Things to Cuddle

I recently finished up two fairly cuddly knitting projects.

The first is another Lilly Owl blanket, using Lori Emmitt's pattern.

This is slightly larger than my first Lilly owl blanket, and I tweaked the pattern a bit more. I thought the owls would stand out more if there was an additional purl row at the top and bottom, so I changed the first and last row of the seed stitch blocks to be purl rows. Truth be told, it didn't really make much of a difference, and it was rather confusing to keep straight, so I'll abandon that design element. But, I did pay attention to how the seed stitch blocks blended with the garter stitch edging, and made sure that I didn't have knits and purls side-by-side with the edges - and that looks much better than on my first blanket.

Now that I've worked out these details, I've ordered enough yarn to make a regular-sized baby blanket, and will cast on as soon as that yarn comes in. Stay tuned!

I also finished another elephant, using Ysolda Teague's Elijah pattern. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton & Silk Hand Paint, in the color Confetti. I was calling this elephant Confetti, but I'm told by the soon-to-be recipient that her name will be Ellie.

I did not knit this beagle! I usually dump our laundry on the bed, to fold it, and if I don't get to it right away, Bonnie loves to make herself a nest. Apparently she is equally happy nesting in the basket itself.

Our cuddly beagle has developed another quirk. When we first adopted her, she practically never barked - we think we may have heard her bark five times in the first year we had her. After Homer died, she started barking occasionally, if she was outside and wanted to come in before we went to check on her. She would occasionally bark at lunchtime, if she thought I needed to stop working and give her some attention - one sharp, indignant, "look at me" bark.

Then we came home from Mackinac Island, and she is a changed animal. During the day, she behaves as usual, sleeping on her bed in my office, or on the couch. But at night, she apparently thinks that we are not giving her the attention she needs. She barks, watches us, and barks some more.

We are trying to give her the attention she craves, without rewarding this barking. Wish us luck on this one!

FOs and Toads

I have a few FOs (Finished Objects) to show off. These are projects I've finished since mid-April.

To start off, here's another scarf for OFA's Red Scarf Project. Nothing fancy - just seed stitch. Very pleasant knitting! The yarn is Patons Classic Wool, in the color Cognac Heather.

I bought this yarn (Mountain Colors Weaver's Wool Quarters, in the color Clearwater) several years ago, when I stumbled across a yarn store in Toledo, going out of business and selling everything at 40% off. The skein sat in my stash for a while, but I finally knit it up into Susan Lawrence's Forest Canopy Shawl. It is a small shawl, but should serve to ward off air conditioning chill. (I gave it away, so of course it will ward off someone else's AC chill.) It was my first "real" lace project, and I confess that I'm pretty happy with how it turned out (and it was great fun to knit).

Here is another of Ysolda Teague's Elijah the Elephant, knit with Misti Alpaca Pima Cotton & Silk Hand Paint. I use about 1/2 skein for each elephant; this finished my skein in the color Four Elements.

This Elijah is made with the same yarn, but in the color Apple Tree green (I love the names of these colorways!)

Mittens without thumbs...

And with thumbs

This hat and mittens will be donated to Seita Scholars (there's a scarf in the works also). You can read about the Seita Scholars here. The hat is pretty basic stockinette, with standard decreases at the top. I  knit a facing, so, if the brim is rolled up, there are four thicknesses of yarn; the ears should be toasty warm! The mittens are from Ann Budd's book, The Knitter's Handy Book of  Patterns.

No, I didn't knit this fellow. He's just one of the many toads that live in our window well. Last year, I counted 10 toads one day.

I really would like to bid adieu to these fellows, but I'm not sure how to go about it! I'd like to clean the leaves out of those wells, but I confess to an irrational fear of being startled by toads suddenly leaping about...

It's Starting to Look Like Michigan

We haven't had much snow yet this winter. As of yesterday, our seasonal snowfall was 17.3 inches - just over half the normal amount by now. But we're under a lake effect snow warning through tomorrow, and the snow has been falling all day.

