Better skirt pics

Yes, I got better pictures. I'm wearing a light colored top, and it is showing through the top part of the skirt -- incidentally showing up the pattern a bit. I've got a black slip on as well to just past my knees.


I still love it. Very lovely and cool in the heat, lovely swish. :)

Looks better in person I think.

Now off to work on my afghan square! And then . . . maybe a swatch for a summer top.

~Briony

I FINISHED MY SKIRT!

Ok, sorry for the caps, but I'm so proud of myself. I finally finished the 40" long lace skirt I made in Euroflax Originals. In black. I was *so* glad I listened to one customer who reminded me to hang the skirt for at least 2 days to make sure I knew where I was with length. I knit the thing so loose, you see, and so lacey that it grew oodles -- but mostly on the second day!

Now, I'll back up.

Way back in February I knew I really wanted a summer skirt. Now, I didn't feel that I HAD to knit one. I just wanted a long summer skirt. Which is where I landed into trouble. I adore ankle length skirts. For me, that means about 40". And I couldn't find any. There may be tons out there, but I couldn't find one. And I'm hopeless at this time at sewing. So that left . . . knitting :)

My next plan of attack was to pick a summery yarn -- cotton or linen I thought. And I love black -- so Euroflax Originals won.

Now, I knew I wanted a fairly full skirt. And I didn't want it to bag out when I sat. I wanted to wear this one ALOT so that mean I needed lots of room for me inside the thing. Originally I didn't want to HAVE to wear a slip so I tried to make it all nice and dense . . . well I'm getting so blasted loose that I just couldn't get to gauge without using a 0 or smaller and that I didn't like. On a size 2 I was getting 7 sts/inch but it was still a bit see through. So I stuck with that, bought a slip, and figured on a 38" caston -- wider than my hips by a few inches. Linen won't stretch back and forth ya know. Elastic was added later. I moved up to a 3 after 3" from cast on (used knitted cast on). Then I started the lace (afterall, it was going to need a slip anyway!) from a chart in a book Chrisanne found for me which has feather and fan or old shale increasing along with the pattern (book was A Gathering Of Lace --a great book). I started way into the chart b/c I had so many stitches. I followed it until I had 27 repeats of 25 sts. It seemed enough. I ended with a skirt with about 18 or so feet in circumference.

At about 6.5" I went to a 4. Somewhere in here I started changing needles when I started a new skein (Euroflax Orig. has abou 270 yards) so I moved on to a 5, then a 6, then 7. The 5th and 6th skeins saw me working on an 8 only . At the end of the 5th, after it was soaked and left to hang, dripping itself dry was 23". Skeins 7&8 were on a 9. The end of the 7th skein gave me about 30" Un stretched as it were. After I finished the 8th skein I took it home and soaked it, spun it dry (yes on the needles, I wouldn't recommend this! not that I had troubles, but I had it rubberbanded all over those needle points) and hung it for 2 whole days. It dried on the 1st but I left it. Good thing. At the end of the first day it was about, oh 34"? At the end of the 2nd? 40". Wow. Nearly 41" but I tried not to see that number. Too far. Too far and I still needed to cast off.

Tinking. Yup, the glory. I tinked about 600 sts and then cast off WAY loosely with a crochet hook a la Crazy Toes and Heels.

And ran out of yarn.

So tink-tink went the cast on. And the next 2 rows.

And the cast off was successful this time :)

I finished it Sunday (all of Sunday was tinking and Casting off). I wore it to work Tuesday and so on. I love it.

And I got a lot of interest when I was working on it -- either because it was beautiful (I hope it was this option), or a huge project, or idle curiosity or just an insane project that would surely never work . . .

And here, drum roll please . . . is the skirt (yes I know, too dark, but you get an idea. Better piccys when I can get 'em): At least the second shows the pattern -- white sheet behind the work -- pre-hanging.

So that's what I've been doing. Next -- summer tops! ~Briony

Gifts and Beginnings

Chrisanne finished her white 'sampler' sweater out of Cascade's Sierra! We're all so proud! Don't come in hoping to see her in it though. It's too big for her. Not a gauge shift, just she over-guestimated how big she wanted it. We were dreading ripping it all out. Then . . . it found a new, happier, home. Isn't it wonderful when an "ooops" becomes a "great!"? Thelma's happy with her new sweater at any rate!

Here's a hat made of about 160 yards of Encore Colorspun Worsted. I had to use a 4 to get 5 sts/in. Anyway, I was inspired by Knitting Rules by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and knit it up in a tube, and then, without decreasing or casting off, cut the yarn and pulled it through the stitches on the needle. I think she's right -- this is a much better learner/beginner project than a scarf.

Oh, and I finished my first Afghan Square. I'm not entirely content with the tension shifts, but I did get cables without a needle down in addition to learning how to read the cable symbols. I hope my next with cables (but no cable needle) will be smoother. So here it is, blocking on the sofa in the back room :) And I bet you thought the sofa was for sitting on! HAH!

Happy Knitting Folks,

Briony

Odd Socks

. . . And that's what Chrisanne has been wearing on purpose for the last few days. She gets SSS (second sock syndrome where you get bored with the yarn/color/pattern after the first sock) bad so she has lots of single socks. And she's decided it's OK to wear them. I agree. I think it's great. So does Mistell ;)
And do you see? They even have different heels!

Sock on left: Shaeffer's Anne, a wool mohair blend. Great hand dyed colors.

