Cattywampus

Week 10: Spring

I adore tulips...they make me so happy.

Ummmmmm

So, have you ever thought about knitting a sweater for someone with abnormally long arms?

I did!  Of course, not intentionally. 

Super bad bathroom mirror shot.

And one more

That one is at least in focus.

I'm not sure how much you can tell, but the rest of the sweater fits beautifully, and hopefully once I fix the sleeves they will too, but for right now, it's not exactly wearable.

I'll get a decent pic of this once the big foot sleeves are fixed, but just so you know what I've been up to...

Cuter Puppy Shots & week 9: Depth of field

I was feeling bad about putting up such pathetic phone pics of the dogs, so here are two much better ones.

The sweet Pixie, snoozing on a chair

And Iggy almost napping

Really they are both depth of field shots, but I used the one of Pixie because of the visible background.

Week 8: Landscape

Last week, when the theme was landscape, I had no opportunity to take a true landscape pic, so here is mine.

Not typical certainly, but something I see around my day to day world, in my daily "landscape" for sure.

7 weeks in

Things have been going well with the puppy, we've had him for 7 weeks, I can hardly believe it.  He is just over 7 months old and almost, almost old enough to no longer need a walk in the middle of the day.

He and Pix have come to be friends.

 He still attacks her more than he cuddles on her, making her suspicious of his attempts to cuddle, but it does work every once in a while.  Of course, sometimes she attacks him too...more than just sometimes.  She picks up his toys and taunts him so he will come after her.  It's adorable actually because when she does that we know that she wants to play with him and doesn't resent him.

Sorry for the blurry pic, they are hard to snap when they are playing, and my cell phone camera definitely isn't the one I should be using to try...I'll get one with my real camera at some point and post it.  

He goes to doggie camp on Wednesdays and spends a solid 10 hours romping with other neighborhood pups and she gets a break and gets to stay home that day.  When I come home I get her first, then we walk together to go get him.  When we get to the block that dog camp is on she pulls and starts wagging, then when he comes out they do a little doggie happy dance together, each of them sniffing and pawing and happily greeting the other.

It seemed touch and go there for a while, but now we know that this is absolutely what Pixie needed.  He is still a little too rambunctious for her sometimes, and she doesn't want to play as much as he does, but she is much more active and engaged than she was before, and if you are the kind of person who believes that dogs have emotions (I certainly do), she is happier.

He himself is doing well too, he is learning commands, he is very eager to please and likes to train.  He has gained a few pounds, last week he was all of 23 lbs, his long legs make him look a lot bigger than he really is.  His coat is shiny and his nails aren't peeling and chipping anymore, he has regressions back to his old scared self every now and then, but he is turning into a content, well adjusted puppy.  (and he even sleeps through the night 4 or 5 days a week now - progress!)

Personally, I think he's just adorable...even in a grainy camera phone shot.

Voila!

My Saturday morning project

Wow, grosgrain ribbon...who knew?  

Turns this

Into this

Forgive the awful, awful picture...the updated camera on my cell phone has a focus and exposure issue.  I'll try again next week at work - the light is better there, but I'm so happy with the way it turned out that I had to share.

Now that the ribbon is on it the sweater collar doesn't flip out like it seems as though it was designed to do, but that's fine, I like it this way.

Here, the glimpse of the inside:

Isn't it fun?  And here's a close up.

Why yes I DO look like a vampire, how...odd.

I am seriously impressed with the effect that the ribbon had on the finished object.  It was time consuming to be sure, I think it took about an hour per side, but worth it?  Absolutely.  Considering the time I spent on the sweater another two hours to make it really wearable is completely worth it.

Thanks for all your suggestions & support in egging me on to make this sweater right, I am SO happy I did!!

Week 7: Shadows

Headhouse Square - where a bustling Farmer's Market is held on Sunday mornings April through November, it's so empty right now, it will be good to see them come back in a few months.

Moving right along

I don't have much to show right now...if I took more pictures while I cooked I could tell you about how marvelous homemade falafel is, or how much I love my Frybaby.  Actually, I can tell you that anyway - I debated for over a year whether or not to buy it.  I was afraid I would end up using it for Very Bad Foods, but I haven't.  The only thing I have made in it that I wouldn't have otherwise made on the stove top are chicken wings for the superbowl and 1. they were so good that I just don't care if they were bad for me, and 2. fat and calories don't count on days like that.

I have made arancini, which were AMAZING, and falafel, which was also amazing, and that's about it.  I will probably experiment with donuts at some point, but it seems dangerous, so I haven't started down that path yet.

