Foliage

~ Project #5 - Wednesday ~

Today's cast on was an afterthought. This afternoon the mail person brought me some much anticipated yarn - more on that later - and I spent today's knitting time swatching for my next sweater. Realizing the day's almost over, I grabbed a ball of Malabrigo - my first! - and cast on the first three rows of Foliage. I'm sure this will be a lovely knit, but right now I just want to get back to my sweater swatching. I've even prayed to Swatchi, the goddess of gauge, in hopes that she smiles upon my efforts. If she does, project #6 is in the bag!

Reckless Casting On Continues

~ Project #3 - Monday ~
This one really was spontaneous. Yesterday afternoon Mary gifts me with Boing, five minutes later I grab my hank of coveted Sweet Georgia Handpainted Lace in Fondant and cast on. And immediately realize that this project is a problem child. The pattern is easy, but sadistic as it employs p2tog tbl stitches. On size 3 needles in lace weight that's a total bitch. The yarn is fun - if any pattern calls for this wacky colorway, Boing is it - but the merino is grabby and already beginning to fuzz. Erm. We'll see how this one goes; it may be destined for the frog pond.

~ Project #4 - Tuesday ~
Today's project is one I've been meaning to do for a while. I'm making my Mom a pair of One Skein's Cable Footies , using Dream in Color's Classy in Lipstick Lava. It's my first time knitting with DIC, and I'm lovin' the little I've knit.

This exercise is fun. It's getting me outside my knitting comfort zone in a good way. It's giving me practice in fitting patterns with stash yarn, something I often have trouble doing. It's using up said stash yarn, which helps with my Mission: Possible 2008 goals. It's shown me that I like a little silk in my lace yarn, and that an order to Sarah's Yarns for some Zephyr might be in order. It's prompting me to start some I-really-should-knit-that-project projects that have been lingering too long on my to-do list. Huh. Who knew it would be so introspective. Well, knitting's like that sometimes.

Impetuous

A few weeks ago Mary and I were kicking around the idea of a KAL where you cast on whatever your little heart desires. No fuss, no muss, no talk of finishing, just reckless casting on...the knitting equivalent of Boogie Nights. We were half joking, but on Saturday last I decided Why the hell not? So I'm casting on a project a day this week!

~ Project #1 - Saturday ~
First up is a reversible scarf pattern from Lori Lawson (Rav profile here) using some of her delish hand painted angora/merino yarn. It cranked on US 10s, and within 24 hours I had bound off.

Pattern: Reverse Cable Scarf by Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio
Yarn: Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio Angora/Merino in Golden Eye - 2 skeins
Needles: Clover 9" US 10 straights
Mods: None
Rating: Ed Wood would approve
Ravelry link here

See the little spots of emerald amidst the olive and gold?

Wham, bam, what a satisfying knit. The yarn? Gorgeous. Angora. Which happens to be a guilty pleasure of mine. Sure, I was snorting fuzz as I knit, but what a high. At the larger gauge the scarf drapes nicely, and the yarn is shown off to advantage. I could make ten of these, but onto...

~ Project #2 - Sunday ~
This one is Wendy's fault. She says Knit with cashmere. I say Okay. (Yeah, I'm easy. And yeah, Wendy knows her shit when it comes to knitting with the good stuff.) Yesterday I cast on Flutter using Posh Yarn's Camilla in Chocolate. Camilla is a two-ply lace weight cashmere I bought on sale from Pick Up Sticks last summer. The dye job? Inferior - half is rich cordovan and chocolate, half is lackluster shades of brown and tan, and the resultant pooling is all sorts of random craptastic - but I just can't stop knitting long enough to start over with another yarn. Because, well, cashmere. 'Tis yummy. And I can always overdye when I'm done, right?

The pooling, it be fugly

Today's project is still TBD, so tune in tomorrow to see what rooting around in the stash scares up. Wow, isn't this exciting?

It Fits! It Fits!

