Knitionary: Giants

gramps

March 27, 2019
6 Comments

winners revealed and another w-i-p parade

I thought it would be a good time to update my Rav page with my works-in-progress.

Here they are!

I purchased the yarn for the Floyd vest by Martin Storey. It's for my son's BD in September, so not a big hurry right now. He's crazy over this one. Me too. It will be perfect for San Francisco weather and will look great with jeans.

Phoebe is a test knit that is due the end of this month, so this will get a lot of attention this next week. I had some ancient, but very lovely Rowan Scottish Tweed Aran in my stash. I've been saving it for the perfect project, and think this is it.

I know two "all boy" families who are welcoming baby girls this summer. Clara has been on my to-do list for ages. It's a sweet and easy knit, a lot of fun and is lovely in machine washable Rowan Wool/Cotton 4 Ply in Misty.

I've always wanted to try Fine by Spud and Chole, machine washable in the palest pink. It will be an owl sweater for a wee girl.

I've got just the sleeves to finish on this Martin Storey pullover using Rowan Summerlite 4 Ply in Navy Ink.

By the door I keep my two travel projects, my "grab and goes". The one on the left is a smooshy garter lap blanket I knit in the movies in a discontinued Alchemy DK. Our movie theater has been fitted out with luxury recliner seats, every seat in every theater! It's heaven! We go to the movies most Monday afternoons and need something I can touch knit in the dark. On the right is a pi shawl for my car and plane knitting using Handmaiden Casbah Sock.

My most popular post, and the one that still gets 200 plus hits a day, is an old one: The Totally Free, Totally Adorable Baby Cardigan. It seems that everyone likes to make these little freebie sweaters. Here I've gathered up whites, blues and grays in worsted, dk and fingering weights and going to once and for all write my patterns down. The patterns will be free when I get this project done, just wish me luck!


This is a total experiment in the works. I have an easy summer poncho in mind, so giving it a go with Rowan Pure Linen. If it works out, I'll write up the pattern and offer it here for free. I need a bit of luck and patience.

Lastly, mother and I are knitting the Crackerjack scarf in support of the San Francisco Giants. You can read about that project here. No matter what team you root for, this will be a fun project for sure. Join us! Opening day is today, and we're watching the first game right now. We will start our first stripe tomorrow. PS, I'm talking about baseball ;)

Thank you all for reading and commenting to enter my last contest.
The three winners of the GLEENER are:

kitten with a whiplash (jeez, I love that name!)
Amy Calkins
Rita Bhatia

PM me with your mailing address and I'll send your Gleener out pronto.

April 06, 2015
8 Comments

Take me out to the ballgame and I'll knit!

Giants

OK, so I'm a knitter, but I'm also a baseball fan. Baseball season is coming up and for us knitters, it means hours of blissful baseball watchin' knittin'. And yes, I do take my knitting to AT&T Park, always!

I've been wanting to make a team scarf for a few years now, and finally got my act together pre season with my pattern and yarn ready! Mother and I are going to make scarves using San Francisco Giants baseball team colors, orange and black, with white and grey thrown in for good measure, knitting a stripe for each game played. This would work for any team, just pick 4 colors, one for home wins, one for home losses, one for away wins, one for away losses. You knit a stripe for each game, and by the end of the season, you'll have a randomly striped scarf that shows the season. JOIN US! Our scarves will be ready to wear post-season, which for the Giants, ahem, is usually not until mid October! (We have won three World Series in the last 5 years which means the season is lengthened through October.) With 162 games (not counting post season games, wink wink). I'd love you to join us. Choose the colors closest to your team colors and start on opening day. I don't care what team you root for, even Dodger's fans can join this knitalong! I'd be so happy if you did, just show your team spirit!

Go to this link for the Ravelry Giants Group. There's already a few people signing up this year. I'll bet your team has a Rav group too. If you are on Facebook, there are quite a few gamer babes that will be knitting this. It's a closed group and only for Giants fans, and you'll have to ask to join, but do ask. The mod gets back to you the same day. It's a fun and friendly group: Gamer Babes on Facebook.

