Seriously Awesome

My dear knitting and quilting friends invited me to a stitch-a-thon. Not sure what I was signing up for, I joined in. It was brought about by some truly heroic women, who are going to change the world (or at least a little corner of it!).

Jane is awesome. She and her team had a huge factory underway as I arrived. We were making washable sanitary pads and liner for her trip to Nicaragua in January. We used flannel, waterproof liners and quilt batting... and cut, stacked, stitched, turned, pressed, serged and stacked again... each of us had a different task. I tried the machine sewing of the liners, then did some turning right-side out. We surpassed the goal of the day, and you can read about the adventures HERE.

Stacks of liners ready to sew....

My knitting posse have also promised to make dozens of the preemie caps to take (they will be visiting a hospital) AND we have promised to teach Jane to knit these (she claims to be a beginning knitter-but I have a feeling she'll be a natural) and in turn Jane will teach the women she meets in Nicaragua. She is already planning to teach them quilting, but feels they may want another project to do when they have their (frequent) power failures!

Oh Oh, Ruth is missing a tiara....

There, that's better....Me with some Preemie Caps ready to go...

The amazing Jane...

I will try to post information where you can donate to this effort, or you can email me directly if you would like to help ($ or knitwear?)

See the note? It says 90 in here! We made over 150 with lots of extra liners!

Preemie Caps

Our little band of knitters have wanted to find a way to knit for our new hospital, opening next year. The thought was to start knitting preemie hats for the nursery ward. I was of course designated to design an easy, quick knit, so here it is....

Yarn: Sport weight baby yarn (label says 4mm - US6 needles recommended)
Use 4 double point needles 4mm.

Cast on 60 stitches. (20 stitches on each of 3 needles) join without twisting, rib (knit2, purl2) for 2.25 inches. Change to stocking stitch, and work for 1.5 inches more.
Decrease as follows: [ Knit 8, knit 2 together] repeat around the row.
Knit next row.
[Knit 7, knit 2 together] repeat across this row.
Knit next row.
[Knit 6, Knit 2 together] repeat, knit next row.
[Knit 5 , knit 2 together] repeat, knit next row.
[Knit 4, knit 2 together] repeat, knit next row.
[Knit3, knit 2 together] repeat, [knit 2 , knit 2 together] repeat, knit 2 together .
Continue to knit 2 together until 4 stitches remain.
Run yarn through the last stitches and fasten off OR work 4 stitch I-cord for one inch, then bind off. Stitch in the ends.

Fushia Rag-Tag

I actually finished this a week ago, but took a while to pick buttons, and a while longer to find time to model and photograph the finished cardigan.

This is the raglan design for the Colinette Tagliateli in fushia. It is my favourite yarn, and makes a light but thick cardigan. Today is cool, feeling a bit of fall weather, so the perfect day to sit on the deck modelling the bright rag-tag.

It is a simple knit, designed with Sweater Wizard. This is a super easy knitting softwear program, where you knit a swatch to get precise gauge and plug that information in, along with size and type of sweater you intend to knit. Out pops a simple pattern including estimated yardage requirements. It even has drawings of the pieces with measurements and stitch numbers beside the pieces. You should try it!

I won't post the pattern here, because I think there is not much Tagliateli out there, it seems to be discontinued where I am searching. If there is enough demand, I can post the pattern, but it won't work well with other yarns, Tag' is pretty unique...

Lace and Mo Shawl

I had in my stash a lovely ball of very fine hand dyed lace-weight, and a matching ball of chunky mohair. The lace-weight should be knit on 3mm needles and the chunky on 6mm.... how to combine for one article of fabulousness?

The result is a large needle knit, really lacey fabric with single rows of fuzzy chunky at regular intervals to stabalize the whole thing!

