Here Comes the Sun, Damn It

It’s been a while. I retired in December 2017, and here it is September 2018! Now I have time to update my blog.

Just to get the ball rolling, here are some sun protective items I made for myself using Lily Sugar and Cream cotton yarn in the color Jute during the month of August. I burn easily, can't stand heat, and sunblock is ooky. At least I recently found a moisturizer from Cera Ve that has sun protection and doesn't break me out.

This is the floppy sun hat I have made before in black. I hope the lighter color will be cooler.

Floppy Brimmed Sun Hat by Lisa Zingsheim

 And, here's a bucket hat from the same designer.

Goin' To (destination) Bucket Hat by Lisa Zingsheim

These fingerless mitts were fun. Rather than make them end near the fingertips, I went longer so they could cover my whole hand. It's basically a tube, knit in the round, with increases for the thumb bump. Then the 14 stitches that make up the bump are bound off, and you continue knitting in the round to the desired length.

Easy Fingerless Mitts by Maggie Smith

I wore them a couple of times and decided I wanted a foldable thumb, too. I picked up stitches from the bound-off thumb and work a smaller 16 stitch tube. If I were going to do this again, I would have reserved the stitches on scrap yarn, rather than binding them off, and I wouldn't have that stripe across the thumb.

Mitts with an afterthought thumb.

 So, my neck and some of the chest are still exposed. This cowl begins at the point at the bottom. Additional stitches are cast on as you work the lace and knit it flat. Then you join in the round, and there are a couple of garter ridges so it won't curl. From there on it's stockinette (knit every stitch in the round) to the desired height. Follow with a couple more garter ridges and bind off. The pattern is bigger around and taller, but I wanted it to be snug against my neck and not bunch up in the back. I made it 8" from tip to collar, but the patter prescribes 11".

Bridger Cowl by Kris Basta - Kriskrafter LLC

Now to get back into some more complicated projects and update the ones I have completed since Blanche's jacket.

Everybody be good to each other!

Country Jacket for Kent's Mom

I've been wanting to make an outer garment of some kind for Blanche. I initially planned to make a poncho, but in the long time I put it off, I became a better knitter. I gathered up some patterns and took them to her. She picked this one, the Lion Brand Country Jacket.  http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/country-jacket---sweater-jacket Then we went to JoAnn Fabric, and she picked out the yarn and buttons.

The pattern calls for size 13 needles. I needed 11s to get gauge.

And so it begins. I didn't realize until I had knitted halfway up the back that the yarn would stripe like this.

Once I got the back done, I knew I wouldn't be able to match up the stripes, because each of the two fronts is only half as wide as the back. I decided I should just start both fronts from separate balls of yarn and begin with the same color on the bottom both times. I laid out the two balls and piled up the colors where they changed.

They're not perfect, but also not shabby. Here is the finished back, and apparently, some toes. The two fronts are lying beside the back on the floor, to the left.

Here are the two fronts stuck together with the button holes marked. And the other set of toes.

.

The pockets confused me terribly. In size large on the left front, I had 9 stitches held on the bottom and 11 stitches held on the top of the pocket slant shaping, which ended on the RS.

The pocket lining has 14 stitches and also ended on a RS.

JOIN THE POCKET LINER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SLANT. Place the 14 pocket liner stitches on the left needle.
Break the working yarn and join it to the liner.

Purl across 12 stitches of the liner. Now you have two stitches remaining. Lay the liner to the right of the 9 lower body stitches, and return those stitches to your left needle. Place the last 2 liner stitches on a cable needle. Hold the cable needle in either the front or back of your working needles. Slip the first stitch from the left needle to the right, and then transfer the two liner stitches from the cable needle. Return the stitch you slipped back to the left needle. P2 tog 2 times. Now you are working 12 + 9 or 21 stitches. Finish the purl row and work 11 rows to get you to the top of the slant, because it took you 11 rows of decreases to create it. End on RS.

