Winnie Rose Knits

A Pig as a Present

2010-06-11T19:06:00.004-04:00

This season I decided to knit people their favorite animal as a birthday present. In May I knit a pig for Nyssa.

And here is a picture of Nyssa with the pig. Doesn't she look delighted? She was just coming out of a concert where she had played with the wind ensemble. The pattern is from the book The World of Knitted Toys by Kath Dalmeny. The yarn is Caron Simply Soft Eco.

A Busy Time

2010-04-24T09:00:00.003-04:00

The past few months I have focused on fixing things - a number of knitted items do not come out the way I wanted - so I have focused on altering them to improve them.

This is an entrelac shawl that used to be a sweater. I had knitted a cardigan with pockets from Marble Chunky that did not turn out well. It stretched and stretched and was almost to my knees. So I frogged it and knitted a shawl instead. I had learned entrelac technique at a knitting retreat in October, so I just casted on and started in. No pattern, no plan.

Then I found a cool copper wire shawl pin on Etsy and struggled to figure out how to wear it. The shawl is heavy and soft and smooshy. More of a cool weather shawl. Certainly not light or dainty.

Leaf Socks

2010-01-16T20:53:00.003-05:00

At long last, I finished the leaf socks that I started this summer. The yarn was dyed at a class at the Shuttle Shop in Warsaw and because of the beautiful fall shades I knew that I needed to knit a leaf lace pattern. This pattern is called Embossed Leaf Socks from Winnter 2005 Interweave Knits Magazine.

The cast on is slightly too tight and the feet are slightly too loose and I redid the toe of each sock at least once. But they are warm and soft. Now if I could just remember if the yarn was superwash or not. I had better assume it is not. :)

More Baby Things

2010-01-16T06:17:00.002-05:00

So a colleague's wife called me and asked if I would knit some items for her expected grandson. She knew the baby would be a boy and she asked for a sweater, hat and booties. These are made from Red Heart Eco-Ways, which is a blend of acrylic and recycled polyester. Pretty soft for a synthetic yarn. So here is a kimono from the Mason Dixon book - probably the 4th one I have knitted so far. The hat is my own pattern and I think the curls on top make it more than adorable. And the booties are the same pattern as Nika's booties in the previous post. Barbi and Brad are very pleased and the baby was born yesterday and really was a boy.... Woo hoo. Maybe some day I will get a picture of the baby wearing it all.

Christmas booties

2010-01-09T09:38:00.004-05:00

This Christmas almost all my friends said not to buy them anything, but when there is a baby involved, who can resist? The newest baby in the extended family/friends is Nika and mom asked for booties, saying that pink and brown were the dominant colors in her wardrobe. Amazingly I found a variegated cotton yarn in exactly the right colors. This is the result, from Cotton Tots Yarn. I knitted about 4 or 5 different models of booties. I found that all of them are strangely shaped and assume the babies have really fat feet. I suppose that they actually do have chunky feet, as the pictures below show the booties on Nika's feet. The pattern is from a book I own - Knitting in Plain English by Righetti.
Ok so she is not so good at posing for nice pictures and she is sitting in great uncle Fred's lap and he is not helping much. :)

Busy Semester

2009-11-22T20:44:00.003-05:00

This semester has been flying by, with me under a pile of grading. I knitted a lot of preemie baby hats for the friend of a friend. I got a bunch of students to help me and we knitted 50 hats in a short time.

Thed a colleague asked me to knit mittnes to give as a gift. She wanted fingerless gloves with a mitten cap and had a pair she had purchased in Austria that she showed me as an example. I took a ton of measurements and asked a lot of questions. Here is the result in vintage wool by Berrocco.
I sure hope she likes them and that the gift is well received.

There was a sale recently at Knitting Off Broadway in Fort Wayne and I bought some cashmere. It was a little more than I planned to spend, but I think I am worth a pure cashmere scarf. The picture below is the result.
Been running behind keeping up with this blog and with my Ravelry entries as well. Maybe the holiday will afford some time. Ha.

