Jump! Jump! Jump Around!

It occurs to me that except for multiple posts about the Super Purple Girl skirt (which still needs finishing), lately I've been writing about a different project pretty much every time I post on this blog. I really do jump around from project to project a lot, and although it means that I rarely finish anything, at least the knitting stays interesting & I don't have to make any quick decisions. For instance, after knitting an inch or so of the Inamorata tank earlier in the week, I completely lost interest in it just as I am getting to the point where I can determine whether or not my gauge / sizing will work out. Maybe the reason I've set it aside is that I suspect it won't, or maybe that it's just been too hot to focus on cables. I'm tempted to just rip the whole thing out, which could still happen. The yarn is too beautiful to waste on something that isn't going to fit, or that will never be finished.

Another old project that was set aside because I was worried about it is Carrieline. It's probably doubled in length since the last time I wrote about it (months ago), a few rows of straightforward stockinette at a time with a few stitches of i-cord edging on each side. I'm alternating skeins of Sundara Sport to keep the sweater from pooling, which is working beautifully except that when I switch the i-cord edging has tightened up in places. Especially in a place where I knit four rows of one color instead of two. See the puckering here:

So for months, whenever I've picked this up, all I can think about is whether or not I should really rip back hours and hours of work to the puckered spot, or whether I should plan to pick up and knit a buttonband (and somehow cut and tack down the tight spot). All the while, it's gotten more difficult to think about ripping out, because I'm getting farther and farther past the pucker. Recently I realized that before I do anything drastic I should just block that edge and see whether the problem works itself out. So last night, before settling in on the back porch with a glass of rosé, a purple sleeve, and a movie, I soaked that corner. After the movie ("An Education", which I highly recommend), I pinned it out, and here's how it looks this morning:

No ripping back required, no need to plan post-finishing surgery--definitely flat enough for me! It's such a relief that the simple solution, requiring the least amount of effort and intervention, is the one that worked out. This is also good news because this is the only knitting I've got going right now that doesn't require a chart or keeping track of rows or any patterning. I will measure my gauge in the blocked section against the pattern & use it to make sure I'm still on track. I think that I swatched for this, but it can't hurt to use a "real" row gauge to double check that I'm getting enough length.

I am still really loving this yarn, even more so now that I see how beautiful it looks when it's all nice and blocked out. The three photos above, taken in different light at different times of the day, shows how the color shifts from blue to grey in an interesting way. It makes me wish a little that I'd taken a bigger color risk when I bought this yarn (bright red, anyone?), but this is a color that I will wear a lot and that isn't a regular boring grey. Now I just need to knit the other 70% of the sweater, and I'll be all set!

Sunlight on the Lino Woke Me With A Shake

Yes, I was holding a piece of kibble.

Over the past several months, I've been working a little at a time on some dishcloths. I'm using basic kitchen cotton from cheap craft stores, the cool Linoleum Dishcloth pattern (Rav Link), and just going a little at a time on them. It's a nice, nubby pattern, and if I could bear to clean dishes with these cloths, they'd do a really good job. The pattern is a two color slip stitch pattern, so it's very thick, and I expect it will be durable. It's likely that these are destined to be housewarming / hostess gifts, or they'll just pile up until I run out of cotton (sometime in 2010). I'm currently knitting one in red, white, & blue for the 4th of July, maybe Halloween next? Or should I skip right over to Christmas?

Here are some outtakes from the photo above, which basically mean that I need to wash these before I give them away. My favorite is Frieda jumping and licking her lips, too fast to be captured in pixels:

Maybe instead of washing, I should just give fair warning that they've had close contact with both dachshund and patio--I'd hate for them to look "used" before they are even out of the house!











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Sunlight on the Lino Woke Me With A Shake: Squeeze, "Goodbye Girl"

Happy Long Holiday Weekend

Gretel has the right idea. Except for the "laying on pavement, being menaced by Frieda's shadow" part.

Please Seam This Sweater for Me

Sometimes the best photos of Frieda and Gretel are those where they are caught doing stupid things--closed eyes, tongue out, sneezing.

