cat candy friday

Is there a good jail song for a cat? I like the way she hung her paws through the "bars".

House socks finished

Pattern: Cable Twist Socks from Hello Yarn
Yarn: Cleckheaton Country Prints, DK weight
Needles: Size 3 KnitPicks circulars (knitted magic loop style)


This is the heaviest yarn I have ever used on socks and they really went fast. The pattern and variegated yarn did not work together like I hoped but I still like them. I would knit this pattern again. They are a little heavy for most shoes but make great house socks. After I took the pictures today I put them on and have not taken them off yet. I like my woolies.


I tried to take pictures of the socks in action but my caretaker was persistent in her efforts to be part of the photo shoot, as maybe you can tell by this photo.

Felted mittens finished

Specifics:
Pattern: I did some research on construction using the library and internet, and then I made a pattern based on what I learned. Felted Knits was a good source of information on how to knit cuffs from the felted hand portion. I later learned from TECHkntting that there is an easier way to approach this. I made the cuffs long enough so that they could be worn long up the sleeve or folded down. Twisted Knitster asked how I came up with the flower design. After pondering the design for a few days, I did it free hand taking cues from what felt peaceful and pleasing, not forced.
Yarn: Lambs Pride for the hand, Mountain Colors for the cuff, and tapestry wool for the embellishment.

This came close to what I saw in my imagination and I am happy with them. They fit me perfectly. It is like having a piece of the creative part of me come out where I can see and touch it. It was a grand adventure.

Knit ER

Procedure Note: PARQ discussion was held. Risks and benefits were explained. The sock and knitter elected to proceed. The sock was placed in the right lateral decubitus position. The area was prepped and draped sterilely. The wound was anesthetized with 2 cc of lidocaine without epinephrine - well, actually I skipped this step. When full anesthesia was acheived the necrotic tissue was dissected from the wound.
The wound was then inspected under a bloodless field and no internal damage or foreign body was noted. The area appeared to be ready for grafting. Sutures were made using leftover sock yarn and stockinet stitch.
A new toe was knitted.
The sock tolerated the procedure well. The sock may resume activity as tolerated. Follow up with the Knit doctor as needed.
Dictated: by me
Transcribed: by me

Cat Candy Friday

I saw this post on The Knitting Philistine's blog and it made me smile. I thought about how there are many knitters who enjoy the company of a feline (or other furry, feathery, or scaly creatures). I like the idea of having Cat Candy Friday, and so today I am launching Cat Candy Fridays by introducing Pansy.

This is Pansy hugging my yarn.
Pansy was given to me by someone I worked with. Pansy's mother was an expensive show-quality kitty who eloped with the tomcat next door. I was not really interested in getting a kitten, but this little gray kitten sat at my feet and looked up at me for the longest time and won my heart. Because she had such a thoughtful face, I named her after the flower whose name comes from the French word pensée meaning "thought". She has been a member of my family for about 8 years.

Felted mitten adventure stage 3

I have finished the needle felting and embroidery. For my next step, I was going to insert a zippered pocket into the palm of the left mitten (see the bright blue waste yarn coming around the left edge of the left mitten), but I have changed my mind. The fit of the mitten is so good that I do not want mess with it. I am going to pull out the waste yarn and weave that closed.

Then I get to take out the bright blue cotton waste yarn and pick up the stitches for the cuff. Yipee. It is going to start coming together.

Happy St. Patrick Day

The seamless hybrid has become my on-the-go project since it is just stockinette. I began to notice that it was getting too big to drag around by itself and too big to share the backpack with the mosaic. Yesterday, the voice of The Knitting Hog had the grand idea of going to the outlet store to buy a canvas bag for that knitting project. The Budget Conscious voice was able to counter that with the thought that I can make do with what I have - maybe even use the cute paper bag from the LYS as the knitting bag. But The Knitting Hog won me over when it told me what a nice drive it would be on the back roads and how refreshing it would be to go for a drive. So off I went, telling The Knitting Hog that I had a budget and did not intend to spend too much.

After buying two pairs of shoes ("but they were 70% off" says The Budget Destroyer who met us at the store) and one bag ("remember it was half price" chimed in The Knitting Hog) I left the store and headed home.

Meet the cute, cheerful little canvas bag that will perform the duties of 'knitting bag of medium size projects'.

