well enough for knitting. Back to the doctor tomorrow morning.

Until next time .......

Thankful!

We have so much to be thankful for - family, friends, health, ability to travel and knitting, of course!

After almost 38 years of work at the same place, my husband, Tom,  retired. We took the opportunity to spend Thanksgiving with family in both Pennsylvania and New York. 

We visited Niagara Falls

American Falls at Niagara in the afternoon

American Falls at Niagara at night

 and were at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. 

The big man himself!

We ate and ate and ate. As a final activity before heading home was the Broadway play “War Horse”. 

What wonderful experiences we had. The memories will last a long time.

This week a visit to the gym to renew our membership and get back on the wagon is planned.  Haven’t decided yet whether to revisit ughh! Jillian Michael’s “Shred” DVD. It is so evil!

Only a little knitting was accomplished.  I finished one of the fourth pair of grandkid’s mittens and still have the thumb to finish on the second of the fourth pair. I finished a gaiter for our 3 year old grandson who didn’t get a scarf this year because of the fear that he would choke himself. The gaiter was a big hit and now his brothers want one too!  

I finished one Hermione’s Favorite Socks made for our daughter in Knit Picks Andean Treasure in the colorway Midnight Heather. The yarn is a beautiful and soft alpaca in black with blue and green heathery bits. 

The second sock is a third finished. I am making them toe up using the Fleegle Heel. Oh! the joys of knitting black which makes the stitches hard to see but since that is the only color she wears and since she is our only daughter. Well......what’s a knitting mother to do?

Until next time........

Click for Babies KAL

Katie of the Knittin’ on the Fly podcast had a Click for Babies purple hat KAL for the month of September. I decided to join in. 

Each and every day infants across North America are shaken and abused because the person caring for them became frustrated with their crying.

Many times the abuse could have been prevented had the person caring for the infant only known that early infant crying may be normal.

CLICK for Babies is a North America initiative to help educate caregivers about normal infant crying, how to cope with crying and the dangers of reacting to crying in frustration by shaking or harming an infant. This is especially true during the period of purple crying.

The acronym PURPLE is used to describe specific characteristics of an infant's crying during this phase and let parents and caregivers know that what they are experiencing is indeed normal and, although frustrating, is simply a phase in their child's development that will pass. The word Period is important because it tells parents that it is only temporary and will come to an end.

If you want to help you choose a hat pattern for a newborn baby. Then you choose a soft purple yarn. Other colors of yarn can also be used in your cap, but the cap must be at least 50% purple in color. Then you knit or crochet a hat or cap.

Caps will be distributed to babies in November with the Period of PURPLE Crying program.

Here are my four hats. 

Such a great cause. Since I have some yarn leftover, I’ll try to knit a hat each month.  Then when she asks for them next year, I’ll have a few more to send her.

Until next time......

Mittens Mishandled

Christmas is coming! While I don’t feel the need to give everyone on my list a hand knitted item, I do like to give a few. To the deserving, the appreciative and the special.

So, I get this bright (?) idea to try to knit mittens. Even though, JC Briar asked me how often I would need mittens in southern USA, I do have a children and grandchildren who live in the northern parts of the country. So mittens it is!

So I said to myself “After all how hard could it be. I knit socks for goodness sake!”

Well........I found a generic pattern for a mitten. I found a beautiful yarn from Knit Picks called Andean Treasure. I have the right size needles. And away I went.

I pulled out the pattern. Didn’t make a swatch. After all they should fit someone, right?!

I knitted a beautiful 3 inch tall 2 x 2 ribbed cuff. Now I needed to increase for the thumb gusset. Seemed simple enough. I am merrily knitting away until I get to the place where I need to put the gusset on waste yarn. I look at the thumb gusset and think “boy, it looks a little large”. I try on the mitten and yep, it’s big!

Well this is my first try, I forge on ahead. I finish the hand and decrease the top of the mitten like a sock. Wow, is it ever pointy. Kind of like a Norwegian mitten. Hmmmm.

Now I return to the gusset to finish the thumb. It is so large that I figure I have better work some decreases to get it to regular thumb size, because I am a thinking knitter and that should help. Well, I guess I decreased a little too much, because now the thumb looks like a chicken leg!  I try on the glove. The glove is too short for me and the thumb is way too big at the bottom and way to tiny at the tip.  The hand diameter fits well though! So it will probably fit someone.

I make the second mitten the same. Then I take them to my book club. They are very impressed with my knitting since none of them knit and had them try on the mittens. They fit no one! Eeek!

To make a long story a little shorter, I have raveled parts of the mittens and reknitted the top and thumbs on each glove. The length now fits a few people and the thumb is now better. Except for the one where I twisted some of the stitches when I picked them up. They are not a pretty site. Not even mittens a mother would love.

My mom suggested that I just frame them and say to myself. “Good first attempt.”

I have now gotten out my “Handy Book of Patterns” by Ann Budd. I now have a gauge of 6 stitches per inch. I will begin again.....

Until next time . . . 

A Small Break in the Mountains

Life was getting a little hectic here, so we decided to take a short break in the mountains. 

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

 

 

Until next time.......