Yarn Gallery Blog

David was in this weekend and showed us some great iPhone apps for knitting.  I love the Gaugify, and the apps for spacing both buttonholes and increases and decreases evenly are wonderful – this is still a challenging math exercise after all these years.  So don’t miss the post David did,  just before this one!

Last week was a super-busy one, so I didn’t get a lot of pictures.  However, Mary Ann Posey brought in this cute baby sailor sweater that she whipped up in a few days:

It’s done in two colors of Jeannee, with an i-cord border joining the collar to the body.  Here’s a look at the sailor collar from the back:

Pretty cute!  It was a free pattern from Crystal Palace, written orginally for their Bunny Hop yarn.

Ann Thornton has been making more felted pet beds.  Geordie had a hopeful eye on this one:

and it’s big enough for him, but alas, it’s for Ann’s own dog.  She made this smaller version for a friend’s cat to curl up in:

Isn’t it great, with the bows just begging to be toyed with while the cat lounges in luxury?

I got a few things done this week – sort of!

This scarf turned out well, a ripple scarf in another color of Liberty Wool.  (I hope this isn’t a repeat photo.)

Three balls of Liberty Wool and a free pattern – also great in any self-striping yarn.

I did this summer shawl sort of on a whim, from a free Ravelry pattern  called Summer Flies:

It’s a nice sized shawl when done in Ty-Dy cotton and size 9 or 10 needles.  It was fun because the stitch pattern changes every so often.  The pattern is good if you like things spelled out row by row.  I found no errors in it and there were plenty of stitch counts so you can check yourself often. Took 2 balls, but I had to cut down on the bottom edge by about 4 rows – I don’t think it suffered much.

And this is the amber cardigan I wrote about last week, done in O-Wool Balance, an organic cotton & wool blend, the only blend I’ve found of these two fibers that I really like:

It also was fun to do, except for the 3″ ribbed border, but by then you’re on the home stretch and going to get it done no matter what!  However, I didn’t know until I started to block it that I made a mistake in the lace on the left front – damn and blast!  The trap of not thoroughly looking over your work before you start finishing is a beginner’s error – and I fell into it with complete abandon, like a lemming off a cliff! There’s no way to fix it properly without taking it apart and I mean all apart.  That’s not going to happen, so I’m going to make one tiny cut in the row I messed up and see if I can undo it and redo with a sewing needle.

But first I’m going to take a nap – then it’s a deep breath and…SNIP!

See you soon!

Trish

Knitting apps, a photo by yarngal628 on Flickr.

Hi Trish,
I thought I would share some cool and interesting apps .
1. Gaughfy: It helps you calculate your gauge easily also helps you to
adjust your gauge for the pattern you are working with. Calculate your end
goals.

2. Raglanify: This app will guide you through the construction of a top
down raglan pullover. Use the generated pattern as a complete pattern or
modify it by incorporating your own design elements . Included are options
for necklines, waist shaping, sleeve length and length of ribbing

3. Buttonhole wizard: this app let you choose either a horizonal or
vertical band, includes one row, two row, and eyelet buttonholes. I use
this one a lot.

4. And my fav of all!!!!! Knit evenly calculator: it computes how to Inc
or dec Sts evenly across a row for knitting flat or in the rnd.

I believe the apps were no more than .99. Each.

Enjoy! Back to knitting..
Dave

I hope you had time off over the holidays and enjoyed it as much as I did. The boys and I spent Christmas with my sister in Baltimore, where we met Gracie for the first time.  She’s a peach!

The humans managed to keep the peace between the dogs as they all got acquainted, although there was a lot of growling, most of it coming from one little black dog.  This may look like a cute picture, but believe me, there was constant growling coming out of the one on the couch.

He must have come home with a sore throat!   By Day 3, when we left, there was actual play going on instead of just fending off so all in all, everything went well, and Gracie is a sweet and good little girl:

Okay, just one more, of Gracie and her “big sister” Maddie:

Where was Geordie, you ask?  Asleep and well away from the fray, if he had anything to say about it.  Which he did.

Other than that, I spent my time cleaning, doing laundry, organizing my office at home (lots of sorting and dusting of books, mostly) and that kind of thing, which is actually a pleasant activity when you have time to spend on it.  I also had a jour de beauté, which I swear is a concept I learned from Glamour magazine in my teens (oh yes, it’s been around that long!).  In those days, I read it assiduously, absorbing the fashion do’s and don’ts,(if stockings still had seams, believe me, mine would be straight) the boyfriend tips, the stuff to buy.  There were a lot of rules in those days.  Anyway, a jour de beauté was a day to spend taking care of yourself, including a luxurious bath, hair and skin treatments, manicures and pedicures, etc.  It’s a great excuse to stay in your bathrobe all day, covering various body parts with glop and goo, then washing it off, “sloughing away dried skin along with dirt and toxins.”  Teenagers don’t really need this.  Sixty-one year olds could use it way more than once a year.

And of course, I spent some time knitting! I started this baby sweater at my sister’s (easy to pick up and put down, small enough to hide from puppies – turns out Gracie thinks yarn is pretty cool) and finished it a couple days later.  I used fingering-weight cotton, but the pattern (from Oat Couture) also gives instructions for DK weight yarn:

I also got fascinated with a diagonal slip-stitch rib that I thought would make a great cowl.  It did, then I ripped it out and made it into a loop scarf, so you could wear it at least two ways.  Made one for my niece while I was in Balto, then came home and made one in this gorgeous pink.  Both were in Classic Elite’s really chunky Toboggan, a soft and warm alpaca/wool blend in great colors:

Isn’t the stitch great?  The slipped knit stitches look over-sized and the diagonality (?) (a useful, albeit made up, word) is done by making left twists every other row, moving the elongated stitches one place to the left.  It was fun to do, even though I did it quite a lot!

I also made this little cowl in another color of Liberty Wool.

My goal was to make something in every colorway we have left, but I didn’t get there, being muchly distracted by many other knitting ideas.  I do love the yarn, so I may make the goal eventually. Anyhoo, these two cowls will be free patterns with purchase.

Finally, I finished the fingering-weight sweater I’ve been alternately loving and hating for the last month. Love the pattern, love the yarn, love the sweater.  Not for the faint of heart or the impatient.  Fair warning.

The yarn is Mousse from Grignasco, a nice supply of which should arrive at our door shortly after we re-open. Lovely blend of soy, merino and silk.  The pattern is Mendel by Carol Feller.  I love it for the little ruches at the bottom of one “side seam” (it’s actually completely seamless) and both sleeves.

It’s just so “Trishy” isn’t it?  If I were smart, I’d have checked to see how many little purple pullovers I already have before starting this one.  I guess I really didn’t want to know.  Anyway, moving on, I’m deep into a great amber-colored cardy in O-wool Balance, a really nice washable organic cotton/wool blend that you’re going to love!

I won’t get all wordy about the start of another New Year.  I’ll just say thanks to my wonderful customers and friends and express my hope that the coming year will see less hunger and anger in the world.  Oh, and less of me, too – about 20 pounds worth!

See you soon…

Trish

Sweater 2, a photo by yarngal628 on Flickr.

Sent from my ATT iPhone 4S

2 sweaters, a photo by yarngal628 on Flickr.

Hi Trish
Happy new year to u all!!
I finished 2 sweaters. The green one is a pattern called nakniswemo made with cleckheaton country naturals
The 2 nd one is from a pattern country wool called ribbed raglan
Cya soon
Dave