Knitting, with Dogs

Last Six Sox Socks

Is that a tongue-twister or what???

Well, here it is -- the last pair of socks in the SixSox year-long KAL.  It was a really neat KAL to work on, and I enjoyed it a lot.  I think it got me completely over the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome.  I jumped in and tried lots of different things, and finished all six pair of socks.



This is not some of my best knitting, so don't look too closely at it, especially around the letters.  I used Dale Baby Ull.  It's a little soft to make hard-wearing socks, but it was available locally in the colors I wanted to use. 

Cool.

Another book meme

Caution:  Not much knitting content today.

General Ginger tapped me for this one.  I answered some similar questions here, but there's a few new questions to think about.

1. Total Number of Books in Your House:
No idea.  Maybe as many as 1200 between me and Dear Robert. To arrive at this number,  I took a quick count of books in one of my bookcases and multiplied it by the number of bookcases in the house.  The number is only approximate, because I have more paperbacks (netting out to more books per inch) and Dear Robert has more hardbacks.  Of course, I have some Fat Fantasy books on my shelves too. 

Since we have a finite amount of shelf space, and little room to add more, I go through my books periodically and weed out the "read-once" books.  Anybody else distinguish between "read-once" books and "keepers"?  Some books just aren't memorable enough to keep around, you know?  They're good for a few hours of happy reading, but after that, there's just no point in keeping them.  It took me years to get to the point where I could give away a book, though.  I usually drop mine off at the AAUW book drop.  I do miss the old Oxford Books store though, where you could trade in books for store credit in both the used books store and the new books store.  I have a lot of trouble buying used books.  I'm not sure why. 

2. The Last Book You Bought Was:
I think it was Natural History by Justina Robson.  I bought an e-book version from Fictionwise.  As I've mentioned before, I read a lot on my Palm Zire 71 these days.  (I bought my first Palm device about a week after I found you could read books on them.  They're good for other things too, btw.)  Anyway, I'd seen the Robson book in the bookstore and was curious about it.  When I saw it on sale at Fictionwise, I bought it there, finished it this morning.  It's ok.  Not great, but ok.

One great thing about ebooks is that they take up essentially no shelf space.  I typically carry 8 or 10 ebooks in my Zire.  Most of them are classics I've picked up for free at Project Gutenberg or elsewhere on the internet, but I do buy ebooks too.  Another good source for ebooks is EReader.  I love being able to read in bed without worrying about lights and glasses and stuff.

3. What Was The Last Book You Read Before Reading This:
The aforementioned "Natural History".  I just finished it this morning.  I read it on and off while I was reading other stuff too.  The most recent book I read that I liked a lot was  a book I found online:  Blind Shrike by Richard Kadrey.   I found it at The Infinite Matrix  while looking for other stories by Christopher Rowe.  Rowe's story  "The Voluntary State" (nominated for a Nebula Award) totally knocked my socks off, and I was hungry to read more by him.   

But the best book I've read in years is definitely Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susannah Clarke.  Fabulous, fabulous book.  If you like fantasy, it's one you don't want to miss.

4. Write down 5 (or 6) books you often read, or that mean a lot to you.
Hmm, most of this was covered in the earlier post.  A quick reiteration:

The Last Unicorn, by Peter S. Beagle
Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart
A number of books by Terry Pratchett, especially Hogfather, Small Gods, and the various witches books.
I've re-read several of Robert Holdstock's books quite a few times:  Mythago Wood  and Lavondyss especially. 

The themes I keep coming back to are the power of story, and how near the miraculous is to everyday life, if only we could see it.  I've been considering writing up a post on these ideas.  Maybe if I ever get my thoughts on them clear in my mind, I will.

5. Who are you going to pass the stick to (three people) and why?

Hmm, dunno.  Anybody interested in picking this one up?  Jane?  Rebecca? 

In other news: 

Here's the knitting content.  I saw this KAL today and I'm thinking about joining up.  There are several pieces in A Gathering of Lace that I'd like to make.  The only negative consideration about joining is that knitting lace is a pretty serious commitment, and I'm already behind on the Spider Queen shawl that Stephanie (local knitter) and I were going to do.  But that's never stopped me before.  Why should it now?? Besides, my only other KAL, the SixSox, will be winding up shortly. 

As Scarf Island fades into the distance...

