DK the Nautical Knitter

And then there were two…  I had plenty of fabric left over from making my costume for the festival so I decided to make a matching one for my niece, Baleigh.  I know you have been anxious to see your skirt, Baleigh, so here you go. 

Boy, I sure hope the head piece fits.  Oh, and there is an extra surprise underneath….my petticoat is white, yours is PURPLE!!  I will post photos of the vest when I have it completed.  Hope you like it (and I hope it fits!)

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Yesterday, Reba and I had loads of fun.  Even though we were unable to make it to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this year, we consoled ourselves with a bit of shopping of our own.  I was on a mission to find the perfect flowers for my headpiece for my Czech costume.  Reba, well, she was out for some S.E.X.  (Stash Enhancement Experience)  As it turned out, I was able to locate all the flowers needed.  Reba managed only to increase my S.E.X by buying me this book for my upcoming birthday.  She is such an enabler and a really good friend, too! 

Once I got back home I was able to complete all the headpieces by bedtime.  I pinned them to Caroline to get the shot.  The top one is a wreath that is typically worn by an unmarried girl and the bottom two are hair clips with long ribbons flowing down the back.  What do you think?

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Ok, I couldn’t resist that one. I am so excited that I have finally finished the costumes for the National Polka Festival that begins in less than 30 days.

The dress ensemble is mine to wear in the King and Queen Polka Dance Contest. The slacks, shirt and vest combination are for my father who will be competing with me. Let’s face it, I would look pretty silly out there dancing alone!!

I also made a vest to match my dress for my husband, Scott, who, although he likes to dance with me, does not embrace the same competitive gene that my father and I possess. Last, but not least, the little vest at the bottom left belongs to my grandson, William, who, if I have anything to do with it, will be learning some really cool dance steps next month.

This project was a lot of fun. There was no knitting involved, but the sewing, lace, hand embroidery, and trim work allowed me to be creative and do my own thing. I already have my color scheme picked out for next year’s costume. We are seriously going to have to investigate going to Illinois, Nebraska or Wisconsin for some other festivals during the year. Why save these costumes for only once a year?

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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…

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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…

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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

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Sots decided that he needed a way to keep up with the Secret of the Stole KAL groups and still be on the move, so here he is with his new toy important electronic device, that was a necessity really…

Now I think I will be able to blog and keep up with the groups from anywhere. Too cool!

In other news, Mr. K created a new tutorial blog post on images on KnitWith.Us explaining how to put a button up on your blog and link it to another page. Check it out.

On the sewing front, I cut out the sleeves for my father’s costume shirt and ironed on the design that now has to be embroidered. If all goes well, I can get the embroidery done and the sleeves sewn into the tuxedo shirt he sent to me soon. Right now the shirt is sleeveless, somewhat sexy looking and appears like it could have come home with me from a wild night at a Chippendales show. I’m just sayin…

Here is one of the sleeve designs that needs to be embroidered. Any volunteers? I’ll keep you posted.

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It seems during this time of year the knitters who blog get very quiet. I am sure this is due to a coup staged by the various Christmas knitting projects we have all lined up to cast on and a sudden realization that it is November already. Our blogging time has given way to time scrounged to busily knit up all the end of the year projects and holiday gifts.

This knitter is not immune to the holiday (end of the year) knitting. Although I only have one present to knit this year, I have many projects quickly approaching completion status. In the spirit of sharing projects in progress and giving you all a sense of what I do with my knitting (non-day job) time here is a short, although no where near complete, list of my current WIPs.

Secret of the Stole (*********): 100%

Oops, I can’t show you that. My stole is complete, of course and photos will be posted in just a few weeks. However, running the group, posting the hints, and keeping everything on an even keel occupies quite a bit of my time. I am almost finished with the complete pattern which will be available as a PDF for download from the patterns page when the KAL is over.

Secret of the Stole KAL for January: 35%

Oops, I can’t show you that. The stole is in the charting, swatching, and test knitting stage at the moment. It is going to be very different from (*********) the one we are working on right now. I have made it much more lacy, a little larger, and with a totally different theme.

William’s Hershey Kiss Hat: 50%

There is a photo of me knitting this hat at the Auburn basketball game last week in the previous post. Mr. K and I attend pretty much every home game and I take my knitting, cool. This hat should be done soon and when I have it finished I will post a photo of the hat with free instructions.

Christmas Around the World Knitter’s Swap Present: 20%

Oops, I can’t show you that either. I am working on a scarf for my partner and would you believe this is the first scarf I have ever knit. Sounds crazy, I know, but I really love lace and other types of knitting and never had a “reason” to knit a scarf. There will be photos of this later, however, when it is more than a blanket for a snail. In addition to knitting for my swap partner, I thought she might like a little sparkly, so I will be doing some beading as well.

Costumes for the National Polka Festival 2008: 15%

I have finally received the shirt and slacks from my father for his part of the costume. I will be embellishing these to make them look more like this. You can expect to read about this adventure over the next few months and see progress photos as the festival gets closer in May 2008. My dad and I will be competing at the festival this year for the polka king and queen contest. I am so excited because my father is the one who taught me to dance when I was five and that was — years ago. I hope we win the contest, but even if we don’t we will be the best dressed couple on the floor, I will make sure of that. There will be embroidery, sewing, and loads of embellishing. I even have to make a headpiece for me to wear with ribbons and flowers. Stay tuned on this one…

Frost Flowers and Leaves Shawl: 50%

This is an older photo of this shawl. It is so large now that I can use it to stay warm while I work on it. It doesn’t sound like much, but I am sticking to a row a day on this thing. A row takes me about an hour. Yesterday, Mr K and I went to the craft shop and I purchased some clear beads to put around the edges of this monster. I have been a member of the Yahoo group for this stole for quite some time now and there is a handy little excel chart in the files section that tells you row by row what percentage of the stole you have finished. As of this coming Friday, I will be at 50%. This shawl will be finished, slowly and methodically, but it is not top priority.

Whew, well, there you have it. That is just a small portion of the projects I have going, but these are the most important ones right now. Check back next week, or even tomorrow, who knows what will come up…..

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The fabric arrived last week that I ordered for the vests for the Czech costumes that I am going to make for next year’s National Polka Festival. It is a black brocade with pink, blue and lavender flowers throughout on a brass colored vine. This fabric will be used for the men’s and woman’s vests, the stripe around the bottom of the skirt, and as ribbon embellishment throughout the costumes as needed. I am hoping to have enough fabric to make vests for myself, my husband, dad, and grandson William. To get an idea of what the costumes will look like you can go here. Throughout this process I would love to have comments and suggestions. Progress photos will be posted as the costumes develop.

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While attending the National Polka Festival this year I decided to create a new costume for myself (and my father, husband and grandson) for next year’s festival. We took a lot of photos of the folks in costume so I would have something to reference when I got back home and started designing. In addition to the photos, I was able to secure a petticoat and a 42 year old wedding gown from my mother. I have removed the lace from the gown and will be bleaching it white to use on the costumes. Below are my reference photos.

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