Thursday, September 30, 2010

Of course.

I am trying to leave Rosebud out of her crate while I'm at school. She's rather cramped in her crate now that she's pretty much full grown, and I feel guilty at the thought of her there all day. The problem is, because it's just her & I (and the cats, but I doubt she sees them as equals) and no other humans, she's overly attached to me. Yes, it's totally mutual, but I don't freak out whenever she leaves my sight. She, on the other hand, does. She follows me everywhere. She can't handle it when I'm not there. When I've tried to leave her out before, disaster has ensued because of her anxiety.
This was the yarn disaster. Brutal. She also decides to forget her housebreaking training.
But last week it was 2 days with perfect behaviour!
This week started rough - Monday she had an accident and ate a knitting needle. Accident defense is I think she was sick. She threw up several times Monday night and was shivering so hard the bed was shaking.
Knitting needle, however? GRRRRRRR.
And it was a 10mm one! I never knit with needles that big. I had to buy the pair to make the Anise jacket, with which I totally fell in love. But it's pretty hard to knit when there are giant gouges and sticky-outy-bits on a needle that snag the wool. So I was hoping to have the pieces done this week so that I could block and piece it, and sew on the useless buttons and the useful unseen snaps. No such luck. So maybe next week! Finished pics will of course be posted. On the plus side, she did 2 perfect days in a row, yesterday and today! In fact, today she didn't even bother getting off the bed when I came in the door - I had to go to her. Spoiled brat I have made her.
In the meantime, I've been working on the math for a pair of socks I'm designing. I'm hoping they go better than the last pair. Fingers crossed!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Final product!

Doing a zipper is much harder on knitting than it is on fabric! Fabric doesn't move around nearly so much. So the zipper doesn't stand up very well to close examination, but I love this sweater anyway! I'm going to wear it until it falls apart. Which, if I am a knitter worth my salt, won't happen!

Friday, September 17, 2010

Of course.

I finished the applied i-cord on Samus today. I'm suffering from something more than a cold and less than the flu, but I needed to go into town tonight to get dog food. Nothing worse than an already spoiled rotten dog who's hungry. So while I was in town I stopped at Fabricland to get a zipper and thread to finish it officially.
But, of course, having a foggy head means I bought the wrong kind of zipper. I didn't get a separating kind. What a pain in the butt. But I'm wearing it anyway right now. It's so nice and soft and cozy! I've never knit a sweater in Patons Classic Wool before. The yarn snob in me thought that because it's so cheap (only about $7 for a 100g ball) that it was only good for mittens and hats. I'm so glad to be wrong! I'll totally knit a sweater in it again - in fact, I'm thinking of doing the Vine Yoke Cardigan in it. On Ravelry, there are a few people who knit it up in Classic Wool and it looks great.
But it will have to wait - Christmas knitting needs to happen first. And, of course, I can't post pics of Xmas knitting on here because the family does, on occasion, check out my blog. So posts may suffer soon. Apologies in advance.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Ick.

I was right. The applied i-cord for Samus is incredibly tedious. It gives a great finish, looks wonderful, blah, blah, blah, but I think it's going to take me just as long to do the i-cord finish as it did to knit the whole bloody sweater!
I just keep telling myself it will be worth it.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Can't wait!

So here is the body of Samus. Apologies for the quality; I had already packed my camera to take it to my parents' for the weekend, so I took the pic with my phone.
And I'm almost done the first sleeve, too! Not looking terribly forward to the applied i-cord trim. I've done tons of i-cord before, but never applied. I'm not sure it can technically be called i-cord, since the 'i' stands for idiot. As in, any idiot can make one.
I'll be the judge of that. Although, that youtube video makes it look pretty simple. Albeit time consuming!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

EUREKA!!!!

Found it! Went into school today for our mandatory 'welcome back' PD Day and there, in my office, on my desk:

I remember now that I took it in at the end of June to photocopy the pattern for Viola so that I could put it in a document sleeve and not wreck the book. Yep, I'm a dork.