A Little Yarn On The Side

Bob:  It's an exciting moment here at Chateau Sutton-Goar today.  Late last night, project number 90 was completed leaving just 10 projects left to finish in 45 days. If Ms. Sutton can manage to finish a project every 4 and a half days, she'll make her target!  Ron:  A real breakthrough for Ms Sutton certainly.  though the fifth cornucopia was, in fact, the last one that was so very far along.  To finish the remaining 6, Ms. Sutton will have to spend some dedicated time in the sewing room, and her behavior yesterday leads me to wonder if her dedication isn't slipping just a bit.   Bob:  I think you may be right, Ron.  Ms. Sutton will have to stay focused, which is going to be a real struggle for the woman who managed to rack up over 35 WIPs at one time.  There was a bit of a "mohair incident" this weekend which makes one wonder if she is indeed slipping.  While the lace jacket will someday be a lovely project, to get sidetr...

Just minutes ago, the beaded ostrich plume was finished! Blocking will come later, but I am quite pleased with it.  I pressed a bit with the iron as I was working just to be able to see how it looked, but I have been promising myself I could get back to the Pi shawl as soon as this was done, so if you'll excuse me.....I have a hot Friday night date with some merino!

Andy was gone this weekend, and since I couldn't spend the weekend sewing, I decided to sort through my sewing pattern stash and match up a few with fabric--you know, like I actually remembered what I bought material for in the first place........ And, after only about an hour of rummaging around in the closet, I found................ THE MISSING PAJAMA TOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  You know--the one that has been missing for two and a half years.  Of course, now I don't know where the rest of the material is, but as Andy pointed out, if all else fails, I could just bind the edges of the armholes & he'd have perhaps the first EVER wife-beater flannel PJ top.  It was underneath several yards of green suiting, which has now been "assigned" to Andy's next Halloween Costume...... A Zoot Suit!  I told him not to hope for the costume to be done by this Halloween, but since he's been waiting for a PJ top for 2 1/2 years, I doubt he was really ...

So, you might have guessed that I didn't have the greatest holiday weekend.  Surprisingly, the Knitting Gods didn't think a broken "newly repaired" sewing machine & a cold were quite enough.  I ran into a snag on the Baby Reefer Jacket which, to be fair, is completely my own fault, but annoying just the same.  I decided to make the two fronts & back all in one piece, and just divide for the sleeves.  Simple, no?  Actually, no.  It turns out that the sweater is made with drop sleeves, so there I was knitting away, when I finally double checked the pattern and realized that I was going to end up with one great big piece of knitting with no armholes.  AND, there are no schematics for the pattern, so I have no idea how far down the body the sleeve will actually reach, so I decided to break at a reasonable spot for the sleeves and hope for the best.  I can either steek or sew a bit if I'm off, but I'm really hoping it will be the sewing option...

Sigh..... Since there could be no sewing, late last night I got the latest ostrich plume scarf done which currently looks a little ramen-noodle-ish, but should be quite marvelous when blocked.  I had hoped to pick up Jeeves today, and since I couldn't, I consoled myself with this Yes!  It's another ostrich plume scarf!  Though this time with little white seed beads--which you probably can't see as they never show up in pictures, but they're there on every-other pattern row.  I'm sure it will be a lovely scarf & will make a nice gift for someone, but the light pink is just a little too girly, so I decided to cast on a wool scarf as well I'm using the leftover yarn from my January Aran sweater which shows stitch definition well.  I'm using something called the "wickerwork pattern" from the second Barbara Walker treasury.  It's not a pattern I would normally use, but I think it will make a nice scarf.  Hopefully Jeeves can come hom...

I'm happy to report that both the finger and my pride are healing nicely, so there has been knitting.  The latest Ostrich Plume scarf is getting close to a finished length or, I should say, closer as there's still a fair bit of knitting to be done.  Still, it's moving forward. And Andy's sweater is a BIGGER black tube and I have ALMOST knit up all the yarn from that back piece, so I will soon get to start counting the yarn again!  VERY exciting.  Since the sweater picked up a theme song, I had to abandon the book in favor of a BBC series a friend had recommended which is about two sisters who build their own fashion house in the 1920s.  Which is great and the clothes are fabulous, but it may not have been the best choice since I was already missing Jeeves.  While I'm not actually admitting anything, there may have been a small case of the sulks here last night....... BUT, the big news is...............................It's June 27 and project numb...

Remember how I said I was going to work on the mitten garland this month? Obviously, that is not working out for me.  I have become OBSESSED with this scarf!  I wasn't sure if I would like the pattern in merino as well as I did the alpaca, so I steamed it a bit to see how it would look when finished--AND I LOVE IT!  I am a knitter obsessed! And meet projects 48 and 49: which is a shirt & cropped pants, not a shirt with bloomers, no matter what they look like in the picture.  I am rather proud of finishing up this fabric, as it was one of the first pieces of material I bought when I decided to take up sewing 5-6 years ago.  It MAY have been the oldest fabric in my stash--which gives me hope for the rest of the stash.  Theo was, of course, on hand to help, but I think a project with THREE drawstrings AND buttonholes was perhaps a bit much for him.......

This scarf is actually very simple, but I'm trying to make the directions as thorough as possible.  It has a moss-stitch border of 6 rows on top and bottom and 4 stitches on each side, and uses the stitch pattern KNOWN as Ostrich Plume (hence the name).  There's a 3-stitch decrease using a slip 2, k1, pass slipped stitches over, which creates a nicer look than the traditional slip 1, k2tog, pass slipped stitch over technique, but feel free to use the more traditional decrease if you choose.  I used a shorter bottom and top edging to allow the wavy stitch pattern to pull the border into the wave effect, but you could certainly add a few extra rows of moss-stitch to the top and bottom if you would like. I have written this to slip the first stitch of all but the very first row as I think it makes a nicer edge, but you may choose to simply knit them.  As a matter of personal preference, I never slip the first stitch of the first row--it doesn't work with some cast-o...

After ALL the sewing and gardening and embroidery, I'm back with my first love: We just needed a little time apart, I guess.  And freakishly cool weather in the summer doesn't exactly hurt wool's appeal, to be quite honest. This is another Ostrich Plume scarf, and after several requests, I will be adding the pattern to the blog later.  It quite honestly takes longer to write a stitch pattern than it does to knit, but I will hope to have it on the blog before the scarf is done.  And considering I just started this last night, I definitely think it could be this month!