Funny (non-knitting-related) Video

I so enjoyed watching this little spoof, I decided to share it with you all.  (Advent starts this coming Sunday!)

And, just so you know, I LOVE chant — but that’s not what this is.  I guess I love a wholesome laugh even more. 

Passing of a Bagpipe Teacher

What an emotionally exhausting few days it’s been.  Got news on Monday that Jim Thomson, founder of “my” beloved Bagpipe School, had died while attending Highland Games in Tucson.  I knew him, but not well.  It was a very sad thing for many of my piping friends; he taught many of them, and all for free — to ensure the spread of the tradition.  The School will go on, but his absence will be keenly felt.  I volunteered to read the Scriptures, as the funeral was held at my church where I’m a “lector” (reader) — it’s what *I* could do.  I choked up on the “death and pain and sorrow will be no more” part.

Here is some video footage I took at the wake — of course there was piping! — held at a different church across town.  Pipe Major is the dear Michael Donelson; dancer is Megan McPherson.  (Maybe back to knitting news later in the week.)

Skye Caps with Ear Flaps; Video: Cabling without a Cable Needle

Ohhh, what a headache I have today!  I was just having a nice conversation last night, and *crunch* went my neck.  Whatever got stuck (this happens to me often) is pinching some nerve(s) and giving me pain.  Perhaps I should move up my next chiropractor appointment. . . .

Anyway, I do have some successful knitting to report!

Front, color 106

Side, colors 106 and 111

Using Wisdom Yarns’ “Skye” bulky wool, I made 2 caps with earflaps for Monday’s toddler shower.  Some friends of ours are adopting 2 Haitian orphans and expect to be able to pick them up soon — perhaps as early as next week.  One of their grown daughters is hosting the toddler shower.  I checked before casting on as to whether the mom-to-be preferred wool or acrylic, and she wanted wool (hurray!), so I made these.  Only took 2 days per cap!

For flap placement, I used a rule of thumb from I-don’t-recall-where-I-read-it (I did the math from someone’s cap pattern in a book):  front and back are 3:1 and sides are 2:2.  In this case, 1 or 2 or 3 groups of 8 stitches each; BO 8, k16, BO24, k16.  Again used my own Top-down Square-Top Cap pattern (Ravelry links: child, adult) for the hat crown and sides.  I enjoyed making these, and hope the children will be kept warm by them — Flagstaff has got to be MUCH colder than Haiti!

I’m also moving forward on my submission for Cast On’s summer issue, but it’s still under wraps.

Found an interesting new blog today — actually she has 2: one on wordpress (Shifting Stitches link) and one on blogger (Curious Knitter link), both by Jeny Staiman.

And here’s a technique I’ve been trying out with good success lately:  a variation on cabling without a cable-needle, by Kathleen Cubley of Knitting Daily.  Link to Knitting Daily page with video.

Direct link to YouTube.  .

Lots of Knitting (Scandinavian and Otherwise) and Girls in a Tree.

Before we get to the knitting, I’d like to show you my DDs in their new favorite hang-out.

And, just how high is that? 

They’ve gotten a few scrapes and scratches, but declare the tree to be “awesome”!

On to the knitting.

As you may recall, I finished the vest for Cast On’s spring 2010 issue, just in time to join a knitalong hosted by Schoolhouse Press.  The first design was a neck-scarf in the Icelandic style.

In the beginning, you can see the pink diamond shapes, above the green provisional cast-on.

But as you go along, the decreases fold the piece up the middle and in at the sides, making the diamonds look like grid squares.

When the 2 sides collapse together at top-center, you carefully decrease/graft the final stitches together, and then pick up the cast-on to begin the border.

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The border gets pretty frilly toward the end.

I switched to a contrasting color midway through.

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The Kidsilk Haze yarn knit up like a cloud on 4.5 mm needles (US size 7).

The scarf is light and, I think, oh so lovely!  Thank you Marilyn van Keppel and Meg Swansen and all at Schoolhouse Press!

Isn’t that a lovely, drapery, wispy thing?!

I’m planning to give it to my SIL for Christmas.  She loves pink.

While I was working on the scarf, I finished a 3-color spiral cap. I used my basic pattern (Ravelry link), but changed the cast-on to Judy’s Magic and began the other 2 colors right away.  I like that better  (– need to update the pattern soon!)