Check it out. Tom has a Cobblestone. Just need to kitchener the armpits and sew in the ends. Tom loves how it fits, and my fears of creating my first man dress have been assuaged. (Well, mostly. Hopefully it won't double in size when I wash it. Cross your fingers, will ya? Thanks.)

More details later. Now I dance the man sweater victory dance!

The Girl Is Crafty

The girl is crafty like ice is cold!
~Beastie Boys

A little while ago Cher blogged here about the Pay It Forward handmade gift exchange project that's going around blogland. I thought it sounded cool. So I signed up, and she sent me the most bitchin' package.

She combined it with my birthday, and my loot includes a hand knit skull washcloth and a cabled wrist warmer in green (one of my favorite colors!); a mix CD; and a skull pendant from Imogen.

The wrist warmer is actually this pattern for a coffee cup cozy, but I'm wearin' it instead. (Ravelry pattern link here.)

I'd also like to spread the DIY love - and hope you will, too - so here's the official scoop:

I will send a lovely handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment here requesting to join this PIF (Pay It Forward) exchange. I'm not sure what that gift will be yet- it will be a surprise! The only thing you have to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

Once you sign up, I'll email you to let you know that you are one of the three. Then copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work.

Thanks, Cher, for my wicked cool goodies!

What's My Line?

First Debi did it. Then La. Then Shannon. I so want to hang with the cool kids, I'm doing it, too.

Movie Meme

1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each movie.
3. Post them on your blog for everyone to guess.
4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and the movie.
5. Looking them up is cheating, please don’t. If you do, a big thug named Guido will pay you a call. Naw, not really, but I'll be sad that you're a cheater.

1. Workers of the world, unite!
2. The numbers all go to eleven. ~ This Is Spinal Tap ~ Carrie
3. And it exploded. ~ Galaxy Quest ~ Debi
4. Hey, nice marmot. ~ The Big Lebowksi ~ Andria (nice triple play, grrl)
5. You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days? ~ Repo Man ~ Cher
6. We're on a mission from God. ~ Blues Brothers ~ Andria
7. Anybody interested in grabbing a couple of burgers and hittin' the cemetery?
8. As you all know, first prize is a Cadillac Eldorado...Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired. ~ Glengarry GlenRoss ~ Andria
9. You're not gonna fuckin' kill me, are you?
10. I am big. It's the pictures that got small. ~ Sunset Boulevard ~ Lisa

Birthday Fun

This past Saturday Ellen, Jillian, Linda, Marie, Melise, MJ, Patty, and Wendy helped me celebrate my birthday in grand fashion. As usual my photo taking was sporadic and random, but Ellen has a great slide show of the day here. (The cupcake and oilcloth bag photos seen here are hers, too.)

We met at Gilbert's El Indio for lunch, and then hit the Oaxacan folk art store Artesanias Oaxaquenas to check out their oilcloth bags.

After that we went on a mini yarn crawl to Yarns Unlimited and Wild Fiber in Santa Monica. There were cupcakes. And presents. There were funny waiters who showed us their chest hair and asked for our dollars. There was plenty of yarn ogling and fondling. Someone was heard to say, "Forget merino. Go for cashmere."

Patty at the Wall of Koigu in Wild Fiber

There was even a vintage hearse sighting.

It was 90 degrees in Santa Monica, and no one passed out from heat exhaustion.

Probably the only thing that could have better was if we'd had yarn boys to carry our bags and feed us grapes; with this thought in mind I'm already brainstorming for next year.

Thanks for celebrating with me, ladies!

A Long Time Coming

Pattern: Gothic Leaf Stole by Sivia Harding
Yarn: Euroflax Sportweight Linen in Eggplant - 4 skeins
Needles: US 4 29" Bryspun circs
Finished Dimensions: 15" by 85"
Mods: Cast on 89 stitches instead of 105 for one less repeat; didn't graft but knit straight
Rating: The planets aligned
Ravelry link here.