Now from the WS you have the 21 stitches you’ve been working on your left and the higher 11 held stitches on your right. (Size large). Your working yarn is at the right side of the liner. Break it again.

JOIN THE POCKET LINER TO THE TOP OF THE SLANT
Put the 11 held stitches against the other 21 already on your left needle. Attach the working yarn again.

Purl across 10 of the 11 stitches. Purl the 11th upper stitch together with liner stitch 1. Now you have the full 31 stitches you began with on your needles to continue working the rest of the left front. The square liner is attached to both ends of the pocket slant, leaving a slit for access.

Next came the two sleeves. Again, I knit them using two balls of yarn and starting at the same color on both. I decided to do them both at once, so here they are on a big circular needle. I pinned them together so I'd remember to do both right sides, both wrong sides, etc instead of just knitting away on one of them.

I didn't take any more intermediate photos, but I'll just explain here that the collar is created by picking up and knitting stitches along the neck edge. So I seamed the shoulders, added the collar, seamed the sides and underarms, and added the buttons.

Next came the two sleeves. Again, I knit them using two balls of yarn and starting at the same color on both. I decided to do them both at once, so here they are on a big circular needle. I pinned them together so I'd remember to do both right sides, both wrong sides, etc instead of just knitting away on one of them.

I didn't take any more intermediate photos, but I'll just explain here that the collar is created by picking up and knitting stitches along the neck edge. So I seamed the shoulders, added the collar, seamed the sides and underarms, and added the buttons.

I have about the equivalent of two balls of the yarn left, enough to make a scarf or hat to go with this. I bought way too much at the beginning, but it turned out to be a good thing, due to the color matching wasting plenty. I'm pretty happy with it, and so is Blanche.

StevenBe Eyelet Ponchini and the Broken Foot

I began this ponchini at a StevenBe workshop on 07/09/16 at Yarn Shop and More in Overland Park, Kansas. I had 5 balls of Shibui Linen in the house. I purchased one hank of Blue Rayon metallic in Mossy Place at the workshop.

I was less than halfway through when I measured the Rayon Metallic and decided I had less than half of the yarn left. I decided to decrease the rayon : linen ratio and eventually have all linen at the end.

I used the full 550 yards of rayon and 1,050 of the linen. The pattern calls for 10 stockinette panels for an extra large. Mine is 12 panels long. Here is the pattern link http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/eyelet-ponchini 

The cast on part of the panels is the rayon and the linen held together throughout.

When I had to start conserving the rayon, I switched to this scheme, making changes with each stockinette panel.
6 rows rayon/linen to 2 rows linen doubled
4 rows rayon/linen to 2 rows linen doubled
2 rows rayon/linen to 2 rows linen doubled
2 rows rayon/linen to 4 rows linen doubled
2 rows rayon/linen to 6 rows linen doubled
Solid linen for last panel.

This picture shows what I hoped would be a gradient, but ended up as stripes.

In the middle of binding it off, I made a mad dash to the bathroom and severely stubbed and cut my toe in the process by kicking the end of a door HARD. After a middle-of-the-night emergency room visit, I received a diagnosis of a broken foot bone and a stylish unflexible protective shoe.

I finished it again later that morning. I discovered I had dropped a stitch in the very first part of the bind-off, so I had to frog it back about 12 rows and refinish it.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.

The Susan Bag

This is the first item I have ever made for Kasia that she actually asked for. We visited Stitch Space in Webb City, MO together, and she was blown away by the beautiful yarns they have there. At that time, they were having a Berroco Modern Cotton trunk show. She was flipping through a Berroco pattern book, and this caught her eye, so I bought the book. At least a year later, I started on it.

Here is the Ravelry link to the pattern: Susan Bag by Amy Christoffers The price of the single pattern is $6.00, but I think I paid $12.00 for the whole physical book at the store. Oddly enough, I'm the only Raveler who has saved a project from this pattern.

