Penguins

Here's an interesting post on how knitters came to aid of penguins in Tasmania. They knit sweaters for them to wear while recovering from the effects of an oil spill. Thank you Rachel for bring this to my attention!

Vintage sweater

Hi Everyone - I'm in Germany spending some time with my Great Uncle. I asked him pull out pictures of my aunt - so that I could scan them. This one was also in there. This is my mom she's maybe 2? And isn't this the most adorable sweater?
I'm guessing this sweater was made for her by her godmother, Tante Hilde. Tante Hilde was my grandmother's best friend. They both taught at a fashion institute in Berlin. My grandmother taught dressmaking and weaving, and Tante Hilde taught knitting and crocheting. She also designed patterns for magazines. I'm guessing this is one of her designs.

Stretchy

BEFORE (about 36 x 20)

Most everyone knows how much I love to block my knitting. I especially love to block lace. Here's some snapshots of Rock Island. It is totally transformed! And I stretched the crap out of it.



I placed the pins at every point of the zigzags. There is a very convenient little triangle that you can see just above and to the right of my thumb where you can place the pins.

AFTER (about 68 x 31)

So cool!

The Crescent

I haven't posted any of my knitting in a while. Just lazy, I guess. I have been knitting, though! Recently I became kind of preoccupied with crescent shawls and I knit three in a row.
This one is Annis and I knit it with some yarn I got on sale at Rosies - Araucania (cashmere!) marked down from $30 to $5. This shawl has nupps, (those round berry-like things) and I had never made nupps before. It was fun and fast to knit and I am happy with the results.


Then I knit Just Enough Ruffles for the Pinkknit-a-thon. You may recall that Simma (my daughter) knit it a little while back and I could see that I would enjoy knitting it. And again, I was drawn to the short rows and the crescent shape. I don't have a really good picture of this one:
I LOVED the yarn, which again, was on sale a Rosies. I got 4 balls of Misty Alpaca Lace - two white and two pink - and knit the scarf starting with 4 stands white. I gradually introduced the pink yarn and ended with the ruffles all pink. The yarn is so soft! Dare I say softer than the Araucania? It is really amazingly soft. And it is not an expensive yarn. But the woman at Rosie's wasn't sure if they were going to continue carrying it.

Then I knit the Oslo Walk Shawl, another Susanna IC shawl from IK magazine. It has over 600 beads that are not strung along, but are added as you go with a tiny crochet hook. I had trouble photographing this one. I'll bring it to the SnB this weekend. It is HUGE! I couldn't believe how much it grew when I blocked it. I really like it, though I am not sure when I will wear it. It seems kind of fancy. Maybe a wedding? But I think I am done with crescents for a while now. On to something else!

Elizabeth Zimmermann's Yoke Sweater

A big, big thank you to Wendy and Jennifer for their advice on the collar and decreases! I think it turned out pretty great (see the pre-advice debacle below). And I loved working with this yarn: Sublime Yarns Organic Merino Wool DK (bought at "the Dump" - 9 skeins for $20!).

I decided to only block the bottom hem because it was curling up (note: next time I will add more than 6 rows for a folded hem with thick-ish yarn - it still really wants to curl). I was afraid blocking the entire sweater would make it much too big for me. Next time I will gauge with a BLOCKED swatch (I can just hear Jennifer saying, "Told you so!").

Before consulting Wendy and Jennifer, I was getting this weird ruching effect when decreasing K1, K2tog around.The K2togs were also looking like a decorative stitch. I was really disappointed. Perhaps if I had had some color work at the yoke, it wouldn’t have been as obvious:

After some frogging and knitting consultation, I reworked the yoke by spreading out the decreases over 4 rows (with 2 plain knit rows in between the 4 - so really over 10 rows total). I also did SSK instead of K2tog. Much, much better:

Thanks again, ladies! Really looking forward to seeing you next week.

Cute?

Simma finished her scarf. Lane likes it.
Pattern: "Just Enough Ruffles" by Laura Chau
Yarn: Blue Sky Suri Merino

Cute!

Here's a picture of River wearing a hat that Simma knit for him. He is the brand new son of some of her friends in San Francisco.