Happy Friday, Bloggers!

I finished a pair of socks last night -- blue striped Regia -- photo here.

I also did a bit of work on Rosendal. I finished knitting the front bands and knitted the shoulders together. Here is a photo of it -- unblocked and without any facings sewn down.

Some of you seem confused about why I did the neck steeks. The pattern directs you to cast off "x" number of stitches at the front when you begin shaping the neck. You cast off the front band steek stitches and an equal number of stitches on either side of the steek. Then you are supposed to work back and forth, decreasing stitches on each side of the neck to create the front neck shaping. Rather than work back and forth, on the first row of the neck shaping, I cast on some steek stitches so that I could work in the round. Then I did my neckline decreases on each side of the steek. And did the same for the back neck, when I got to that point.

This is the way you shape the neckline in a traditional fair isle pattern and I find it easier and quicker than working back and forth. It involves a bit of thinking and figuring, but once you do one sweater this way, it's pretty easy to figure out.

9.05.2002
Thursday

And here is what I had installed yesterday that cost as much as several Norsk Strikkedesign kits. Oh well. At least it's much quieter and more efficient than my old one.

I did a lot of work on Rosendal yesterday. I created a separate Norwegian steek page with photos of the process. I machine stitched all the steeks and cut open the neck and front steeks. I picked up stitches along the front steeks and have completed one front band and have the other one half done. I still have the shoulder stitches on holders -- I'll knit them together before picking up stitches for the neckband.

9.04.2002
Wednesday

And here is what I paid for yesterday that cost as much as a Norsk Strikkedesign kit. Yeah, a new bathroom faucet installed in the master bath. I don't have to hear "drip . . . drip . . . drip" anymore. But it kills me to think of all the yarn I coulda bought.

Influenced by Theresa at Bagatelle, I signed up at a "Rate My Blog" site -- so y'all go vote that my blog is totally hot, please? :-)

Again influenced by Bagatelle, I have put up a "100 Things About Me" page. Read it and be bored to tears!

Here is the Rosendal in progress picture. Today I should get to machine stitching and cutting of steeks. I'll take pictures.

9.03.2002
Tuesday

First off, everybody go look at my buddy Geane's latest FO -- the Cold Duck cardi, designed by Alice Starmore. The pattern is from "The Scottish Collection," long out-of-print. Before you ask, I don't know where you can get a copy. It's been in great demand recently and copies were going on eBay for $400.

I did quite a bit of laboring on Labor Day (i.e. cleaning up the home place) so didn't get as much knitting done as I woulda liked. Also, I made cheese blintzes.

But I did start the front neck shaping. Here is the center front right after being cast off. And here is the front neck steek.

Right now Izzy is being a major pain -- she wants to walk on the keyboard and I won't let her so She Is Not Amused. So here is a photo of her last night, being a little angel.

9.02.2002
Monday -- Labor Day

Happy Labor Day, Bloggers, to those of you who celebrate it.

In honor of this holiday, I want to mention The Ships Project. If you follow the link, you can read all about it. Briefly, it's a project headed by a woman named Ellen Harpin to send handknitted and crocheted items (among other things) to American troops at sea and on land fighting in Operation Enduring Freedom. If you visit the webpage (link above) you'll find all the information you need about what items they need and where to send them. There are pages of thank you notes and photos from grateful recipients that are very moving -- seeing the smiles on the faces of the recipients and reading their notes will make you want to send everything you've knitted all year! I'll be shipping a box of handknit socks and scarves out this week.

And speaking of knitting, I worked on Rosendal -- here is the photo.

A blog reader (Hi Elizabeth!) asked for a close-up of my steek. Here is the right side. The pattern directions say to make a four-stitch steek -- I made a six-stitch one, and I alternated the background colors with the foreground color, keeping two background colors together in the center. Here is the wrong side of the steek. Notice that I don't cut the tan color, just bring it up from the last row that it was used. You have to watch your tension very carefully if you do this.

I hope you all had a good weekend. It was rainy and cool here, but what a nice change from the upper 90s every day. We went to a Cat Show yesterday -- saw a lot of beautiful kitties, but none as beautiful as Izzy, I was quick to assure her!