Knitting Dragonflies

Yay! This definitely was a slog-a-long! I started it in July of 2010 and finished it in July of 2012. Sound the horns, where is my knitting tiara!! But in my defense it was a long road. I had many gauge issues, due to using a yarn that was thick and thin ( Colinette Point Five in the colorway Cardinal,) bought, of course for another pattern, then frogged, ( see this post ).  Now this yarn is a beautiful, hand painted yarn, which is why I bought it, but I detested knitting with it. It seemed to suck all of the moisture out of my hands, (this may just be me). So I had to knit in small increments of time. The skeins are only 55 yds in 100 gms, so I had a crazy strategy of using multiple circular needles to knit it with. I had one circular at the collar, and bottom, and one circular on each sleeve. ( gauge issue post here )   I had the body done, kept the live stitches on all of my circular needles and figured, due to my limited number of balls of yarn, I would knit the esse...

Update on Syd, post surgery he got a seroma , about the size of a grapefruit, which then involved a drainage tube being inserted. Fun!  A lot of drainage, but better out than in. So I spent my weekend doing laundry and cleaning up after dribbles. But his side looks quite a bit better now that all of the fluid is out! Sometimes it is good to be lazy! I did get some knitting done. Working on my Dummy Clap Shawl , it is super east and fast. I’m knitting it with some Brown Sheep in a pound cone from my stash,  the yardage looks like it is 1400, in a deep maroon, beautiful yarn, and lovely to work with. It is Top of The Lamb . See link for information on this yarn, I would use it again. I’m already trying to track some down, I believe I bought at a weaving shop. It would be lovely in a shawl. From Brown Sheep Company about Top of the Lamb yarn, This single ply 100% USA grown wool yarn was expressly designed and dyed in colors that could be woven in rugs by the Navajo Nation....

Is there anyone out there that knits a sweater pattern without drama? Ha, all frustration aside, gauge problems, pattern tweaking etc.…[ pattern here ] I powered through all of my knitting drama with this pattern, well it did have extended “resting” times, but my biggest hurtle was, (see above photo) this is all of the yarn I have, see little bitty ball at the bottom!  11 skeins later and the arms of the sweater are just to my elbows. I dithered around for a bit, I had spent more money on this yarn than I had planned, and not made it into the pattern I had bought it for (of course *snort*). But I ultimately decided that I do in fact, LOVE, LOVE, LOVE how this is turning out, (it is super bulky thick and thin yarn) and is very warm and soft and squishy, I originally thought, when I realized that I would not have enough yardage to complete it, that I would make it into a vest. Having a raglan sleeve posed a problem with that idea. So I decided to knit as far as my yarn would allow ...

Cooking has started here, and I’m looking through the ads and going to get some knitting done. In the process of making some laptop bags (pattern to follow) for presents. Easy and fast. For anyone following the Iced Sweater slog-a-long, I’ve knitted all of the yarn up that I have which was 11 balls, I love the sweater (really a coat, LOL, made from super bulky yarn), and hunted down someone online who had some more of the discontinued yarn (she is in the Netherlands, *grin*, god bless her), and I ordered two balls up. Hoping to have them by the end of December so I can finish and wear it. So close!! I decided that a substitute yarn to finish the sleeves wasn’t’ going to make me happy, so I should just go all in and got on a crusade to find the yarn to finish it with! Happy holidays!

I did quite a bit of knitting on vacation. The drive there, I was trapped in the car with “the sweater”, so I had no choice but to knit. That was my strategy and it worked, but after 6 solid hours of knitting I was still on the collar! Well really the shawl collar which includes short rows and the front. Due to my yarn shortage I had taken the bottom and sleeves and put them on waste yarn. My strategy was to finish the front/collar, and then see how much I had, if I had enough, finish the bottom. I made my husband stop at a gas station and take photos so I could tell what it looked like, I was trying to tell what it looked like in the front seat of a small car. *grin* . No not there yet! I was surprised at how much knitting it took to get it long enough, basically I just knitted on the collar/front, until I was sick of it, and called it done. I then knitted a bit on the bottom, and then put a k2, p2 ribbing on it. Still knitting on the bottom ribbing here. After I was happy enou...

The Iced sweater that has stopped me in my tracks is now enjoying some attention. I’m almost out of yarn, and even though this yarn is discontinued, of course, I found some on eBay. But don’t really want to put more money into this sweater. (subject to change… ha) I’ve decided, after looking at many magazines after my surgery, that the fall trend is showing many vests. I decide to put my sleeves on hold and the bottom also, and start on the collar. I only have 3.5 skeins of yarn left (85 yards apiece) so if I can get the collar done, maybe I can then decide if I need to finish the sweater properly. Or…..just turn it into a vest. Would I wear a bulky vest? Not really sure I care at this point, I just need to get some momentum on this project. Until then I’m going to leave you with some great pattern links I’ve found…. http://us.knitsmc.com/files/patterns/freepattern_select_1762_en.pdf , this is a knitted shrug pattern, looks simple with a dolman sleeve , super easy pattern with a...