I delivered my scarves to the Yarn Garden today, so I'm definitely off Scarf Island.  It's always nice when you get to show off things you've made in front of other knitters.  Knitters are, on the whole, generous with praise.  I do appreciate that!  And I got to meet one of my blog readers today!  <waves>

The first of the Go Team socks is done except for the toe.  (Is that like the Kirking of the Tartan or something?  Can we dignify it with capital letters?  I think so.  Henceforward this process shall be known as The Kitchenering of the Toe.  Heh.)  Oh yeah, and I have ends of various colors to sew in.  But the good news is that it does fit Dear Robert's foot.  So he'll have some Atlanta Thrashers socks to wear next season.

In Other News:

We celebrated my SIL's 50th birthday tonight at the Macaroni Grill near the Mall of Georgia.  Boy, who knew that the Macaroni Grill was the go-to place for supper on Prom night??  Not me!  But there were long dresses and tuxes (some complete with cowboy hats) galore.  Ah youth.

Luckily for us, we got there a bit ahead of the rush, and we had reservations, so wait time was minimal.  There was lots of yummy food and an ice cream cake from Brewsters at the end of the meal, and much fun was had by all.

Happy birthday and many happy returns, Sharon!

Now Leaving Scarf Island

With any luck at all, this will be my last scarf for a while. 



I used the Cascade 220 left over from my Ruffles scarf.  For a pattern, I just picked an interesting stitch from the 2nd Barbara Walker treasury.  It came out pretty nice, I think!

Now I'm working on the first Go Team! sock (current Six Sox pattern.)  I got the lettering in around the cuff last night at knitting group, and got the heel turned  and the gusset stitches picked up before I went to bed.  I did opt to do the heel flap in two colors.  Lemme tell you, purling back in 2 colors is teh suxx0r.  It likes me not.  This may be my incentive to learn to knit backwards.  That way, when I start the intarsia sweater, I'll already have that skill under my fingers.

In Other News:

When I let the dogs out this morning, I noticed they all ran to one spot near the fence.  I didn't think much about it, because we do have rabbits in the neighborhood, and I figured they were sniffing a rabbit run.  Then I noticed two birds (I think they were brown thrashers) flitting in the nearby trees and bushes in an agitated manner.  I looked to see if there was a baby bird on the ground, but I didn't see one.  About a minute later, Jasper came running up with something in his mouth.  When I got him to drop it, I saw that it was indeed a baby bird that had the misfortune to fall inside a fence containing 4 dogs.

I disposed of the little carcass and went back and apologized to Ma and Pop Thrasher for my dogs' predatory behavior.

And, on a happier note, Dear Robert is off night-shift and back snoring beside me in bed now!  w00t!

A Trio of Scarves

My cable internet connection was down ALL DAY yesterday.  Gack.  It's ridiculous to think how dependent on these things we can get!  But I got lotsa knitting done.

Here's my Branching Out scarf:


I'm very happy with how this scarf came out.  I made it from Brown Sheep Cotton Fine.  The stitch definition is great, and it feels good too.  Wool and cotton -- yum!
And because I wanted something easy-peasy, a fuzzy 2.5 hour garter stitch stitch scarf, knit from one skein of Lion Brand Fun Fur.  I don't love pink at all, but even I have to say that this yarn is a very pretty shade of pink. 

And last, a bias knit scarf made from an extra ball of Koigu that I had laying around:

I don't know if I can get away with submitting this as a pink scarf, although there is pink in it.  In little tiny sections.  If you look really close.  But friends, this scarf in person is just gorgeous.  The pattern is A Bias Towards Lace  by Jackie Erickson-Schweitzer.  The original pattern has beads on the edge, but I knitted almost every inch of the Koigu I had, and the scarf is still pretty small.  But OTOH, if it doesn't have enough pink to qualify for a Breast Cancer scarf, I'll just keep it for myself.  And I don't even wear scarves.  But this one is soooooo pretty...

I promised them 5 scarves, and this is 5 down now.  I'll make one more in case the Koigu scarf isn't pink enough, but I'm just about ready to move on and do something else now.  But I have to say that the enforced exposure to pink has had something of moderating effect on my dislike of the color.  I still wouldn't go out of my way to use it, but I'll go out on a limb and declare that pink doesn't totally suck.

