Baby knitting!

As soon as I found out that we had a grandbaby on the way I was looking for baby projects to knit for her. Baby items are small and quick to make so I made quite a few before this little one arrived!  Nothing like a first time grandma who loves to knit right? I decided it was about time I shared some of what I made.

Because my daughter and her husband had decided not to find out the sex of the baby ahead of time, I tried to make some things that were gender neutral. My daughter loves color so the first sweater that I made was multicolored.

This is a basic top-down raglan cardigan pattern from an old pattern card that I found at my local yarn shop.  The yarn was a DK weight. I love how the stripes worked out on this.  I even found buttons in several of the colors.  Isn't it cute!

I finished that sweater in May then I had the opportunity in June to test knit a new pattern for a designer. The Simply Stripy Baby Sweater was made from two sock yarns that I had in my stash.  One was solid purple Cascade Heritage, the other was a long striping yarn called Mini Mochi from Crystal Palace Yarns.  I made a simple hat to go with the sweater and there are tiny socks too!

 
  The pattern for this sweater is available here.  It includes options for short or long sleeve sweaters, a onesie or a dress with sizes up to 24 months.  Now that I know we have a girl I may have to make the dress!

She seems to have found it to be quite cozy.

And the Winners Are...

I am really pleased with my State Fair results.  Though it is sometimes hard to understand just why they choose the things they do.

Blue Ribbon (first place) and Best Child's Sweater award from the Des Moines Knitting Guild -- Cabled Sweater made in River Jeans cotton yarn. 

Blue Ribbon -- Eggplant round-yoke sweater with stranded designs 

This is my favorite sweater of all that I have knit.

Red Ribbon (second place) -- Purple & Green Stripy Baby Sweater

This cute little sweater has beautiful classic lines with some fun striping.  It was very easy to make.

 

Pink Ribbon (fourth place) -- pink & white sock knitting tote
This is the one that I was most surprised about. It is a very simple project that I put in with the entries because I  had an extra tag. There were several other more complex bags that didn't place at all.

Iowa State Fair time

Ten Items or Less -- oh wait, that was the name of a children's book that we used to read to the children. This is the pile of knitting that I sent off to the fair. There are actually 10 items in the pile ready to go. Sweaters, afghan, hat, shawls etc.  Wednesday night there is a preview for the entrants.  Last year Ames was flooded on the day of the preview, let's hope that doesn't happen again! 

If you get to the fair don't forget to check out the Fabric and Threads display on the second floor of the Varied Industries Building.

Finishing out year and starting up the new one

I finished the White Clovers pullover. It went up and down several times as I tried to get the fit right in the shoulders and neck. Here it is finished as the designer has written the pattern, with a turtle neck:

Then I ripped it back again and finished it with a crew neck. I like the looks of the crew neck much better. The Vamsegarn has softened up nicely with wearing. I am really enjoying this sweater. I can see myself making more sweaters like this. It was fast to make in this worsted(almost aran) weight yarn and it fits beautifully.

I also finished knitting the Navy Felted Mittens from the book LVS 3, well they will be felted when I find time to put them in the washer. Our washer stays really busy with laundry around here because of our big family so finding time for felting can be difficult. Last weekend we were gone for four days. When all the suitcases were empty we had a pile the size of "Mount Washmore" as a friend calls it. I always feel like I should have more than one project to felt when I do it since it takes so much water. So maybe I should make some more mittens! Here they are before felting:


Lisa came home from Alaska for Christmas and was telling us about how cold it was up there. She has been buying extra clothes for layering to keep warm. I made her a pair of rag-wool socks while she was home. They are made with Raumaragg yarn, the yarn that the Norwegians use for ski socks. Lisa says that I can make more of these!


I also had picked out a nice sock weight yarn for her birthday in early January. I started knitting those just after her birthday and have one finished so far. Lisa has returned to Alaska so I will have to mail them when they are both finished.


It has been a productive knitting year. Now on to the next year!

White Clovers pullover sweater

I have been making a sweater for myself! Not for display in the shops but for me to wear! I had been looking at what I had to keep me warm this winter and found that I really didn't have much for warm sweaters. This will be a wonderfully warm, wool sweater for these cold, cold days.