My Mom was in town visiting us for the past week. While she was here - she left this morning - I finally gave her her Gothic Leaf. Truth be told, it was kinda hard to do. Because, well, the finished project was just so darn lovely, and I was feeling rather...possessive about it.

I'm 90% a process knitter, and I knit for others almost always. When I give things away, they're gone. I hope people like the things I make for them, and am always pleased to hear back when they do. (And if they don't, well, I hope they donate them to a thrift shop so someone else may use it, but I never stress over it. It's probably the most Zen I ever am.) And my Mom is the best recipient for which a gal could ask. She's not a knitter, but she loves handknits. And she's one of the few people who likes and wears shawls, which is great when I'm channeling the lace.

But. After her Gothic Leaf was washed and blocked, the linen seduced me. Supple, with a little shine, the stitches glowed. When I would hold the shawl up, the drape was righteous. The shawl has been finished for two months, but somehow I never could get around to wrapping it up and mailing it. It lived instead on the top of my stash bins, in a little plastic bag, and I found myself taking it out and stroking it regularly. But when Mom arrived I did the right thing and handed it over. And boy, am I glad I did now. It's perfect for her, don't you think?

Gothic Leaf is pure comfort knitting. Very simple lace, it doesn't even employ psso's (only k2tog's and ssk's). The pattern is easily memorized, and varied enough not to make you want to stick your head in the oven after the zillionth row. I started out using lifelines, but abandoned them early on. The original pattern is grafted, but per Sivia's instructions for knitting it in linen, I knit mine straight. I also left out one repeat in the row, to make it smaller for my Mom's petite frame.

Gothic Leaf is the third pattern of Sivia's I've knit, and the second I've finished. (Hanging Garden languishes somewhere.) So it was with joy in my heart that I received my first Year of Lace kit a few weeks ago, as Sivia has written the pattern for it, too. (What? I didn't tell you I'd signed up for this club? Huh. I wonder how it slipped my mind.)

The pattern is called Phoenix Rising, and is a triangular shawl. I'd cast on, but the accompanying skein of Claudia's Silk Lace has 5 (!) knots in it. Not good. The gals at Make 1 have been very proactive - I guess there are several of us that received sub par skeins - and I'm hoping to receive a replacement skein soon.

In the meantime, I'm chugging along on Cobblestone. I'm roughly 5" up the yoke. I do have a question for those of you who've made this sweater: How did you do the short rows in garter stitch? My knit ones are fine, but my purl ones make huge, honkin' holes. I've picked up the wrap on the next row (which is a knit row), but that doesn't make any difference. Sorry, I don't have photos, but any advice is appreciated.

This weekend is busy. Tomorrow is a birthday shindig featuring yarn and knitting for yours truly. (Turning 44 has its perks.) And tomorrow night my BFF Laura is having an art opening. She painted my bitchin' Knitdevil you see on the sidebar. If you're in the Los Angeles area and have a thing for luchadores, check her paintings out at the Bike Oven.

Happy weekend!

Kickin' Out the Jams*

Happy spring! Not much blogging has happened this month, but there's been a good amount of knitting. And, just to mix it up a bit, some crochet, too.

March goals:

+ Keep knitting related purchases under $100. Well, it isn't the end of the month quite yet, but due to some strategic selling on Ravelry I've managed to spend $30.03 out of pocket in March. I'm not planning on buying anything else this month, and I have a lot of wiggle room even if I do, so I'm considering this a victory.
+ Finish crocheting baby blanket for Tom's grandnephew. Done. Details below.
+ Finish body of Cobblestone and one sleeve. Done. Knitting sleeves in the round is really fast, isn't it? I finished the first and cast on the second in two days. For me that's, like, unheard of fast.

I also cast on and finished the first cuff of my Lenore socks. There was a brief panic phase, where I thought I'd done one of the decreases incorrectly, but after conferring with my confreres discovered everything was copacetic. All the angst pooped me out, though, so the sock has been in time out since then. Still, it's pretty, yes?

