One thing….

Thought seriously about going in to work this morning but after breaking into spontaneous tears around 5:30a.m., decided not to.  Grief is a rather odd thing; it sneaks up on you and slams you pretty hard then slowly edges off just a bit until you feel like you can function then it starts over again.  What an odd emotion!

We’re all getting laid off September 2nd anyway so I’m going to spend part of the day in the ever dreaded job search mode then go over to mom’s for a while and then up to WRT’s and see TJ for a bit too.

Yesterday some of my sisters, nieces, Marci, parents and I spent hours in Mom’s living room  going through a life time of pictures sorting out the ones we want to use for the funeral program, etc.  My poor sister, Lynna has very few in comparison to the rest of us.  Apparently, that’s what happens when you’re #8 of 9 children. ooooops!

And, might  I add…  the 70’s had some fairly horrendous color and fabric choices.  Frightening, actually.  (Then again, the 80’s hair – how did we do that?!)  We chuckled over the ‘unisex’ outfits Mom made – she was quite the seamstress back then.  Everything went with everything else for the younger kids since they came in ’sets’ of boy/girl then boy/girl again.  Think red white and blue plaid double knit pants with red shirts, white shirts, and blue shirts.  We got a bit teary eyed looking at Heidi’s graduation photos – there weren’t a lot of them, wonder what happened there?  and didn’t bother holding back the tears when we came to the photos of her and her son, Tyler. (He passed away at age 4 1/2, his birthday is today.)

Yeah, that’s kind of how it went.

What’s the one thing you ask?  Life goes on.  It’s such a cliche, but comes from truth.  The last few months have been fairly intense; my living situation got too tense and I just moved back down to Utah County and am renting a room in my first husband’s house (yes, we have a fine relationship, just can’t be married to each other), the kids are here and that’s what’s important to me; was diagnosed with Lupus; Mom had breast cancer and a mastectomy, still needs the knee replacement; my oldest graduated from high school – insert happy face here;  getting laid off in a little over a month and the job market here is bleak; and the most painful of all,  Heidi passed away….  yet time keeps moving forward and so do we.  I’ve made plans for the near future, the further future and it will keep going.  (as I tell myself every few minutes)

In knitting news – I ‘discovered’ Verena and The Knitter while browsing Barnes & Noble across the street from the hospital.  Wow!  I’m in knitting love.

Verena Knitting

The only problem that I have with Verena is the exclusive use of charts.  I’m not that great at reading charts.  I’ll just have to work on it.  The Knitter has a different emphasis

The Knitter

They have Trailing Leaf – a lovely diagonal lace patterned sweater.  Zippy-Applebrain (Ravelry) is currently working on this one and it looks gorgeous in the light blue she chose.

.   There is also Honeysuckle by Sarah Hatton (ravelry link)

honeysuckle

WRT’s summer socks are coming along, I’ve stopped working on them for a couple of days since all the knitting in the hospital makes them difficult to pick up just now.  I’ll pick them back up tomorrow.  Anyway, basic men’s short sock – 1.25″ 2×2 ribbing, 1.50″ SS then broken pearl stripe for another inch or so, down another 1.50″ then heel flap worked in Sl1 K1, pearl WS rows, short row turn and then gusset pick up and on to foot portion.

Some of the nurses in ICU are knitters; talking knitting with them was a pleasant diversion from the constant chatter about the monitors, meds, ups and downs, etc.

And in entirely different news:

David’s been wanting to get his ears guaged for a while now so…. I took him to go do it a month or so ago.

Roll Top Pearlies Free Sock Pattern

This started out as something I can pick up and put down at a moments’ notice. Have to admit, I’m really loving them! So far, I’ve only got one nearly finished but here’s the pattern straight out of my scary brain:

roll top pearly sock heel view

The ‘lumpy’ things are pearls – they look cute and add texture when stretched out – pic of finished object coming shortly.

roll top pearly sock 2

Materials:
Knit Picks Essential Lilac (2 skeins)
dpns: size 3 and size 2.75mm

Using size 3’s cast on 60 stitches fairly loosely, join in the round
Knit 6 rows
Knit 2 Pearl 2 ribbing 5 rows
Switch to smaller needles
Knit 2 Pearl 2 ribbing 2 rows

