Monster Longies

My friend Amy and I went yarn shopping together a while back.  While we were there, I acquired enough Cascade for a pair of Das Monster pants (rav).  That was my first mistake.  I had a witness to my yarn purchase.  Secondly, I informed my friend what my intent for said yarn was instead of nonchalantly buying it "for the stash," and she was determined to keep me accountable.


At first she and I were on the level and we both rode the fiber high of new yarn.  So I was okay with the excited questions of "Have you started yet?"  But as it happens with all stash enchancements, the new yarn smell wears off and I was left searching Ravelry for a new fix.

Until I saw Amy again and she would innocently mention that if I didn't get started soon, Lil Bit "might just grow out of them before I even started", which I admit was also a fear of mine.  There was also the issue of practically nonexistent southern winters encroaching on the amount of time which he might be able to use wool pants.

So this past week, instead of burrowing under a pile of blankets and only coming out to feed Lil Bit, I knit up a very Ernie reminiscent pair of Monster Longies completely unintentionally.

First Ernie, in all his 1970's glory:

Second, Lil Bit's monster longies:

Knitting is for the Dogs

-My dog that is.  I am reaching the finish line for PoPo's Cabled Delight.  Based off of Jill Eaton's Cabled Delight for little dogs, I've heavily modified for my-wonderfully-large-in-desperate-need-of-clothes-dog.  Basically, the only think similar about this pattern is the color and the fact that it's cabled.

My dog's measurements are by circumference unless otherwise noted and taken at her largest girth.  Poor PoPo.  She's gonna be totally embarrassed if she finds out I am posting her her burlesque figure's measurements online.  You know cause dogs get embarrassed by these things...  

• Collar 15"
• Bust 28"
• Belly 21" (length)
• Back 18" (length)

Her best fitting sweater (PoPosaurus Rex), which despite it's acrylic nature has become a little misshapen:

• Collar 21"
• Bust 29"
• Belly 13" (length)
• Back 23" (length)

My working notes:

• Knit from the bottom up cast on 66 stitches in 6x2 cabled rib (repeats of 8 +2).  Start with 2 purled.  About 12 inches wide.
• Knit in pattern for about 6 inches, or the length between the start of the tail and the bottom of the ribs.
• Increase one stitch at each end every other row until 12 inches long.  On PoPo, this is the point at which her chest ends and her belly begins.  I like to follow the edge her ribs as a guideline for increases.  A edging knitted on later will add more coverage to her sizes.
• Cast of 44 stitches (or enough stitches to cover the distance between sides) and begin knitting in the round. 
• Knit for 7 inches or until you reach front legs.  If your dog is barrel shaped like PoPo, multiple tryons will help you add length for proper fit.  I cast on less stitches than would fit her at her widest point, so the stretch of the material around her "bust" decreases the overall length of the sweater.

You can see I originally planned for decreases prior to the leg openings before deciding on using negative ease to accommodate her barreliness.

• For the placement of the leg holes, I used the measurements on PoPosaurus Rex.  This sweater doesn't bunch between her legs, nor does it pull awkwardly.  I placed 15 stitches (about 3 inches) for each leg on stitch holders on each side of the center line with about the 5 inches of sweater between her legs. 
• Knit the back separately from the chest panel for 3 inches.  Break yarn.  Knit the chest panel for the same distance.
• Join in round again making sure to cast on for the 15 stitches per leg opening.
• Begin decreasing at the outside edge of each leg opening.  I used the Rainbow Pooch Sweater (rav) pattern as inspiration on how I wanted my decreases to look.  I carried my decreases through the purled section of the ribbing, so that my outside cables would "travel" up and in across the chest.



Photo copyright Caron®

• Continue knitting until the desired collar circumference is reached.
• Switch to 2x2 ribbing for desired collar length.  I'm planning on about 2 inches.

It's a race to the finish line to see if my yarn will hold out.  I still need to pick up stitches for the leg openings and the bottom hem.  I know I don't have enough purple to finish it out.  I don't mind the idea at all of a contrasting color like the natural from my hemlock ring blanket, but I think don't even have that!

