Random Tuesday

Just had to show this picture because right after I had last blogged, Jasper decided to take a rest on the new rug.

Quick--get the camera. But make no sudden moves so as not to scare him off.





Last week he turned 15--he's an old guy.

Also, here's some crafts by DD#2. She covered some clear glass ornaments with sculpy clay for some cute decorations. (DS#2 did the frog.) I've been told that the penguin is my Christmas present, but if it sits around in the kitchen for a week, then it's fair game for a picture.



Doesn't everyone have ornaments hanging from the chandeliers?





Since Tuesdays are for spinning, here's a picture of my purple yarn. I didn't spin it today, but it was taken off the bobbin today, so that counts.



Another bobbin full of yarn. I'm getting better. Not good, but better.



I see a scarf in my future.

Where I knit a dog sweater (or two)

Valeria made a good guess that this was a soaker ('cause as you know, I make them a lot).



However, it's not. It's a vest.



(Shown off on my new rug just inside my sliding glass door in the dining room.)

Me: "Look, Jasper! A rug for you where you can lay in the sun and be all cuddly (and I can throw it into the washer if you make any messes on it)."

Jasper: "barkbarkbarkbarkbark. sigh. sneeze." ("I'm going to sleep on the couch now. Messes? What messes?")


Speaking of dogs, DD#1 brought home her puppy for Thanksgiving. When I mentioned that I was going to knit Jasper a sweater, she asked for one for Lucy, too.

Now, Jasper is an old dog and spends half of the day shivering (the half when he's not under the blankets.) I think a sweater makes a dog look silly, but in this instance I'm ready to give it a try. However, when I looked through my yarn for something washable and warm, all I found was girl colors.

And that's how I knit Lucy a dog sweater on Thanksgiving.



It's the Penny sweater from Knitty. One skein of bright Red Heart Acrylic, one black cocker spaniel puppy, what's not to love?

Unfortunately, Lucy has left town with her owner, so there will no modelling session, and I will have to mail the sweater.

Figuring that I had enough time.....I made her another.

This time I used some glittery Christmas acrylic yarn, used the same number of stitches, but used stockinette instead of the pattern stitch and look what happened:



There's a slight difference in size.

There's also no chance that I will fix it. Knitting two items with acrylic is enough for me. The Christmas yarn got stuck on the cable of the needles and was a real struggle to move it along.

I will mail this package out soon with the following instructions:

If it fits, keep it. It if doesn't, throw it in that "circular bin" since there's not a chance that I will fix it. Love, Mom.

EZ's BSJ

Both Knit Wit and Dj guessed correctly that I'm knitting a baby surprise jacket. In the knitting world it's commonly called EZ's BSJ (Elizabeth Zimmermann's Baby Surprise Jacket). Usually, one can just use the initials and another knitter instantly knows what you're talking about. (This I've learned in the last 3 years cruising around the 'net. Before that it was "who"? and "what"? Now it's "ah-ha".)

This being my first BSJ, I'm not positive, but I'm imagining that once you've knit this, you never forget the shape of it. It's a crazy shape, isn't it?



I'm down to the buttonhole row, so the knitting part will soon be completed. The fold-as-oragami-and-seam-the-shoulder part will be postponed 'til another day ('cause I'm still easily distracted.)

I'm not the only distracted one in this household, as evidenced by DD#2's craft project of the day:



That's right. She peeled a Clementine in one piece, ate the insides, then glued the peel back together.

There is no homework, and vacation has started.

I'll spare you a picture, but 2 more heavy pieces of furnature have been moved back to the dining room, and one more bag of trash has been generated.

Some spinning has been done today (because "Tuesdays are for spinning" as per the Yarn Harlot), but those pictures will also be for another day.

Instead, here's a picture of an almost completed project. Can you guess what it is?



Hint: This is something that I make a lot of.

(Not only did I end the sentence with a preposition, I ended the whole post with one. English 101, where art thou?)

Easily distracted

I've been easily distracted recently. I start a project, put it down, start another one. Stew about the first one for awhile, then start a third. Finish knitting a project, but don't sew in the ends, so it really doesn't count as finished. Print out a pattern for a fourth project, and so on, and so on, and so on.

For some reason, I can be focused at work. I can finish a job and clean up before starting a new one.

Not so at home.

Here's my current project: putting the drawers back in my buffet table. (Check out the new quarter round molding--the dining room floor is done and the first heavy piece of furnature is back in.)



The drawers were removed, and are being sorted out before being replaced. You can see where I stopped. Since sorting the first two drawers, I have brought in 2 containers from the shed and sorted them, dug through my storage under the staircase to weed out some stuff in there. Three bags of trash have been generated.

Does my house look any better? Not at all. (Unless you count my pretty new molding and the empty spot in the living room where the buffet table used to be.)

Do I feel like I accomplished something? Sort of. But now I have to make another trip to the dump.

Here's the start of my third project (or is it my fourth?)



Can anyone guess what it is?

Hint: All knitters should make at least one of these just for the experience.

