Recent and Current Knitting

I recently knitted a helmet liner. A blogger was asking for knitted helmet liners for a Marine unit that will be shipping out to Afghanistan. I decided to knit a liner, and it knitted up quickly.



And then a coworker asked for one for her friend, a soldier already in Afghanistan. So I gave her the one I knitted (she'll repay me for the yarn), and I bought a new ball of yarn today and have started the second helmet liner. It's nice yarn (has to be wool--no acrylics, and there's a limited range of acceptable colors), and the pattern is easy. I'm already an inch into the second liner. But let's not tell the Marines they're wearing a color called Doeskin Heather; Bambi-colored yarn doesn't quite sound right for the Corps.

***

Sam has turned 10 years old. Both dogs have coats I made for them (Jacey inherited Oreo's coats), but only Jacey has a hand-knitted sweater. Every time I've started to make a sweater for Sam, Christmas knitting has intervened, and Sam's sweater has been pushed to the back burner.

But the boy turned 10 on the 10th of this month, and I wanted him to have a sweater for the fall, so I knitted one that I finished the day before his birthday.



The turtleneck can be unrolled to stretch up his neck and give his ears some coverage when necessary.

I have yarn to knit a matching sweater for Jacey in forest green. There are changes I want to make to the pattern (I made notes in Ravelry), and I'll probably make her sweater soon, while the changes (and my notes) still make sense to me.

***

At the recent Stitches South convention here in Atlanta, I won a prize: a kit to make a shawl. The pattern is for Cascade's lacy Grapevine Shawl, and the yarn is a bright fuchsia cotton (Cascade Sierra). I've started the shawl and made it through one pattern repeat. The one repeat measures about two inches; just 26 repeats to go. ;) I have a high school reunion coming up in October, and a bright shawl might be just the thing for a fall evening.

Start-itis

Monday was my day off. I was up late Sunday night working on a proofreading job. Then I got up early Monday to work on files for the greyhound group (premium lists for upcoming lure coursing events...I've got one page of forms left to create). I worked on the files all day, but by evening I was itching to get my hands on some yarn.

I've been asked to test a dog sweater pattern. The pattern is for a crocheted sweater. The pattern comes in 16 sizes (or something like that). I've looked at the pattern, and I don't like it. Crocheting to the gauge given is going to create a very stiff sweater that nearly could stand up on its own (armor-plated winter wear, anyone?). Crochet doesn't stretch the way knitted fabrics do, and this pattern is going to require you to haul the dog's feet through armholes, something that's do-able on a knitted sweater, but not-so-much on a crocheted one. And because greyhounds are such big dogs, making the sweater would take a lot of time. I don't want to invest that kind of time on a sweater I'll never force Sam into. So I think I'm going to bail on testing the pattern. I know the designer will be disappointed, but I'm not going to feel guilty about this.

So, of course, having been all-kinds-of-disappointed with this crocheted sweater project, I started a new sweater for Sam--a knitted one. I got some lovely Lion Brand Wool-Ease (80% acrylic, 20% wool, and machine washable and dryable) in a blue heather:



There's forest green heather for Jacey:




The pattern is a side-buttoning sweater designed specifically for greyhounds. It has a turtleneck that can be folded down or left unfolded for better protection for the dog's ears. Rather than forcing the dog's legs through armholes, there's a chest-flap that goes under the dog's chest and buttons at the side (no fumbling for buttons under the dog, where you can't see them). It's a very simple rib-stitch pattern, but there are nice finishing features that make this a very professional pattern. The pattern is available as a free PDF.

At this point, I now have three sweaters on needles: a tank top and an adult BSJ for me, and the sweater for Sam. I don't have any crochet projects in the works right now, although I need to make a Kitty Squid for a coworker's cats. I finally got photos of the Square Flair doily once the blocking was finished:



That's 21" square, in ecru thread.

Wednesday night I'll try to finish the greyhound files so I can email the PDFs to the event field chairman. I work an early shift on Thursday, and after work I want to go to the Hobby Lobby in Austell. (I've never shopped at that one; among other things, I want to get aluminum size 8 DPNs if I can find them.) I'm off work on Friday, and I hope to get some knitting done. The weather forecast this week calls for thunderstorms, and I hope we'll get some nice rain. But, in the usual way of forecasts, today's "60% chance of thunderstorms" translated into overcast skies--and no rain.

The dogs are fine. And lazy. Jacey's weight may finally be starting to budge...in the right direction.

My camera stinks!

At least, for anything like a detail shot.

