Kitty Bed Ahoy!

Yeah, I've been working a lot and stressing, but I finally got a zippered pillow case and felted my merino kitty bed.



Hopefully you can tell from this picture that it has shrunk considerably. Unfortunately I didn't have a 15-inch platter to stretch the felt on, so it dried on my 12 inch one wrapped in towels. (which wasn't very taut) I'm thinking Smokey might not mind the bumps in the center, or Mom can stretch it on her pie keeper perhaps after I mail it to her. I'm excited though... it was my first venture into felting and I think it went very well. I'm still amazed (though I shouldn't be) that the thing stands up on its own. Ya ta! (Now to mail it. :)

What else that is neeto is how the two vareigated yarns held together blended into a mottled-yet-purty whole. There's this spiral pattern on the back outside that is cool and was totally unanticipated (at least by me).

What's on the needles now? I've been working on a gumdrop monster inspired by a LiveJournal crafty person I know primarily as crochetsamurai (The coolest name!). She has a web site with critters for sale, Pepperberry. She's got the coolest marine stuff*d t*ys, and a couple weeks ago she tried her hand at making a monster. Now, I would be hard put to making a stuff*d squid, but hopefully I can try to make a monster. Especially since ideal symmetry isn't a requirement.

Since my 5 yr old cousin Zefferin is obsessed with Poke mon, (and his noun for random-animal-spotted IS stuff like 'water Poke mon', 'air Poke mon', etc) I thought he might like a blue homage-to-the-gumdrop-monsters. I'll try and post a picture in a couple days... right now he's a blue blob with two blue paws and two black horns. If I'd had a brain, I'd have taken a picture of him with the kitty bed... ahh well. I get to figure out how to sew a face onto him tonight at SnB.

Okay, gotta go do lab work. :)

The new Knitty is up!

This would be www.knitty.com, btw. Most of the patterns are pretty cool. Some are a bit odd, but that's Knitty for you. =)

I'm still sad that I didn't make it in. I understand now a lot of Dan's frustration that most form letters don't tell you what precisely was wrong with your submission, so that you could fix it for next time. Ach well.

I still think I might shorten Dan's vest a bit so it's not too long. That and someday make it up out of a less toasty yarn weight so the poor man doesn't cook because he loves me. And knit it in two peices, back and forth, so that there's not a wierdness issue when I go from circs to straights.

However, while I'm dissapointed, I still learned a lot. Just like baseball, maybe next time. :)

Cou-qi! Cou-qi!

I'm assured that cou-qi is the noise that some Bermudan frogs make. It was the noise I was making this weekend.

Before I go any farther, Happy Birthday Dan! :) We love you! (It was Saturday. He's my SO, my friend, my hubby, and my resident Cancer. Life is good. ;)

Anyhoo, I came to the end of my yarn on the Ruby Slipper shawl before I finished the knit-on, garter stitch lace edging. (This is what the pattern calls for instead of a bind-off.) Arrg. Halfway around the circle, I had noticed that I was doing the edging a mite wrong - I'd added an internal repeat, so I got a kinda-cool ladder effect. However, this had the drawback of using more yarn on the now-wider edging and thus I ran out about fifty stitches away from the end of the bind-off. Arrg. I'd already bought more yarn once, and I didn't want to do it again.

I was so mad! However, I was dubious about the ladder edge anyway and stressed about the In Law Visit, so I threaded a smaller circ through all of soon-to-be unbound-off stitches, hooked the end of the yarn to my ball winder, and ripped out the whole edging, chanting to myself: Rip it! Rip it good! Crack that rip!

It unravelled with a minimum of fuss. I'm so good. Now I've figured out a much narrower garter lace edging that is still the minimum of 8 stitches wide. Back to going around the circle, but since the edge is narrower hopefully it will go quicker this time. I love the shawl even if people keep complimenting me on my tablecloth... I was wearing the shawl with the circular in it while I was in Nantucket, since most of the circle was free - and am looking forward to its finish. It was very nice on a suddenly-cool summer evening. :) Now if only the circs weren't poking me in the neck like some wierd halter. ;)

I swear, I will finish this thing... it won't be the Project that Will Not Die.

I've started swatching the Tile sweater, but as it's gauge-over-pattern, it's going a little bit slowly. The plus side is that I've figured out cabling without a needle and that I'll have lots of preshrunk yarn to sew the bastard darling together. :) Okay, off to be productive.

I'm not dead yet! Really!

I've been working a lot for the abstract deadlines and such that are dominating my scientific life, and I longed for a new project which some of you may have heard of. I had some clearance Noro Kabuto in my stash, which tormented me with how I might use it, for itchy unhappiness and rashdom abounded from its wool and alpaca. No Bueno. Since I could knit with it in short bursts but might never wear it, I decided I was going to felt that Kabuto into This.

But Dharia, of Skeintily Clad, said unto me 'Lo, that Kabuto hath Cashmere and silk along with the Alpaca. Thou canst not felt that!' and I responded 'Yea, but I cannot wear it, and would use it for something.' Dharia rejoindered - 'Canst thou not make thy mother something from that lovely Kabuto?' to which I sadly had to rebut 'nay, for she cannot bear the Alpaca either, and I am at my wit's end.' And Dharia said 'I will take that Kabuto from you, and you can pick from my stash.' And it was good. But the stash was packed for moving and muchly dominated by the Evil Alpacas of Rashdom. So I quoth unto Dharia 'If thou wouldst enjoy spinning bulky merino for me, that I still might make the Felted Kitty bed for my venerable cat, I would like that immensely.' And Dharia assented, and avowed that she truly would enjoy the spinning, and yea, even volunteered to dye the yarn for me, for Dharia is a sweetheart.

With the advent of being Muchly Tired of garter stitch edging, and the In-Law Visit this week, I began the soothing circular knit kitty bed. Lo, there was much time to knit on the way to Nantucket. And it was good.






Now only to felt this large, variegated doughnut! We must all praise the Dharia of Skeintily Clad-dom, for the yarn was fun, and soft, and I must aver, knot free.

I troth, I'm in a silly mood. :)

Anyway, the gory details are that I made this from two skeins of Knit Picks Color Your Own Wool of the Andes, dyed by me, and eightish ounces of the worsted-wt-plus that Dharia gave me. I held one strand of the thick and thin wonderful handspun together with one strand of the Wool of the Andes. The eyelash is a bit of Bernat that my mother gave me in a colorway that was only distinguished by its number, which of course I don't remember. The finished product is a bit larger than the given prefelted diameter from the pattern, but that's okay, because Smokey is a Maine Coon/Persian mixed cat, and he's HHHUUUUGGGGEEE. Yeah. Before he gained a lot of weight, he weighed about seventeen pounds. And he wasn't fat then, he was just BIG.

So, does anyone have a zippered pillow case I can borrow for the felting?

SQUEE!

Melissa (of inertiacreeps) made dolls of our All Flesh Must be Eaten characters! She made one of me and a few possible for her character, and then one for Dan as the Zombie Master. They're just AWESOME! Kudos to Melissa!!!