Author: Marie Haigh

I started knitting 15 years ago right around the time of my marriage and the birth of my niece.

Gauge Woes

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As you know, I am knitting an adult size version of the Barbie shawl. As knitting rules state, one must knit a gauge first. For me, it’s especially imperitive in order to write the accompanying pattern. However, after tinkering with the mesh pattern yesterday, I am still unhappy with the outcome. The whole pattern leans to the left. (I ripped it out to save the yarn .. and plum forgot to take a pic first. I was too frustrated to see beyond the end of my nose!)

I have once again tinkered with the pattern. Today, I will knit up two version of the pattern. Here’s hoping at least one provides me with the results I am looking for. (This time I’ll be sure to take pics so you can help me decide which is the best choice).

So, as you might guess, yesterday afternoon ended on a sour note.

But, to cheer my day, I recieved a package from Laurel. It was filled with the paper I had requeseted from her destashing efforts. Along with all the paper, she even included a book: Instant Gratification Cards by Sterbenzes. It made my day! Here’s a pic of it all.

I’ll post a picture of the first card I make from this stash later this week. I’ve already laid the materials out. It will be a Hippo card. Just what everybody needs. =)

After opening up this package, I decided to tackle my hedges by the lamp post. Some of the bushes had grown over the top of the post! Enough was enough.

I believe I won the battle!

Then, just to make sure today started off on the right foot, I baked up a Berry Coffee Cake.


I think it helped. Here’s the beginnings of my next block in the “Ode to Quilting” afghan. It is one square in what will be a 9-patch block.


It looks dreadfully boring right now, but just wait.

St. Louis Block Finished

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I finished the St. Louis block five minutes ago. I couldn’t wait to share it!

(For the free pattern, please see yesterday’s post: http://knittedgems.blogspot.com/2007/05/st-louis-block.html)

Here it is:

I even took the time to weave in all the loose strands (35 of them!).

The back side:

My thanks to Noricum for featuring me in her blog today (http://noricum.blogspot.com/2007/05/found-on-flickr_08.html)! I am honored.

Well, the sheer fact that I haven’t started on my gauge for the Barbie shawl means that I can’t sit and chat today. Duty calls.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more knitting news.

Until Then.

St. Louis Block

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My hope was to showcase the completed St. Louis block.

Can we just say that close counts in hand grenades, horseshoes and knitted afghan blocks?

Pattern for St. Louis Block (the first block in my “Ode to Quilting” afghan)

Recommended Knitting skill level: Easy

Yarn: Lion’s Wool by Lion Brand (see my links to the right for Lion Brand’s website) or substitute any wool yarn from your stash

Gauge: 4 stitches and 6 rows is 1 inch in Stocking Stitch
4 stitches and 6 rows is 1 inch in Moss Stitch
3.5 stitches and 6 rows is 1 inch in Seed Stitch

Stocking Stitch: Knit all stitches on RS (Right Side); Purl all stitches on WS (Wrong Side)

Moss Stitch: Row 1: (K1, P1) repeat to end on RS; Row 2: Knit the K stitches and Purl the P stitches. Row 3: (P1, K1) repeat to end. Row 4: Repeat Row 2.

Seed Stitch: (K1, P1) to end on all rows

Pattern: In Color A (shown in variegated yarn), cast on 10 stitches.
Row 1: Knit all stitches.
Row 2: K1, Purl to 2nd to the last stitch, K1.
Repeat these rows until 36 rows have been knit or until piece measures 6″.
Bind off.
Make 4 such knitted strips in Color A.

In Color B (shown in Pink yarn), cast on 9 stitches.
All rows: K2, (P1, K1) twice, P1, K2.
Repeat this row until 36 rows have been knit or until piece measures 6 inches.
Bind off.
Make 4 such knitted strips in Color B.