This is the "detail shot" of a doily I just finished:



The color is much more accurate on this photo:





I've been working on a baby sweater. The pattern was fine until it got to the sleeve. The first problem with the pattern's sleeve had to do with the instructions for the cuff. Babies are not noted for keeping those fingers tucked in when you're trying to get a sleeve over their hands, so you really don't want the sleeve cuff to be super-tiny and tight. I fixed that, then worked the sleeve to the row specified for the 0-6 months size. I kept staring at that sleeve, thinking, "No way." But what do I know about baby clothes?

So I went to Target and bought a baby's one-piece sleep outfit in 6-months size. Granted, this might be the high range of the 6-months' size, and sleep outfits are looser and longer-limbed than sweaters need to be, but I think there's a problem with my knitted sweater:



I think I'm gonna need at least one more pattern repeat in there... (And I'm knitting right on target for gauge, so that's not my problem.)


And I've started a sweater for my mother for Mother's Day. Actually, I've started the swatch, which is not quite the same as having started the sweater. ;)

Stuff...

Craft-y stuff? I finished the doily for my sister's mother-in-law. That thing is huge! It's blocking right now, and I ran out of blocking board before I ran out of doily. (About 17" x 28".) Bits are hanging off both ends of the blocking board. I've started a color doily (Caro's doily was ecru--pretty, but borrrrr-ring) and it's going quickly. It'll be about 16"...or probably smaller, since I'm way under the gauge. This doily uses a solid medium blue and a variegated aqua/light blue/medium-blue. This is one of the few patterns I've seen where a variegated thread might not battle the stitch pattern to a mutual loss. I've also had an idea for another doily, this one in two solid colors...

I've postponed work on Sam's sweater. I have a coat he can wear if he thinks he needs it (he'll let me know, the fuss budget). That can wait until I need some mindless knitting for Christmas day, while we're sitting around and talking after the presents are opened and before lunch.

In reading, I've finished the sixth Harry Potter. At lunch I'm reading Chocolat, and I'll start the last Harry Potter at bedtime. I got the fifth Harry Potter on DVD last Tuesday, and I've enjoyed it. (I don't go to theaters, so I hadn't seen it before last Tuesday.) I got the Kenneth Branagh Hamlet for my birthday (along with three doily pattern books; Caro's doily came from one of the books). And I just got the Charlotte's Web DVD from Netflix.

Most of my Christmas shopping is done. Mother discovered something I can get my father: flannel pajamas. His current set is getting threadbare, and the elastic is shot. Just think: flannel jammies for my father. I think I'm not allowed to buy him jammies with animals on them or with feet in them. :)

It's a sweater!

As I was wrestling with DPNs to knit the armbands, it suddenly occurred to me: Why am I fighting with these stupid things when I KNOW HOW TO CROCHET!?

< My "berry" good girl.

I crocheted the armbands.

On Sam's sweater, I'll crochet the whole band around the body of the sweater, too. It's starting to curl on Jacey's sweater (because I knitted it instead of ribbing, it), but I'm okay with that.

Also, make a dog's sweater longer than you think is necessary. Dogs are horizontal, not vertical, and sweaters don't "hang" on them. You can smooth the sweater down, but the second the dog moves, the sweater's gonna inch back up the spine.

Some pig!

Jacey's sweater is going well, although the tumbleweed reared up and bit me. (Actually, it just snarled-up beyond belief and I had to cut and rejoin the yarn.) I just have the bands around the armholes left to do. I'm thinking I might try to work Sam's sweater from the outside of the ball rather than the inside...although that would mean voluntarily removing the ballband and creating another tumbleweed; but working from the outside probably would eliminate those monstrously big, snarled up bits, which grow more frequent as you go. Maybe I'll hold off on starting his sweater until the ball winder arrives (it's been shipped). My custom-dyed yarn has been shipped, too. I'm excited about it.




And I've found new patterns on Ravelry, including a clever Charlotte A. Cavatica scarf I'm tempted to try.

My latest Netflix movie has been Amazing Grace. It's a nice costume-drama of the sort the British do so well, and it stars Ioan Gruffudd, Albert Finney, Toby Peters, Ciaran Hinds, Michael Gambon, and Nicholas Farrell. It's based on the life of William Wilberforce, crony of William Pitt the Younger and architect of the abolition of the slave trade (and, eventually, slavery itself) in His Majesty's empire. It's nice to see the good guys win one. Eventually.