Like Father, Like Son.

The Weasley sweater fits!


And Baby O does love it.


Though he may not look like it.
(He just had his diaper changed-you think he would be happy.)


I love my Matching Men.



You asked I supplied.

Mini Weasley

I picked up some very Weasley-ish buttons from Strings 'n Stitches in Ellijay last week, you know, the store with the great door. Only $.40 cents a piece, so I have one to spare. I should have bought the whole dang tube they are so fantastic. Rustic without being overly so. This picture does not do them justice, they are more worn (i.e. blackened with age) than they appear.


Just in time to finish up a very tiny Weasley sweater. A Mini Weasley sized to fit a newborn with fabulous buttons in the back to help it fit over larger heads. It's knit from the top down with raglan sleeves. I turned the hem to give it a more polished final result. The "O" is adapted from the alphabet in the this book.


I have been working on this project for ages and am super thrilled to share it with you. Crunching numbers. Researching measurements. Checking and double checking sizes. Referencing EZ. Crunching more numbers. Writing it all down for another post. And I'm very pleased with the end result, however, untested it is until Baby O arrives later this month.

Did I forget to mention that? Sorry. As an apology I promise post pictures of the boys in their matching sweaters.

Ghoul in the Attic

I said that I had major finishing mojo and I mean it. I got that first sleeve on the Weasley sweater done and immediately cast on for the second when it hit me. The burning desire to finish this sweater.


The second sleeve wasn't all that hard even with the willy-nilly increases. This might have something to do with the fact that I am not a total perfectionist or the fact that the instructions, although they seemed completely insane where actually, for the most part, sane. Directions that say, [Cast on 50 for sleeve make edging and then suddenly increase to 60 stitches. Afterwards increasing at the end of each row every three rows until you reach 100 stitches and knit until proper length.] Seem to be totally outrageous, especially when the front half of your sweater is 100 stitches. It just seems a little wide for an arm is all I'm saying. Turns out they were right. (Imagine that!) Because I was knitting a slightly larger size, i.e. I was tweaking the pattern here and there, I actually increased to a total of 104 stitches.

I had this kind of thought process the entire duration of this sweater:

Me: There's no way this pattern can be right! That would make [insert current item front, back, sleeve, neckline, should shaping, etc. here] HUGE! Let me just calculate that out on my gauge for a moment. *bends over paper pencil in hand*

Pattern: Trust me. Everything will be okay just follow the pattern. *pats TURBOchic's back*

Me: No wait. That can't be right. *gets up to consult The Interwebs of Knowledge*

Pattern: *callings out from another room* I'm telling you. I work out fine.

Me: *sitting back down* The Interweb in its infinite power says this...

Pattern: Never believe everything you read, unless of course it's in my pattern.

Me: Shut up pattern. You're only one page long. There's no way you can be right.

Pattern: Okay, but don't say I didn't tell you so.

Me: *hours later after scouring the Interwebs and manipulating tons of numbers* Okay, for some reason these are all very similar to the pattern's information. I'll just knit the pattern with these little tweaks and make the Hubby try it on as I go.

Pattern: *good to his word doesn't say I told you so and is silent*

Me: *trying on Hubby and asking a million questions about fit* I can't believe this is actually working. Following directions....who'da thunk it?

Pattern: *remains silent*

Me: *looking at pattern* At least I was right that I'd need more yarn.



STATS
Patten and Yarn: Both from this company. With 3.5 balls left of the original 12, I am glad I ordered the small and the large kits. You can't even tell I got two totally different dye lots because I purchase them well over two years apart, unless The New Lanark yarn shop is growing maroon and yellow sheep. I think they'd have the market cornered if they did.
Needles: I didn't bother with changing needle sizes between the arms and the body as recommended and knit the whole thing on size 6 (4mm) needles.
Mods: The above mods listed, plus all the tweaks I knit in to it along the way. I might have kept track here and there, but frankly I am too lazy to go find them and list them.

The Burrow

We are almost to FO status on this one, baby. One sleeve down, the second one cast on and only a neckline to go. I'm so close I can almost taste it. Tastes like raspberry jelly. (That's what I imagine they eat a lot of in the burrow.)

