Author: Lindy

Oh! More Yarn!Oh! More Yarn!

October 3, 2009October 3, 2009 | LindyLindy | 0 Comment | 10:02 am

During my recent trip to New England, I visited a couple of yarn shops in Boston, MA. And, of course, I bought yarn in each of them!

CascadeHeritage2
At Wolcott & Co. in Harvard Square, I purchased two beautiful hanks of Heritage Sock yarn (Cascade Yarns). I plan to use this soft superwash merino yarn for a scarf for my daughter’s roommate.

MindsEyeYarns1
At Mind’s Eye in Porter Square, I purchased a lovely skein of undyed handspun alpaca yarn and 3 balls of Online Linie 2 Supersocke Silk yarn. The alpaca was a stash purchase and will wait for the right project to find it. The sock yarn will be used for a scarf for my daughter (she picked it out).

BabyUll_1
I was still trying to decide what pattern and what yarn to use for the baby sweater I want to make for my new grandson due in January. After knitting the baby blanket, I decided not to use the same yarn for the sweater – so off I went to Personal Threads, one of the local yarn shops here in Omaha. There I found what I was looking for – I ended up buying Dale of Norway Baby Ull in three colors in sufficient quantity to knit a cardigan sweater and a romper to match! Oh, and I bought the pattern as well.

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Progress on Socks for SoldiersProgress on Socks for Soldiers

September 30, 2009September 30, 2009 | LindyLindy | 0 Comment | 8:13 am

I am making progress on my first pair of “regulation socks” for Socks for Soldiers. It has been slow going. I had knitted about four inches in 2 x 2 ribbing when I decided that I had an issue with laddering. Usually when you knit on two circulars, you don’t have a problem with ladders developing between the needles – but there they were… I figured out that I was causing the problem by tugging too hard on the yarn when I knit the first two stitches on each needle. The Regia Stretch yarn is really stretchy and because I was pulling the yarn too tightly I had ladders. So, I made a trip to the frog pond and frogged the socks all the way back to the beginning. (Sigh…)

9 inches of sock leg.

9 inches of sock leg.


Well, I now have 9+ inches of leg done on both socks. The first 8 inches were knit on size US 2 (3.00 mm) circulars, with a stitch gauge of 8 spi. Following the directions of the official pattern, I switched to Size US 1 (2.25 mm) circulars, which have a gauge of 9 spi. The leg continues in ribbing until it measures 12 inches and then you begin the heel. I’ll post an update when I get to the heel.

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Time Out from Knitting – Sewing ProjectTime Out from Knitting – Sewing Project

September 24, 2009September 24, 2009 | LindyLindy | 0 Comments | 9:00 am

A few weeks ago, I took my MIL to the quilting store nearby so that she could buy some material for a baby quilt for the new grandchild expected in January. While she was selecting her fabric, I discovered a fabric printed with brightly colored shoes all over it. It was next to a tote bag that was on display along with its pattern.

Since my DD has a major thing for shoes – I decided that it would be fun to make up this tote bag using that shoe print fabric. I purchased the necessary fabric and took a copy of the free pattern. Last week, I worked on the tote bag project and took a time out from knitting.

3Totes
I actually made three tote bags. I picked up some other fabrics at Wal-Mart, so that I could do a prototype before I actually used the more expensive shoe print fabric. It was a good thing I did so – because my first tote bag was HUGH – much larger than I had envisioned – the tote has a 12” by 12” bottom and is actually larger than those reusable bags you can buy at the local grocery store.HughTote2

Erins_Tote1So, I revised the pattern and made it smaller. Hence, I did another prototype before I finally made the tote with the shoe print fabric.

Betsys_Tote1 I am happy with the final results and now have a tote bag for my DIL as well as my DD.

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The Roomba Ate My Socks!The Roomba Ate My Socks!

September 17, 2009September 17, 2009 | LindyLindy | 3 Comments | 6:15 pm

Roomba
I have a Roomba – which is a small robotic vacuum cleaner. You are supposed to be able to contain it to a single room using little devices called “lighthouses”. I really like this little guy for frequent vacuuming of my kitchen. So, the other day, I turned it on and left it to run around the kitchen while I did some things in my office.

Well, it escaped the kitchen and headed off into the living room – where my two at a time socks using magic loop project was laying beside my recliner (I’d left them there the night before) …AND…the Roomba ate my socks!

I heard this weird little sound coming from the living room and went to investigate – and there I found the Roomba thrashing about entangled in my 40” circular needle and the yarn from one of the socks. (I was so traumatized that I forgot to take a picture.)

After turning the Roomba off, it took me several minutes to remove the yarn from around the various moving parts and then deal with the fact that the circular needle had somehow ended up wrapped around one of the wheels. Eventually, I succeeded in extricating my circular needle – but it was a close call, as I had begun to consider the possibility of having to cut the cable. (WHEW!) Fortunately – one sock was still on the circular needle. The other, however, was laying in the middle of the floor – off the needle and minus its ball of yarn. I tenderly picked up this wounded creature and set it aside to recover from all the trauma.

I discovered that the lighthouse that should have prevented Roomba from going into the living room wasn’t working (dead batteries). Once I replaced the batteries, the darn little thing worked just fine and stayed in the kitchen where I wanted it to be.

Socks_BackTog
Happy News! – I was able to frog the wounded sock back to a point that I knew where I was in the pattern and then pick up the stitches and reconnect the yarn to the sock as I reknit it back to where it had been before it was attacked by the Roomba. It is now back on the same circular needle with its brother.

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