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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.