* * *

Fine Lines Baby Blanket

Pattern: Fine Lines from Candy Blankies by Candi Jensen
Yarn: Rowan All Seasons Cotton in Lime Leaf (5 balls) and Citron, Remote, and Giddy (2 balls each)
Hook: I
Mods: None
Rating: Perfect baby shower gift
Ravelry link here.

As many of you know, last year was a year of orgiastic stash enhancement for me. This was largely due to several great 50% off sales, and the yarn for this blanket was acquired through two of them. Two years ago I made the first version of this blanket for my knit buddy Beth when she was expecting her second child. I hadn't expected to make another, but Rowan All Seasons Cotton at 50% off? In pretty, Easter egg shell colors? Hey, babies are always being born, right? Lemme get my credit card.

Not much to say about the pattern - it's mindless half double crochet with a single crochet border - but the Rowan colors just make me happy, y'know? And it's fast, which is great when the baby arrives several weeks early...which is what Tom's grandnephew did.

Well, we're pretty caught up, so that's it for this time. Catch ya on the flipside!

*Anyone else an MC5 fan?

Yeah Yeah Yeah

Hi! Here I am. February sucked. Let's sweep away the last vestiges of it, shall we, and jump into good stuff? Oh, yes, lets!

Goal Tending Pt. 2

February goals:
+ Keep knitting related purchases under $100. This includes yarn, patterns, needles, everything. Total spent = $41.94.
+ Finish Gothic Leaf Stole. Done! Recap this week.
+ Cast on Cobblestone and knit 10" of the body. Done! Approximately 16" up the body. I need to take it off the needles and measure, as I'm getting close to setting up for the sleeves at 17". I'm still lovin' the yarn. And the sizing is plenty big. It might be too big, but I have a contingency plan if it is: Feed Tom more cookies.
+ Cast on and finish first Lenore sock. Nope. I cast on twice, and ripped both times.

March goals:
+ Keep knitting related purchases under $100.
+ Finish crocheting baby blanket for Tom's grandnephew.
+ Finish body of Cobblestone and one sleeve.

Why, yes, March is a slacker goal month. Whatever. I'm feeling rebellious, and staving off lace shawl cravings until my Year of Lace (Ravelry group here) package arrives.

Mission Possible 2008

Finished goals are in italic. Goals finished in February are in orange.

1. Gift spinning wheel, spinning books, and fiber to Patty.
2. Felt one pair and Plasti Dip soles of 3 pairs of felted slippers.
3. Finish Gothic Leaf Stole. (4 skeins of Euroflax Sportweight in Eggplant)
4. Finish Cobblestone. (?? balls of Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed)
5. Finish Shedir. (1 ball of Rowan Calmer in Coffee Bean)
6. Crochet baby blanket out of Rowan All Seasons Cotton. (11 balls in Citron, Giddy, Lime Leaf and Remote)
7. Crochet stealth project.
8. Knit Unoriginal Hat out of STR Leticia in Ravenscroft.
9. Knit Unoriginal Hat out of STR Leticia in Hard Rock.
10. Knit Lenore socks out of STR Lightweight in Lenore.
11. Knit a pair of fingerless gloves (either ggh Cashmere or Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran).
12. Knit another pair of socks.

I Knit a Hat

Pattern: Noro Hat by Saartje de Bruijn
Yarn: Noro Taiyo in colorway 1 - 1 skein
Needles: US 7 16" Addi Turbos
Mods: None
Rating: *****

On President's Day our knitting group held an impromptu meetup. During it we moseyed over to the LYS, espied a basket of Noro Taiyo, and most of us came home with a skein. Casting about for a project for mine, I lit on Saartje's hat. It's great TV knitting you can finish in an evening or two.

And while I don't have the photos to prove it, it looks good on everyone. Trust me, it does.

