yellow knitted edging

I made some simple knitted edging recently nothing fancy but it was nice to be knitting again.  It is bright yellow and just makes me happy to look at it.

Just simple little points and only 2.5 yards did I make it will go into my lace box to be used on some random project in the future who knows when.

Just reminded me summer is just around the corner because here in Utah the weather is confused and keeps trying to be winter and snowing or hailing or raining every few days.  The joys of Utah.

swatching Portuguese socks

First off Happy New Year

Still ill so I  thought I would test out my theories on Portuguese socks while laying in bed.

I also thought some might be interested in how i did my swatching.  These are the notes I took while doing this.  May be helpful to some may not bu tit is helpful to me.

first test Dec 31

size 10 cotton thread
50 stitches cast on 3 needles
knitting needle size 00

knit in round with white for this should have been red to be traditional
which hand was doing what red left white right

1. first 10 rounds  white
2. then k2t yo around eyelet picot row ( in the future i want the picot round to be a contrast color)
3. knit 10 round white  (This should have been yellow and the flower color) on 10th  row join to to first round knitting one stitch from needle to one stitch on cast on to close  top of sock and give a finished edge
4. did one more row in last color used ( which if it had been red like it should of I would have stayed red but since it wasn't had to switch to red for  background color)
5.  add second color do 1 round k

first test Dec 31, 2016

size 10 thread
50 stitches
knitting needle size 00

knit in round with white for  This should have been red to be traditional
red left white right

1. 10 rounds
2. then k2t yo around eyelet picot row
3. knit 10 round white  This should have been yellow and the lower color) on 10th  row join to to first round
4. do one more row
5.  add second color do 1 round k (if I had used red the whole time would not matter but since I switched this really should have been two rows)

work pattern to test
test leaves

this gave me 10 stitches per inch  and 12rows with size 00 needles need to go need to go smaller on needles

try again want 14 per inch

Jan -01 2017
needle size 0000

usually when you knit socks the picot band at the top is usually knit on one size smaller needles than rest of sock so i will do that in the a real  pair this i more to test the tension and stitches in the actual sock area test rose

work pattern to test

test leaves

 00 needle

this gave me 10 stitches per inch  and 12rows with size 00 needles need to go need to go smaller on needles way smaller so I will drop two sizes

try again want 14 per inch or as close as possible to that


I am working a stripe pattern  (looks like candy cane Christmas stuff to me) on the back of the sock just to carry the thread from point a to b on a real sock this too would have a flower patter.

next test on Jan -01 2017
needle size 0000

On a side note to self

Usually when you knit socks the picot band at the top is usually knit on one size smaller needles than rest of sock.  I will do that in the real pair this I more to test the tension and stitches in the actual sock area

test rose

size 0000 steel needles

I have needles that go down to size 000000 hope I don't have to go that small if so the picot band will not be knit on smaller needles just how it goes.

It has been a while since I have knit with needles this small.  Taking me a little bit of getting use to holding stuff this small again.   Thinking I will finish this as a sock not for any one to use mind you too small and not how I would want it to look.  But it might be cute next year as a Christmas decoration.

Plus it will give me a chance to work the toe section to figure out those decreases.  Since the toe style is different than any I have used.  I would rather do these as toe up socks but can't do that until I know how the pattern works both forward then backward.

So now you have seen what a test looks like to me and the thoughts that go through my head as I figure it out.  Happy Knitting to you... I will go back to testing this once I have the Santa stocking all done.

a few projects

Last night I started to knit a pair of what the author calls traditional Portuguese lace socks.  This is in the hopes they would help me to figure out the toe section I want to do on the fair-isle style  yellow and red socks that I want.    Those yellow and red socks I want to make have a stitch  count of 12 to 14 per inch.  That may not seem like much but when you look at a single square inch that equals 144 to 196 stitches which is an insane about of stitches per inch... If you then  compare that to 91.375 stitches per square inch for the lace pattern of the sock just started yep it will take 8 to 12 times longer to knit.  My kids got me sick last night or I would be further along on this.

The pattern for the lace socks can be found In Andrea wong's etsy store
 
Other projects started at my home.

I am doing cross-stitch contract work.  Two of them to be exact, they are wedding samplers.  This is for the same lady I have done all the baby announcements for in the past.

My middle daughter has started to make a few hand made books.  She is using the coptic book binding technique taught on a long time ago on my blog but she is using paper instead of fabric.  I think she is making six of these.  She has been real sick for a while so this is something she can do while in bed.

h

There is also another knitting project on the horizon. This is a knitted Christmas stocking for my cousin Eric.   We as children: my 6 cousins and my older sister brother and myself grew up together at my Vova's house  ( grandmother's house).  She had the nuns in the area hand knit us all  Christmas stockings.  Some how a few years back my cousin Eric's went missing his was the second oldest grandchild stocking.   So I am borrowing my oldest cousin Kelly's sock to make a copy of it to give to Eric, this was requested by my Aunt Nonnie.  I could have just bought one on Ebay or Etsy for him for 40 some dollars that would have been the same pattern but it would have been made out of acrylic yarn.  Ours being the age they were are made in all wool.  So I will be making his so it will be made out of wool like the rest of them.  Won't be the original but it is as close as I can do.

Now to just buy the pattern and of course knit it.

Portuguese socks wanted

Need help I want to find out about Portuguese style hand knitted socks.

