Category Archives: Knitting Adventures

My Sister Was Here

My sister was visiting us and this is my excuse for the long silence.

We explored Toronto together, we went on a road trip that took us to Maine through Albany (to drop Sam at her boyfriend’s house on her way back to college) and to Quebec City on the way back to Toronto (my Joe is an expert in finding the longest way between any given two places,,,)

When Miriam arrived and saw my stash, my recently finished projects and the ones I am working on these days, she immediately felt the need to knit something too. She is not an avid knitted like me, she is doing many things, jewelry being her most serious thing these days. She decided she wants a light, small shawl and after I showed her how to start and do the increases for a basic triangle shawl, this is what she managed to finish while she was here:

Miriam Fast Shawl

Miriam's Quick Knit

She already started another scarf from her head, she is the creative spirit in our family, her head is full of great ideas in so many different areas, just amazing! (she is my one and only sister so I am allowed to brag about her, right?)

On our way to Maine we passed through New Hampshire and Joe spotted a sign on the road to The Fiber Studio, he asked if we want him to stop and we said yes,  so he turned around and we found a most delightful yarn shop that offers much more than yarn and patterns:

The Fiber Studio, Henniker, NH

The Fiber Studio, Henniker, NH

I have more photos of this lovely place but I wanted to show you what us sisters found in the shop:

Such a nice mix of things!

Such a nice mix of things!

Miriam found so many different things: yarn (of course) – she went for light cottony things that will fit the Israeli weather (I coudln’t resist the softness of the warm wools even when I lived in Arizona,,,), materials to make some kind of a scarf, I call it free form as I don’t know its official name, it involvs water soluble sheets (the Mokuba brown thing in the photo), all these ribbons and the fancy thread, you need to arrange them on the sheet and then sew it (god forbid, not my cup of tea,,,). She also found a lovely beaded scarf knitted with this colorful yarn that is unique to this shop (the two colorful cakes on both sides of the more muted cotton mix cake in the center) and the beautiful wooden tray for her bead work, oh and also some lovely button we forgot to add to the tray before taking this photo – she had to stop there because of space limitation on airplanes these days,,,,

You want to guess what I bought? Yes, you are right, just some boring yarn:

Are they nice together?

Are they nice together?

I bought the center one a few weeks ago in The Naked Sheep of Toronto (they had a lovely anniversary sale with 25% discount on any yarn for the whole month of August!) and then I saw in my Ravelry favorites that its the yarn for the Daybreak I decided I must have the first time I saw it.  I needed another color and couldn’t choose between these two so I had to buy them both don’t you agree?

Now, do you want to help me choose or should I use all three?

I wanted to show you the sock I very slowly knit these days (I have beautiful photos of it near the ocean in Maine – such a magnificent place!) but this post is already too long and I have to go so I will continue next time.

Neglected Knitting Syndrome

Quite a long time ago, I started a sock. I can’t even remember when it was exactly, I think on a last day of a visit to Israel to have something to knit on the very long flight from Israel to Arizona. When I arrived back home, I moved to other projects, I can’t tell you why, and the poor neglected sock was waiting patiently in his project bag, hoping I will get back to it one of these days and I did!

A few days ago, after finishing the Noro socks, I looked for a portable knitting I can knit in the car and picked up the sock. I gave it a quick look and started knitting happily.

After a few rows, I thought something looks weird, I gave it another quick look, decided I made a mistake ripped off a row or two and continued knitting happily.

When I reached the approximate length of the leg part, I started counting rows to have a nice round number so it will be easy to repeat for the second sock and from some reason, my counting did not make sense.  It took quite a few trials to realise I am not knitting the same stitch pattern now as I did when I started the sock.

What exactly did I do there?

What exactly did I do there?

I think I knitted one row all knit and one row 4k, 4p and moved the 4 sts by 2 every 6th row but I am not completely sure!
Now I am knitting 4k, 4p and I move it by 2 every third row.

Hmmm,,, is it a design idea or just an ugly mistake?

Hmmm,,, is it a design idea or just an ugly mistake?

Now the question is, do I leave it as is and call it a design element, or do I rip off and start over? The close up photo make me lean towards the second choice, what do you think?

And I told myself yet again:  when you knit from your head, you better write down what you do especially if you decide to leave the project to brew for awhile!

Before you go away, I have a request:
My friend Jocelyn is conducting a research project about us knitters and she needs your help, so if you have about 20 minutes will you go and fill in her survey? and can you please be kind and spread the word about this on your blogs so she can have some real high number of knitters helping her? as my little blog here will not be able to help much in that respect I am afraid.

Ulmus II

I wanted to tell you about our surprise sail last Friday:

Surprise Sail at the Mouth of the Niagara River

Surprise Sail at the Mouth of the Niagara River

but it is late and I must share with you my new obsession so I will have to return to the surprise sailing adventure some other time.

I would like to introduce my new Ulmus II:

My new obsession - Ulmus shawls....

My new obsession - Ulmus shawls....

I had to cast on for another Ulmus the minute I finished casting off my Dandelions shawl. I don’t know what possessed me; I have so many things I want to knit and so many projects I want to finish; but nothing could stop me, I just had to knit another Ulmus. I think maybe because I am a bit disappointed with my Dandelions shawl:

My Dandelions are drying much nicer than the flowers!

My Dandelions are drying much nicer than the flowers!

The colors are exquisite but alas where is the nice drape?!? It is completely my fault, I think I knitted it on too small a needle and I actually suspected it for quite a long time. Or maybe it is a combination of the yarn and the needle size. I washed it and added some hair conditioner and hope this will improve its drape but I am still not sure I am not going to rip it off and knit it all over again,,,  ETA: The spa treatment (shampoo, conditioning and quite a lot of stretching) helped a lot and now I believe my Dandelions Shawl is going to stay as is. I still believe it may have been nicer knitted on larger needles but it is good enough to stay as is.

For my new Ulmus (and this one is for me) I am using a hand painted yarn I bought from Kelly from Tucker Woods Farm at the New Hampshire Sheep and Wool Festival:

Hand painted sock yarn

Hand painted sock yarn

The colors are a bit off in this photo I think the next one show them better but I am not completely sure now:

Close-up on my new Ulmus II

Close-up on my new Ulmus II

The slip stitch pattern create a combination of these two colors that I love,  very much my color.

I think the drape of this one will be closer to the one in my imagination, the yarn is thiner and the wool content is different too but I will have to wait and see.

Wish me luck because if this one will disappoint me too I may find myself knitting Ulmuses to the end of my life,,,,