Stage 4: Are We There Yet?

 Hi Dear Blog Readers!

Rainy here in Western NY today. I hear its going to be bitter cold next week.  

This week I made good progress on the Calicanto sweater. Miles of stockinette. Tried on a couple of times.  A couple more inches and I'll have to try on again.  As the "miles" keep going I wonder...are we there yet?  LOL

Remember when I finished up the cowl and  headband, and I said I'm not a headband person. I'm really not. This weekend I reversed them, and wore the cowl as the headband, and the headband as the cowl. I like it much better!

The kids came for breakfast today.  Mason wore his sheep sweater I made him for Christmas. It was hard to get him to stand still but I managed to snap a few.

Ruth is very near the end of her beautiful Interlaken Pullover sweater. When you really look at it you notice the beautiful details.  Miles and miles of knitting on this one...small needle!

Martha has made wonderful progress on her beautiful sweater as well.  Look at the details in this beauty.  She is waiting to case off the sleeve until its blocked to make sure it's not too long after blocking. I do that too.

In other news:

Mason came to play yesterday.  We had fun with the new magnetic blocks we got to play with.

He and I went to the library for a while.  We played fireman.  He was making firetruck noises and put the fire out. So fun.  "Come on grammy, come on"  Let's race.  So...I did!

Casey brought her niece Riley to breakfast.  She and Mason love to play together.  Soo fun.

Have a great week dear blog readers.  I hope it's peaceful and knitful.

Stage 3: The Relief

 Hi Dear Blog Readers!

Gray is the word of the day here in Western NY.  No sun for days.  No snow either which is a blessing.  

I only got out to walk one day this week. I think I'll take a spin when done writing.

This week I got enough done on the Calicanto sweater to put it on a string and give it a little bath. Wanted the color work to relax before I tried it on for fit.  It came out beautifully.  The fit is good. The relief !!!  The yarn is nice to work work. Lettilopi.  

This is a picture of it drying under the ceiling fan on my bed.  Bear was perfect size to drape it over.  I will admit I forgot about it when I walked in the room and let out a tiny scream wondering who was on the bed!

Now 10 or so inches of stockinette before the bottom ribbing. I'm ready!  All gray color. Working on weaving in a lot of pesky ends too.

While the sweater was drying, I worked on the  Hermione's Everyday Socks.  Kind of hard to see the pattern, so not sure if it's worth it, but I like having to think a little and it's sooo easy.  This is a free pattern on Ravelry. Right now there are 37872 projects of this pattern.  Now I'm sure some people made more than one...this is my third.  But imagine if she charged $1 for the pattern.  Phew!

Ruth has made a lot of progress on her beautiful Interlaken Pullover this week.  It may be hard to tell, but the stitches are tiny!  and all of those purl stitches!  It is going to be stunning when done. 

Martha has made a lot of progress on her Basket Saddle Cardigan.  So beautiful. Look atr all of the detail in the bottom and shoulders!  Can't wait to see it done.

She is working on her socks when she needs brainless knitting. Going to make the heel in contrast color. She is not sure if this teal will be it or not.

In other news:

We are deep in Buffalo Bills country here in Western New York..so when someone talks about "the game" we all know what game it is. Hoping they can pull it off today. This one is going to be very emotional.

Tiffany sent me a couple of pictures of Mason this week....errr I mean Joe Cool.

He's ready to face day ahead..with cowboy boots and a blankie. Maybe my days would be better if I took a blankie with me!

Who doesn't vacuum with sunglasses on?

Have a good week dear blog readers..GO BILLS

Stage 2 : The FEAR

 Hi Dear Blog Readers!

It is quite pretty here in Western NY today.  The snow is frozen on the trees and there was sun!  Yes Sun!

I am deep in the colorwork of the Calicanto sweater.  It's been fun.  I have about five more rows to go and then the bottom will all be light gray.

I feel like there are a few stages to a top down, colorwork sweater.

Stage 1 - Cast on and exciting new project.  Check

Stage 2 - The FEAR of wondering if it will fit after the sleeves are on strings.  If it doesn't, it could be a lot of work tinking and ripping back.  And oh by the way, I cut the colors when done with them in each section.   I do not, however, weave in ends until I'm sure of the fit.

