Tag Archives: Stash Enhancement

Gauntlets Done & Strokkur Choices

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner
Elegant Gauntlets

Elegant Gauntlets

I finished weaving in the ends of my Elegant Gauntlets.  The yarn, Merino Mia by Prism, stretched out horridly when wet and I dried them in the machine to counteract this.  Even so my gloves are looser now than when I washed them.  This is what I get for not washing my swatch in advance. However, the entire hand portion, most notably the thumb, was longer than expected going by pictures and description.  I suppose this means I have particularly short digits.  They look to be a ‘casual’ length but were knit for the shorter 1″ post thumb opening for dressy version.  My thumb is practically eastern up by that lone inch:

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poor missing thumb….

As I mentioned last time the colors are glorious and I believe they show up  much better in this post than last.  I enlisted my beloved husband into helping me take the pictures but the close up was taken under a light by myself in hopes of getting all the brown, blue, and purples in the smoke color way.

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pretty colors

I am fairly certain that I will not rip out the thumb and tinker with it at all.  I figure a few washings and drying in the machine will work their magic and shorten my mitts a bit.

I am excitedly working on Strokkur.  When I ordered the yarn I went with the called for gray for body and ash for 1st contrast color.  Ysolda knit this with a yellow for the 2nd contrast color and to be honest I don’t actually wear much yellow.  I do own a yellow bee scarf that I tie into my hair occasionally but other than that nothing primarily yellow in my wardrobe.  I am being drown to the gray/yellow combos I am seeing so may end up adding a bit of it here or there.  However I do own a Pendleton Wool skirt from way back when.  It has accents of pink and lilac which I tried matching via online color cards.  I did well with the pink and rose shades but the lilac is way off.  I would have preferred the lilac since pink is another underrepresented color although I do think it looks great with gray.  I have completed one sleeve so have quite a bit to go before making my final decision.

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Strokkur Color Choices

yarny days and knitterly evenings to all

Elka

Stitches Report~ Picture heavy

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

OK I went to the hardware store to pick up some blocking materials and they didn’t have what I was looking for. I need to go to the big boys [Home Depot etc] instead of my helpful Ace dudes. Therefore no AFTER pix yet.

I am in a bit of a knitting slump and had planned on putting the Stitches report and some FO’s spread out over the next week or so but my good friend, Miss Toni, sent me an email insisting I spill already…..

I took 3 classes and enjoyed all three of them. The first was called Nordic Color taught by Nancy Bush. I have so many plans for using this technique its crazy. Why just before leaving Zoe was complaining about her lack of wintery hats and after consulting with her I was mad as a hornet. She wanted a hat with leaves flitting around into a pile. Not a repeating pattern or a leaves on vine sorta pattern but an intarsia pattern. Ha ha ha. Nancy Bush to the rescue. Look for hattie goodness when I get some stuff off my knitting platter.

The second class was on Russian Grafting and I think its a very interesting technique needing some field testing. As mentioned yesterday I have utilized it on my STTS[actually Shetland Tea Shawl or STS] so will get a better idea of how much I like it once blocked. Plus other occassions to test general lovability. The most intriquing use seems to be in seaming as far as I can see so Must. Knit. Sweater. Pieces. Again knitting plate.

The third class was called ummmm Off the Cuff or something of that nature. I actually was half asleep during this class since I left my sister’s apartment at an ungodly 6am and knit for the 1.5 hrs I had between arrival time and class time. I have taken to knitting when I can’t sleep cause it ummm puts me to sleep shhhhhhhh I didnt’ say that but you know relaxing soothing nerve and worried mind calming meditative bs I actually finished half of my class project since returning home:

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Toni actually doesn’t give a rats ass about my classes and just wants to know about the LOOT. Tough she, and you too, have to see my progress in dealing with WIPS first. I noticed that Toni actually blogged about what I did last week:

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That pile o’ yarn consists of: Donegal, Rogue, and the BW topdown. I had purchased some BWA for Celtic Dreams and didn’t feel like plodding through 3 sweaters before getting to it. Not that I have CO mind you. I will be stuffing the yarn for those three sweaters on my yarn caddy in case I choose to restart one of them soon. The yarn caddy is the reason for my funk. Upon my return I arranged my purchases and was shocked. I had been shopping daily and stuffing the bags under the car seats between trips. I really did not realize I had picked up so much yarn. To remind myself that I was living in land of plenty I went to the main yarn stash area and picked up similar yarns ex: Douceur et Soie and Kid Seta for Rowan KS Haze or other yarns I had picked up since my daddy got sick 10 months ago. Talk about retail therapy gone haywire. Anyway here is the caddy sans ripped stuff but with extra yarns for ripped stuff ;^>

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Unfortunately I can honestly say I have more yarns I purchased in past few months that didn’t make it onto the caddy AND that there are CONES OF YARN hiding behind the laceweight on lower shelf. Not bulky weight cones but cones of ummm Zephyr and Cashmere. No wonder I am broke and being pathetically into retail therapy[not normally just recently] I still have an overwhelming urge to shop on a daily basis. My favorites from Stitches:

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Laceweights from Skaska designs also available from Dimity’s Dry Goods The top two are cashmere/silk blends and not the same blend~ one is 50/50 the other 80/20~ which was not my intention the other 3 are my faves esp the loverly taupe yak and silk blend. Another laceweight Alpaca from another vendor proves to be my absolute favorite couldnt’ have walked out of Stitches without:

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The seller told me it was Crea[first shearing] Suri Alpace from her own farm. 3000 yards of the most wonderful stuff I have ever seen for real. And I have seen some pretty awe inspiring yarns in the past 30 years. Just saying.