I bought cotton yarn, since the pattern calls for cotton, but I got cheap stuff at Jo-Ann instead of the more expensive Berroco. Don't worry, I spent plenty on yarn at Stitch Space, too. I started working on it, and the yarn I had was just too fluffy. It didn't define stitches well, and it looked like it would fuzz up something fierce. The Modern Cotton is a cotton/viscose blend, it's a little lighter than worsted weight, and it is also mercerized or has some sort of finish that makes it smoother. It's the yarn I used for Elsa's sweater that I finished last January. Elsa's Sweater

I went in search of a good quality acrylic, and I ended up buying Premier Yarns Deborah Norville Everyday Worsted. I had made the scarf for the Red Scarf Project out of it, and it felt good. It's billed as anti-pilling. We shall see. I bought four skeins of it, or a total of 800 yards. The pattern called for 627 yards of the Berroco, so I have most of the fourth skein left.

Here is the completed back. The solid part at the bottom of the picture is the top of the back of the purse. It's knit in seed stitch (knit one, purl one, yada yada, but doing the opposite on the wrong side of the fabric. Otherwise it would be a rib stitch.) After 2" of seed, it switches to stockinette (knit the right side, purl the wrong side) with seed stitch on either side. That keeps it flat and looks cool. All of the increases and decreases are done in the seed stitch on the sides.

The diamonds are made up of bobbles. There are several ways to make large and small bobbles, and these are very small. This is my first project that includes them, and it will be the last for a very long time. There are 15 diamonds made up of seven bobbles on each of the four sides. This takes place over 24 rows of knitting, done on the right side of the fabric.

As I said, this is a small bobble. The pattern instructions are to knit to the location where the bobble will be placed. On the next stitch, knit the front, back, and front of the stitch, turning it into three, and move it to the right needle as usual. Then you turn the work around and purl those three stitches. Then you turn the work around again, slip the first of the three onto the right needle, knit the second two together, and pass the slipped stitch over the one you just made out of two. Now you're back to one.

I started out doing it as described in the paragraph above, but this is fraught with danger of a needle slipping out of the work while you're turning it over and over. I had seen some videos of backwards knitting, and I decided it was time to learn how. Here's a link to Staci Perry's excellent video that describes how it's done.

Knitting Backwards - Staci Perry www.verypink.com

So, by backwards knitting, she is doing the same thing as turning it over and purling. Remember, by knitting on the right side and purling on the back, every stitch on the right side is a knit. They're two sides of the same coin.

My first few bobbles were kind of loosey-goosey. I learned that you have to pull the yarn tight on both sides of the bobble, especially when you're purling across the whole back of the piece. You also have to consciously poke the little ball to the right side for your tight stitches to hold it out in the front. I got the hang of it pretty well, and I used a needle to tighten up the stitches around the earlier ones after the fact.

I finished the back. After doing some increases every 10 rows, you can see that the seed stitch on the ends has tapered out. After finishing the back, the instructions say to bind off 11 stitches on either end. That's what makes the horizontal jog in. In the picture below, the back of the purse is in the lower part of the picture, the bottom is in the middle, and the front of the purse is in the upper portion, live on the needles. Hey look, 15 more bobble diamonds to do! Yippee!!!

The bottom is 4" of seed stitch. Once you reach that goal, you cast on 11 additional stitches on each end so it's the same width as you left before. Then you knit the front of the purse so that it is a mirror image of the back by decreasing stitches instead of increasing them, finishing with 2" of seed stitch for the top edge of the front. Finally, you bind it off.

Jason was visiting one night while I was working on it, and sweet guy that he is, he was asking me about it. He posed the question of stretch. Doggone it, he was right. The acrylic does stretch more than cotton, so I decided I'd need to line it.

