FO: Baby Cardigan and Tam

July 28, 2013| LindyBeir| 0 Comment | 4:58 pm

Categories:

I have been working on top down raglans for my grandchildren this summer. My first project was a cardigan for my new baby granddaughter. I decided to make this sweater in size 18 mos. because that should be the size that will fit her this fall. Top down raglans are fairly easy to knit — once you get past the neckline, but the neckline is a bit tricky. I followed The Magic Custom Fit Raglan pattern by Danielle White as a guide. I say guide, because the pattern gives sizing directions for babies up to 12 months and then for children age 2 and up — but not for 18 months. So I had to do some guessing to figure out the actual measurements to use for the size I wanted.

I used Cascade 220 Superwash Yarn in Pink for the body of the sweater. I knit the sweater front bands, neck band, cuffs and the bottom band in seed stitch with the remainder of the body knit in stockinette stitch. I used Cascade 220 Superwash in Magenta for the edging, which was done in single crochet all the way around the edge to finish and then made ties by doing a crocheted chain for each side of the neck.

I then decided that I had enough yarn to knit a little tam to go with the sweater. I used the Magenta yarn to start the brim in 1 X 1 ribbing and then switched to the Pink. Baby hats are really quick knits, and this one was no exception. I washed the set up in the washer and then laid them flat to dry.

My notes and other details can be found in my project on Ravlery here: Baby Cardigan and Hat Project

Snowed In!Snowed In!

December 9, 2009| Lindy| 0 Comment| 10:31 am

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.

Lack of New PostsLack of New Posts

June 4, 2011| LindyBeir| 0 Comment| 9:45 pm

I apologize to those who read my little blog — I have not posted for some time due to computer issues.

About a month ago, my DH and I both got new HP Desktops with Windows 7 as the operating system. After making all the necessary file transfers, I got up and running and thought things were just dandy. The new desktop was much faster and I loved my much larger monitor (great for these old eyes!). Then, about two weeks ago, funky random things started happening as I was using my new PC. Things like the screen just freezing up — which caused me to go to Task Manager and force the “not responding” program to close. Over the next several days, this went to happening at weird random and unpredictable intervals to happening almost every time I went on to the Internet. And then, it also started happening when I was in other programs — including the game Solitare and even Word. And — it was getting so that Task Manager couldn’t shut down the “not responding” program — now, when it happened the entire PC locked up — and I do mean LOCKED UP! The only way out was to hold down the Power Button until the machine shut down….yep, a hard shut down.

So, last weekend I started researching this little problem. I had to use my iPad — ’cause my HP certainly wasn’t going to let me do any surfing on it. And I discovered that this is a KNOWN problem with Windows 7. I found lots of threads about this little issue — one of which had been going on in a forum for over two years. From this research, I gleaned a few helpful suggestions that I thought I might try. Now this surfing took me most of Saturday afternoon over the Memorial Day holiday. So Sunday, I decided to check out HP Technical Support and see if there was anything new or helpful about this problem. And you know what? HP had a technical article on this problem — along with a whole series of steps to follow to determine how best to fix this little issue.

Now — before anybody goes there — the first thing I did when this little problem popped up was to run my virus scanning software — I did a full scan of my hard drive. As we all know, a virus is the most likely cause of problems with your computer. My computer scan came up clean. No viruses.

So, what was the cause? It was most likely either a program I had recently installed or an update to Windows that had been automatically installed. The solution? Well, HP has a utility called “System Restore” that allows you to go back and “restore” your system to a point before that update — i.e. a time before the problem started happening. Full instructions for how to do this were given in the article. BUT — before I went forward with this, I decided to back up my files — and this took me most of Sunday afternoon. Then Monday I was able to go ahead and do the System Restore. I discovered that there had been an update to Windows just before I started experiencing my issue. So I took my system back to the point just before that update. Viola! No more freezing or locking up! Whew! problem solved.

Not sure what conclusion to draw from all of this. Clearly it is a known issue that can randomly occur with Windows 7 — but it doesn’t appear to be something that Microsoft has addressed at this point — even though it apparently has been happening to Windows 7 users since 2009. I find it interesting that HP has a solution for the problem in the form of a utility that allows you to restore the system back to a point before the problem started to happen.

Anyway — that’s my tale of woe. Now that I have a working PC, I can get to work and actually write a new post about my new vintage crochet pattern. Stop back in a couple of days — I should have the pattern ready and available.

Finished SocksFinished Socks

August 31, 2009| Lindy| 3 Comments| 5:04 pm

Knitted striped socks

I finished my striped socks yesterday morning. I am pleased with how they turned out. I used a self-striping yarn from Patons Yarns and it was fascinating to see the stripes evolve as the socks knit up.

I did not really use a pattern for these socks. There are literally thousands of free sock patterns available on the internet, but you really don’t need them if you understand the basics of knitting socks. I started with a gauge swatch and used my foot measurements to determine the number of stitches I needed. The “how to” of this seems to be enough for a separate post, so I will place that in my queue for future topics.

I choose to do a picot hem at the top of the cuff, a 3 by 1 rib for the cuff and instep, a slipped stitched heel flap with a square heel turn. My mentors for these socks were Nancy Bush – I consulted her book “Knitting on the Road” for advice on the square heel and Cat Bordhi, whose book “Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles” contains a wealth of information on how to knit socks.

Knitting socks on two circular needles

I used the two socks on two circular needles for this pair of socks. I prefer to knit socks two at a time, because when you’ve finished, you have a pair of socks and don’t have to go back and knit that second sock. You can knit socks two at a time using either two circulars – as shown here in my photo – Or you can use the magic loop technique. I started another pair of socks last night using this technique – so I’ll post about them later.