Yarn: 100 grams of lace weight yarn, and 50 grams of chunky mohair (any thin yarn and thick yarn from your stash should work for this. You could even use several smaller balls and stripe it as you go)

Needles: 6mm (US 10) *** you must use circular needles here to follow the one row stripe pattern.... you will see how you must slide the yarn over to start on the same side again****

Shawl: With lace weight yarn, cast on 60 stitches.

Lace pattern: With lace weight yarn: Row 1, 2, and 3, Knit every row.

Row 4: Knit one, [yarn over, knit one] repeat across the row to end.

Row 5: knit all the stitches and drop all the yarn overs.

Row 6, and 7, knit all stitches.

Row 8: change to chunky mohair, and knit across with this yarn (leave a 5 inch tail at the start and end - breaking yarn when done this row**** DO NOT break the lace weight yarn .

Next row: slide the shawl back to the other end of the circular needle, without turning the project, so that you are now knitting with the lace weight yarn on the side you left it. Knit the lace-weight across the mohair row! This is Row 1 again. Repeat the row 1 - 8 pattern until the shawl - wrap is as long as you like.

End with row 1 - 6 of the lace-weight yarn and cast off all stitches.

Sew in the 5 inch tails of all the mohair rows.

The mohair row keeps it lying flat and stops it from bunching and curling. The lace yarn shows the yarn over row as an even more open stitch, giving it a spun web image.

Light and lacey and just right.

Chris Knits in Muskoka

We had a lovely three day trip to Muskoka, where we stayed at a cottage near Honey Harbour. The cottage belongs to our nephew, and is a new purchase. It is lovely, on a small cove with just 5 other cottages, and we enjoyed the comfortable accomodations. We played golf at very exclusive private courses, Mad River and Lake Joseph. The opportunity to play was extended to our golf club members thanks to the Canadian Tour Championship occupying our golf course for a week!

Some views of the cottage.....

and the golf.....

lots of knitting done during the drive....

Annual Tent Sale - August Version!

My knitting posse and I spent a few glorious hours at the Tent Sale by the Needle Emporium. We arrived just before opening with a game plan... spread out and seek Noro! I had Susan yelling across the church hall ... "found some", and Brenda found some Chunky Silk Garden and I scooped up 10 balls of Matzuri (very rare!). I also had Ruth's yarn stash money in my wallet, and was determined to impress her with her amazing purchases in her absense.
All 50gram balls were $3! Imagine a Noro sweater for $30. It was all too intense.

Here is my haul...


3 Noro sweaters, one Furin, one Silk Garden and one Silk Garden Chunky (20 balls!). One Debbie Bliss Donegan Chunky - enough for a coat. and the bargain of the day... 20 balls of Elsebeth Lavold cable cotton... for (hold your breath) $10! (yes 50 cents a ball!!)

Julie and Beth - you are awesome!

I already have the Cable Cotton on my Addies...

Busy Summer Days

The days fly by and I have had no time to post. This is early Sunday morning, and I have a few minutes over coffee to peck away here, before we gear up for another busy day. Yesterday we had a huge housewarming party for our newlywed-newlygrad daughter and her husband, and let me tell you, no one marinates meat like my hubby! Steak, chicken and huge shrimp all cut into smaller portions, so everyone can sample everything. Mmmm.
Today I have an out of town guest who wants to do a little cross-border shopping as a treat, before she heads home to our capital city. Should be a fun day.
Tomorrow I have declined an offer to golf in favour of unwinding, regrouping and catching up on so sewing projects piling up in my head and on my cutting table!
Again there will be more to show on the sewing blog this week! I do, however have a rather bright sweater in the works, made from the Tagliatelli that came from UK a couple of weeks ago. I will unvail the whole thing shortly. It is a raglan sleeve design, so tentatively named Rag-Tag. I have been on the Colinette site, and it looks to me that Tagliatelli is no longer made :(
This is my favourite yarn from them and I hope they are just taking a break, and will bring it back for winter.
My guest is up so I must get ready to roll.
cheers