It's also MUCH easier to fry something when you aren't constantly worried that you are overheating the oil and that it may spontaneously combust at any moment.

Thank you all for your helpful comments on the Raindrop Cardi - I found a grosgrain ribbon that matches and now I just have to find some solid time to sit down, read up on how best to attach it, and get to it.  Hopefully next weekend. 

In the meantime, I am making super awesome progress on other knitted things, and I have two sweaters that are complete sans one sleeve - so they are not very exciting to show you, but hopefully will be much more exciting (ie done) very soon.  

The good thing about both of those two sweaters is that I started them for fall transitional weather (I won't tell you if that was fall 2011 or fall 2012), so they will be very good for the upcoming spring.

I also started a Craftsy class for a Fair Isle vest, and of course I don't like the vest they are making, so I'm making the Ivy League Vest (more or less).  I've been swatching for that and I think I finally understand how to hold both yarns in my left hand, which will make my stitches MUCH more even and hopefully make it all go faster.  I can throw if I have to, but it makes the gauge for those stitches much looser than the gauge for the stitches I'm picking, also, I just hate doing it.  Even if that had been the only thing I learned from that class the cost would have been worth it.

Here is my gauge swatch.  I clearly messed up the pattern in the middle, but since it isn't the actual garment I didn't go back and fix it.  I decided that the beige on the bottom didn't contrast enough with the green and instead am using the beige at the top.  I was trying that dark grey out for the ribbing, but no, that's no good at all.  I think I'll just go with the dark purple.  Hopefully I can convince myself that I need to finish at least one of the sweaters that are SO CLOSE TO BEING DONE before I cast on for this.  We shall see.  This is serious temptation.

If you haven't tried Crafsty yet I definitely recommend it.  They run sales all the time, I haven't paid more than $15 for a class and the video lessons really are well done.

I am using Palette, and I do love having the sampler so I can swap colors in and out with abandon.  I am going with purples and green as an accent color with grey for the ribbing.  I don't generally wear vests, I have confusion about how to do it, but thinking about doing an entire sweater in fair isle seems more than a little overwhelming.  I suppose if I get up to the armscye and am just loving it I could figure out how to make it into a sweater instead.

On a completely different note, I'm still tracking my yarn in/yarn out to make sure my attempt at destashing is still going in the right direction.  My ratio for 2012 was 3:2, 30,000 yards out, 20,000 yards in.  It could have been better, and would have if I hadn't gone to Stitches.  If I didn't count Stitches the ratio would be 3:.7, only 7,000 yards in.  Still, it's going in the right direction, my stash is down by 20,000 over the two years I've been doing this, so I am very pleased with that.  I still have quite a bit of yarn for sale on Ravelry and I sell skeins here & there, so slowly but surely I am dwindling down my stash and that feels good.   

Week 6: Signs

In cities everywhere, there are debates about bikers on the streets.  There are people who think they are simply dangerous because there are so many bikers who don't obey the traffic laws, there are bikers who DO obey the traffic laws, and then there are the pedestrians who think bikers are a danger to their safety because they don't obey the traffic laws (last year a pedestrian was killed when they were knocked over by a biker running a red light - no lie)

This can be a very heated debate, personally, you couldn't pay me to ride a bike on the streets of any major city, it's just too crazy out there, but I have to agree that bikers who don't follow the traffic laws are a danger to everyone, including themselves, and they give the rest of the bikers a bad name.

So I find these signs particularly delightful...

Meh.

I finished the Raindrop Cardigan and I was so completely positive I was going to love it, but it came out 'meh' and it's totally my fault, and I'm bummed by the whole thing.

Let's call it "knitter error".

I used Berroco Vintage, because I had it on hand, and I liked the color, and I saw no reason it wouldn't be perfect for this pattern.  The whole way through, it looked good, the size looked good, the pattern showed up beautifully, and I couldn't wait to snuggle up in this lovely work- appropriate cardigan.

Hmf.

Do you see the curling?  I steam blocked those edges HARD.  

And it's made specifically not to button, so if I try to overlap the fronts (with perhaps a snap placket) then it will probably pull across the hips.

All I can come come up with is to get some grosgrain ribbon, either black or grey, since there is no way to match the red, and line the insides of the edging to prevent them from curling, but since the edging goes straight into the collar, what do I do with it - let it go all the way to the edge of the collar and hope it doesn't look stupid?  

GAH.  

I am open to any and all suggestions, please and thank you!

And look how lovely the back is, I simply adore it.

This is totally knitter fail, I never thought about the fact that vintage is only 40% wool.  Grrrrrrr.