Going too good

I must remind myself that there can only be so much of a good thing.

I was able to do some major gift knitting last weekend. We are talking one wash cloth for my future daughter-in-law, one face cloth for my current (and favorite) daughter-in-law, two wash cloths for my granddaughters, a coaster for my sister-in-law, one large face towl as a birthday gift for my little (but not littlest - age 26) boy, and one vest for a special cheetah baby.

The real world enters when you have to come home at the end of a weekend trip. The goodies knitted above were all done in the one weekend of visiting with family (and future family).

So then you come home.

The real world has teeth.

My wife's rather large and vicious beast (that

passes as a rat terrier) attempted to lay claim to my side of the bed.

Now, I know that given time and a chance to

loose interest, he would have left eventually.

But one has to think of what an eager animal with raptor size teeth could do to all those pillows. I had no alternative but to try to remove the offending hound from hell. The fight that ensued was for no less than pride and the bones of my thump.

We will call it a draw. He is off the bed and I still have my first digit.

But...no knitting all week!

: (

nhc

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/satellite.shtml

Princes Bella

There was a very young and beautiful princes named Bella. She was the fairest of the land and was loved by all who knew her.

It came to pass that this princes was expected to travel over the hills and through the valleys to visit the castle of her grand parents for a weekend. Now there is no limit to the love for this princes in the castle of the grand parents. In addition to them, the princes was greatly loved and welcomed by the many, many, many cats who lived in the castle.

As time moves for all beautiful princesses, princes Bella had grown to the age where she was in need of the requisite magical wand.

It happened that her grandfather, the King, was understanding of little princes and their ways, especially with the inevitable things that occure when a three year old has the benefit of her own wand. He understood that the act of casting a spell involved a grand swoop of the wrist, followed by a downward stroke. He also understood that casting spells sometimes required a little princes to tap, bonk, or wrap the cat, dog, or even little sister, who is the focus of the loving spell.

To that end, the King fashioned the best possible wand for his little princes granddaughter:

Votes needed

I have been working under the belief that when your married children get a pet it is a grand - ____ and that any pet that your kids/the family gets while the child is still at home is another child in the house.

That said, the dog my daugher and son-in-laws have is a granddog, but the dog that she took from our house to her new one is a child in the family.

Sister/daughter dog and son/granddog dog.

Or am I wrong?

Days gone by and Dog days of ...

The stop-light project of last week is finished (days 5-6-7):

But the real news is that the dog woobie was delivered to the granddog and enjoyed and mawled (but in a good way).

Back to the drawing board. I have now completed a chew toy made of hemp for the very eager and toothy granddog:

...but not to leave the cats out of the fun:

Day 4 and going to the dogs

I can claim only small progress on the stop-light project:

But we can say, other than some stuffing, the dog toy for the granddog is finished.

Will report back the consumer test results on the toy in a later blog.

Day 3 and the long wait

An update:

But before you begin to think that I am supper fast or stop not only for red lights, but yellow and green, I must point out that I had extra time this morning.

I car pool with my daughter and this morning she took extra long to get out the door. Now in most cases waiting for a woman to be ready is difficult. There is the watching of the watch, the pacing back and forth, even the inquiries into how much longer. Although I have to admit to an extra text message and one phone call to check status, I still sat comfortably in the drive way and continued on a few more rows.

Gentlemen, the answer is knitting.

Say the wife wants to change into that blue outfit instead of the fifth one she has tried on, or maybe the girlfriend (speaking here of a different man, not the same one from example one - that would just be wrong) is going to go with the hair up and will just take a second more, or maybe the teen age daughter (this one is the daughter to the married man from the first example, and is a daughter from this marriage) needs to get her books, even though you were already backing out of the driveway and had reminded her about the books SEVEN times before she came down, the answer to the blood pressure and pacing is KNITTING.

Take up knitting and all these frustrations are now opportunities. Opportunities to get a few more rows done, to start and finish the turn of the heel, or to complete the last 240 stitches on the gossamer shawl.

Smile.

Day 2 and going to the Dogs

I can give you an update on this week's stop-light project. The incorporation of vertical squares is going well, need to be better at counting to 5, but still going well.

And then there is that moment when the movie is good, but you need to keep busy; the needles are all full, put you remember an empty set; and you thing about how much the new grand-dog would like a chew toy!

First you start with an idea: "I will knit a two panelled stuffed animal."

Then you think, "I could just add the arms here."

Next, you figure that you can make it all in one piece, since it is for a puppy and it can be on the small size (6 1/2" tall and 7" in width).

And then you can work on a small rounded head, no need to be to anatomically correct - the dog will be biting on this part.

At the Stop Lights

My latest stop-light project was a lesson in yarnover plus. The project started just another face towel. To mix it up,but not mixed up enough to miss the light changes, I added a v patern of yarnovers.

