Actual Knitting Update

Just when you thought I had stopped knitting…

I never did really. I just haven’t been blogging about it for one reason or another. Much of my non-blogging has been because much of my knitting was going for presents. In light of which, I will now update you on the presents given and how they were received:

Remember the Cat’s Paw Shawl?

It was apparently worn simultaneously with the new frilly tutus and ballet skirts my cousinette received for Christmas. One could just not decide on one or the other, so both did just as well. I have no pictures of this event as of yet.

Then there was the Eris, which was beautiful, as long as it wasn’t worn:

This was apparently also a hit. My aunt’s body shape must be totally different from mine because aside from feeling that it was a little big, she said it was fine and she loved it. Also no pics as of yet.

Then there were several pairs of socks, all of which were received with joy and then promptly hidden away so that no one else “accidentally” wound up with them. Fortunately, there was no fighting, just much praise (at least that’s what they said). These are the ones I haven't blogged about methinks. Both are from the Journey Cable Pattern:


We also finally convinced my grandmother that yes, she really should actually wear the socks I knit for her because A: I did not spend hours knitting them so they could sit in a drawer for the rest of her life, B: I can and will knit more for her and C: She deserves pampering. So yes, she is finally wearing them. Yay! She also loves the Northern Star Shawl, although I did desist from sending her the matching tam (also to be used as a toilette seat cover). Since you've seen all of these things before (my grandmother and computers don't mix, so I can blog freely about her gifts), I won't plague you with pictures again.

Then there were the pink Journey Cable cashmere socks for Thepinksheep. I won the yarn from Karoline Knits and knew when I got it that it would be perfect for my friend. They were. She says she loves them, and frankly, I just don’t see how she couldn’t. I would have worried about her had she not done. The day Thepinksheep goes off pink cashmere is the day we all need to start worrying about the end of the world coming.




Then there was the set I did last autumn for Inkysticks and never blogged about. I know for a fact she liked the gloves (for which I still have no picture) because I personally witnessed her wearing them non-stop on my trip to England.



Finally, there was the Autumn Creek Cowl I did for my secret santa person. She was also happy with it and says it goes with her ski outfit. I’m particularly glad about this since I was uncertain about the colour. The pattern, – is from Knitplaywithfire and I believe it’s called the Rock Creek Cowl and will publish the exact details here when she’s published it - on the other hand, was a dead cert. I love that pattern and may one day do one for me.

So, once again it was a successful knitting season with every one happy about what they got and hinting that they would not be adverse to more. After having heard all of the horror stories about knitting things for ungrateful recipients, I feel quite lucky to have an entire family and many friends who love hand knit items, right down to the 7 year olds.

COLD!

I’d like to thank whichever poor snowed in person who has been concentrating on sending their snow here. It worked. We got snow yesterday and last night. It started when I got up on Sunday morning to walk the dogs. It was still dark out, but I could hear the wind. Then when it had gotten a bit lighter, I looked out the window and Lo! It was white. Blizzard type white. Not that we really had a blizzard, but it looked a bit like it with the wind. Fortunately where I take the dogs for their walks, there is always less wind and we had a fairly nice early morning jaunt. We even got a nice walk in at noon because, although it had stopped snowing, it was still raining and people were still waiting for it to stop. Just as I got back to the car, the dog owners who realized that they could no longer force Fluffy to tie a knot in it were starting to go. I love it when it rains on Sunday. Keeps the crowds down and we get the place to ourselves.

Up where I live it continued to snow a little all day, but it didn’t really stick. Then last night, it started up again and by this morning there were several inches of very compact wet snow on my car. It was nice, aside from having to dig at 6am. It will all have melted by tomorrow, but still, it was nice to have it cold again. I’m also hopeful that the continuing cold will mean that we’re going to have a relatively cool summer. In 2003, the summer from Hell, it had already warmed up by March and never got cold again. I live in hope that this will never be repeated. I should have waited for an ice age to be born.

There is, of course, an added benefit to the cold: it makes knitting sweaters, especially ones all knit in one piece, much more comfortable. I’m down to the hem on the Eris and it’s all getting a little heavy and warm. I would not want to have to do this in summer. I’m still liking the sweater, although I wish there were a little more cabling to break up the monotony of the stockinet stitch and the wraps. It seems like it’s never ending. Still, it does make it all go a little faster.

