Tall Gal Knits and Spins

Technicalities...

2009-12-28T10:18:16-05:00

Everything got done technically in time...everything did not get mailed in time. So goes the life of a long distance auntie/godmother knitter. The little ones will be getting New Year's presents instead of Christmas presents..as their mom reminded me, it will just extend the holiday season a little bit. Not such a bad thing when you are four and 1-1/2 years.

While I already showed you princess's February EZ sweater, I hadn't found buttons that I liked...well I finally did last weekend while out poking around. These were just too cute and too perfect to pass up.

Bunnies! Three little white bunnies! I just couldn't resist. I even had matching thread tucked away, actually it was thread from my mom's sewing kit, good old coats and clark. Those buttons are moving anytime soon.

The little man's sweater took forever to dry once I blocked it out, but I think both he and mom will be pleasantly surprised when they arrive in another 5-6 days.

I love how this blocked out I really really do. The cables still popped out but it will be wearable for a few years for him. Blocking added an extra inch or so in the arms and while this year it will be more tunic length for him, next year it will be right at the belt line. Perfect.

I love the fact that there is a single cable on the arms and the rest is ribbing, made them nice and quick to do, especially since I did them at the same time. While normally that is not my preferred sleeve method, this time because of the cables I behaved ;)

These two along with their other presents are now on their way via UPS to their new home where they will be well appreciated for their warmth and just because auntie made them.

Once I got these on their merry little way, I took a break for a few days and this morning I pulled out a skein of sock yarn to make my little toy...

I cannot begin to tell you how much fun I am having making Celestine. The little points take about 25 minutes to make I have 3/12 done....guess what I'm off to play with for a bit while I wait for work.

Knits for a little guy I know

2009-12-16T08:09:24-05:00

With the princess taken care of with her two sweaters, and only one down for her big brother, I returned to knitting for him....

His mother and I refer to his feet on occasion as moose paws, or I like to think of them as puppy paws...big feet for a growing boy, means he's going to grow up big and strong. The little man needed more socks this winter so since he only got one pair from me so far this fall I whipped up another quick little pair.

See what I mean...puppy paws! Moose Paws! Even though I am teasing to a certain extent, he does have large feat for a 4 year old, so he will be tall when he grows up. Quick little ribbed sock pattern made up by his mom, easy to knit and easy to rip out the toes to add some length for next fall and get another year out of them

Good colors for a boy, out of one of my favorite sock yarns - Opal. I suspect there are more in the wings for him after the first of the year...and his sister too.

But his last Xmas gift from the auntie/godmother is a sweater..one which I had started at the beginning of the semester and put down while needing to focus on school (by the way I upload the finals tonight and i am DONE until the end of January). But last week, as the "fog" was lifting and I could see the end of the light of the tunnel I pulled it back out.

Cabled goodness. Usually when I knit for the kids I try to do one nice and one play sweater. The lime-blue Malabrigo was his play sweater. This is his "going to church" sweater from me this year. It is Provence from Classic Elite. One of the most adorable little sweaters for kids I have seen in ages. it has been in my Ravelry queue for ever it was #139 out of nearly over 520 patterns I have queued up, Egads! Good thing I have a lot of yarn!

I love cables, I love the way the stand out, pop up and just define a sweater. I am using Jaeger's Matchmaker Merino DK, from my stash. Sadly the entire line has been discontinued a few years ago. The color is pretty close to true, it is a rusty red brown. One of my favorite DK weight yarns, right along up there with Jo Sharp's DK wool, speaking of which...I should dig some out and play with it soon.

The back is done, the front is nearly done, that's the plan for today and then spend the rest of the week on the sleeves, which I am seriously thinking of doing in the round just to make go quicker!

This will be the last holiday knit for the little ones..but I have a few more things up my sleeve. Like this.

I saw this fun little project cruising Rav the other day and I decided that I just had to make one...and heaven knows I have enough sock yarn to choose from! I'm going digging pawing, dumping the sock stash on the floor perusing the sock yarns to find some truly obnoxious bright colorway to do this. Think I'm going to go look now for that yarn! I have a funny feeling I'll be making more than one of these...

