Unsung Knits for an Unsung Man

This is my friend Jerry. He just had a big birthday. Here he is at Lambeau Field modeling knitwear. I'm sure you can guess by the amateurish embroidery that I made this mitt. I made another one, too. Unfortunately that one says, YRREY. I got a little excited when I got to the last letter and forgot I was going backwards. I'm pretty sure he's wearing that one, too. It just didn't show in the picture because maybe he's scratching or something. I believe that thing around his neck is what we used to call a transister radio. I had an avocado green one when I was in 6th grade. They are a precursor to the I-Pod and maybe even the cell phone.

I splurged on the yarn. It's Berroco Blackstone Tweed. It's got a felted quality and I enjoyed working with it. The pattern is Knucks from Knitty. I can't remember what I did, but I tweaked the pattern a little because of gauge and so the palm fits a bit oddly. Maybe it's because it's my first top down pair of gloves. I made the fingers a bit longer. You only need the ends of your fingers to poke out. Well, frankly, I usually only put thumbs in wristwarmers, not fingers. Maybe I'll go even longer next time. It gets cold here, baby!

I Had a Dream

Last night I had a dream that I was working on a sock and had finally gotten to the point of trying it on to see how close to the heel I was. Well, there was a big ole hole at the ball of the foot. Bare naked skin was shining through. I was very upset and said to my Grandma Schultz, "This is the first time knitting has ever made me cry." And I cried. Of course there was other weird stuff and jumping around, but as we say in the teaching reading biz, that was the main idea.

It was nice to see Grandma Schultz again. I guess I was thinking about her because at work we had been talking about learning to cook and sew. She moved in with us when I was about 9 or 10, I think. We shared a bedroom and she had an ancient electric White machine in a cabinet with a knee control. That was a great machine. It had 4 drawers and one whole drawer was all buttons, wonderful buttons, which I've been using over the years. This is not a picture of the actual machine. I found this pic on the Internet. Our cabinet did not have a curve and was a different shade of brown. It also had a light bulb in a little cover. I think the one pictured here is a treadle model. Ours looked something like this, but I don't know about the belt. It seems like I remember a belt, but I don't remember it ever breaking or needing replacement.

Grandma was a consumate saver and maker-doer. Afterall, the first half of her childhood was spent on a farm and she was a single parent for a while during the other Depression. (Sometime ask me about what I used for my period at first and how to get rid of a tapeworm.) The button collection has now dwindled alarmingly. I try to replenish it, but it isn't the same.

I say it with pride that I get some of my make do-itiveness from her. Some people see this as fearless creativity. Once I had wanted some little black boot type shoes (read 1980's) and couldn't afford them, but I found a pair that was black leather except that they had large, army green canvas sections that I would probably like now. So I bought them and took a big magic marker and colored the canvas sections black. I had some friends who thought this was highly creative. I don't know about that, but I did get the shoes that I wanted.

Faceless, Armless Wild Thing

Wild Thing in progress. The toes/claws were an interesting structural problem, but I am satisfied with them now. Here is the crocheted original. I did try to do it in crochet, but let's just say that as crotchety as I am, I am still a better knitter than crocheter. I am very worried that I made the head too small. It looks smaller in real life. Once I start putting hair and features on it, it will be too late. I have to decide today if I will knit another head and slip it over this head to get more size. I couldn't stand it if this thing was just off enough to look like a cheap imitation. This picture was taken by Trini of Saturday Morning at Alterra Knitting and e-mailed from her cell phone. Thanks, Trini!

The Wild Thing's intended turns 1 tomorrow. Time, she is a-wastin'.

Stuff

I figured out what was wrong with Blogger. There was a hitherto unnoticed box that had somehow become unchecked in the picture importation window.

These socks developed this. It must have been a laundry accident. Now I just have to find the leftover yarn . . .

These Norwegian House Slippers fascinate me. The second one is sewn now, but they still need felting. I went big on the needle. We'll see what happens. I'm pretty sure they're not going to fit me. I'll probably make myself some, too.

Here's the second skein of Knitting Notions Superwash sock yarn in the color wildflowers and what it's becoming: a Lacy Baktus. (You may recall that I made a mohairy Baktus last January or so.) The combination of yarn and pattern are working here. It didn't even take 22 tries! Now here's an interesting question for me. Why am I compelled to immediately knit this even though I just knit another skein of it? I have so many other likely candidates.

I finished these. Seiding and Elizabeth saw me working on them at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. I decided to give them to my hairdresser, Annie. I was foolish enough to ask her if she thought one was shorter than the other. In essence, I unfinished these. I took them back and will lengthen the shortie as much as I can given the small amount of remaining yarn. The cable is supposed to line up along the outer edge of the hand, not the center. They do this better on Annie. The lumpy wrist is due to my watch. The yarn is Elsebeth Lavold Angora. (60% Angora, 20% wool, 20% nylon)

Speaking of Annie, here's what she did to me. Well, she didn't mess it up like that or force me to take a badly lit picture, but she did give me purple highlights. Really purple. I love it.

No Pictures on Blogger

Well I tried to post the other day and the pictures wouldn't upload. Today the button that you press to upload the pictures doesn't even work. So Hello, Howdedoo, etc.

It's hot at work, even when it's nice outside.

I did some knitting.

I had trouble with it.

I am doing more knitting. I am having trouble with that too.

It is better with pictures, isn't it?