Meet Blanca

Meet Blanca.



Blanca is a small wig head. Actually, she's an extra-small, which makes hats look silly on her. (An excellent hat sizing chart is located here. The size you get when you measure your skull is not on the same numbering scale that hatters use. And hat sizes in the US don't match sizes in the UK, which don't match sizes in France.)



But she cost less than $5, and hats look better on her than flat on my keyboard (my usual photography studio), so she'll stick around. (I wondered if the dogs would be frightened by her. They just came over to sniff her, then walked off. I suppose I should be glad they didn't want to play with her.)



The hat is knitted in Classic Elite Yarns Liberty Wool (brocade colorway) using Barbara Benson's Cross Stitch Mock Cable Hat pattern (free on Ravelry). (Barbara writes elegantly readable patterns: all the info you need, sensibly presented, with some nice extra features in her PDFs.) The hat fits my medium-sized head just fine and would be comfortable on a larger head as well.



I also knitted some more on the BSJ: rows 38-57 (about 50% through the sweater).

But I missed blogging last night: a freelance job arrived about 7:30. I worked on it from 8 to after midnight, then got up at 6:30 to give it another pass. I'm expecting another freelance job today (different client), about noon.

Exciting Braves game last night in San Diego. Braves down 7-2 at the end of the 8th inning. They worked back to 7-6 in the top of the 9th (and that's how it ended). Lots of Braves fans at the game, and they got their money's worth in long balls: Heyward hit two, and El Oso Blanco pinch-hit a 3-run homer.

Yesterday morning, I got errands done: bought Blanca, shopped at Costco (probiotics and other stuff), went to Sam's vet (for his soloxine), went grocery shopping (more turkey necks), picked up Sam's gabapentin at Walgreen's. I came home, unpacked the groceries, and took a nap. I've been watching the Golf Channel's coverage of the U.S. Open, which doesn't even start until Thursday. The course (at Merion) received more than 5 inches of rain from Friday through Monday. The volunteers have done a remarkable job getting the water off the course, but there's all kinds of debate about how this very short course--with skinny fairways, limited lines of sight, multilevel greens, and gallons of unwanted water--is going to play.

See here for the story of the most famous photo in golf history--taken 63 years ago yesterday at the 18th hole at Merion. There's a plaque--smack in the middle of the 18th fairway--commemorating this shot.

Turkey, Round 2

After Friday's experience with my dogs and turkey necks, I decided to try a different approach today.

First, I pulled all the bedding out of Silver's crate, put her inside, and dropped her turkey neck in her bowl. I latched the kennel and left her staring at the turkey neck. This time, she was drooling, but she still didn't launch into it.


The BSJ, through row 37

I took Sam outside. It was raining, so I couldn't hook him to his usual post in the carport. I held his leash and put down the bowl with his turkey neck in it. He picked it up firmly--and stood there. He wouldn't lie down. He wouldn't relax his grip on the neck long enough to actually eat it. He just stood there. I wanted to check on Silver--make sure she wasn't choking herself--so I fastened Sam's leash to the post I put Silver at the other day--out of the rain and close to the door. I stuck my head back inside to check on Silver and found her furiously crunching away on her turkey neck. Back outside--Sam still standing there.

Minutes went by. Silver finished her turkey neck (I kept ducking back to check on her), and Sam still stood there with the neck gripped between his jaws. I let Silver out of her crate. She'd come to the storm door and look at Sam, and he still just stood there. Finally, I took his leash and led him back inside, still holding his prize. I shooed Silver away from the front room, and I aimed Sam at her empty crate. He didn't want to go inside--I've never crated him in all the years he's been here--but I pushed him in and closed the door behind him.

He still stood there, holding his turkey neck. Silver started to come in the room and I shooed her back out. I draped one of the blankets Silver uses in the crate over the front of the kennel, so he couldn't see out in that direction. I stood where Sam could see my feet if he looked out the side of the crate, but he no longer knew if I was watching him, and he couldn't see Silver at all.

Finally. He finally started eating his turkey neck. I kept praising him, and I watched until I was sure he'd eaten it all. Then I let him out of the crate. He went through the kitchen to get to the living room. Silver came from the other direction to inspect the crate, but she wouldn't go back in there while Sam was out of her sight.

Honestly, food shouldn't be this difficult. I'm guessing that each dog is motivated to protect his/her high-value turkey neck, and that while in possession of the Precious, neither dog is willing to relax guard against the other. I'm not stupid enough to disregard their feelings. If they don't trust each other, I'm certainly not going to leave the two of them alone with a high-value prize. (The whole situation is complicated by the fact that while Sam's been off his feed, Silver's been eating whatever he's left in his dish. Often, I pick up his not-empty dish and put it away to keep little Porky from eating Sam's food. But I haven't always done that--and now I need to start.)

I need to figure out a way to feed them both safely. I don't like feeding her inside and him outside: the dog I'm not with is at risk of choking, and a dog tethered outside alone is at risk of a loose dog in the neighborhood. I could feed both dogs in Silver's crate (if Sam will cooperate with going in there), but they can't both eat there at the same time, and I'm hesitant to blatantly feed one dog in the crate while the other waits. I think that next time--weather permitting--I'll hook them both to carport posts again and try feeding them outside at the same time. That worked (eventually) for Sam on Friday, and now that Silver understands what a turkey neck is, she might be willing to eat it outside.