I wanted to buy a ball winder. I'm finally moving beyond Red Heart and similarly mass-produced acrylic yarns that come in pull skeins, and I'm going to need to wind yarn. (And there are all those collapsed, partially used pull-skeins of Red Heart that could benefit from rewinding.) There was a ball winder on Jo-Ann's two days ago, and today a 20%-off coupon from Jo-Ann's arrived in my e-mail. So I went to order and...yeah, Jo-Ann's is out of ball winders.

So I checked out Herrschners, which has more expensive ball winders. And bigger shipping charges. Winder-plus-shipping was going to be close to $50. So I went to KnitPicks. Ball winder for $39.95, and free shipping for orders over $45. So I ordered a 440-yard ball of laceweight Shimmer (alpaca/silk) yarn for $5.99. (I got the Turquoise Splendor.) I'll get ball winder and yarn for $45.98.

But the ball winder is an imperative. The ballband for the yarn I'm using on Jacey's sweater has torn off. Without that restraint, that pull-skein of boucle yarn has blown up to something the size of a basketball. It's now impossible to take this project with me when I go out. I'm hoping the ball winder arrives soon, before this plum-colored tumbleweed rolls around my living room and scoops up both dogs. Frankly, I'm a little afraid to finish this sweater and tackle Sam's, for fear that ballband will break and I'll have warring tumbleweeds...

I spent a small fortune today on "necessaries": A new tire, oil change, emission inspection (which my 14-year-old car passed with flying colors), and tag-fee/ad-valorem tax for my car. The inspection costs more than the ad-valorem tax. And one tire cost more than both of them. And I shopped at Costco to stock up on Diet Coke and get a few Christmas presents for those people you don't know how to shop for. (Chocolate-covered Belgium cookies for the brother-in-law's brother. Stuff like that.)

While I was sitting in the Pep Boys' waiting room--since I couldn't take Jacey's sweater-plus-tumbleweed with me--I worked on the socks I started knitting back in October, then put aside. After the frustrations of working with boucle yarn that hides all your stitches, it actually was satisfying to work on the socks, where I can see what I'm doing. I'm hating those socks a lot less, now. I'll probably use them as my take-to-work project for a while. I'm on the cuffs--they're a top-down pattern--and I can work on them at lunchtime as long as the pattern stays easy.

In other news: I've reread Harry Potter 1-4, and now I've finished #5. (The fifth movie comes out here on DVD in less than two weeks.) I also watched Macbeth--the Sean Pertwee version--from Netflix. And I've watched Elizabeth I with Helen Mirren; I have to look away from the execution scenes.

I'm going to sit up tonight and work on Jacey's sweater while watching DVDs--maybe Monsters Inc., Shrek, Howl's Moving Castle. Non-bloody, non-nightmare movies. Between Elizabeth I and that babycake video I just posted, I've got a brainful of gore and icky images.

I just ordered some hand-dyed yarn from Lisa Souza. It's a lot of yarn for about $30...a fingering-weight wool to be used for a scarf, and other things. It's nearly 1800 yards (8 ounces) in a color called Pumpkin (center of the third row), a sort of milky orange. The scarf only requires about 350 yards, so there'll be enough yarn left for socks...and other things. I'm also going to order an inexpensive ball winder. The idea of winding that much yarn without a winder is daunting, and I have all kinds of partial skeins--collapsed Red Heart pull skeins--that could benefit from being wound into sensible, compact little balls/cakes.

I've been working on Jacey's sweater. The yarn is frustrating--lovely color and texture, but boucle yarns are hard to knit on. There's no stitch definition: you can accidentally knit a purl row (or vice versa) and not even be able to tell. (When you're knitting in stockinette stitch and can't tell the difference between the front and the back: that's "no stitch definition.") I need to do about 6 more inches on the "tail" of the sweater, then the border band and the arm bands. (The bands were supposed to be ribbing, but there's no point in ribbing when you can't see the stitches.) Then it's on to Sam's sweater. I'm going to experiment with doing his sweater on larger needles. (I dropped two needle sizes from the pattern recommendation to get gauge on Jacey's sweater.) Sam's sweater--knit at the same gauge at Jacey's--would require another 33 stitches in the chest area (153 stitches on his vs 120 stitches on hers), and since he's so much longer, too, I'd be knitting forever. If I use larger needles, I can work fewer stitches per inch, and get his sweater done in about as many stitches as her sweater. I hope. Since I have to invent a pattern for Sam's sweater (the pattern book doesn't have a size large enough for a dog with a 31.5" chest), I might as well invent one with fewer stitches.