It turns out car rides are the perfect solution to boring st st sleeves. First, what else are you going to do if you are the passenger? Second, The Hubby's arms are always stretched out holding the steering wheel and lastly, there's pleasant company, if you're not trying to help navigate. Judging by the length of that second sleeve, we made need to take another trip soon.

As you can tell I am blatantly ignoring the proper way to construct a sweater. I have:

1. Switched from knitting in the round to flat when required.
2. After finishing the front and back, promptly seamed the shoulders with a Japanese (3 needle) Bind off.
3. Increased willy-nilly up the sleeves until I reached my own required number of stitches. I feel like Gumperina for all the computations done.


4. Additionally, I knit the sleeves flat until I felt like they could manage to stretch around my circular needles when I began to knit in the round.
5. Then I seamed those suckers up!
6. The only reason I haven’t stitched that singular arm to the body is because it’s way more convenient to carry around on it’s own and I do have to glace at it from time to time to make sure my increases on the other arm increase in the exact same willy-nilly fashion.

I am praying for a fervor to come over me the way it has for the hearts and stars blankie, but more on that tomorrow.

Three days until Christmas

Just in time to publish PoPo's Halloween Costume FO. Timely, I know. What can I say? The past week has been a relatively knit free week for me. So much is going on at work that I just want to come home and stare at a blank wall for hours so that I don't have to use my brain. It's just a tad under revising-your-thesis-for-the-umpteenth-time-mind-numbing. Believe it or not knitting just took too much thought. Nevermind posting it to the blog. This work load looks to continue for another six months and it's just starting. Good for my standing at work, bad for the knitting.

But let's not talk about it any more. I know you'd rather just see it.

Rar! Rar!

Pattern: Dogosaurus Rex for in Another Dog's life published by Patons.
Yarn: Red Heart worsted weight acrylic in light green, dark green and purple.
Needles: US 7 circulars for the st st and US 6 DPNs for the ribbing around the legs ONLY.
Size: custom fitted for PoPo, who is 29" at her largest circumference. Goodness, my dog is patient! I must have called her out of crate over 50 times for fittings-no joke. She came and sat still for me every time. I think she likes her sweater, which would make sense, because she has a full-sized quilt she sleeps under year round. Poor hairless thing.

PoPosaurus evaluates her surroundings...


...some more...


...and some more...


I'm getting the distinct feeling that PoPosauruses are herbivores.

Like she hasn't been in this exact yard for over a year now. (Oh my, this is our second Christmas in our own house!) PoPo might be a pedigreed APBT, i.e. pitbull, but she will always be 50% hound dog and 50% Heifer. Her little nose never comes off the ground.

This is my favorite oops picture. I caught PoPo mid sneeze. Imagine that, she sucked something up off the ground that made her sneeze.


Isn't this doggy sweater a gas? She wore it today when I was walking her on her "rounds." (We live between the fork of two roads). Drivers were in awe of her ferocity. People driving by would actually stop and turn up the other fork to continue staring at her. Like they've never seen a dog in a sweater before.

Posting from Bed

Because I am super lazy, I took these pictures of my Weasley Sweater progress without leaving my bed. Just hold the silly thing up and shoot. While not a really great progress shot, it did get the color almost perfect. The picture below is the more 'poised' shot where you can see the fruits of my labor. And really isn't that what blogging is all about?



I finally made it to the sleeves this past break. A little under one half a sleeve finished and a little over one and half to go! Yippee!

In other news, PoPo's costume is getting closer and closer to completion. I have a few inches of straight st st to do before "binding off." Why "binding off" you say? The pattern has you binding off only to pick those stitches back up with you go around the hem to add the ribbing. I plan on just placing those stitches on a holder instead. Although, I am likely to run out of yarn before I get to that point. I'm not really upset as it's just acrylic yarn I can run out to Wal-mart and purchase. Soon there will be one humiliated PoPosaurus for y'all to view. Soon.

