knitting.. what a surprise

I've been putting in a few rows here and there on the almost monkey socks. I separated them to do the gussets . When both gussets are finished I'll put them both on the same needle again and work them together. So far I think they are kind of cute.





Yesterday I was playing on the knitting machine again and tried to make a lace cowl. This is what it ended up being. I'll have to work on some more proto-types until I'm happy with it. It gives me practice knitting lace on the knitting machine. This cowl will be sent to my daughter in NY. I'm finding knitting very comforting..

Remembering Rich..

Remembering my brother Richard today. I think it finally sunk in that he is really gone. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with him. I think everyone says that when a loved one passes on. So today I'm just trying to make it through the day..He passed in Iowa City on Christmas day. My family is scattered all over the country and he had previously lived in California.. so we are all keeping in touch via phone and internet.
I did manage to get 2 scarves finished a few days ago and will mail them out tomorrow and maybe make another today with the Karaoke yarn that has been in my stash forever. It was waiting for the right project.
Thank you all for your kind comments and thoughts. <3

catch up

Today I'm spending a quiet day connecting with family ... yesterday my brother passed away. It was a quiet and rather sad Christmas day. I had to notify some family members and we all talked about how my brother spent his last few years of life. Richard was a bright intelligent guy, involved in politics. He has had a few bad years .. where he had back problems.. surgery and a great loss of a loved one. But then he gained some lost relationships and was happy. I was able to visit with him again last week and it was good to see him even though his health was failing. I'm glad for that. He will always be in my heart.. I'm also keeping busy and making a few more presents ..a scarf and neck warmer for my Dad and Step mom. My daughter got me a shawl pin for Christmas and some fleece and my son got the game.. there were some other nice presents under the tree for me too.

rush hour..!

Last night I worked my little fingers off trying to catch up on projects. I wont be finished before Christmas but I would like to try and get as far as I can. I started the heals on the socks and whipped up a ruffle scarf for my sister and some arm warmers in the same colors. The scarf took a few hours on the machine. I had to use the garter bar for all the decreases and reverse st. st. I washed it and laid it out to dry last night which made it nice and soft and opened the ruffles up. I think she will like it.

inching my way along

Wow is there really only 2 more days until Christmas? My life has been a whirl wind for the last week or so.. This is my first day that I've had to rest since before my trip to Iowa. It's amazing that the tree is decorated and the sweaters and gifts were mailed out. Not as many as I had originally planned to knit. The monkey socks are getting a little bigger and I'm inching my way to the heals. Today I plan to make a couple of scarves on the knitting machine and some arm warmers if I can fit them in. As far as my brothers condition.. they are just keeping him comfortable now. I heard he had a wonderful caring nurse .. that is comforting to know. I noticed that the hospital care there was really great and they truly care for the patients and family. I'm grateful for that. I'm really grateful for my kids who have all helped and supported me tremendously and for my grandson Jayden that gives me joy everyday and cheers me up. I don't know how I would survive with out them.. (^_^)

almost monkey socks

This will probably be the last project I will have time to finish before Christmas. Hopefully I will be able to finish them. For those that know me.. my brother is very sick and I flew up to Iowa to see him this week. I do not believe he is going to recover and actually took a turn for the worst while I was there. Knitting provided a bit of comfort during my traveling and my visits even though I didn't really get much done on the socks. He had wanted a red scarf for Christmas so I knitted one on the machine right before I left. He liked it. I flew back yesterday and spent most of the day in the airports and in the air. One of my flights was cancelled because of the snow in Chicago and I was re-directed to Dallas alone with everyone else. Lots of delays and cancellations.. lots of people waiting.. and finally I was home. I really have no Christmas spirit this year... I haven't done any Christmas shopping and only have a few presents knit. I'm hoping to find some time to knit a few scarves and arm warmers on the knitting machine. I was able to pick up the buttons for the little brown sweater for Abby on my trip. The funny thing about that is I bought them at Michaels Craft store in Iowa.Now I just need to wrap it up and mail it out.




(The socks are suppose to be Monkey socks but I couldn't find the right yarn.. so they are almost Monkey socks..)

packing...

The stocking are being hung and the tree is being decorated... and I'm packing to leave for Iowa tomorrow. My brother is very ill and my sister and I are going to fly out to visit him. I'm really afraid of the cold. I haven't been in a cold climate for about 15 years and have given all my warm clothes away to good will. The temp will be some where around 80 degrees when I depart and around 4 degrees when I arrive.. I'm going to layer the clothes that I have and just hope that I will be warm enough. My sister is bringing a coat for me to wear and I'm bringing an extra hat for her. Did I mention that I'm bringing a lot of scarves and hats and wrist warmers to wear over knit gloves.