Wee sweaters continue

2009-12-09T10:01:29-05:00

The little guy's sweater was such a quick fun knit to do. The pattern is such a little boy sweater pattern, at least in the malabrigo colorway I chose for him. If you wanted to make it for your favorite little girl, it would work just as well for her. Its destined to become his play outside warm sweater (dark colors hide lots and lots of mud, maybe).

After that one I knew I needed to do a quick knit for his sister, C. I flipped through the magazine and saw this one. (Rav link) I immediately knew it was the perfect little girl-y thing for his sister. Not too fussy but just enough to make her smile. I went digging through my stash to see what I had that would work and found this... I had picked this up when in Oregon a few years ago at Dublin Bay Yarns. It has a soft handle and is a great color for a cute little blonde girl :)

Stephanie Japel's patterns are written very well and easy to follow. I had the little Whirligig Shrug done in 2 days.

It is just too cute for words almost! It is just a wee shrug with just enough flounce on the arms and back to be adorable for an afternoon out.

I think one of my favorite details of this sweater is the "rolled" collar/edging.

Its not really rolled, but gives the appearance of being that way, it actually flattens out quite nicely. Now while this shrug is absolutely adorable, practically speaking even if it is made from alpaca and merino, its not going to keep C very warm.

Going back into the stash room and looking at good bright colors for the little one...and flipping through my patterns/books I came across a classic favorite, Ez's February Sweater. I have queued up in Ravelry both adult versions based off of Ez's pattern, seen here and here. I plan on starting doing at least one of them over the winter.

I love Elizabeth's stuff and have made several of her baby things for both of M's children, (if you feel like taking a gander over at my Ravelry projects, user name tallgalknits).

Insert soft squishy yarn, and a week of slow work....

I used Classic Elite's Princess. I was so happy with the yarn that I ended up ordering some more for a future project.

A lovely shade of spring green. This will be her warm sweater. It will be a little big on her this winter, but the sleeves are 3/4 length and can be rolled up this winter if necessary or the garter edging removed and lengthened next winter if need be. I have buttons for the sweater...I need to sew them on this week.

There are one or two more wee gifites destined for delivery by Santa...pics soon :)

P.S. I know this one is link heavy, but I thought since it is the season for quick knits, sharing what I found may give some fellow knitters some quick gifts to do.

A new look and revisiting a well loved yarn

2009-12-03T20:27:04-05:00

Hi remember me.....the multi craft girl, the one who works a lot, goes to school and tries her hand at various textile and fiber projects. I fell off the radar for a while, again...let's see if I can get back on the radar. Is there anyone out there?? We're starting with an updated look for the old blog, a minor face lift. One of these days I'm going to make my own banner, but for now the blue leaves are appealing to me.

Many things have changed for Tall Gal in the past year, mostly all positive, a few not so positive, but from our experiences we grow.

I'm still in school, two semesters and two weeks away from being done with my bachelors. It will be a relief to have it completed. I've worked hard and its been a long road, but it will be worth it in the end.

My crafty side to a bit of a hiatus for most of the year. I made those socks in February and then just kinda stopped. I would knit a row here and there but nothing made it to the finished object pile. Then one late fall afternoon while talking with M about her knitting projects and what was going on, doing a tabulation of just how many pairs of woolly things would her little munchkins need this winter...the fingers got twitchy and I offered to help, starting with some socks for the little ones. The first three pairs snuck away without getting photographed. Maybe if we bug M, she'll post them on her blog. Poke nicely ;)

Then the discussion of sweaters came up, several of the ones I had made the godson still fit him or can be passed down to his sister. But both were going to be looking for new woolly warm things this winter...so we pulled out something definitely very boy colored and made this.

This yarn was last seen in the last post....still Malabrigo, and still a soft squishy favorite.

This is an extremely easy, quick knit. I think I did this one in 5 days, just the right spar to get things going.

Once we did this one, we got inspired to do a few more...but we'll save those for another day....one day soon.