Backtracking, I discovered why my shoulders where hurting. First, I would like to give myself a little pat on the back. *pat*pat*pat* It was not from my poor posture or marathon knitting sessions, but rather from three nights in a row of sleeping with my arms above my head. Yes, I am five. A while back we got a CaliKing bed and the Hubby and I are stretching out just because we can apparently. It has nothing to do whatsoever with me being a bedhog, no matter what you hear from the Hubby. I have slept with my arms in a more normal position (spread eagle instead of straight up) the past few nights and I'm feeling much better. See, I knew reading that forum on Ravelry would put thoughts in my head.

Psychology 101

You know the ole' story about college freshman taking their first psychology course? The one that goes on to say that the students start diagnosing everyone one with a mental illness, because they've read about it? (By the way, I did not do that and I was a psych minor.) I believe the same moral applies to reading Ravelry threads about aching hands, arms, shoulders, backs, etc from knitting too long.

Don't get me wrong, Ravelry is a great motivator for those of just who have multiple UFO lurking the corners especially if you refuse to post a picture of any project until it's completed. Not me of course, I only have two. But back to the psych 101 student/Ravelry thread readers...

Wednesday I read this thread, because occasionally I might be a tad overzealous to the point that the back of my left hand feels like I have lit it on fire with a blow torch. You know it might be good to have some first aid remedies on hand in a situation like that. Case in point: Thursday, I decided to finish the back of the Hubby's Weasley Sweater and start on one of the sleeves. (aside: I am so there on sleeve island and about ready to poke my eyes out with my needles. Not my good Addi ones though, just my crappier Boye pairs.) Followed by another day of ripping out hours worth of mistakes and trying reknit an entire PoPosaurus Rex in one day. After which my arms might willingly detach themselves from my body at the shoulders just to avoid a third day of delirious knitting fever (which will so happen tomorrow PoPo so needs to wear her PoPosaurus Rex sweater to visit her cousin Rogue, the English setter).

Today, I actually knitted through the left-hand-pain and knit straight on to the I-had to-take-a-hot-bath-to-soak-my-shoulders-pain. The thing is I have never had shoulder pain (from knitting) before in my life. I didn't know you should stretch before you knit. Or that one must build up to hours of knitting, like a marathon runner builds up to hours of running. Personally, I think it's the thread talking. I think my shoulders just heard that they could "get sore" from knitting and decided to use it to their advantage. Heh, heh, heh. They thought, We'll pretend to get sore from knitting today, because the legs really screwed us over yesterday with that face plant while walking. She didn't even finish the first lap! We'll show them. And no, I'm still bruised from the face plant, so I won't tell you about it until later.

Tonight, because I can't knit, I had to take a hundred horrible pictures of my cats. PoPo wasn't cooperating. (I got her out from underneath her blankie before 9 am to potty and that just wasn't cool. She was so sleepy she walked out to her "area" to go #1 and #2, circled a few times, forgot to go and walked back up the steps to go inside.) So here goes:

Bad cat pictures: Maya way too up close.

Bad cat pictures: Maya in this photo could be funny if I could come up with a good lolcat.
Bad cat pictures: Slugboy featuring Nigel, the indeterminable lump.
Bad cat pictures: My best attempt to show Nigel as something other than Slugboy.

Bad cat pictures: Maya The Bag Licker. If you scroll really fast these next pictures make a flip book.

In which I am busted

"Go back to your knitting, this is going to be uncomfortable enough without all you nosey sods listening in." Fred or George Wealsey.

I'm not gonna make it. SAFF is in two days and I'm not gonna make it. On my SAFF Caridgan that is. I have hit sleeve island and the collar is nowhere near in sight. Instead I have doggedly worked on another pair of Hedera socks with my leftover Lime yarn from GuessWho knowing that I will not have enough yarn to complete the second sock. Yet, I can not get away from knitting it.

