Back Again!

It's been almost two years since I've posted anything on my blog. It's a wonder Blogger still keeps it there! Somehow I just got away from it, and never started again. I have been continuing to knit, crochet a little, quilt, and embroider. I've joined Ravelry, where I'm also FlyingNeedles. I'll try to keep up with my knitting projects there, and blog here now and then. So what have I done in the past two years?

As for knitting--the FLAK sweater still isn't done. I have to practice the attached i-cord bind-off, which I haven't done. That hideous felted bag from the recycled red, blue, and black yarn isn't done. I only have the handles to finish, and the felting, but I don't feel compelled at all to pick it up.

I finished a few easy hats for Afghans for Afghans, Save the Children, and the Salvation Army's mitten tree. I finished my first pair of simple mittens for AfA. I started a Norwegian-style pair of fair-isle mittens for DH, but the first one still isn't completed, and I really don't think they'll be large enough to fit him! I knit a wool hat for my dad, a cabled pattern from the Hats Off! book. I made an ear-flap style hat (Berocco's Amelia pattern) for my mom. I knit a cute baby sweater from a Dale book, with cars on it. I made Fetching fingerless mitts for myself and my niece. And I started Ruth Sorensen's Autumn Cardigan, for me. That's the only project I'm actually progressing on now.

For embroidery, I finished M'Lady's Tea Cloth group correspondence course from EGA. That was truly a pleasure to stitch. I finished an ornament from the 2003 Just CrossStitch special, the Beaded Holiday Bellpull from Hermanson Hardanger. I'd started it in 2006, and had stitched the 2006, which I had to change to 2007. After that DH actually commented that I needed to change the date to 2008! But no--I finished it for last Christmas. I also finished the new name tag for EGA that I started long ago. When I finally sat down to do it, it only took a couple of hours while watching TV. The edges are finished in a scandinavian technique of needleweaving, which is then folded over to make loops--perfect to thread a cord through. I embroidered my name and stitched beaded grapes.

For quilting, I finished a baby blanket for our new nephew. I also made a couple of pillows for my brother and sister-in-law. The centers are paper-pieced from the Animal Kingdom CD.

For crocheting, I made a baby afghan for my great nephew. That's right, as of last year, I'm a great aunt! The afghan is from one of Vanna's books, I think.

I've tried uploading photos for these, but so far, no luck. I'll have to try again later. Some of the knitting ones are on Ravelry.

Not fallen off the edge of the earth...

Yes, I'm still here. Two weeks is the longest so far that I haven't posted anything. I've been working a lot of overtime lately and haven't been knitting much. I received some great suggestions about how to deal with the FLAK sweater's large neck opening. At least I have a lot of time to think about it while I finish up the rest of the sweater. I looked at photos of a lot of sweaters, and noticed that some of them do have large openings, with equally large collars, which do pull in as they go up. Of course, the book where I noticed this the most was from the 70's, back when the entire sweater tended to be oversize. I figure whatever I end up doing, if I don't like it I can always rip it out and change it. I did finally pick up stitches for the right arm, and have knit down so far 45 rows. It seems to be going faster than the first arm.















I did accomplish one project that I'm very happy with--two new pillows for the sofa. These replace an old large pillow that was incredibly worn and torn, and thankfully I tossed in the garbage before even thinking of taking a photo. I learned how to use my new zipper foot to insert a zipper in the edge. I followed the instructions in my sewing book and had no problem (except when my bobbin thread ran out halfway down the seam for the second edge of the zipper!). And best of all, I made them from a long strip of home decor fabric that I'd bought at an estate sale for pennies. If you look really close, you can see the seam down the center of the middle blue strip, where I pieced them together for the right width. So the only real cost was for zippers, and for the pillow forms (although I had those already--can't remember what I bought them for!)

