Knitting Helps!

It's been a hectic summer, I really don't know where time has gone?

'The Farmer' is busy with work and we have been going early into 'town' 2 days a week for his physio appointments. It's easier if we go in together and I drop him off and do a couple of errands and then pick him up on the way home. 'The Boy' is at school and comes home when he can to help, he brings his 'Buddy' a black lab puppy home too! 

This has been the driest summer for us! I have lived on this property for 30 some years and never has there been so little rain on our crops. We were very happy to see some rain this past Monday morning, But even our little watercourse that feeds Soper Creek is still dry! When there are many acres of crop on the line our lively hood is at risk. We are lucky in that we have multiple sources of income but this may be a lean year for crop income.  So that is a bit of a worry! 

We have had some sad days too! A long time friend and the person responsible for letting me know about the location for the shop died suddenly a couple of weeks ago. We miss her! Then this past week one of the original sales representatives to the shop also passed away. I had not seen or talked to her for the past few years but we always meant to get together for lunch. She was such a lovely person and we had a genuine connection. It's sad knowing that the possibility of 'lunch' with Susan will not happen.

To process these things I knit! It puts my emotions somewhere and helps me process the stress!

Sometimes however the knitting is creating its own stress.  I have been quietly working on a huge lace weight project. I am down to the border which goes all the way around this 60 inch shawl.  There are 20 rows to the border repeat and in that repeat there are 40 beads! It takes 40 minutes to do a repeat, I can only do 2 repeats and my brain is 'on fire'.  There were 52 repeats to go around and I am down to 28.  I am persevering and am determined to finish this before September!

Hope your summer is filled with fun events and happy knitting!

Simple baby cardigan part 2

A while back I introduced you to a simple reliable easy pattern for a Baby sized sweater.  Then we did an impromptu KAL 

These are the results:

Mary was easily convinced to make a sample for the shop, she managed to make the sleeves match! 

The yarn is Sirdar's Crofter Snuggly, a self striping yarn that is super soft and washable.

Susan used the same yarn. This was finished just in time as the baby girl was born the morning she finished sewing on the buttons!

Helen chose a yarn from the sale bin, a discontinued Sirdar Cotton Blend.  She closed up the eyelet holes and added a stripe to the garter stitch details.

Susan finished this just in time for a friend to purchase it from her, some times you don't need to be the knitter of a hand knit garment. 

I played a bit with some Cascade 220 Superwash handpaints and a coordinating solid. Also closing up the eyelet holes to create a more 'boyish' garment.

We may try a few more Knit-a-longs and before you know it you have gifts ready to give!

See you soon!

Mitred Knitting part 3

Okay, so now you know how to add squares along the outside edge, now lets go over how to add a square to the 'inside' of the project.

As you can see that the lighter blue squares will support the cast on stitches for the new darker blue square! Begin by picking up the stitches along the edge.  Always beginning with a stitch in the last stitch of a completed square. 

Pick-up evenly along the garter stitch edge picking up one stitch in each bump. (You may have to fudge the corner)  Sometimes there is a bit of a hole but it can be tidied up when sewing in the ends.

Place a marker at the corner where the 3 completed squares meet.  Then pick up the same number along the other square.

Knit one row and then complete the square.

The nice thing about this way of attaching as you go means you can add squares fairly randomly and create a blanket of left over yarn as it becomes available.

I hope this makes some sense, this tutorial has turned into a project! 

See you soon.