Adventure in Dyeing

2009-09-13T20:10:00.004-04:00

Having taken a handpainting/dyeing class at the Shuttle Shop in Warsaw, IN about a month ago, I decided in was time to try it for myself. I bought several skeins of fingering weight bare white yarn from KnitPicks.com and a starter set of Jacquard Acid Dyes. There are six colors in the dye set - two blues, two reds, yellow and black. The blues and reds are one cool and one warm hue each.

I took the yarn, which I have in merino only and also a merino silk blend (70/30) and cut them into one yard lengths. Soaked in cool water with a splash of vinegar. Mixed up a variety of colors, using careful measuring and taking copious notes -- good thing I am scientist and like experimentation. The results in the first picture are merino on the left and the merino silk blend on the right.

Still want to find a good purple, cranberry, and aquamarine.

Then, since it was so much fun, I dyed some more samples - the ones below are all merino only - with a focus on greens and diluting to see how low I can go on concentrations. The first set (above) are all about 1% dye. Some of the ones below are 1/4 and 1/16 of 1% dye. The reds on the second row have some black in them.
Meanwhile, the semester has started and my knitting time is decreased. Of course there are meetings to attend and I have done a lot of simple knitting.... but the ability to work on more complex projects is lessened. Below is the leaf lace sock from the original handpainted yarn from the class I took..... Finished the heel and decreasing in the gusset. Not sure I am looking forward to the second sock.
Been spinning a lot - hoping it will calm me. And knitting some baby hats to help with a specific donation project. I will post about that tomorrow.....

The heat of the summer

2009-08-10T11:46:00.003-04:00

Went to a fun yarn shop in Valpo a few days ago. Bought a cool book filled with patterns for stuffed animals from all over the world. Of course I started knitting a penguin right away. He is pictured below with no wings or beak or face or feet yet.....

Then I am also working on the multitude of baby gifts. This is for a little boy who was born on August 6. A baby kimono sweater from Mason Dixon Knitting - uses simple cotton and knits in one pieee in no time at all.
Finally I decided on a pattern to knit from the yarn I handpainted at the Shuttle Shop in Warsaw. This is an embossed leaf lace sock pattern from Interweave Knits 2006. The coloring is coming out quite nicely. The leaf lace is starightforward enough that I could imagine using it for a shawl.... if I ever get around to designing my own as I learned in that class I took in June.
Goal for today - write up my tags for the swatches in the master knitter project.

Much Test Knitting

2009-08-01T10:20:00.003-04:00

I finished two test knitting projects this week - short sleeved sweater and some baby socks.

The sweater is from cotton classic from tahki yarns. The pattern is written by a designer I met on ravelry. The bottom is lace, there are decreases at the waist, eyelets for a ribbon, and two options for the v-neck. This is the less dramatic neckline option.These pictures are taken in front of the bathroom mirror - which I know is kind of silly.
The sweater is knitted from the bottom up - with the front and back all together in the round. Overall, I am pleased although I would prefer longer sleeves to hide my arms... :)

I also knit a pair of socks sizes 6 mo - 1 year from a smooth variegated cotton yarn. They are straight forward and no fuss. Pattern by another Ravelry designer. I need to get these onto a baby and take more pictures.

Next - deciding what to start next. The most fun is deciding what to do when one project is done. Thinking of a shawl...

HandPainted Yarn

2009-07-25T18:44:00.005-04:00

I took another class related to knitting this week - for those of you keeping count that makes three so far (designing lace patterns and knitted wire jewelry earlier). I got an email from the LYS in Warsaw (that's Indiana, not Poland) advertising a class in hand painting yarn. The first opening was that same day - so of course I signed up right away.

this was very cool. We chose colors and started squirting dye onto a skein of merino/nylon sock yarn that had been soaking in vinegar and water. We pressed the dye in and then steamed our dyed yarn for a while. It was hard to leave it alone to cool slowly before I could wash it. I wanted so badly to peek at it.

Below is the picture of the results. The surprising part to anyone who knows me is that I chose orange and brown shades. I normally choose cool colors - green, blue, and purple - for everything from clothing to yarn to wall paint. I just suddenly had an urge for something in fall leaf colors. Cannot wait to knit with it.

