More on Suzi

More pictures of Suzi... and... Lura, her daughter. I also found a couple more shots of the two of us. We do not look at all alike.

This is the most serious picture of Suzi there is. It is her wedding picture to Mike, from Feb 14, 2003. Even so studious looking, she's totally beautiful. It is also the picture that we used for her obituary.

Susan Carol Dunphy Hollis.

September 23, 1952-February 7, 2007

Suzi, I love you.

I miss you every day.

You made me a better person.

Thank you for being my sister.

Suzi

This is Suzi, my sister. This post is about her. I'm thinking about her today. She's wearing the Colinette sweater I made for her summer 2006, from yarns in my stash. Suzi never could knit. Her right arm was paralyzed from polio right after she was born in 1952. She could crochet, however, because I taught her when she was about 12 and I was 15.

These two purses are crocheted. I did the smaller green one. Suzi did the bigger orange one. She wanted to do a felted bag. Hmmm ok maybe I can look at my Knit book on Felted Purses and just translate the directions. So the green one was the guinea pig. We used Nashua yarns, two strands and some fun fur. Mine has a button flap closure. Suzi didn't want that because she would not be able to operate it. Actually hers works better because mine felted so small it is hard to get into the purse. Hers is fabulous and pretty big at about 8 in hi and 11 in wide. The handles on hers are crocheted like an I-cord and we stuffed plastic tubing in before felting. It worked just great.

When I was pregnant with my son, 36 years ago, Suzi decided she would crochet a baby blanket for him. Ha, she got so carried away. The thing was white and a variegated white/pink/green yarn. It was big enough to cover a twin bed. It was fabulous. She made another one nearly as big for my son's first child 6 years ago when they were expecting. It was done in tans and cremes. I'm pretty sure Lily didn't get much use out of it. Johnny took one look and put himself under it on the couch.

Here is the earliest picture I have of Suzi. Her right arm is just down, but not small yet. She's about a year old and cute as a bug. She never crawled. She just rocked back on her bottom, bent her knees, got her feet flat and rocket up onto her feet to stand. It was stunning.

Here are two more pictures. Suzi's high school graduation and one that had both of us in it. I think I was about 10 and she was 7.

Alice's Mitts Pattern

I'm finally writing the pattern up for Alice's Mitts. Here it is.

Use worsted weight yarn. I used one ball of Sensations Tesoro 100% wool yarn that I got a JoAnn's. You need 32 inch circular needles in #7 and #5 for magic looop construction. Do a long tail cast on with the #7 needle. If you want beads, now is the time. Make a slip knot. Thread 18 beads onto the tail yarn. Slide 1 bead up. Cast on 2 stitches, slide 1 bead up. Cast on 2 more stitches. Continue until you have 37 stitches. Now split the stitches into "half" so that the first 18 are on one needle and the second 19 are on the second needle. Put the needle tips pointing the same way and together and carefully turn and slide that 37th stitch from it's second needle onto the first one right beside your slip knot. You will knit these two stitches together as your first stitch and this leaves you with a bead every other stitch all the way around.

Knit 3 rounds even.

Change to the #5 needle.

K1, P1 for 23 rounds.

Change to the #7 needle.

Knit 2 rounds.

Gusset: K17 PM M1K1M1 PM K18.

Knit 3 rounds even.

1-K to marker, M1, K to 1 before marker, M1, Knit to end.

2-Knit one round even.

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 until you have 13 stitches in the gusset between the markers.

Knit 2 rounds even.

Knit to marker, remove it and put 13 stitches on a string holder. Remove next marker, CO 2 stitches backward loop, Knit to end of round. You should have 37 stitches now, plus the holder.

Knit 4 rounds even.

Change to #5 needle.

Work in seed stitch for 3 rounds. Bind off in seed stitch.

Thumb: Using the #5 needle: Rejoin yarn and pick up 2 stitches where you did the CO 2. Knit the 13 stitches from the string. You have 15 stitches. Knit 3 rounds in seed stitch. Bind off in seed stitch.

Finished Socks and Started More

I finished Kathy's Christmas socks on the 24th and gave them right to her. She got to wear them all day Christmas day. They are a pattern I just made up. The yarn is Dream in Color Classy. It's really really soft. Kathy picked it out from my stash. Soft Summer Sky is the color. Very pretty.

So I started socks for my Aunt Martha Christmas night. Her birthday is January 15th. I might even get these done in time to send them to her. She picked the yarn out last May but I don't know what it is. The band came off. I just know it is part cotton. I'm doing a 3x3 rib with a purl row every 5th round. These needed to be pretty plain because of the stripes in the yarn itself. I hope she likes them.

Another FO Mitts

Yay I finished these last night. I can get them sent off tomorrow. They won't get to my sister before Tuesday probably but she really doesn't care. No pattern, I just cast on 36 stitches, with the beads on the tail. I pushed up a bead after every second cast on. This is 100% wool I got last year at JoAnn's and it's really super soft. It comes in some pastel colors plus red, navy, black I think. It's worsted weight so these were done on 5's and 7's and a really fast knit. I like the 3 rounds of seed stitch at the end of the hand and thumb.

Christmas FOs

Got the two required things done. Lily's sweater and Lura's socks. Totally changed up the sweater. Abandoned what I started, downsized the needles and did a totally different idea. Made up a 2x2 rib for the socks switching out every 8 rounds. The sweater is Colinette Skye in Popsickle and is about a size 5. The socks are Colinette Cadenza worked top down and about a size 8-9 shoe.

Christmas might be late

I got sick. In the bed sick for six days. Flu bronchitis fever. Awful. No knitting for 5 days of it. I had already frogged Lily's sweater and started over. I finally finished it except for buttons. I'll get a picture this weekend in the daylight. Plus I had promised myself to finally knit socks for my niece Lura. I'm now 10 rounds and the toe from finishing sock #2. At last. And it's the middle of the night. Taking a break and planning to finish it, go to bed then take pictures tomorrow. These things have to get mailed off to other states. I don't even have the sweater buttons to sew on yet. I dread the idea of shopping on Saturday. If Walmart has no buttons, it's a 60 mile round trip to the next store so I'll be waiting until Monday when I go to work. Hmmmm. The socks have to get washed and dry so they can't get mailed tomorrow either. It's just not fair to get sick before Christmas when it gets in the way of knitting.