Beach Scenes

Was stormy but getting better . . .

On the needles

Pineapple socks!

Bear Clothes

Dena has been busy making the little bears clothes. I think they may be even cuter in their jackets and hats!

Fiesta

These are the second pair of Mexican Fiesta socks that I started last January. I picked them up and finished them in the last week or so. Most of my yarn was in time out, so I knit whatever was not boxed. I made a mistake and they ended up too large but I wasn't interested in re knitting them. They will become a Christmas gift for someone with bigger feet than mine.

More bugs

Front hall closet where wool coats live . . . With global warming we wear them rarely. A few calculations, a few pounds of dry ice, some painters tape and a few days and hopefully no more moths.

Quick Knit

This is called Trailing Ivy and the pattern was created by Alana Dakos.  It was the September Miss Babs Knitting Tour shipment.  The yarn is DK weight Kunlun and the color is Glamping.  (The color and pattern are exclusive to the Tour for 6 months, I think).  It was a fun and super quick knit - only about 5 days of knitting and no all day knitting, just evenings.  I enjoyed it thoroughly and think the end result is lovely.  I did make one little change . . . I checked my gauge well after I started and realized that I was knitting a bit larger than I should be so I asked someone who had finished if there was enough yarn or extra.  When they told me that they had quite a bit of extra, I decided to add the row of leaves along the edge to use up all the yarn.  Then weighed the rest of my yarn and knit a row or two and weighed the yarn again so I would know how much yarn a row took.  When I was on the right side and had enough for two more rows I bound off.  (I needed enough for two rows because of the picots). I ended up with about 3 yards of yarn leftover.  

Teresa

What a lot of work . . .

What I did this weekend:  Put every woolen, cashmere, silk and alpaca thing into a box.  That is all my hand knit shawls, toys, sweaters, blankets, etc.  That is all my husband's suits and sweaters.  That is all my store bought sweaters made of protein fiber.  That is all my spinning stash and all my knitting stash.  That is all my wips.  That is everything I could find in the house.  

   I also filled about 5 large black trash bags with stuff - some yarn, some spinning fiber, a lot of really old sweaters, some old shirts that haven't been worn in years, a lot of plastic bags and some just plain trash.  Our trash day is Monday and because of the holiday, it won't get picked up tomorrow.  Oops!

Yes, you guessed it.  I found moths in the house.  Not pantry moths - those show up every few years and I throw every bit of food in the kitchen out and start over.  I don't think there is any way to really avoid pantry moths if you live in the hot and humid south.  They just like it too much.  And they are in the foods you bring into your house more than you know.  Ever walked into a pet store and seen them flying about?  They are frequently in dry dog and cat food.  

The source of the moths this time was my husband's old suits.  Offices have become so casual that he rarely wears his full suits anymore - usually it's slacks and a jacket or just slacks and a shirt/tie.  It seems he had some suits in the back corner of his closet that hadn't been moved in a couple of years and the moths found them and had a feast.

I became aware of the issue when I saw a moth fly by me as I was knitting in my chair a few days ago.  I went through all the stash around my chair and found one hank of yarn that had a few breaks.  All the stash around my chair (about one of those boxes) was inspected and put in new containers and I stuck it in my car.  I had read that if you could heat it to 120 degrees for 30 minutes that would kill the moths.  Well, damn if it hasn't been the coolest week we've had in a while.  And further reading made me question whether or not that would really work.  I really didn't want to do moth balls because they are so toxic (to us, the dogs, cats, and the moths) but I did do that in one daughter's bedroom.  She definitely had moths in her room and she doesn't live here so it was the quickest and easiest way to deal with her problem.  And I put towels under all the doors to keep the fumes in her room - it can stay that way for months if need be and then I will open it and air it out. 