It's a beautiful, sunny day here in the PNW, which may explain why I'm having trouble working on a bulky wool sweater. However, I'm determined to get at least one sleeve sewn in today, and here's the proof that I've started:

There's so little left on this sweater, but yet still so much. I want the finishing to look good, but I've never been good at seaming, and last week pretty much kicked my ass so I don't have a lot of mental energy for it, either. Maybe a nap is in order--the sleeve will still be waiting for me.

To See the Frog Eat the Goggle-Eye Bee

Clockwise from top left: Frieda can't keep her eyes open for this photo, Frieda with bag, Sweater sized bag, sock sized bag

Despite the dull, steady headache associated with staying out super late and getting up super early (the rock show on Saturday night was totally worth it, but I have no photographs), Sunday was a pretty productive day. A friend is planning to have a booth at Sock Summit in August, and I've been trying to come up with a sock project bag that she could sell. This is a proposition with a lot of "ifs", in my mind--if I can make more than one or two, if she does have a booth, if I will more than break even on the deal, etc. Then there's the obvious "will anyone buy this" question, of course.

I can sew pretty well, but my quality threshhold for things that I make for myself is decidedly lower than my quality threshhold for things that I would buy, and that's a contradiction that may mean trouble. Producing multiples of something that is sewn well enough that I would buy it myself may suck the joy right out of the creative process for me. Also, I think that my design idea is pretty good, but I've been mentally overcomplicating it and even my simple attempts today have some issues.

My basic idea is a bag that will keep two balls of yarn from tangling (as in two socks at once, or colorwork socks), but will let me remove the yarn without cutting it, and will hold the project and the yarn. No velcro, no zippers--I maintain that these are the enemy of yarn, just as mohair yarn is the enemy of my skin. I've decided to try button closures, so that the yarn can thread out the sides, but will tuck into the center & be buttoned up. Future enhancements (the part that I'm overcomplicating mentally) include inner dividers, pockets, etc., but I'm trying to remind myself that this is just a project bag--it's not a purse, or a full-on knitting bag, or a means to create world peace. Two balls of yarn, with room for one or two socks. That's it.

The prototype bag is made of denim with a little stretch that I had lying around, embellished with some Japanese frog canvas & a couple of scraps. I didn't line the bag, but am still on the fence about that--it's a balance between excess weight and better finishing. I zigzagged the raw edges so there won't be any fraying, but lining would still look neater. Also, I put in the buttonholes before sewing the side seam, and it would look neater to sew the side seams first and then turn the top edge down and put in the buttonholes (assuming that I could still mark the buttonhole positions straight). The embellishment took a long time--too long, really. A cute pocket (maybe big enough to hold a pattern) might be a better use of the space.

So what do I like about the bag? The craftsmanship is reasonably good, and I think that the size will work well (but I might make it slightly wider). I like the clutch-style handle, and I like the look of the different buttons. Denim is super durable, so needles shouldn't poke through. It will stand up (though is a little floppy) when empty, which means that if loaded properly it will stand up when full.

The only project I'm working on now that uses two balls of yarn is the Black Diamond (look at how big it's getting!), and this bag will hold two 100g balls of classy but not the yarn and the sweater. So why not sew a larger version of the bag? On the larger bag, I put two handles to the top of the bag, and a mermaid pocket on the front. Wider opening = 5 buttons, which I was too lazy to dig out and sew on before calling it a day. I'm not sure I'd want to make many of these, it takes longer and a lot more fabric, and getting the pocket square is tricky. If you could see it closer, you would notice that--trust me.

So now that I've made a couple of bags, I suppose I need to test them out--I have this fear of the yarn getting all tangled up on the buttons, and the only way to put that fear to rest is to knit a little!

You're Trying My Patience, Try Pink Carnations, Red Roses, and Yellow Daffodils

A friend at work mentioned that she'd like a felted flower pin a looong time ago, and after checking out "Nicky Epstein's Knitted Flowers"at the library and returning it overdue without knitting, and then buying it and forgetting about it, I finally cranked out the posy above in maybe a half hour. The pattern is the "Five Star Flower", and I used Cascade 220 in a few different shades from my stash. This flower pattern knits up very quickly, and there are several other patterns in the book that I have my eye on. The pin has been all but assembled since mid-December--the weather and holidays made my schedule a little erratic, and then it took some time to remember to buy pin backings. I still can't quite believe that I didn't already have any pin backs, but lesson learned--assemble all supplies at once! I finally got it together, and my friend likes it, so all is well. And finishing it has made me want to knit more of these things, maybe to embellish a bag, or make a garland (I don't know what for), or just for the sake of felting some stuff.