In Color C (show in Yellow yarn), cast on 10 stitches.
Row 1: K2, (P1, K1) thrice, P1, K1.
Row 2: K1, (P1, K1) 4 times, K1.
Row 3: Repeat Row 2.
Row 4: Repeat Row 1.
Repeat these 4 rows until 36 rows have been knit or until piece measures 6 inches.
Bind off.
Make 4 such knitted strips in Color C.

Arrange the pieces like so.

Or in whatever color combination you prefer.

Seam the long sides together, giving care to keep the ends even. (Remember: safety pins are your friend!)

Repeat this step 3 more times until you have four sets of 3-strip blocks.

Then, arrange your sets so that they look like the first picture.

Seam the block together, one side at a time. Below is a pic of the right side of my St. Louis block, seamed together.


Once finished, you will have the first block of the “Ode to Quilting” afghan completed. I will post a new block every Monday. I would love to have you knit along with me! Be sure to share your pics.

On other news, I have uploaded several gardening pictures on my Flickr account (see my link to the left). Mainly, I took pics of my favorite plants plus my new tomatoes that I planted this weekend. Hopefully, this year will be better than last year. I planted twice as many tomato plants just to be sure I will have enough to can. The herbs haven’t gone into the pots yet. Tonight is supposed to drop down to the 30s, so I’ll hold off until later this week.

Well, I’m off to dig a hole in my garden. (I’m transplanting yet another plant). Although, I am fortunate to have inherited such a large garden and truly, I shouldn’t complain. …. But, all the plants are crowded together and showing signs of strain from lack of space to lack of sun. I have a long list of plants that need to be moved or ripped out altogether. Hopefully, this year I will grab the biggest offenders and relocate them. Wish me luck!

Have a wonderful day!

Excuses for not Knitting

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Yesterday was Jake’s 4th birthday. Here he is eating his birthday treat, a greenie.


I don’t think he knew it was his birthday, but he did like the extra treats!

Oh, I have to share my funny story about Jake. On Sunday, while out on our daily walk, he caught a squirrel! Now we chase the squirrels at every opportunity, but I didn’t think he would ever catch one! I’m not sure who was more surprised – Jake or me.

Back to the story: Jake was concerned about the dogs barking at him two doors down (not wanting to share his booty), so we back tracked a few paces. All the while, Jake is carrying the squirrel in his mouth. The poor squirrel is squirming around trying to get out of Jake’s grasp and squeaking up a storm. Once Jake was comfortable, he laid the squirrel down ever so gently. Well, the squirrel tried to make a dash for safety. Jake nimbly snatched the squirrel back up in his mouth. He then looked to me for some assistance (as if I was going to help him keep this squirrel as a play thing!). Getting none, he laid the squirrel back down. This time, I convinced Jake to let the squirrel run away (a quick command and no leash freedom did the trick). Afterwards, I called my husband to brag about Jake’s hunting skills. He’s a true blooded retriever after all. Truth be told, the squirrel was a little baby. I don’t s/he had learned to be scared of dogs yet. Well, I am proud to say Jake nailed that lesson home!

So, I hate to blame Jake on why I didn’t get a lot of knitting done yesterday.

I have another excuse!

Homemade sticky buns! My husband and I had them for breakfast this morning. They were a sticky, gooey mess, but oh, so good.

I did manage to find enough time to knit a gauge for the upcoming “Ode to Quilting” afghan. Being a habitually loose knitter, I always look at the guide on the back of the yarn label and subtract 2 sizes from the needle size they recommend. It almost always works. This time, I only went down one size in needles when knitting the gauge of Lion Brand’s Lion Wool (mainly because I wanted to use my favorite needles). I am stunned and shocked that my gauge is a bit too tight and that I need to knit the wool using the EXACT same size of needles that Lion Brand recommended. This has never happened to me. Either my knitting has altered over the year or Lion Brand finally has a knitter who knits like me. I’m going to assume the latter.

I also finished seaming the left sleeve to the body of the striped sweater. I’m afraid it looks about the same, just minus the safety pins, so I refrained from taking yet another pic of it.