The Taiyo is loosely spun and soft; perfect for a hat. I did suffer the ubiquitous Noro experience: almost to the end of the skein, the yarn shredded apart a foot away from a knot with an ungainly color join. (This join robbed me of my second repeat of pink. Gah.) It's kinda pricey, so I don't know if I'd buy it for a larger project. But for a one skein project? Very versatile.

Conforming

Pattern: Unoriginal Hat by Yarn Harlot
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia in Hard Rock - 1 skein
Needles: US 11 Takumi dpns
Mods: None
Rating: Quickies can be satisfying

It was the night before the Super Bowl. Craving an easy knit, I cast on for Mission: Possible 2008 goal # 9, aka Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat. The next day, sometime during the game, I cast off. All told, maybe 2 hours of knitting. The dpns slowed me down, and confirmed that in the circs vs. dpns debate for hat knitting I'm a circs girl all the way.

Before knitting, I perused Ravelry to see what people said about the pattern. There were several mentions of running out of yarn, and, when knitting on size US 10 1/2, of the hat turning out too small. So I bumped up to US 11, and felt like Scrooge as I suspiciously watched my yarn slither from ball to needles. Well. I shouldn't have worried. I had yarn to spare. And a hat that was huge on me. Luckily, it fit better on Mary - it's her noggin in the photo - and she graciously took it off my hands.

I have another skein of Leticia in Ravenscroft earmarked for another Unoriginal. Dunno, I might just use it to make a simple 2x2 ribbed hat instead. Or, if I do feel the need to blend in again, I'll go down to a US 10 1/2 and, depending on sizing, maybe only do one repeat of the pattern . 'Coz I do love me that Ravenscroft in all its dark, brooding wonderfulness.

Other knitting continues apace. Gothic Leaf is done (finally!) except for weaving in the ends and blocking. I've begun Cobblestone v. 2.0. I've gone up two sizes, and am roughly 3" into the body. I'm still loving the yarn, and the stockinette is very soothing. I've successfully controlled my urges about casting on Lenore, and will begin them on the 15th. Lenore is the next KAL my knitting group is doing this year, and the 15th is our official start date.

I'm also casting about for some good plane knitting, so if you have any ideas, please let me know. Unfortunately, Tom and I need to attend to some sad family business out of town this week, so I'll be away from a computer from Tuesday until we return late Thursday. See ya when we get back.

Goal Tending

Here we are, three days into February, and I've yet to 'fess up to how my January goals went for Stash Knit Down 2008 and Mission: Possible 2008. Without further ado...

Stash Knit Down 2008

January goals:
+ Buy no yarn - I folded like a cheap suit after 12 days.

A skein of Wollmeise in Frosch from the Loopy Ewe (yes, I succumbed to the hysteria).

Two gorgeous skeins of Bloodflowers in Aura and Nirvana from Melanie. It's a grey, rainy day today, and this colorway is difficult to catch in all its beauty, but here's a close up of the Aura that's nearer to the real color. The Nirvana is available in her etsy shop, so hurry, go get yourself some!

Also: I committed to a reup on my Loopy Ewe Sock Club subscription (though I haven't paid for it yet, so I'm not counting it). I bought more yarn for my stealth crochet project, too, as I ran short at the end. Oh, and I helped Wendy out with her sale, too. Hey, anything for a friend, right?
+ Don't whine about buying no yarn - I didn't whine a bit during the 12 days I actually controlled myself.
+ Cast on Lenore socks - My knitting group is knitting these for our second KAL of the year. It begins on 2/15, so I'm waiting to cast on then.
+ Finish knitting Cobblestone - Hahaha. This is a good one. It's frogged and waiting to be cast on again.
+ Stealth crochet project - DONE

February goals:
+ Keep knitting related purchases under $100. This includes yarn, patterns, needles, everything.
+ Finish Gothic Leaf Stole.
+ Cast on Cobblestone and knit 10" of the body.
+ Cast on and finish first Lenore sock.