I may take a leaf out of Grumperina's book and refuse to continue trying to be a Knitter and just be happy with being a k nitter. So what if it takes me longer than one month to complete my SAFF Cardigan? Or longer than two years to complete the (currently on hold) Weasley sweater? The ability to whip out a Kauni Sweater or three (however coveted) does not make one a better knitter than the rest. Possibly more dedicated, but not better. Whether I complete a larger garment over the course of several years or a small garment in a matter of weeks does not affect my worth as a knitter. The scale of the feat doesn't affect the amount of satisfaction from accomplishing it. There I said it. You heard me.

DiSTraCteD?

The camera is still on the fritz, so I'm hoping to distract you with a picture of Maya at 5 days old with her adopted mom feeding her.

Sock update: Got another 6 rows done at the Dentist. (I arrived ten minutes early for my 8:40 appointment and waited another twenty as they forgot I was there! I was the only stinkin' patient in the waiting room.) We are progressing nicely to the toe decrease. Only a week and half left until my self-imposed deadline of Mother's day. Do you think Mom will mind getting only one sock? Maybe some flowers will distract her from noticing that it's a lonely single sock, instead of a mated pair of socks...

Weasley Sweater update: Only seven more inches of the back left. I have discovered that watching a movie greatly helps distract me from the monotony of st st over a large distance. Are sensing a theme yet? As an added bonus it also allows me to knit for large quantities of time without realizing it. So far I have watched Hoodwinked! (so cute), Naruto Movie #1 (meh), and parts of Blades of Glory and Idiocracy (both good). I was thinking about watching Babel. Can anyone who's seen it tell me if it's any good? I take other movie suggestions as well.

DB Fair isle project: I have progressed past the fair isle part and am in the boring st st yet again. Thankfully, it's a small sized project (for a 2 y.o.) and I can take it practically anywhere to distract me from-you guessed it- boredom.

Such as last Friday when I knitted while waiting in the Vet's for PoPo's annual check up and steroid shot. The shot which she did not need! Yea! She has serious allergies and a cortisone shot is practically the only thing that keeps her from scratching her skin into open wounds. We have tried everything short of making her an indoor dog completely, which her mommy can't do. PoPo loves the out of doors too much. I mean everything consisting of oatmeal baths, safflower oil, benadryl, the shots-of course-and now we are trying N-zymes. A natural product much like a vitamin that the vet said was worth a try. It costs about the same as getting a shot each month ~$10.00 not including the office visit fee and is better for her than a steroid, which she can become desensitized to. Oh, did I mention it's on top of the baths one a week, oil on every meal and benadryl twice a day? That's my dog for you-high maintenance just like her mommy.

Who would have guessed that this sweet puppy would turn into 60 lbs of allergies every spring and summer?

P.S. Did I successfully distract you from the fact that this knitting blog has no actual proof knitting going on recently?

Sweater-lious

Is it a wool tease when someone says "tomorrow I'll have progress pics of such and such" and then they don't have any progress pics of that item instead posting some lame example of lace and completely ignoring their previous promise? I believe it is my knitting buddies.

Sorry it took me so long to un-lazify myself and take pictures of Weasley Progress, which as been done since this weekend. What can I say? I was reading other people's blogs and I forgot? Phhhhh! So without any further to do---

We have progressed to the color work of an otherwise very boring blog entry. If the fact that I refer to the hubby by 'M' has not clued you on to the letter his name begins with, maybe this will.

I would give the author of this Times New Roman "M" design credit if I hadn't printed the chart off more than a year ago. Sorry. BTW, if you're the author let me know. I'm basing it off the pattern that came with the yarn. Which oddly enough, does not have any shaping for the armholes. Can that possibly be right? The pattern just says "marking for arm holes" and the sleeve instructions have no cap shaping either. So I'm just knitting away in a blind hope that I am literate and will bumble through this alright. This method, as we all know, works so well.


The stranding on the WS is not to shabby if I say so myself. I'm rather pleased with my ability to keep it all straight. All two yarns. It's slow going, but once I get finished with this it's all boring one color st st again.

Only 113 days left until the movie and all I have left is the rest of the front, half the back and two sleeves. Looks like it's all going according to schedule!

Weasley and the Anti-Itch Solution

I have discovered how to add inches onto my Weasley Sweater without going insane. Quite simply, I feel brilliant about it. B-R-I-L-L-I-A-N-T. [Add your own big smile and razzl-dazzle hand movements.]

