Here we go again

It's been a long time but now I'm ready to start a new blanket. I know I have 2 more to do for the Blue's Clue theme, but I want to do Hope's baby blanket first. After all she is my daughter and this one is going to be for my new grandson that is due in early Dec. I know I won't have it done in time but at least I will have it started. The theme is zoo animals. I'm doing it differently. It will be done in block pieces and then knitted together. It took a long time to get started because I was determined to design it and graph it on my new computer program "Stitch Painter". I can't begin to tell you how many times I had to start it over to get it right. The first block I am working on is a Parrot. There will be 9 blocks. I will try to attach a picture but I am have trouble. I will try again later.

It's been awhile

Boy I can't believe it's over 1 month since I posted. As they say "time flies when you are having fun". I want to know where's the fun?
As for knitting I feel I'm scatted all over the place. I have many projects going or going in my head. Here's whats happening-

1- 2nd blanket in the Blue's Clues series- drawing is done and I'm still no where to get it on the computer to graph it out. I started to graph by hand just the outlines and see if I can do part by hand and part by computer. The program is much harder then I thought. I should at least finish the outlining by hand and get it into the computer graph to fill in the parts.

2- Richards half socks- 1 sock is done and I'm up to doing the toe, which I'll do at knitting today and I'll show how the grafting is done. The girls all like to learn this.

3- I just casted on for a sweater for me with the yarn Ruth brought me back from Germany. It's "GGH- Scarlett" made in Bugaria. It's beautiful 100% cotton. In 3 colors - purple, turq & lt yellow. I'm making a sweater from The Knitter magazine issue 5 Moonstone, but of course my version. Basically using the stitch "Old Shale Stitch". Making the sweater boxy and alternating the Old Shale St with st st and alternating the color striping. And I will decide how wide the striping as I go along.

4- From Zoe Mellor "nursery knits"- an outdoor snuggle for Hope's baby. Need to get the yarn. Did a test swatch and found out from the start there were errs. I went on-line to get all the errs in this pattern and there were many. Good thing I always check for errs before I start.

5- Hope also wants my standard infant sweater that I make in 2 colors. It's with a slip stitch and it goes fast. Also need to get the yarn and buttons.

6- The Blanket! This one is for Hope's baby. I am waiting to find out if it's a boy or a girl. Then I will design it.

7- I still want to make that crochet top for Ruth that was in Vogue Sum 09 issue. I do need to get yarn for that. I would love to finish that so she could take that away with us. But I have a lot on my plate.

Well I guess I better get started. And the next time I post I better be knitting.

Terry aka Fire Island Lady

What's next

So here I am with the blanket finished and trying to decide what to do next. I've been working on Richards ankle socks as my go to knitting that takes no thinking. My easier project. I can do it watching tv, while at my knitting group, take it with me on Wed. waiting at the Dr office & etc. Now I have to decide should I start the next blanket or my next sweater for me. I really was hoping to conquer that computer program for the graphing. But I'm nowhere ready. What to do, what to do! Maybe I should work a little more on the program. That would be a help. It's raining outside, so it's a indoor day anyways.
For the sweater for me I have a few picked out that could work with the yarn that I have. The soft cotton yarn the Ruth got for me in Germany in the pretty colors turq, lt yellow & purple. So maybe I'll do some swatching and see how that goes.
I also could work on a rough layout for the next blanket. I have 2 more to go for the triplets and now that my baby Hope is have a baby I will have to make a blanket for her. But I will wait on her's until we find out what sex the baby is.
Well time to get off the computer and go to work! But I have to check up on what's going on over at Ravelry first. Do I say procrastinating?!. What else is new.?!
Signing off for now.
Me

Blue's Clue Finally Done!

I can't believe it. I finally finished the blanket. It took me long enough. I like the way it came out and I love the border with the pique edge. That took me over a month. Now I have 2 more to go in the series. I think I'll take a little break. I was hoping to do the drawing & graph on the computer with my new program, but that's not happening. The "Stitch & Paint" program is taking me a very long time to learn. So I'm no where ready to do that via computer. Oh, well. Maybe by the time I get to the 3rd blanket. Also, there will be a 4th blanket but don't know if it will be for a boy or girl. If it's for a girl it will be Hummingbirds in flowers or a boy a zoo scene. I have time for that and I won't know for a while.

I do have other projects I would like to work on. Richards ankles socks & a sweater for me in the lovely yarn Ruth got for me from Germany. That sweater I have to design. Unfortunately the summer is upon us and I tend to do less knitting and more gardening. And then there is the time I spend at the computer trying to learn the S&P program & on Ravelry. Time! Time! Time! There never is enough of it.

All for now, Terry

Working on the border

Close up of the border. I love the way there are different textures on the blanket & on the border. I feel it compliment eachother.

Close up of the corner. I also like the way this came out. Unfortunately you can't see the eyelets in the corners that I am planning on putting ribbon in it when I'm done.

This is a picture of the blanket with only half of the border done. I did the border on a very long circular needle. You can see where it's bunched up that it's still on the needle. As I finish the pique border it comes off the needle.