As I was thinking about what to make I ran across a pattern that a designer wanted to have tested to make sure there weren't any errors. It is a simple design with lots of stockinette and a bit of stranding to spark it up. We have found a few places where she needed to make changes in the pattern. Good to get those fixed before some unsuspecting knitter tries to make it and can't understand why it isn't working.

I am using Rauma Vamsegarn in a very dark teal with white and a lighter blue-green for the accent bands. This is one of my favorites of the Rauma yarns.

I don't have a full picture of it yet but I took some pictures as I have worked so I will see if I can put them together to give you the idea of what it will look like.


The sleeves also have the small design border at the bottom like at the hem of the sweater. I ripped back to the wider top border last night because the neckline was going to be too high. I will start the decreases just above the border instead of knitting several rows first. It should be done soon. Then I can wear it! Ahhhhh, warm!!

Iowa State Fair

I entered the fair for the first time this year. I have thought about it before but never followed through to get it done. Some of the knitters from the Ames Public Library's Knit and Crochet group were talking about entering so I thought maybe this year should be the year I finally did too. I found that there were lots of categories in knitting. I thought I might be able to enter a few things so I started making a list of what I had and which categories they would fit into. I came up with 15 items!

Click on the picture for a better look.
If you make it to the fair check out the Fiber & Threads, upstairs in the Varied Industries Building.

The week flew by....

We had a busy week with our daughter home from Nevada for the first time in a year. It was such fun to have her here. Now it is back to our regularly scheduled programming... school, work, making meals, washing laundry, and hopefully knitting!

I have found some time most evenings to knit. I finished up some slipper socks for the girls. Now they all have a pair of nice warm, thick, wool slippers. Carl is asking for a pair of slippers too so his will be next. These are made in Rauma Polar on size 10 needles. Big needles and fat yarn knits up fast!

Lisa's green slippers got away already but here are Amy's blue ones,

and Jessica's purple ones.
and Rosie's multi-colored slipppers.

I stalled out on my mittens when I ran out of the light pink Istra on the thumb of the first one. I have more yarn now so I am hoping to get back to them soon.

So I decided to finish up these pink mittens but I don't know what pattern I used for the first one. I started counting rows and knitting away one night. When I went to put them away for the night they looked like this.
Somehow they just didn't look quite right. I think that second thumb gusset needs to be a bit longer.

I did finish a pair of plain mittens. They are Lamb's Pride Bulky wool/mohair and will probably go to the church's international student program.
I have been modifying some socks that I had knit extra long. I found that they just don't stay up! They were both knit from toes to top so I was able to easily rip back and knit a shorter cuff on them. They will be more comfortable that way. The first pair is done and the second pair just needs a few more rows. I don't have any pictures of those yet but here is a picture of the progress on the Margrethe Norwegian sweater. The pieces are blocked and ready to be sewn and cut. Then I just need to knit a little bit around the neckline and sew the sleeves and hems.

Almost finished!

Norwegian and Cabled sweaters finished

I finished the work on these sweaters well before the TNNA show. I was so busy getting things ready that I forgot to take pictures of them though. These are pictures of them in the display at the show.

Pattern: #138RS Man's Norwegian Sweater Black and White with Stars on the left of the two hanging sweaters.
Yarn: Strikkegarn


Pattern: Children's Cabled Sweater-Red between the white pieces.
Yarn: Vamsegarn

Cabled sweater for kids

Another sample for the trade show. This one is only a size 2 children's sweater. It is going quickly in Vamsegarn, a worsted weight yarn. Good thing, we leave in one week for the show and this is supposed to be in the display! I have the body done and one sleeve started now but haven't been able to get photos yet.

I had some problems along the way. No, make that lots of problems along the way. Probably because I am trying to get this done quickly. After doing seed stitch for so long on the Window Pane sweater I totally missed the instructions where it said to do the side panels in double moss stitch. I had been working merrily along for about 3 inches above the ribbing when I discovered it! The second picture is of the side panel after I reknit it plus a couple more inches.