As you may or may not know, my job involves odd hours. It's one of the reasons I love it. Some days are normal 9:oo to 5:oo-ers and some are 1:00 to 8:30-ers. Normally, a person would cringe at those kind of hours, but I get to make my own schedule and my late nights involve working with students. I don't do very much, except keep the students on task and answer questions every now and then. In fact, I often need another activity to keep me busy. Enter knitting.

By knitting, I can still very much do my busy work and pay my full attention to the students. We all know knitting helps us focus our attention. I read somebody proved it somewhere. I swear, I just can't remember where. Grumperina possibly? She's a sciencey gal like that. JenLa? They know the value of knitting in public. At any rate, I can knit mind numbing rows of stockinette stitch in the round and still be fully accessible. Should I actually need to get up at a moments notice the Weasley Sweater allows for that too. It's the perfect at work project! Plus there's the up side of exposing all those kids to knitting. One of my girls has already completed several scarves. She's currently working on a reversible scarf with two colors. I'm very proud. Especially, that she's learning to knit mostly without my help; due to the fact that I need to her to work when she's with me and not to knit. However, I do provide tons of support, helpful hints when she's stuck, and about a billion websites to check out for help when I'm not around. (All Praise Amy's Knittinghelp.com!) Though, I would love to get paid to teach college students to knit.

The result of my epiphany? An additional inch and half on the Weasley Sweater! Hey, I only discovered the yarn isn't a scratchy when I knit while talking two nights ago. So all in all, I have 10.5 inches done on the front AND the back. That's got to be like one third of the way done. Plus, I still have:
to finish this project.

WIPs and Fos:
WIP: You guessed it! The beginnings of a pomatomus sock in my gifted yarn. I reduced the total number of stitches needed due to the yarn gauge being slightly larger than the pattern required (found at Knitty). So far so good. Everything is working out beautifully. Eleven more rows in the pattern and I begin the heel. Updates to follow.

FO: I finished these baby booties a while back, but needed to find the right buttons. I gave up trying to find cute boy buttons without traveling to foreign countries or spending an arm and a leg. Instead, I just bought cutesy girl buttons at my local X-Mart and had at it.

Pattern: The booties are from Zoe Mellor's book I got for Christmas*. This is her generic pattern, with buttons added for flare. (Anytime I talk about added flare I think about Jennifer Aniston's character in Office Space and "What you can do with your flare!" [Insert rude finger gesture.] It's very distracting.)

Yarn: No-label 100% acrylic yarn bought a long time ago at Wal-mart.

Needles: size 2 aluminum of unknown origin passed down from my grandmother.

Addendum's: None, I knitted them by the pattern. Though, I did arrange a different set of buttons differently. Does that count?

*Note: I have several unfinished and/or solo booties started from this book.

Random Acts of Kindness

The camaraderie and big hearted kindness that exists in the knit bloggers community manages to impress me daily. After I posted a preemptive apology for the lack of knitting going on here, I received at RAOK offer from a previously unknown friend Elizabeth. She asked if she could send me a gift of her own handspun yarn! I was so surprised I had to email her to clear up any misgivings about my plight, else I felt I would be cheating her. The kind soul she is asked only if I would review her yarn she would be happy to send it. ME?! review yarn?! Oh, I've died and gone to heaven in the bliss of my hobby. You read about the RAOKs and sometimes even see the Knitter's ROAKs webring button on the sidebar of someone's blog, but you never really expect it to happen for you.

And just in case you think I have forgone all knitting completely, I'm posting a super boring pic of Weasley Redo Progress.


Here we have one inch of double ribbing from the cast on edge and from there seven more inches of stockinette stitch in the round. The blue yarn is waste from the cast on and will be removed later. So far, I am still on par with the HPOP movie release date count down according to Mugglenet.com . I have 151 days, 9 hours, 39 minutes and 9 seconds left, which of course by the write I write and publish this is way off, but you get the drift.

Also, a picture of Maya for no good reason, other than my posts have been text heavy.

