Wednesday, December 17, 2008

The last two weeks

For the last two weeks, I abandoned all (both) my projects to work on something different. The Teeny Tiny Government Entity has a charity drive every year and this year, instead of canned food, they went for hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves for a local domestic violence shelter. So the first thing I did was go on a yarn crawl. The second thing I did was fix The Man's new Liverpool FC sweater which he had just taken out of the package and put on and worn happily for no more than five minutes when The Paw of Demand took a swipe at him and he ended up with this:



Only I fixed it and it looks a lot better now.

The third thing I did was cast on a ribbed scarf from some new yarn. The fourth thing I did was dig through Ye Olde Yarne to see if I had anything I could use to make hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves for kids and adults. The fifth thing I did was set myself a ridiculous and unrealistic goal, and the sixth thing I did was knit a frenzy of hats, mittens, and scarves. No gloves. Gloves are a pain.


At the end of the two weeks, which is only about 4% of the knitting year, I had these new yarn items (plus one more pair of mittens I finished after the photo shoot):



and these Ye Olde Yarne mittens.


Now I have the mitten pattern memorized. Did you know that if you knit mittens at a slightly tighter gauge than you would ordinarily use for that particular yarn, you will end up with a thicker, denser, and warmer mitten? Well, you will.
The trip through the stash was a worthwhile exercise. I got it a little more organized--now all the Cascade 220 is together and all the Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran is together and all the little odd bits have been identified and categorized so I have a better idea of what there is. I had three little mini-balls of leftover green JelliBeenz that became one pair of mittens, and leftover Debbie Bliss in green, white, and black that became mittens. See what I did there? I used up six whole leftover balls of Ye Olde Yarne! I cannot tell you how satisfying that was. Upshot: I got to use up Ye Olde Yarne, I got to go on a yarn crawl, I got to spend two weeks whipping through small projects and actually finishing things in less than a month, I got to knit (don't forget that--knitting is pretty much the high point of my existence right now), and because I got to do all of those selfish fun things that I would happily do anyway for no particular reason, some kids will have warm hands this winter.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

How it got its name

So we have your Hawaii mini-socks,


and your fair isle hat,


but that's not you came here to see, is it?
Does any one know what this means?:




If you guessed, fringe, you are correct. If you correctly identified Bunny's Little Helpers at top right and bottom right by their distinctive markings, then extra points for you.

And so the knitting part is finally finished, and the fringe is cut and divvied up, and I start to workin' on it, but The Man sends me to bed because I am full of snot and he thinks that putting fringe on a throw looks strenuous. So I don't finish until Sunday. But I do finish.

Pretty pretty pretty pretty! And you can see why it's called Absolutely Fabulous.

This is not a stronger-than-dirt machine washable green blankie. This is a hand-wash, be gentle throw. I need to protect it from The Boys, but I don't want to put it under glass either.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

How Dirtbunny Copes with Tragedy

And so we here at Chez Nous are working on getting our heads around the idea of making Kirby into a three-legged dog in order to save his life. It is not a difficult decision. I don't know how much it is going to cost and I don't care. It is a very sad situation but the surgery must be done and that's all there is to it. And I am dealing. But first:






It took a while to get a photo of the May sock club socks that displayed the socks to advantage and simultaneously concealed from you how long it has been since I shaved my legs (my brother Patrick would be scandalized!). Here they are. All done and I like 'em.

Back to Kirby. The biopsy yesterday was a pretty big deal and he has a lot of stitches holding his incision together. He's on some serious painkillers and has spent the day looking like this:

You can almost hear him snoring, can't you? The Man stayed home with him today and I went to the office. On the way home from the office, I stopped at the LYS for some yarn therapy, the details of which I will share more fully later. One of the things I got was this:

That is my Special Sweetheart's Super Recovery Wubbie. I replaced the book that Yarn Bandit ate so I have my needles, pattern, and yarn ready to go. I will be casting on imminently. As I knit, I will be putting in as much love and good karma as any Dirtbunny can muster (it can be hard for Dirtbunnies to come up with positive energy) and I will convince myself that it is going to help Kirby recover quickly and safely, and it will give me somewhere to put my anger and sadness and grief that is not upside The Man's head because he's angry and sad too after all and deserves better. OK, so I just put that last sentence in another color because I wanted to see how long it was. It seemed a little long. It is. Fuck it. I'm a little scattered and it's only right that my sentences reflect that.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Hermes

No photos, and no decent description, because it is a secret. I will say this: Hermes consists of four main pieces of knitting and some finishing. Three pieces of knitting are done, and the worst part of the finishing is done. I am mighty pleased with myself. To say anything else would be to tempt fate.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Do You Want to See Ab-Fab?