The reason I finally remembered the pin request is that I needed something to embellish these felted clogs, and thought felted flowers would be a good way to go. I considered needle felting something, but I have zero experience and I wasn't able to locate my needle felting supplies (I'm still looking for them). Also, since the clogs are likely to be washed at some point, I wanted to avoid things like beads and sequins (which would have looked awesome) that might fall off in the wash. I knit a large flower and a leaf for the pin, and then I knit a pair of smaller flowers for the clogs. Here's what they looked like unfelted:

And here they are felted:

I felted them possibly a little too much, because I wanted them to be firm. You can see that the small flowers are basically just the center of the larger flowers. The pattern is very adaptable.

Here are the finished clogs sitting on the back of the couch (with mild dachshund intervention):

The slipper suspense is mounting--I haven't given them away yet (yes, it's mid-January), so I'm not sure whether they will fit J____ or whether she'll like them as much as Frieda and Gretel do. Fingers crossed I can deliver them this weekend--can't wait too long with a growing kid, or the "it fits" window may pass right by!



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"You're Trying My Patience, Try Pink Carnations, Red Roses, and Yellow Daffodils": Wilco, Forget the Flowers

Put On Your High Heeled Sneakers, We're Goin' Out Tonight

I've been fighting a fever for most of the week, and although I did some knitting early in the week and a little yesterday, I don't have too much to show for it. I'm so behind on Christmas cards that I may scrap them altogether, and I've not attended a single holiday related social event. There is good dog news, though--Frieda had her first post-hospital checkup yesterday, and she came out of it with flying colors. We need to keep her on the bland food for awhile, and we need to be extra careful about keeping other foods (and stuffed toys, since she sometimes eats a little stuffing) away from her, but it's very good news.

We didn't get any good advice about how to keep her or Gretel from being bad, however. In the last week, Frieda escaped to the neighbor's yard (where she can enter their house and eat anything within reach), and tried to find human food on the coffee table while I was standing right next to her. Gretel was able to reach my bowl of soup from an armchair and to drag tissues out of the bathroom trash that has a lid on it.

Anyway, the video above is in no way payback for the bad behavior witnessed in the last week. We've had an unusually cold & snowy spell here, and the backyard is full of icy snow. Frieda is susceptible to skin allergies, and has an itchy area on one paw that needs protection from the snow. She was visibly limping on the snow yesterday--and a dog that is uncomfortable outside is not good for anyone. However, as you can see, she's not super pleased with the shoes, either. Notice that Gretel makes a special guest appearance, if only to butt ahead of Frieda when going inside. Gretel loves to be first!

If You Don't Want to Take a Bath . . . .

Then don't roll in bird poop. Here endeth the lesson.

(note the death grip that Gretel has on the side of the tub--her nails have been trimmed recently, that's all panic)

Summer is Ready When You Are

I've finished all of the pieces of the Cables, Baby! sweater, including the button bands. But instead of sewing on the sleeves and putting that baby to bed, I've started something new:

It's not quite as pink as it looks here, the main color is really pretty red, and the second color is sort of salmon-y. Any guesses as to what it will be, before I enter the project details on Ravelry? I'm a fanatic stats tracker, so I'm not sure I'll be able to hold off on cataloging it for more than a day or so.

The weather this weekend was incredibly good, better than most of our summer weekends this year. In honor of that, I took Frieda and Gretel for walk (along with some long-time and recent tiny friends) around Greenlake:

Don't worry, it's only 3-ish miles!

The dogs did very well for such a long walk on such a warm day, with so many distractions--a 4 month old baby, a 3 year old girl, and a million people on a charity walk that we didn't know would be there. The baby and the 3 year old also did very well--there was a little crying, but not by either of the mothers, so I'll call it a successful outing. Especially since this is what Frieda looked like afterwards:

A glassy-eyed dog is a good dog! Much better than the barking and whining I had to put up with for 45+ minutes on the way to the city before the walk. Seriously, this dog needs to get out more.

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"Summer is Ready When You Are": Same song as yesterday's post--can't get it out of my head.