In the meatime I continue the test knitting of the cotton sweater with lace. I agreed to test knit some baby socks. And I opened an etsy store. So far it has stitch markers and beaded jewelry. Some day, when I become truly ambitious, I will design and sell knitting patterns. This picture shows the back. The designer would like the sweater done in about two weeks. I finished the back and one side of the v-neck front already. Then there are two little short sleeves to knit.

Midwest Fiber and Folk

2009-07-18T22:31:00.007-04:00

Lots of things happening lately in my knitting world.

First I agreed to test knit a short sleeved cotton lace sweater for a designer on Ravelry. The pattern has a lot of features. There are side vents at the bottom and the back and front are joined together and knitted in the round. There is lace up to the waist and then waist decreases. I started about a week ago and I am requested to be finished by the first portion of August. There is even a line of eyelets for a ribbon around the waist. Here are the results so far.

And then I finished the linen market bag. I was not convinced that it would be big enough. But this picture shows it with about 5 balls and 2 skeins in it. I fear that the handle will stretch and I do not know if it will stretch endlessly or just a little bit.

And yesterday I went to the Midwest Fiber and Folk Festival in the suburbs of Chicago. I took a class in knitted wire jewelry and made this cool bracelet. It is easier that it looks. Bought some really scrumptious yarn and drooled over a number of shawl patterns. Why is there not enough time to knit all the things I would like to knit?

Should I Reknit those swatches?

2009-07-08T17:36:00.003-04:00

Because I am a perfectionist about some things and an over-achiever, I am scrutinizing my swatches for the Master Knitter Level 1 from TKGA. Maybe some should be reknit. If I look at them long enough I can find some mistake that makes me think I should knit them over. I am probably being OCD about it all. This is what happens when I decide that achievement is important to me. The word on the street is that very few people have all their swatches pass on the first try. Since I do not know how picky they are, it is hard to decide how perfect is perfect enough.

I am still not happy with the left leaning decreases. They never look as good as k2tog.
And I am not sure about the horseshoe cable in swatch 14. This picture was taken before the blocking, but you can see the little vvertical line of a gap down the center. Blah.

Meanwhile - the news of impending babies keeps coming in. I think the count is up to 7 or so now. All by Dec 1. Eeek - must knit more baby things and quickly.

And I am test knitting a pattern for a short sleeved lace top from cotton. So much knitting, so little time.

Independence

2009-07-04T12:31:00.004-04:00

Happy Independence Day -

So there are about 6 or 7 babies expected amongst the women I know - that means lots of knitting. Found a truly adorable pattern for a baby kimono sweater in my Mason Dixon Knitting Book. And the yarn required is Peaches & Creme cotton. Cannot get any easier or cheaper. Knits fast and it's machine washable. Perfect. The picture below shows the progress, but I am done knitting already. I only started it two days ago. The seams needs to be sewn, and I have to find some cute ribbon for the closure.

Then I have been knitting a string market bag also. This is with Louet wet spun linen. You start by knitting the bottom as a flat square then pick up stitches around the edges of the square and knit around the sides in a mesh pattern. Due to its odd shape on the needles it is hard to get a good picture of it.Then I tried to put my recent lace knitting course at the Knitter's Connection into practice. I knitted several swatches and went just about insane trying to find something I liked. I gave up on the designing process and just cast on with a published pattern. This is a celtic knot stole, rectangular shape, knitpicks shadow lace yarn, cyprus green.
I guess this week has been about independence from the master knitter swatches. I should stop dawdling and write up the answers to the questions. I could get it done quite readily if I tried. So little focus lately. Sigh.

a tank top finished - finally

2009-06-27T11:21:00.005-04:00

Spent the better part of the last year working on this tank top off and on. I had bought the yarn on ebay. A scrumptious lavendar color and so soft and slinky. So I set upon knitting a tank top from Big Girl Knits. I had to use two strands to get the gauge and I calculated that I should have enough. Just barely made it with two yards to spare. But there was not enough left to do the neck and armhole edges so I used some Louisa Harding Fauve in gray that I picked up at Knitter's Connection last week.

here are the finished results....