Ab-Fab wants four pattern repeats (more or less). I have one, and here it is:









Today's plan is all Ab-Fab, all the time. I am mightily sick of the winter cardigan:









I have a back and one of the fronts done, and have started the second front and have about 16 inches of stockinette to look forward to before I even start the shaping. Yawn. Not much of a photo, either, is it?



I have two socks going. One is the second of the May sock club socks. It's time to do the gusset increases, but I am working on Ab-Fab today. The second is a plain sock in a green and blue yarn that is not for The Man. Lately he seems to think that if it isn't for me, it might be for him. Well this one isn't for him, so don't even ask.









Nice sunshine and autumn leaves, but not very true yarn colors.



I can also report significant progress on the secret project, but if I said anything else, I would blow the secret.



When the Ab-Fab is done, I am going to do one last beagle blanket and finish off the crappy brown acrylic once and for all. I even had a pattern (of sorts) picked out, but it was in a book-that-is-no-more so I'm going to have to see if I can find it in one of the other books or replace the one that Yarn Bandit ate. We'll see. Trolling through my yarn books usually leads to startitis and stash enhancement, and I've been so good lately.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Sock progress

Here it is:








One completed May sock club sock. Another toe-up jobbie. I have to say that the pattern scared the bejeebus out of me, but once I got started, twarnt nothing. It's just knitting. Knit, purl, yarn over, knit through the back loop, all stuff I am perfectly capable of doing. And, hey! It was fun too!

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Sob

As promised, here is a photo of The Man's red sweater in natural light:



He is getting a haircut later today and hasn't shaved in a few days, so he asked to have his head cut off. It's about the sweater, not the model.



Can you see the problem? It isn't my fault. I swear! I followed all the rules of dye lots. I almost cried. When oh when is Bunny ever going knit a half-decent adult-sized sweater? I despair. Sob!
Kirby sez: "How can you go outside without friend Kirby?"
And these are also done:

They are perfect, exactly what yarn in this colorway is supposed to produce. Ugly, but perfect. They were toe-up by the way. Dirtbunny usually goes top-down.

And now I am down to four projects, none of which are suitable for the car or easily transported. Ima gonna have to start another pair of socks. The stash is out, but nothing is calling to me.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Four things

Four gratifying things happened this weekend while The Man was gone.
  1. I asked Yarn Bandit kindly to inform me when he needed to go rather than just going inside. He did as I requested. However, after The Man came back, he asked to go outside and then his greed for cookies overcame him and he asked to come in again before he was completely finished, so The Man had to clean up a pile.
  2. Much progress was made on the boring parts of the secret project.
  3. Yarn Bandit recoiled from my morning breath. Hahahahahaha! Let someone else bear the stench for a while!
  4. The Man's red sweater is complete. Photos later when I can get one in natural light.

Sunday, October 19, 2008

So the Wahoo Doggy Sweater is now complete.


He's a scholar and a gentleman, eh?



Not really. His new thing is that he wants to sleep under the covers with his muzzle between my boobs. While I appreciate the action, I suppose, I'd rather have a little more space when I'm trying to sleep.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Columbus Day

It's the best day of the year. Excellent weather, and no real reason behind it that I know of. Just a gift from Uncle Sam to me. Today I:

  • Slept late (until 7 am!!)
  • Had Raisin Bran for breakfast. Yum.
  • Bathed the dogs, including ears and toenails.
  • Finished the nephew socks.


  • Took a siesta.
  • Watched The Amazing Race on DVR.
  • Sat in the sun and worked on the Wahoo Doggy Sweater.

Tomorrow I go back to the office. It's going to be in the 80s, so I'm glad I was too lazy to put away the summer clothes.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Phobos and Deimos

Secret Projects Phobos and Deimos are complete. This is Phobos, also known as Fred, who has gone to live with Poppy, who should be here any day now.




Have you ever wondered what a dog would look like without ears?:




Hahahahaha! When I said that out loud to The Man, Kirby got startled and left the room.

And here is Deimos, also known as Fred Prime, who is even now en route to The Bean's house. Now that The Bean is here, she is known as Nora.