I made Boston Cream Cake today, for my best friend's birthday. It's been so long since I made this. DH didn't think he liked Boston Cream Cake, but he declared this to be good! I think he liked the lemon flavor I put in the cake. I also tried a new recipe for Seed Bread I found on Recipezaar. I'm not cutting it until breakfast (gonna try it toasted) so I can't say how I like it. It was fun measuring out the different seeds, though.

Posting, posting, posting...

All right, here goes for the third time...twice I've just about finished composing this post, then the computer has an error, and I lose it all...

I'm about 3" from finishing the left sleeve of the FLAK sweater. The rounds are taking less and less time to complete, yah! Both DH and I had an awful virus that's been going around locally, so I didn't get much knitting done in the past few days. I am feeling better now though, and tried on the sweater for the first time. The sleeve fits and looks great, but I'm really concerned about the gigantic neck opening! I realized after I joined the front sides together that I should have stopped about an inch sooner on the sides, but even if I had, I think it would still be too large. So now I'm wondering what to do for the neck. I'm planning on doing an attached I-cord for the sleeves, and probably the bottom too. A regular ribbed collar would probably look out of place. Just an I-cord would probably leave the neck still way too big. So what to do? I'm going to have to look through my knitting books for some inspiration. Any ideas?

I knit about an inch further on the sleeve since the photo was taken. Then my yarn ran out, and I decided to put the sleeve on a string for now and knit the right sleeve. I wound another skein, but have been procrastinating about picking up the stitches.

Tonight while we watched a movie I disassembled the cardigan shown in Feb 27th's post. I ended up all this great wool yarn: 19 oz. of grey, 3+ oz. of dark brown, and 2+ oz. of cream. They are nice big balls due to spit splicing, which I tried out for the first time. It worked great--many thanks to my fellow FLAK knitters who posted how to do this. DH was puzzled at first as to what exactly I was doing, but was appropriately appreciative when I explained and showed him the results.

The movie we were watching was "Moon Over Parador"; it was interesting as it was filmed in Ouro Preto. We plan on visiting this city on our next trip to Brazil. Due to its history and architecture, it is on UNESCO's World Heritage List. You can see some great photos of the city here: http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/braziliana/ouropreto.html

Sleevin' Away

I'm about 8" down on the first sleeve, and convinced that my next project will be something without sleeves! Actually it's going well; I joined to knit in the round after 1.5", after I'd finished row 10, did my first decrease at the start of row 15, and am decreasing every five rows after, which is so easy to remember. In the second photo you can see a top view of the sleeve, with the honeycombs and two-stitch twist on either side of the saddle continuation. I'm satisfied with the way it looks so far. I'm still using my 24" Addi, having to pull out the excess near the end of the right needle as I go around. I guess that's how the magic circle is supposed to work, but it's sure exasperating to me. I'm planning on a trip to the LYS tomorrow morning to pick up 16" and 12" Addis.

I didn't get as much knitted on the road as I'd hoped; we started out too late on Friday and darkness comes so early now. We did stop in at a new needlework shop in Contoocook NH: Contoocook Needlework Gallery. They have a lot of great threads for embroidery and also needlepoint canvases. Around the corner is a covered railroad bridge and a great pizza shop.
Here are photos of DH at the end of the bridge (it's not as pretty as most covered bridges; there are no openings along the sides except for way up high so the side view is just a big rectangle) and of the goodies I found there. The blue-looking ones really are purple. I'm looking forward to trying the Mandarin Floss which is made of bamboo.









It started snowing at about the halfway point driving north; it wasn't really as much snow as it was wind blowing the snow around. When we arrived in the evening there was only a couple of inches, but here's what we woke up to Saturday morning:
At this point the snow was about 16" deep, and it continued to snow throughout the day. This area received the most snow; surrounding areas received much less, and back at home we had none at all, thank goodness! Come Sunday, the sky was bright and sunny for our return drive. Knitting all the way.

