Tag: travel projects

Posted in knitting, Living Life Well

Return from unplanned hiatus

Posted on by Laura Kate

Dear friends,

While I have been silent for over two months, I have not been idle. So much has taken place in my real life that I found it hard to keep up on my blog. You will detect from my opening photograph that Knitting is the one fibery activity that I kept going in the interim. And there is one Finished Object and one Nearly Finished Object.

Having given away my fingerless mitts last spring, I used stash yarn to make a replacement. The pattern is Croft Mitts, designed by Kirsten Kapur. It appears that I downloaded the pattern from Interweave, although I can’t remember when. Three yarns are used – all from Knitpicks. The pale and dark blues are Gloss in fingering weight – a lovely wool and silk blend. The variegated pink is Hawthorn fingering.

I’ve already posted about Kate Davies Paperdolls project. It is nearly finished.

All that remains is to pick up and knit an I-cord strip along the lower edge. Once I have blocked it, I’ll get another photo to post. Purple is the Ultra Alpaca. The pink is Swish in worsted weight.

And there is an extra fancy project on my needles. I’ll do a more complete post of it later. It is a second version of a project I knit about three years ago.

Now, some photos and words about three events that have filled my life in the last two months.

A trip with friends Fritz and Melissa to the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica in early September. A few highlights:

View from our villa
Fiery-billed Aracari
Walking through the Corcavada Rain Forest
Breakfast overlooking the Gulfo Dulci

    Very soon after our return, my sweet mother passed away soon after suffering a fall in her room. We traveled to Ohio for the funeral in early October. I took no photographs at that event. Here are some photos from happier days

    Goodbye, Mom. You will long be well remembered by hundreds of people whose lives you touched.

    In late October, a landscaper reshaped the steep side yard of our new house.

    Before:

    After:

    Bill and I have also been active around our new home town, attending events and making friends. We love it here.

    If you are still reading, thanks. I’d love to hear what you are working on these days. I invite you to leave a comment below, or drop a line to my email.

    Posted in knitting

    Casting on to Travel

    Posted on by Laura Kate

    It’s really heating up here in Oklahoma. Thankfully, the husband and I are headed for cooler climes: Alberta, Canada. Since our trip includes airplanes and bus rides, it is essential to my nervous system that I knit. My go-to travel project is socks.

    I have two skeins of this wool and silk blend in my stash. It swatches out as a dk, with around 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 stitches per inch, depending on the needle. Husband loves the color. I am skeptical that the yarn will hold up to the rigors of sock-wearing.

    The silk portion appears to be raw silk. (I’m guessing it’s in the little pale nubs.) My understanding of raw silk is that it is spun from cocoons after the caterpillar has chewed its way out. Maybe if I double the yarn, it will be stronger?

    I have chosen a lovely pattern by Purl Soho featuring a twisted rib stitch, with crossovers, called House Socks.

    https://www.purlsoho.com/create/2022/08/25/house-socks/

    The pattern suggested that I swatch in the round using 34 stitches and the twisted rib. The results are this tiny and cute cuff.

    I didn’t quite get gauge, but it’s close. Husband’s foot is rather wide, so I am confident that I can get a good fit.

    Anyone have an opinion to share about this yarn?

    Posted in knitting

    Finished Object or no? A Tale of Two Socks

    Posted on by Laura Kate

    Yesterday I got to the top of my second Mary Delany sock. Today I cast it off. While technically, I am finished knitting the pair, there is a small geographical glitch.

    Sock no. two hanging in the garden, clipped to a tomato cage. It looks pretty good.

    One foot cozy and warm, one left out in the cold.

    Sock no. 1, found under a chair in the living room of daughter’s house in Madison.

    (sigh)

    The fault is my own. I had pulled out the completed sock to compare to the one in progress while I was visiting our loved ones. Apparently, I failed to stuff it back into my project bag before packing up.

    There’s good news on all fronts. It was found and daughter agrees to mail it to me. If the U.S. Post office fails to deliver it, I have enough yarn to knit sock no. 3.

    If you have a hankering to make a pair like this, the pattern is by Kate Davies, and can be found on her Ravelry site here.

    Posted in knitting

    Cast-on Monday, She Shrugged

    Posted on by Laura Kate

    I pulled one of my stash project bags out of the yarn closet for today’s cast-on.

    This group of yarns is mostly sport-weight cotton. The marled white is left over from my husband’s sixteen-thousand-stitch pull-over (aka jumper to the Brits) made more than ten years ago. The Berocco Remix yarn was purchased two years ago to make a summer vest for Lu. I ended up using only the red and blue. The yellow seemed such a dreary color. I couldn’t think of who would want to wear it. Then I came across this charming pattern by VersaciKnits.

    https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sequences-shrug

    It is knit with the broken garter stitch in two colors. I began to see how the yellow yarn could be a background to more interesting hues. With cuff-to-cuff construction, the stripes would be vertical while the textural changes ran horizontally. My enthusiasm for the project rose quickly after I worked up a swatch.

    Other elements of this design include I-cord edgings and button closures on the sleeves. To make it even more interesting, the garment can be worn three ways: shrug, shawl or scarf. I couldn’t wait to cast on.

    I like what I see so far. This could be a good travel project, assuming I can manage the constant switching between purl and knit stitches while riding in the car.