If I ever get over my bleeping cold, I'll get to visit her. Nora lives at the same house as the original friend of the family Fred. He's about 75-80 pounds, and maybe a little much for sleeping in the crib with a baby, if you're into that sort of thing. So I thought it would be nice to have a smaller version of Fred to cuddle with, especially for Poppy, who doesn't have a real Fred.

Don't you love how the white fiberfill is showing through the black yarn? But Fred is black and so his namesakes are also black.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Very Very Angry

Bunny is not happy with a certain someone because of this. She has had her lunch and checked the mail and clammed down a little, but grrr still. She needs to sit in the sun and listen to Brahms and knit. But what to knit?



There are socks for Nephew Henry and The Man to work on, but they are boring.


There is The Man's red sweater. Again: boring. I have the back and some of the front done. Actually, I did the back twice. Once again, my gauge swatch lied, the rotten stinking jerkwad, so I ended up with a sweater back that, if completed, would fit one and a half The Mans. So I ripped back twenty eight inches of stockinette and started over. I took these photos inside last week with the able contribution of Photographer's Assistant/Spokesmodel Kirby:

Here's another one from last week:

That would be the September sock club sock. We all know that Bunny can't start that until she finishes the July sock club sock. Did you know that Lantern Moon needles are awesome? They are. I like the ebony ones and the rosewood ones. In fact, I was knitting Nephew Henry's socks on a new set of ebony Lantern Moon size one's. I left for work with four needles, and came home with two good needles and the jacked-up one you see next to September. I would recommend to you that Lantern Moon dpns in the smaller sizes are not really toss-em-in-the-bag sort of needles, unless you are happy to drop twenty-five bucks for a new set every freaking time you break one.
Hmmmm. Where was I? Oh, yes. Today I have been taking photos outside. What shall I knit on?
Wahoo doggy sweater? It is now 13 inches long. Kirby is sixteen inches long from collar to the base of his tail. Who thinks I should follow the pattern and knit to eighteen inches before starting the stripey border? Then there is the winter cardi, but that's just several acres of black stockinette stitch, and I've done two balls of yarn on that already this week.

And you can stay inside too, little monster. I am unmoved by your cuteness. I am unimpressed by your pouting.
I could go to work on the May sock club sock, the toe of which you can see perched among today's new arrivals. Nah. I don't feel like being wedded to a pattern today. The new yarn is for two lace projects which, again, requires being wedded to a pattern. Angry Bunny does not need something requiring precision; she needs something soothing and gentle. Not like either of the two secret projects which will not be shown here but which both require counting.

Sorry, sweetheart. You have to stay in too. I just don't have it in me to chase you into the weeds of Lucy's yard next door, and I can tell that's where you want to go.
So what's left?


Ab-Fab is left. Mohair. Ugh. Not today. At least not now.
And so, Wahoo doggy sweater it is! Maybe I can finish the back before The Man gets home.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Startitis






I finished the hunter orange socks. Yes, they really are pretty much that orange. The name of the colorway is"goldfish," if that gives you any idea. I thought that the intensity of the color needed a delicate stitch pattern to mitigate it.






I think I chose wisely. I really like the look of this. Of course, there is how things look, and there is how things are. I'm sending these to my mother so she can road-test them, since they are 100% bamboo fiber, and not very elastic.

Also, I have de-classified a secret project. They were intended for someone else, but The Man asked for them and, well, a yarn like this needs to be with someone who can appreciate it. I don't know what I was thinking when I bought it. Behold another pair of self-striping Man socks:



Up there on top is the beginning of a pair of socks for Nephew Henry. His mother told me he might get a kick out of hand-knit socks. I sure do, but I've never heard of a kid who gave a fig about socks. This could very well be a set-up to punk stupid old Aunt Dirtbunny. I don't care, though, because

I LIKE KNITTING SOCKS

If Nephew Henry would prefer to fill them with gravel and use them as a weapon instead of wear them, well, that's up to him. Once I give it away, I have no say in what happens to it. However, in case they do end up being weaponized, I'm also going to make a pair for Henry's little brother Peter. We wouldn't want Peter to be defenseless.


