Vintage Knitting Needles

We have been discussing needle sets on my LSSK yahoo group and a rash of us have made a run on a Hiya Hiya set seeing as we have just about every other set out there. We are a group of women that wear the handle "Needle Ho" and don't mind it. Of course we can also put Yarn in front of that Ho as well, but that would be another post. What started it all was one of my Gals, Laura is in the market for a set and wanted to know what our favorites were. Most of us had several favorites and discussion ensued and then a poll and lots of scrambling to buy out the Hiya Hiyas because Kareena mentioned that these were her favs over Knit Picks and we just had to know HOW any needle could be better than Knit Picks. (Nice, long run on sentence, don't you think?) OK, so, the hunting and gathering was on!

It made me take inventory of all the sets I did have and I realized I have some OLD ones. I have my mother's needle set from the 60's which was just like the Boye, but it has the Sears name on it. She took lessons at Sears and possibly Boye made them for Sears and put their name on it. They have size 2-15 and while I doubt I'll ever use them, I will never part with them so I need to tell my DIL Linda just what a treasure they are. Poor thing. My only knitter and the shepherdess of the stash.

Look at the lovely 60's green and yellow flower case. LOL!

I bought several sets of old Boye's on Ebay to get some extra cords for Mom's set and for nostalgic reasons that I can remember now. :-O I have 4 more with cases like this in different patterns and probably from the 70's although they only go from 6-15 in needle size.

I did find an unusual case in my collecting. I thought it quite unusual and this must have been from the 80's since it had the skinny nylon cords instead of thick white cords.

I do have the modern day Boye set - mine and Mom's plus both of our Denise sets. I bought my DDIL Linda a set of Denise and she loves them. I need to see if she would like to branch out into metals as I have so many to share. :-)

It's Been a While

I'm still fogging a mirror, but this blog is in a coma. I think it's time to wake it up or pull the plug on it. So, I see that the last time I mentioned knitting was many projects ago. I did finish the Adamas and I love it. And I love the yarn that Alice made me buy. I have enough yarn left to do another shawl or to give to someone else to do another shawl. I haven't decided that I can part with it yet so it's just loitering in my stash.

I've yet to wear this anywhere. It's very light weight and it has been a cold winter. But, things are warming up here in the great state of Texas and this will do nicely as a take along for frigid air conditions buildings

I made all five nieces fingerless mitts for Christmas. They were fun, but after 5 pair on a deadline - I closed the chapter on fingerless mitts for a while. They all seemed to like them.

Then there's the knitting for Elliott Ranch Babies. We've had two new baby girls born in the community and I wanted to knit something for them. I love these booties and bib and they are fun to do. After dong the bib twice and the booties three times, I'm not opposed to knitting them again. Unusual for me since I like to move on to something else since I had to do patterns over and over for business knitting. The booties are a free pattern which also has a hat to match.

My nephew and his wife had a new baby girl in February. Her name is Aliceson. I knitted the booties for her and also a blanket. This is the pattern based on the 5hr baby sweater.

My Grandson, Justin, is about to make his appearance. My DIL is due on March 23. He will join Sarah and Jacob to ....I think make their family complete. Although, you never know with these two. :-) I knitted him an outfit to wear home from the hospital. The sweater is losely based on the Boy 5hr Baby sweater - changed to use DK weight yarn, have buttons, add the letter and taking out the yoke and bottom detail that makes the 5 hr a bit girly.

The hat can be found here. Booties here.

Pants:

Size 3 & 5 knitting needles
1 skein each of Aqua & Lime BabyBoo Yarn

Right Leg & Left Leg: (Work at the same time)
With smaller needles cast on 44 sts with Aqua yarn and Cast on 44 stitches with Lime yarn. Work 6 rows in k1, p1 across both legs.
Change to size 5 needles and work in st st to 3-1/2 inches total length. Inc 1 st at both sides of both legs on alternate rows 3 times. Mark both sides of both legs on last inc row for end of leg seams. Work in st st until 4 inches from markers, ending on wrong side row. Next row: K1, k2tog, *k3, k2tog, rep from * across, ending k2. (40 sts) Purl the next row.
Waistband - Work in k1, p1 ribbing for 3 rows. Next row, k1, *yo (yarn over) k2tog, to last st, k1.
Next 3 rows, work in ribbing. Bind off.

Finishing:
Sew center front and back seams to markers. Sew leg seams.
With Aqua make a crochet chain for 16 inches. Join Lime yarn and crochet chain another 16 inches. Run this chain through the waistband in the eyelet holes with the aqua side on the lime pant leg and draw up and tie.

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Hat Dash

I made two hats for the Grands and they are also Hat Dash entries in Ravelympics. My youngest son who is manager of Michael's called to tell me that he just got Bernat Glow in the Dark yarn in at the store. I went to look and picked up lavender and blue to make hats for Sarah and Jacob (our oldest son's offspring).

Sarah loves her new hat.

Jacob...not so much... He is not nearly as impressed with the hat as Sarah is. I think I can safely say he doesn't like his one bit. :-)

Well he likes it fine when it's not on his head!!! :-)

Ravelympics & Llympics Entry #2

I'm working on the Adamas Shawl for my second entry in WIP Wrestling in Ravelympics and Lone Star Lympics. I've been sitting and watching the Olympics and knitting and knitting and knitting! I know it must be growing, but it just doesn't seem like it's growing that fast lengthwise. I can tell you it's growing as big as the Grand Canyon width wise and it takes forever to get across a row. Here it is stretched across the top back of a recliner. I'm not sure if this will block out t as it is Rayon yarn. It does stretch well so I have hope unless it has bounce back memory and about that I'm not sure. When it's on the needles, it seems very, very short lengthwise. I am enjoying knitting this. I do love the yarn. I just didn't get a lot of insight to it as I bought it on Ebay (Alice made me buy it) and it just came on it's cone without any info on care. Guess I'll have to do some research and Knit on!

Go Team Lonestarstate!

Ravelympics & Llympics FO

Jumped into the Ravelympics craze and it got so confusing to my Gals on Lone Star State Knitters that I decided to start the Llymics on our group. It has worked out well. Some are participating in both areas and some have dropped Rav for LSSK. I have my first FO! The Crowns and Cables Baby blanket. I have the Adamas Shawl to finish now and I'm hoping to get close. Not sure I'll get it finished. I won't be winning any prizes on LSSK and don't need to. Getting this done is prize enough! :-) Our wonderful organizer Beverly (wendydancer) has done an excellent job keeping the events and competitors organized. She has also kept us on top of things on what to do on Ravelry. Thanks, Beverly! Good on 'ya!