Category Archives: On My Needles

Work avoidance and new yarn!

I finally figured out that when I don’t want to work I think of all the things I want to knit. I’m sitting here, eating my chicken pot pie for lunch, and wondering where I’m going to squeeze in an hour or two for hand knitting. The next thought is, what am I going to knit in that cherished, well-earned hour for hand knitting?!

My sweater of silk/wool blend yarn, I promised I would finish before starting another project Hah!

The second wrist warmer in the same pattern as my leg warmers. (BTW hope you all like the leg warmer pattern) The wrist warmer was quick and fun and when I get the second one done I’ll post a photo.

Or I could knit a new lace project in my kidmohair.jpgnew mohair purchased yesterday ON SALE at the Clickity Sticks which is having a going out of business sale. Yes, another yarn shop in the community is going out of business. It was like being at a wake shopping at the store yesterday. It was crowded with customers offering condolences to Tamara. Lots of sad knitters saying how much they will miss the store, but also inspiring listening to them talk about previous yarn purchases and their finished projects.

The lace sample pinned out in the photo I knit while walking at the dog park yesterday. (The only hour I could find in my day to hand knit.) I’ve been daydreaming of a lace shawl or throw for months and so thought I’d work up some lace to get a gauge. The blustering wind troubled me a bit while walking and knitting. . . the yarn is so light that it kept twisting around my elbows and in the zipper of my jacket. Bother! But it gave me enough to get a gauge, I think.

The other yarn I purchased I will use for accents in as yet to be determined projects.

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I can’t imagine an entire project in this fun fur, glittery stuff but it makes great accents!

The sale at Clickity Sticks will continue until all the merchandise is gone. Don’t delay, if you want to find good deals. Everything is marked down, yarn, books, patterns, and even needles. I might have to make another trip out there this weekend.

Happy knitting!

New yarn! Lace weight, aran weight, and Linen!

I have new yarn, nah, nah, na-nah, nah! Sorry, don’t mean to gloat but this stuff is really beautiful and a gift!

A friend of mine, Lil, who owns At Loose Ends in Perham, Minnesota was in town for a three day workshop at the Textile Center and she stayed at my house. As a gift, she gave me a bag of yarn and this is what was in it.

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This golden color linen. Don’t know what to do with it yet, but can’t wait to start swatching! I’m thinking a nice spring scarf/shawl? I think I’ll knit it in a nice open lace pattern.

malabrigolace.jpg

And this lovely lace weight Malabrigo. Ooh I love these colors. I love knitting lace!! Just don’t know what to do with this either. It’s driving me crazy having this yarn wound and not knitting with it yet!

And last but not least!

mistialpaca.jpg

Misti alpaca in this nice warm colorway. Lil told me it is enough yarn to knit the Clapotis shawl-scarf from Knitty that is so popular. Hmm. Don’t know yet what this will be either. My fingers are itching with anticipation. I’m wanting some leg warmers. . . I wear them all winter since the temperature in my studio is cool. . . maybe I’ll spoil myself and have alpaca leg warmers!

I have projects that are on deadline to finish and I have a sweater that is about 1/2 done that I swore I would finish before starting another project. . . but this yarn is calling my naaaaammmmmmee.

BTW, I added three more colors of hats to my etsy store

I’m off to work so that tomorrow I can knit!

Lacey Leg warmers

I guess I’m on the right track. I’ve started a pair of lacy leg warmers using a hand dyed dk weight yarn. It is a lovely lime green, if I had to name it I’d call it celery. Sorry, I can’t tell you where to get your own lovely celery yarn just like this because I bought it from the dyer ages ago and can’t even remember who it was. Where has my brain gone? Out the window with this heat!

Anyway, I had a partially finished leg warmer on my fake leg…(see below)… and a friend of a friend saw it and oogled and awed. “LEG WARMERS! I LOVE leg warmers. I wish I could wear them all the time!” Guess I’m on the right track for my fall fashion line. At least according to my market survey of one. šŸ™‚


The lace pattern is a simple 4 row repeat and it is fairly simple to increase up the leg and stay in the pattern. As soon as I’m done with these, I plan on making it my first free pattern on this blog.

While knitting these I also realized how much I love knitting in the round on two circular needles. When I used to knit in the round on 4 or 5 double pointeds I always got ladders. No matter what I did to try to correct this, the ladders persisted. However, when I knit on two circulars, I get NO ladders. Woo Hoo. I highly recomend this for circular knitting. Once I got used to the ends of the circulars bobbing around my work it became a piece of cake. Better than those double pointeds always poking me in my palm.