Sock on Right: Opal



See? Different heels. :)







I'm working on the filigree ensemble wristlets in white prime alpaca. Yummy. I'm done with the lace bit and now have 5" of k1tbl,p1 to do.




Oh and finally a pic of me in my Cascade 220 Superwash - Bernat Illusions cowl neck, yoke sweater. I live in this lately. SO warm and cozy. I went a tensy bit overboard with the neck which hasn't come to fruitition yet in the pic but has now. Ah well. I still love it.






Chrisanne has pulled out her white 'sampler' sweater in Cascade's Sierra -- a cotton wool blend. Shows pattern beautifully and is a joy to knit with.








And that's all from the Shoppe today, m'dears! Coming up soon . . . a (gasp) finished afghan square from Briony!)
~Briony

Afghans and Things

I sometimes think only knitters really appreciate other knitted gifts. Happily, this is a rare thought as I click needles together for gifts. However, I got some nifty handmade goodies myself for my birthday recently. LOOKIE! :) Chrisanne made me these out of FurrYarns Mistral! Silk and wool at a DKish weight. Can we say soft? Can we say silky? Oooh yes! And toasty warm to boot. The gorgeous colorways in these yarns are simply more reasons to knit with them.

I also really love the cables she did all up the leg. These didn't even use up the 2 skeins -- Chrisanne thinks you might be able to squeeze a pair of baby socks or something from the leftover yarn.

I am also working on the Afghan squares for our shop's Afghan Knit Along. Here is my current one -- in Cleckheaton Country 8ply available through Plymouth Yarns. Yeah, it's not far along but I only started Saturday! I'm mid way through a cable (the purple needle thing you can't see). I'm fighting my dyslexia pretty hard trying to do cable sans needle but I'm loosing at the moment. :( I just get SO muddled!) Very frustrating. I will persevere, however.

Typing about perservering -- I finished my bulky sweater that should have taken me bare days to complete! Yea! I got it done on the 18th. No piccy because my camera just ran out of battery juice. I know.

Here is Chrisanne's project for the day: her coat out of sock yarns. All mitred squares (I just know I spelled that wrong and massive apologies all around).

Oh and I forgot to post about this last week. My darling cats made some rather large holes in my silk shawl in Dec 2005. I finally pulled it out earlier this month to survey the damage.

This is what the shawl is like now:

There was simply too much damage. Too many rows knawed through too much eaten off. I spent a long time Saturday doing this during the Knit Together. Rip, wind ball winder, yarn ends. Many of those balls are just under 2 rows long. Sigh.

I don't know the future of this yarn. Perhaps a tank top or sweater or something. I used to have roughly 1000 yards. But since I'm looking at only 3 good sized skeins -- who knows. The pain is still there. But the healing is ongoing.

~Happy Knitting,
Briony

All the Colors in the Rainbow

What have I been doing, eh? It's been, what?, nearly a week. Surely I have oodles of new projects, pictures of completed ones. Tales of daring knitting adventures.

Nope.

I ripped out the sleeves on the top down sweater I was working on, re figured it myself and started up again. I just didn't like the fit of the old ones. Somehow, the sleeves are still in progress. And no, I haven't worked on anything else here. I dunno. I must have been working. :-)

Chrisanne has started several things but I caught her latest here:

AWESOME eh? She's got 21 colors in here! It's roughly based on a Kaffe Fawcet Tumbling Blocks sweater which is based on three groups of lights, brights and darks. She's got each group in a different Lantern Moon basket. She's moving all the ends onto bobbins now -- 3 yards loose tail of each was the original plan. Before The Tangle. Anyway, this gorgeous sweater is out of mercerized cotton -- Cotton Classic, King Tut and Butterfly 10. And, guess what? Ssshhh . . . she's making notes as she's knitting! She is also saying that she is insane working with so many colors. But as she says, her husband won't say it's depressing!

So there ya go. Briony's slogged down on sleeves of a sweater, and Chrisanne is boldly striding into a rainbow, grabbing strands and knitting 'em in a fantastic sweater.

Bets are NOT being taken on the completion of either project at this time. Not that I'm bitter about the sleeves. Oh, no. Not at all.

~Briony

Sweater and Things . . .

Well, I finished another pair of socks, but since I cast-on another pair right afterwards, I'm not changing my list of projects :) These are Plymouth's Clecheaton, 100% wool, worsted weight. The bottoms burgandy, with Skacel's F/S darning thread for reinforement in the toes and heels. The tops are Cleckheaton too, but in black.












This is the typical table at the Yarn Shoppe -- at least in front of me. This is my sweater. I started it yesterday -- Got gauge and all that Tuesday. It will be my first yoke sweater. I wanted to use up the brown yarn in my stash -- Bernat Illusions in Earth Tones which I can't get anymore. I wanted it warm though, so I added a strand of Cascade's 220 Superwash Aran. I'm working at 2.5 spi on a 10-1/2 addi.



Here is a less messy view. This is to show that I'm working both sleeves at once, each thus having it's own skein of Illusions and 220 Superwash. Then the center one is for the body.
Ok, so the center is the front, and the sleeves are just beginning, one on each naturally, with a 60" Addi working them both at the same time. The blue point protectors are holding the needle points of the 24" that is holding the body stitches.





After I get some part of this done, I'll pick up the neck and add a cowl neck. I cast on with a provisional cast on to make this easier (the yellow waste yarn).
Well, that is all for now. :) I hope to finish the sweater soon so I can wear it. I'm freezing!

~Briony
And I've started a sweater.