It's time now to get back to sorting. Or knitting. Hmmm....what a choice. :)

Juliet

Finally.....here's the promised pictures of the Juliet sweater.

To re-cap:
It was made for DD#2 (with her approving the pattern and picking out the yarn) knitting the XS size with 2 strands of Bernat cashmere (only 5% cashmere, but still super soft). It used 12 skeins. The pattern is found here on zephyrstyle.



It about a week to knit, and was fun the whole way through. DD chose one button, rather than 3 as the pattern suggested. A button loop is made for each button, so this decision can be left til the end.



I believe there were 8 pattern repeats of the lace. Nice and easy, but still fun.




This picture says it all.

All about me

Anyone wearing wool socks this week? I have, and it's been nice and warm. It's taken awhile for the cold weather to come, but it looks like it's here to stay. (At least as far as the air conditioner being turned off goes.)

Today I felt very much like I'm a knitter. I had on my hoodie and a pair of wool socks, and was carrying my purse. I felt a bit silly (but warm).

I made myself 2 more dishcloths, since the first one has been well used. They aren't in the rotation yet, but will be soon.



I've started a pair of monkey socks. I'll look up the yarn later (I think it's STR med. weight, but don't quote me), and size 2 dpns.



As you can see, the yarn is black, grey, and white variegated, and thrills me for some reason. It's looking very zebra stripe-ish, isn't it?

In keeping with today's theme, which is apparently all about me, here's my work apron, all painted for the winter season. (It's covered with snowflakes since the stencils I bought had 12-15 different ones and I felt compelled to do one of each.)




I'll get back to knitting for other people (and will show you DD's finished sweater soon), but until then it's been fun to just knit for me. :)

Note to self: Oct. FO's

A note to myself on my Finished Objects for October:

A Hooded Tunic, a kid's vest, and a Christmas gift. No socks were touched (kind of odd, but there are no sock WIP's. I'm itching to cast on one, so maybe tonight's the night.)

The teal cardigan was taken up again. Most of the first sleeve was finished, so all that's left is the second sleeve (and all the finishing work, yada, yada.)

The Juliet sweater is mostly done. The knitting has been completed, and approved by DD#2. A button needs to be purchased, and ten gazillion ends need to be hidden. (If I had thought ahead of time that I would do an "end of the month" accounting, I would've worked harder on this one.)

I'm in to Ravelry, and created my rettink picture (see sidebar on the right.)

When asked why did I make that self-portrait I responded,

"You know how you need to vacuum, so you come up with all sorts of other things to do so that you don't vacuum? That's why."

And now it's my Ravelry id.

small pic upload

Spinning and lace

It's time to show you my spinning. Here it is, my first yarn spun, plied, and washed to set the twist. It's lumpy and bumpy and has several knots that will be spliced together later.

Plus, it's loverly.



My spinning wheel sat, neglected, for several weeks after that. I'm in a "Catch-22" situation. What do I do with all the 4 oz. yarns that I'm making? It's enough for a hat, or a scarf, or....

I have a couple of hats (which I never wear), and a few more scarfs (how many does one need?), and what else can I do with bumpy yarn? I could make a striped vest, but that would require the rovings to all coordinate. (When I say "all", I'm planning for the future.)

When I get better at spinning, I might be able to make sock yarn (and then there will be no problem), but until then?

I could buy enough roving to make a sweater, but with bumpy yarn? Shouldn't I get better at spinning before attempting that?

So, that's why it sat around for awhile. I can't get better at spinning, though, unless I spin, so I went back to that option and yesterday I spun up all this purply roving.




See? I'm already getting better, and once it's plied, it should be enough for cuffs on wristwarmers (and it's getting colder outside, so it should be just in time.)

I have no idea what kind of wool it was, but it had a nice long staple length and I found it very easy to spin. (I'm sure it's still over-spun, but at least it's more even. Ignore the fluffy part that I think is the yarn end.)


I've also been knitting. Here's the Juliet sweater:



The lace pattern is a 6 row repeat that I've managed to memorize, amazingly enough. In another day or two, it should be done. Stay tuned!

Self-Portrait

Knitting Sheep Cake

Edited to add this note from my friend (and to fix the title spelling error. Geesh!)
Thanks for posting the cake on your blog. Tell the ladies I'm very grateful for all the kind comments. The cake itself was golden vanilla with a vanilla rich fudge, covered in buttercream then fondant. The yarn balls were malted balls rolled on fondant strings and the sheep, scissors and needles were made out of gum paste. Between set up, execution and clean up, it must have taken me about 10 hrs to complete it, but it was a lot of fun. My friend and the rest of her small knitting club were very surprised and love it.

A couple of weeks ago I knit a st st square out of yellow nylon twine. It was for a friend who was going to make a mold for fondant for a cake.

She went with a different idea and sent me a picture of the finished project. It's so wonderful I thought I'd share it with you.




I have no idea how long it took her to finish it, but it must be wa-a-a-ay beyond "a lot".

