ooo's & aah's

Last night I went to the fashion hosted by my favorite knitting store Knit in Roslyn NY. The fashion show was put on by Trisha Malcolm of Vogue Knitting Magazine. It was for the Spring 2009 issue. She showed us all the designs that will be in that issue. I went will my 2 friends and we had a great time. It started at 6:30pm but we were able to come earlier since I am a good customer and they (the owners) love my work and I told her I needed to pick out yarn for the border of the Blues Clue blanket. Once again, they flipped out after they saw the blanket. I also had the Farm Blanket with me. I pretty much had made my decision on the color and will be using the golden yellow that is on the side of the house. Ellen the owner worked with me and also did agree. She wanted me to leave the 2 blankets on the table so Trisha Malcolm could see them when she came in. The response from everyone and including Trisha was over whelming. It was not only the knitting but the fact that I designed them. Needless to say I was quite proud. I also was wearing the grey cable sweater on my project page in Ravelry. Also many compliments. I spoke to Trisha after the show and though she absolutely loves the blankets, she didn't feel they were right for Vogue Knitting Mag. But she loved the sweater and she would like me to submit my sweaters designs. She did give me her card. Well we will have to see. She did suggest that if I wanted to sell my blanket patterns I must put a high price tag on them. It's good to know if I ever get to that point. Right now I hardly have time to knit what I want to, let alone design things to sell. All in all it was a wonderful evening. I don't get out that offen to spend time and not be rushed in a good knitting store. They have so much wonderful yarn I wish I had more time to knit. But then I would have a very hard time to pick out which yarn and then my stash would grow and just sit there. It was nice to be with other knitters & friends. I felt less crippled. I felt whole.
Well it's back to doing the embroidery work on the blanket. I will take a picture when that part is done. All for now. And I still have to finish Richard's hat, which is almost done.
Terry

Blanket Body done

Well last night I just finished knitting the blanket. I still have to do all the embroidery work. Which will be the detailing of the house and of Blue & Pail & Shovel. I will also be adding on some flowers that will be 3D. Today I had my knitting group here and I layed out the blanket on the floor. Everyone loved how it came out. Now I spend the time to stare at it to decide what type of border I what to do and the color that it will be in. I've been thru all my books (Knitting on the Edge & etc) a number of times and I have it narrowed down to a wide rib ruffle or a petite bell ruffle. I want to make it girlie because it's for Golda. I also want it in a color that would compliment the blanket and be feminine. I was thinking about a dark rose or lilac or even a pretty golden yellow. But I won't make my final decision until I go to the yarn store Knit and lay the blanket out there. The ladies there are always very helpful in helping me make my color choices. At the same time now I have to start to thinking about the next blanket and what colors will be in that one.

Well for tonight I'll take a rest from the blanket and work on Richards hat. At the rate I'm going I won't have it done until the end of the winter. All for now. Until the next time.

It gets easier

At this point there are 31 color changes in each row. And as you see in the above picture there are lots of ends to be woven in. It makes it harder to knit if you don't weave in the end when you have many color changes. The ends get tangled into the bobbin and that slows me down. So I this point I stopped and wove in the end.

This above picture was taken after I wove in the ends. This is a picture of the back.

This is also another picture of the back after the ends were woven in.

This is a picture of the front and I am now down to 9 color changes. The knitting should go alot faster. I am out of the more detailed area. My mind is in full swing thinking about the border. It will mean a trip to the knitting store.

I finally rewound the yarn for Richards hat & socks. I did start the hat but I need wooden double pointed needles. The socks will still have to wait. I also have to make a Chemo hat for my entrance fee to go the "Vogue Preview" event at "Knit". That will be a simple hat in a large gauge so that it will go fast. I'm looking forward to that. It's on Feb 23 at 6:30pm. Lise & Minkie will be taking me because I don't drive. Thanks to friends and friends who also knit, I am very lucky.

All for now. Back to knitting

the growing blanket

It's been a long, bitter cold, snowy week. The above picture is taken from my back deck. And last Wed on one of the coldest nights, one of the electrical wire that went from pole to pole went down and we were woken at 5am to no electricity. Which means, no lights, no toilets, no heat. However, we quickly put wood into the wood burning stove which warmed the house nicely. The Electric Co had the down wire back up and running by noon. Couldn't complain about that service.

