The Technicolor Dragon Skin Scarf

On my way to Michigan for Christmas, I started knitting a scarf for my favorite cousin. She's a big fan of "jewel-tone" colors, and I'd made two abortive attempts at knitting her a scarf of Bernat Boa in brilliant, mottled, orange and red. I won't make any editorial comments about the Boa yarn as this blog is rated PG.

So there I was, on the airplane, knitting as fast as I could with five skeins of Queensland Collection Big Wave in Rainbow Bright Multi colorway in my bag.

The Big Wave is a lovely yarn, which, sadly, is no longer being made. It's 90% merino and 10% cashmere (soft, soft, soft), thick and thin with a nubbly texture due to a thin binder cord.

I didn't manage to finish the scarf before I arrived at my cousin's house, but I did finish it before I left.
Most of my projects (the ones I like, anyway), get named. This one was a no brainer, I called it what it looks like, Technicolor Dragon Skin.

Hope my cousin enjoys her scarf as much as I enjoyed knitting it.

Best Wishes to all of you
for a lovely holiday season.

.

.

..

.. .

I'm leaving Friday morning and will be back on the 27th; e- you then.

Puttin' On the Dog

My friend KC has two dogs she's pretty much crazy about, so I decided that the best thing to give her for her birthday and Christmas were puppy presents. Puppy Protectors to be precise. I saw an extra very cute pattern for a "Doggie Mac" in Jil Eaton's Simple Chic and decided to go for it.

Since the dogs' names are Ruby and Rusty, there was no problem picking out colors for the coats. I hunted around until I found a red I liked for Ruby that went with a rust I liked for Rusty, bought the yarn and knitted up a swatch. Even tried running a couple of lines of contrasting color through to see how they really looked.

I was not enamored of the color combo I'd thought would be a winner once I'd finished the swatch. When I felted it, I decided to deep six making a plaid Doggie Mac and went for a contrasting color bordered Puppy Protector instead. In the end, the main thing I used from the pattern was the general shaping; I changed the yarn from bulky to worsted and changed the fastenings as well.

As senior dog, Ruby is getting the first Puppy Protector. It looked kinda shabby at the knit stage, kinda okay once I'd crocheted on the border, and pretty darn good once it was felted.

What really makes it look good, though, is Ruby herself. Cute little bitch, ain't she?

Thanks to KC for the puppy portrait.

Rusty won't get his Puppy Protector until after Christmas, it may even be as late as Ruby's was after KC's birthday - 10 weeks (yes, I'm blushing, but I had to do a custom fitting and find the buttons, knit the belly band, needle felt the button holes and...) Rusty will get his jacket before the weather warms in spring. Then those puppies will be, to quote Kate, "stylin'".

Color coordinated dogs. What a hoot.

Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit, Knit...

I've been working my needles to the bone lately, trying to get the Christmas knitting done. Trying will probably be the operative word. I've already fessed up to GuiGirl that she's not going to get her Christmas handcraft until well after the season to be jolly. I'm allergic to one of the yarns I'm using in it and my fall cold was too recent. Every time I pick it up to knit, I start coughing.

But that's okay, it means I can finish up (or start on) other projects.

I finished the dish cloths for my favorite Mother-in-law-in-law. I think she'll like them.
I'm half way through elf hat number last. It must be finished by this Friday because that's when I go to the Christmas party for the company were Mom and Gramma of the two toddlers and one fetus work. That's a gimme, though, it should only take about another hour of knitting and maybe a half-hour, forty-five minutes to sew up and trim.



I still need to fringe scarves for Cousin-in-law and her daughter, that won't take long. And block a few scarves. And finish this hat by tomorrow evening since my friend's coming to dinner and it's probably the last time I'll see him this year.



Yeah, I scanned the hat and the pompoms below instead of photographing them. I'm in the basement, it's after dark and the scanner's sitting right next to the computer. So they look a little squished. Live with it.

I haven't even started on the planned felted bunny slippers, or the scarf for FavoriteCousin. Actually, I take that back, I did start a scarf for FavoriteCousin, but I frogged it and consigned the yarn to Perdition. Must start anew with new yarn and new design.

No missed deadlines for me, no sir.
But I've had fun too. I needed to make some pompoms for Kate's hat. She wanted a clone of the Remorse Hat, but she's not as conservative as the renewed friend the Remorse Hat and Scarf went to.



Kate just isn't a spherical pompom sort of person, she's more of a free spirit, more adventurous, so I made Official Free Spirit Pompoms for her hat. And just to add my own little touch of nerdishness, I used my solar Casio graphing calculator as a base to wrap them on.

How's that for classy?

Like Mother Like Daughter...

regardless of species.

She has a thing for yarn.

The Knitting Critic

Traveling and Knitting

Home again from my travels. Actually got back late Friday, but the Engineer has kept very busy keeping me busy. Sometimes I wonder whether he sees keeping me busy as a hobby or an avocation...

I knit quite a bit while I was traveling, working on two Christmas gifts (can't blog those yet) and making dishcloths.

At the home of each friend I stayed with, I knit a dishcloth as I talked with my friend. When I completed it, I gave it to her. Three dishcloths knit and given away -- I guess it was the hat-trick of my trip. It seemed to go over well. I did not knit one for Mom, though I stayed there the longest. She knits her own. She's been knitting her own since before I knew which end of the needle to stick into the yarn.

I've knit one and a half more on the plane and since being home because I plan to send a set of three to my beloved Mother-in-law-in-law. It takes longer now that I'm home and the cats are trying to "help." I've not been as insistent about "Not yours, mine!" because I have a case of the guilts for abandoning my fuzzy darlings for two weeks. They're still in VelcroKitty mode. Both of them crowd onto my lap whenever I sit in my knitting chair. Right now Kitsu is curled up on top of my forearms as I type. I am not psychologically capable of evicting a purring cat.

Maybe I need to go on the road again to finish up my Christmas knitting.