The business cards were finished yesterday morning. I picked them up in the afternoon. Thankfully, it was only a light rain that I got caught in while I was out picking them up. (My main form of transportation is my trusty, Gary Fisher bicycle). Check them out.

They were done by my local print shop, McKinney’s Design & Print. I think they did a great job.

Well, that’s all for now. I am off to knit more (I’ll be better today, I swear!).

Happy Knitting!

A cone of Alpaca

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My thanks go out to White Horse Farm (http://whitehorsefarm.net/) for this gem.

Isn’t it stunning?

I danced all the way home.

My husband’s reaction was disappointing (it was a smaller sized cone than he was expecting). What does he know? My Jake was excited … or maybe he just liked the smell of it.

I will use it to knit up the full-size version of a “Shawl for Barbie” (http://knittedgems.blogspot.com/2007/04/shawl-for-barbie.html). First things first, it’s gauge time!

Other knitting news: As you can see, I am halfway done seaming the sleeve into the body of the striped sweater. It’s starting to look like a real sweater now and not like a vest-gone-wrong.

Grudgingly, I have also started to knit the right sleeve. I haven’t made much progress, but I knit better when there is a baseball game going on. Thanks to the Phillies crazy schedule, there is indeed a baseball game tonight.

The funny story behind this sweater (ignoring the story that I ripped it out once and then once again) is that the person who has agreed to model it for me just announced she is pregnant. As if I wasn’t already dedicated to finishing it before the dog days of summer, I have to be now! There is going to come a time when she’s not going to fit into it.

Business news: I sent in my very first order of business cards. For shame, I should have done this 6 months ago, but I was trying not to put the horse too far ahead of the cart. Now that I have started to increase my marketing budget, it only makes sense to get them printed. I plan to put my very first card on the fridge. I’ll refrain from framing it … for at least a week.

Gardening news: I just want to say that I am SICK AND TIRED of raking up the seed pods the two sweet gum trees sent down this winter. I have already taken 6 trash bags full to the curb. I can easily fill two more. Plus, I recycled a bunch of them. The recycles are being used as mulch beneath the trees while the soil lays dormant. I ripped out all the grass last fall. Later this spring, I will plant Creeping Phlox in its place. (This was hubby’s special request. He hates trying to mow beneath the trees because the roots always muck with his mower).

One Sleeve Down

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While I was watching the Phillies win their game against the Marlins (OK…OK… so we pulled it out in the bottom of the 9th, but, hey!, a win is a win), I finished the left sleeve. It’s done! No pics please, though. It hasn’t been blocked or the ends weaved in or sewn to the sweater body. It’s not a pretty sight, plus my cam is on the fritz again. Hubby took the good cam with him and left me the “Sometimes I’ll work, sometimes I won’t” cam. You can guess which one it picked. Nothing but a black screen. Arg.

Back to the joy of finishing the sleeve: I even managed to save some brown yarn in the process. There are now 7 tiny balls of brown yarn ready and waiting for me to continue knitting the right sleeve. Oh, I suppose I have to at least try. I’ll wait to start until Monday. Monday is a good day to tackle sleeves that may or may not have enough yarn to complete, right?

I simply can’t do it this weekend. I have a left sleeve to seam together with the body. More importantly, I have a new quilt to start. I have decided to make my sister and her husband a wall quilt for their kitchen. It’s never too early to start making Christmas presents. (Every year I start all my Christmas projects earlier in the year in the hopes that I won’t be staying up past midnight on Christmas Eve trying to finish everything. It never works! This past year, on Christmas morning, I was still stitching up the matching doll pajamas for my younger niece.)

Here is my inspiration for my new knitting project: Ode to Quilting. (Many thanks to my good friend, Jen, for giving this to me as a Christmas present!)


