The Hand-Knitted Sweater

While Eileen and I were in Scotland last year, I actually considered learning to knit just to make myself a sweater as beautiful as the ones I was seeing on the Shetland Islands, the Orkney Islands, and some islands that were so small and remote, I'm not certain who was doing the knitting. But Eileen, God bless her, saved me from all that aggravation and offered to knit me one herself. I chose a Rowan pattern and yarn, part cotton and part cashmere that is so yummy that people keep wanting to feel me when I tell them Eileen knitted it for me. Here is the sweater:


Here is the back:


Here is a close up of the knitting. I don't know enough about knitting to tell you what kind of knitting pattern this is:

And here is the front with the buttons I picked out from my local yarn shop:
I got the pattern and the buttons (and decision to use this yarn) from The Yarn Lounge here in Carytown. Melanie who runs The Yarn Lounge was amazingly helpful to me in choosing everything, given that I know absolutely nothing about knitting. She took my photo wearing the sweater and put it up on her blog here. I want to thank her very much. Also, she seemed very interested in the fact that I made my own skirt. Even though she doesn't sew, I sense a sewing convert in the making! I urge everyone who loves to knit to check out this shop.

While at the shop last week on a visit from Boston, Eileen bought even more yarn, in a really yummy red. She wants to make this sweater for me again. She is not well. She isn't happy with this one because now that she has made it, she knows everything that she would do differently. I don't see anything wrong with this wonderful cobalt blue sweater, but like the rest of us, she only sees the small (very small) imperfections in what she makes. But I love it. And if she wants to make me another sweater for next year, who am I to argue? Plus, I have a feeling I'll be piecing another quilt for her at some point. (It's that learning by doing thing . . .)

Parting Shot: Photo of me and Miss Eileen while I am wearing the sweater. Thank you, Eileen! I love it!

New England Weekend

Eileen's "learning by doing" weekend did not disappoint. Loy and I had many opportunities to learn by doing, i.e. functioning as Eileen's labor force in piecing crib size baby quilts. Eileen has a tradition of giving each neice and nephew in her family a hand quilted baby quilt when he/she is born. This is no small feat, given that Eileen is the youngest of 5, and her husband, Larry, is the oldest of 14. That is fourteen. That isn't a typo. And yes, they are Irish Catholic.

This is the quilt top I spent my time on. It is an Irish Chain quilt, for a nephew whose name I can't remember: Brian, Patrick, Kevin, something like that. I love it:

Loy designed it, placing the colors, and I pieced it. Eileen supplied the fabric and the inspiration! The center fabric is a really cool map fabric that both Eileen and I bought at Joyce's Quilting Adventures several years ago:

The other baby quilt was made using a "All Things Bright and Beautiful" panel with Loy adding the borders:

I have "homework" on this one; I was sent home with fabric to make the binding!

Other activities included taking photos while playing in the snow! Eileen's house in her hometown, Mass:

And this is one of my favorites, reminding me of Robert Frost's poem where he speaks of the snowy woods as "lovely, dark, and deep":

On Saturday, I decided it would do us good to take a "bracing" walk near the harbor water. It was 19 degrees out, so clearly I was not in my right mind. The sun was shining, but when the wind blew off the ocean, I felt parts of myself stinging with the cold. I believe that was the coldest walk of my life.

As a reward for not freezing to death, we took a trip to a LQS, mostly because I was on the hunt for black and white fabrics for the double wedding ring quilt. My test block last week made me decide that I needed more light to medium fabrics for the arcs of the rings, rather than dark fabric. My test also convinced me, along with Summerset's advice, that I should do 18 inch rings, rather than the 15 inch that I had ordered. I had planned to order the 18 inch templates off the internet, but held off in the faint hope that I might find them in a quilt shop. And I did! Shortly after I walked in, I saw John Flynn's template for the double ring quilt. In an 18 inch size! Score! It was the only one. Providence, sure 'nuff:



And then I found and bought several black and white fabrics. By the time I start this project, I'll probably have so many, I'll need input to weed them down to just six fabrics for the arcs. But here's what I bought:


And I saw some kitty cat Christmas fabric that was on sale that was just too cute not to get:


All in all, it was a fabulous weekend, with great friends. Loy and Eileen spent a great deal of the time knitting. Eileen is knitting a sweater for me (see? she does projects for us too), and Loy is knitting a sweater for herself with wool she bought in the Shetland Islands on our last trip to Scotland last May. I'll show you photos of the sweater Eileen is making for me when it gets done, but I am really annoyed with myself for not taking a photo of Loy's sweater. The yarns she got in Scotland (a myriad of greens) are beautiful and it is going to be one fantastic sweater.

Finally, as the Parting Shot: Loy made me a cermanic bowl. Not only does she knit, sew, make lace, make jewlery, and blow glass, but she throws pottery. She is the Craft Queen:

Off to the Great White North! Brr!

I'm packing you see, for a trip to Boston, Mass this weekend. The only thing that could get me up there this time of year is the birthday of my dear friend, Miss Eileen. She has played the birthday card, so I am forced to endure 15 degree high temperatures (why, oh why wasn't she born in August???).

There will be quilting. Eileen's college roommate, Loy, will be joining us, and Eileen uses these little weekend get togethers to practice what she calls "learning by doing". Ostensively an opportunity to learn new sewing and quilting skills, this is really Eileen's chance to get us to piece some quilt tops for her so she doesn't have to. Eileen's not really a sewer, she's more of a hand quilter. This usually works out for me in the long run, however, as I can get her to hand quilt something for me as payback. I get the better end of that deal.

And as the weather will never break the freezing mark, I anticipate that as long as Eileen provides food and fabric, there will really be no reason to leave the house at all.

Parting shot: Eileen and me in the Lake District, England, in May 2007. Look at that sunshine! That hardly ever happens in the UK for us!