Category: Knitting

Knitting projects

Turkey Tracks: Knitted Quilt

Turkey Tracks:  February 10, 2013

Knitted Quilt

I finished the knitted quilt blanket.

Take a look?

Knitted quilt 1

I could have worked on this project forever.  It was so soothing in difficult times.  It used leftover yarns–mostly.  (I confess I did buy a few skeins to get certain colors I ran out of and thought I needed.)  And it was so fun to combine different yarns for different effects.

Here’s a close-up of some of the blocks:

Knitted quilt 2

And a close-up of the binding, which is the i-cord method and, I think, works really well.

knitted quilt edging

All the information you might want if you want to make this project is in earlier posts.  Go to the right side-bar, click on knitting, and all the knitting posts will come up.  Or, search for knitted blanket with the search button, further down on the right sidebar.

Turkey Tracks: Some Favorite Recent Pictures

Turkey Tracks:  November 18, 2012

Some Favorite Recent Pictures

Three of the grandchildren and son Bryan have birthdays in September.

Remember the socks I was making out of leftover yarn?

Birthday socks–worn with very feminine white nightgowns purchased at a local Camden store:

Ailey Enright, the youngest grandchild for the moment, will be two the 25th of November.  She belongs to Bryan and Corinne, and she is intrepid.  No matter how cold the water, in she goes…

Bryan and Bowen (Mike and Tami’s oldest) were learning to surf.  Guess you will likely outdo both…

I love this one, taken on this same cold day.  Cousins–the oldest and the youngest:

Charleston cousins at Halloween:  the children of three families are represented here:  Mike and Tami, Bryan and Corinne, and Joey and Meaghan Kelly’s Meyer is in the red costume:

Talula is going to be a designer/artist of some sort.  She put this costume together herself, but got help with her eyes.  The photo is by Tara Derr Webb, who is clearly a mentor here and who is, herself, a working artist, a budding farmer, an amazing cook, and a gifted photographer.

Morning with Daddy:

Ailey with Uncle Michael:

Here are the Mike and Tami kiddos painting pumpkins with Uncle Joey and cousin Meyer.  Joey is Tami’s brother, and he’s so good with all these children.

First day in a new school.  I made the dress Mina is wearing, on the left, some years back.  Each girl had a matching dress, and I thought they were long outgrown.

Meyer Kelly on his quilt.  I love nothing better than to see a quilt I’ve made being used and loved:

Ditto, Owen Black on his quilt:

That’s all folks!

 

Turkey Tracks: Scrappy Knitted Blanket Update

Turkey Tracks:  October 20, 2012

Scrappy Knitted Blanket Update

I last posted an update on the knitted blanket I’m making back in mid July.  You can easily see that and earlier posts on this project by going to the right sidebar and clicking on the knitting category.  Earlier posts contain information about where I got the pattern–another blog–and how my knitting friends supplied me with their leftover yarn when I began to run out of color selections.

Here’s what the blanket looks like now:

The loose ends everywhere are either holding provisional stitches in place–they will be picked up when I do the edge–or are where I bound off the end of a block.  The binding off will get woven in when I finish the edges.  And I’ve adopted a practice of weaving ends in on the back as I finish each block.  That way the weaving in does not seem so daunting a project.

Since I started, I made the blanket wider–which is doable, but not as easy as starting it wide enough to begin with.  I’m now adding another two blocks of width since when Tami (daughter-in-law) was here a few weeks ago I couldn’t work on it because she wrapped herself up in it every night.  (I have a firm position that a heavy–and it is heavy–wool blanket is not appropriate for South Carolina.)  Anyway, Tami thinks it should be wide enough for two people to snuggle beneath it, so I’m now making it a bit wider still.  And, I’ll make it another row or two wider.  Knitting master Giovanna McCarthy is going to help me decide whether or not to crochet an edge or use the straight i-cord edge the designer used.

What I love about this project–in addition to the fact that it uses up leftover yarn–is that it looks like a quilt.  Here’s a closeup of the “on-point blocks”:

The “varigated” blocks happen when I combine several thinner yarns to make a thicker one.  And the bar in the middle happens as you decrease stitches in the middle to make the diamond shape.  It takes me about 40 minutes or so to make one block, but the work of it is very soothing, and I absolutely love choosing which colors will sit nicely next to other colors.  I work on it at night while we watch “stories” on television (movies, tv series, etc.)  I don’t think I could have watched the recent political debates (presidential, vice-presidential) without also knitting the blanket.

x

Turkey Tracks: Scrappy Knitted Blanket Growing

Turkey Tracks:  July 16, 2012

Scrappy Knitted Blanket Growing

Believe it or not, I was already running out of leftover yarn to make the blanket of on-point squares I blogged about a few weeks back.  The biggest issue was not having a good choice of pretty colors.