This basket is filled with Lion Brand’s Wool (100%). I plan to use as many of the colors as I can to make an afghan in true quilter’s style. It will be an afghan that can use up a knitter’s leftover balls of yarn from previous projects. Shapes (mostly squares and triangles) will be knit up, then sewn together to form larger squares, and then these squares will be sewn together to make the afghan front. Lastly, the front will be seamed to the back. Minor details still have to be ironed out, such as what the back should look like. I’m giddy to start the gauge process. This project will combine two of my favorite hobbies: knitting and sewing/quilting. (I suppose true quilt lovers wouldn’t lump sewing with their hobby, but since sewing came first for me, I still have a fondness for it).

My other accomplishment today was building a wall around Big Brother (the biggest of my Weeping Japanese Red Maple saplings).


I’d like to see my husband mow him down!

Enough Brown Yarn?

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I have rescued all the brown yarn from my gauges. It only gave me 6 mini balls of brown yarn. I still don’t know if it will be enough brown yarn. Thus, I do what I always do in such situations; I procrastinate. I stick it in a drawer and I try to pretend it doesn’t exist.

My only hope is that a little green elf will come in and knit the right sleeve for me. Then, when I am within an inch of finishing the sleeve and I run out of brown yarn, I can’t lose my mind and run off the nearest bridge.

The left sleeve is progressing quite nicely. I am 12 inches complete with only 5.5 inches left to knit before I get to the cap part. See for yourself. A Phillies baseball game will be on tonight (they play at 7:05 pm EST). I should be able to make some more headway on the left sleeve. Once I get to the cap section, I plan to completely switch over to the turquoise yarn. With a little luck, I will be able to salvage yet more brown yarn.

Jake is breathing loud sighs in the hopes of getting my attention. True, it is almost play time. Yet, what he doesn’t know is that it is raining already. Here I was hoping to lay bricks around Big Brother (the largest of the Weeping Japanese Maple saplings). Little Brother has not fared quite as well between my husband mowing him down and Jake peeing on him. I am determined that Big Brother won’t suffer the same fate!

More design ideas: a summer dress for a wee one done in lime green and bright pink. The skirt will be a smattering of rectangles while the top will be all pink outlined with a green border. Then, a women’s jacket in two styles: a-line and wrap-around. The final challenge: a sweater that a man wouldn’t hate wearing. Why are men so difficult to design for? I did make my husband a sweater once. Come to find out, he’s allergic to the lanolin in wool. It took me months to make that sweater and now it sits in a tote in the cedar closet. Once I stop weeping over it, I’ll make it into a pillow covering. It has been five years now and I still can’t bear to cut it up. Maybe I should rip it out and reuse the yarn. What to do?

A shawl for Barbie

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After many alterations to my original shawl pattern, I finally have a design I am satisfied with. My original design was going to be an homage to King Tut’s collar. The yarn had other plans. What came to be is an interchanging pattern between an open lace technique and beaded chevrons. I think my compromise is both feminine and elegant. To showcase the pattern, I knit up a miniature version of it. As you can see, I borrowed my niece’s Barbie for a model. For more pictures of the shawl, please see my Flickr album. (There is a link to my album on the right hand side).

The shawl is knit with 100% alpaca wool, made in the USA. The alpaca yarn seen in this picture is from Rich-nes Alpaca Farm. I used 13 yards of alpaca and 39 different colored beads in this miniature version. Thus, I approximate the adult version will use about 700 yards of alpaca, excluding the amount needed for determining the gauge, plus 320 beads. The goal is to have it finished by November 1st.

I don’t want to talk about the striped sleeves right now. The ever dwindling ball of brown yarn worries me.

On a completely different subject, I am happy to report that I have finished cutting down the hedges in my backyard! Everything is at least one foot or shorter. Some of it was so dead, I could just lift it out of the ground. I think, all told, it took me a month to complete this ambitious plan of mine. It sure doesn’t look pretty right now, but in 2 years time, it should be healthy and bushy. I will never let it get so tall again. (It was taller than my husband! – who is 6 feet tall … on a good day, as he would say).

