I swear I am NOT deliberately knitting ugly bear sweaters

Hello:

I am thinking, Funky. 

I am using stash. 

I am using donated stash. 

I am thinking, fun.

And yet, what I am crafting is:

Ugly.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with boucle.

Progress

Hello:

The cooler weather we have been having since the weekend is awesome.  Now, if it would just rain.  But, at least the clouds are progress.

I am getting ready to leave (very early Thursday morning) for NYC to visit Moogie.  I have been having such a great summer, and am making progress on many of my projects.  I know I won't be knitting much while I am there as Moogie has just about every minute planned with museums, walking tours, Broadway shows, Taste of Manhattan, etc.  I need to plan for airplane knitting, and a bit of night time/hotel knitting (if I am not too exhausted).  What will I bring?

Well, I have made great progress on the 3 pair of cabled socks I am knitting for my Herbology OWL.  I finished the first of my own designs, 2 Pi R:

Two weeks ago, I finished, and even blocked, the second pair, Bex by CookieA, in Periwinkle Sheep Watercolors Sock in Sunshine Yellow.

These were exhausting to knit.  I started them in May, and worked on them a bit almost every day for two months.  There was many an evening where I knit one row, then set them aside and worked on the 2 Pi R socks, or some other easier knit.  I don't want to say that I didn't enjoy working on them, because I did, but they were definitely a challenge.  They fit beautifully.

 I have been knitting some socks for my brother.  His feet are so swollen that he can't wear regular socks anymore and has asked me to knit him 4 pair.

I sent the first pair about 2 weeks ago.

I knit these toe up with a peasant heel with worsted weight yarn.  I'm using Berocco Vintage as this is great feeling yarn with a mix of wool and acrylic so it is really washable.  As much as I would love to use pure wool, or even wool/cashmere, I know that anything I send him has to be washable.  One of the tough things about ALS is that while you can't move, so it seems that you are paralyzed, you can still FEEL everything.  This makes it important to use soft comfortable yarns in these socks.

Anyway, he liked the fit, except that he wants them taller in the legs.  I made the legs only 5 in. tall because I thought he might like shorter socks for summer.  No.  He wants the full length.

I have started a second pair.

For these, I am doing a seed stitch rib.  They do knit up quickly with the big yarn.  Can I finish these before I leave and get them in the mail?  Maybe.

The last bit of progress to report on is the new window we are putting in our bedroom.  Ok, by WE, I mean our contractor, Zim.  As many of you know, we had no window to our bedroom because we had French doors to the deck instead.  These were lovely, but since we couldn't leave them open at night (hello raccoons!), we have been sweltering in the record breaking heat the Pacific Northwest has been experiencing this summer.  We decided to take out the doors, put in smaller doors and a window that can open and give us what ever breeze is coming off the lake.

Here is what the doors used to look like:

We want the new window to look like the windows in the other bedrooms that are on this side of the house:

Of course, our window will be smaller, as we also have a door.  Here is the inside showing the new door, the new half wall (for the window) and the window:

That was taken last week.  The outside is now finished,

and we are just waiting on having the inside painted, and the molding put back.  In the above photo, you can see the stained molding leaning against the new window (in cast it DOES rain).  We are loving the breeze from the window.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in a progressive way.

Even Beena is making progress as she THINKS about going outside.

Birds and Fleece

Hello:

Whew!  the hot weather has broken here in the Pacific Northwest, at least for the weekend.  We have been setting record after record for heat and no rain, and it has been horrible.  Today was overcast, though it didn't rain, but it was nicely cool.  I was even able to wear a sweatshirt for a bit of the day.

And what a nice day.  I started off late because Beena has decided to sleep during the hot days and run in and out of our bedroom door to our deck all night.  So last night I think I opened the door for her about 10 times.  Needless to say I did not get a lot of sleep.

I didn't get up until 7 am, and since I wanted to go to Fiber Friday at Crossroads, I wasn't able to get my whole walk in.  This means that I only walked about 7000 steps instead of the 10,000 steps that I usually walk first thing every day.  So, at 9 am I was tired, had a headache, and was behind in my steps.

But the day was great. 

I headed out to Allifer's house to feed and pet her cats.

Only Navi is showing up for pets and scratches as Zeks is way too shy.  Then it was off to Crossroads for Fiber Friday.

We had a wonderful group, and I was able to get quite a bit of knitting done on the newest pair of socks I am making for my brother.  

Then I had to go tutor.  I'm working with an adult who is taking Algebra II, and although he is very unsure of himself, he is really doing well with the class.  I love how hard my adult students work.  They really see the value of Math, and I don't have to motivate them at all.  I just get to break down the concepts into understandable pieces, and let them see how elegant Algebra is.

After tutoring, I went to Wajio's house.  She had picked up 2 free Jacob fleeces on Wednesday. She saw a notice on facebook that a local house that had a few sheep had some fleeces to give away, and that they would just be out in front of the garage for anyone to take.  By the time I got to the house, they were all gone, but Wajio was there earlier, and was able to get 2.  She nicely gave one to me, and I went to her house to pick it up and begin processing.

I have never worked with raw fleece before.  The fleece is so fun looking because the sheep was obviously spotted.  We skirted the fleece first, pulling off all of the unusable bits and really dirty bits around the edges.  We flipped it over, and then pulled off any short second cuts.  Then we put it in a bag for me to bring home.