Today--when I wasn't directing the lunchtime epic--I got a lot of knitting done. I finished the hat for the shop sample (still needs blocking and a good photo). I also knitted 14 rows of the BSJ (it's about 30% done). Tomorrow, I'm going shopping for a wig head I can use for blocking and for photographing knitted hats: stuffing a hat with wadded up shopping bags hasn't worked well, and I don't always have a nephew handy to model for me.



Trivia:
1--No upset stomachs from the turkey necks. Knock wood.
2--Lunch with Mother this Wednesday (probably)

More knitting, more doggie birthdays

I finished two more helmet liners. (No pictures, this time. If you've seen one helmet liner, you've seen 'em all--especially since the new ones are the same color as the previous one.) I think I'm finished with that pattern for a while. Three times in one month...


I made a hat with the Intriguing yarn.



I invented the pattern as I went along, and the resulting product fits me nicely. Of course, the pattern is nothing but ribbing, which is nice and stretchy and hard to screw up.

With US8/5.0mm needles, I cast on 80 stitches, knitted 1 inch in 2x2 rib, increased to 90 and a mixed 3x2 x 2x2 rib.

I had 20 knit ribs, 20 purl valleys. At 5 inches, I started decreasing: decreased 10 stitches (all the 3K ribs reduced to 2K); knitted even; decreased 5 stitches (every 4th rib); knitted even; decreased 10 stitches; knitted even; decreased 5 stitches (the last 2K ribs reduced to 1K); knitted even; decreased 10 stitches (knit 1K+1P together for each decrease--much easier than P2tog for the decrease, and it looks good); knitted even; decreased 5 stitches…, etc.

The hat took less than half the ball of yarn. I'm using the other half to make a neck-warmer. (I'm making up that pattern, too.) The neck-warmer is my lunchtime-at-work knitting. Pictures and details later.

The yarn knits up nicely. It's not particularly splitty (which some wrapped yarns are). It's a bit fuzzy (the mohair), but I think it probably would frog with less trouble than one normally encounters when frogging mohair--although that's an experiment I didn't have to make. :) There's some acrylic in the yarn (77% Wool, 15% Acrylic, 8% Mohair), but I blocked the hat anyway--wanted to see if the yarn changed much. There wasn't a noticeable change (the yarn didn't "bloom," if you know what I mean), but the yarn behaved well and didn't fade or tighten up, or do anything unexpected. (Having recently seen a Cascade 220 Superwash project--not a helmet liner, but another item--gain a ridiculous 20% in size when blocked, having the hat hold its dimensions was very nice.)


With the Granny Smith-colored yarn, I've started the Traveling Woman shawl. I'm still very much in the early stages:




Jacey turned seven Wednesday (the 19th). She and Sam got to have the last of the doggie birthday biscuit (with icing) that my sister bought for Sam's birthday the week before. (We parcel treats out sparingly around here to avoid stomach troubles.) And a friend's dog, Katie (MACH Never Had Braces UD),* turned a dignified twelve years old on Monday.

*MACH = Master Agility Champion, the highest AKC agility title (Katie was the first greyhound to win that title); UD = Utility Dog, a very high AKC obedience title.

The Hat Trick

The 2009 calendar for SEGA will feature photos of greyhounds in hats. I didn't get any pictures taken by the deadline, but I decided to try for something today--post-deadline.

It's a big hat. And a windy day.


Sam says, "Howdy, pardner!" (*Who turned off the lights?*)


I posted these pictures on my Live Journal blog, and a friend there commented that Jacey looks like she's wondering why her "bowl" is empty.

My favorite "hat trick":

Stuff

I must be a serious typist. This laptop is less than 18 months old, and paint is coming off some keys. The D has a chip out of it. And the Shift key...oh my!



Finished the hat:



I was going to crop it differently, but what the heck...that really is my chin.

Stuff...

I frogged that hat. P2, K2, forever. Can you say boring? Besides, I found a neat crochet pattern after someone in the crochet community posted on LJ. She was using the same yarn--even same color--as the hat I was making, and I love the way hers looks. So I guess I'm going to crochet a hat.

(The hat I frogged)

I got more Kraemer Sterling Silk & Silver in black (I had one skein of it, shown below) to use for a cabled scarf. I also bought some in white to use for the Charlotte's Web scarf.

(Silk & Silver)

Several Ravelry Helpers proposed doing a knit-along for a lace scarf pattern called Tiger Eye. I've been plugging away a little almost every day since 15 January, but several of the other Ravelers have abandoned the project. The pattern is just a 16-row repeat. Sometimes it goes like clockwork. More often, though, I wind up frogging the repeat and redoing it. And re-redoing it. I've finally finished the 13th repeat (10 repeats are shown in the photo, with lots of lifelines), and the unblocked scarf measures about 6" x 24". I'm aiming for 6" x 60" unblocked, which probably will block to 72", but I may wind up going shorter for the sake of my sanity.

(Tiger Eye Scarf in Lisa Souza's Pumpkin fingering)

I bought a set of Addi Turbo Lace circular needles, 47-inch size 3 needles, from another Raveler. Along with the needles, she sent a bottle of coffee syrup and a skein of lovely sock yarn.


The dogs are fine. So is the family. Mother wants me to come help her clean out her basement, where she has too much yarn stored. I can help with that. ;)