Yesterday, I started to divide my hostas that were outgrowing the garden along our walking path. Since we have several bald spots underneath our pin oak tree (thanks to our family of squirrels and Jake), I used the divisions to hide the lack of grass. Unfortunately, there is still more to do. There is also no lack of dead spots in our lawn.

So, today, my gardening plans include dividing more hostas and trimming my Transfer Bush. This is a bush (sorry, I don’t know the type of bush it is) I moved from the west side of my house to the east side in the hopes that it would get more sun. The lower branches on it have died back, but I gawked today when I saw how much new growth it had on it. I think it just might be happier in its new spot. One could hope…

Have you seen the Phillies? We won 3 straight games in a row. I’m beside myself. We are no longer the worst team in the National League. It all started with Moyer’s great start last week. We’ve been slowly gaining our confidence back ever since we had that win. I can’t wait for tonight’s game!

Phillies won, but my sleeves lost

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Yay, the Phillies won their game today!

Yet, I am no further on my sleeves. Ask me why.

Well, since you asked, it’s because I made a small error in my pattern. I was increasing the stitches EOR (every other row) when in fact I should have been increasing them every 4th row. Good thing I caught the error last night before I finished the sleeves. I would have had sleeves 2 times too large. What a sight that would have been! I’m even more grateful that I caught the error before I posted the pattern in my Etsy store.

So, I ripped out all the increase rows. This morning I was back to where I started from on Monday (a quarter of the way done). I have made progress on the right sleeve as I was knitting during the baseball game, but I still have the sinking feeling that I took two steps back. Well, I know what I will be doing tonight.

There is another sign of trouble in my pattern, but I don’t want to talk too much about it. It might jinx me. (I am running out of brown yarn!)

Of course, first things first, time to garden with my trusty companion, Jake. Then, I have to run up to the grocery store. I’m out of heavy cream again and one simply cannot make good alfredo sauce without heavy cream. The broccoli is sure to cross out all the unhealthy attributes the heavy cream brings to the table … or at least that is what I plan to tell myself. =)

Knitting sleeves on the way to a baseball game

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I didn’t think the traffic was that bad last night. My husband disagreed. I should mention that he was driving to the Phillies game while I was knitting in the passenger seat, but I can’t see how it matters. I made good progress on my sleeves during the drive. So good, I will be winding skeins of yarn into balls tonight. (I ran out of yarn on my left sleeve!)

The ride back home was quicker, but that didn’t help our mood. The Phillies’ record is 3-9 (3 wins out of 12 games). It’s so painful to watch. I hate to admit it, but the pitching isn’t good. My boys, Myers and Maddog, aren’t pitching well at all. Chutley, Rowand, and Ruiz are not hitting well. Howard isn’t seeing the ball. Yet, Howard’s saving grace is that he is keeping his walk numbers up. Jimmy, Vicky, Hamels and Geary are doing fine, but can’t seem to drag the rest of the team with them. It’s maddening, I tell you! Maddening!

The design for the shawl is coming along at a fast pace. I am in the gauge phase. There will be two different patterns used in the shawl and thus two different gauges. I plan to incorporate beading and maybe some glittery yarn (Rowan’s shimmer line, I think). I’ll see how the gauges come out.

I am tossing around some sewing projects too. One is a message board (using a cork board for the base) and one is a star pillow (just to prove my knitted star pillow design can in fact look right at home in a teenager’s room). They are both in the “sleep on the idea” stage of the planning. I love that stage!=)

My sister called this morning with more Disney plan information. Kail, my 3-year-old nephew, was the cutest. He had to get on the phone twice to talk to me. Once to tell me that he hurt his knee. Then to tell me that he was “all better now”. He’s such a ham!

Well, I’m on to knit for the last half hour before I take Jake out to garden. (He eats the sticks that I trim from the hedge. It’s a good system).

Happy Winding!