Here's the link for the free pattern, and these words from the designer about her pattern:

A conceptual knitting design for baseball fans. (It can work for other sports, too!)

Knit your team’s season into an infinity scarf to wear for the postseason! Using whatever yarn and needles you prefer, in your team’s colors, you’ll make an infinity scarf that reflects your team’s wins and losses at home and on the road.

Free worksheet includes a place for you to fill in your color key (coded to wins, losses, home games, away games) and a chart for determining your cast-on and estimated length. This is a completely customizable concept, and I look forward to seeing your interpretation.

Play ball!

I've chosen Rowan's Wool/Cotton in DK weight and mother is using All Season's Cotton which is a light aran weight. Both yarns are easy to knit and will be soft around the neck and are machine washable. We're starting out with one skein each and may have to purchase another one or two as the season progresses, we'll see.

On the left, mother is using Rowan All Season's Cotton:
Home win, Burnt Orange 262
Away win, Inky 497
Home loss, Organic 178
Home loss, Turf 232

On the right I'll be using Rowan Wool Cotton DK:
Home win, Cafe 985
Away win, Inky 908
Home loss, Antique 900
Away loss, Misty 903

Two more great choices would be Rowan's Softknit Cotton in Burnt Orange 577, White 588, Noir 589 and Silver 586 or Handknit Cotton in Florence 350, Black 252, Ecru 251 or Bleached 263 and Slate 347. I've knit with the above four yarns and they are all high quality, soft, and easy to knit yarn. If your local yarn store doesn't carry them, check out the internet. For Giant's fans in the bay area, Rowan stockists are Uncommon Threads in Los Altos, Imagiknit in San Francisco and Jimmy Beans in Reno has an awesome online shopping site.

For Wool/Cotton DK weight I am using size 5 needles and casting on 28ish stitches and knitting garter stitch (knit each stitch) or maybe the linen stitch. For the heavier All Season's Cotton mother will use size 9 needle and cast on 20.

A reader wanted to see an example, so here's one in Giant's colors I pulled from Rav. It's just random stripes denoting your team's wins and losses, so they all look different, but pretty! This one is knit in the round in stockinette as a cowl. Both my mom and I are going to knit scarves, not cowls. Mom will knit the simplest garter stitch, which is knit each stitch and it will be beautiful. I am going to do the linen stitch just because I want to give that a try. The pattern gives a good explanation of how to start.

If you are not a Giants fan, you are released from this page, you'll be bored with the rest of this! But if you are a Giants fan, read on! My son and I went to spring training in Scottsdale last week and saw two games at Scottsdale Stadium. We had a blast and I am planning on doing it every year. We got to see Matt Cain pitch two innings, his first time in over a year so it was nice to see him back. Will Clark signed my hat, he was so funny and friendly with the fans. Hunter Stickland, seriously handsome, came out and signed a lot and also quite a few of the minor leaguers who were invited to spring training came out to sign too. They were all so polite and friendly, if not a little shy. After Sunday's game, at a nearby park the Giants hosted a "hit with the big leaguers" day for little leaguers. Joe Panik and Andrew Susac were the stars and interacted so well with the kids. Honestly, these young men are just so polite and humble, just gotta love those Giants, they know how to pick 'em. And good looking. Holy cow. When Joe Panik smiled, which was often, all the ladies just about fell over.

If you are planning on going, I recommend staying at The Saguaro. It was great, just a quick cab ride from the airport. Once there, you just walk to the ballpark, it's a block away, and in the evening, old town is just steps away. It was a perfect trip.

We're used to ATT Park being sold out, but even the spring training games are completely sold out! Crazy, but it's still a small enough park to feel friendly and homey. They have a packed lawn seating too.

Joe Panik

Will the Thrill

March 17, 2015
10 Comments

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gramps

winners revealed and another w-i-p parade

Take me out to the ballgame and I'll knit!