Next knitting:  I've got the Go Team socks for the Six Socks KAL to get done.  I want to finish the Lavold sweater I'm working on.  I've got another sock started on size 00 needles, just because you gotta have something mindless sometimes.  And I'm going to look for a light cardigan or shrug/shoulder warmer, because it seems like my arms are always cold these days.  Luckily for me, patterns for shrugs and shoulder warmers are sprouting like fungus everywhere.

In Other News: 

Dear Robert's store has been getting a make-over for the past two weeks.  What this means for him is working nights and sleeping during the day.  What this means for me is creeping quietly around the house during the day, trying to keep the dogs quiet, and sitting up till the wee hours in the morning, knitting and watching TCM or Adult Swim on Cartoon Network.  Somehow sleeping with just the two dogs isn't as restful or satisfying as sleeping with your mate.  Go figure.

Third Pink Scarf Complete

Well, it's more of a stole than a scarf:


It's Frill, from Knitty.  It has beads:

They're actually iridescent, not clear, though you can't tell it from my picture.*

It looks like this when I put it over my shoulders:

The yarn is a variegated cotton, white, pinks and lavendars.  It was pretty easy to work with.  I didn't have any problems putting the beads on the yarn.  I just put a couple of coatings of fingernail polish (pink, of course) on the end of the yarn.  This stiffened the thread enough for me to use the yarn itself to pick up the beads.  And it's always fun to drop stitches down to a cast-on row.

I've already started on my fourth pink scarf.  It's another Knitty pattern, the lovely Branching out pattern by Susan.  I went back to the Cotton Fine yarn for it.  (I'd orginally started Frill in the Cotton Fine and decided I didn't like the design in that yarn and frogged all I'd done.)  I think it's going to be very nice for this scarf, however.

So see, I am still knitting!  I've actually been pretty busy knitting lately.  I'm just a slow knitter.

*I think I stand alone as queen of unartistic knitting photography. <sigh>

I've done it now...

I'm not sure what I was thinking when I bought this, but it came in the mail yesterday:


It's a Needle Beetle pattern.  The kit came from Linda's Craftique.  Here's the exploded  kit:

and a closer picture of the pattern itself:

I chose the blue colorway because I like blue.  And I might give the sweater away to someone who likes blue. 

The yarn is Briggs and Little (I keep wanting to type Briggs and Stratton) Regal 2 ply wool.  It appears to be quite a nice yarn, though it does have some vegetal matter in it.

But here Chez Moi we're not unaccustomed to picking bits of stuff out of our working yarn, so this shouldn't be too big of an issue.

I'm still working on my Frill wrap.  I've got to make 2 other pink scarves when I'm done with it, so this project will marinate in the stash room for a while, along with about 500 other projects sitting in there.  I also haven't successfully done a big intarsia piece like this before, and I may have bitten off more than I can chew.  Wish me luck. [sigh]

I tried to get Jasper to pose as a spokesmodel with the kit, but he wasn't very enthusiastic about the job.

But I did get some happy smiling dog faces in the spring sunshine.

Speaking of Jasper, the Terrible Puppy:  we've started doing lots more training here lately.  Mr. Too-Big-for-my-Britches adolescent Aussie has been having some resource guarding and food aggression issues with the other dogs in the house.  I'm taking a Granny Weatherwax stance here:  I Cain't Be Havin' With That.  So we're practicing headology.  Dog headology.  It may even work!


*confession time:  I'd rather be Nanny Ogg than Granny Weatherwax.  I heart Nanny Ogg.  I suspect, however, that my personality runs more Granny-wise.  But I do have the words of the Hedgehog Song squirrelled away, and maybe one day I'll have the nerve to sing it.

Well, I'm Back!

I'm back from San Diego!  What a nice city it is, too.  We really only had 3 days to play.  We spent Tuesday at the San Diego Zoo.  We got there via Balboa Park.  I'm a big fan of fountains, and a kindly soul volunteered to take our picture there.



The Zoo was marvelous.  They packed a lot into a relatively small space without making it seem crowded.  There were tons of lovely flowers all in bloom:

There were lots of neat animals, like this polar bear, lounging in the water and looking supercilious,

An acrobatic organutan:

And lots of other very nifty animals.  I won't bore you with tons of pictures of them, though.  I do have a set of photos at Flickr if you're interested, though.