This is what the park looked like when Bonnie & I ventured out at lunch.

I'll add some more wintry pictures, but first - knitting!

Last Christmas (2009), Jim gave me some very nice yarn - 90% cashmere, 10% silk - and I used it to knit this scarf for him. It's nothing fancy. I cast on 26 stitches, started & ended with 5 rows of seed stitch, and in between used the "Squares 2" pattern from the stitch dictionary "400 Knitting Stitches."

And... I finished Echo the Elephant. I had such fun, knitting this pattern by Ysolda Teague. You start by knitting the head, then pick up stitches & knit the body, then pick up stitches & knit each leg, arm, & ear, stuffing as you go. When the last ear is finished, all that's left to do is embroider two eyes. That's the kind of knitting I love: minimal finishing work!

The yarn is 100% merino, and is pink at the request of a certain young lady who will, I am sure, give this elephant a loving home. The colorful scarf is knit out of sock yarn (45% bamboo, 40% wool, 15% nylon). (I got this sock yarn at our knitting guild's white elephant exchange, and thought it would be perfect for Echo.)

And now - more Pictures of Winter:

I think that something about snow causes it to trap smells; Bonnie is forever burying her nose in search of something - brrrr!

This scene is in the woods near Friendship Village. If you peer closely, you can see that Bonnie is licking snowflakes off her nose.

And here is a bench I would not want to sit on!

Elephants, Knitted and Otherwise

Yesterday, I had planned to put the lights on our Christmas tree, but it turned out that dealing with lights was the last thing I wanted to do. I puttered for a while, and finally decided to accept the order of things, and knit instead.

I had tried to start knitting the Elijah Elephant pattern Friday evening. Ysolda Teague uses an unusual cast on, and I struggled with it. The cast-on itself wasn't so bad, but as soon as I would try to knit the first row, the stitches would all fall apart. Sigh.

I turned to Ravelry for advice, which generally was, "yes, this cast-on is challenging, but keep trying, you'll get it." I tried a bit longer, then put it to rest and went to bed.

In the morning, I sat down to try again. I kept the needles on the table while I got started (one bit of advice), knit the first stitch through the back loop (another bit of advice), concentrated, and finally got it going.

Finally - a successful cast-on!

So, later in the day, when I couldn't face the Christmas tree lights, Elijah Elephant was ready for me. By evening, I had most of the head finished; in just a couple more rows, I'll be starting the trunk:

An elephant-in-the-making

But I think I'll call this work-in-progress "Echo," instead of Elijah. I've been told this will be a girl elephant (the pink color is a good clue, don't you think?), so "Elijah" really isn't an appropriate name, is it?

It happened that while I was knitting Echo's head, I watched an old episode of Nature that we had recorded - Echo: An Elephant to Remember.

This turned out to be a fascinating story about Echo, the matriarch of a great herd of elephants. She had died of natural causes, and now the program was fondly recounting stories of her life, and of how she led and cared for her family. One story focused on her calf Ely, who was born with crippled legs, and struggled to stand and walk. Echo waited patiently while he tried again and again to stand, and then stayed with him as he slowly walked after the herd. Amazingly, Ely lived and thrived in spite of this handicap.

Another segment showed Echo giving birth to another calf, this one healthy and adorable (there is something sweet about a baby that is so big!). That calf was later kidnapped by other elephants, but Echo led her herd in recovering the baby, who happily rejoined her family. One of Echo's daughters died, and Echo took her grandson under her paw. Although it is unusual for orphaned elephants to survive, she successfully raised him. During droughts, Echo knew where to lead her herd for survival.

When I knit, I like to think good thoughts, and channel them into the finished product. I think if this stuffed elephant can capture some of Echo's love, caring, and devotion, that will be a Fine Thing!