Two Toe Tuesday: Gretel Demands Equal Screentime

The first thing I did after monogomously finishing the Olympic Orange Oolongs? Work on almost every sock WIP that I had within reach. I worked on the Summer Sky Socks, which are meant to be finished this week (maybe they'll be anklets?), and on the M's socks. Last but not least, I finished the first of the Tomato Maelstrom socks that I started just before the Ravelympics kick off. Yes, I know that only makes one toe. I may start the second right away, I really like the way this one turned out and it was relatively fast to knit. The yarn is Sundara Sock in Heirloom Tomato, and the pattern is Maelstrom by Cookie A, from the Twist Collective. What more can I say? Love this pattern!

p.s. This is really an unflattering angle for Gretel (and me, really), which isn't fair because she has lost a whole pound in the last month or so. She could still stand to lose another pound or two, but she's not as fat as she looks here.

Drop Me in the Water

There's been a lot of Knitting, Rock Shows, and Baseball on this blog this summer, but not nearly enough Miniature Dachshund. Here's Frieda enjoying a drink at the off-leash dog park this morning. Gretel won't drink out of the faucet, but she does like to keep a close eye on things.


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Drop Me in the Water: "Take Me to the River" by the Rev. Al Green and Teenie Hodges (but I really know the Talking Heads version better).

Cutest. Bag. Evah.

Did I say that I was going to pack? I meant that I was going to finish sewing the Day in the Park Backpack Tote, which I will probably take with me even though it won't hold enough to be an effective carry-on bag. In the photos above, it's holding my tiny computer, a small knitting project, and a zippered pouch of knitting equipment. I don't want to cram a lot more into it, but I think that I'll need more room for the plane. It's probably a good walking-around-Prague bag, though--there's a zippered pouch inside that I can use for my passport & wallet, and the bag cinches up enough and is deep enough that it shouldn't be a pick-pocket target.

I'm very happy with the pattern, and I didn't have a lot of trouble, but I think that the rivets are probably not going to hold through all of the layers of cord. I sewed the ends of the long straps just in case the rivets fail. I won't be brokenhearted if they fail, because I think that I twisted one of the straps, and it can't be fixed without ripping out the rivets. Or it might not be twisted, I might just be twisting it when I put it on. Either way--I'm fine with it.

If I make another one (and I might, though not right away), I might make it an inch or so deeper, and I might make the straps an inch wider. The skinniness of the straps is fine if I don't overstuff the bag, but let's face it--I'm going to overstuff it. Another possible mod would be to add a zipper closure to the top--it would be relatively easy to put one in where the lining meets the patterned fabric, and then I'd omit the magnetic snap.

Poor Frieda wasn't happy with me trying to get her into the photos--she refused to look towards the camera at all. Gretel couldn't quite figure out what was going on at all, she wouldn't come all the way outside:

Note that the sliding glass door is open next to the dog door, but she chooses to stand halfway out the dog door instead of just walking outside.

Seriously, Snow on March 26?

I took this video tonight, March 26, after getting home from work:

Maybe another week in Phoenix would have been a good idea . . .

Can't you see you're not helping?

This is why my blog posts are often short and poorly edited:

I'm starting to think that she'll do anything to get on the internets.

Gretel, LOL

Camping + Rocking = Exhaustion

I've been back from Sasquatch since early afternoon, and I'm dog tired. Rock show photos to come tomorrow or later this week.

When are you bringing us treats?

It's hard to believe how small Frieda and Gretel look when they are watching me leave the house. Those beady little eyes following me to the car . . . .

Gretel & Frieda

Sometimes I feel like they are just barely tolerating me.

Snow Smells Good!

And it running around smelling it tires out these dogs, then I'm all for it! The snow started coming down heavy just before I left work, and the ride home was a little treacherous. Not for me, really--I'm an overly cautious driver--but I probably saw 15 cars in a series of accidents on a long steep hill that I was driving down. It's been snowing heavily here for a few hours now, and the dogs really have to work to forge a path through the snow. Gretel keeps going outside for a few minutes and then running back in, with cold snow on her nose. The first time, she ran up on my lap and stuck her cold, snowy (pointy) nose in my ear. I don't know why I didn't see it coming, but I'm ready for next time!

No More a Fussin' and a Feudin'

See how well they can get along, when it's very cold outside, and they are super tired?