I’ve also CO the Journey Cable Socks (see list of things to knit on right hand side of screen for the link) and these are just fun. It’s simple enough to be a relatively easy knit, but there is enough cabling to keep you interested. Add to that that the recipient will love them and they really are a great pair of socks to knit up. I foresee the knitting of several pair of these.

Unfortunately, this means that I have a pair of plain phone socks languishing on the needles. I really should continue with them, but I’m afraid I won’t until the Eris is finished. Poor phone socks. I used to love doing them because they were easy and now they’re boring. Cast away for more interesting knits before they ever even really get started. It’s terrible what we do to our old friends sometimes.

As Knitting is Dangerous

Finally! I finally got to the end of the raglan increases on the Eris and have duly split the sleeves off and am working on the body. I now have about 100 rounds of stockinet to knit. That’s 17’000 plus stitches. Pros: Mindless knitting with no real possibility of mistakes. You cannot screw up stockinet *dodges lightning bolt* *prays to knitting gods* Cons: 17’000 plus stitches of stockinet and only stockinet. Need I say more? Still, I will make the best of it and put in a good DVD to knit to (telly is awful at the moment). Should go fairly quickly. I hope. As long as I don’t have to dodge too many lightning bolts.

I realized today whilst replying to Yarnerinas' blog, where she very kindly lists me as a blog she enjoys on a regular basis, that I need one more knitting accessory. A pair of these. Yes, safety goggles. I’m serious! Do you have any idea how scratched my glasses are becoming from being hit by flying circulars? If it weren’t for my glasses, I probably would have lost an eye by now. Indeed, some of you will remember the incident where I had to pull the needle out from between my eye socket and the eye ball. I was wearing glasses at the time, thus the safety goggles. Goggles, unlike my glasses, are closed at the top and bottom so the needles cannot fly under your glasses and into your eye. Must get a pair. Maybe I could even buy in bulk, decorate with various themes and then sell them to other accident prone knitters through an etsy shop. I could cover the tops and bottoms with decorations, and leave the front open so you could still see your knitting. Oooo! I could even market them as Christmas-Knitting aids! Being blinkered would help you focus on your knitting and only your knitting. What more could you want when it’s getting close to Christmas? Protection, decoration and focus all in one small package. Discounts to those who by the Drooping Eyelid Alarm with Sooper MIL Sound at the same time. Now that I would have to call the Christmas-Knitting Gift Package.

In non-knitting news, it’s tick season again. Oh the joy. Time to gear up for my reoccurring tick nightmare. The following is not for the squeamish: I’m in a posh hotel room with a bunch of other people. At some point I sneak the dogs in and then back out again. They go unnoticed, but leave a full tick behind. Now when I remove a tick from the dog in real life, I burn it to make sure it’s dead and gone. Sometimes they expand a bit and then pop. So, in the dream, I get out a lighter and start to burn this tick. The only problem is that it starts expanding rapidly and doesn’t stop until it’s about twice as tall as I am. People are running out of the room trying to get away while I’m standing there panicking and trying to think of how to get this tick out of the room as quickly as possible. Flushing it down the toilet is out because it’s too big for anyone’s toilet excepting maybe the Jolly Green Giant’s (Don’t even get me started on his sewage system. We don’t want to go there. No. Wrong. Just wrong.). Anyway, I’m panicking and getting nowhere. Then it explodes. There are sticky tick innards and blood everywhere and I’m desperately trying to clean it up before the hotel staff notice. Um, yeah, like they aren’t going to notice the bloody towels. Anyway, I usually wake up in a panic about this tick and how I’m going to get it all cleaned up. It’s horrible. I hate ticks, but then, I don’t actually think I’ve ever met anyone who likes the disgusting little parasites, or at least anyone who would admit to it anyway.

You all really wanted to know that, didn’t you? Thought so.

Oh no! I just had a thought! What if a tick finds it's way into my yarn and has babies! Arrrrrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh! I think I have a new nightmare coming on.

I do so love Easter

No, I'm afraid it's not because of the real reason for the holiday, that would be hypocritical since I don't go to church any other time of the year. No, it's because of the stress free down time. It's been bliss just doing nothing. Bliss.

Friday, we had perfect weather. Perfect. It was rainy, bluster and cold all day long. Just like out of an English novel. Bliss. Since everyone else hates that kind of weather, I got to walk my dogs in total peace and it was wonderful.