P.S. I finally tackled those lights. We now have candles in the windows; a Christmas candle on the table; and lights on the tree. Outside, there is frost on the ground, and crisp sunshine just starting to brighten things up.

On and Off the Needles

Recently, a friend asked if I would knit something for her. What she had in mind was not particularly large, or difficult to knit, but I declined. I have a loosely defined goal to knit something for every member of my extended family. (Now that I've posted that in my blog, I suppose it is no longer "loosely defined.") I just made a list, and I have some 28 family gifts to knit. These have to be gifts that I enjoy knitting, and that I think the recipient will enjoy, so I don't churn them out; they take time. (For that number of projects, and this particular knitter, probably years...!) And of course, I occasionally knit for myself (really!), and for charity, and for the odd non-family occasion...

Meanwhile, here are some photos of one recently finished project, and several that I'm working on.

This wrap-me-up pup was knit for one of my nieces (she chose the colors). The pattern is from the book Itty Bitty Toys, by Susan B Anderson.

The toys in this book are Simply Adorable. But, let me just say that if you use this pattern (or any in this book, I suppose), be sure to review the errata. And, be sure to read through the pattern completely. When I made the blanket, I bound off, keeping my needle in the last stitch, as per the instructions. Then, I looked at the instructions about choosing between the knitted and crocheted edging, and read "for the knitted edging, don't bind off." Grrr. I know, I know - I should know better...

This was not hard to knit, but it did require making small pieces and sewing them together. This apparently is not my forte, as the legs and tail languished unattached for an inordinate amount of time. Finally, when I hosted knitting night, I vowed to tackle and finish the pup - and I easily did, that very evening.

The next stuffed animal I'll be knitting is an elephant, designed by Ysolda Teague. There are no seams with this one - you knit and stuff the head first, then pick up stitches for the body, and for each of the legs and arms - so when I'm finished knitting, I should be Finished. Clearly, this will be a good thing for me.

I plan to start this one as soon as I post this blog. Then I'll be able to share a picture that's  more than just yarn...

This is a sweater I knit for myself. You may think that it looks finished, but you would be wrong. See how the sleeves have a nice little roll at the wrists? This is good. See how the sweater has an out-of-control roll at the waist? Not so good.

(It may not look out-of-control in this photo, but it is. Trust me.)

I made this in a class at Stitching Memories, and Lu (who taught the class) suggested that when I block it, it won't roll that much. So I'm going to block it, but even then, I think I made it a bit too short. (This was in an effort not to make it too long.) Plus, I think maybe I need it to be a bit wider at the bottom. So I will probably rip some of it back, reknit it with some increasing on the sides, make it a tad longer, and then see how it looks.

None of that, of course, is the kind of knitting that I really enjoy. But I do want to actually wear this sweater, so I'll do the reknit anyway. That's because I'm a Mature Grown-Up Person.

I love this blanket, which is designed by Anne Hanson. The color in this picture is awful - the yarn is really a very lovely green - but at least you can see the stitch design. I have to pay attention while I knit this, since each row uses different combinations of knits and purls and yarn-overs and knit-togethers. I call this my Tortoise project: it goes slowly, but I am steadily making progress.

The Kalamazoo Knitting Guild recently sponsored a class on double knitting. This is very cool knitting, but it is also Tortoise knitting. Basically, I'm knitting two hats at once - of course, it will end up being just one hat, with a double thickness. The mainly blue part is the outside of the hat; the beige is the inside of the hat. The design is formed by switching which yarn gets pulled to the front, and when. We spent a day figuring this out, so don't worry that it makes no sense. Just believe me - it is very cool knitting, and the hat should be very warm. And reversible!

This is my project for knitting in the car, and while waiting wherever it is that one waits (restaurants, offices, meetings). It is a very simple hat, but the detail makes it interesting. I'm afraid this picture doesn't do it justice; hopefully I can get a better shot when it is finished.