Did you know that I have dogs here? Well, I do, and about two years ago I got a book of dog sweater patterns and proceeded to order yarn to make about half of the patterns in the book. It has been a year, more or less, since I made a dog sweater, and we all know how Bunny feels about Ye Olde Yarne. So I have invaded my stash and cast on a Wahoo Doggy Sweater:




I showed it to The Man last night and he didn't recognize his own school colors. In his defense, he was watching Serie A soccer (Juventus and Udinese--Gigi has apparently gotten a haircut since Euro 2008, if you are interested), and Bunny should know by now that he shuts down during TV sports. I mean, geez, he works so hard and has to put up with so much crap around here; is it really too much to ask that he gets a little time to watch el futbol without a lot of bullshit?


Here is the really big news. Bunny worked up the nerve to open her Ab-Fab kit. It has all the yarn it's supposed to have and I picked which of the patterns to use. Guess what?




Three hanks of MOHAIR! You betcha. The first three hanks are wound and ready to go. It's not officially on the needles yet, but it soon will be. As will my winter cardi. I am going to swatch it this week. I swear!

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Laceweight

I have lace weight yarn. Not a lot, but some. Zephyr in five colors. A variegated Australian mohair blend. At least half a ball of Helen's Lace in "Black Purl." I have lace patterns. Books with patterns, and single patterns. I have ideers. Many many ideers. I can make any number of scarves with what I have in stash.


However,

I do not have enough of anything to make a respectable shawl. I want to try to make a shawl. In order to make a shawl, I will have to buy more yarn. This does not make me happy. I was hoping to use up stash.

But enough about my problems. The mommies now have all their baby stuff, so let's take a look, shall we?

Poppy's Stuff

The Bean's Stuff

The Bean gets a longer range because Kirby wanted to help display them. So we have blankets, sweaters, mini-socks, hats, and scarves for the mommies. The Bean's mommy is hoping that The Bean wants to be born today. It's a nice day to be born, so come on out, Bean, and meet your family and get your real name. Poppy, maybe you could stay put just a little longer.

I managed to get out of this baby-knitting frenzy without making a Baby Surprise Jacket.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

The In and the Out

I ripped out the badly-done seam on The Bean's sweater and sewed the sleeve back on where it was supposed to be and now we are all done:







By all done, I mean the projects for Poppy and The Bean are all done. The babies are still gestating (at least they were the last I heard) so I met my arbitrary deadline. Good for me. I have pictures, but I thought I'd let the mommies have the loot first.



Silly Bunny. It was really all for Bunny and not so much for the babies. If Bunny had thought about babies for one minute when planning these projects, she would have made them from machine-washable yarn. It's not like I never met a baby before. I know what they do. [Aside for The Man, who doesn't know much about babies: Sweetie, babies make various excretions. It can't be stopped. They aren't culpable; it's just they way things are. Washability is a big advantage.] So apart from the sheer and complete impracticality of it all, I am pleased with how the projects turned out.



Also, this is done:







The fuzzy purple hat. I used one strand of Cascade 220 in a dark purple and one strand of lilac mohair, and here it is. I remain unenchanted by the mohair but--Hey!--I only have one skein left. I give myself permission to take a break from mohair. I have some socks in the works, and a Man sweater, and a secret project. I think my next project will be something fun and frivolous.




I'm actually down one skein this week on the ole inventory. The Bean's sweater took three skeins of Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino, and the hat took two skeins. So that's an output of five. I bought four skeins for socks. It's not sock yarn, but I'm going to use it for socks.



Four in. Five out. The stash is smaller.

Friday, September 12, 2008

Hubris

So Bunny is at knitting circle on Tuesday and The Bean's mom is there, fixin' to attach a sleeve to a baby sweater, and she's being all finicky and precise and The Bean's mom sez she sez "Once I just eyeballed it and one side ended up half an inch lower than the other side."
And so yesterday Bunny took the day off and she finished all of the pieces parts for The Bean's sweater with the seed stitch borders and she is fixin' to attach the sleeves to the sweater. She has carefully marked the center stitch of each sleeve and she matches it up to the shoulder seam and she smooths everything out and commences to sewing. The whole time she is sewing, she remembers what The Bean's mom said and she thought, nah, I got it covered.
And then she gets ready to sew the side seams, and she discovers this:

That's a bit more than a half-inch off. No way can Bunny fudge that. I am going to have to rip it out and do it over. Yarn Harlot frequently discourses about the knitting gods and how they lie in wait to punish knitters who cut corners and get all smug about it. That seam is well and thoroughly done. It is going to take a long time to rip out--way, way, way, way longer than it would have taken if Bunny hadn't been so sure she had it covered.