So then I decided to take stock of my knitting bags and what I use them for. What are your knitting bags and what projects do they hold?


The blue backpack carries the Mosaic sweater with its yarn and my knitting accessories. The Lantern Moon bag is my sock project bag and holds my 'Walk the Dog' socks that I have been designing (seems like a strong word, playing may be more accurate). The canvas bag now carries the seamless hybrid.

The Twisted Knitster, whom I like to think of as a blogging buddy, asked if I had a sweater in mind for the Rowan Tweed. I think I will be doing one of the sweaters from Knitting the New Classics:

My first choice is the deep V-neck sweater. I think it is a good style for my shape (or lack of).

I like the stitch design on this next sweater - I would make it a sweater instead of a tunic.


I also like the stitch pattern on this sweater.And I like the texture of this sweater and the use of color in the neckband, etc.

I will have to simmer my thoughts a little on this one.

Hee hee, I am so excited about this tweed. Janette's Rare Yarns ran a weekend special on some of her Rowan Yorkshire Tweed Aran and I bought a bag of "Thorny" for an excellent price. It was difficult to determine the exact color of this yarn because sometimes the pictures were green and sometimes brown, but I knew that I would like it either way. Now I see why it was so hard to photograph. It is a forest green with dark brown overtones, but in some light it just looks brown. It is a lovely rich color - Rowan knows their color. I need sweaters, and so this will probably become a long-sleeve pullover sweater with a deep V neck. It has to wait until I get Mosaic sweater done, though.

Needle felting

I stuffed a rag in the mitten and began to tack down the design using the felting needle and a bamboo skewer (to keep from needling my finger).


Once I finished the design I took out the rag and stuffed the brush in the mitten for serious needling. The long bristles of the brush allowed me to push the needle further into the wool.
I think I am done with the left mitten. I will do the right mitten later.

I bought the yarn for the cuff:
It feels soft and yummy.

Dim lightbulb or tunnel vision... it is a toss up

Next time I decide I want felted mittens with soft knitted cuffs, I am going to just use washable yarn for the cuffs and then switch to felting wool for the hands. *sigh*

Thank you to TECHknitting for shining a flashlight in that foggy corner of my brain.

*sigh*

Taking stock

I am taking stock of my projects to see what I might want to play with for a couple of hours.


The mittens are still drying. They are outside frolicking in the 60 degree weather. I am leaving the cotton waste yarn in until I am ready to pick up stitches - probably after I do the needle felting and embroidery.

This poor sweater has been neglected for a few weeks. I finally pulled it out of the yarn bowl and started working on it again. I think that settling for my second choice in colors took a little steam out of my motivation, but I am going to see it through to completion and will be glad to have it.
This was my knitting nest at about midnight last night. I worked until midnight (home business), then I put Five Mile Creek in the vhs, and I began to unzip the provisional cast on of the hem facing on the EZ seamless hybrid sweater. You can see the little coil of red cotton yarn that I used as the waste yarn.

Provisional cast on unzipped, stitches picked up, and the 3-needle thingy was done. I had a couple of concerns and questions about it, like why does one only cast on 90% of the stitches for the hem facing and then increase for the body, but I decided to just jump in and keep moving forward .

There is still a sunroof for my toes in the 'First Born' socks. Maybe if I stare at them long enough they will scab over and heal themselves. Or maybe not.

I have been playing with mosaic knitting on a new pair of socks. Fun.

Yarn for house socks. I have not used worsted weight wool for socks before. I plan to knit this with smaller needles (maybe US 4 or 5) to get a dense sock. I am tired of having cold feet when I am transcribing for long hours at my desk.

Okay, now to pick something. I had wanted to work on the mittens today but they are still damp. Maybe I can begin sketching designs for the embellisment. The mosaic socks are good for snatches of time during the week, so they can wait. I do not want to start a new pair of socks today, so the yarn can go in the knitting nest. I guess I will balance the time between my mosaic sweater and my son's seamless hybrid. Yup. I have all the episodes of Five Mile Creek on vhs, so maybe I will pop one in and have at it. I dug these tapes out of the garage a couple of days ago and wonder why they were ever put in storage; I really enjoy them.

Jerry asked: "Are you using the Excel software to figure your mosaic pattern?"

Yes, I am using Excel. I started out with the pen and pencil drawings but migrated over to Excel. It is much easier to read and manipulate.