BLOG.MACMANN.ORG

She shoots, and scores!

Rachel M — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 02:25:50 GMT

OK, the recipient has received so now I can talk about THE gloves.

The Cafe du Monde Gloves from Hand Jive Knits, done in Ella Rae Lace Merino #140 (Blue/Green/Brown) and trimmed in #08 (Taupe). I think they came out rather well.

The yarn was a dream to work with, no trouble with fraying or splitting. Once I figured out what the heck I was doing with the eyelet trim the pattern was really very simple and straightforward.

I think I may end up knitting a pair for myself.

What year is it...?

Rachel M — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 03:28:03 GMT

So I just finished up a couple Christmas gifts...from 2011. It's March. I managed to get almost nearly done but the drive just left me when it came to the finishing bits (I understand that isn't uncommon). But I ended up working up a couple of really cute hats while I was procrastinating.

The Dotted Riobbed Cap by Le Tissier Designs, and then a simple slouchy thing of my own design, worked up in a Noro color that had a lot of bubblegum pink in it (still not sure what I was thinking when I bought it, but I love how it came out...)

From the North Carolina Museum of History

Rachel M — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 19:21:13 GMT

How cool is this...

Can you read the note in the picture below?
"Mary Sillers Robinson of Moore County made this linen cloth by growing the flax, processing it's fibers, spinning them into thread, and weaving the fabric. ca 1776" - holy cow.

Busy busy

Rachel M — Sat, 17 Sep 2011 22:01:08 GMT

Ok, falling behind on my posting again! I finished a second pair of socks, just need to weave in the ends and take a picture or two and get them up there. I've interrupted a couple of shawl projects to work on a gift for someone, but I should at least get the pattern info up here, maybe this weekend...maybe.

BUT for my darling Auntie - these are the gloves that I am hoping to make for you! Cafe Du Monde Gloves from Hand Jive Knits. Aren't they just!

I couldn't quite find those colors but I did find these...

I think they'll work very well, but if not - I have another excuse to go to the yarn store.

Darn it

A small project on the side

Rachel M — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:36:35 GMT

So Mom and I took a first rate weaving class from Pamela through The Recycled Lamb recently and that was extremely cool! Very different activity than knitting and yet still has a lot of the same neat features working since you're still working with yarn.

So the first project was a simple scarf with the warp done in a solid color and the weft done in Noro, I think it was Silk Garden but I need to figure out what I did with the tag for it.

The second project was a table runner done in cotton, the only real requirement was that we have striping in the warp, and some of the projects folks came up with were just stunning!

A bit trickier than the scarf because I wanted a striped pattern in the weft and didn't remember to measure the cloth as I worked my along so I ended up not having quite enough room at the end to repeat the pattern correctly, but the warp pattern had a certain randomness built into it so I fudged the end and it came out OK. I'll have to ask the hubbie to take some pitcures of the finished work, and maybe I cna sneak over a get some photos of Mom's too.

I'm pretty certain I'll go back sometime, rent a loom and try a couple more projects, only right now I have several knitting things on my plate that I want to focus on first...

Luscious or floppy

Rachel M — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 02:41:04 GMT

Oops, been while since I’ve spoken up! One very cool project I finished since my last blogging was to knit up three Luscious Cabled Cowls from Sweater Babe in three different colors of Berroco Sundae Yarn (Marmalade, Pretzel and Poppy Seed) and boy are they super Luscious! Unfortunately I neglected to get pictures before sending them off to their intended recipients; maybe one of them will take a picture and send it back so I can post it. Otherwise I’m just going to have to make another…which come to think of it would be OK actually. I have 3 full skeins of Marmalade, and something like ½ a skein left of each of the colors I worked with. I also picked up some Araucania Coliumo Multi (Color #1) that I thought would make a lighter, more ‘casual’ cowl for myself perhaps.

I also finished my first socks (yeah!) from KnitPicks.com Cocktail Socks Kit. I didn’t gauge at all since I really just wanted to see if I could do it; so they’re a bit too ‘floppy’ and the heels don’t match – but they are unmistakably sock-like!

I think I need to try again only about 2 needle sizes smaller…

They have their gifts

Rachel M — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 02:45:00 GMT

So now I can posat them! Here's couple of cowls I knit up from the Abby Cowl by Amy Singer from the Knitty site . Very knifty pattern, I think I'll use it again only do a larger needle so it's a lacier cowl, just to see what happens



The orange-y one is knitted with Done Roving's Chili Pepper Burn, the second is done with Berroco's Ultra Alpaca in Flannery Red.