Knit 18 rows throwing in 2 pearl stitches wherever you feel like – try for somewhat random look

Divide for heel putting 15 stitches each on dpn 1 and 2; 30 on dpn 3

Slip 1 Knit 1 across
Slip 1 Pearl 1 across
repeat until you’ve worked as deep as you need your heel, about 30 rows

Turn heel beginning on WS row:
Pearl 17 Pearl 2 tog, P1 more turn
Knit 5 Knit 2 tog K1 more turn
Repeat this until you have 18 stitches left (knit or pearl according to side to one stitch prior to the ‘gap’ P2 tog on wrong side, K2 tog on right side then do one more stitch)

End on knit row then pick up 15 stitches evenly across heel edge, knit along the top (I usually move the sock top stitches onto one needle at this point). Using another dpn pick up 15 stitches along other edge and knit to middle of heel. Arrange stitches if needed so you have the 15 picked up stitches and half the heel stitches on one dpn and half the heel stitches and the other 15 picked up stitches on the other.

Knit around.

Gusset decreases:
Beginning at middle of heel knit to last 3 stitches, K2 tog, K1
Knit across top
K1 S1 K1 PSSO (pass slipped stitch over just knit stitch)
Knit across next round
Continue this pattern until you have 15 stitches remaining on each of the heel needles. (Note: I only decrease until 18 stitches remain since I have wide feet then do extra toe decreases later. Feel free to adjust as needed.)

Knit around 40 – 44 rows according to foot length stopping 1.5 inches shorter than total length of sock foot.

Toe: Starting at the center back of the heel, work across to last three stitches and K2tog, K1. On instep needle K1, Sl1, K1 psso, knit across to last three stitches, K2 tog, K2. On second heel needle K1, Sl1, K2, psso, Knit across.
Knit across next round.
Continue this pattern for 9 rows until you have 24 stitches left, 6 on each of the heel needles and 12 on the instep needle. Knit across next heel needle, slip remaining heel needles’ stitches onto that needle and continue knitting across. The yarn should be at the side of the sock. Cut yarn leaving about 15 inches and weave remaining stitches together. (See Kirchner link on side bar.)

Felted Christmas Stocking Pattern

Felted Christmas Stocking

Here’s the pattern/guidelines:

Original guage was 8 st st = 1″    feel free to alter as you’re going to felt and may want a different size stocking.  After felting this stocking is 6″ (15 cm) from top of ruffle to bottom of heel and 6″ (15 cm) from back edge of heel to tip of toe.  Prior to felting it was a women’s large size.

Materials:
Needles – 1 pair straight sz 3 (3.25 mm); 4 (or 5 if you prefer) sz 3 (3.25 mm) double pointed needles

Yarn – Knit Picks Palette Fingering Weight, 1 skn Garnet Heather (main color), 1 skn Ivy (second color)  note – requires apx. 1/4 skein main color and a few dozen yards of second color.

Ruffle and Top:

• Using SC Cast on 300 stitches (yes, 300) on SINGLE points using fairly firm cast on of your choice.  I used loop cast on.
• Knit right sides, Purl wrong side or 4 rows (2 each k and p)
• On right side K2Tog every stitch (total of 150 stitches)
• Switch to double point needles arranging 50 stitches per needle (if using 4 needles total),  join being careful not to twist stitches.  The ruffle tends to curl so be extra cautious.
• Knit 3 rounds
• On right side K2Tog every stitch (total of 75 stitches)
• Knit 2 rounds
• Knit to last 3 stitches of 1st needle, K2Tog, K2, K2Tog, knit to last 3 stitches of next needle, K2Tog, K2, K2Tog, knit to last 3 of last needle, K2Tog
• K2Tog, knit to last 3 stitches of 1st needle, K2Tog, K2, K2Tog, knit to last 3 stitches of next needle, K2Tog, K2, K2Tog, knit to last 3 stitches of last needle, K2Tog
• Knit
• It helps stabilize the top if you add about 1/2 inch of K2P2 ribbing here, you can omit if you wish to and knit
• Change to MC and K 4 rows
• Knit decoration of your choice  – this one has an eyelet heart from Stariel’s Blackhearted.
• Knit another 4-6″ (again, depends on how long you want the stocking)

Heel:  (I did slip stitch, if you prefer a different one – go for it!)