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Ape Arms

From all reports, The Bean is growing at an impressive rate and will be a big, bouncing baby when she is born. If you see The Bean's mother, please do not try to impress her with stories about the 16-pound baby you heard about. Or the 12-pound one. The Bean's mother does not like to dwell on that kind of stuff and yet, all sorts of people are dying to regale her with stories.

The Bean's sweater with the seed stitch bands is coming along nicely:



I had most of a sleeve but, since The Bean's mother is not anticipating that The Bean will have arms like an orangutan (we are expecting more humanoid proportions), I have decided to rip back the ape-armed sleeve and aim for something a little shorter, which means re-proportioning the increases. I also need some buttons. But that means (oh no!) a trip to the yarn store to look for buttons. The horror! The horror!

Saturday, September 6, 2008

Sometimes I can't believe I spend money on therapy

My therapist has suggested to me that perhaps I should try going without TV and knitting for a week and see what happens if I just feel my feelings, because I have a lot of unfocused rage. I have been thinking about this, but not doing it.
  1. We have Dexter Season 2 on DVD in the house. And there's football all weekend. And tennis. And a rerun of Chuck. Maybe I'll give up TV for a day on Monday.
  2. We don't have any guns in this house, but we have lots of lovely, high-quality knives, and I know how to use them. I'm also really, really, really dramatic. Let's not mess around too much with unfocused rage, or I could end up tearing around the neighborhood like Norman Bates.
  3. Why in the hell would I give up knitting? I love knitting! OK, maybe sometimes I get a little compulsive about it and not every project on the needles is equally fun and sometimes it does get a little bit like an item on my endless to-do list (Saturday: finish bottom ribbing of the front of The Man's red sweater, do 2 repeats on the cable trim of the fuzzy purple hat, finish heel flap of first hunter orange sock and set up leg pattern, knit to the next buttonhole on The Bean's sweater, work the next section of Secret Project Phobos, swatch winter cardigan, etc). Maybe this is not the best way to enjoy knitting. Maybe I can come up with a better way. But I ain't quitting, no how, no way.

I've taken very few knitting photos lately, so all I have to show you is the fuzzy purple hat:


It is not fun. I don't like the mohair and I'm not in love with the color combination of the lilac mohair with purple worsted wool. But it is Ye Olde Yarne, so making progress at finishing off the mohair is giving me some small satisfaction. But I'm done with it for today, and I promise only to work on fun stuff for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

True Confessions

So the Old Folks came up for the day last Saturday and I suggested that we go to the vegetarian restaurant for lunch because--Yum--and besides, it was near the yarn store.



"Yarn Store? Hmmmm" sez the old woman, and that was all Bunny needed to hear, so we all went to the yarn store. The old woman poked around the stuff and had a grand and glorious time but





are you sitting down?







She didn't buy anything!




I almost couldn't believe it. What a weirdo! No Bunny, it's just different, not wrong. Bunny is the kind of yarn lover who buys yarn just because it's nice and then later has to figure out what to do with it. The old woman is the kind of knitter who decides what to knit first and then buys the yarn. Isn't that odd?



So Bunny has this in the stash:










Yup. Mohair. Bunny knows from experience that there is not enough mohair there to make the hat she has in mind. In order to be frugal and use yarn she already has, she was forced by the terms of the Economy Plan to buy more yarn. And so that led to this:




Listen. I don't know what you want me to say. It's not like I forsaw this sort of consequence when I went on the Economy Plan and, well, rules is rules, cuz Bunny's no rebel.


OK. I lied. In addition to the purchases documented above, I also bought a skein of sock yarn. As punishment, I hereby sentence myself to show you my sock yarn stash:




Because I don't want to mislead anyone, here it is from another angle so you can really see:



There are four skeins of Opal Tiger and two skeins of Opal Peacock (I think it's peacock) in the giant Ziploc bag over there. I think I counted 55 total. I will not discount the possibility that there are up to 10 more skeins stowed away in other places in the house that I haven't accounted for. Probably only 2 or 3, but I'm being brutally honest, so maybe, maybe, it could be as many as 10. I am not ashamed.



Here are the completed Mulberry knee socks:



And here is the Bud Collins sweater:



So sometimes I use up yarn.


And here is the bent needle I lost. I found it, clearly.

It's no good for socks now, but I can still use it to make cables.