Somewhere in there I knit up a couple quick scarves using Yarn Demon's Rainy Day Scarf pattern
- very fun easy to learn pattern done in Malibrigo's worsted Taureg and chunky merrino Charrua.

Apparently these all were a hit with the recipients which just makes this whole knitting thing that much cooler! I've gotten ahold of a fingerless glove pattern from PatternFish  and a sock kit from KnitPicks which I'm trying to hike up my skirt and dig into this week.

And then I just have to find time to finish the Anthemion wrap by Miriam Felton which I'm less then 40 rows into but does give me a little more confidence that I can maybe tackle socks and gloves.

A couple more hats

Rachel M — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 05:19:00 GMT

This one is loosely inspired by several of the hats in Hip Knit Hats, I just like the idea of using rows of purling to create some edging

And this yarn reminds me of an afghan that we used to have from one of my grandmothers. The yarn striped on it's own, I just knit round and round.

and a little more...

Rachel M — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:54:00 GMT

here's a couple where I was messing around with stripes, the blue/brown one originally had a design in white but I didn't leave enough 'float' to the yarn and the white part ended up becoming a constricting band. So I took it out and redid the bottom 4 inches. The orange one I had to add a few inches too as well because I stopped too soon.

OK, where was I

Rachel M — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 04:54:00 GMT

Alrighty, my darling hubbie took some pictures of some of the hats I've knit over the last year. So here's a couple.

Here's the second hat I finished, a 'Boyfriend Beanie'. I've been trying to keep notes on the yarn I use but this one got away from me. I still have quite a bit left so I think the label will be at the bottom of something, somwhere. I was really cool to watch the stripping appear as I worked up.

This hat a knit up from the leftover yarn from my first scarf, I think it's maybe my 3rd or 4th hat. It's the Mari hat from Hip Knit Hats, only I used needles a bit too large so it's kinda on the floppy side (as mentioned previously)

My Library

Rachel M — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 02:39:00 GMT

OK I haven't figured out a better way to do this so I'll just keep a running list of the books in my knitting library...

BOOKS I HAVE:
Knitting for Dummies
The Knitting Answer Book - Margaret Radcliffe
Hat Heads - Trond Anfinnsen
The Essential Guide to Color Knitting Techniques - Margaret Radcliffe
100 Flowers to Crochet and Knit - Lesley Stansfield
The Essential Stich Collection - Lesley Stansfield and Melody Griffiths
French Girl Knits - Kristeen Griffin-Grimes (she does knitting tours in France!!)
Hip Knit Hats - Cathy Caron
Knitting in Plain English - Maggie Righetti
Crocheting in Plain English - Maggie Righetti
Sweater Design in Plain English - Maggie Righetti
The Best of Interweave Knits: Our Favorites from the Last 10 Years - ed. Ann Bud
Twisted-Stitch Knitting - Maria Erlbacher
Interweave Press: Scarf Style - Pam Allen
Vogue Knitting Stichtionary Vol 5: Lace Knitting

Books I Have

Rachel M — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 02:02:00 GMT

Ok I'll definitely have to work on this - I'll try and figure out a way to post a list of all the knitting books I currently have, but until then here's a picture of the nice library that Vox let me set up.

My knitting

Rachel M — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:47:00 GMT

(May 14, 2010)

Me, me, me.

OK, my husband wants me to blog about knitting - my wicked new obsession - so here goes. I started knitting in November after taking a class with my mother and sister-in-law and I just 'get it' and love it. It's such a simple thing, using two sticks to pull loops of string through other loops and then hold them in place until you can do it again - and people have been doing this for how long?

I've already gotten completely carried away and have about 4 projects going with another four or so lined up behind those but it's so much fun picking out a yarn and then finding a pattern to try it out on, or finding a pattern and looking for some yarn to suite - and then the unexpected surprise of what actually appears on the needles as the rows start to grow.

I don't know if I'll dig blogging as much but I'll make a solid effort to post pictures of my stuff up here and maybe talk about what I learned on each peice, or what surprised me about the yarn or the pattern

or something completely unrelated like -

did you know Phil Collins is one of the largest collectors of artifacts from the Alamo in the World? That's just too cool for words.