I decided that I really didn't want to reknit the whole thing so I took the stitches for that whole panel off the needles -- gasp! -- I know, I know, for some of you that would be a major trauma but the stitches weren't going anywhere . . . yet . . . this is very sticky yarn so the stitches would just sit and wait for me to do something with them.

Now, fast forward a bit. I managed to cross one of the cables the wrong direction later in the sweater. I was telling my hubby how I had to reknit the side panels and now I needed to do the same thing to this cable. He suggested that I take pictures so I could post a how-to about it.

I am working on the how-to. Red is really hard to photograph well by the way! So bear with me. It will be up soon I hope. In the meantime there is lots of preparation underway for the show.

Window Pane Sweater is done!

It is finished and ready to go to the show! I think I looks great. I will be a very warm sweater for my hubby next winter too.

Here are the details:
Rauma pattern 2064
Vamsegarn 1100grams of 5 different colors
Needles sizes 4 & 4.5 mm - US 6 & 7

I would usually use a larger needle with Vamsegarn This was all done as knit 1, purl 1 which is always a looser gauge for me than stockinette.

This is an easy sweater to make, it just looks harder than it is.

Window Pane Sweater

My current knitting is getting rather boring. I think it is because this is such a big project and is pretty much the same throughout.

This sweater went with me to Texas for spring break in March. There wasn't much to see along the way.

It is growing steadily and hopefully will be finished soon. I have taken it to all of the classes we have been teaching. The students all look over eagerly when I pull out my knitting to see what I am working on. Recently, the reaction has been, "Oh, you still aren't done with that one?"

Sorry, I am almost done with the back now -- but I have one more sleeve to go.

The pattern is Rauma 2064 Window Pane Sweater. The yarn is Vamsegarn, our worsted weight yarn. It will be on display at the TNNA trade show in Ohio the second week of June.

Berries Cardigan Pattern is ready!

Thanks to Terri Shea's beautiful design and finishing work this is a gorgeous sweater. I knit the body and sleeves for her and she did the rest. Now the pattern is ready so you can make your own!

Here is the link to the pattern ordering information on Terri's web site spinningwheel.net

The yarn is Rauma Finullgarn colors #487, 488 and 417
Gauge: 30 sts to 4" over stranded stockinette

Such a beautiful sweater! I think I would like to make one for myself. Terri gets to keep this one. It wasn't my size. :)

Knitting Pictures!

I finally found some time to take pictures of the knitting I have been doing. I really have been knitting but just hadn't found time to blog about it. I have spent that past couple of months trying to keep up with Arnhild's business as well as my own business and taking care of my family. I found some time in there to knit apparently too, as you can see!

There are hats and a cowl to go to charity. These will probably go to our church for their fall hat and mitten drive. I have been working on a couple of hats in ISU Cyclone colors, red and gold. These are the kind of knitting that I do while watching Rosie's basketball games or reading email. The striped one was finished at the last game, which they won in overtime!

Another hat and cowl set that I finished recently is this beautiful white cabled set. It is made in Rauma Vamsegarn, a worsted weight wool. The pattern is newly translated pattern -- Rauma 84-10. This one will be displayed at the Arnhild's Knitting Studio Retreat to be held in Ames in late February. The pattern will be released at that time.

I finished the sleeves for the Norwegian Man's Sweater a couple of weeks ago. I have been awaiting further instructions from Arnhild for the finishing. I have started that now. I will need to sew with the sewing machine along the center front and the sleeve openings and then I will cut through the knitting to make openings to attach the sleeves and the button bands. I will be taking lots of pictures as I do that. Arnhild and I are making up a book to give the students who are taking classes in our new Fiber Arts School. We are going to include lots of photos of the techniques involved in making these sweaters and other knitting projects.

And finally I have been learning how to knit socks from the toe up. I have knit dozens of socks from the top down but this takes some different techniques. It has been a challenge sometimes but I feel like I am learning a lot as I go. I have been wanting to learn how to do this because I have some sock yarn which is hand-dyed. I can't get more if I run out and the ball is a little shorter yardage than some that I have used. With this method of making socks I should be able to use up all of the yarn and still have my socks completed. I always worry when knitting from the top down that I will not have enough to finish the toe!