We stopped in Stowe VT and bought some gifts and penny candy at the mercantile ($6.95/lb, so it's not really penny candy anymore!). There's a little shop upstairs with some yarn and fabric, but I didn't buy anything. After we left there, we discovered Stowe Fabric & Yarn, around the corner on Park St. There I bought this:
A skein of Cherry Tree Hill supersock, in Suger Maple. I was tempted by a purple colorway, but decided to go with this bright, happy color (DH's choice too). Someday I'll actually finish the first pair of socks I started; I've learned how to turn the heel, but get stumped at the gusset. Eventually I'll get Charlene Schurch's new sock book; it sounds like it has great explanations (and I love her Hats Off! book). I've found so many great sock patterns, I just have to master this!

To FLAK or not to FLAK...

I've hardly worked on the FLAK sweater at all the past few days. I did figure out how many stitches to pick up (same as Janet's, actually), picked them up and knit 2-3 rows. But wouldn't you know it, I lost parts 1-5 of the sweater instructions. Granted, I printed them out again, but the original ones had all my measurements, notes, etc. I can't figure out how they wandered far enough away from my knitting area to completely disappear, despite much searching. It'll be interesting to see where they eventually turn up. So tonight I measured myself again to figure out how far I could knit before joining to knit in the round (1.5"). We're off to visit my family this weekend, so I'll have about three hours knitting time in the car each way, unless DH gets sleep so I have to take a turn driving.

There were two articles in the local newspaper Monday about knitting! One was about a woman hoping to start a local chapter of a knitting charity. The other was about a knitting group at the senior home. It quoted the director of volunteer services as saying: "there are really not a lot of knitters anymore." Funny, I don't notice the lack. Just look at the umpteen number of internet blogs by knitters, knit-alongs, swaps, etc. I know quite a number of women at church who knit. The LYS is always full of people knitting and buying yarn. I noticed the A.C. Moore yarn section has exploded, and I hear that their knitting parties are packed. And last week when I took the car to the garage, I had the nicest chat with another woman in the waiting area who also knits (and weaves too!) Perhaps it's just that we're all too busy knitting things for ourselves and our loved ones (not to mention working, etc.) that we don't have time to do as much volunteer knitting as people used to. Granted, I have knit some hats for Afghans for Afghans, the Ship's Project, or the local Salvation Army mitten tree, but not as much as I'd like to do. I know I have a couple of UFOs somewhere to finish and donate; perhaps I should hunt them down.

Here are some goodies from a sale I went to on Wednesday: A pile of needlework magazines, mostly McCall's Needlework & Crafts from the 80's, a heap of knitting brochures and booklets, a couple of needlepoint books, and four small balls of yarn. I sorted though the booklets and only will keep the ones on the bottom. Perhaps I can sell the others on e-bay. I still have to try this. It was interesting just to look at the model photos--the ones from the 80's with big hair and bold makeup; the ones from the 60's with everyone at pool parties and barbecues, the women with Jackie-style hair, the men posing with a martini or pipe or golf clubs; the ones from the 50's where the women always had gloves on or in their hands. The McCall's magazines only have one or two interesting things in each one, so I'll probably clip what I want and pass the rest on to a friend (only so many entire magazines I can keep--and Vogue they're not!) There were some partly-made sweaters at the sale, all on stitch holders, no needles (unless some lucky person got to them before me!) and all the yarn except the slate-blue colored ball of wool was acrylic, and not good quality except for the small ball of baby yarn and the two small balls of bulky I took home. I like small balls of pretty colors; they're fun to use to make hats.

Well I'm off until next week--hopefully I'll have made enough FLAK progress over the weekend to make a good picture! (I'm also taking along my Celtic Christmas cross-stitch to work on--all it needs is the gold stitches and the beads to be finished, and a couple of sweaters to deconstruct. Nothing like keeping busy at mom's!)

Finally the FLAK Front is Finished!

Finally, after three nights of knitting whilst watching Carnaval, I finished the front of the FLAK sweater down to the same length as the back. I'm going to take a breather until Janet's site is up again with the sleeve part.
Friday I went shopping at the Salvation Army. I found a good $1 sweater which I plan on unravelling for the wool--it's got a hole in the back so it's not any good for anyone to wear anyway. Look at the nice buttons too!