Mission: Possible 2008

#7 - Crochet stealth project - DONE

I'm puttering along on a few others, too, but won't include them until they're 100% finito.

Silent Poetry Reading for the Feast of St. Brigid

To Emily Bronte

The witch-owls call, black shadows fall
About my lonely way;
The wind sinks down, and ne'er a sound
Proclaims the passing day.

I am alone, all others gone
Into the warmth and light,
Again once more, as oft before,
I hear the voice of night.

For me alone those murmurs come
From the rustling woods;
For me alone the sea makes moan
Beneath his aching floods.

All interwove with jewelled love
Are beauty, joy and woe;
All one with me, the singing sea,
The grey sheep as they go.

~ Florence Cortis-Stanford
from An Anthology of Scottish Women Poets
by Catherine Kerrigan

Huh?

Has it really been over a week since I last posted? Holy crap. I think the alien abductions have started back up, because I've lost several days here. Well, in this (missing) time I've...

1) Been attacked by another yucky germ. Of the stomach variety. Ugh. Better now, but the weekend was rough.

2) Started knitting again on Gothic Leaf. I'm on the fourth and last skein of Euroflax, and it's finally beginning to look stole-ish. Hopefully it'll be finished in the next week.

3) Gone from this -

to this -

Yep, that's Cobblestone. 10 inches of the body worth. Way too small. My guesstimation? Off by 4 inches. I figured it would be frakked up somehow...hey, this is me we're talking about here. The knitting goddess has decreed that I must sweat blood over every sweater I make, and I'm her obliging neophyte as always. I'm ruminating on my next course of action. I think I'll go up one pattern size, though Tom did say yesterday he'd prefer it to fit loosely "like a sweatshirt." That's my guy: t-shirt, jeans, tennis shoes, and a sweatshirt. So I might go up two sizes. I just want it to fit, so I'm amazingly calm and accepting about whatever I have to do to achieve that. Huh. Maybe aliens have been tampering with me.

4) Watched a pretty good heist movie. Face, with Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone. Tom and I love heist movies, and this one stayed taut and had some twists at the end that made it enjoyable. To keep the heist theme going, I picked up Lemons Never Lie by Richard Stark. Hard Case Crime reissued this gem last summer, and I'm enjoying rereading it...how can you go wrong with a sociopath actor who just wants to put on summer stock and needs some cash to do so?

5) Staved off serious cast-on cravings for several projects while I finish Gothic Leaf and work on a stealth project. My resolve was good, but then Mary cast on her Lenores. I'm hunting for my dpns today.

* * *

Fiend is 99% healed. He still has a little scab on his jaw, but is otherwise back to his bouncy, freaky self. He's once again mostly outdoors, and happy as a clam in his bed on our front porch. Thanks again for all your well wishes for the little guy.

An Embarrassment of Riches

Call me a lucky gal, because I've received some great knitterly gifts from my friends lately.

For Christmas, Barbara gave me a hat and mitt set. Such a thoughtful gift; they're my fave color, and the hat is a Knitty pattern that carries my name. She designed the mitts to match, mirroring the lace pattern from the hat. Very warm and snuggly!

For Christmas, Mary and I bought each other two skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia. We're making Unoriginal Hats...I know, pretty original of us, eh? On the left is Hard Rock, and on the right is Ravenscroft. You can't really tell from the photo, but the Hard Rock ball is larger than the Ravenscroft; it looks like a different base yarn. Very plump and even, while the Ravenscroft is thick and thin like Manos. As soon as I get some more pressing projects out of the way, I'll jump on this helpless yarn like a starving woman on a (insert favorite meal here)...or on that Stargate: Atlantis Ronon. He's cute.

Mary also gifted me a skein of Mirasol Hacho last week. When she gave it to me, I immediately said "bees" and she said "camo," so it's affectionately known now as my bee camo yarn.