The things I want to know are

• What size needle is usually used ( I think size 000 or 0000)
• Stitch count per inch or centimeter
• What type of thread or yarn and the type of content ( I think cotton but since that doesn't have much give I assume the stitch count has to be almost perfect with not stretch or a tiny bit small help please)
• In American ( English) terms if possible please I only know a tiny bit of Portuguese my grandmother never taught her children to speak it so as a grandchild I only  know little bits and pieces
• If you know of this and have images please share me 
• why the color scheme of red and yellow 
• how one starts the cuff ( i can tell is is stockinette stitch with a picot edge then stockinette again) but how long is that area
• how one does the spiral toe ( have a pattern that I hope will help me with this)
• on average how many rows in the cuff before picot edge turn
• is the cuff knit closed while knitting or is it stitched afterward
• is there elastic in the cuff
• ... anything any one can help me with to learn to make these

Any and all information is greatly appreciated

My family has its roots in the Portuguese culture and life. ( Azorian to be exact) I want to add this to our lives since I now live so far away from where I started the the little Portuguese community I grew up in.  Little bits of all things Portuguese make me happy I am very much interested in making these for my little family.  They are traditionally worn by female since there are four of those in my family it will keep me busy.

These obviously below are not adult human size just mock up someone did or for small children.  But there are some photo of some adult humans do wear.

 None of these are not my photos not sure who to credit but this is the style I am looking for.  These below are life size

 

There is a current piecework magazine article in it but not enough detail on the process.

Knitted mittens

I have not done much knitting in a while because I have been so busy with life I have 3 kits for making mittens.  I have had them for several years so I thought I would pull them out and get started on a set of them before winter is done in the hopes that I might get to wear them.  But it will probably be finished after the winter is over just so busy in life at the moment.

I love the rose pattern in these would love to make a pair of winter stockings to wear with this in the pattern the knee highs.

knitting a shawl with beads

It snowed here in Utah over thanksgiving.  The snow and Christmas coming up made me want to knit something that reminded me of both.  So I started knitting this shawl with size 10 thread in white  and size six seed beads in red size 1 knitting needles.  I know it is not anything fancy but I just have not made anything in so long just to make something I was going a tad stir-crazy.

I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving with family.   We celebrated a little one this year with just my immediate family.   It was nice to have food we liked and not what others liked it was quiet sweet and nice.   My youngest daughter got into the act of cooking.   She loves to cook and this was her chance.  I made the ham and she and her sisters made the rest from scratch.

In other fun stuff my middle daughter is learning the ukulele.  Her older sister is helping her to learn how

Black Knotty Gloves finished

My oldest daughter the one that did the Hooded sweater made these gloves for me as a gift.  She purposefully did not put finger tips on them as I like to still be able to use my phone without taking off my gloves.  I think she did a real good job on them.  They look sort of gray in these photos but they are actually black.  They fit perfectly too.

 

She is still sort of on a cabling kick  I bet she could cable in her sleep she is much better at it than me now.

The Tree of Gondor Sweater Finished

Guest blogger post by my oldest daughter about her sweater

 

After thirteen months I have finished my sweater. I added a hood to my sweater which I made over-sized like the cloak hoods of a woodland elves.

On it I have two dragons to symbolize Smaug. 

I have also added gold colored hooks for the closers on my sweater. I am thinking of doing a second sweater but I have to see as to what yarn I have available, yarn my mom will give me ;). I think though for the pattern on it I will have a theme of wolves or animals of the night. If you have suggestions please leave photos or locations of patterns on Ravelry in the comments below.

symbolism in sweater

• tree of gondor
• with a woodland elf hood
• with smaug the dragon on the side of the hood
• and the knot work is to represent the dwarfs
• nine closures for the ring wraths
• wizard is the color
• where it goes around her middle finger is where frodo wore the ring last when it was bit off so it represents both frodo and the ring.

 

Note by Sunshine : We do not usually post on Sunday but this was important to me that I show her finished work as soon as I had photos of it.

The Lavendar Hush Chemise

This pattern (by Amanda Williams called "the Hush Chemise" was another gift from a blog reader.  Just warms my heart to know that people who follow my blog love it enough to send me little gifts of thanks.  I decided to use the thread/ yarn lace weight that I got from the lavender crochet frogged skirt my friend Jodee gave me.  I  have about 1.25 pounds of lace weight from that skirt the pattern claims to take about 12 ounces so I should have more than enough and then a lot left over.  I re-spun the yarn the other day to make it a more  correct weight for this project ie not cobweb weight but more a lace/sock weight.

 

I noticed in all the samples of other peoples work it always looks a little big or loose fitted since I want this to work under corsets my kids wear I am purposefully going to go down a size or two so we have negative ease. Hopefully that will work but I am expecting it to come out too large still.
 
As you can see I still have lots of this yarn even after doing about a third of the pattern.   Because I have so much I may continue on with the knitting and make it more gown like to either use as a slip or as a nightgown for one of my girls.

Elm Leaves Knitted cuffs

I started on these a few times but none of the yarns I picked I liked the way they looked.  One was a variegated gray black sock yarn, another was size 10 cotton thread then this last one was a lace weight  Patons lace (2) bought on clearance 80% acrylic 10% mohair and 10 % wool.  I like it just fine machine wash lay flat to dry.  Makes it simple to take care of too.  It is I just never really like working with  fuzzy yarn as it is so hard to frog if you make a mistake.  The pattern is elm leaves it was a gift to me from a reader who liked my blog was so sweet I have a few more gifts like this to make but I am behind in life in general so please do not think I am not grateful for the gifts I do plan on making everyone I have eve gotten.  It was hard to take  a good photo of this project for some reason the colors never came out right in my photos it is a pale lavender in real life called arctic plum.  first photo seems to be the closest but still not true to color