I found some cute yellow cotton with white daisies with black centers and bought a yard of it. I folded the fabric in half and laid the completed purse in its flat state with the edge of the fabric at the midpoint of the purse bottom, and I just traced around it with a pen. I used the sewing machine to stitch around it the same way the purse is assembled. The flaps created by the bind-offs and cast-ons are sewn to the adjacent edges of the bottom, and then the sides are sewn up. Then I hand-stitched it with thread to the inside of the purse, being careful not to run the thread clear through to the right side of the purse.

Here is the lining in the assembled purse body.

The last step is to create two 18-inch long straps done in, you got it, seed stitch. They're supposed to be nine stitches wide, and you just knit and purl those nine stitches until you reach the length. What with the stretchiness of the yarn, I decided it would be better if the straps had a double thickness, so I knitted them in the round as tubes consisting of 19 stitches. You have to use an odd number of stitches when knitting seed in the round so you don't wind up stacking knits on knits and purls on purls, getting the little cobblestone effect. Since I hate using double-pointed needles, I used a 40" circular needle and the magic loop method. Here is a link to a great magic loop video by Liat Gatt.

Liat Gatt - www.knitfreedom.com

I sent a text to Kasia with a picture, and it meets with her approval. Now I have to work on some continuing education and only knit a tiny bit. I also have two library books that must be read in the next two weeks.

Cooling Lei

It just barely, sorta, kinda looks like one. At least to me.

I have some of those Chilly Pad cooling towels that can be soaked, wrapped around the neck, and left to evaporate and draw out heat. There's no good way to wear them, since they don't have fasteners. I wanted to knit something from this material to wear when I have to be out in the heat.

I looked up what Chilly Pads are made of. It's a spongy material called polyvinyl alcohol, or PVA. It's also the material used in automotive drying towels. I could not find a yarn made from the stuff, so I made my own.

I got a 31" x 17" car towel. They are packaged wet, because when they dry, they are stiff and brittle.

I took scissors and made one long spiral strip about 1/4" wide by cutting up the right side, turning 90 degrees before reaching the end, cutting across the top, down the left, etc. I rounded the corners on each turn to keep the strip strong. In the end, I had 34 yards of what amounted to a super bulky ribbon yarn. Here is a picture showing a couple of remnants to illustrate the idea of making the spiral cut.

I looked for knitting patterns using Ravelry's excellent search tools and found a couple of interesting ones. I picked one and started knitting on my US 35 needles. I soon learned that this stuff sticks to the plastic needles something fierce. Since the material needed to be washed eventually, I just took hand soap and applied it to both the yarn and the needles whenever they started grabbing again.

In order to keep things slick, I was knitting over a bowl of water, dunking the work as needed. During the bind-off row, I broke the yarn by accident. Soaking in the water for a long time made the yarn pliable, but also weakened it. I ripped back a couple of rows and bound it off again. The end result really wasn't much different from the cooling towels sold in sporting goods and other stores. So I frogged it.

Next, I tried to arm knit it. The stitches were huge and loose, because, A: My arms are really big needles; and B: I couldn't tighten them much because the yarn loves to stick to itself even more than it loves sticking to needles.

So, I broke down and finger crocheted one long chain about 8 feet in length and tied the ends together. It feels pretty cool. I am losing some cooling ability by not having every inch of my skin in contact with the scarf, but it will stay on by itself. I don't know if having air circulating around and through the piece will hurt or enhance the cooling action.

The actual cooling towels and car drying towels are machine washable. I didn't want to put a slightly frail piece into the washer, so I just rinsed it by soaking and squishing it in the bathtub. There was already plenty of soap. I'll probably test it out in the heat this weekend.

I'm tired of mis-estimating the tail length for a long-tail cast on!

I started a project in the workshop conducted yesterday at Yarn Shop and More in Overland Park, Kansas. The instructor was Steven Berg, owner of the store and brand called StevenBe. Here is his website. http://www.stevenbe.com.  If you want to see hilarious videos of his adventures on tours with another designer named Stephen West, see http://www.stevenbe.tv. Stephen West has his own website at http://www.westknits.com.

