Summer Knitting

I know most people would say it was too hot to knit in the summer or they don't knit in the summer because they don't need warm things to wear in the summer heat. I am one of the other kinds of people who have to knit or crochet no matter what the weather is. Of course, you can always make something small like mittens or socks or something light weight like a shawl or a summer sweater or top. I knit anything, pretty much any time.

So, I have been working on some small things but also so larger ones as well. For instance, I made two diaper soakers in wool for my granddaughter. My daughter uses cloth diapers and these soakers replace the plastic pants that I used with my kids. They breathe well and are much cooler on baby's bottom which is great for them in Las Vegas.

Plum Heather Baby Soaker

Rosewood Baby Soaker

 
I also make some mittens and socks for Afghans for Afghanistan. They will go to the street children of Kabul.

Orange Amaliya Mittens

Socks for a4A

And the large things that I have been working on were crochet baby blankets for our prayer shawl group. They will go to new babies that are baptized in our church. This white one has been delivered already and I have almost finished another one in blue, green and white.

Crochet Baby shells blanket

And I have a Norwegian sweater started that I haven't picked up quite as often recently but I am still going to be working on it over the summer. 

Brown Sirkler Norwegian Cardigan

My fingers will be busy! So if you see me knitting at the Fourth of July celebration, say hello!

Provenance Mill Clothiers commission knitting

Provenance Mill Clothiers
I am privileged to be a knitter for a company that sells the most beautiful, heirloom baby sweaters, hats and booties. The yarn is made from the alpacas that they raise, the buttons and the beautiful box that the sweater is comes in are all handmade here in the US. The sweater even comes with a certificate that tells who did each part of the process and places to record each recipient as it is handed down through the generations.

I love knitting for babies! (In case you hadn't noticed that already.) Alpaca is one of my favorite fibers to work with. It is so soft and comes in many beautiful, natural colors. So far I have knit 3 of these vintage style sweaters for Provenance using the same pattern in sizes 1, 2, and 3. One gray and two tan. The pattern says that they can be worn buttoned either in the front or back. The customer will choose buttons and a ribbon color to go through the eyelets in the collar and for some smocking at the top of the ribs.

Back:

 Front. The blue yarn is marking the buttonholes. More details are on my project page.

 

The tan sweaters both looked the same so I will just post one picture. Project pages here and here.

I wish you could feel these. That is what really makes them special!

Shop Hop and Baby Surprise Knit Along

The end of April my knitting group and I went on a Shop Hop. There were 6 shops in our area that were hosting with prizes and goodies at each shop. We didn't make it to all of the shops but it was fun to go to some of the shops that I hadn't been to.One of the members of our group had her first grandbaby on the way so was looking for yarn to knit Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket. It is a fun little sweater that is knit all in one piece with shaping for the sleeves. When you are done you fold it up like a piece of origami and sew it together across the top of the shoulder and sleeves. Ingenious little piece of engineering!

I bought some Kramer Perfection, an acrylic/wool blend yarn that is machine washable at the Ames Knittery for my sweater. Hopefully, it will be large enough for my grandbaby to wear this next winter. Here is more information about my project.

Faroese Shawls

Back in February, my knitterly friends and I decided to knit Faroese Shawls together.  These shawls originate in the Faroe Islands northwest of Scotland and halfway between Iceland and Norway.  They have a specific features and shaping that is unique to them. Traditional Faroese Shawls are always knit from the bottom up in garter stitch, they have a center panel that is wider at the bottom of the shawl, and there is shaping at the shoulders that helps the shawl lay over your shoulders just right and stay there. The shawls usually have a bit of lace along the bottom and often have lace patterns continuing up the center panel.  They are beautiful in their simplicity.

I started with the pattern Lilta Dimun from Cheryl Oberle's book Folk Shawls. The yarn I used was a fingering weight that was very grayed, muted colors and I had decided I wanted something a bit brighter so I got out the food coloring and started a little dyeing project with the yarn.

The two on the left are done with Wilton food coloring and the right one is a mixture of  red and blue McCormick drops.  The photo doesn't do it justice. It is a nice plum purple.  I liked that one the best so started dyeing the yarn. It took a LOT of food  coloring drops! I had 2 skeins and ended up running one of them through the dye process twice and the other one three times to get what I wanted. It is beautiful!

Here is the finished shawl. More information

The others in the group were still knitting on their shawls so I decided to make a second shawl. This one is from a pattern by Elizabeth Lovik called Torshavn Shawl.  I finished all but weaving the last few stitches together and blocking it and then got sidetracked by other projects. I need to get back to it and finish those details so I can wear it. It is also a lovely shawl. More information