For Christmas, in addition to the skully stitch markers you've seen before, Patty gave me total cuteness in the form of this little felted kitty. She patterned it after my white cat Maggie, so we call it...Mini Maggie. Isn't this face adorable? The little pink nose. The droopy ear. The glistening eyes. Gah. I've just melted into a puddle.

Somehow, Wendy just knew I'd love these stitch markers. She was correct. I love them like I love the Rev. Very rockabilly, they're made from glass (!). And the groovy coin purse she wrapped them in is now home to all my stitch markers. Now, why do I feel the hankering for a bluebird tattoo?!

Thanks, amigos!

Itty Bitty Cables

Pattern: Shedir from Fall 2004 Knitty
Yarn: Rowan Calmer in 481 Coffee Bean - 1 skein exactly (my fave Calmer color)
Needle: US 3 16" Addi Turbo circs
Mods: None
Rating: Tingly all over
Began: 12/31/07 Finished: 1/13/08

My first FO of 2008! As mentioned before, Shedir was chosen by my knitting group to be our first KAL of the year. Barbara, Melise, and I are the first wave of finishers, and here are our hats:

Poppa Shedir is Melise's red one; Momma Shedir is Barbara's blue one; Baby Shedir is my brown one

I must confess that the chart intimidated me when I first looked at it. But, once I dove in, the pattern was easy! Just two-stitch cable crosses. The first repeat was tough: the yarn/small needles/cabling combo hurt my left hand if I worked on it for more than three rows at a time. But, once I changed how I held the needles, furious cabling ensued.

This was the first time I've knit with Calmer, and I now know why people gush about this yarn. It's oh so soft, and warm and springy like wool. Yum. I'm glad to have more of it in stash to use again.

Now, those that know me know I'm a little OCD when it comes to mistakes in my work. They make me squirmy, and usually when I try to make them not bug me, they bug me. A lot. So, it's kinda interesting that on Shedir I made two whopping! huge! mistakes...and I didn't rip out and fix them. Both are places where I lost my cable for a few rows, and somehow purled when I should have knit. Both are on the back at the bottom, and I'm perfectly happy with them being where they are. I just love my hat!

P.S. Sorry for the crappy pictures. Tom and I both tried to get better ones, but Shedir was elusive and didn't want to be photographed. The color is most accurate in the second and fourth photos.

What a Week

I'll try to cool it with the alliteration, but whew. This week has been busy. I haven't had a chance to knit...or to nab Tom to take photos of Shedir so I can post about it. Sorry. Hopefully I'll grab him tonight and photographs will ensue. No, get your minds out of the gutter. Not those kind of photos, but nice, tasteful, knitted FO photos. Sheesh.

Fiend Update

The Fiend is well. Our regular vet saw him yesterday, and removed both the drain and the staple since he's healing so quickly. And, unless he scratches too much, the Cone of Humiliation is off for good, too. He's much happier about that. And sassier. He's growled at me once and bitten me twice today, so I'd say he's well on his way to his former psycho self.

He remains inside for another week until he's fully healed. Some of you have asked about him becoming an inside cat after this, and while we would love that, I have to say there's no chance in hell of it happening. Well, unless we kept him cooped up in our back room, and that would drive all of us mad; his meowing to go outside is already beginning to get on my last nerve.

He's the latest in a long line of strays we've adopted over the years, and I hope that the next one is a sweet furball who just curls up in my lap and purrs and never wants to go outside again. But Fiend? He's a free spirit, and prefers the wild outdoors to a warm, cushy, inside existence. Silly boy. I guess sometimes having the brain the size of a walnut is a detriment.

Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed

There were a couple of comments in Tuesday's post about the yarn I'm using for Tom's Cobblestone.

Katie K said: Don't you find a lot of nasty vegetal matter in that yarn? Personally I've found it very annoying to be constantly picking it out. Also the yarn has a shaggy raggy uneven quality. Maybe only in the purple that I've been using to knit a durrow sweater.