Props to me

Last night I made progress on frogging the Weasley Sweater. The first rip was heartwrenching, but the huge chunk in the middle was ultimately satisfying as I "gaining" yarn. In fact, it was pretty fun walking across house unraveling while trying to keep the Nigel from clawing the strand out of the air with my hands above my head. I was glad to be ripping that sucker out, Until the last few rows when I began to feel sad all those hours of hard work with that harsh yarn was gone. Forever gone as extinct as the dinosaur with the only evidence remaining are the few pictures on this blog.

This yarn is so unforgiving on the hands. Yucky, highland yarn. I don't care if you are from Scotland and are the authentic item, you hurt. Just be thankful that the Hubby promised to wear you at least once (to the movie opening) and I love him enough to knit with you. But hear me now you rough, twiggy yarn I will never knit with you again. I very much disliked hand winding you into a center pull ball.

Somewhere along the rewinding process I think I felted to ends together. Because look how the second ball (center) is twice as big as the original (right) and the first hand wound ball (right). I felt really that my prior knitting self was really smart. Looky, here my previous knitting skilz were da bomb, yo! Watch out.

I also re-started on the Weasley Sweater for the Hubby with 167 days left until movie number 5 (according to my timer from Mugglenet.com) . However, two inches of a sweater is really boring to look at in a picture. Instead, I will wow you all with some serious ramen noodle yarn still needing to be re-wound. (You'll have to forgive the bad setting, because really where does one hang a whole skein of yarn in need of winding that is out of the way of the cats?)

Weasley Sweater Revamped

Recently, my knitting has been put on the back burner. I have been busy reading, scrapbooking, watching movies and all in all waiting for February to arrive so that I can spend that month's yarn budget. You see, if I buy new yarn next month for a new project, I can hold off for a little longer on a project I've been avoiding like the plague-The Weasley Sweater.

The Weasley sweater started off innocent enough. I was excited about knitting my first sweater. I special ordered the yarn from Scotland that was used in the HP movies. I knitted up the body and begun the split for the arm holes. Things were going spectacularly. Until I noticed that I was running low on yarn. I started off with ten balls and was down to four without completing the front or back and without starting on the sleeves. That's when I started thinking about the width of sweater might be a little, well, w-i-d-e. I shutter at the thought of reknitting all those inches with that scruffy highland wool. Thus, it was cast to one side. I couldn't even bear to rip it back and wind it into a ball. It just got shoved partially completed into baggy in a corner of my craft room.

So in order to help me get jump back onto the Weasley Sweater band wagon, I have:

1. Downloaded the counter from Mugglenet.com to count down the days until the next movie's release. Hopefully it will motivate me as it counts down to the movie release and the days I have until this sweater needs to be finished.

2. Scoured the web for Weasley alongs only to discover that once again I am vastly out of date.

3. Considered ordering the book Charmed Knits: Projects for Fans of Harry Potter, but realized that would go against some of my resolutions.

4. Placed the project in a prominent place so that I might see it more often.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this project back on track?

Lemon Heads

This past weekend the hubby and I went to visit a friend of mine (the knitting apprentice) who just bought a new house. She was a one of the best roommates in college, if not THE BEST. So we decided to throw a little party to celebrate the holidays and show off all the new place all at once.

First off, let me just say that if you want to cook a coke ham by a recipe a friend used and he says 350 degrees overnight. He's lying, even if he did used to work for a caterer and you've eaten wonderful meals prepared by him before. Just go find a recipe online. Unless you want to get up at 5 am to the smell of burning coke and ham.

Second, let me just say that that I am completely jealous of the largeness of her home and even more so of the fenced in backyard for her pupsteroos, Charlie and Samantha, i.e. Sam. I told her so, but I have better cabinets. Of course, my FIL is in the cabinet business, so they were free, but whatever. For two days now, I have been working the hubby over on a fenced in yard . See how much more fun PoPo will have if we fence in the yard. And by fun I mean not going stir crazy and asking us to play with her all the time? However, it seems fences cost money and we have none.....but never fear dear readers, I will find a way around this problem. I swear.

