Marie Grace Designs

Note to self...

When you do one project at a time you actually make progress. What a novel idea.

I’m not sure what’s going on. Usually I have several projects going at one time and it takes me weeks to complete something. I enjoy having more than one project to choose from depending on my mood but it does get a little stale after the same blobs of half finished knitting have been floating around the house for what seems like an eternity. The feeling goes from one of blissful variety to one of “Holey Gourds I’ll never get any of this done!”

The wooly fish are schooling! They are soon to be joined by some colorful distant cousins. Maybe they can come to the library with me and the kids this afternoon.

Here’s a nice look at the sleeve decreases and the underarm where stitches will be picked up when I put the body stitches back on the circular. I love sweaters that have those extra stitches in the underarm area. They just fit so nice.

Here’s a look at the back side of the fishies (hee...hee....fishy backsides).

For those of you who haven’t tried color stranding I must say you are cheating yourself out of the enjoyment of chanting

red, red, red, blue, blue, blue, blue, red, red, red, blue, blue, blue, blue, red, red, red, blue, blue, blue, blue, red, blue, oh sh*t.

No really, color stranding is colorful fun! I think thats why I’ve managed to work on just this sweater for a few days. The color work keeps my attention and watching the pattern form is way cool.
Since this is not an entire Fair Isle sweater it really would be a great first color stranding project. Its a top down raglan (yes, again) so there won’t be a lot of finishing. The sleeves have what you see in the pictures, just one pattern around the top and one above the cuff. There are never more than 2 colors in any row. The same bands will be repeated on the chest area with several different colors.
I’ve also made sure that there is no shaping done in the color work areas. That means you won’t have to worry about keeping a color pattern correct while you do sleeve decreases!

My favorite line from Nemo?
Sea monkey took my money!

Revision

First some technical jargon:

Some slight revisions have been made to my Alpaca Raglan pattern. It seems the pictures in the pattern didn’t give a clear view of the front and the yardage of the specified yarn was incorrect. I have made changes and updated the pattern so feel free to download a new copy. I apologize for any confusion.

This whole “Hey, I think I’ll design some knitting patterns” thing is quite a ride! Maybe I should just be content with knitting here in the house out of the public eye. Seriously, I don’t know what kind of person I convey myself to be through this here blog but I’m really a big chicken. I pace the floor every time I finish a pattern wondering what I missed or messed up. I hesitate to post because somebody might read it. I hate having my picture taken. When I do hear that there are comments about one of my patterns or my knitting in general I always assume it must be bad.

The boys are watching Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the girls are in the dining room doing something that involves puzzle pieces, playdough, and doll house people (?), and I’m off to throw in a load of laundry and work on those wooly fish.

Tidings of peanuts and beer to you all.

Wooly fish.

Isn’t it a little funny if you really think about wooly fish? Especially if you think of fish wearing sheep hair. Either way I do believe these little guys are just what I planned.

I don’t really think its fair of me to call them Fair Isle fish though. There is no X and O pattern and no peeries. I’m not using Shetland wool and there are no steeks, in fact, this one’s a raglan (big surprise there, huh). Maybe I’d feel more comfortable calling it a color stranded design rather than a Fair Isle. Any little thing to relieve my conscience.

This past Friday night was Knit and Chat at the LYS. No matter how hard I try I just can’t come home empty handed. Here’s what followed me home this time....

Oh yes, the Silk Garden. I don’t have a clue what it will become but it will look really nice in the cabinet until I decided.

This is a yarn I’ve never worked with but have been fascinated with for a while. Its one of those I pick up and look at and then put down again. This time I brought a little home to swatch with because I have something I want to try that requires a multi colored yarn and a complimentary solid color. This will fit the bill just fine I think. Its called Loft and its made in Germany. I think its sort of neat because if you look at the strand it doesn’t look like its even twisted at all. It just looks like a spaghetti string of wool. Its very light and soft and the colors are way cool. Heaven help me but yes there’s orange in there.