In the dark of winter there are bits of light

2009-02-18T10:19:01-05:00

New England in January, February and March are dreary, cold, uninviting and downright miserable if you are not a winter person. The nights are long, the sun sets around 5, although it is getting lighter sooner and DST is starting in 3 weeks....

My feet have been chilly, even with my down booties on, they've just been cold. So the other day in a fit of not wanting to do my stats homework and needing more warm socks I went stash diving.

Something soft and warm, yet reflective of "my winter of discontent"...

Malabrigo! Its so very, very soft and warm and a quick sock knit on #6 needles. There is dark blue and grey-black with a bit of spring green and light blue poking out every so often. I did this just goofing around here and there for 30 minutes for the past week. Basic 2x2 rib and a regular heel. I tried it on last night and my foot was toasty warm...now I just need to make the other one.

The spring green in this made me remember that I have other malabrigo in the stash...and I felt like I needed something very bright to help me see the spring light at the end of the winter....my shawl is progressing along, just started the next pattern section, but I needed/wanted something brighter..

Now this is Spring Green! Apple green to be more precise...

This turning into Anya from Ella Rae #13. Its going to be my spring wandering around town sweater. The back is almost done. its a simple knight, with the "fake" cabling , just a nice boxy sweater...i love fitted things, but sometimes its nice to just have a comfy sweater to wrap up in.

Bits of light..bits of green...spring is on the way!

A little bit of spring green early

2009-01-26T08:39:13-05:00

Winter in New England....not my favorite time of year as anyone who knows me will agree. Winters usually look something like this...

and the roads look like this

Some people find this a grand time of year...full of skiing and cold adventures up north.

I personally find this a time of year to hunker down with all that lovely wool, alpaca, silk and blends there of that I own and knit..under a blanket preferably. This winter has been gray early and often, there's about 18" of hard pack snow on the ground, a sheet of ice under my car. So what does the knitter do when she needs a bit of spring in her life sooner than mid March??

She starts a new lace shawl...

In spring green...Classic Elie's Silky Alpaca lace! This is one of the nicest lace Alpaca/silk blends I've felt. I am in love with this yarn and in fact I am considering getting more...even though I have enough lace to last two lifetimes...it is soft, warm, pliable and will drape beautifully will blocked out, I'm positive.

This is Anne Hanson's Bee Fields Shawl. I love Anne's work and blog..I've had several of her patterns queued up in my Ravelry Q for a while. I looked at my 4 skeins of the lace and just decided that it wanted to be this pattern.

I'm particularly loving the fact that the edging is done at the same time...saves time in the long run.

I'm almost most finished with the first pattern motif..I'm not working on this as fast as I could, there are 6 more weeks before the clocks turn back and another 8 until the equinox...this shawl will be my "Spring" until mid march...when hopefully little sprouts of green blossoms will start to appear..

Spring semester starts tonite...3 nights a week, 7:30 to 9:30 class each night..ugh.

Think Spring...

New Year, New Hope, New Beginnings for all of us

2009-01-21T10:43:33-05:00

For everyone...yesterday marked a new era for those of us who are in the US. I am cautiously optimistic that our new president will make things better, with time, as long as we give him the opportunity.

Since I last posted...yes that was an extremely long gap, many things have occurred around here as well. The semester from hell is finished, for which I am eternally grateful. I am on a new beginning as well, both for school and personally.

I did not get much knitting done, but here's a short parade of what I did manage to get done, most of which in December during the holiday break. If you are on Ravelry you can see more pics here.

A long over due scarf...started back when it was warm...the Manitou Scarf, a lovely reversible cable scarf.

I did this in some stash yarn! Foxfibre's Cormo Silk blend. I still have 1-1/2 skeins left of this lovely yarn. I'm sitting on it for now. Maybe a hat or really toasty warm socks later on....

I also did Bad Cat Designs November KAL..Autumn in New York. Andrea does wonderful work..the shawl was a breeze to do..minus papers and quizzes!

I used some sport weight Merino Hand Dyed that I got from M a while back..its a nice shawl to take the chill off...

