Friday, April 21, 2006

You haven't been ignored...


...until you've been actively ignored by a wild cat.

That is a bobcat giving himself (or herself) a leisurely bath in my back yard.

I think this is the same animal I found hunting in my yard one night a few weeks ago. I was as impressed by how actively he ignored me that night, and I was equally impressed by how actively he ignored me for twenty minutes on Sunday morning.

A bird eventually started hollering at him and he sauntered off.

And now that I have batteries for my camera again, I have to post more often.

I've started another pair of socks. These are for me. They're pink and blue and purple Sockotta.

I also have to decide if I'm going to frog the dark blue wool socks I started as a "mindless" knitting project, or if I'm going to 'fix' them again by dropping a couple knit stitches and re-knitting them as purl stitches. I just don't like the way the pattern is coming out.

And I did finish the black Koigu socks. I'll post a photo of my three Koigu socks together in an upcoming post.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

He could've had a pair of socks by now

Years ago I played two games of bumper pool. The first game was, if I may say so myself, perfect. I got that ball lined up so I could get it in the hole with one shot. I did that something like fifteen times in a row. The second game I couldn't get one ball in the hole. I have never seen bumper pool anywhere else, and I'm not sure I'd be up to trying it again if I had the opportunity. But I just wanted to illusrate my beginner's luck to you before showing you what I did.
You see, the first time I tried to do the rounded toe, it came out to my satisfaction. Today, I tried it again. The picture you see here is me half-way to ripping out twenty-four rows of knitting.
I still had about forty stitches to decrease away when I measured, came up with a number over an inch too long, and asked my sweetheart to try the socks on. Yep, they were already something out of Grimm's fairy tales. If I keep this up, the poor guy will think I wish he had bigger feet.
And, of course, I was stressing out about running out of yarn. I now know for sure that I have plenty yarn. I won't need nearly as much as I'm ripping out!
Yes, this is what's wrong with knitting two socks at the same time. Any completely stupid thing you do to one of them is done to both.
They're koigu. They're going to be absolutely beautiful. In a day or two.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Itty Bitty Gansey & a Scarf

I didn't tell you I was working on this, did I?

Well, see, I can't stick to one thing at a time, that's all. (Yeah, I know I've got a couple ends to weave in yet - I haven't even removed the ball of yarn from it!)

This is a great little project and I learned a lot without having to knit a whole sweater. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!

Don't ask me what the yarn was - I got it on clearance because I had never used sock yarn and I wanted to play with it. The project is from this book. You can't see the details because I used self-patterning yarn which overwhelms the stitch pattern and also because I don't have much battery life left in the batteries in my camera so I did a snap-and-run.

Oh, yeah, I also wanted to take a picture of the scarf I finished.

This is Art Yarns Broadway in a 25-stitch k1p1 pattern on size 13 needles. I started the first skein from the outside of the ball and the second skein from the inside of the ball and the colors seemed to magically match up. I just bought two more skeins of the stuff in a different colorway and I'm going to try a different stitch pattern. But I could not make myself follow the pattern they give on the label. The only diagonal "scarf" I've been able to stand is the clapoits, and I've made a whole bunch of those!

(Yes, yes, I have a couple ends to weave in on this, too. I'll get to it before I wear it, ok? Whine, whine, whine!)

I am now trying to decide if I'm going to sign up for Secret Pal 8. It sounds like a lot of fun and I have until the end of April to make up my mind. I probably will. I just have to decide what I want to do for an anonymous email address.

I wonder what an ony mouse is? Perhaps a long lost relative of the dormouse?