I can't believe that I've been working on the border for a month. It looks great and I'm very happy how it's coming out. I will take a picture later and add it to this post. I can't help myself when I do a border. I was going to do a simple quick one, but I couldn't. The edging is what is taking the longest. I'm doing a pique bind off. Which means cast-on 2, bind off 4. So this final row has 1896 stitches to be bound off. To get the ruffle after I did the seed stitch, I started to add a stitch at both ends of the knit stitch and the seed stitch went into the rev st st. So it went like this- k1, m1, p3, m1, k1, m1, p3, m1, k1, m1, p3- and so on
next row- k1, m1, p5, m1, k1, m1, p5, m1, k1, m1, p5- and so on

next row- k1, m1, p7, m1, k1, m1, p7, m1, k1, m1, p7- and so on

I continued these increases until I had 11 stitches in between the knit stitches. At that point I started my pique bind off.

After I finish this blanket it will be on to the next. I am hoping to be able to do it on the computer. I now have the program "Stitch Painter". I am trying to learn it and have been studing the manual. There is a lot to digest. I also got the computer "Drawing Pen". Again more to learn. These 2 programs are supposed to shorten my designing/graphing time. Hopefully I will get to that point. My projects are piling up-

1- Blue's Clue- Magenta in living room w/ Mr Salt & Mrs Pepper- rough sketch

2- Blue's Clue- Periwinkle in living room w/ table & lamp & Tickety Tock & Slippery Soap- rough sketch

3- Baby Blanket for Hope- just in idea stage- thinking about humming birds in a field of flowers. But will wait until she's out of her first trimester and everything is ok. Plus I will want to know the sex of the baby.

4- Find something to make with the cotton yarn that was giving to me from Germany. And start that project.

5- Love to do the Lace Crochet Coat from Vogue ( Spr Sum 09) for Ruth.

6- Need to finish Richards half socks.

I guess I have my work cut out for me. So much to do, so little time. Now I'm going to down load my pictures and try to attach them to this post. As you can see it worked!

All for now. Talk to soon Terry

Update

Well I finally started picking up stitches for the border. I am making up my own border. A little from this and a little from that. What i'm doing is this- the seed stitch on the top all the way around with a knit stitch that would be carried all the way down going in to the ruffle. So it would be like this- row 1- k, p, k, p, k- row 2- k, k, p, k, k, (remember I'm knitting in the round) row 3- k, p, k, p, k. The seed stitch will only be 3 stitches. I don't know how many rows or inches I will make it. I will decide as I go along. The knit stitch (highlighted in red) will be carried down into the ruffle. Once I am happy with the length of the seed st area I will start adding stitches. I am doing the ruffle in rev St St. I've tried different ways of adding stitches. Yarn overs, making one, and in different spots. The way I liked it the best was to add 1 st at the beginning and end of the knit stitch that is carried down (highlighted in red) every other row. And again I don't know how long I will make it until I see it and feel it's long enough. I also for the increases, as I get bigger, might change to every 4th row. We will see. As for the corners I am going to add a stitch at both sides of a twisted knit st by doing a yarn over. This will create a lace effect hole and I will do this every other row working it into the pattern. There was alot a calculations in working out how many stitches to pick up because the golden yarn was a little bit heavier and I'm using a bigger needle. Along the sides a picked up every other row & across the top & bottom every 5th row I skipped. So it worked out to be 144 stitches on each side, 124 stitches on the top & bottom, with 1 stitch in each corner. Total pick up 540 st to start. With a 4st repeat.

Dyeing day- March 19
My knitting group was invited to a fellow Raveler's house who happened to live on Fire Island to learn how to dye yarn. She is a very talented knitter who also spins her own yarn and then dyes her yarn. It was a very special day for all. We learned how to dye with Kool Aid & food coloring. It was much easier then I thought. I don't think I would be spinning my own yarn but I'm sure I would be dyeing more yarn again. It was a lot of fun. She was a great teacher and I'm sorry that she is leaving us at the end of April. However, since Ravelry has brought us together, I'm sure we will be able to keep in touch.

Dying day- March 25 (no pun intended)
On Wed 3/25 we had to put our beloved cat Mr Missy to sleep. She had cancer. A big fat tumor on her kidney. We are broken hearted. She was the best cat we ever had. She found us about 3-4 years ago. Everyone in our community loved her. She was Robbins Rests' mascot. She came to all our communities parties. She played hide and seek with me, which was so funny. She would hide behind a door, I would look for her, once I found her she would run to another door. Then it was my turn to hide. And so on. She only went outside. She was so smart. When she had to go she went to the door and waited for us to open the door. To come back in she would go to the window and look for us. I miss her little face in the window. By the way, she turned out to be a he. I never knew until the end. RIP Missy

All for now-

Updated Blanket & Tiny circular needles

These are the tiniest circular knitting needles I've ever worked with or ever saw. They work great for Richards ankle high socks. It took a little getting used to. The wood part is only 1 1/4", then metal 1/2" with smooth joins to a 5 1/2" nylon cord. All equalling to 9". I'm using these in place of Double Pointed needles. This should get rid of the ladder effect you get when you go from one needle to the next. Though I hardly ever had that problem. They are fun to use. You do have to put markers so you know where needle 1 & 4 is, so you can put the heel gusset in the correct place. As I have been using them, they got darker and shiny. Also smoother. They are US#2 1/2 3mm. They were made by Shanghai Hiya Co.,Ltd. HiyaHiya www.hiyahiya You should check them out.

This is the latest picture of Blue with some more of the embroidery work done. I still have to do Pail & Shovel and some work on the tree. I'm not sure what. And of course do the border. Doing the ankle sock gives me a break from doing the embroidery. Little stitches.

All from now. Oh yes- Crocus' are blooming. Just starting. the yellow ones first.