Squares and rabbits

This weekend was fairly productive in respect to our group's charity efforts. I was able to get four 6" squares done in various textured stitches, and just out of curiosity, I wanted to try the stuffed rabbit from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I just got this book and couldn't resist knitting up something quick.

I got most of the body done in one evening, as well as the arms. All that's left to do is make up the ears, stuff and sew. It surely doesn't look like much right now, other than some kind of mutant's shed carapace made from yarn, but I'm sure it will turn out in the end after I add ears and embroidered facial features. This rabbit will accompany the Project Linus blanket of squares.

Lopi sweater finished!

It's done! It's finally done!! Well, 99% done. I still have to weave in the ends, but I couldn't wait to wear it. I took a day off work for a VA to PA expedition, and it just so happened that the weather was cold and nasty. Almost the entire drive was done through snowy conditions, but my faithful new sweater kept me as warm as if I was wearing a coat.



The sweater is a bit long on me, but I like the roominess overall. And when it's cold outside, who cares what you look like when you're trying to stay warm! I doubt I'll have many more days this winter to wear it, seeing as VA doesn't get that cold, but I'm happy to have worn it at least once. (Keep your eye on the links to the left... a picture will be forthcoming next week!) I still have enough yarn left over from the kit to make a hat and mittens, so I'll see if I can't adapt part of the sweater pattern to a hat band.

And now that the sweater is done, I've got my Irish Hiking scarf to finish as well as getting started on some 6" squares for a Project Linus baby afghan that my Peninsula S&B group is putting together. After I've had a breather, I plan on ripping out a crochet sweater to salvage yarn to be resurrected as a knitted cabled sweater which will be ready to wear next Fall.

A happy cat, another hat

I knit up the wonton variation of the Feline Dim Sum on Tuesday night, and thankfully my cat loves it. It only took a tiny amount of scrap yarn, a couple minutes of sewing, and voila! Instant human entertainment. Trust me, I think I get more out of that little toy than the cat does. I've attached it to a string to make life more interesting, and it gives Pandora a chance to "hunt" it down. No eggroll for her, though... I ran out of catnip.

After Wednesday night's S&B knitting group, I started to wonder if I kept knitting on my Irish Hiking scarf and used up the entire ball of yarn, how long would my scarf be? (Answer: about 0.6 miles) It's almost halfway to a comfortable length now, and I'm nowhere near close to using up half the yarn. I'm going to see if I can work from the outside of the skein and squeeze a hat out of it before I complete the scarf.

One round at a time...

Jeez, this Lopi sweater is starting to feel like running a marathon. I've been trying to squeeze in at least 5 rounds of knitting a night, and the rounds with three colors are actually taxing my brain. I'm almost done though, the end is definitely in sight. Round 21 of 43 of the yoke! Then I get to tuck in all those little ends and graft the sleeves to the body under the arms before I can wear it in public. ("Excuse me, but did you notice that your sweater has a hole in the armpit?")

I'm going to have to take a break soon and knit up something quick, like some Feline Dim Sum, just so I can feel like I accomplished something. There's no telling whether or not my cat Pandora would appreciate it though. She won't eat anything but her cat food (not even treats), but if I stuff it with enough catnip, she should go for it. I can only pray the dog doesn't eat it, or worse yet, simply pick the stitches out and leave a mess. (She has picked the stitches from and eaten the stuffing out of 4 incarnations of cloth lobsters. Not pretty.)

Pictures of some of my finished (and unfinished) items are now up, and more should be coming soon as I continue to bum the use of digital cameras from my various friends. Ahh, rainy Monday.

Knits ahoy!

Last night's knitting group was a blast. At first it looked like we were going to have a very small turnout, only two of us... then three. There are usually more, but late winter colds have decimated our number. About halfway through our session, two new people showed up. That in itself is a wonderful thing because we are a small, new group. The second thing is that one of the two new people is a guy, and the reason he knits is because of his job, which is working at Jamestown, VA. There was a need for historically correct knitted items and he stepped up to the plate. The third cool thing is that I'm now looking forward to volunteering on a big square-rigger!

Yes, once upon a time I used to sail with a crew on a "racing boat," the good old Cognac Breeze. (30' Catalinas are not meant for racing, but we did anyway.) Getting back to work on boats, especially big ones, would be much fun. I only hope that buying a house and fixing it up doesn't cut into my weekend time too much, which is about all the time I have left to volunteer in. Perhaps this summer we can all learn how to knit hammocks with broomsticks!

Getting a real blog!

If you're going to do something, do it right! I've given up posting on myspace.com because I like this format better. So welcome to the Tangled Skein... I'll see if I can't backlog the few posts I made and keep things up to date in my world of knitting. Tonight, knitting group at B&N! Yay!!!

Started Irish Hiking Scarf

On January 27th 2005, I wound the yarn for and started knitting my Irish Hiking scarf. The yarn is a lovely heathered brown-gray color from Australia (Meskills Woolworks), DK weight, using size 8 needles. The skein was originally 500g, but I split it with the friend that so kindly bought it for me, so my entire portion is dedicated to the scarf.

I tried to resurrect my ancient digital camera (megapixel is NOT in it's vocabulary!), so until I get a new one all of my pictures will be crappy. Yes, there are three cables on that scarf! And the camera doesn't do any sort of justice to the wonderful color of this yarn. I'll try to get a nicer picture of it when I'm all done.