I put out a call to some knitting friends, who responded very generously (and in some cases happily as they got rid of scrap yarn too and it went for a nice purpose).

Now I have lots of colors from which to choose!  Thanks everyone!

I’ll put up a picture of how this project is going soon–it’s slow as it takes about 40 minutes to make most of the squares–but fun as I love working with all the different colors and textures.  It’s like making a quilt out of yarn…

Turkey Tracks: I Have Some Socks For These Feet!

Turkey Tracks:  July 16, 2012

I Have Some Socks For These Feet!

See?

Talula’s are the middle.  She liked the orange/green glitter yarn.  And, Wilhelmina liked the blue/green glitter yarn, so I crafted around those choices.  Bowen’s are less wild, which is fitting for a boy.

These socks will be birthday gifts–to be gifted in September when three of the five grandchildren have birthdays.  All three pairs have been made from leftover sock yarn.  Kelly Enright got a pair back in February for his birthday, as you may recall.  They’re here on the blog.

Let’s hope they will all fit by fall/winter.  These children are growing like weeds!

Turkey Tracks: Using Leftover Scrap Yarn

Turkey Tracks:  July 3, 2012

Using Leftover Scrap Yarn

This blog’s readers know I’ve been engaged all winter with what I call “The Scrappy Project,” which is using quilting fabrics left over from over 80 quilts–and already cut into useable shapes and stored–to make scrappy quilts that I really, really like.  I have only been knitting about six or seven years this go-round, but, already, I’ve accumulated more scrap yarn than I felt comfortable storing.

My friend, master knitter Giovanna McCarthy, gave me two ideas/patterns for using up this scrap knitting yarn.  I chose this one from Shelly Kang’s blog–www.shellykang.com.  Once there, look for “Let’s Do a Gauge Swatch.”  You can even get to the pattern by googling “Let’s Do a Gauge Swatch.”  The directions are perfect and there are lots of pictures so you can clearly see how to proceed.  The project reminds me of making a quilt–it’s little squares of differing colors, knitted “on point.”

First, I made a series of the squares from some of my available scrap yarns.  The top one is made with a thicker yarn and is a bit bigger.  The middle two are made with a normal weight worsted.  And the bottom two are made from fingerling weight sock yarn.  They are waaaaay too tiny, and it would be insane to use them unless one were making some sort of tiny art project.  It does work to knit with two or three fingerling strands of yarn to get size and thickness.

The thicker, bigger square actually combines ok with the worsted squares, so I did use them when I started using Kang’s method of putting blocks together.  Note that the pale green thread is part of a provisional cast-on (which is really easy and can be found easily on-line) and will be taken out when the squares are joined or edged.  I love the textured stripe in the middle of each block.

Here’s what the blanket looked like about 10 days ago.  It’s getting bigger now–but I’ve capped how wide it will be.

Again, note that the  pale green ties will come out of that bottom row.

I’m obsessed with this project.  I have to make myself do other projects for a set period of time before I can work on the blanket.  (I’m working on grandchild socks made from leftover sock yarns, and I’m close to finishing the 4th pair so pics will be coming up soon.)

And I’ve already reached out to knitting friends begging for some of their leftover yarns…

Turkey Tracks: I Finished It!!!

Turkey Tracks:  June 21, 2012

I Finished It!!!

And I already miss making it and watching the diamonds shape…

To recap earlier entries on this sweater (click on knitting on the right sidebar or search for Romney Ridge Farm), I met Kelly Corbett of Romney Ridge Farm and Aloisia Pollack at the Maine Organic Farmers and Growers Association “Common Ground” Fair last fall.  Aloisia had made a sweater out of Kelly’s beautiful yarns, and I was instantly captivated.   Aloisia taught me and Giovanna McCarthy how to do the pattern and showed me how to make a cardigan from the pullover pattern.  I added the big collar, as I thought the sweater needed to be really grounded what with all that pattern and color.  And, Helen of Heavenly Socks in Belfast suggested these buttons, which I also really like and would not have found on my own.

The greyish yarn of the collar, front bands, etc., is the natural color of one of Kelly’s sheep.  The rest she dyes herself, and the colors are shaded and glow in the sweater.   You can see the shading in the dark purple yarn really well…

Here’s a close-up of the bottom of the sweater–and yes, the color lines do match up as the body was knit on round needles.

