Sophie needs a new sweater. We are going to get quite chilly here in Central Florida, starting tomorrow and actually lasting several days. Sophie has her new pink parka that doesn't fit all that great, that I bought when we arrived in Asheville to light snow in November, but the sweater and coat that she wore when we lived in AVL didn't last. Murphy, poor little skinny thing he is, is actually wearing the red sweater I knitted for him as a puppy, and it fits perfectly again. But Sophie has an ill-fitting coat. She doesn't like wearing it, though she submits with dignity, I know it doesn't really fit comfortably and it's annoying to put it on her, so she needs a sweater too. I have some pink Cascade 220 superwash in the stash, and no dog of mine will wear store-bought.
Sophie is, and I say this with love, an oddly shaped little dog. She is chesty and almost neck-less, and also short from where her neck should be to her tail. She's a blocky little dog, and most dog sweater patterns take a lot of adapting to account for her wide neck and general compactness. So I was totally delighted to do a search for dog sweater patterns on Ravelry and find the Pug Dog Sweater. The XS size measurements are almost exactly Sophie. So I cast on during my Downton Abbey catch-up on Sunday. I've already altered it a bit to add a buttonhole approximately (I hope) where her harness leash hook is located, and I'll probably tinker a bit to make it a bit shorter, as she is quite stubby from neck to where her tail would be, if you could see it without looking for it. (Her tail is inverted, but has never been an issue. Fortunately, it's located safely north of the unsanitary zone.) So I'm on another knitting mission/deadline. We are going to have lows in the 30s this week! AIEEEEE! She needs a sweater, stat!
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label knitting. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Thought for the day.
"There's no such thing as a free lunch car." Boy and his friend T checked out his father's old car, the one his sister had been driving. They already knew/suspected that the motor in the driver's side power window needed to be replaced, but after driving it they found a far more serious concern: it needs brakes ASAP. It would not make it back to NC in this condition.
They are capable of doing the brakes themselves, so they got to work yesterday afternoon, then found that they need to rent a particular tool to work on the rear brakes, and by the time they got to this point they were already losing daylight. So the car is now jacked up in my driveway. We are pretty sure that working on a car in the driveway is also verboten by the HOA stormtroopers, so I am expecting a nastygram in the mail next week. The boys will get the tool and finish the job this morning, and with luck (knocks wood vigorously) will be on their way to NC by this afternoon. Cross your fingers that they don't have to replace one of the calipers, that would require another trip to the auto parts store. Meanwhile, I am enjoying the idea that I, a quiet little Yankee, Coach bag carrying snob, latte sippin' liberal widow lady, have become Pleasantville Estates' worst nightmare - I now have a car on blocks in my driveway. Pity it's a nice looking late model Nissan instead of, say, the General Lee. We considered decorating it with empty beer cans but didn't have any handy.
Today will be another big Goodwill run, maybe two, a huge trash putting-out, calling the electrician and trying to find a live body in the Home Depot carpet department, to get that moving. I need to hustle to get these last things wrapped up, so I can focus on looking for a job. The list of "last things to be wrapped up" grows every time I look at it, so I'll focus on the ones that involve waiting for electricians and installers now, the rest I can get done while working, or at least looking for work.
I'm still working away on the Minimalist Cardigan, the second front panel is about halfway done. It's not the most stimulating thing I've ever done, but this will be a nice, wearable, office-appropriate sweater, and I do love the Debbie Bliss Rialto. Nice yarn, so soft and easy on the hands, very springy. Photos one of these days.