This is a photo from about a week ago. I have both of the socks past the heel now and one is almost finished.

I will try to update more as I work on the Norwegain sweater. It also needs to be finished in time for the retreat in February. There may be some other projects on my list for then too. I'd better keep knitting!

Seeing Stars!

I am finally to the top of the shoulders! Look at those beautiful Norwegain Stars!!

I really enjoy the geometric shapes of typical Norwegian designs. Squares, diamonds, parallelograms, triangles. The small dot pattern is called "lice" because...well...it looks sort of like lice I guess. I think it looks like snowflakes. Actually, the whole thing looks like snow to me. The big snowflakes of a heavy, wet snow and the fine flakes of a very dry, light snow. Okay, enough talk of snow. That time is coming too soon! I am sure we will get plenty of that type of white stuff here in Iowa.

It looks a bit bunched up at the top because of the decreases I did for the neckline. It will have a V-neck when I get it cut open and put the bands on.

So, now I should be starting the sleeves which have the same design. I was going to pick Arnhild's brain about sleeve shaping before she left for the weekend but the time got away from us and we didn't get to sit down and do that. I think I will wait until she gets back to get them started.

I am working on these socks instead for the weekend. Maybe I can get them finished up. I am on the foot section which is plain stockinette stitch. That always goes fast for me.

Cabled Vamsegarn/Finullgarn Cardigan

It's finished! I found the perfect buttons too!

This sweater has taken a lot longer to make than I thought it would. I got interrupted a lot with other projects while working on it. Then I got bored and really didn't want to do the sewing up parts.

I really don't like the sewing up. That's why many years ago I taught myself how to make seamless sweaters!

This will be a great winter sweater. It is a bulky weight but made with a strand of a worsted and a strand of a fingering weight. That is how it gets those beautiful subtle stripes. Can you see them?

I was hoping to get a picture of me wearing it but I didn't have anyone to help me with that. I needed to take it to Arnhild's so it could be packed with the display stuff. We are getting closer and closer.

Pattern: 2090RVF
Yarns: Vamsegarn and Finullgarn This one is the medium size and I had one ball of Vamsegarn that I didn't use.
Needles: Sizes US8 and US11

Hubby and I spent yesterday cleaning out the store room. It was mostly kids clothes, computer parts and wedding gifts (that we haven't used in 30 years of marriage). We had brought back a bunch of stuff from our college grad daughter, Jessie, which needed a home. I have been trying to get the kids clothes sorted for a long time now but I could only reach part of them for fear of toppling the towers of computer parts! I really should have taken pictures.

Well, we filled up our Suburban with things to donate and the room looks much better now. No, I didn't get DH to give up very much of the computer stuff but we did whittle it down a little bit and we at least got things moved around so I could get to the clothes that I needed to sort. Now there is just one box of clothes for Carl to grow into and several boxes of things that we are storing for Jessie while she is between apartments.

Now we need to start working on the collections of toys that have accumulated after almost 27 years and 8 children! We have so much which could be blessing someone else!

Toddler Sweater and socks

Things are coming together for the TNNA trade show. Only 2 weeks to go and much to do yet! Arnhild and I went over the preparations list again yesterday. We are pretty much packed up for the display now except for the models that are not finished. These 2 projects will be going into one of the rolling suitcases.

The River Jeans cotton Cabled Sweater. I made the size 2-4 toddler. This yarn is so soft and nice. The cables really look good in it and it has really good resilience for a cotton yarn. This is a sweater that is going to hold its shape I think!

You can see the cables better behind the Magi Socks here. Magi is another one of the new yarns that we will be displaying. It is a machine washable sock yarn. 75%wool/25% nylon. Really nice stuff too! This pair is just over 5 inches long. I made the sock to fit a little wooden shoe last that we are going to use for display. I really want to make some socks for myself now with one of the other colors!

I don't usually worry about having the stripes of the 2 socks match. I kind of like having them be fraternal twins but since these are going on the display at TNNA and on the pattern that I still need to write up (ahem), I thought they should probably match. I am very pleased at how closely they match. And I only had to cast on the second sock twice! Oh, if you can't tell in the picture, one of the socks is turned down at the cuff. They will work either way.