• Arrange stitches so there are 32 on 1 dpn – this is your heel needle
• *Row 1: SL 1, K1 – repeat across
• Row 2: Sl1, Purl *
• Repeat 10 times
• Change to SC
• Repeat 10 times
• Change to MC
• Repeat 12 times (32 rows total)

Turn Heel:

• Change to SC
• K19, SSK, K1 turn
• Sl1, P7, P2Tog, P1, Turn
• *Sl1, knit to stitch before gap, SSK, K1, turn
• SL1, purl to stitch before gap, P2Tog, turn*
• Repeat * to * until all stitches are worked – DO NOT slip first stitch on your last purl row.
• Knit across

Pick up and work gusset:

• Change to MC
• Pick up 17 stitches along side on same needle
• Knit across instep needle
• Working on 3rd needle, pick up 17 stitch along side, knit across
• Arrange stitches so beginning of round is now in the middle of the heel (it should be there all ready, but just in case…)
• Knit around to 3 stitches before instep needle, K2Tog K1
• Knit Instep
• Knit 1, SSK, knit
• Knit until 16 stitches are on each of the two ‘heel’ needles

Work around until stocking is 4″ shorter than desired length

• If you want to add SC stripe or pattern here, go for it.  I did a K12 MC, K SC, K12 MC around then K10 MC, K3 SC, K10 MC around then K12 MC, KSC, K12 MC around stripish pattern (didn’t work out perfect but it was pretty close)
• Go back to MC
• Work until stocking is 2″ shorter than desired total length

Toe:

• Row 1: K1, SSK, knit to last 3 st on instep needle, K2Tog, K1. K1, SSK, knit to last 3 sts on sole needle(s), K2Tog, K1
• Row 2: Knit around
• Knit these two rows until 40 total stitches remain then do Row 1 five more times

Graft:

• I did Kitchener, do whatever grafting you’re comfy with though.

Felt:

• To semi-customize the felting I ran EXTREMELY hot water from the faucet and held the ruffle portion under it for about 30 seconds at a time until it was 3/4 of the size I wanted it to be (think it was 5 times).  Then I held the rest of stocking under the water for about 30 seconds per time three times.
• Then… threw it in the dryer with the darks and… out came the Christmas Stocking.

Still having holiday issues.  Maybe it’s because the tree is in a box by the side of my bed (er now 4B’s bed arghhhhh) with about 10 boxes on top of it.  idk. But…. my son is happy as the proverbial clam!!!!  He was gifted Slipknot tickets for their March 09 stop in Denver.  Thank you, B!!!!!!!!!!!

Misty Lace Scarf and Free Stole Pattern Guidelines

Finally took a pic of another work in progress – the Misty Lace Scarf using the Kollage that B gave me.  It’s a beautiful yarn, little difficult to keep the strands together but not hard if I actually concentrate.  I’m loving the blues with silvery accents.

I’m surprised by how soft it really is even with the little metallic stranding.

Here are the general guidelines for the Heidi Stole pictured below:

Cast on number of stitches appropriate to yarn/needle size in a multiple of 18.  This one was done on sz 6 circulars using Knit Pick’s Gloss.  The recipient is a very petite woman so it’s only about three quarters as wide as I’d do for myself. Remember – it’s a flat knit on circs. so knit/purl back and forth as usual.

Modified Feather and Fan Pattern

Row 1: Knit
Row 2: K3, P to last 3 stitches, K3
Row 3: K3, *(K2 tog) 3 times, (yo, K1) 6 times, (K2 tog) 3 times, repeat from * to last 3 sts, K3
Row 4: Purl across
Repeat rows until about five inches shorter than desired length

Knit right side rows, purl wrong sides adding random eyelets if you want to for three inches or so.

On right side (Knit) row knit in front and back (make 1) every third stitch.
Purl wrong side.
Knit right sides, purl wrong sides for next inch.

On right side row knit in front and back (make 1) every other stitch.
Purl wrong side.
Knit right sides, purl wrong sides for another inch.

Bind off.