They are capable of doing the brakes themselves, so they got to work yesterday afternoon, then found that they need to rent a particular tool to work on the rear brakes, and by the time they got to this point they were already losing daylight. So the car is now jacked up in my driveway. We are pretty sure that working on a car in the driveway is also verboten by the HOA stormtroopers, so I am expecting a nastygram in the mail next week. The boys will get the tool and finish the job this morning, and with luck (knocks wood vigorously) will be on their way to NC by this afternoon. Cross your fingers that they don't have to replace one of the calipers, that would require another trip to the auto parts store. Meanwhile, I am enjoying the idea that I, a quiet little Yankee, Coach bag carrying snob, latte sippin' liberal widow lady, have become Pleasantville Estates' worst nightmare - I now have a car on blocks in my driveway. Pity it's a nice looking late model Nissan instead of, say, the General Lee. We considered decorating it with empty beer cans but didn't have any handy.
Today will be another big Goodwill run, maybe two, a huge trash putting-out, calling the electrician and trying to find a live body in the Home Depot carpet department, to get that moving. I need to hustle to get these last things wrapped up, so I can focus on looking for a job. The list of "last things to be wrapped up" grows every time I look at it, so I'll focus on the ones that involve waiting for electricians and installers now, the rest I can get done while working, or at least looking for work.
I'm still working away on the Minimalist Cardigan, the second front panel is about halfway done. It's not the most stimulating thing I've ever done, but this will be a nice, wearable, office-appropriate sweater, and I do love the Debbie Bliss Rialto. Nice yarn, so soft and easy on the hands, very springy. Photos one of these days.
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Weekend Update
I still say Girlchild should have taken his chair when she moved out. When he comes to visit he is happy to see me and Murphy and the cats, but damn, he does love this chair:
The dropped stitch scarf is indeed finished:
Specs: 1.5 skeins of Regal Silk in colorway 111, on whatever needle sized the pattern called for, because what the hell, it's a scarf, it will forgive my loose knitting ways. I made it a little less than five and a half feet long, because I may give it to Cousin C, who is less than five and a half feet tall, so I didn't want to make it too long to be useful. I love it. It is a wonderful pattern for showing the beauty of a silk yarn like this. Love. It.
I love it so much I had to Buy Yarn - two skeins of Royal Silk in pretty blues because I had the same mental image Bess had - in blues, this would look like ocean waves. If you get the same urge and want to buy some, ($18!) do go find the kpixie.com link through KR, so KR gets advertiser credit. The colorway I wanted was out of stock so they are ordering. Which is fine, because I am back to making progress on the Minimalist Cardigan.
Oh, and I have a new granddog! Sort of - I think it's really Boy's housemate's dog, but that is TBD, because her cat hates the dog. Anyway, they went to Atlanta to visit Boy's friends, and a stray turned up on Boy's friends' porch. After duly inquiring to seek its true home and failing, the dog went home with Boy and his housemate, is now living it up in AVL. I inquired as to her breed, and Boy solemnly intoned in his best Redneck Voice, "She's a Brown Dawg." They are guessing there's Lab in there somewhere. She appears to be young and is well behaved. Pictures to follow, when he sends me some.
He is flying down Monday to get Girl's former car, which was their father's car. Did I tell the story of the Red Car Curse yet? My kids have declared that we are not allowed to buy any more red cars in this family. In 2001, my husband purchased a cute, very sporty fully loaded little red Nissan Sentra - and barely 3 months later, collapsed and was diagnosed with stage IV renal cancer. Last February, I purchased Baby, a red Subaru Forester - and barely two weeks later collapsed with a ruptured brain aneurysm. While I was in the hospital the kids declared a ban on red cars. Girl's new Honda is blue - we are not taking any chances here. But there doesn't appear to be a curse attached to passing along a red car within the family - Girl took her father's new Sentra to FSU that fall, and had it until she bought the new Honda, and the Sentra, which is now pushing 100K miles and has had a hell of a hard life, has been returned to me. Boy wanted it, and he certainly deserves a car built in this millenium. He will, I know, if he can't restore it to its former glory, at least rescue it from its current rough shape.
