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Summer Fun with Teddy W.

Below is (my version of) the Oslo Walk shawl by Susanna IC from the Winter 2010 issue of Interweave Knits. It is Fearless Fibers yarn from Etsy from a little ways back. The color is raspberry, but in real life it's raspberrier. Nonetheless, this picture by the incomparable Terri Minkin shows the texture and beads off beautifully. Not only that, the angle is perfection, making me look thin and postureific. (From now on, I wish to have all my portraits made by the incomparable Terri Minkin standing on a couch.)

The first 25 rows of lace are ok. There are more than several mistakes, but the pattern has been achieved. The last 9 rows of the lace are very bollixed up. There was a jog in the lace chart that I was unable to understand or even knit rotely. Blogger is trying to tell me that "rotely" is not a word. Silly Blogger. After frogging a number of times, I had to be content with knitting that would hold together. Stitch counts, especially within pattern repeats, were out the window. Since blocking, I have found only 1 dropped stitch and only 1 instance of extreme holeyness that had to be repaired. I did my own thing on the plain section. This is a gift for the last person besides the 2 dudes that I hadn't knit for at what I guess I can now call "my old job". She is a professional soprano on the side. I am picturing her with her nordic good looks singing with the shawl artfully draped upon her good self.

Next up: Ballet School Dropout Footies by Lady Lungdoc, owner and operator of the Purl This blog. (See sidebar.)

I changed the angle of the taper to make them v-necks, rather than scoop-necks. I went down on the number of stitches cast on by 4 and changed everything to accomodate that. I was hoping to make them most invisible. It really was unnecessary and they'd fit better if I hadn't done that. I am planning for a little shrinkage in length, so that ought to help. Invisibility would have been better approached with a color of yarn more akin to the color of me. Ms. Lungdoc used normal sock yarn, but I've used Esprit, which is a knock-off of Cascade Fixation. Come to think of it, I think the toe tips actually are made of Cascade Fixation. This is not a design feature. This is an in-my-shoe so it doesn't matter if I run out of yarn feature. The other one matches.

The monster is now a faceful, nameless blob.

Awaiting deployment

The following hat will eventually go to the VA for a holiday party later this year. Some of the ladies in my Monday night knitting group are collecting warm things for the vets. The photo insists on being sideways. Will you kind of tilt your head, please? The hat is made with a yarn from Zitron that I can't seem to find on Ravelry. It's self-striping, 100% wool and 4 ply, but with an unspun, felted texture. It is almost square in cross-section. The incomparable Terri Minkin gave this to me for my knitting club. However, the students were unable knit with it because they kept breaking it. I've got enough for another hat at least.

This hat is knit top-down and I actually used a pattern: Dylan's Beanie by Wooly Wormhead. I was worried that the hat wouldn't pull in at the bottom because that's happened more than once in my career. So for the last 5 rows I twisted all the knit stitches. It pulls in just fine and probably would have anyway, but I do like the way it looks.

Wait, wait! I just remembered--my new hatstand!

It was fun going into Sally Beauty Supply and saying, "Yes, I'm looking for a head, please."

Monster

Here's a monster guy whom I am knitting for a friend's son who has been knitting for a shelter so that every child who comes in will have at least one toy or buddy or whatever. He's created a poem that goes with each one explaining that the monster is feeling lonely. He gives each one a name which goes in the poem. He's got a few of us doing this.

I had made 2 earlier ones, but this one seems the softest and most cuddly. I think it looks bigger in the picture. It's about 8.5 inches or 21.5 centimeters tall, not including legs and ears. It's an old stash yarn called Rainbow from Cascade. It's a cotton boucle with a nylon (I suppose nylon) binder thread. It's as soft as all get out. Not to worry, it will be getting a face, but I'm not done thinking about it yet.

This is for Laura, she who encouraged the blogging and then enabled it by providing the I-Phone. Thanks, hon.

The Rest of the Story of Rosa's Blanket.

First let me apologize for the unpictured and uncredited squares. Sixty different people contributed: Theresa, Terri, Lynne, Margie, Jennifer, Beth, Cherie, Diane, Lauren, Rosa, Bev, Nola, and I. We used Lion Brand Fisherman's yarn. There are 25 twelve inch (30 cm.) blocks arranged in a five by five square. Theresa and I carefully whip-stitched all the seams. But that isn't the real story.

~

The real story is a tale told mostly in pictures.

This is the square that never was. It is not in the quilt. I don't think I've ever worked as hard on a piece of knitting as on that. That's why I'm making you look at it. It is what became of the little pyramid from several posts back. It stubbornly remains lettuce despite the concerted efforts of the best minds in modern medicine knitting. I think a frog ate it. I don't want to see it ever again. It'll suck me into trying to perfect it again. Let's leave that to cooler heads.

Knitter unknown. Sorry.Knitter unknown. Knitter unknown. I knitted this one to replace the square which shall not be named.

Center gets the square. This kooky kewl square was used as the very center of the blanket. Knitted by Lauren.

Knitter unknown. Memory like a sieve, anybody?

Assembly.

Teddy was into it.

The last two sections are combined.

The first peek at it as a single piece.

Both kitties wanted to pose with it, but neither wanted to be seen posing. Here is Musette,

and you all know Teddy.

Finito.

Ten Things I Didn't Know about Myself

Wait . . . Have I got that title right? Close enough.

1. I am a perfectionist.

2. I don't like to take off the shrink wrap that comes on new appliances and other items. One day down the road I will be able to take it off and have the washer or other object look great even though I didn't actually keep it nice.

3. I shared a bedroom with my grandma while I was in sixth through twelfth grade. It was there I learned how to sew and how to put on a bra.

4. Grandma taught me also that you should use clean rags for kotex and if you want to get rid of a tapeworm you begin by sitting on a bucket. I did for a time do the first, but have never had occasion to try the second.

5. My other grandma taught me how to iron. I don't iron my clothes anymore. I go to work with them wrinkled. It's a look. It's interesting that neither grandma taught me that ironing is the one thing that really makes your sewing look professional.

6. I gained 15 pounds every time I seriously tried to quit smoking, but failed. It didn't go away when I started again.

7. I don't smoke anymore now. I only managed to quit by doing it gradually. It took more than two years.

8. I love vests. I have several batches of stash yarn that I bought to make myself a vest.

9. I can't figure out how to knit a Clapotis. It strains my tiny, little pea-sized brain.

10. I like wearing plaid, especially shorts.

11. I don't wear sweaters much. They are too hot to wear except at home.

12. The last time I wrote 10 things about myself I could only think of seven, so now you have to suffer through 13.

13. I'm a joy to have around. Ask anybody.

I will now pass on the award that prompted the list to 10 other beautiful bloggers to perhaps tell us 10 things about themselves. No obligations.

Stash Amassed Beyond Life Expectancy

Batty's Adventures in Spooky Knitting

Daniel Mount's Garden Journal

Great Towering Textiles

Random Meanderings

Knitting into Divinity
Knitter's Journey

MollieBee's Attic

AngelKnits

Purl This

Quickie Post on The Secret Project

Our Monday night knitters have a remarkable member. She's like our sister who's way smarter, much more talented, light years cuter, and waaay younger than everybody else. On top of all that, she's kind and generous. We all love her. Her name is Rosa. She just got married on Saturday and we got to dance at her wedding! We made her and her hubby an Aran type afghan as a surprise. There will be more about that in the next post. Here are several of the squares before seaming. Please forgive me and inform me of the makers of the ones I've forgotten or miscredited.

by Diane (?) by Terri (?)

by Jennifer

by Lynne

by Rosa herself (Aren't we sly?)