I bought this last week. I needed a second pair of Addis to knit the front of FLAK (I wanted to keep the back on the ones I had which will be long enough to knit in the round when I get to that point), and didn't plan on buying a book. However, I wanted the pattern for felted fish, and the LYS didn't have it separate, so I ended up with this. I'm glad, because they have some other nice patterns, and reading about the shops is interesting.


These came in the mail last week, too. I saw a photo on someone else's blog of one or two of the patterns, and just had to track them down (even though I still haven't finished my first pair of socks!) You can buy all 5 patterns from www.sweaterscapes.com for $12. The top parts of them are knit flat in intarsia, then sewn up the back, and the rest is knit in the round. Doesn't sound too difficult, although they do use a lot of colors in a small space.

The FLAK front is joined!

After not working on the FLAK sweater for a few days, I picked it up on Monday night, picked up stitches for the left side of the front, and knit a couple of inches until I felt the neck was big enough. Last night I did the same for the right side, joined the two, and knit the first row back. From the center of the saddles, it's about 3-1/2" down. (I hope that isn't too big; I knit until I'd increased 8 stitches on either side. I don't like very tight necks in wool anyway) I cast on all of the stitches, both the increasing ones on the neck sides, and the ones at the front, using the cable cast-on. When picking up stitches from the saddles, I found it much more difficult on the right side of the front, which is the left side of the saddle. I remember it was the same when I picked up stitches for the left side of the back (from the left side of that saddle). I wonder if it would make things easier to add an extra stitch on the left side of the saddles, at least ones with a little cable at the edge like these?

Now before I can continue, I have to decide something about the center cables. I realized that if I start the Xs and Os at the correct row number that corresponds with where I am with the sides of the front and the back, I'll be starting at the last cable cross of each letter, then starting the next letter a couple of rows down. This would just look wonky. So I'll have to start with whole Xs and Os. I think I'll probably start with the right-side row that's between two X/O repeats. It won't match up exactly with the back, but who looks at both the back and front at the same time? The back Xs and Os will finish up a couple of rows before the front, so they'll be a couple rows of plain knitting at the bottom, but I think that won't be a problem.

I didn't try cabling the inner snakes yet, either. I did the one on the left, as I had enough stitches to cross, but being so close to the edge, it seemed to pull the edge out of whack, and I thought it would be very hard to pick up neck stitches there. So I undid it, and knit those plain so far.

I finally got caught up reading all the FLAK postings. It sure is interesting what everyone is doing, and great to see all the different yarns and cables everyone is using. I'm glad the next part isn't out yet; it'll give me a chance to finish the front. I noticed that a lot of folks are participating in the Knitting Olympics too, during FLAK down time. Unfortunately I'm missing out on the Olympics, as we only have Globo, Brazilian TV, which keeps DH in touch with his home country. I don't care much for watching TV anyway, and I love the Brazilian novelas, so normally I don't miss having American TV. But I do miss being able to see some of the Olympics, especially the winter ones as I love to watch the figure skating. This weekend Globo starts carnival coverage for a few days, so I was thinking maybe I can do Knitting Carnival? Actually I have a past due wedding quilt I'm supposed to be working on (instead of a sweater for myself!), so maybe it'll be Quilting Carnival!

Here's what I worked on over the weekend:

It's not a lot of knitting, but I worked overtime Saturday and cleaned the kitchen Sunday after church, so I guess I really did accomplish something. I also finally got caught up on reading the FLAK postings. I'm glad the next part isn't out yet, to give me a chance to catch up.

I used up all of the four-color, sewed the sides together, and started I-cording for the handle with the three-color. I think I have enough yarn to go across once, then go back across a second time, entwining the two before I attach the second I-cord. I saw that in felted bag pattern from somewhere, and it looked good. So I really don't have much left to do before it's ready to felt! I think I'll put a zipper in the top.

I took both today's photos in the sun this morning, so the colors are pretty accurate.