So what to do?  I started with an internet search and came up with Erik Nilsson's blog.  He goes into great detail on how to kill moths with dry ice.  I asked him a couple of questions and decided that this was probably the easiest, safest way to get rid of the moths.  It was a huge amount of work, but no more than it would have been to wash everything or dry clean everything.  And those things wouldn't have worked for the yarn and fiber.  The shelves in my yarn room are sad and empty and I suspect they will stay that way.  I think the yarn will just stay in these boxes until I am certain the moth problem is gone.  My only worry is that perhaps I didn't use enough dry ice - but I can solve that by adding more and treating the yarn again if I think I need to.  

Yep.  That's a lot of yarn and fiber (one box is suits and two more are sweaters) - I guess I need to go on a yarn diet or knit like the wind!

Here are the sad, empty shelves in my yarn room . . . lonely, right?

Teresa

Grateful Dead Dancing Bears

They still need their collars and black in their ears, but they are knit. 

I probably won't do the collars and ears for a while because I am pretty much done with these for now. But then I will pose them as the Dancing/Marching bears they should be and take photos.

And one last shot of all the bears.  Three of the big ones went to Gramma's house.

The golden big one stayed with me.  I have been knitting him clothes for fun.

Teresa

Mom's Bears

The lovely marled bear.  I think he is my favorite.  I love the way the yarn looks on this little guy and how it covers any stitches that might otherwise show.  Plus, he's the first of the three for Mom I made so he and my original bear helped with all the rest.

Next the honey colored bear.  The yarn color is actually sand but it is a nice little beige/brown bear.  I think this one will look nice dressed in a jacket and hat.

And the third friend, the polar bear.  He had to have blue eyes . . .  

And my bear with his coat and hat.  Poor thing still has no buttons on his coat but eventually I will find some small toggle type buttons that will work.

The three amigos getting ready to go on their long trip from my house to Gramma's house.  They have to travel over several rivers and through lots of woods to get there.  Then Dena will knit them coats and hats and maybe boots (working on that . . . .).  Wish them luck!

Teresa

A little sample . . .

 

I started this sample in March - around the middle of the month.  I was sent 3000 yards of lace weight yarn and the designer sent the pattern as she designed it.  What you see here is the center portion before being blocked (and stretched to show the pattern).  The needles are the new Dyakcraft Northern Lights Black Nickel which I was also testing.  I cannot tell you how much I love these needles.  I have a full set on order, which is completely ridiculous given the number of kitting needles that already live in my house.  Anybody want some needles?

Edit:  These lovely needles will be shipping by October.  The catch is that they must be pre-ordered.  Those who pre-order by September first will get their needles sometime in October.   Those who order in September will get needles in November, etc. My set has already been ordered because I so love these  needles.  When I first picked them up, I didn't know what they were made of - they felt like glass and looked like hematite.  They are smooth and warm up quickly and feel wonderful in your hands.  They love yarn and it lov s them - there is never any tugging or pulling across the needles or the joins.  The full story can be found on the Dyakcraft website here:
http://dyakcraft.com/nickel.html

This is the center being blocked.  I think it was about 40 x 40 but it might have been a little less.  It was originally supposed to be 42 x 42 but my knitting was tighter on the actual piece than it had been on the swatch.

This is the edging blocking.  It added about 8" to each side of the center piece.  I did a provisional cast on to start, left the end stitches live and picked up stitches on each side of the center piece.

The body was 180 stitches across and I knit 380 rows.  That is 6840 stitches.

The first edge repeat was 1050 stitches - that is 275 on each side and 250 on each end.  There were 41 rows which makes the first edge repeat 43050 stitches.

The second edge repeat was 1250 stitches because I increased 50 on each corner.  It was 42 rows so that makes 52500 stitches.

I knit 102,390 stitches in this thing - plus the bind off.

That is me - holding it by the corners.  

And a girl with it as one would likely wear it.

And this is Donna's sneak peak photo.  The pattern will be available in the next Stories In Stitches when it comes out.

Teresa