Yes, Katie, I have been finding a lot of little pieces of vegetable matter in my yarn. But, for some reason, it hasn't bothered me. Which is kinda amazing, considering how snarky I can be about yarn. (Don't even mention Black Water Abbey 2-ply worsted in my hearing, or my head will spin around, green vomit will splatter, and I'll bore you to death with how it hurt my wittle fingers knitting with it.) I just put it down to the rustic quality of the yarn and keep on knitting. Its softness probably has a lot to do with me forgiving its shortcomings. Also, the cheap ass price I nabbed it for on Webs discount.

As to the shaggy, raggy, uneven quality: Yes, I do see this in sections of the yarn, too. Some are thinner, some are thicker, some have tweedy lumps...but the knitted fabric is pleasing to the eye and the touch, so I'm satisfied. And did I mention it was soft? I'm so easy when the yarn is soft.

Jodi said: I knit a hat out of the Kathmandu Aran Tweed, and it wasn't my favorite knitting experience. Boring pattern + too tight a gauge for the yarn = yawn. Glad to hear it's working well for Cobblestone!

Well, see, now that you mention gauge I have to 'fess up. When I swatched, I swatched with three different needle sizes (US 5, 6, 7 - hey, that's almost a band!) and the gauge was the same for each one. WTF?! Has that ever happened to you? Before washing, after washing, they were all the same. And it wasn't the pattern's recommended gauge. So. After seriously conferring with Mary, we decided the best thing to do was to fiddle. I went down a needle and a pattern size, and am saying prayers daily to the knitting goddess that our calculations were correct and shall produce the perfectly sized garment for my husband. Crazy, I know, but here's hopin'. Yeah, the yarn isn't the only thing that's soft (in the head).

The Veils

My latest musical crush.

Tomorrow

Knitting content. I swear.

A Fiend Curtailed

Several of you have asked about Fiend, which is kind and sweet of you. I haven't mentioned him in a while, because there hasn't been much to say. The following picture sums up our relationship over the past six months:

We feed him, he eats. Refusing to come inside for more than a few minutes at a time since we introduced him to our cat Maggie, he hangs out on our front stoop and roams the neighborhood. (Maggie was nonplussed, but Fiend wigged out.) We bought a bed for him, and he uses it when it gets cold. Sometimes. We still don't know where he sleeps at night, and sometimes he'll disappear for a day or two, and then return hungry. He's very protective of his food bowl, and will still hiss, lunge and swipe at us if we take it away to fill it. But if we bring food out and fill it on the stoop, he purrs and is our best friend. Tom has taken to calling him Norman for this behavior.

Then, this past Saturday, we were leaving the house to go to the library to pick up a book, and he appeared underfoot. The right side of his face was a bloody mess, so off to the emergency vet we went instead. Surgery ensued, and it was discovered that he had an abscess, under which was scar tissue, under which was another deep, deep abscess. He now has a drain and a huge staple in his jaw, several more visits to the vet in store over the next two weeks...AND the Cone of Humiliation.

We're keeping him inside while he heals, which is going much better than expected. He's doing well - eating, taking his antibiotic and hurray! using his cat box. (Hey, he's been outside for 12 years, and I worry about these things.)

He's also dreaming of freedom. Soon, little guy, soon.

In between feedings, hot compresses and cat box cleanings, I'm knitting away on Tom's Cobblestone.

I've mentioned it briefly before, but, like Fiend, there hasn't been much to say about it. I've knit 6" of the body, and am already thrilled that the finishing will be minimal. I'm really enjoying the Queensland Kathmandu Aran Tweed; it's very soft and the perfect color for Tom. A few nights ago Tom came up as I was working on it and said, "That's a nice blue." Did I feel smug? You betcha.

Here's a close-up of of the other stitch markers Patty gave me for Christmas. Another skull - this one's all business - and matching red and black seed beaded markers complete the set. So cool.

In other news, Shedir is done! I'll post about it later this week. Now it's time to administer the afternoon hot compress and knit a little more with that lovely blue yarn.