Socks for a friend..generic ribbed socks. Knit Picks Imagination alpaca blend sock yarn.

And Finally the first finished object for 2009...a little something sparkly for me. A nice quick knit.

Simple wristlets made with a delicious yarn. Artyarns Beaded Mohair and Sequins. Warm, gorgeous and dresses up jeans and a sweater beautifully.

I've got a new lace shawl on the needles, but more on that in a day or two...

New year, new beginnings for everyone...take a deep breath...

Welcome to the Jungle

2008-09-15T08:49:10-04:00

This is what I'm looking at for the next 16 weeks. 29 books, 3 classes, 8 papers, multiple midterms and 2 finals.

I was quiet all summer...kinda went into hiding, reserving energy. I'm sure you can understand looking at that pile

This is what one of the cats thought of it..
Yep..he thinks I'm nuts too.

I'll try and post...we'll see if I do anything besides drink a lot of coffee to manage this.

Summer life has its pleasures and its annoyances

2008-06-26T18:46:46-04:00

Its summer time...the weather is mostly cooperating, and the creative juices get flowing...trying out small projects just to try a technique is always fun....

For example, I'm taking great pleasure in making this felted bag...

A combination of a knit then felted bag and needle felting. I've felted a knitting project before. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I don't. This black bag is made out of stash yarn, some Cascade Pastaza that I've got tons of lying around here. The flower (which I have been told resembles a lady slipper) is from roving that I have around the house. The stem is twined sock yarn that looks like stem material.

This was a quick easy project to do...I need to go buy bag handles for it this weekend. Its just the right size to be another project bag, as you can never have too many of those, or to be a small tote bag for lightweight shopping. We'll see what handles I come up with.

And then there is the annoyance of the summer...and normally I don't share things like this, but this one just irritates me...summer time equals sandals, some new some old. I bought a new pair over the weekend, the DH and I walked into Harvard Square for dinner the other night, its about 1 mile from our place, easy walk, one we do all the time, literally.

Halfway home the other night I had to take off my new summer sandals because I had rubbed a blister on the top of one of my feet. No biggie, I've done it before, will do it again. Went to bed and the next morning woke up to this...

it had cracked and bled...and has done so again today...this drives me NUTS! I have never had a blister do this to me since I was a kid in Iowa in the freezing winters and my hands would crack...

Now it is covered in antibiotic cream and covered with a gauze bandage for a few days. Its bad enough it is probably going to leave a scar, no matter how much vitamin E lotion I put on it. So much for cute feet for a few weeks!

I'm off to go do something else crafty...I cast on a sock for the Summer of Socks for the DH (since I'm obviously not wearing any for a while) over the weekend...should have a progress picture for you soon!

It must be summer..I have time to do something besides sit at the computer....

2008-06-20T14:44:09-04:00

Its been a busy few weeks since the last little sweater update....but not so much that I couldn't make another EZ sweater for Caterina!

I love Elizabeth Zimmerman's patterns...not only are the easy to do once you read through the whole pattern but the designs just make sense. This is the Baby Surplice Sweater, a little wrap sweater that you an adjust as the baby gets bigger by moving the buttons along. Buttons, that I will be purchasing this afternoon....

Yes, I am enjoying knitting girl baby clothes! Not that I don't love knitting for the two nephews and my Godson as well...but this is a nice change of pace. Actually, I have two more EZ sweaters lined, up one for C and one for her big brother that I'm planning on starting in July...

And the best bit..I'm using up Stash Yarn! I've actually been extremely good this year. No sheep shows so far , although I am planning on going to Rhinebeck, school allowing, in October and I'm only getting my bimonthly dose of STR from the club....I just may actually be able to buy some yarn this fall and not have to pile it up on the floor in front of the cubes!

This adorable sweater isn't the only thing I've done. I finished my quilt block of the month, which I am also going to turn in this afternoon....

Not bad for not touching my sewing machine in 6 weeks!

It is summer time...and with less brain power being abused by school...I've picked up some lace, I've joined the Summer Sampler KAL over at Bad Cat Designs.