Check out the details:



The blanket even has hash marks to simulate stitches.



Who wouldn't love a sheep that looked like that?



The sheep even knitted a v-neck sweater.



Don't you wish your sheep could do that?

Poptart danger

Doing that whole "whiny baby" thing today. I burnt my finger this morning and have spent the last two hours soaking it in cold water. It's now better and has formed a blister.

This has seriously hampered my knitting for the week since it's on my left index finger and I'm left handed. (To add insult to injury, I burnt it on Poptart icing that had turned into a molten hot liquid. That's just stupid, since I knew it was hot, and I was almost mad enough to throw out the Poptart. But it was brown sugar/cinnamon so I ate it angrily instead.)

I haven't tried knitting with it yet, but since I can type with it, things are looking up.

I know you've missed my wood floor, so here's it in the background of my completed kid's vest.



This will most likely be for CIC, but since I'm not sure what the current challenge is, it might go somewhere else.

In other news, here's my Ravelry stats:

You signed up on September 16, 2007
You are #33397 on the list.
712 people are ahead of you in line.
13924 people are behind you in line.
65% of the list has been invited so far

Soon I can pick a name and sign in. Do you think with 33396 people in front of me, that there's any knitting names left?

40% done

Starting to work on this UFO again. It took awhile to get going, while I thought about why I stopped.

It was something to do with the sleeve being too big, but what exactly? And what size needles was I using, anyway?

Slowly it came back to me (I had increased every other row, rather than every 6)(size 8's).

I ripped out to the cuff (which is supposed to be belled like that), and continued on.



After getting this far, I checked out the pattern again. To my surprise, these are dropped shoulder sleeves, not set-in sleeves. I missed that totally.

It doesn't much matter at this point, but it just proves that
a) I don't read ahead in the pattern very well (or at all.) and
b) Apparently I also don't get a good look at the picture.

I'm enjoying knitting this again (especially since I see the end in sight), but since I only have one other UFO, I cast on for this project:



This is the Juliet sweater from Zephyrstyle (that apparently I can't remember to bookmark since I just searched for it for the third time).

It's for DD#2, and so far it's turning out lovely. The yarn is 2 strands Bernat Cashmere in a pastel pink on size 10.5's. The yarn is only 5% Cashmere, but was the only thing that DD didn't immediately think was itchy.

Since I bought 10 skeins, and have already used up 4, I should be 40% done, right? I'm hoping that's true, although I'm starting to worry. There's a lace pattern on the bottom half that's longer than the top half.

I started yesterday, and have used up 4 skeins in two days. At this rate, I should be done by the end of the week.

Ya think?

Found needles

Finished a Christmas project (treated with the charcoal effect to disguise the color.)



And found some needles!



I'm pretty sure they are a size 9, just the size I needed for my hoodie sleeves (did magic loop for the whole sleeves, which I did not enjoy). I kept wondering why I never had 9 dpns, but the answer is that I had, just hidden away in a UFO.

I dug the UFO out to see if I can finish it up. It's getting to be sweater weather, so maybe I can.

A bit of sewing

Today I did a bit of sewing.

My hoodie now has a button, so now I can officially consider it done.



I'm not really sure that it goes through the buttonhole, but since I never plan on buttoning it, that shouldn't be a problem.

Now it's time to put away the leftovers--extra yarn, pattern, needles, bag. Sometimes they hang around as long as the UFO does--does anyone else have that problem?


Here's my cabled purse with its new lining (shown inside out).



For some reason, I assumed it didn't need a lining so it was used for several weeks. It sagged, and my keys and phone antenna stuck through the sides. What was I thinking?

By the time I got around to sewing the lining, I also needed to wash the purse. I had talked myself into doing the proper thing and remove it from the handles, to be sewn on again when it was dry. At the last second, I changed my mind, and just washed it with the handles on.

For those of you who assume I had a disaster, I'm happy to report that it all went well. I held the handles while dunking the rest in water and washing it with shampoo. The extra water was squeezed out in a towel, and the purse was set on the drying rack in my dryer to dry. It was put on the lowest temperature, and was checked on often, but it all turned out okay. So there. Sometimes laziness has its rewards.

Now it needs velcro and a new ribbon. Hopefully less time goes by before that gets done (or it might need to be washed again.)

Corn maze

On Saturday we went to the local corn maze. The family plants the corn, cuts the maze, has the fall "maze" season, then harvests the crop.



There are clues along the way, so if you know details about growing corn, or Cal Ripkin Jr. (this year's theme), then you will be helped. We didn't, but still the girls beat the boys! Yeah! (Not that we were racing, which we decided ahead of time, but still...we won!)

Here's an arial view of the maze.



And here's what it looks like to us:



(Even standing on the bridge, it looks like a sea of corn. Down among the stalks it's more so.)

There were plenty of activities for younger children to do, including a cornbox, instead of a sandbox.



It was definitely a John Deere kind of place.



What's a petting zoo without some lambs?



Definitely a fun-filled afternoon (did I mention that the girls won?).