Such Silliness

2009-06-26T16:00:00.004-04:00

The past week has been busy - I went to Knitter's Connection in Columbus, OH and took a class on designing lace shawls. The class was taught by Amy Singer - who is the editor of Knitty.com and the author of two books I own - Big Girl Knits and More Big Girls Knits. It was delightful and Amy is so kind. I learned lots and came home excited to try more lace pattern combinations together to see what would work best. The best plan is lots of swathes --- oh gee more swatches. Sigh.

I finished the hat and got one of my students to try it on. The picture below is Zach wearing the hat. Isn't he cute?

I also worked on my bamboo tank top in scrumptious lavendar and just finished the front and back with the yarn I had. Literally one or two yards to spare. The edging around the neckline and the armholes are going to have to be some other yarn. Oh how I hate picking up stitches.

Really need to start working on the questions and the report for the masters project. And I think my library books are over due. oops.

On to the hat!

2009-06-16T07:53:00.004-04:00

Having gotten tired of swatches and such, I thought it was time to start the hat. First I realized that I had no appropriate yarn for the hat. I have plenty of cascade 220, but it is all too dark for this project. Off to the LYS - gee life is tough. :)

I have noticed that many LYS are not carrying as much cascade 220 - at least not around here. But I found some pretty pastels. Only took a day and the hat is done. Well there are ends to weave in and a goofy i-cord to make and install. I think my hat looks like a pastel watermelon. I cannot imagine anyone I know wanting this hat when I am truly done with it.... but I suppose that is not the point.
I really need to get with the program and write up some answers to the questions. Only two swatches left to knit. I spent a fair amount of time the other night working on possibilities for do-it-yourself cable swatch 15. One problem is that the gauge is 7 rows to the inch, and most cables are 8 rows repeated, and the whole thing has to be perfectly balanced top to bottom and the cable cannot to a simple twist or a horseshoe cable. I used to be able to do calculus, but this simpler math and planning is resisting my efforts to sort it out.....

Publicly stating my goal - to ship out the binder for evaluation before the end of the month.

Making Progress

2009-06-09T17:40:00.004-04:00

To date I have knit 13 of the 16 swatches for level 1 of the Master Knitter program. Well, this does not mean that I am happy with all 13 of them.... I think there are three that need to be redone at a minimum. It is clear that SSK is a challenge. I tried the Cat Bordhi technique, but things were too tight. I tried doing the SSK on the very tips of the needles and that helped somewhat. I have consulted a few dozen books and a few dozen websites on tips for doing this properly. Not much is helpful, which makes it hard to decide what to do.

I decided it was time to start blocking the swatches and weaving in the ends. This takes a lot of time when you are trying to do it carefully and properly. I have woven in the ends and blocked 10 swatches so far. Four are pictured here - swatches 8, 10, 11, and 16. I do not have a proper blocking board, so I am using a dining chair cushion covered in a clean dish towel. I ought to invest in some proper equipment.Next goal - figure out the design your own cable swatch 15..... a little challenging when my gauge is 6 rows to the inch and most cable repeats are 8 rows. And it is time to write up the answers to the questions.....
Onward.

Frustrations with Decreases

2009-06-07T10:17:00.006-04:00

So I think the increases in swatch 6 are going to be okay - well hopefully. Need to think about it some more.

I decided to move onto the decrease swatches - 7, 8, and 9. K2tog is easy enough, but ssk is supposed to match it. My experience is that it clearly does not match at all. The leaning top stitch is looser than it ought to be. As you can see in the picture to the right, the two sides do not match at all. I chatted on some ravelry discussion boards and got the advice to try Cat Bordhi's YouTube video called Slim and Trim SSK to get some advice. I have not tried it yet, but it looks promising.

I should not have plunged ahead, but I started the eyelet pattern swatches as well - here is swatch 11. There is an SSK in every row, which is clearly not going to be tight enough. I am not sure that Cat Bordhi's technique is going to work so well in lace, so I will have to find another option to tighten things up. Clearly I need to figure it out before I start on swatch 12 - which also has SSK in every row. I suppose that things will look better after blocking, but it is hard to tell. I should decide which swatches I am satisfied with and go ahead to block them. Then I could feel some sense of completion.

I tried to design a cable pattern from swatch 15 and it was fine enough, except that trying to get it to come out the right length and symmetrical is trickier than you might imagine.

