Two nearly FO's -- One Rosemaling!

I attended a two-day class in rosemaling taught by VGM Irene Lamont of Eau Claire, WI. last Thursday and Friday. I practiced for several days before the class, because I hadn't done any rosemaling since last summer or fall.

 

I have a couple photos of my unfinished floorcloth. I painted it in oils, which is the first time I've ever painted in oils. I have done all my rosemaling in acrylics before this. It was a little hard getting the paint to work on the canvas and it was an adjustment for me getting used to working in oils. I can't say now that I like them better than acrylics, but I can see that for some applications and styles they would work better.  With more practice I could get used to them.

Here is what the floor cloth looks like now. After it is thoroughly dry I'll "antique" it and paint a border.

 

And the other nearly Finished Object is my merging colors Strickwear vest. I have completed the 4 pieces. They just need to be seamed together and then a border knit on the neck and bottom edges. I'm amazed at how the two backs came out the same size even though one is knit on the diagonal. This pattern is well written.

Okay, I have to pack now. We leave Wednesday for our trip to Indiana , Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. These two projects will sit until I get back mid-July.

Update for the start of summer

I should be updating my travel blog, as I have done so much traveling and have so many pictures, but it is just for that reason that that seems so daunting a task and I am trying to find time for my home hobbies, now, so here's an update on those.

 

First, Knitting:  I have three pieces done of the Bavarian twisted rib cable sweater, by Ann McCauley, that I started last winter after finishing the Nordic one. 

I got kind of tired of doing these two cable patterns over and over, so put it down and picked up the Merging colors vest designed by Candace Eisner Strick. I bought this kit in 2008, then spent hours and months winding the yarn by hand. You need 4 balls of each of the 4 colors.  Here are two pictures, one of the yarn and pictures of the design and one of what I have done now. This is going fairly quickly, even though I do have to stop every 2 to 4 rows and change the color of one of the strands. It seems to be coming out the right size and the front and back that I've done seem to match up where they should even though one is done on the diagonal.

I took this photo when I thought I had enough yarn balled. I thought I needed 3 balls of each color. When I got ready to start on the vest, I realized I needed 4 of each color, so had to go back to balling more.

The vest so far:

  You carry 4 strands together and knit with a size 6 or 7 needle. The weight of the 4 strands is close to worsted weight. You change the color strands one at a time to get the gradual change from aqua to purple.

Gardening:

I spent several days after I got home from Poland, Rome, Boston, Washington DC etc. working in my back yard garden. I even planted some tomatoes, lettuce, radishes and beans this year. This is an experiment. I don't know if they'll get enough sun to do well, but I am trying them this year. We'll see how it goes. The lettuce and radishes are just up. I saw them this morning.

This is taken from the deck looking down on the back yard. We had the pavers put in for the driveway beyond the black fence and arbor last fall. the boxes on the right next to the garage are filled with new topsoil and that's where I planted the vegetables. They only get sun until about noon, which may not be enough.

And here are the tomato plants, the day I put them in. The lettuce and radishes are in front of them.

And finally here is one of the pots on the front porch.

I got out my paints yesterday and did some practicing. I was going to put something in here about the rosemaling, but I don't think I will afterall, as this is already long. I am taking a class next week, so I'll update then-maybe.  :-)

I finished the sweater

And here's the back:

New button band is much better

See how much better the second one is? Now I just have to buy buttons, decide where to put them and how to do the button holes and work the second band.

 

Unfortunately my plans to do that today may be affected by the blizzard we are having. March is living up to its reputation of going out like a lion. We could hardly have asked for more difficult, wintry weather today. It would be a good day to stay in and knit, if only I had the buttons I need.

Button bands are always tricky

At least for me. I can never get them right the first time.  I usually expect I will have to rip out the first attempt. I did this yesterday and then ripped it out last night.

You can see that it is a little too long. I measured the front of the sweater. It was 20". My gauge is 8 st/inch, so I picked up 160 stitches along the front.  (Oh yeah I cut it down the middle first.) I thought I wanted some pattern in the band, but after trying it on, decided I don't. It detracts from the other patterns. In rosemaling you learn that a border should complement but not overwhelm or detract from the main pattern. I think this is detracting, so the new one will either be plain or have just a little white in it. I picked up 144 stitches the second time. Hopefully that will be the right size. I do the side without button holes first for obvious reasons. (Remember the photo is backwards, since it is taken in a mirror.)

I also decided to do the front bands before the collar.

 

And in case you want to see what else I am working on, here are pictures of the project we've just completed in our house. Hallway renovation

Working on the collar

I've never done a collar like this on a full-size garment. I have done them only on doll sweaters. I did this much in the car on the way down to Indiana from Duluth, but when I tried it on, it was all wrong--way too wide.

So I ripped it out; went back to where I started the bound off stitches for the front neck opening, because I didn't like how the decreases looked and went higher than I did before, but it still looked too big on the needles. so I knitted one more row around adding decreases in the front and back (k2, k2tog around the back and shoulders). Then I bound it off rather tightly. Since it will be a cardigan that wasn't going to be a problem. I tried it on and now I think the neck opening is the right size, so I'll knit the collar separately and sew it on.

The yoke is taking forever.

I'm not sure why but this step seems to be going very slowly.

 

I don't have a plan yet for the collar. But since this is going so slowly, I guess I have plenty of time.  I keep thinking it's too big around the opening, but when I lay it out like this it looks okay.

 

So that's where I am now.