But first, we cleaned just a bit of it so I could get the idea of how that works.  We soaked it in 160 - 180 F water with a little detergent to melt the lanolin and get the dirt off. Discarded that water, and repeated.  Then we began the rinses.  With the water gradually getting cooler, we rinsed the fleece by soaking it about 3 times.  I don't have any flicking combs, but I think a dog brush will work ok, so I will pick one up tomorrow so I can flick the clean bit of fleece.

It will be amazing to spin fiber that I have processed myself.

When I got home, I had to go for another walk since my walk this morning was too short.  First, there was a hummingbird in our yard!

Can you see it?  I drew a red circle around the bird.  The temperature was so nice and cool that walking was a pleasure.  When I got back, the juncos were at our feeder.

They didn't seem at all concerned that I was standing pretty close.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with a spotted fleece.

Bear Clothes

Hello:

It occurs to me that I haven't been posting much of my Works In Progress lately.

I have been knitting bear clothes for Camp Erin.  This is one of the charities undertaken by the Seattle Knitters Guild this year.

I showed you the horrible "folk" outfit I made with a combination of knit and crochet.

Mostly, though I have been making Boy Bear clothes.  Why?  I think the dresses and skirts are really fun to knit, and since I have 3 sons, I worry that there won't be enough "boy" clothes so the boys get boy bears.  Now, some of the boys won't care.  But some will, and I want there to be a good selection of Boy Bear clothes.

To that end, I knit some sweaters.  The first is a textured sweater with a simple cable down the arms.

Then I made a sweater in Seahawks' colors.

I was teaching a class to the Eastside Knitters Guild on doubleknitting, and I wanted another example/demonstration piece, so I knit a second Seahawks sweater, but this one in doubleknitting.

Then I thought that those Seahawks' sweaters might need some pants, so I knit the Bear Pants pattern.

 The pattern was easy enough to follow, but has you knit the pants flat in 2 sections (sides) and then seam together.  I took the general idea, and wrote my own pattern to knit the pants in the round with NO SEAMING at all!  And I made the overalls and pants above.  They still need the ends woven in.

As ridiculous as I feel every time someone asks me if I am knitting for newborns and I have to answer, "I am knitting teddy bear clothes," it is a quick fun way to try out pattern ideas.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with well dressed bears.

Regular Wednesday

Hello:

It wasn't as hot today as it has been lately.  We have been breaking heat records (and no rain records) like crazy.  But today, there was this haze in the sky, and it seemed to block the sun just enough to lower our temperature about 5 degrees (F).  This was enough to make it a pleasant day.  I'm pretty sure that our "helping haze" is smoke from all of the fires that are burning across our state.  There are also wildfires burning in Canada and Oregon that could be pouring smoke into the Puget Sound area.

Anyway, a perfect way to beat the heat is to knit at Crossroads in Bellevue, and a fair number of Eastside Stitchers showed up to hang out at the faux wooden tables.

Let's see if I can get this right:

Wajio has tinked the toes of her socks and is making them longer/wider.  Unfortunately, due to the dim light (we really need to get the Crossroads management to fix that), she left early.

hairybikers has finished a washcloth, and was half way through a second.

nightorchid has made good progress on her reclaimed yarn scarf.  That scarf feels like "butter" it is so soft.

BlueBerryMary brought a bit of unplanned pooling, a cowl in Seahawk's colors, that is almost argyle.

She also brought her bag that she is working on.  This will be felted when the knitting is finished.

IAmACuttlefish brought a sweater.  It is amazing how we can keep knitting sweaters in all this heat.

GwenS also brought a sweater, but one that is Addie size.  Se has to finish it tonight so she can turn it in for Quidditch Game 3.  (I did 2 rows of my Hexagon Afghan.)  When I dropped her off at her house, she had 4 rows of the sleeve to go.

JitteryKnitter brought a shawl.

Puzan brought (and worked on) at least 3 different projects.  This one is a cowl.

Wireknitter also brought a shawl.  Super pretty summery colors.

Dawn (I need her Rav name) is working on something out of the beautiful yarn she brought with her from Tennessee? Kansas?  Anyway, it's really pretty.

Chockelet is knitting a Color Me Plaid shawl.

And Domesticshorthair was swatching for a sweater.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet in the fog.

Cat Whisperer

Hello:

I have been cat sitting.  Not sitting on cats, but spending time with not only  my 2 horribly behaved cats, Beena and Muffin, but some well behaved cats (Rocky and Sunny) and some not so well behaved cats (Navi and Zeks).

Rocky and Sunny live with GwenS.

When GwenS and the lovely Addie were gone for the July 4th weekend, I stopped by on my walk every morning to feed, water and spend a little time with the elusive Rocky and the more friendly Sunny.

By the last day, Sunny was coming up to me for scratches, and Rocky wasn't running and hiding.  Ok, he was still very shy, though he did sniff my fingers one time.

I am also taking care of Allifer's 2 cats Navi (also known as Naughty Navi) and Zeks.

Navi is my own Beena's niece.  (or some relation as she came from the same ranch where we got Beena).  What is that stuff all over her face?  Cobwebs.  Navi loves to explore the corners of the garage, and is often covered with cobwebs when I arrive at her house.  However, Navi LOVES attention, and runs up to me as I enter, demanding love and scratches.

Zeks, like Rocky, is way more shy.  this is a photo of him taken from the bottom of the stairs shooting up to the landing above.  He would not come down.

Why are the 2 boy cats so much more shy?

O well.  At least I am getting lots of kitty love this week.

Peace,
f1bercat
shaping the planet with cats.