Being the sock knitting addict that I am

Stop Laughing

I picked up some sockyarn that is a nice heather instead of the handpainted the was all over the place:

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I am still waiting for some kits purchased from Nancy Bush and have picked up some CP Kid mohair blend[why I had to pull out the similar yarns to stop myself from buying stuff I had tons of already] and beads for River since returning home:

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By and by I did finish the first of my socks for yarn purchased mere hours before going to stitches:

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Ok thats the highlights of past two weeks shopping and reduction of WIPS spree. Toodles and happy knitting

Un~freaking~believable

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

I have finally finished all the getting ready for school prep: new socks, panties, backpacks, wardrobes, haircuts, teeth cleanings, check-ups on top of school supplies. My girls are so very ready for next week. This being the last possible day for slumber parties preschool beginning we, of course, invited over Zoe’s BFF. I had planned on taking the girls to the City Museum or Magic House or at the very least depending upon how tuckered out I was feeling the Science Center. The girls vetoed all of these ideas for this! Damned TV.

The teeth cleaning occured yesterday and I left the girls at the Dentists to shop for IK the one with Madlis shawl which they didnt’ have and I have no clue which issue. One would think I wasn’t going to be at yarn heaven tomorrow. Whoa Nellie back up there~ did you say left the kids? Yes I sure did. Auntie Carol~~ you know the auntie that watches the girls whenever we leave town for the weekend~~ just happens to work at a Dentist’s office. I am thinking that maybe when they do the office days if they still do the office days I will send my girls there. For my foreign readers my Jr Highschool aka Middle School aka 6th grade onward sent me to a parent’s workplace to learn all about what it means to work. See what it did for me? I stay at home. Either that or I will, if feeling particularly unappreciated, keep the girls home that day. I plan on putting on an act which involves fusing June schedule with Lucy kinda day. I shall do my best to convince them that I work that hard everyday and don’t sit until 4.29.99 which is why I park my patootie in front of the computer, or on knitting chair and look harrassed should they require anything.

Not having the mag I decided to peruse the yarn offerings and picked up two balls of sock yarn:

Image428.jpg This is Trekking 100 which is making the rounds in blogland due to the evershifting and artful color changes. Mine isn’t doing the shading most often seen and its probably because I picked a nice dark ‘manly’ kinda shade. Still we get to test macro skills to show you this:

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What in the world did I do to deserve yarn 2 days before Stitches extravaganza? OMG you wouldn’t believe the insults I endured just before going to the dentists. Really you wouldn’t. Sigh. We go to get the hair cuts and I decide to have my lip waxed since I will be seen in public by other knitters who are obviously more important than other kinds of people[including spouses and spouses’ coworkers/friends/family] and don’t deserve to face this when trying to knit. The lady who was gonna do the deed started right up on these. When I asked her what she thought she was doing since they had been done already { aside: I had just done them myself tyvm } she told me they looked ‘terrible’ The result of her handiwork. The indignity….

Hey I’m back!

Posted on by Elka Bolhafner

Ahhhhhh vacation was so nice. Came back all refreshed and ready to knit ;^> Actually before I left I went to the local nail place and had a manicure. While I was there I noticed a gal getting a parafin treatment. She said it makes your hands soooooo soft so I sprung for one. Being eczema prone I figured any little help I could get you know. Knitters pay attention: that parafin treatment relaxes your hands so much! Any sore achey fingers from overknitting will disappear. Remember that come Holiday Knitting time why don’t you. My place offers the treatment with or without a manicure and I know where I plan on being when trade show deadlines have my hands all cramped up. Best $5 you can spend for your knitting. Trust Elka.

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Here is the 9-Scarf Vest all sewn up. I actually finished knitting her a week and a half ago but the mere thought of all those seams and ends had me quaking in my sheepie slippers. In the end it wasn’t too bad. Just a few hours for finishing. I sure wish I had just done it instead of putting it off. Another project late out the door.

I’ve gotten tons of yarn in the mail lately via trades and I will show you later in the week. For now let me talk about my visit to Memphis. We ate, we slept, we putzed around. Great time. I also visited with a fellow blogger~ Jessica I have been corresponding with Jessica for a little while and I think she is too kewl. My intuition proved correct… she is too kewl. Lurv her! And, as usual, my feelings that any semblence of social graces that I may have at one time possessed are totally gone was confirmed. Yep Miss Ditz[that’s me] kept wandering off to the car while poor Miss Jessica was speaking. And I twirled my hair and acted all femme when my husband pointed this out. Gah. Anyway my husband and I met her and her children for burgers and then I dragged Jessica to a LYS. Why is it that knitters always get together to visit yarn stores? I realize its a safe form of entertainment for out of towners but still… Anyway I purchased yarn!

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Two hanks of Bearfoot sock yarn because we all know I am a sock knitting fiend. Well I cannot think of a local shop that carries it and Miss Liz has mentioned her love of Anne sock yarn, also not carried locally to my knowledge, which has the same fiber composition. I am of the mind that hand dyed yarns often come from the same source but I could be wrong about weight. Fiber content check/weight ??? And how could I possibly resist that Mountain Twilight colorway? The Wild Raspberry was pure indulgence. Not often I manage to talk my husband into a yarn store crawl. Actually the first time in a decade of marriage. Score one for Elka!

OK toodles~ great yarny day and knitterly evening to you alls….