What better way to kick off the 4th of July weekend than by casting on for a heavy wool sweater?! Woohoo! Seriously, I’m pretty excited. I started Checks and Balances for Paul. I’m using one of my absolute favorite yarns. It’s a mohair/merino blend from Good Fibrations. The mohair is the magic ingredient. It …
Behold the Crystal Palace Yarn sweater! Its proper name is He’ll Wear It Every Day (from The Yarn Girls’ Guide to Simple Knits). As you can guess from the pattern name, it’s actually sized for men. I knew it would be a bit big, but I just knit the smallest version and …
Someone is stealing weeks. It has to be that, or how it could be June 13th?! Yikes! It turned out I wasn’t quite fully healed by the peach. It helped, but it took until the end of last week for me to feel like I was totally back on track. As …
So here’s my version of Gramps. The pattern calls for pockets and elbow patches, and while I’m usually a huge fan of pockets, I didn’t think this colorful yarn needed anymore busy-ness. The Lorna’s Laces Shepherd Worsted is incredibly soft. It feels wonderful against the skin, but I’m going …
Guess what happened. I was knitting the very last of the shawl collar short rows on Gramps on Friday night, and I ran out of yarn. During a break in our ongoing Lost marathon, I jumped up to grab another skein, but crappity crap crap crap, there was no more Lorna’s …
If it’s okay with you, I’m going to skip the part where I go on and on apologizing for the posting desert the blog has been over the last couple of weeks and get right to talking about sleeves. K? K. It’s been ages since I’ve knit a sweater with …
It’s so nice to be back to knitting on Gramps. It’s knit potion, for sure. I didn’t realize I was missing sweater knitting until I dove back in and suddenly a whole collection of tense spots relaxed. During the Gramps hiatus, I’d convinced myself that the contrasting color I’d chosen …
Ever feel like the machines are not your friend? It’s been one computer drama after another around here this week. I’ve been fighting with my email for days, the server at work that lets me do my thing has been on the blink, my father’s computer went crazy last night …
I finally have some pictures of Calligraphy to show you! Here it is during the sewing-on-the-buttons stage. This was after a nice long soak and gentle blocking. Augie is chief button inspector, and he takes his role very seriously. VERY seriously. Here are a …
Gauge is the most important principle in knitting. So sayeth Elizabeth Zimmermann. These words are from the chapter on gauge in Knitting Without Tears. It’s one of the first books on knitting I ever read. It’s right here next to me. I can reach out and touch it. It’s spent …
