Frog Is A Four Letter Word

The sun is finally shining today, so I was able to take some decent photos. While I was out there shooting the doubleknit bag I'm making for M, I thought you might want to see some of the production details. Shown is the bottom and side gusset of the bag.



The beauty of doubleknit is that it's hollow! Here I've put the work on two separate needles to show you the inside.



Why is that beautiful, you ask? And why would I want to open doubleknit? To put in a stabilizer for the bottom of the bag, of course! Plastic canvas works great.



Hopefully you can put that little tip into use somewhere. I am a big fan of the doubleknit. It feels great and is of course ultrawarm. Speaking of warm, here is a progress shot of Hoodling for Nibling #3. It is stalled because I need more yarn. No big deal, I need to finish M's bag and a couple other things first anyway.



And finally here is the silk I bought in Cali. It will be a scarf for one of my SIL's.



What have you made in doubleknit?

I'm home from California and very tired. Had to work today but all I wanted to do was sleep and get unlagged.

The fibery news of my trip includes: a Hoodling that is one skein worth complete; a hank of handspun silk from the Dizzy Ewe and/or Nancy Colburn though I can't find a website for either one (this blog and this blog both mention them, though); another beaded cotton wine cozy; and a totally a-freakin-dorable bag from Mis Cositas in the calaveras pattern--just in time to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos!

Pics in a few days!

Greetings from Southern California. Don't be jealous, the weather isn't heaps better than at home. Just warmer. And sunnier. :P

Well the votes said I should work on the Hoodlings for Niblings on my trip so that's what I brought. Runner-up was the purple Wavy so I brought that, too. I forgot to bring my usb cord for my camera, so no pics until I get home. Hey, I'm lucky I got on the right plane on the right day.

Oh, to answer Shannon's question on the Hoodlings, I am just making up a "pattern" based on gauge and measurements. I'll post my notes for ya when I finish one. Right now I'm still swatching the first one using Schoeller Stahl "Limbo" and Sirdar "Snuggly", both dk.

Tomorrow is the Village Venture here in Claremont so there should be some fun arts and crafts. Later!

Okay, T shared with me the link for Subservient Chicken and it weirded me out. It's creepy in a Donnie Darko/The Shining-person-in-an-animal-costume kinda way. With that warning, if you really want to check it out, here's the link.

To lighten the mood, I thought we'd play Subservient Knitter. I'm going on another trip--cross country and back--and naturally need knitting projects. I'm going to let you tell me which projects I should take. There are only two guidelines: choose from the list below because they're all made on bamboo circs or straights; and you should probably choose more than one since I have 6 flights totaling 5,010 miles. I guess that means you have to take the quiz twice--I'm not so up to speed on these quizzes.

Some of the choices are self-explantory. The Wavy and Big Bird are WIPs, so you've probably seen them. The Hoodlings are xmas gifts for my niblings--tubes that can be worn as neckwarmers or pulled up to be hats. The Green Gabe is the jacket to match the yellow sweater from last month.



Anyway, the poll is open until Wednesday night when I have to pack. Tell me what to take!

I am not the best housekeeper (substantiated by the fact the I've been without a kitchen sink for a month). Well, the sink is back in working order and all of my dishes are dirty and need to be washed. Anyone who knows me, has been to my house or shared a space with me (M) knows dishwashing is not my strong suit.

TRUE STORY--M was letting me stay at her place when I first got a job in DC. She had a nice apartment with one of those newfangled fancy "dishwashers". So to thank her for letting me hang out there, I decided to do some cleaning and I loaded the dishwasher with dirty dishes and figured out how to run it. When she came home I was so proud of myself for figuring out that contraption, "I did the dishes for you! In the dishwasher, no less!" M looked a bit unsure, "You found the dish detergent, then?"

BLANK.

STARE.

I had no clue about dish detergent. The thought never crossed my mind. Didn't the machine do all that stuff for you? Other similar stories involve my friend A's dishwasher, bottles and nipples, cast iron pans and a new kitchen floor. Now when someone asks me to help them clean up after dinner, I volunteer to take out the trash. I can handle trash.

There are two reasons I dislike dishwashing so much. The first is that dishwashing was one of my chores as a child. As soon as I was tall enough to reach the faucet I had to do the family dishes. And let me tell you, my mother is the type of cook that needs a separate pan or pot for EVERY ingredient. I also now realize that my mom probably hated dishwashing as much as I do, because she put up with such massive amounts of grief from me about doing it that any sane person would have just assigned me some other chore. But no, I had to stay in the kitchen until the dishes were done, even if that meant until midnight. My brothers could play games or watch tv or digest their meals like normal humans while I had to clean up the messes that four other people made.

Reason two is that when washing dishes, that's all one can do. You can't...oh, what would be an example...KNIT while you wash dishes. See? It's flawed already. You can't very well read or, in my house, do anything else that requires water like the laundry. You can, however, pet your cat as long as she doesn't mind your feet.

So this afternoon I got home from work early and was surfing around when I remembered The Fearless Knitter had just linked to KnitCast and gee I hadn't been there in a while. So I listend to the most recent three or four KnitCasts while I did my dishes and finally realized you can do other things--even knitting related things--while cleaning. Damn! No more excuses.

Do you listen to KnitCast?

Here is a fishnet scarf I made for T's birthday. Dang, it's so much fun to make! I used yarn, ribbon and fibers I had laying around. Do you think you might have some yarn laying around? I thought so. I sammiched the fibers between Solvy (water soluble stuff) and stitched!



Okay, so it was a wee bit more work than that, but still fun! I'm going to make several more of these and then translate the technique into other items. Stick around!

Have you used Solvy?

Today is Tina's birthday. Send her some telepathic birthday wishes, will ya? I'm not going to link because I haven't asked her if that's okay. Anyway, I went over to T's on Tuesday night and we divided up the cotton chenille I bought from StitchinGirl's Yard Sale plus the green that T already had. T also taught me how to wind a center pull ball since neither of us is a swiftandwinderaire.



And something I found incredibly interesting. Never say you've seen it all. UV activated embroidery thread.

I have been without a kitchen sink for almost a month now. It's my own fault, but I was obviously not very motivated to correct it. I haven't been able to cook or wash the dishes and that hasn't really cramped my style at all. All I needed to do was pick out a new faucet (that would fit my antique sink) and order it. It was not until I wanted to do some dye projects that I actually felt the need to put my kitchen back into working order. So the faucet's here and we're putting it all back together today. Then I can dye!

I have been knitting here and there when the job was not sucking up my time. I am about to start the side gussets for M's bag. Here's a pic of it a few days ago with the magazine.



And I'm trying to finish up Dobby's Big Bird sweater to 1.)get it out of the way 2.)free up the needles and 3.)make it her halloween costume. Here it is after the leg holes were made. The holes will then get ribbing and Boa like the neck.



I'm ready to start a million other projects, so I'd like to get one of these done this rainy weekend. Do your pets dress up for halloween?

A couple peeps asked about the edges of the denim design and how the threads were held in place. Well, I just cut the weft threads at both ends of the design and pulled it out with tweezers. The tightness of the weave kept everything in place. Of course I did have to be careful in handling it or it would fray more than I wanted, blurring the edges.



Not much happening here, though I decided to finish several languishing knit projects in order to free up those needles. Two down today!

Do you leave the needles in a UFO or use stich holders?