The dropped stitch scarf is indeed finished:
Specs: 1.5 skeins of Regal Silk in colorway 111, on whatever needle sized the pattern called for, because what the hell, it's a scarf, it will forgive my loose knitting ways. I made it a little less than five and a half feet long, because I may give it to Cousin C, who is less than five and a half feet tall, so I didn't want to make it too long to be useful. I love it. It is a wonderful pattern for showing the beauty of a silk yarn like this. Love. It.
I love it so much I had to Buy Yarn - two skeins of Royal Silk in pretty blues because I had the same mental image Bess had - in blues, this would look like ocean waves. If you get the same urge and want to buy some, ($18!) do go find the kpixie.com link through KR, so KR gets advertiser credit. The colorway I wanted was out of stock so they are ordering. Which is fine, because I am back to making progress on the Minimalist Cardigan.
Oh, and I have a new granddog! Sort of - I think it's really Boy's housemate's dog, but that is TBD, because her cat hates the dog. Anyway, they went to Atlanta to visit Boy's friends, and a stray turned up on Boy's friends' porch. After duly inquiring to seek its true home and failing, the dog went home with Boy and his housemate, is now living it up in AVL. I inquired as to her breed, and Boy solemnly intoned in his best Redneck Voice, "She's a Brown Dawg." They are guessing there's Lab in there somewhere. She appears to be young and is well behaved. Pictures to follow, when he sends me some.
He is flying down Monday to get Girl's former car, which was their father's car. Did I tell the story of the Red Car Curse yet? My kids have declared that we are not allowed to buy any more red cars in this family. In 2001, my husband purchased a cute, very sporty fully loaded little red Nissan Sentra - and barely 3 months later, collapsed and was diagnosed with stage IV renal cancer. Last February, I purchased Baby, a red Subaru Forester - and barely two weeks later collapsed with a ruptured brain aneurysm. While I was in the hospital the kids declared a ban on red cars. Girl's new Honda is blue - we are not taking any chances here. But there doesn't appear to be a curse attached to passing along a red car within the family - Girl took her father's new Sentra to FSU that fall, and had it until she bought the new Honda, and the Sentra, which is now pushing 100K miles and has had a hell of a hard life, has been returned to me. Boy wanted it, and he certainly deserves a car built in this millenium. He will, I know, if he can't restore it to its former glory, at least rescue it from its current rough shape.
Monday, January 07, 2008
Knitting Content (really)
Not too long back I started the Argosy Scarf in Regal Silk - actually, I more than started it, I got a good 3 feet into it, and then became vaguely dissatisfied with it. It was too floppy, the points weren't pointing, they were sagging, and the whole thing just wasn't worthy of that very expensive yarn. Love the yarn, love the pattern, but they weren't quite right together. So it went into the UFO Zone, and there it sat for a few weeks, until a chance message on Ravelry. Someone on Ravelry was planning to make a scarf with Regal Silk, and, being wiser than I, was wondering if it had enough body for the Argosy pattern. This caused me to revisit my stalled scarf, and admit that it just ain't working for me.
I had spotted this intriguing dropped stitch scarf pattern on Ravelry, and added it to my wish list, then promptly forgot about it, until the Raveler who messaged me mentioned it as a possible pattern for the Regal Silk. Eureka! The lightbulb went off, and within minutes I was madly ripping the Argosy and casting on the dropped stitch pattern. And ripping it. And casting on again. 26 stitches seemed too narrow at first, so I tried 46, that was too wide, then 36, nope, still too wide. The designer knew better than I - after you work the pattern for a few inches the scarf relaxes noticeably and gets wider. After three or four false starts, I finally got this scarf off the ground, and it is flying along.
I love the pattern, oh how I love it. It's easy to memorize, though it does need some attention on the yarnover rows (I have a disturbing tendency to want to knit an occasional yarnover instead of dropping it). Otherwise, it's a breeze, and fun. A better picture will follow, this is a "flung over the desk chair" un-glamor shot.
I am enjoying this so much, now the Minimalist Cardigan is stalled. I'll get back to it when this is done. Unless I decide to make a second one - now I'm picturing this in blues and greens.
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