These are the first 2 patterns, one a week, and I'm running a week behind...go figure. But I'm enjoying this as a chance to explore new lace patterns and its just a fun little stole to knit. Its an open KAL so check out the link above if you think you want to join in.

And just because one lace project isn't enough....

Can you guess what this is the start of....its one repeat of a border pattern for a specific shawl....

No I'm not going to knit it entirely over the summer...the goal is to have the edging "hopefully" completed before classes start up again mid September. Then try do a few rows every week. This was my treat to myself for surviving the semester and getting into Harvard officially. The yarn is the Gossamer Cashmere Silk blend from Heirloom Knitting in yummy burgundy!

Tonight is the summer solstice and tomorrow is my wedding anniversary...we're heading to Portsmouth NH for the day tomorrow...there's going to be some fabric stash enhancement I'm sure and maybe even a little yarn too....

Have a wonderful weekend..I'm off to buy buttons!

I did fall off of the face of the earth again....

2008-05-31T12:20:27-04:00

But managed to crawl my way back up!

A fact of life for me while taking classes is that nothing is set in stone about what I can keep up with while classes are in session, aside from work and school. This is something I need to get used to. Everything came to a standstill after vacation. I had a few priorities that had to be taken care of, so I did nothing creative or crafty until the end of classes.

But school is out for the semester, I'm not due back until mid September and now I've got a few things to show you...projects I've completed since classes let out.

These two projects are for my friend M, who just had her second child, an adorable baby girl who I'm going to visit tomorrow....

Elizabeth Zimmerman's Baby Surprise Jacket...easy, quick knit.. Cast it on the day Caterina was born, finished it up earlier this week, sewed the buttons on it this morning.

And a blankie for the new little one...she's been given many blankets already, so she will have one more to add to the warmth pile. Fiber Trends Thermal Blanket

This one has become one of my favorite baby gifts....

I'm trying to clean up some old projects...I've pulled out the Spring Shawl by Sharon Miller, I need to figure out where I left off on that and I've started the Summer Sampler Project from Bad Cat Designs. She is doing it as weekly installments and she's using some of the Japanese stitch patterns, so I'm using this as a testing ground to see if I want to go ahead and pick up the books.

Still quilting and spinning, just haven't gotten to them yet..trying to decide if I want to pick a quilt to do for the summer for the house as a wall hanging or maybe abed quilt...

Hopefully the summer will lead to more regular posts...I am going to be posting some pics from Hawaii on my Flickr account if you'd like to see over the weekend..follow the link on the side bar.

Sure signs of spring

2008-03-20T15:13:32-04:00

Yellow daffodils and

painted toes!!

The daffodils are staying here...the toes are leaving for Hawaii early tomorrow morning!

Looking forward to some sleep, sun, more sun, and some quiet time knitting before and after sunning!

See you after the 1st of April!

Look...she really does something this week!

2008-03-14T11:35:59-04:00

Thanks for all the congrats about becoming a matriculating student. I've gotten my head wrapped around it as much as I'm going to until I talk to advisor in a few weeks, which must be why I actually got some stuff done this week.

One of the nephew's birthday is in early April, his 1st birthday this year. I wanted to do something a little nicer for him than the usual stuffed animal and sweater, and I wanted to learn a new quilting technique - flying geese. Combine the two and we get -

A Beatrix Potter quilt!

Its just the right size for his car seat and stroller, its going to be 35" once its finished. The wonderful bit is that a friend has agreed to do the quilting and put the binding on for me. Not because I can't, but because I'm going away for 9 days and don't have time and can't take it with me.

The other thing I've worked on is Juno from the Fall 07 Knitty. (by the way...the spring issue is out!)

I'm using the Atacama Alpaca that I brought back from Scandinavia a few years ago...using the stash!

And I started a sock...with the intention of its going with me on vacation...Veil of Leaves from Cat Bordhi's new book -

So far its a fun little sock to knit...hoping to have a matched set when I get back...where am I going?

