We lost our dad in June.  He was 92 and fiercely independent.  He chose to live in the log home he built with his own two hands.  We are heartbroken yet also realize that he died the way he wanted to.

Our mother was a widow with two young children when she met my dad.  He took us as a package deal, which was a lot for a man of 25!  Our brother came along later.

Ona and Gib

Yes.  Those were their names!  No other couple could claim that!

Dad had a sense of humor, was warm and loving, and really cared about the three of us.  Dad, you will be missed!!

As you all know, my sister Susan is my best friend in the world.  We talk on the phone for hours almost every day. I wish I were with her but I’ll be seeing her soon.   In the meantime, please wish my big sister

Happy Birthday!

I’m a visual learner, especially with things like knitting.  I tried to write out the instructions for the i-cord cast on I used for my Sophie Scarf (both of them!), but it bamboozled people.

I attempted to remedy this by making a video.  It was a technological nightmare of epic proportions!  The final youtube video is not as polished as I would like, but at least it got out there.  So.  Here is it.  My continuous i-cord cast on for the Sophie Scarf and other similar projects!

PS to Michele: The ends need to be grafted together to look like the cast on.  Maybe I need to do another quick video!

I’m somehow fixated on summer tee knitting.  My latest FO struck me as so cute, I just had to make it.

The Original Luminos Prototype

I loved the original colorway in Hedgehog Fibres Squid and Graphite, purchased from Wool & Company.  It’s my favorite on-line yarn store.  Free shipping and yarn winding, plus 10% off orders of $100 or more!!

The sweater is called Luminos.

The shoulder has really cute detailing.

I changed up the front a little bit and did a centered double decrease instead of “k2tog/ssk,” which splits apart.  The designer used the split aspect to create the cute shoulder by chaining along the split with the colorful yarn.

I think it’s really cute and it fits.  The problem is that I do not show my upper arms in public.  Ever.  Not even when it’s 100 degrees.  So, the problem is that none of my tops/shirts go with this!!  That means I cannot wear it.  So, that’s a bummer.  I may wear it anyway with a weird looking layered look, and not feel great in it!!  I can’t help it that my arms are as old as I am!

I did try adding a short, cap sleeve, but it did not look any better and the knitting looked kind of bad.  So, I ripped it out and left it as it appears above.  The neckline, which I also like, is a double v-neck (front and back are identical) which makes wearing a top or shirt problematic.  I’ll live with it and admire it from afar??

ETA: I did wear it to knitting today and people liked it!  I wore it with a white, long-sleeved tee and I think it worked okay.

ETA2: How many times can you use the word ‘cute’ in one post!?!

Oh, yes there is!  Another peep!

My new speckled hen was made to look like an actual chicken, and I love her.  I used leftover yarn from my Pickpocket sweater: Brooklyn Tweed Shelter, color Newsprint.  I used Ravelry Red Rios for the red and Cascade 220 for the black.

I made one of these as a hostess gift and a couple more of the small chicks as requested gifts.  It’s still a fun little thing to do!

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms, aunties, friends of children, etc.!

Last post, I described my brief foray into jewelry making.  Today, I’m going to discuss my second fiber habit, crocheting.

I don’t crochet often, but really enjoy it when I do.  I like granny squares.  There.  I said it!  I made a granny square cowl a few years ago that I absolutely love.  I recently became smitten with these Granny Square Chickens.  Yep.  More chickens!  What is it with crafters and chickens these days??

Here is my first attempt.  You make two granny squares and then sew them together in a particular way to get the chicken shape.

I loved it and thought, hmmmm.  Should I try another color combo?

Liked it even better!  Then my friend, Christine, made one out of fingering weight yarn…so, I had to give it a go.

When I was making this one, I thought a pansy-themed chick would be cute…so, one more:

And that, my friends, is how I ended up with a basketful of chickens!

My girls will come over today and one has already expressed interest in a chicken.  I may have to make a replacement!!  I also made the basket.  Another crafting rabbit hole!!

ETA: Laura took chicken #2!!  The one with pink petals.  I’ll need to make a replacement.  Jena didn’t take one — her dog would eat it!

ETA2: The replacement chicken is done!

PS to Chloe: I had to laugh when you called this a herd of chickens instead of a flock!!  🙂

PS2 to Chloe: Chloe shared that Frankie Brown has a free KNITTED granny square pattern on Ravelry for you non-crocheters!  It’s called How to Knit a granny Square.

I have been interested in many crafts and handiwork my entire life.  I have dabbled in so many different things!  Oftentimes, I’ll do a little one-off project to try something out and move along.  Knitting stuck for some reason.  But even though I enjoy the other activities, they are usually fleeting.

Case in point.  Surly and I decided that our trip to Rhinebeck was fun, but too expensive to warrant another go.  So, we looked into a “local” event in Loveland, Colorado called Interweave Maker Festival that would mean no hotel or car rental fees.  Yay!  We wanted to take a class but couldn’t find a knitting class that suited us.  We decided to sign up for the “Chased and Knotted Cuff” taught by Anne Mitchell.  She said it was for beginners.  Hey!  We know nothing!!