Wednesday we went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park.  Another marvelous place!  Lots of neat animals, like okapi johnstoni, which we liked, because it's close to Dear Robert's last name.  And it's a neat-looking animal.

We got to watch the cheetah having lunch:

I got to feed a giraffe.

Ya know, kids get fascinated by dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts.  Animals like the giraffe are every bit as weird and fascinating as a saber-toothed tiger.  This was the closest I've ever been to a giraffe, and I think I could have watched it for hours.  It was weird and amazing and wonderful.

I got a cool picture of Robert, with lionesses:

Looks like he could be pounced on, doesn't it?  Don't worry, he was perfectly safe.

By Thursday, we were pretty footsore and weary, so we took it easy.  We drove over the Coronado Bridge.  We got to visit Seaport Village, where there were some nifty kite-like objects decorating the air:

(BTW, neither he nor I is really comfortable posing for pictures.  We both end up looking dorky.)

I like the Pacific Ocean.  We went down through Coronado and stopped at one of the beaches there too.  Thursday was quiet and restful.

The weather was fabulous.  It was pretty nice to be in a low-humidity area.  I missed my Georgia trees.  (There are trees in San Diego, but they're different from those in Georgia both in type and in quantity.)  The landscape was interesting, and they actually have Bike Lanes on the streets out there.  Wow.

I got to visit one LYS (but didn't buy anything except a Spin-Off back issue).  But I did get some knitting done.  Behold my San Diego socks:

Basic, plain vanilla-mindless-knitting-keeps you from going insane in airport lines-sock knitting.  The yarn is some of the Lion Brand Magic Stripes yarn from my stash, knit on size 0 needles.  I did knit about 1 1/2 inches on the first cuff before I left Atlanta, but all the rest was done either in the course of travel/standing in line waiting to travel or in San Diego itself.  Those small cuffs always look a little odd and dorky to me, but they fit rather well.  I kept thinking of the line from Stephanie's book (which I got just before we left):

I recognize that knitting can improve my mood in trying circumstances.  (p.21)

It did!

Gettin' ready to travel!

Anybody remember back in August when I started working on the Liv pattern from Viking Knits?

I didn't think so.  I barely remember it myself.  Anyway, I finished the back of it last fall.  It occurred to me last week that if I got past the cabled detail on the front, the rest of the front would be pretty mindless knitting.  So here it is -- the 2 front pieces knitted up, and a couple of rows past where the two fronts joined.



You can't see the cables very well in my pictures, but they actually look rather nice in person.  Now all I have is reverse stockinette, with two little sections of un-reversed stockinette right in the middle.  And shaping.  Side shaping, armhole shaping, and neck shaping.

Shaping freaks me out.  If you make things in once piece, you don't have to worry that your decreases are in exactly the same places front and back, because you do them all at the same time.  But when you knit a sweater in sections, things become a little more iffy.  I want everything to match exactly.  This doesn't seem like it should be impossible.  The problem is that I'm not really that good at 100% perfect.  Somehow, in spite of my effort and attention, mistakes or variations creep into what I'm doing.  Blecch. 

As I've gotten older, though I've found that I'm very good at close enough.   And I've learned  that's close enough is good enough for most things. 

But I'd still rather be perfect.

In other news:

We're leaving in the morning (Monday) to fly to San Diego for a few days.  Jasper will board at the vet's, and a petsitter and my seester will look after the older dogs here in the house.  It's always a wrench to go off and leave the dogs.  I'm such a homebody these days.

Jasper needs some serious trimming around his ears.

Uh-oh

I've been tracking a couple of things in the left sidebar of my web page.  One is the hours I've spent knitting this year.  The other is a bargain I made with myself.  Basically, I said I could "earn" dollars to spend for yarn by exercising on my stationary bike.  The bike has a "calories burned" calculator, and for every 100 calories it says I've burned, I get $1.00 to spend on yarn.  (We'll leave aside the point that the readout may or may not accurately calculate the number of calories burned.  I just need something measurable that I can use.)

Well, as of today, I'm in the red.  But I had to get yarn for the new Six Sox sock, right?  And the yarn I bought for another pink scarf was 30% off, so that was ok, right?

The trick now is to see how long it takes me to get back in the black.  Or, in the case of my button, the green.