To the gloriously warm, wonderful island of Oahu! For 9 days, no work, no cold, no rain (I hope). I'm going to visit a friend and hide for a bit...still figuring out what I'm taking to work on..maybe I'll know next week!

Hi...i'm alive and some news

2008-03-07T09:07:54-05:00

As I fall of the face of the earth again....I'm alive. February is one of the worst months for me...I hate winter, its cold, dark and miserable and I just lose all my motivation to deal with anything outside of school and work. I don't think I've honestly knit anything since the last post...not joking. I've barely done any quilting and what I have done is just because I have to finish something quickly...

March is a little warmer and I'm soon heading for a warm vacation, my outlook is improving a bit. So while I have nothing to show you today, I'm hoping next friday I will.

So my news is that after 8 weeks of what seemed like interminable waiting and probably the reason for part of my funk the past month - "The Letter" dropped from Harvard yesterday. As of 3/4/08 when they wrote the letter I am officially a Harvard Bachelor's Degree Candidate through the Division of Continuing Education (i.e. night school for people who have to work). Between what they transferred and what I've taken I have 40 credits left to complete, 10 classes. Theoretically I can be done in 3 more semesters and possibly 1 summer school session. I've emailed who they assigned to me for an advisor and I'm planning on meeting with them in april at some point to figure out exactly how this is going to work. I need /want to do this as efficiently and quickly as possible without going totally nuts. From what they sent me I don't have think I have enough wiggle room left to do a special concentration for the bachelor's, I've got classes like foreign language, ethics, logics/stats, and writing intensive courses and a few other "requirements". I'm sure there's a way to combine it down, but I'll need help figuring it out.

Its a full fledged Harvard University ALB Degree, just done at night. Having it will go a long way if necessary down the road. My immediate goal is to finish this, then the next semester start a master's program through the extension school the next full semester. I can do this at night as well, if I decide to go for a PhD, then I have to switch to day school. That's a ways away, but still tucked into the back of my head...as that path means a lot of changes for me with work and personally.

I didn't think they were going to: A) really admit me and B) give me as many credits as they did. So I'm still reeling a bit from this. I'm thrilled and relieved but now also a bit terrified. Its now gone from taking classes because my brain is melting from boredom to I'm really doing it, again. I'll be fine in a little bit, but for now I just need to get through this semester and have a game plan for the remaining time.

So after all that I have a silly picture to lighten the post...

Cauliflower sheep!

Off to let my head spin a bit...hopefully real knitting content next week!

Midnight blues seemed to be my colors this week

2008-02-10T09:09:21-05:00

Might of had something to do with the dreary weather we're having. Its been basically cloudy and grey for a week. Not my favorite weather.

Since things are slightly calmer this semester I've been trying to take one day a week to do some spinning...this week I was on the lovely Drudik wheel...with some hand dyed merino top.

definitely enjoying spinning on the Drudik. Right now I'm guess this yarn is going to come out somewhere between a fingering and a DK once plied. Definitely dark blues, but there are some lighter shades in there as well. I've got 8 ounces total of this roving, I've split it into 4 ounce balls, we'll see how much there is when I'm all done.

My other dark blue of the week is Ice Queen from Knitty! I absolutely loved the way this looked on the model, but light blue is not a good color choice for dark brown hair and pale skin, I went with....midnight blue Kid Silk Haze from Rowan and A#11 seed beeds.

You can see the highlights of the beads, they're a bit more subtle than the larger beads the pattern calls for. I chose them mainly because they are what I had in my bead stash. If I decide to make another one, I think a trip into Beadworks in Harvard Square may be in order. The pattern was quick to do once the set up was taken care of and using the cotton for the provisional cast on made it extremely easy to pull out afterwards. The DH is debating on whether he'd like me to make one for his grandmother without the beads for Christmas...are we already thinking of Xmas gifts?

With this little project done I'm thinking of what I want to do next...I need to make socks for the DH, I'd like to make myself a sweater, but I also have a few non lace UFO's to think about. I also have a couple of quilting projects on the burners...I feel a case of startitis coming.