The plan hit a small snag when Sally and hubby bought a vacation home in Tucson and would be there when the class was to take place.  It meant a lot of extra coordination and travel, but we made it work.

The class was great!  Sally and I ended up being the only real novices…everyone else had taken a class from Anne before.  Anne had everything set up for us.  We each had our own fully stocked workstation.

The bracelet started out as a pure silver strip of metal and two pure silver wires.  Pure silver is almost 100% silver whereas sterling silver is only 92%.  We found out what annealing is.  It was fun to learn new stuff!

Anne took us through it all step-by-step.  She would demonstrate and then we would do it ourselves.

Here the wire has been annealed, bent, and annealed again.  Then it was hammered flat.  We had to use a blowtorch and everything!!  The next picture shows it several steps later:

After this, a sterling silver cup was soldered on for the center stone and the bracelet bent into shape.  There was pickling and anodizing and whatever else she told us to do!!  Here are the results:

Sally’s Chased and Knotted Cuff

Susan’s Chased and Knotted Cuff

Yep.  We made those!  I still can’t believe it.  Yes, it cost 3 times what it would have cost to buy.  No, I am not going to become a jewelry maker.  BUT, it was really fun for a one-day experience!  I highly recommend thinking outside of the box and trying something new.  It was very interesting being so “green.”  I felt like some of the students I have in my knitting classes where the content is just out of their reach.

The next day we spent at the Maker Festival Market, which included both yarn and beads.  Then off to Tucson:

View of the mountains

Poolside

There are two cute yarn shops in Tucson, and we did some damage at Grandma’s Spinning Wheel!  I made this cute little Derecho when I got back, just in time for the warmer weather.  The yarn is Queensland Brighton Beach, color Orange Cup Coral.  It only took 3 skeins, but I had purchased six!  The extra has already been sold to a peep.

I’m not a huge fan of summer knitting but I LOVE this top.  The pattern is great.

PS to Susanne: You said it so well!  Thank you!

I am not a fan of summer knitting: loose knitting with linen or cotton yarn.  Ugh!!  But, I do like wearing flowy, summer tops so I knit one and started another.

Here is Agave.  Designed by Yumiko Alexander for DanDoh fibers.   It is knit with DanDoh Linen (purchased at The Yarnery), the yarn called for, in color Oasis.  It is blue and green.  NOT blue-green.  It looks like spruce from afar.  Sally is making the same sweater in red.

I worked the sleeve differently than the two options in the pattern.  I picked up the number of sts for the longer sleeve, but then did some shaping and added the lace pattern to the bottom of the sleeve.  Here is the original “flutter sleeve” version:

And the longer sleeve:

My sleeve:

Because my arms are so long, I added 5″ to the length of the pattern’s longer sleeve!  I love this sweater and have already worn it.  I went to Tucson to see Surly’s new vacation home and wore it when we went yarn shopping. 🙂  I’ll get a lot of wear out of it when the weather warms up here.

I also met Yumiko herself at the Interweave Maker Festival:

God, I hate pictures of myself!  Oh well.  In another post, I’ll share what Sally and I made at Maker Fest!!

PS to Sherry: Actually, I did not lengthen the pattern.  There are 3 different lengths: the short one has 5 repeats and the long one has 7.  Sally and I often knit the same things.  We both have great taste!

PS2 to Chloe: Yumiko has come up with so many beautiful designs!

Sometimes I break my arm patting myself on the back…this is one of those times!  I think I’m a genius!  Uh, calm down, Susan.  No one cares!

Sally and I both bought the yarn to knit Structured Loop.  We love the stitchwork which reminds us of mattress ticking!

Structured Loop picture from Pattern Page

We chose Önling No. 1, which is butter soft, gorgeous, slightly fuzzy yarn.  Beautiful to knit with!!  Surly finished hers first, so she was the canary in the mine this time around.  We both decided we didn’t like the ribbing down the side “seams” (top down, in the round, so no real seams!).  If you run the cute stripes all the way around, it creates a serious jog problem.  The stripes consist of color changes, ribbing, garter…you name it!  A challenge, to be sure, but Surly and I decided to go for it.

My first stripe after joining ITR was the larger one. I fudged my way through using all the methods I could muster. It looked just “okay.”   Then a thunder bolt struck!!

Could I use the old, out-of-favor, jogless method where the BOR is moved one stitch to the left on every round?  This method causes issues when done over a great number of rows because who wants the BOR to change drastically and affect other aspects of the sweater? And a weird line appears.  However, this only takes place over a few rows, so I thought it might work.  It’s not 100% perfect, but pretty darn close!

I describe what I did in full detail on my Ravelry project page.  Like I said, it’s not perfect, but it is very easy to do — much harder to describe!  I am wondering if this would work in other situations?  It is certainly worth a try!

Here is an updated picture of my finished Riddari:

And a PS to Sue, who commented about the large size of her own Icelandic sweater: in all fairness, I may have chosen a size that was too big.  So many people knit successful colorwork yoke sweaters, myself included, that I cannot really conclude what made the difference.  All I know is that it now fits perfectly!

PS to Chloe: I wouldn’t call my sweater black, either!  It is the darkest green, blue, blackish, navy?  It is just deep and complex!!  Like the Galaxy after which it us named!