I did not do all of the colors according to pattern.  Kind of played with it.  Can't wait to get to one color.

Today I showed Joe the colorwork chart,  told him about rechecking each section after I knit it (now 18 stitches each) and said I'm not ignoring you on purpose when you talk to me...I'm counting!  LOL

Ruth is just about done with her 2nd sleeve on the Interlaken Pullover. It's really beautiful. It's hard to see the detail in this picture:

Martha is zooming along on her pretty Basket Saddle Cardigan:

She started the seed stitch on the bottom, which is three rows of each pattern.  She feels the end of the body of the sweater is coming to the end. 

In other news:

I took Mason to the playroom at the library yesterday.  He loves the kitchen the best. He spent a long time feeding me :)

 

He loves the train too.

However, he does not like taking Selfies!

This is the Christmas Cactus that Casey has had forever. I think it was her grandmas.  It is just stunning in person!

Have a great week dear blog readers.

Slogging Along

 Hi Dear Blog Readers!   

Slogging thru the week.  Back to work...ugh.  I did a lot of knitting on the Calicanto sweater.  I am at row 26 of 46. Currently tinking back a couple of rows.  The teal is hard to see in the current sequence. I'm going to replace with a lighter color, pink or light blue, and use the teal when it's more prominent.  The rows are very very very long and I have to concentrate!  I do a repeat, then stop and count. Is that how you do colorwork?

Ruth is probably done with her first sleeve on the Interlaken sweater by now. This pic is from this morning. She had to tweak a couple of times this week.  It looks great!  Reminder the pattern calls to knit the sleeves first, then add the body. 

Martha has a lot done on her new sweater: Basket Saddle  Cardigan

In her words since it is very descriptive:

I had knit the shoulders before this weekend.  I put it together and have worked pretty steadily since then.  I have the usual worries about the fit.  Things look so small before blocking. I added shaping for my rack and Ruth encouraged me to keep going after I measured it.  I remember the Daytripper sweater stretched a lot when I blocked that and it is single ply like this is too. I am not making the form fitting version, I’m going to make it more straight down.  This pattern is Basket Saddle Cardigan by Kristen TenDyke and it was published by Cast On in 2018.  I found it in Ravalry after searches for this yarn.  Nothing showed up in the search, but I was painstakingly looking at each pattern of any interest, and when I liked this one and it was made in my yarn it was a score! 

 In other news:

Lots of covid in the family.  I have not seen anyone and miss the kids. Joe has had it and recovering finally. Still the tiredness.  I have not got it this time..yet!  Knitting needles crossed!

Happy New Year!

 Happy New Year, Dear Blog Readers..welcome to 2023!  I  have been off of work this week, and you would think there would be tons of knitting to show..but nope. We were away for two days, and cleaning up from Christmas every day.   Everything is in a pile waiting for bins.  Bye till next year.

 I spent a while today updating my Ravelry project pages.  Slacked this year. Thank goodness for the blog so  I had details and pictures.

Only a few rows done on Hermione's Everyday Socks. Pattern hardly shows in the dark color, but I do think it helps with pooling.

I used the Ebb Tide Cowl Pattern to make a headband for me...and there is still a lot of yarn left!  I'm so sick of this pattern...glad it's done. Had to make sure I didn't make headband too lose so it stayed on.

Clearly! I am not too cute in a headband, but its very functional when walking (and no one sees me).  Love this yarn. Miss Babs Intrepid.

My one knitting goal while I was on vacation was to start a sweater.  

Calicanto.  Uses Lettilopi.  Goald is to use up as much leftover from Daytripper as I can.

This uses a much tighter gauge. Size 7 needle vs size 10 AND 10.5. Hopefully lots of progress to share next week.

Ruth is working on the sleeves of her Interlaken Sweater.  The pattern says to make sleeves first, then carry on with body. Weird.  She is plugging away. Look how nice it is!!!

Martha started a sock. FUN colors!

She also started a sweater in this beautiful purple yarn.  Cam Cable Pullover by Anne Hanson.

Going to be quite lovely!

No other news this week.  Starting a yoga challenge tomorrow for 30 days and I hope to get out and walk this week while it's warmer.  Wishing you and yours a HAPPY New Year...till next week.