Striped Vest

Hello! I sent along some hats for the last Youth campaign but this is my first post. I'm a teacher living in New Hampshire and I've been knitting since my early teens. My grandmother was a 'chronic knitter' and donated dozens of pairs of mittens to her church fair every Christmas.

I just finished the striped vest and made a hat out of the leftover yarn. Now I'm knitting the Child's Bulky Turtleneck using brilliantly colored alpaca and wool yarn from Blue Sky.

Question re Laura's turtleneck pattern

I am working here: " To complete the upper body:
M1 on either side of each seam st (8 increases) every 2 rounds 12 times.
Work even until 56 rounds [8 inches] are completed."

Where do you start counting the 56 rounds or 8 inches -- from the neck? from some other point?

Judy

Third sweater for Youth Campaign

This sweater is heading on its way for the current Youth Campaign - this one is knitted with size 10 instructions - and is my third one this time. It is done in Patons Classic Wool.

My previous 2 were posted earlier in this blog.

Stitches West

Hi all,

Anyone going to Stitches West? I will be there Thursday and Friday and would enjoy meeting some of you!

And hooray--I finished a long sleeved pullover with Elizabeth's gift yarn, and a vest that was a UFO. I will post a photo if possible before Stitches, where I plan to drop them off.

Love seeing all the new pictures of socks and sweaters!

Tory

Elizabeth -
Thanks for the great sock tutorial, I enjoyed knitting them!  Mine came out sized for a small adult but I think they will keep some teenage boy very warm.  I did not block them, they will be worn hard and didn't really need a bath...

Youth Socks

First pair of socks for the youth campaign

This mishmash will result in a second pair. 

Fans of Afghans for Afghans on Ravelry

Renee introduced herself earlier, and referred to the A4A group on Ravelry. A bunch of you probably aren't familiar with Ravelry, so I thought I'd tell you a few things. It is HUGE -- literally hundreds of thousands of members. When I joined, the waiting list was months long; now you apply and become a member the same day. You can, for instance, look to see what others have done with their skein of Famous Designer Limited Edition sock yarn (don't search that -- I made it up :) ) or what yarns people have used for a pattern you have in mind. Or you can join any of hundreds of groups for techniques, causes, or areas you're interested in. The A4A group is called Fans of Afghans for Afghans. Compared to this blog, it's kind of the same but different (my sister's favorite phrase when we were kids) -- in other words, it's complementary. You can belong to both and not feel like you're reading the same stuff twice. Of course, you don't have to go to Ravelry at all! I just thought I'd let you know what it's about, in case it's new to you and might be of interest.

Need some yarn to finish this afA sweater

I'm working on a sweater for a4A. I thought I had 6 skeins of red (scarlet) yarn Lion Brand 100% wool to make this sweater. (I bought it when Hobby Lobby cleared out all their Lion's Brand wool.)

But two skeins I though were red were really dark pink.
Does anyone out there have any Lion Brand scarlet?
I will trade 2 skeins of any other 100% wool I have in my stash either Lion Brand or Pattons (you pick color) for 1 skein of the scarlet red I need.

Thanks!!!
Shirley

sock class, part 4: one done, one almost there

I'll finish sock #2 tonight. Anybody else? I'm loving seeing sock pictures. . .

Here's what it looked like on Saturday on my front porch -- that picnic table is where I usually take my pictures:



The table is clear now, but the white glare from all that snow kind of interfered with my photos -- don't know why the tops of the socks are so dark in this one, but the stripes on the foot show the colors exactly right if you click on the photo to make it bigger:



I add the stripes just to make them a little more interesting; they serve no functional purpose. Then, when I turn the sock inside out to weave out the edges -- the horror! Looks like I've been knitting a Portuguese man-of-war:



Note that I've left a fairly long end each time I switch colors, to make it easy to weave them in. You need enough to weave in so that it's never, ever going to work its way out. With this nice sticky yarn, that's not a problem. But whatever wool you're using, at the very minimum, leave yourself 4 inches to work with.

Don't worry if your ribbed section looks really skinny next to your foot -- you want the rib to hug the kid's leg, for better fit and a more comfortable sock. When the ribbing is stretched out, it looks more like a "normal" sock.

I will finish sock #2 tonight. Then I'll wash them -- I always wash them before I give them away, for a number of reasons. (1) This yarn has been around for a while, and who knows what dust it may have picked up? (2) My sock knitting tends to travel with me -- in the summer to folk festivals and other dusty, muddy locations; in the winter to piano lessons and falling out of the car in parking lots. . . it's just best if I wash things! and (3) to make sure all ends stay woven in and nothing falls apart. In other words -- to make sure it's something I'm happy to give as a gift. Washing them also tends to smooth out any inconsistencies in your stitches and make them look more polished.

My washing machine has a cycle labeled "handwash" -- it's just an ordinary top-loader. Wash on that cycle, or on gentle, cold wash, cold rinse. Of course, you can wash by hand, too, if you're more comfortable doing it that way. (Roll them up in a towel and blot them dry if you wash by hand -- never, ever wring the water out.) Many people like shampoo, or dish detergent (Dawn is recommended more often than anything else); I prefer Dr. Bronner's lavender soap. Do NOT put them in the dryer! Just pat them flat and let them dry, either on top of a towel or hung over a rack.

Next time: pretty clean socks, all ready to go. On the other side of yet another massive (for here -- nobody even buys snow tires around here, because we just don't get this kind of weather) snowstorm.

socks done!

Hi all,
My name is Renee, and I'm the co-moderator of the Fans for Afghans for Afghans group on Ravelry. You can find me there as revknits.

I was between projects (waiting for the Olympics to start for my Ravelympics projects for a4a), so I jumped in and knit these socks with Elizabeth's pattern - so nice to include in my first package out to the basement this week!

My second sweater!

It’s a ‘wiggle’ sweater from Coats and Clark. I added ribbing to the sleeves and extra ribbing around the neck to better keep out the cold. The yarn is Emu Superwash.

2 Sweaters

Worsted weight yarn with the pullover pattern from Knitting Pure & Simple.