Craft-y Bits

Sam and Jacey went to work with me today. This means they missed lots of nap time. They're both sleeping like the dead now. But they're clean, and they smell good. I'm pooped and about to turn in.

I'm going to rip out what I've done on Jacey's sweater. This patten probably would work on a big, round dog. It isn't going to work on a long, skinny dog who's just got a big chest. (That's right: a sweater pattern that doesn't look terrific on a busty girl!) Both dogs have fleece coats. If they need extra warmth, I can put one of my tee-shirts on each dog before I put the coats on them. But this is the second time I've tried to make sweaters for the dogs, and I think I'm going to find something else to do with this yarn. (I already have plans...) Enough! already.

I finished the front-right of the vest I'm making my sister. It works up very quickly, although there are some glitches in the pattern. For one thing, following the pattern would have resulted in armhole shaping at the waist rather than at the shoulders. (Details, details...) Nothing like having a pattern that keeps you awake. The yarn is a lovely cornmeal color, and my red-headed sister is one of the few people I know who can wear yellow without looking jaundiced.

Button, button, who's got the...

Does anyone know the reasoning behind the traditional "worthless" button on a vest--the bottom button (or buttonhole, at least) that doesn't get used?

I'm crocheting a vest for my sister. The instructions quite clearly tell you to buy six buttons. And make seven buttonholes. Sure enough, if you look at the picture of the vest: six buttons, and--if you know where to look--one lonely, unused buttonhole at the bottom.

I've made the seven buttonholes. But I may buy seven buttons and give my sister the option of buttoning the last button or not--as she chooses. At least she won't be left wondering why there's a hole in the bottom of the front band on her vest.

I felt awful this morning--sore throat and allergy trouble. I went to work anyway, but I came home after a couple of hours. I only had two dogs on the books (for a 10-hour day), and this way someone else can get the dogs and I'll actually make more in sick-pay than I would have made in commissions.

I had worked a couple of rows in Jacey's sweater while I was sitting in the parking lot, waiting until it was time to go inside. After I came home, I worked some on the needlepoint stocking. Then I finished up a crocheted dishcloth (experimenting with a strange pattern--it works okay, but it's unusual). So now I'm working on the vest for my sister, which means I've worked on four out of five works-in-progress today. If I work on the fifth one this evening, it'll be to rip out what I've done: I'm so far over gauge on the width, that I need to rework the piece and leave out at least one set of shell-repeats for either front (which I haven't gotten to) and two sets of shell-repeats from the back (which I've started and worked about 4 inches' worth--of 25 inches). I don't mind redoing what I've done since (a) I'll have fewer stitches to work on the redo and (b) I botched the edges in this crocheting-from-a-chart business, but I think I know how it's supposed to go now.

I'm working tomorrow. I expect we'll be dead all day. Sam and Jacey are going with me to get baths.

Craft-y Stuff

I got far enough on Jacey's sweater that I can make it my take-to-work project: now it's just "work even for a zillion rows"--or 23 inches, whichever comes first.

I worked on the needlepoint stocking for Lydia and came to a sad decision: My eyesight is forcing a change to a different stocking. Her stocking was 14-mesh canvas, which I can do, but it's tiny stitches. But that stocking was stitched in embroidery floss, which is harder to handle than tapestry wool. And quite a few of the stitches had floss paired with a metallic thread about the consistency of a human hair. Try keeping two of those threads linked up with four strands of embroidery floss--and get it all to lie flat in the right places. It was a nightmare, even in daylight, with my glasses on, and with the day-light lamp.

I had purchased another stocking kit before I found the angel one that has proved to be so difficult. The stocking I'm going to do is a snowman--worked in tapestry wool on 12-mesh canvas. Yes! This I can do. It's not as devastatingly lovely a design as the angel--although the angel was going to look more devastated than devastating--but it's a perfectly good snowman. I may pick up some pearly blending filament to highlight the snow (which is not done in French knots, thank you very much). The tapestry wool is worked with two strands at once--not six--and since it covers on 12-mesh canvas as well as embroidery floss does on 14-mesh canvas, logic tells me that one strand of tapestry wool is at least as large as three strands of embroidery floss. And since 12-mesh canvas is only 144 stitches per square inch--while 14-mesh canvas is 196 stitches per square inch--you can see that this will work up faster, even if you disregard the floss-vs-wool issue. I'm no longer absolutely dreading the stitching. I have the canvas mounted on stretcher bars and the yarn sorted. I'll start stitching as soon as I finish this post.