For the class, we were to pick a StevenBe design from a list and bring or buy yarn to use. Steven helped us learn his techniques of combining colors and textures to make more of what we have. The pattern I chose is the Eyelet Ponchini, by StevenBe. This is where you can see the pattern and pictures on Ravelry. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/stevenbe-eyelet-ponchini. I'm pasting a picture here from the pattern book I purchased (signed by the man himself!).

I have some nice fingering weight Shibui Linen that I bought at Stitch Space in Webb City on sale. I thought that would be a good summer yarn. I didn't have any yarns in my stash that I'd like to combine with it, so I searched the store and came up with a couple of possibilities. Naturally, Steven advised the Blue Heron Rayon Metallic, since he is the Glitter Knitter. That's pretty expensive stuff.

The pattern begins with a cast-on of 88 stitches for the large size. Steven also taught us how to do what he calls Mama Christa's Cast-on. Christa is his mama, so there you go. Here is a Youtube video of him demonstrating it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLBjK2oWMKI

It gives a stretchier cast-on than the simple long-tail. Every other stitch is essentially a yarn over.

So, I held my two yarns together, learned the cast-on, and estimated the tail length with the usual methods, such as wrapping around the needle once as a stand-in for each stitch, or simply guessing and starting. I ended up with a too-long tail the first time and sacrificed a couple of yards of yarn. Next it was too short, or I messed it up or something. Anyway, I ended up casting on about three times at the workshop, and finally commenced to knittin'.

Last night I decided I wasn't happy with my selvage edges, so I frogged it and started over. Same troubles. I vowed I would not waste another inch of my expensive yarn and decided to go about this in a scientific manner.

When you do a long-tail cast-on, you use yarn from the tail and from the working yarn on the ball. I estimated it was about half from each. I got out my trusty scrap yarn and got going.

Picture 1: I tied a piece of gray onto my red to show where the beginning of the tail is. I gave it about 6". Then I knitted on 20 stitches, all from the working yarn.

Picture 2: Here is the completed cast-on. I tied another piece of gray onto the red to mark the end of the yarn it used.

Picture 3: I laid out the length of yarn to show how much is contained in those 20 stitches.

Picture 4: I tied another piece of gray onto the red to mark the middle.

Picture 5: I laid out a piece of gray yarn and tied red bits on to mark the desired beginning spot for my tail and a distance equal to the center of the red yarn that I had used. The red marker on the right will be the beginning of the cast-on.

Picture 6: Casting on the gray using the long-tail method.You can see the little red marker at the desired end of the tail and another close to the needle on the right where I sarted, and the working yarn trailing off to the right.

Picture 7: You can see the completed cast-on of 20 stitches showing the red marker bits I tied on when I measured out the tail. Hypothesis proved.

The Mama Christa actually uses a little less yarn than the normal long-tail, due to not all of the stitches actually being "knit" on.

Here is my plan for the next try:
1. Knit on 22 stitches of the expensive stuff. This is one fourth of the 88 I want, and a number that takes very little time to knit on.
2. Add marker ties to the end of the cast-on yarn and the beginning of the tail.
3. Take it off the needles and stretch it out.
4. There is no need to mark the middle. Following the 50/50 theory, a tail of this length should provide enough yarn to do a long-tail cast-on of 44 stitches.
5. I need double that amount, then, to cast on 88. I'll just lay out another length of the working yarn alongside what I have stretched out.
6. There is no need to mark it, but just beginning the long-tail at the point closest to my working yarn should be just about right.

I'll let you know how it worked out when I blog about actually making the ponchini.

Holly Nan

Purple and Ivory Lace-edged Chemo Hat

Another one! I used up some remnants of cotton for this one. It's the scallop option, whereas the previous two were the Madeira lace. I think I like the Madiera better with its little points, but this lace pattern can be memorized, since it just repeats two rows, one of which is just a round of knit stitches.

There will be more.