You may have noticed that the only thing I write about is knitting, knitting, knitting. Well, what can I say? I do have a life outside of knitting but the needles are always with me. I’ve even bumped into a few tree branches lately while knitting a pair of socks and walking the dog at the dog park. Shoot, I think it may be too hot between now and who knows when to keep knitting outside. Oh well, if it is too hot too knit outside it must be too hot to walk the dog for her usual hour afternoon session…guess I’ll have to cut the walk short and go back to the air conditioning and knittng. Sorry Molly Brown. (see sad dog below)

Okay, she’s not really sad, just sleeping.

It’s in the mail

Well, I made it! It’s in the mail! Cheryl, thanx for your confidence in how it will look. I’m not sure how Cherry Treey Hill feels about photos of contest proposals on blogs so I’m going to wait until I hear news from them before publishing any photos here. The sweater turned out okay. It fits Ellen better than it fits me. If I make one for myself I will make it longer.

I swear I have a love affair with everything I knit. I am totally infatuated at the beginning and want nothing more than to spend time with my new sweater on its needles. Until I’ve knit about 6 inches of the body; when I find out it is just like every other sweater, it burps and farts. When I’m about 1/2 done I start to loose interest and wonder if there isn’t something better out there for me. But I’m stubborn and will stick around to the bitter end. By the time I get to the collar and finishing I’m less than thrilled and can’t wait for a break from it. But like all great loves, the more time I spend with it and all its burps and farts, the more I come to love it. Now I wouldn’t want to live without the sweaters I’ve knit for myself.

It’s time to get back to all of the duties I neglected while falling in love and knitting this sweater. I realized that in 10 days I designed and hand knit a sweater. Whew, no wonder my brain feels empty, my shoulders are a bit tight and my emotions have run amok.

Hmm, what’s on my needles now?

  • Socks with a beaded anklet knit in (1/2 of one sock is complete)
  • a black ribbon sweater with accents of recycled silk (1/2 done)
  • an aran sweater for my accupunturist (I’ve been working on this since June of 2006)
  • a sweater knit in the round, sort of, in some great fiber that I bought from Rovings, at Yarn Over in April
  • Here’s a picture of the colors. I really wanted to knit a sweater in the Brick color, but there wasn’t enough to do a full sweater so I am also using the Aurora Borealis too.
    rovingsred2007.jpg roving2007.jpg
    I love this company and their yarn! If they had a web site I would include it here, but alas they don’t have one. The fiber content of this yarn 30% polwarth wool and 70% kid moahir. This is gonna be sooo soft and I’m totally at the stage of complete infatuation with this project! Dang, now all I want to do is knit!

    Cherry Tree Hill Contest

    As soon as I heard about the Cherry Tree Hill Yarn contest I started imagining all kinds of beautiul multidirectional sweaters. I drew, I sketched, I swatched, but nothing came to me. Until 2 weeks ago. I don’t know where it came from, oh yeah, I was cleaning up the front clothes closet and as I was rehanging a 1960s swing coat…I thought this is it. So I started knitting, and knitting and knitting.

    I thought June 10th is the deadline….the jokes on me…I double checked the date on the Cherry Tree Hill web site and it is June FIRST! Yikes!! I better get knitting. If I overnight it tomorrow, it should arrive on Friday. I feel really excited about this “swing coat” sweater. It is turning out even better than I imagined. I have most of the front and back done…it is going to be raglan sleeves…and I have one sleeve done. I had to put the other sleeve down last night at 2am…just couldn’t do it any more…my stitches were getting bigger and bigger. (so much for “perfect” gauge)

    This yarn is growing on me. I’m glad I’m knitting something other than socks with it. It feels soft and strong and the garter stitch fabric I’m using hangs well and has a “rich” feel to it. Can’t wait to see it done!! I still need to figure out how to do the collar. I don’t know if I ‘m going to keep close to the the 1960s coat or change the collar a bit. I’ve already made the sweater smaller than the coat. (It would cost an arm and a leg to buy enough yarn to knit a sweater the same size as the coat)

    Last fall I won third place in their sock contest. What a shock when I got the call! My mom was here with me and I couldn’t stop jumping up and down. Wow was I excited! You can see my sock here cherry tree hill sock design contest

    Here’s hoping my head doesn’t fall off from looking down at my knitting all day. I also have some other knitting that has to be in the mail tomorrow. I think I’ll spend the day alternating hours on projects. Ooooh it’s gonna be a long one.

    First attemptā€“uploading a photo of current project

    Good morning!
    It is a beautiful sunny day in the Midwestern U.S. Welcome to my first post and attempt to show off a current project.
    I love linen, working with it and wearing it, so my latest project is a linen shawl of my own design. (I will now attempt to take a picture, get the picture from camera to computer, “upload”, whatever that means, to this blog.
    LinenĀ &Ā Lace

    This shawl is shaped by using short rows. It looks a bit strange and eerie hanging on this needle and naked body form.

    Linen & LaceĀ 2
    Another view of the lace work.

    I’m planning on archiving my projects here to share with you.
    I’ve got lots of big plans, as usual, but now….
    Got to get knitting!