I have not mentioned it, for fear of jinxing myself. But I have been on a yarn diet for a year now! yay! I can’t believe it. This was actually inspired by The Quilter , who is constantly making an amazing amount of quilts and knits! After serious stash busting, my yarn is down to a very small area, I even have empty plastic bins! I’m pretty proud of myself. I think I have enough for one more sweater, and about 4 skeins of bulky turquoise that I bought on sale, (for who knows what), otherwise it is random balls of prettiness. The diet was broken by the purple yarn I bought for my girlfriends hat. So it was immediately knitted up and sent out. Of course the diet didn’t include, cotton yarn for washcloths, but I immediately give these away as I knit them, so obviously doesn't count! Or any yarn that I bought to dye and sell. *giggle* Before I become too full of myself I will confess I was not on a fiber diet. So any space that I freed up, pretty much got filled with fiber. I’m ...

I’m still slogging along with my Iced sweater from Knitty . After an alarming number of frogs and ciphering, I am cautiously on a roll. Yes you would think with yarn this bulky, that this sweater would be done in a week. Me too! I started with this lovely yarn that I purchased for another pattern, sound familiar? How many times do I do this? It laid around and mocked me for some time. I just wasn’t happy with the pattern that I originally bought for it. Of course the yarn being rather super bulky, it was hard to find another pattern to fit my needs. Enter Knitty Fall 2010 Iced Sweater by Carol Feller . I feel in love with it and had to have it. Well,,,,,,I didn’t want to buy more yarn, so I decided I would “force” this yarn into behaving itself began and perilous journey. Getting Gauge: not going to happen, the knitting gods laughed at me…Frogged Getting Gauge second try: still laughing, and do I detect some snorting?….Frogged Begin knitting, I’m blindly knitting along, tightly ...

How many times have you bought all of the supplies for a project to knit, and then changed your mind about the yarn, or pattern? This seems to happen to me all too often. The above was a purchase several years ago. Somewhere along the line I decided I didn’t want to use the pattern I bought. I think it was due to the fact that I detest knitting a sweater in separate pieces and putting it together. I love to knit in the round. I discovered this after finding my first Elizabeth Zimmerman book, Knitting without Tears ! Her techniques and insistence on swatching for your gauge, turned me into a super sweater knitter. Her patterns were the first I could actually wear! Usually I would have to gift my knitted sweater to someone, anyone that was the size the sweater was. And while this had a certain excitement, and drama, I actually wanted a sweater for myself. Elizabeth's in depth explanation of gauge and how to calculate your size, finally made me realize how important gauge was, and...

A quick sketch of a tree in my backyard, now minus its leaves. Done with a office supply felt tip marker, a fairly fat one. And finally some fibery progress…. After dithering about after every two rows, I decided to forge ahead on my Iced Sweater from Knitty made with Colinette Point Five. Due to the flash, the colors look pinker than the actual yarn. This is a top down sweater pattern, and after sweating the gauge for a bit. I’ve decided to consider it as a suggestion as to how much “off” I’m going to be, and try to compensate from there. I have no idea if I’ll have enough yarn to complete the sweater. I have 10 skeins of 50 m each = 500 meters or 546 yds. of Cardinal, (it is fairly bulky, I’m not sure if it is considered super bulky). The recommended needle size on the label is 17 and I’m using a 10 to get close to the gauge needed. This resulted in most of my problems, the knit is turning out to be thick and rather stiff. But I’ve decided to think of it as a warm sweater/coat...

First it was my washer that decided to die, after being nursed along and babied for about a year. Then my range started heating with no limit, from cold to brimstone in 15 minutes. Now my refrigerator has gone kaput! So I’m off today, and my big plans are to buy a new one! Ugh! Decisions, top freezer, bottom, French door, or side by side? In view of that I have decided to start knitting again, finally! I’ve had this yarn for quite some time, I bought it to make this hoodie. I have never started it Now I’m thinking I’ll try to use the yarn for a Knitty pattern Iced by Carol Feller (of  http://www.stolenstitches.com/ ) I love the ease of this sweater and it is knit in one piece, I would rather do this than separate pieces. After a swatch and calculations for several modifications, I’m hoping to get my knitting mojo back! Thanks to Theresa at Blueberries, Art and Life for getting me back into a knitting mood. "Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...