There was a sort of discussion on the Knitty boards which partly asked the question how do moms of little kids get any knitting done. Here’s how:

Yes, I’ll spend part of my afternoon scraping Playdough off my oak table, and the floor, and the chairs, and her hair but til then I’ll get a good bit of knitting done.

Fair Isle Fish

The Little Guy informed me when he was about 4 that he wanted to be an ichthyologist. He also wants to be a chemist and an astronaut but ichthyology was his first love.

He has the entire Blue Planet documentary series and has watched it enough that I have a good bit of it memorized. His favorite has always been the Anglerfish. I prefer the Gulper eel.

Anyway, I had to tell him that I ran out of yarn (yea, I know...stupid, stupid) for his ocean sweater. I’m going to get more yarn and actually redo the sweater a little differently anyway but in the meantime I thought I’d start something else for him.

“Can you make one with fish?” he asks.

“I’m going to finish your ocean sweater....that’s fish, right?”

“I mean a sweater with fish on it.”

“You want one with actual fish on it?”

“Yea. Little colorful fish.”

I try to avoid putting little motif type stuff on sweaters for anybody over the age of 2. Even then I think it should be done very sparingly.

I tinkered with some ideas to see if I could come up with fish that looked like fish but didn’t look tacky or too childish. I spent last evening on some graph paper doodling and a speed swatch. We’ll see how this goes.

What fun is being a parent .....

if you can’t torment the kids every once in a while?

They’re expensive, loud and suck the life right out of you so why not get a little chuckle in return?
Here’s what I did this morning....

The big kids were all still sleeping when Tater and I got up. It was the perfect opportunity for me to use the Tater 2000 Alarm Clock. See this little weasel....

that hallway opens into 3 bedrooms inhabited by Lego loving, video game hoarding, toddler avoiding big kids. Send in the Tater 2000.

She loves this game because she comes back with prizes. Big kids will offer up anything they can live without if it means she will leave peacefully.

So now that everybody was up we had breakfast and started the day.

Tater played with Darwin....

The Little Lady decided to crochet! She’s tried knitting a few times and just hasn’t got the hang of it yet but she’s doing good with the crochet. I learned to crochet before I learned to knit too so I’m think’in there’s something in the DNA that requires it.

I can’t believe that I have nothing new to show as far as knitting. I do have some ideas and plan to do some swatching this evening. If things go well I will have some new yarnographic pictures in a few days too!

Orange Twist

Well, I had to bribe him with pizza to keep him home long enough to get a picture but here he is. All his public school buddies are home and they’ve got plans. What happened to the days when I was the one he wanted to hang out with on a summer afternoon? Time goes too fast.

I used to make him baby sweaters now he’s almost in men’s sizes.

Orange Twist is done in Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece. The color, obviously, is Wild Orange. He wanted something orange and not too fancy. I didn’t want to do hours of plain stockinette so this is our compromise. The twist stitches begin in the ribbing and are then carried up on a stockinette background.

I’ve been looking for colors other than white and black that would go well with orange for a wool sweater for him. I saw one done in orange and navy blue that looked really nice so I may give it a try. Maybe a classic pullover with some bands of color across the chest and sleeves?

The night I stayed up late, determined to get this finished I noticed that late night summer TV sucks. I had a choice between some 1970’s science show (way out of date), reruns of a sitcom I didn’t watch when it wasn’t reruns and info-commercials.

Dude......I.....need......Cylons.

Twist’in the night away...

and the morning and a good part of the afternoon but its done, done, done! Of course, the body it belongs on is off swimming with his buddies so I’ll have to wrangle him into some pictures later.

So the fridge died...

We knew it would happen eventually. It was here when we moved in and wasn’t exactly new then so it was only a matter of time.

I won’t bore you with all the details but let’s say it involved Mac Daddy putting a new refrigerator in the back of my truck. Seems that if you want to have a fridge delivered it will take a few days. Apparently the sales guy didn’t understand that there were 4 kids at home with no cold milk and ice cream and the Corona wasn’t all that chilled either.

