going to the dogs

Posted by ann

I had a very full day yesterday. Worked in the shop all day and the minute I got home had to take D#2 off to her flute lesson (which is normally scheduled for Thursdays). So I didn’t actually sit down until 8:30 pm. This meant very little knitting. wah!

Today I am looking forward to getting some quality knitting time in. I will be working on my sweater, but also on another poochie pillow back. When I made yesterday’s featured pillow, I also knit up a pug and it still needs it’s Log Cabin back panel.

Since it is all canine all the time around here, I thought I would share with you a little slice of my morning. The minute my feet hit the ground, somewhere around 6:15, the dogs’ mission is to get me to go downstairs. This is where their food bin is. But first I insist they go outside. Oftentimes I have to really insist that the pugs get off of the deck! Lucy in particular is fussy about her feet and doesn’t seem to like the feel of cold, wet grass – and really, who can blame her? As I stand in the door, they will frequently look back over their shoulders as if to say, ‘you can’t be serious!‘ Once the ablutions are over and done with, it is time for chow. They are in a real uproar at this point. Here is my view as they gallop down the stairs:

it’s too bad I can’t provide an audio track. There is much yelping and woofing and a great clicking of the toenails.

maybe I should knit this view into a pillow?

so, now I am off to my comfy chair – my happy place!

a pillow & an epiphany

Posted by ann

I wanted to share with you my moment of pure brilliance. It happened while I was seaming this pillow.

front

back

I was in the middle of the first side, seaming along and pondering the pillow. It is a Christmas gift for a dog loving friend. I was thinking specifically about how to seam this pillow to make washing it at some future date an easier task, one where you wouldn’t have to take the whole pillow apart. It occurred to me were I to seam the bottom with its own thread of yarn, when it needed to be washed my friend would simply need to take apart the bottom seam and only the bottom seam. By having its own seaming thread, there is no danger of involving the other adjoining seams!

And although I am blogging in the quiet of morning, rest assured I do hear your thunderous applause.

~bow~

6666666666666

Posted by ann

Last night’s knitting was a watershed moment for this sweater. I finally made it past the mark where I had to rip the first time. Of course, there were other rips that came between that first one and this. At last, I have made up all that lost ground.

I don’t know if I even like this freakin thing anymore. I think there has been way too much togetherness for me and this project. Familiarity breeds contempt and all of that.

But I swear to all things fibery, I will see this through to the end!

that was the knitter’s equivalent of a Scarlett O’Hara moment ….. but instead of red Georgia clay, I am clutching a wadded up ball of fiber and some needles in my fist. I am so intent on my vow that my palms start to sweat and I end up felting that holy skein. gaddammit – now I am going hungry and I am have just ruined some perfectly good yarn. Melanie is going to kill me. oh wait, is she dead?

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I am working extra days at the shop – today and tomorrow. Here’s a weird little tidbit ….. on Monday, every gauge I measured for various customers came out to be 6 rows/inch. how does that happen?? Naturally I thought it was me and rechecked all of them.

nope – 6 rows/inch.

hey Cara, when you called last night to talk about your new project, weren’t you also getting 6 rows/inch?

Posted by ann

Today is Black Friday, as I’m sure you’re all aware. I, for one, will be no where near the malls – it’s on line for me baby! and here is an amusing link in light of the day & season!

Thank you for all your comments about my sweater. Truly I am beginning to believe that when knitting a sweater for myself I enter some kind of fibery fugue state. I refuse to see problems that are right there in front of my eyes. Problems that I am holding in my own two hands ferchristssakes. Did you notice that those color breaks were throughout the top portion of the sweater? That up until I posted the picture I had managed to avoid acknowledging other spots of white? Then there is also the sizing issue – although I have gotten better about that. Lately I am better about realizing if something is too small/big.

So, I ended up ripping back to the underarm. Both Cara and Kathleen remarked on the pooling (something else I was in denial about) and Cara told me a good way to avoid it. I thought that the honeycomb pattern would be enough to avoid pooling. Wrong. So here’s what to do about it – alternate skeins of yarn on alternate rows. Simple enough. but really, with color breaks and pooling, remind me again why we like handpainted/dyed yarns?

But what this all really, really means is that I am completely and totally sick of this sweater and have cast it aside to knit a hat. I am to the crown decreases of the hat so it won’t be long before the sweater is back in my hands. But at this rate, one has to wonder when it will be on my back.

ps. Aunt Mabel’s Cranberry Pie Cake was a big success – and easy peasy!