I did other swatches in between - swatch 8 with skp and ksp, swatch 10 with yo, swatch 13 with an ordinary 2x2 cable. Not sure how ksp and skp are supposed to look - probably tighter than mine are. Really gotta weave in ends and block some things. Had to set up a notebook with page protectors and some simple labels, as the swatches are starting to look alike. Too many to keep track of easily.

I went to a large bookstore in Fort Wayne and bought two basic knitting books that ought to be quite valuable. Have not had to time to careful explore them yet.

swatch 10 - yarnovers

Mittens in the Summer and More Research

2009-06-03T10:44:00.008-04:00

Spent some time yesterday updating things in Ravelry - I had finished a pair of pink merino wool fingerless gloves. Picture on left. Very scrumptious and so beautiful.

And I am still working on a pair of fiddlehead mittens. My local yarn shop had a class on this and everyone was making a big deal about them. So I found the pattern and some Alpaca Ultra Light and started in. Despite measuring my hand and doing a gauge swatch, the mittens just fit with only the one layer. They are supposed to have a second layer inside made of kid mohair, but there is not room inside if I still want them to fit me. So I am going to be happy with just the outside two colored layer. I have one and a half mittens done. The only annoying part is that the needles are size one - so it is rather slow going. But it's okay.

As for the Master Knitter swatches, I have knitted swatch 6 about four times now. The raised increases are not slanting in the directions I think they should. I always knew that there were several ways to increase but this is too much. I went to the public library in a nearby town and I found some nice books. Some have excellent pictures and some don't. And some give information that are conflict with everything else I know to be true. There was one book that was really great - the Principles of Knitting by June Hiatt, published in 1989. As soon as I got home I looked on half.com and found that I could buy a used copy for $134. The original price was under $30. Apparently many people feel as I do, that this is an excellent book.

Much Knitting and Some Research

2009-06-01T22:25:00.007-04:00

The second day of working on the Master Knitter Program of TKGA. I knitted five swatches today - numbers 2, 3, 4, 5, and 14. Swatch 14 is required to be from the same yarn as 1 - 3 and I wanted to be sure I had enough.

The pictures are below. Nothing is finished (ends to weave in yet) and not blocked yet either. I have to write a two page report on the various methods of blocking - so I figure I better do the research for this, and then do the required blocking for the swatches.

I printed the bibliography from the TKGA website and then I had a good look at my bookshelf. Unfortunately, I own virtually none of the books on the list that address basic techniques. I guess that I assumed that since I had knitted forever, then I surely do not need a basic techniques book. I clearly was wrong.

I went to the public library to see what was available. And my public library is truly pathetic. Pretty much nothing to choose from at all. I may have to sit around a large bookstore someday soon and puruse all the books to get references and info. I could suck down the coffee and scones and take advantage of the free WiFi and read all the knitting books.

Swatches 1 and 2 - unfinished - unblocked

Swatch 3- seed stitch - unblocked - unfinished

Swatches 4 and 5 - increases - unfinished and unblocked

Swatch 14 - horseshoe cable - unfinished and unblocked

Starting the Master Knitter - level 1

2009-05-31T17:44:00.005-04:00

Well, time to get things started. I ordered the directions about 9 months ago, and I got distracted. But it is time to get started.

I am using cascade 220 in an off-white shade. I read a ton of background info on the TKGA site and on Ravelry. Seems that most people are rejected on the first try and need to make a few revisions. We shall see what happens.

This is swatch one - unblocked and ends not tucked away yet either.
Started swatch 2 and I am started to doubt if it will be perfect enough. It is a little hard to imagine that some one is going to scrutinize my knitting that carefully. It is also funny to look up references for techniques I have used since I learned to knit at age 8 - that was over 30 years ago.

Now that it is summer I have been working on finishing up some outstanding knitting projects. I finished a feather and fan afghan for Erica's baby shower. And I finished some really scrumptious fingerless mitts with cables for myself. Why do I think it makes sense to knit mittens in the summer?

Thinking also of starting a storefront on Etsy to sell scrapbooking things, beaded things, and knitted things. So many plans, and so little time.