3-Greens Cap

Once that was done, and once I finished the scarf, I went a bit nuts starting Too Many Things.

I got hold of myself!

The green and white circlet to the left, I’ve pulled off the needles and laid aside for later.  (a cap to match the “Peek through the Windows” Cast On vest)

The gold lace cap, with the 2 green possible-yarns, I’ve returned to the get-around-to-it stack.  (I hope to write up the pattern.)

The blue is in that same stack.  (potential swatch for potential sweater)

The dark multi has progressed to half a hat, and moving quickly.  This is the first I’ve used Wisdom Yarns’ “Skye” bulky; it feels pretty good.

The dark Lamb’s Pride is way-way to the back of my mind, for one-day some-day nice color.

The pink is another Cast On submission in-the-making that I don’t want to show yet. . . .  The Cascade “Venezia” suits it well, I think.

Meanwhile, the second project in the Schoolhouse Press knitalong was posted on Wednesday this week.  Faroese footlets/slippers.

Another design in a Scandinavian style by Marilyn van Keppel:  first Iceland, now the Faroe Islands!  One more to go after this: modular footies (begins 2 November, 2009).

(link to the KAL)

I’m finding more slow going than the lace, and not as much chatter in the Yahoo group.

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Today, I’ve done some knitterly playing around.  Two swatches.

One, of some stitch patterns used by designers in the book, 101 Designer One-Skein Wonders.

The lower pattern was a simple lattice, but the upper pattern involved twisted-st garter stitch, an ususual bind-off that I had to see to understand, and columns of dropped stitches.  Here’s a series of photos to show the process.

Every 4th stitch left live on needle during BO

Pull needle out of remaining stitches

Drop down the freed-up stitches, one at a time.

All stitch-columns now dropped. See the ladders.

Blocking

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Widens out substantially!

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In the second swatch of the day, I tried to adapt the neck-scarf’s lace pattern-stitch to a rectangle.  After several false starts, I figured that out to my satisfaction, and added on Marilyn van Keppel’s border at the top.  Perhaps this idea could become a sister-scarf to the triangle.  (I wonder how my other SIL feels about pink/purple?  She usually wears black and other “strong” colors. . . .)

Busy, busy!

I also posted some new videos to YouTube.  One on washing woolen handknits, especially intended for “my” pipers with special socks, and one (in 2 parts) demonstrating a tubular bind off for circular 2×2 ribbing.  (I’ll post the former here — not sure if it’ll link or embed.)

Norah Gaughan video on Buttonbands

I enjoyed watching this:  [this is a link to the video on Berroco's own site]  They have quite a few how-to videos on this page.  (That should open in a new window — go check it out and then you can come right back!) 

This 3-minute video from Berroco is about sewing on separate button-bands and is narrated by Norah Gaughan.

What I especially appreciated was Norah’s discussion of row-gauge and its relevance to getting a nice, firm, knitted button-band, and how to compensate for different row-gauges when joining pieces that have different stitch-patterns.

“The Butterfly Circus”

I enjoyed watching this 20-minute short film on the theme of Hope, “The Butterfly Circus”, made by Joshua Weigel for The Doorpost Project.  (It’s not YouTube, so I can’t seem to embed it, but you can follow the link.)

Another Berroco How-to Video: Slipped-Stitch Colorwork

One way to get more colors into your knitting, only one strand at a time.

The video comes from this page, part of Berroco’s weekly free e-newsletter KnitBits.

Knitting Daily TV Video — Sock Cast On

A stretchy Estonian cast-on for top-down socks, demonstrated by Nancy Bush for Knitting Daily TV. (Scroll down the target page a bit.  It’s a nice read about Sock Summit.)

http://www.knittingdaily.com/blogs/daily/archive/2009/08/10/sock-summit-report-plus-sock-cast-on-videos.aspx#v1

Or, just watch the YouTube video here: 

Berroco Cabling Video

Another video to share, this one by Berroco on cable techniques used in their Nesselrode pullover (Booklet #288, Blackstone Tweed) and Tarte shell (free KnitBits pattern) — not just knits over knits on a purl background in this one.