So in a vain attempt to regain my status as "cool," I knitted. I knitted with acrylic yarn leftovers. I knitted all day prior to the party and ended up with a eggplant. Eggplant? Yes, a hat in the shape of a eggplant including leaves and a stem. (Personally, I think it looks more like a grape, but since when to individual grapes have leaves?) My apprentice loved it, wanted it, had to keep it and I was very happy. I gave her the eggplant hat that would fit a two year old. I regained my "cool."

Thanks for the pictures, Apprentice!

Free Pattern!

I will make up my long absence to you all with a free pattern. I promised this pattern a while back and even wrote it up in my handy dandy knitting notebook, but never got around to typing it up until this morning.

The Cloud Vest has been produced!! Just click on the picture below and a full sized pattern should open up. If nothing else right click and save. A full sized pattern should open in paint. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn't allow .pdfs to upload.



Please forgive me for any pattern oopsies. It is my first pattern and I just kinda winged it as I went along. Also, I have taken my cue from EZ and written the directions rather chattily. I can say That this garment has been approved by the most picky of sweater wearing men and has even been given a special drawer to itself in his computer desk. I'd say it's pretty much safe for the male populous. If you have any questions please feel free to email me using the link at the bottom of the side bar.

Croptoberfest!

Some people celebrate October with Halloween and costumes. Other people, childless no doubt, celebrate October with beer and alcohol. Then there is the few and far between that get all riled up with scrapbooking.

In this household we do all three. The dog gets forced into some stupid knitted costume, because her mommy and daddy think it's funny-errr, because she likes being in sweaters.....The hubby attends the annual World Beer Festival and samples hops, meads, and turkey legs. I don't drink beer, so it's fun boys only weekend. Lastly, but certainly not least, I attend the annual croptoberfest with my mom. Yes, I know this is a knitting blog, but I am making slow progress on all my projects and will cleverly distract you with talk of other things.

This weekend I am driving into ATL again to visit the ENT again and am staying the weekend to scrapbook with Mom. This is the 1st sale of the year and Mom does all the purchasing. (What can I say? I'm newly married and poor.) Plus, I'm way behind on scrapbooking. I just finished my girlfriend's wedding from April 2004. Whoopsie!

For most of you the process of creating is why you knit, sew, quilt. And being a knitter I can completely understand the satisfaction and sense of fulfillment one gets from it. I get the same thing from scrapbooking. Let me pause here and clarify between scrapbooking and CRAPbooking. Scrapbooking is when one takes pictures enchances them by journaling and possibly pretty papers and stickers. CRAPbooking is when the album is so heavy and pages are so thick it takes two hands and six people to properly explain just how old Aunt Marjorie was turning in that picture. Pages fold and crinkle under the weight of odds and ends that make no sense whatsoever, and have no relation at all to anything else on the page, but instead cause the book to sit permenantly lopsided. I do not CRAPbook.

The Vote is Tied!

It's down to the wire: Horizon vs. Grass. The vote is two against two. I only need one more person to to be the tie breaker (other than myself of course.) Personally, I lean towards the Horizon color, but after reading Emily's theory I'm having second thoughts. She after all was a professional. HECK! She still is a professional! (Have y'all seen the sock page she just wrote? If I was capable of knitting socks, I would be all over her stuff. Y'all this is the level of dish cloth accummulation I hope to achieve.)

Good news, I am starting my weekend early tomorrow with a trip to the ATL for and ENT appointment. For those of you who don't have children, the ENT is an ear doctor. She's wonderful and I will never ever leave her even if I have to travel multiple states to get to her. (Thankfully, I do not have to right now.) Just wish I could find an gynocologist that I felt the same way about, but that's nether here nor there.

This weekend I am having a friend over where I will enable her knitting skills and make cheesecake. mmmmm....cheesecake.....Anyway, I plan on getting 90 % of the dog's costume finished, plus a good start on Baby Tart. Baby Tart has a wonder story to go with it involving the evilest yarn store ever... Unfortunately, I am at work and wish to do the story justice, so it will have to wait until Monday.

Happy Knitting this weekend.