Tomorrow I still need to get to the recycler's and the grocery store. (And the lottery ticket people.) The grocery store will be critical since I'm heading into a 5-day stretch of 10-hour work days. Once I drag myself to the car after work, I haven't got the energy to go shopping. I can barely crawl in the house. But I'm running low on bread, peanut butter, Diet Coke, and Lean Cuisines--all the major food groups.

Jacey's sweater: Gauge swatch

The gauge for the half-double crochet section is 20 stitches/10 rows equals 5 inches with an H hook. I'm hitting 15 stitches/12.5 rows in 5 inches with an H hook. I'll live with the width (the sweater can be loose), and I'll work extra rows as necessary to get the length.

And the extra width might help when I have to enlarge the pattern to fit Sam.

Nice, relaxing day off today. I've puttered on Ravelry. I wove the ends in on the shawl I was making for myself. (Pictures later.) I started two new projects. One is a dishcloth--something I can work on at lunchtime since it doesn't require a lot of counting and pattern-following. (The shawl I finished was my old lunchtime project.) The other is a sweater for Jacey.


The picture is the frogged coats...

I started making one last year--a sweater for her and one for Sam. After lots of hours on both (his was nearly finished), I called it quits. I really liked the stitch pattern (and the colors), but I didn't like anything else--like the fit, the way the sweater hung, the coverage on Sam, etc. But I found a new pattern--one that really is a sweater rather than a crocheted, blanket-style coat that just hangs over the dog's back. The pattern comes in sizes from small to extra-large. According to the published dimensions, the extra-large will just fit Jacey (if I add 2 inches to the back length); Sam's will have to be 5 inches bigger in the chest and 8 inches longer down the back. I figure I need to make her sweater first, and measure it against Sam before I seam it. That should help me see how much--and where--I need to change the pattern for Sam.

But I've just worked a swatch in the pattern stitch, and I'm way off in every direction. I'm re-swatching to see if it was a fluke...and to see if I can force something to give. (My stitches are too loose for the width: 15 stitches in a space that should be 20. My rows are too tight for the length: what should have been 5 inches was only about 4. Yeah, I can stretch the piece longer, which will correct both problems--but only if I keep stretching the piece, and Jacey isn't going to put up with mom yanking on her sweater all day.) If I have to, I can live with it, though. The extra stitches in the width will make it easier to make the adjustment for Sam, and I don't mind if hers is loose around the chest. And I can get the length I need for the body by stitching more rows (I have plenty of yarn); I just have to make sure I have enough length in the front section, so the "armholes" fall at the right spot. The pattern shows the "neck length" (from the neck/throat edge of the pattern to the point where the armholes begin), so I just have to match that length (for her--exceed it for him), no matter how many rows it takes.

This evening, after lots of promising thunder and lightning, we got a tiny bit of rain--a nice, gentle shower that lasted about 30 minutes or so. I took two dog beds out to the carport, and the dogs and I sat out there and watched the rain, and the people coming home late from work. I'm off Thursday and Friday, and hope to have nice weather and a relaxing time both days--although, on one day I have to haul recycling and do some grocery shopping. Oh, and I need to get my Mega Millions ticket. The last drawing paid off for me: $3. That's not quite enough to finance my early retirement.

(Maybe you noticed that none of this is the needlepoint stocking I'm supposed to be working on. I need to do something about that...)

Happy Gotcha Day

I ordered a pattern to make sweaters for the dogs. The pattern comes from the same woman who created the crocheted greyhound pattern. I ordered the yarn, too: "Aran" colored yarn for Sam's, "Cherry Red" for Jacey's. (I get free shipping from Joanns through December 31. That made ordering from Joann's cheaper than ordering from anywhere else.) I also ordered a needlepoint kit to make a Christmas stocking. I made stockings for both my nephews when they were little, and my sister Santa still stuffs the stockings with candy every Christmas. Well, elder nephew (he's twenty-three) has a girlfriend who'll be spending her third Christmas with our family. There's no announced engagement, but that could come any time. (She's in vet school at the University of Georgia, and he is living and working there in Athens to be near her.) So I'm going to make Ashley a stocking...hope I can get it done in time.

Sam celebrated Gotcha Day (on 5 October) by clearing off the kitchen counter. Again. The bread was safely on top of the refrigerator. The bag of potatoes was not. Of course, Sam's muzzled, so he couldn't do anything with the potatoes beyond opening the bag and rolling the potatoes around on the kitchen floor. But he did that very well.