Friday, April 27, 2007

2000 People can't be wrong...


Or can they?! I'm speechless...

POODLE SCAM

So, when it got to 200+ pounds, ate their yard and went Baaaaaaaaaaaa instead of woof... And, oh, those hooves!!

Update:

Snopes.com is reporting the story is false. Funny, but false.

Monday, April 23, 2007

Faina Blocking and other FO's

Faina is off the needles and blocked! All that needs to be done is cut the rest of the fringe, add the fringe and weave in the ends. For the fringe, I will need to go into the 4th ball of yarn.

Anyhow, I do love the scarf and it's sooooo nice and soft. It was a fairly easy knit and, if I were to knit it again, I think I would add one more pattern repeat to give it a bit more length.

Here's a close up shot of the pattern. The color in the picture above is closer to true. The scarf is a tad bit wider and shorter than the pattern states (10" x 52"), mine is more like 12" x 48", but that was all pinned out with the rods in it, so I'm sure once I give it a wee tug, it will be longer.

Pattern: Faina's Scarf from Fiber Trends, designed by Faina M. Letoutchaia
Yarn: Misty Alpaca Sport; 4 skeins

I also finished another pair of socks. These are made with the new Tofutsies yarn in the colorway 723 (Put Your Foot Down). I used the Scallops stitch pattern from Harmony Guides, Volume 2, page 53 on US size 1 (2.25mm) needles. I started out using Crystal Palace bamboo needles, but the yarn was too sticky, so I switched over to Susan Bates aluminum needles and the knitting was much nicer. I don't know how crazy I am about this yarn, maybe because it was so sticky on the bamboo needles, it was not fun knitting. I do think it's ironic that I picked the scallop pattern to knit a yarn with 2.5% chiten in it (shrimp and crab shells). It didn't even dawn on me until I was finishing up the toe on the second sock.

And also... A shawl made of some recycled silk I bought on eBay. I actually finished the knitting quite awhile ago, but it sat most of the winter waiting to be fringed. I think I did this on US size 15 needles and it's from an old dishcloth pattern, cast on 4 stitches, knit the first row, then every row after that, k2, yo, knit to end of the row. Keep on knitting until the shawl is as wide as you want it and cast off. Easy peasy.

Here are the first four squares that I've knit for my Great American Aran Afghan. Clockwise from the upper left are the Hanna Burns, Ginette Belanger, Meredith K. Morioka and the Barbara McIntire squares. I'm currently working on the Dana Hurt square. I'm actually learning to like knitting from charts. So far, I've liked the stitches written out, but I decided that it was time to start learning charts and I figured this would be a good project to start doing that.

Harley is not impressed...

Friday, April 06, 2007

Hello? Is this thing on?!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... It's been forever and I have no excuse other than the longer I waited to post, the longer... well... I waited to post. OK, I had back to back colds. Different colds. The first, I sneezing and blowing my nose so hard I was peeing my pants and the second, I was coughing so hard that not only was I peeing my pants; I also lost my voice.


OK, let's start with Faina. I think this picture was taken on the 3rd repeat at about row 100. I've finished that repeat and have started the 4th (and last) and am at row 120. Then I start the decreases for the end. I'm on the 3rd ball of yarn and am thinking that I may not need the 4th, which means less than the 450 yards called for. Then again, there's the fringe...



Next up is the necklace I made for my Mom for her birthday; mailed late, it has arrived in time. YAY! The focal bead is a piece of Elephant Jasper and the necklace is a simple spiral rope with fresh water pearls and 3mm Czech firepolish beads.

And, this is laying on my latest idea... I finally won a copy of the Great American Aran Afghan on eBay and have been making squares using Lion Brand Wool Ease in Natural Heather. I'm on my 5th square. I like the challenge of all the cables and LOVE that each square is only about 12 x 12 inches. Pics to come later.



And a picture of Zack checking out the log cabin afghan. I think I have one or two more bands since the last update.