My web site designer, and second oldest son, took the socks to the park for a photo shoot. Here is the lovely photo that he took.

I made both of the socks from one 50g ball of Magi and still had some left over.

I am now finishing up the Ladies Cabled Cardigan (2090RVF) in Vamsegarn and Finullgarn. I need to sew in the sleeves yet and knit a neckband. Then I have to pick out some buttons that will go well with it. I find that to be the hardest part sometimes. I will often have an idea in my mind of what I want but does it exist? maybe-maybe not We will see what I find!

I thought I was getting almost finished with the projects for the show but after Arnhild and I went over the list again she handed me a baby sweater in another new yarn--Chiri Alpaca--which needs some crochet for finishing. Then she said that we needed to make more of the baby sweaters in this yarn if we could find the time.

So, I will be knitting.........

Toddler Cable Sweater in River Jeans cotton

I haven't posted in a while because I have been busy trying to get this little toddler sweater knit up for the TNNA trade show next month. This pattern is newly translated into English by Arnhild and will be available as soon as it arrives from Norway.

I am making the size 2-4 for display at the show. We don't have a lot of the yarn on hand yet either but there was enough for this size and it will be faster to knit up than a larger size. I wish it would fit Carl though because it is really going to be a nice sweater.

The River Jeans yarn is 100% cotton and remarkably soft. I have enjoyed working with it. Many cotton yarns make my hands hurt or feel rough but this one doesn't.

This is a great yarn for summer tops too I think. We also have a new tank top and cardigan pattern that is translated and being knit up. There are so many things that River Jeans could be used for. I just wish that it came in more colors!

Pattern -- PT 795-River Jeans Cabled Pullover for Children and Men
Yarn -- River Jeans 100% cotton


Tomorrow we start playing with all of the yarn and sample models to decide how we are going to display them for TNNA. We have lots of new things to show! I hope we can fit it all in the car! I am looking forward to meeting store owners and pattern designers from all over the US.

Man's Norwegian Sweater -- Rauma 138RS

When the cabled sweater was giving me problems I would work on this for a break. Ha! Some break! I did the increase row just above the ribbing on this one 6 times!!!! The first few times I was doing the math wrong, or at least thought I was. I kept coming up with too many stitches near the end of the row.

Now you have to remember that this row started out with 277 stitches supposedly! So, I would knit across, count, and tink (un-knit) all the way back again and again.

I finally thought to count the ribbing stitches again and discovered that I didn't have 277 stitches but 297 stitches! No wonder I couldn't come up with the right number after increasing!

Instead of ripping and reknitting the whole ribbing I left it and increased to the number I needed for the patterns in the body. I was so glad to finally get past that and start working on the patterns. They are much more fun!

In all of the times that I knit that one row I didn't see any change in the yarn that I was working with. There was no fraying or fuzzing. It didn't start looking worn at all. I am very impressed with the quality of the Rauma Strikkegarn. It holds up very well even when re-knit again and again so I am sure now that it will hold up well in the finished sweater.

Pattern -- Rauma 138RS V-Neck Cardigan
Yarn -- Rauma Strikkegarn

Finally Making Progress

It seems like this sweater has taken forever to knit! I would knit a ways and discover that I had forgotten to change the second strand to the next color.

If it wasn't that I would find a cable that was crossed wrong. I actually had the right front knit all the way to the shoulder when I discovered that one. I had to rip a bunch of it because some of the stitches were already bound off for the neckline curve. Then I dropped the 6 stitches of the cables down about 20 rows to fix the cable. I am getting rather good at that now!

At this point the body is knit and ready for the shoulder finish, so I started the first sleeve last night. I still have to remember to count the 9 rows of each of the different browns while crossing cables every 4 rows and increasing 2 stitches every 12 rows! See why it gets messed up sometimes?

I think the sleeves will move along more quickly though. Hopefully I will have a finished sweater soon!

Pattern -- Rauma 2090RVF Short Cabled Cardigan and Hat

Yarn -- Rauma Vamsegarn & Rauma Finullgarn