Time marches on and the blanket is growing. I feel like I am making headway. Final finished Blue's body. Now I'm starting to think about the border. The color and the pattern. I'm 2/3 of the way thru. But I won't make any final decisions until the blanket is done.

This is a close up view to show the stitch definition. The white background is the double moss stitch and the green is the my version of the chevron stitch. I like the way it is coming out.

The next two pictures are just about the same. They show how much I got done. It's hard to see but I finally started the brick wall and the house. The house had many color changes and it took me over 1 hours to weave it some of the ends on just the bottom part. I should have taken a before picture, but I was too lazy & I didn't.

I glad the you can see the white handle on Pail against the white background. I used ribbon yarn. But I think I'll still add some outlining to it or do an "I" cord over it. To be decided.

Other knitting news-

I just joined this big project called the "Milkweed Project". It's hard to explain but the person who is running it wants as many knitters, crocheters or anyone who is artistic and works with fibers to join in and make something to be added to this art piece. She is looking for people all over the USA and other countries. You need to make something by next Dec 2009. If anyone is interested you can get in touch with them at www.squarespace.com or www.sticksandstitches.squarespace.com . I have a few ideas of what I want to do. What I will be making will not take that much of my time. Still leaving me time to work on my own projects.

That's it for now- Terry aka Fire Island Lady

bye-bye mittens

It's been awhile since I've posted, 11 days. Not much has happened. I got alot more done on the blanket. Good thing. Maybe I'll take a picture later. However, tragedy has struck my favorite hand knitted mitten. I made them about 5 years ago. They were the perfect mittens for me. 100% cashmere for warmth, the fit was perfect and they were pretty with ruffles on the wrist and I loved the color purple blend. I wore them all the time. I didn't know it but I wore out the thumb on my right hand. I have no more yarn so I don't think I can reknit that area. A seam will bother me because it's right in the middle of my thumb. So it's bye-bye mittens. Now to replace them is a problem. The yarn was about $50.00. Time is the next problem with me working on the blanket and all. The good thing is I still have the pattern somewhere. I would also have to get to the knitting store "Knit", which is always a problem. You know I still want to work on the socks for Richard & his hat. Time is a flying by and so is winter. I guess I can use the money that my knitting group gave me for the holidays. But it will be another project that will just sit there. So my poor hands will have to suffer in my polar fleece gloves. Even if I had the yarn it would take me about 5 days to knit.
I just tried to take a picture of the gloves but since it's my right hand I couldn't do it with my left hand. I will wait until later and have Richard take the pictures of the worn out glove on my hand. Later, Terry

The New Year

Everything now has calmed down, holidays are over and I'm at the computer looking out at my back & the bird sanctuary. It's sunny and blue skies with white snow and the starlings are flying around. It's so peaceful no other sound other then the flapping of the starlings wings. It's 24 degrees cold but beautiful. And my pain level is about a 7 (for me that's good). If I could only capture this moment of peace and serenity. Nothing could get to me and I could deal with the pain. Bottle this all up to be used again when I need it the most. If only. These are my words of wisdom. No phones ringing. No nothing. No thinking.
Terry

Continue of layout

This is the graph that I follow. It is reduced about 50% so that it fits on my magnetic stand. As I complete the row I move up the magnetic bar & also mark off each end of the row. This way I always know where I'm up to. I like to do a double check system. I generally to this with all my projects.

The knitted part is over the bottom of the graph that I'm following. I am very happy that the size is coming out true to size. For handling reasons I have reduced the graph about 50% so I can set it up on the stand. Top picture will have the stand.

This is a close up view of the graph chart. I did this by hand. I first did a test swatch to determine gauge for both stitch & row. This special graph paper is 7 stitch to the inch and 9 rows to the inch, which was the gauge. Next I layed the graph paper over the final draw which was over a light box. Then colored in each appropriate box by hand. I use colored markers. I don't always use the exact colors I would knitting but close enough for me to be able to follow. After the colors are in place I then put in any stitch changes. It maybe hard to see but the white area is the double moss stitch. To indicate the purl stitch I put a line in the box. That was my key.

I thought I might have lost the posting so I hit publish post. I hope it's still there. here are the rest of the pictures I want to show. The other 2 were the final drawing & the final graph. Here are the rest of the pictures I want to show and explain.