I whipped up another scarf that I'm going to bring as a gift and a slouchy hat that will hopefully keep my head warm. I return on Friday and will maybe have a little time to blog again then. (^_^)

Yes.. I finished it!!

The little boy in this picture is wearing the original sweater that I made with a few modifications. First I removed all the ribbing and second I added a kind of ruffle to the bottom with garter stitch increases. There is a small mistake on the back but it isn't that noticeable. Under normal circumstances I would have ripped it out and re-knit it.. but my time is so limited I just continued and finished it. Now I just have to purchase buttons.







This little scarf is a combination of all the little bits of sock yarn left over from all the socks that I made in the recent past and took about 2 hours on a standard gauge knitting machine. I saw this on ravelry and wanted to try it out. I love it and now I need more sock yarn ends to make more.!!
(don't look at my son's messy desk!!)

wonky!!

Well.. here is my progress on this sweater that is supposed to be finished and mailed before Christmas. I'm not really liking how it is turning out. The pattern is very fitted and I should have probably made a size bigger. At least the yarn is stretch yarn. Add to that a mistake on the cable in the back of the sweater( because I knit at all hours of the night). I'm really unhappy with the whole thing and getting ready to set it aside forever. Maybe it's the yarn. I have tried to use this yarn for a number of different projects all of which have been frogged.. hummm.. maybe the yarn is cursed!!... So now I have to decide if I want to just set it aside and try to make something else or just finish the last 10 rows and be done with it.. or frog it.. or rip back to the mistake and continue knitting it at a later time.. anyway I look at it .. I don't think this will be finished before Christmas.. add to that all the other projects that are on my knitting list that I haven't even started... this sweater has just been taking me forever to knit. On the good side... I found the manual to my knitting machine and some other good stuff including some lace patterns..

The 3 Prong Tool Lace Scarf Pattern

Machine knit

Machine: Singer 155 , 110 needle bed machine

Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman wool

Yarn substitutes: any worsted weight wool yarn will work

Tension: 8.1

All stitches in the pattern are hand manipulated with a 3 prong tool.

Abbreviations:

Sts.=Stitches

RC = row counter

K = knit

CO= cast on

BO = bind off

CO 38 sts. Using the crochet cast on. ( 19<-0->19 ). K 1 row, drop comb, hang weights. I use 2 large weights.

K 1row. Set row counter to “0”.

Begin lace pattern and follow chart. Use a 3 prong tool to transfer sts. Start with the 3^rd st. from the right edge, move sts. 17, 16, 15 to sts.16, 15, 14. Transfer all sts. on chart in the same direction moving across the machine from right to left side. K 2 rows and continue to work chart for as long as you want the scarf to be.

(click pictures to see full size image)

BO all sts. Using the crochet cast off. Wash and lightly block.

This scarf can be knit by hand using worsted weight yarn and size 9 needles. Just follow the chart. Purl the even # rows.

O= yo

/|\= sl, k2tog, psso ( slip 1 st, knit 2 sts. together, pass the slip stitch over)

This is a super fast and easy lace scarf perfect for a fast gift.

Adrienne (^_^)

pattern and images © Adrienne Medrano 2009

almost finished...

Thanks to my knitting group last night I got some knitting time in on this sweater and I'm a few rows away from completion. This yarn is behaving a little weird and seems to be piling already. The yarn is Schoeleer+stahl Merino Stretch. 44% merino wool and 43% acylic. Good thing it's a stretch yarn because this sweater is sized very fitted. Hopefully I will finish this today and start the hat. For the last 2 days I've been working on the pattern for the machine lace scarf. All the notes and pictures and charts are ready. I just have to put them all together. I need a little assistance with the program I'm using so I'll have to wait until my son has time to fiddle with it. Probably tomorrow. He has been busy selling some vintage stuff on Ebay including some vintage stuffed toys that were laying around. We had a couple of rare items..0.0..
Also some time in the next week I would like to get my Christmas tree up and the house decorated.. hummm..

plugging along...