So MD made the sales guy help him put the new fridge in the back of my SUV and drove it home. Nothing warms my heart more than watching my hubby and my 13 year old haul a fridge out of my beloved truck while it is parked in my yard. Had to take the side door off the kitchen and the doors off the the fridge to get it in the house.

Okay....enough of the domestic stuff.

Last night was Knit and Chat night at the LYS. There were socks, prayer shawls, summer tops and even a hemp bag in progress. Everybody was pretty calm until we were informed that there were newly arrived unopened boxes of Noro Silk Garden in the back room. Mutiny I tell you, mutiny.

Lemme see!

Give it to me!

Open the box!

No, its mine!

Well actually that was just me yelling but anyway....

I did come home with 16 a few balls of this. Jo Sharp Silk Road Aran Tweed.

Check this out. Mamma did not one but 2 Tater’s Cotton Cardi sweaters and they are adorable. I looooove the green! Thanks so much for posting pictures!

So much for my lounge chair...

Remember that lovely chair Mac Daddy got me for my bDay? Remember how I envisioned myself lounging in that chair, knitting, while the kids played in the sunshine?
Well, instead this happened.....

Queen Spud has decided its a rather nice place to hang out. I should have known. At least she’s sitting still for a half decent pic of that coral and turquoise sweater I finished. Sure its June but she’ll wear anything if I tell her its new and for her. I did make it a bit big in the hopes that it will still fit once actual wool-wearing weather gets here.

The wool is Llamajama hand-dyed merino. I can’t get enough of the stuff. No wimpy wool here folks, soft merino with lots of body for a quick knit and great shaping. Wears well on the munchkins and won’t wear out anytime soon. Check these colors out.

I had to tell The Little Lady that the seed stitch sweater I started for her not too long ago is being put aside. The yarn is amazingly heavy. I don’t mean warm or thick, I just mean heavy. I’m afraid the poor kid will be worn out by lunch time just trying to stand up and walk around in it. I was getting tired trying to hold it up long enough to knit a few rows. Maybe it will come back sometime later this year as something a bit smaller.

She decided I could replace the way-too-heavy sweater with something lighter, say a sleeveless sort of thing. So far it sort of looks like a flower.

Inquiring minds want to know...

Well actually I want to know. I want to know how you feel about patterns!

Let me explain....

You’ve probably already figured out that I love designing raglan sweaters. I’m just drawn to the whole process and the fact that there is very little, if any, finishing to be done. I also like the way they fit and can be modified. Raglans tend to have a bit more growing room for little ones that rarely wear the same garment for more than one season. They can also be made to fit a bit more snug for a more mature design simply be doing shorter raglan sections.

My question to you is about sleeves. There are so many different ways to do sleeves and it seems everyone has a preference. Raglans appeal to me because I can work the neck and bodice and then do the sleeves right away. I’d rather just get them done and move on.

Typically raglan sleeves are done on DPNs so there’s no seam to sew. That’s the whole point of a top-down raglan...no seams. But, that said, some of us still don’t particularly care for DPNs. I use them, I’m comfortable with them, but they still aren’t my favorite knitting tool. I tend to force myself to use them when I do raglan sleeves just because I feel like I’m supposed to.

This time I caved and just knit them flat. I’m faster doing them this way and I’ve never had the popular aversion to the purl stitch so what the heck. Its only 2 small sleeve seams and the rest of the sweater is still done in the round. I did need to use DPNs at the neck until I had enough stitches to go around my circular but that was only for about 2 inches.

So, keeping in mind that you can’t please everybody all the time, I was thinking I may be able to please most of the people some of the time....

How would you like to have the option of knitting your raglan sleeves flat or in the round? If I included directions for both variations in a pattern would it appeal to you?

Speaking of sleeves I’m working the sleeves for the orange twist. I’m really hating that I decided to do this sweater flat. The front and back are both done so the sleeves are all that stand in my way to getting it done. I’ve cast both sleeves onto a circular so I can work them both at the same time. It seems like its taking forever but at least when they’re done...they’re done.