Did you know that keeping track of right side (k2tog) and left side (sl1 k psso) decreases is a good challenge, but when you and various placement of YO's, you get a wild time. LOL Ok, you get a really mixed up result when you don't have your full attention on the st count and moving placement of the YO's.

I like the end results:

No, let's try it again, but from the corner up:

This week will be an attempt to keep track of verticle squares on a corner-to-corner wash cloth.

Updates

Here is the update on the shawl:

The pattern is simple:

1) *YO, K2tog, K2* to middle; K2tog, YO, K2; *Yo, SKPSSO, K2* to end

2) *K1, K2tog, YO, K1* to middle: YO, K2tog, K2; *K1 SKPSOO, YO, K1 to end

3) repeat 1

- purl on WS

The increase is 2 on multiples of 8.

The current Stop Light project is a bath mit:

Simple 1X1 cuff, increase at st 2 and next to last stitch on two even rows, then knit to two inches from fold (finger tips).

On a technical note, I found a new pouch for holding my 3x5 pattern cards. Oxford makes this pouch that I found at my local office supply store.

It will hold about 25 cards in the middle and can display a card in the front and back.

WIP's (works in progress)

What is needed is a brief comment on what is bogging the plot down on this blog. First, and for most, it's summer. It's hot. Everything runs slower at this time of year.

WIP #1 - I have started a wrap for a Christmas gift for a special little one.

Started as something fun to do while sitting in the air conditioning and watching a good movie. The pattern is a combination of two stitch patterns from a book off the shelf.

The need to run more than one project also carries the problems of putting down and picking up these things, according to my flighty whims, and recapturing the moment. Or at least, the right count in the pattern for the next stitch.

To help with this, I have turned to using numbered stitch /place holders.

WIP #2 - It died. I was participating in the great SOCK WARS III. I was to participate in something bigger than just me knitting in my office. The plans were to knit an extra 6 hours a week to get it done - RIGHT.

Well the missile finally landed in my lap -

I must know turnover my weapons (mail my socks) to my assassin. (something that is also overdue.)

WIP #3 - So to console my need for life, I took up a fresh pair of circular needs and started a half-circle blanket for a baby-to-be-named-at-a-later-date. (Note the use of numbered place holders again.)

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to my eldest, Mr. B. A lot can be said about the burdens and trials of the first born. First, all the mistakes and experiments are tried out on him. Second, he can never escape the fact that he is the point person - first to be taken down, ruled against, and "put upon". Third, even his nick name "Mr. B" implies expected growth and maturity.

Gladly I can report that all of these things were added to our Mr. B's role in the family. We are not a family to disappoint when it comes to burdens and expectations.

But in truth, B has been a great blessing to all of us. He has been a son that grew to become a respectable man and brother in the faith. He has become a father and husband, not in that order, and a good person to have on point for all of these.

Happy Birthday, Mr. B.

Infecting others

And it keeps spreading. I can report that the knitting thing is (after 3 plus years) catch on within the family. In addition to my daughter and her husband, I can report that my 8 yr old son is also starting a project for a give to one of his nieces.

Now not everyone is effected the same way. My eldest son, whoes daughters were the receipients of the cats, want to find form a cottage industry around toys for infants. The words "make more" and eBay were IM'd.

For now I just want to keep working on my next project. And enjoy the phone-coaster my daughter made for me.

YKnit (see link on side bar)

One of the better pod casts is the YKnit series. They always end there pod cast with this question of their guest: Y Knit?.

My answer would be as follows: I picked up knitting when my son and daughter-in-law were expecting our first grand daughter (notice OUR). I realized that I was looking for a hobby, since whittling in bed was not going over so well, and that I liked the idea of playing with rope. The long time scouter in me understood a basic need for rope, twine, string, etc. Plus, no one else in the family knew how to knit. This girl would need someone to learn from.

I started with small squares that were to be a blanket (still WIP with about 20 samplers) and made her a knit hat and mittens for her birth. She and her sister are now the primary recipients of my knitting efforts. Well, they and a bear named Gubber.

Day Two

All of this is still very new to me. I have added a couple of links: some of my favorite podcast cites and LibraryThing for a list of books currently on my reading/listening list.

Getting Started

In the course of enjoying this past weekend, I came to understand the wonderful blessing of family. To have the opportunity to help my wife when she suffered a not so minor fall, to be alive to see my granddaughter receive so much loving attention in celebrating her third birthday, and to be allowed to experience one more father's day were one of my sons shares in the day.

There have been many instances when I wanted to turn to paper and pen, and a drawer full of half started note pads are testament to this fact, but I have not given any serious thought to just starting with this media of blogging.

Where this will go, I can't say. But I hope I can at least share some part of my journey.