Sat., the weather was rather better (in the traditional sense). As a matter of fact, it was absolutely glorious in the morning. Not even I could deny that it was beautiful. Fortunately for me, most people spent the morning asleep, after having been out the night before, so I still got to walk in relative peace. Oh wait. Hang on a min. They weren't asleep, they were all at the grocery store. I got there at 8:30 and it was already packed. You'd have though WWIII was right around the corner the way people were spending money. Honestly people, you are not going to starve to death just because the stores are closed on Mon. As a matter of fact, few of you will still want to eat come Mon., so just put that third loaf of bread back on the shelf. You won't need it.

Sat. afternoon I made a long overdue visit to Olga, the ex-owner of T. For those of you who have never heard of Olga before, she lives up on a hill away from other people, has rheumatism, is overweight, is 70 years old and has 13 dogs. This is not healthy in more ways than one, especially as she is a hoarder. Although she does have things on shelves and tables and there is room to walk, the combination of many, many ornaments, rheumatism and 13 dogs means that her house is not very clean. Now I don't mind the smell of dog, but it's worse in her place. We actually sat at a table in her garage, for which I am thankful, even though my tonsils hate me for it. Still, my sense of cleanliness is happy not to have to have spent the afternoon in her house. Don't get me wrong, Olga is a nice woman and means well, but she cannot see that her lifestyle isn't healthy and the dogs aren't as happy as she thinks they are. Yet they could have it worse. They have a warm place to be, a large garden to romp in and food. That's more than many dogs have. T however, decided early on that he would be much happier with me and my lack of 13 dogs, so that's how I wound up with him. He was a bit stressed to go back, and always is. He doesn't want to be left there. Anyway, she was glad of the visit, as she doesn't get many, and I'm glad she was glad. Unfortunately, by the time we left Olga's, the weather had turned rather nasty, even for my taste, and we actually only got a very short walk in. I don't often do that, but in the face of flying snow and clothes that were not warm, I enough allowed myself that luxury, took the dogs home, fed them and gave them a rawhide bone. They were just as happy as I was.

Sunday was again bliss. It snowed all day long (more or less) and walks were peaceful. It was also the perfect kind of snow - covered the fields, but melted on the roads. The only disadvantage was that my car was out in it and it took me 15 min. to get all the ice off this morning, or at least enough ice off of it to drive.

That brings me to this morning. I got up and took the dogs for their walk at the river. We were walking along quite happily when I saw something on the side of the path that looked like a dog curled up. I thought, no, it must be a blackened tree stump or something. We got closer only to find that it really was a dog curled up. It was 17°F / -8°C out. I thought it surely must be dead to just be laying there. However, it did pick its head up when Biscuit went up for a sniff, so I tried to see what was a matter. I didn't want to touch it too much for fear of being bitten, especially if it were injured and in pain. I couldn't see anything, but didn't know what to do with him. I couldn't get the car back to where he was, and he would have been too heavy to carry at the best of times, so I spent the next 10 min. coaxing him up. He had the oddest expression on his face when I spoke kindly to him. It was kind of like he was thinking wow, she sounds nice and I didn't know nice existed really. It was like he wanted to go all fuzzy and puppy like, but couldn't bring himself to trust me. He finally did get up and teetered around a bit. I tried to take him back to my car, but he wasn't going to go. Instead, he started walking in the other direction, which was the direction I was originally going in anyway. We walked, I found out he had the runs (poor mite) and he started too look a bit better. His walking got less and less stiff and I figured that I could call the local pound and take him there if he made it that far. It would have only been another 15 min. walk from where I had planned on turning back from home. However, by the time we got to that point, he was looking fairly good and actually picked up the pace. I stopped, but he just kept on going like he knew where home was, so I let him go. He was probably some farmer's dog who was out all night an figured he'd just like a bit of a kip. No point in going home when he probably sleeps outside anyway. I hope he's OK.

Just so I've mentioned knitting in my knitting blog, I have started the Eris and am LOVING knitting it. It's really fun. I was a bit daunted by the seeming complexity of the pattern at first, after all, it did look more difficult that the Rogue, but you just have to take it one step at a time, do what she says and it all comes together. I've got the right side of the collar done and have started on the left. It's so much fun and I'm really glad I've got time to knit on it this week. The only problem I've really had with it is not wanting to stop knitting, even when I'm too tired. I had to tink a couple of rows more than once last night before I gave in. I did finally see the light and stopped before I did more harm than good. It was a good thing too because my problem was that I had lost my place and was trying to knit too high up on the pattern. I really do need the sleep alarm thing. Must go back and see if I can find my plans for that.