My Knitting Wishlist

Rachel M — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:43:00 GMT

OK, quick blog, I've been asked to post a wishlist of things for my new hobbie, I'm happy to do this for a variety of reasons, not th eleast of which is that I can knit more stuff for other people - 000hhhhh!. I'll revisit this periodically...well because I can.
Yarn - always, any kind, any weight, any color; depending on weight of yarn and lacyness of design 100+ yards can make a great scarf, one ball can often make a hat or fingerless gloves or other items (ask at the store they'll be happy to help);

Needles - straight, circular, anything, I've been using Clover needles but would be thrilled to try other brands just to see how they are, and the really decorative ones look really cool. From what I've read a good knittier can't have too many needles;

Books - I'll keep a list the books I have already here on the site, that's probably easier than listed everything I would be interested in (stitchionaries, pattern books, how-to's, books about knitters, you name it);

Accessories - stitch and row markers always helpful, ball winder and swifts (definitely bigger ticket items but if you bump into used ones anywhere...), although I haven't gotten into crochet or spinning (yet!) anything here not for those specifically would probably be more usefully than I can even imagine at this point;

PATTERNS! - I LOVE knitting, so if you happen to find a pattern for something you would like I would love to try knit it for you, and then one for me while I'm at it!! Lots of free patterns out there, plus lots of not-very-expensive patterns as well.
Good online sources KnitPicks , Ravelry (you'll need to join to get in but its totally worth it), Knitty (at the bottom of the page for a knitting pattern you'll find info on the pattern maker and often a link to their blog, and more patterns!), SweaterBabe , also yarn companies often have patterns on their sites as well - like Malabrigo for example.

OK, enough talk, need to knit...

Travel and knitting

Rachel M — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:38:00 GMT

(Aug 23, 2010 )

So I think I'm going to combine posts for a bit, just to move things along. I'll talk about my most recent project and then talk about the very first things I knit. Not necessarily in that order but something like that.

Also I talked about the hat first and that actually wasn't the first project. Our very first thing was to start on a scarf, in a simple garter stich. Lots of simple knitting to start getting the feel of it into your finger tips. I ended up with a funny nubby pink yarn with bits of black in it, which is a bit unusual but I liked it enough to eventually try it in hat form (from Hip Knit Hats by Cathy Caron, I'll get the yarn info posted once I dig it up).

Since I am still learning gauge even now so the hat is a little too big so it doesn't have a lot of shape but at least it doesn't mash my hair flat.

This weekend was a great knitting weekend, we drove down to Durango, CO to ride the Durango-Silverton Train on Saturday http://www.durangotrain.com/, so a 7 hour drive each way with lots of knitting, plus knitting in the hotel room in the evening. On Sunday we got up early again and walked into town (about 4 blocks) and Mikey went back to the depot to take another 1000 pictures of the trains (hopefully some will get posted here http://www.macmann.org and I went back to the beautiful French Bakery Cafe of Jean-Pierre http://www.jeanpierrebakery.com/Cakes.html and had an Apricot Croisant and coffee, and knit for another hour or so before we hooked up with Mikey's folks for brunch - just the best vacation ever!

First completed knitting project

Rachel M — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 01:34:00 GMT

(Jun 2, 2010 )

OK here's a lousy picture of the first hat I ever finished. I'll get a better one uploaded here soon.

We took the class in november some time from The Lamb Shoppe (awesome yarn store in Denver) and they started us on a scarf the first Sunday and started us on a hat the second, then on the third Sunday I think we kind of worked through stuff. And then there was a two week break for the holidays and we drove down to Los Alamos to spend some time with the folks and I knit, and knit, and knit and it was great! I got stuck at one point and we went down to Sante Fe and found a yarn store there The Needle's Eye and she helped get me straightened out and on my way.

Bottom line, I was able to finish my hat for my husband while we were down there! It was very totally wickedly inspiring to actually finish my first project and my darling husband wore it, no kidding, non-stop for about two months.

He's adorable.

Now I think I've finished about 5 hats, 2 scarves with 2 more nearly done and 1 more started, and a cowl, and I've started a small bag from http://knitty.com/ISSUEwinter06/PATTbrownbag.html

Welcome

Rachel M — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 01:26:23 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.