Man I'm knitting so slow... I think I was exhausted from all the company and was actually too tired to knit after work this week. I picked this up two days ago and have been knitting a row here and there. ( I added the picture of the concept sweater below.) This needs to be finished by Christmas which it coming really fast. I'm using a stretch yarn for this and it looks like the sizing is good. I just need to get knitting. Thank goodness I have a knitting machine for some of the other Christmas presents I have to knit before Christmas. I have off on Monday and plan to work on the pattern for the simple lace scarf that I knit on the machine. (a few posts ago) I plan to make 2 more Simple lace scarves as gifts. My economic situation is actually worse than it was last year so all I can give this year is stuff that I can knit up from the stash and a few jewelry pieces from my bead stash. That means I have to get really creative for the guys in my family and there are a lot. While I think about.. I'll use the time to put in a few more rows before work.. (^_^)

Not on a Rolll- Knitting Machine Scarf

This scarf doesn't roll.. I knit this in a little over 2 hours on the knitting machine. It is composed of stripes in alternating rows of stockinette stitch and reverse stockinette stitch that change with each color. I used a worsted weight wool so that when I blocked the scarf it lays pretty flat without the rippling effect.







































Pattern:
Machine: Singer 155, 110 needle bed machine.
(If you want to hand knit this scarf use a size 9 needle)
A garter bar
Tension: 7.1 ( gauge- 17 st = 4 inches)
This fabric is light and airy, not dense.
Yarn: Phildar superwash lenox 083 (any worsted wool yarn will work but it must be wool for blocking)I chose 3 colors but this can also be made in a solid color or with as many colors as you like.

Using the crochet cast on, cast on 42 stitches.(color 1)
Set row counter to "0"
Knit 10 rows. Cut yarn.
Use your garter bar to turn the knitting so that the knit stitches are facing you.
Change yarn (color2).
Knit 10 rows. Cut yarn
Use the garter bar to turn the knitting so that the knit stitches are facing you.
Change yarn (color3)Knit 10 rows.
Continue in this manner until the scarf is the length that you like.
I have a total of 25 stripes.
Cast off. I used a crochet cast off.
(For hand knitting, Cast on 42 stitches,* knit 10 rows st. st., change color, purl 10 rows, change color*. Repeat until the length that you want it. Cast off loosely.)
Tuck in ends.
Wash your scarf in cold water and smooth out the ripples.. let it dry.
My finished scarf measures 9"x49 1/2" after blocking.

This scarf will also work with larger stripes of stockinette and reverse stockinette and is a good stash buster. That will be my next scarf!

a quick beanie

Started this beanie yesterday and finished it today. The pattern is Ribbed beanie by Wooly wormhead.
The yarn is my handspun. The gauge worked out perfect for this pattern. This will make another check off of my Christmas knitting list. On to the next project..!!

Today my family had an early Thanksgiving dinner. While the food was cooking the little ones were playing outside enjoying the day. It's so nice to have them all here. My son in law Andrew cooked the turkey and all the fix'ins. It was absolutely delicious. Three of my children each made a pie.. Brooke made and apple pie, Devin made a pumpkin pie from a fresh pumpkin, and Hui made a pecan pie.(pictures will come later),



















Last evening I was experimenting again on my knitting machine. I started a simple lace scarf on my Singer 155 knitting machine. I had to do the lace part manually but the scarf still went fast. I finished it in an evening while watching some movies. (more pictures coming later) I used Lion Brand fisherman wool for this and used about 3/4 of the skein. Thats all for now.. it's been a long lovely day..(^_^)

one project

Can you believe that I'm only working on one project. This is a top down raglan I'm knitting for Abby. I found pattern in an old book in my closet. I remember purchasing the book because, up to that point I had only knit a top down raglan on my knitting machine. I loved the way the sweater was constructed but couldn't find any patterns for hand knitting until I found that book. I'm changing it up a little by not adding the ribbing to the sleeves and bottom of the sweater and eliminating most of the ribbing around the neck. My family is visiting with me for another week and I'm not sure how much knitting time I will have. So for now I'm just working on this sweater.
I read a lot of blogs when I have time and one I love is bluepeninsula. Bonnie is releasing a new pattern in a few days and I can't wait to see what it is. Take a look.

for abby

Little Abby is visiting me in Florida, well actually my whole family is visiting me. So she stood still for a minute and I actually got to take this picture of her wearing her 2 summer, summer dress that I made her a for her birthday.
Her mom told me that she picked this sweater out online and said that she liked it(the sweater in the picture). So I looked a round and I am making my version of it out of stretch merino yarn. It is a neck down raglan with a garter rib cable pattern. The brown isn't as warm as the brown of the picture sweater.. it's a little more expresso color. It's moving slowly right now but I plan to do some serious knitting when all the company leave. Until then I'm enjoying every minute.!!

completion!!

All the painting is finished and the hardware has been replaced .. 2 strapping young men moved it into the family room and it now houses the family tv and movies. Not bad for a hand-me down + lots of elbow grease. Once it was in the room it looked a lot bigger than it did when I was painting it. Now I just have to organize all the stuff that we took out of the other tv cabinet. I was a hiding spot for all my knitting needles and magazines..
























I was able to cast off the socks the other night at my knitting group.. time to start the next pair and and work on the sweater I started.