Giovanna used the narrower, two-color bands Aloisia’s pattern employed, and I think they make the sweater lighter–as you will see when she finished hers.

I have so enjoyed this project and working with these beautiful yarns.

Turkey Tracks: Giovanna’s Baby Blanket

Turkey Tracks:  April 27, 2012

Giovanna’s Baby Blanket

I ran into Giovanna McCarthy at the Camden post office a few days ago.  Meeting someone at the post office–or at the dump–is one of the many pleasures of living in a small town.

We were both mailing packages containing finished projects.  She was mailing off this baby quilt–which she has shared at our April Coastal Quilters’ meeting.  It’s made from sock yarn, so will be sturdy and washable.  Isn’t it luscious?

Giovanna excels at this kind of lacy knitting that I have still to master.

Lucky baby!

I was mailing a baby quilt for Owen Wallace Black, born April 17th, to my niece Lauren Howser Black and her husband David.  I’ll post those pics in a separate entry.

Giovanna and I shared a visit and a coffee at Zoot’s coffeehouse–which is another perk of living at a slower pace.  We have time for each other.

TurkeyTracks: This One’s For You, Nancy

Turkey Tracks:  April 22, 2012

This One’s For You, Nancy

It’s a rainy Sunday.

We are delighted!

I can’t tell you how dry it is in Maine.  And, until the past few days, way too warm for April.

The new strawberry plants (50) arrived, and I planted them the other day.  I plant the most delicious little strawberry–Sparkle.  Strawberries get planted early spring, but one pinches off all the blossoms the first year to give the plants a year to develop.  So, we won’t eat these strawberries until June 2013.  It’s ok.  I think we’ll get another year or, even, two out of the old bed.  I’m just thinking ahead.

I also planted peas, the cold frame with lettuce, and raked back the straw from the asparagus bed.  I was planning in my head to go get some cool-weather plants, like broccoli, until my better sense kicked in as it’s really way too early.  I had to water everything deeply, and my muscles are still screaming from all this different, outdoor activity.

John and I had a delightful lunch in Belfast.  And, I found some red sock yarn for my niece, Nancy Howser Gardner.  We have a deal.  She’s making me a scarf, and I’m making her some red socks.  So, Nancy, this yarn is for you.  It’s 50% wool, but has some cotton in the blend.  It’s really pretty.  See those little blue flecks in the mixture?

God knows when Nancy will get these socks.  She’s got my sweater in front of her socks.  And some socks for the kiddos from leftover yarn.  And a linen shawl.  But, I’m down to the sleeves now.  And little socks and the shawl should go fast.  And, anyway, that red yarn is really drawing me.  I think I’ll pick a Cookie A sock pattern for Nancy’s red socks.

Here’s what the sweater looks like now.   I’ve sewn the shoulder seams since I took this picture, so I can now pick up the neck stitches.  I got a circular needle of the right size (7) in Belfast to do so.  I’ve got one sleeve mostly done.  The best news is that after sewing the shoulder seams, I could try it on.  I did, and IT FIT beautifully.

To remind, this yarn comes from Kelly Corbett’s Romney Ridge Farm down in Woolwich, Maine, just south of Damariscotta.  The yarn is all hand-dyed and the colors shade in and out–you can see that in the purple diamonds.  The yarn on the ribbing is the natural color of one of Kelly’s sheep.

Aloisia Pollock designed the pattern for the sweater and the carrying color pattern and taught Giovanna McCarthy and I how to do it.  You can view the yarn balls and get all the info on both of these terrific women from earlier blog postings in the knitting category.  Giovanna chose different colors, and her sweater is gorgeous too.  You can see Giovanna’s colors on the earlier posting as well.

Turkey Tracks: Giovanna’s Red Shawl

Turkey Tracks:  March 17, 2012

Giovanna’s Red Shawl

A few weeks back, Giovanna McCarthy invited me to her workroom to wind my skeins of Romney Ridge yarn into balls.   Look what was hanging over her computer chair.

I didn’t get a good picture of it until she brought it to our last Coastal Quilters’ meeting.

Here’s a close-up of the work of some of the work of this spectacular knitter.

You can see a little in these pictures that what’s very nice about this shawl, other than the beautiful red color and the gorgeous pattern, is the large “u-shaped” neckline.  This shawl just “cozies” up to your body.

Beautiful!!!!

xxxx