DK the Nautical Knitter

There are several little details and elastic adjustments to finish up on each piece of my costume.  I thought it would be a good idea to post some progress photos of my skirt, shirt, vest, apron and petticoat (oops, you can’t see that).  I can’t believe it actually fits!  All the men’s vests still have to be made as well.  More progress photos to come soon…

Popularity: 13% [?]

Here is a question for you. What do you do if you are in the thrift shop and you see a ridiculous deal on this?

Well, if you are me, you grab it fast!

Opportunity almost never knocks when you are ready to receive it. It is more like a neighbor, who, having something very exciting to show you, shows up when you are in your robe and slippers. Usually, to seize the opportunity when it comes you have to act very fast.

Mr. K and I have both wanted to learn how to play the guitar for a very long time. We were not actively searching for a guitar, but this one found us. We promptly left the shop with it, went down to the guitar shop and had it re-strung and tuned. Viola, a beautiful, sweet sounding guitar ready for playing.

My first lesson is scheduled for Tuesday, 2:30pm. Wish me luck…

Popularity: 13% [?]

I have completed the Secret of the Stole II KAL and the patterns are up for sale.  There are just a few more minor details to tidy up with the group and then I can start working on the next one that we will be running in the fall. 

In the meantime, I have moved on to working on my Civil War Shawl in the evenings and have revved up my costume creation engine as well.  The costumes I am working on are for the upcoming National Polka Festival.  My father and I will be dancing in the Polka Queen and King contest this year and I am making the costumes for the occasion.  Yes, I am Czech and proud of it!  Anyway, here is what I have been able to accomplish so far in the past week.

My Skirt is complete.  It will require a petticoat, which I will be making soon.  The shirt sleeves are in progress.  I have them temporarily attached to another shirt from a previous costume so I can get the right look.  I will post a completed shirt photo when it is done.  My costume will also require an apron and a vest.  To top the costume off I will be making a flower and ribbon wreath to go in my newly coiffured hair (more about this later).

My father’s slacks are finished.  His shirt only has one sleeve attached so far.  I am hand embroidering the sleeves and attaching them to the store bought shirt that I removed the original sleeves from.  The collar of his shirt will need a ribbon attached to match his slacks and then he will also need a vest to match mine.

Stay tuned for the progress on this venture and more knitting content when I actually have some more items to show.  I may need some opinions on the costume work as well, so don’t go to far…

Popularity: 16% [?]

In honor of Mr. Roger’s birthday (he would have been 80 today)  I am wearing my gray, tweed, cabled sweater today. Yes, it is store bought, but I don’t think Mr. Rogers wore hand made sweaters anyway. If you are not dressed yet, this lovely morning, won’t you join me in this memorial tribute and won’t you be my neighbor?

Popularity: 16% [?]

I finally finished my Secret of the Stole II stole yesterday and was trying to find a good bind off technique that would allow more give in the blocking process than my traditional bind off method would.  So, I went web surfing.  There are so many out there to choose from.  I decided to go with the following "stretchy bind off" that I found here.  I chose option #4 which is amazingly simple and it goes like this:

*k2tog, pass stitch back to non-working needle*, repeat from * until no stitches remain.

Perhaps when things settle down here I can compile some of the other methods into a list for Knitwith.us.  What method do you like to use for binding off your knitting projects?  Does it vary depending on the item being created?

Popularity: 18% [?]

One thing I love about traveling is the ability to procrastinate for a valid reason. You see, I have been able, for the past three weeks or so, to put off doing many of the things I needed to do at home, because I was not “at home”. Ahh, but it always catches up with me and here I am swamped to the gills again. Somehow, it feels natural to me though. I am not sure it would be normal to not have “too much to do”.

I received a wonderful swap package from my friend Kimberly in Berlin. Here is the booty.

What a wonderful swap partner! She sent me wonderful sock yarn in two yummy colors, a German knitting/crochet magazine, and loads of little goodies, including a sheep cookie cutter. The cream of the swap, however, was the rare as gold skein of Wollmeise yarn and the truly thoughtful double point knitting needle case that she made for me! I also especially liked the stitch markers she and Alida, her daughter, made for me. I put the needle case to use right away. I filled it with all the double points I could find in my office and then rolled it up, tied it with the pretty black velvet ribbon, and put it away. Man, what a wonderful gift! I was going crazy with my double points all over the place and not having enough time to make myself one of these wonderful organizers. Thanks Kimberly, et al!

We have been so busy lately with traveling and the Secret of the Stole II KAL (and our day jobs) that it has been impossible to find time to do much of anything else. I did manage to finish one of the sleeves for my father’s costume while we were on the boat last weekend. This sleeve will be attached to the tuxedo shirt that I took the sleeves off of a while back. It will be gathered at the shoulder and the scalloped edge you see at the bottom will be finished off with black satin stitch. Hopefully all will go well with this project and I can move on to my skirt and all the vests I have to make. Look for lots of posts on the progress of the costumes coming up, because the festival is at the end of May and there is so much to do still.

Another finished project is my Secret of the Stole II. About half way through the Secret of the Stole II KAL, I decided to redesign the shape of the stole. This meant, that I needed to chart the changes, keep up with putting them on the group site every week, and knit an entirely new stole to reflect the new pattern design. I have been knitting like a madwoman (hence the lack of blog posts) to get the revised stole completed before everyone else and so that we can go do a photo shoot for the pattern cover this weekend. I am happy to report that as of today the revised shape stole pattern has been completed and blocked.

The original stole yarn requirements were lace weight yarn and size 3 needles. When I decided to knit the new version of the pattern I wanted a larger, thicker, warmer stole so I went with dk weight yarn and size 5 needles. The stole blocked out to 93″ x 24″. It is alpaca and luscious. This one is all mine!!!

The original pattern will be sold under a different name and will be similar to this one, but the shape is different. Right now, (until March 21) we have both patterns for pre-purchase on the Knitwith.us web site for $10. After March 21 the price for the patterns will be $7 each. If you would like to pre-purchase, the links to both patterns will be sent to you on March 21, 2008.

I mentioned that we were on the boat last weekend. It was so pretty when we arrived that Mr. K was able to pressure wash the boat while I sat on the dock and knitted. Right about the time he completed pressure washing and began peeling the vinyl letters off the side and stern of the boat (we are changing the name of her to Island Zephyr) the wind began picking up. By the time he was finished with the last letter the weather radio was reporting gale warnings for the next 24 hours. They weren’t kidding! We slept on a rockin and rollin boat that night. It was really pretty cool!

The next day when the seas subsided, we had two very special visitors into the very narrow channel of the marina. We think they chased schools of fish into the channel and had a feast. Afterwards, as they were leaving, we believe they were mating! Too cool!

Well, that is about all I can think of to tell you guys right now. More frequent posting should be on the way since the knit a long is just about over. As if there isn’t enough to keep us all busy and just in case you didn’t know already, Spring Knitty is up…..

Fair Winds, D

Popularity: 19% [?]