Snowed In!

Winter has definitely arrived in Nebraska. It started snowing yesterday morning and continued throughout the day — we ended up with around 10 inches — and then, the wind kicked in. This means blizzard conditions — blowing snow, major snow drifts, limited visibility and extremely hazardous driving conditions.

All the schools were closed yesterday and many businesses closed early and sent staff home. DH arrived home around 12:30 PM. Schools still closed today — sun is out, but it is bitterly cold and there is a large drift covering our entire driveway. No sign of a snow plow, so for now — we are snowed in.

I spent most of my time yesterday afternoon finishing the Chevron Hat — I frogged it back to the beginning of the crown because I did not like the way it was turning out. Found another beret pattern that has you decreasing stitches by half every so many rows — tried that, keeping to the alternating of colors every 4 rows. Much better. Hat is now done and awaiting blocking along with the scarf. I will post pictures tomorrow.

Have a fresh loaf of bread going in the bread machine — didn’t make it to the grocery store before the big storm. Fresh homemade bread and a hot pot of soup sounds good — off to make the soup.

Related Post

Choosing Patterns – What to Use for My Baby Items?Choosing Patterns – What to Use for My Baby Items?

I have decided to go with a 100% cotton worsted weight yarn for my baby projects. The trick now is to find patterns that I like that work with my yarn choice.

Since I have been knitting for 46 years (yes, 46 YEARS), I have accumulated a stash of patterns equal to or greater than my current yarn stash. So – if I could find where I stored all of them, I might be able to find a pattern for my baby items without purchasing anything. (Large emphasis on the IF I could find them). Another option is to search for a pattern on the web – there are a lot of free patterns available. But I have also reached the point as a knitter than I am more likely to modify any pattern than to use it as it is written. Now days published patterns are a jumping off point – I always begin to see how I might use the patterning or the shaping or color palette in a new way.

So – as I begin my projects for baby items, I will be using a couple of patterns as my guide, but making changes as I go. I have decided to go with the “Dumb Baby Sweater” pattern in Maggie Righetti’s book: Knitting in Plain English. (One of my favorite reference books). This neat little pattern gives instructions for a raglan sleeve sweater with buttonholes and a seed stitch border. Now I will be modifying things here, because the yarn I want to use has a slightly different gauge. I will use the measurements for the sweater, but convert the number of stitches for my gauge.

For the baby blanket, I am using a pattern I found on the web as inspiration – but again, I am modifying the pattern. This lovely pattern calls for double-strands of a worsted weight superwash wool. I didn’t care for the colors available in this yarn, and had already decided I wanted to use a 100% cotton yarn for my projects. The yarn I chose is Peaches & Cream yarn in a teal blue. It is a worsted weight yarn – but when I double-stranded it for my swatch, my gauge was 2.5 Stitches per inch and the pattern gauge is 3.75 stitches per inch. (Meaning that if I knit this pattern with my yarn double-stranded it would be a larger size than the pattern). I didn’t really care for the way the pattern looked in the double-stranded yarn either. So – I knit a second gauge swatch using a single strand of yarn and I liked it much better. Thus, I am modifying the pattern according to my single-stranded gauge swatch.

Here’s the link to Barbara Breiter’s pattern:
http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/babyafbear.htm.

I have a favorite pattern for baby socks that I will use and another for a simple baby hat. I find that baby bonnets are just not practical and cute little hats are much better.

I am wondering how many of you reading this: have reached the point where a published pattern is a guideline or an inspiration?

First pair of SFS Socks Finished!First pair of SFS Socks Finished!

Yesterday, I finished my first pair of regulation socks for Socks for Soldiers, including weaving in the ends.

These are very long socks! I now have them washed and they are currently drying in the dryer. I need to run to the store and pick up a few extra “goodies” to put in the package and write my letter to the soldier who will receive the socks. Then, I should be ready to package everything up and send it off to Sarge at SFS.

Here’s a picture of the finished socks:
SFS_Finished2_103109

Summer KnittingSummer Knitting

I’m back after a 9 week hiatus. Life sometime intervenes in personal activities and I haven’t had time to blog since just after my son’s wedding. Things seem to be settling down and since we have hit that time of the summer when there’s not much on TV to watch, I may have some time in the evenings to work on my blog and my website.

For the next few posts, I’m going to focus on the topic of “Summer Knitting”. Summer is that time of year when I like to have a few smaller projects going on my needles. Small projects are very portable and can be easily tossed into the car or suitcase when heading out of town on a trip. These projects also need to be fairly simple patterns — I don’t like having to concentrate on a complex pattern when traveling or sitting with friends/relatives.

My first summer knitting project was a knitted doily. Knitted doilies are a bit of novelty for me — since I also crochet, I have always crocheted my doilies and never really gave much thought to the possibility that doilies could also be knitted. However, I have recently discovered two lovely patterns for knitted doilies on the web and I knit them up using size 10 crochet cotton thread and size US 3 needles.

Doily 1 is “Liz Snella’s Heirloom Doily”. Finished it measured 12 inches in diameter. I used double point needles to start and then switched to a 24 inch circular needle. As with all doilies, this pattern knit up quickly and I was able to finish it in a couple of evenings.

Doily 2 is named “Doily with Star”. Finished it measured 10 inches in diameter. With this doily, I used two circular needles rather than double points and a circular needle. Again, I was able to finish this doily in only a few hours of knitting.

I gave both of these doilies to my MIL for Mother’s Day. She was delighted – and since she doesn’t knit, she was also surprised that I had knitted them rather than crocheted them.

So – if you are looking for a small summer project: try knitting a doily. It’s a great way to practice using double points and/or two circular needles. I’ve included links to the two patterns below.

Happy knitting. Lindy