Back With a Touch of Elegance

Perhaps a celebration is in order since this is my first blog post in over a month.
Step in, relax, have a glass of wine.

Over the holidays I knit two wine bottle sleeves and sixteen coasters. They were great travel knitting because both bottle sleeves and coasters are relatively mindless knitting. I used circular needles for everything so I wouldn't have to worry about dropping a needle on the airplanes. I did need to get home to felt them, which was fine as I've been in and out (and in and out) of town for the past month.

I knit one bottle sleeve larger and gave that one away before I could take a picture. Below are some in progress photos.

And here is a link for a free pdf of the patterns.

Battle Bowl, The Happy Afterword

Finishing off the Battle Bowl was a snap. I followed Liat's pattern without a pause or problem. I knit one strand of the Manos silk blend into the round of 40 stitches for a bit of highlight.

I like the subtle gradations of the Cascade 220 yarn (9872-Thunder) color way. This picture is pretty accurate.

The finished bowl was almost nine inches in diameter and quite floppy. I tried it on as a hat and it looked very silly, though vaguely Elizabethan. The contrasting Manos silk blend showed strongly against the dark wool.

After two cycles in the washer on hot-hot-hot, it was still pretty limp, so I ran it through once more for a total felting time of about 28 minutes. At some point in the third cycle, it felted. It felted like a yurt. (I think that's going to be my felting motto.)

It came out smaller than I expected, about six and a half inches in diameter, with creases in the bottom where the Möbius twists pulled at the structure of the bowl. I stuffed it with a saucer for shape and a couple of dry cleaner bags for bulk and let it dry overnight.

The felted Battle Bowl lost most of the lovely color spectrum and the Manos felted right into the wool, showing very little. I think it looks like a rock.

But that's okay, the Engineer is getting it and he works in geoscience, so it's apropos.

Lessons Learned

• Use larger needles next time for a looser fabric. I think this may decrease the pumpkin-like appearance of the bottom of the bowl.
• Brighter colors, more contrast between body and rim of bowl - so much of that was lost in the felting.
• Manos Del Uruguay Silk Blend felts easily, but the gleam of the silk is lost in the process - so don't felt it.
• Pin it out on a blocking board in the first place instead of turning into a screaming maniac trying to pick up the stitches freehand.

The Mother Who Raised Me Is So Tight She Squeaks

As a relatively new knitter, I am still trying to answer that timeless question: "What the heck do I do with the ends of all these skeins?"

The Engineer suggests throwing them into the trash can.

Waste!

Sacrilege!

You know that within a week after throwing something out, it's going to be needed in a very urgent way. Besides, if my Mom was dead, it would make her spin in her grave. (Fortunately, she's alive and bouncing off the walls like a ping-pong ball.)

I do have some uses for the remnants:

• Tie up hair (or other things) when it's getting in the way.
  
• Use instead of ribbon when wrapping small packages.
  
• Keep some of the shorter left-overs in a baggie in my knitting bag -- especially cotton yarn, it's good for provisional cast-ons.
  
• Use as contrast color/texture in new projects.
  
• Test out new techniques/stitches instead of ruining part of a new skein.
  
• Stick in plastic bags and save forever - this is the most commonly done.

Came up with a new idea a couple of days ago in response to the Engineer grousing that I have been horribly remiss in sewing a button back on to his work shorts. Not that I don't have a very good excuse...

My sewing machine is in the basement along with all the rest of my sewing gear. To sew a button on his pants, I not only have to remember to do it in the first place, I have to remember to go downstairs and get the stuff to do it with and not get distracted before getting back upstairs to actually do it.

Then, of course, there's the problem of finding the right color of thread. Or to be more accurate when trying to match the Engineer's wardrobe, the right colorless of thread. He goes in for such stimulating shades as taupe, khaki, beige, putty, etc.

So I decided to make up an upstairs sewing box.

I had an empty stationary box with a magnetic clasp on the lid (way cool, that's why I bought the stationary, I liked the way the lid thunked shut) and filled it up with the necessaries. JoAnn's was selling thread for a dollar a spool, so I bought a selection of drab colors along with a box of straight pins, a packet of needles and a pair of embroidery scissors and put them into my little box. It fits into the drawer of my nightstand. I wanted a pin cushion too, but all of the ones at the store were too big to fit in my cool box.

Then the light bulb went off. I got out the remains from the Technicolor Dragon Skin Scarf. Though it was only a couple of yards, it was already rolled into a bitty center-pull ball. I went at it with my felting needle. With only one shallow stab wound and minimal cussing, I ended up with a lovely little pincushion.

Still looks like a ball of yarn, but it's one fairly solid mass; it won't unwind.

Spiffy, huh?

Terminally Cute

Some months ago I hibernated the bunny slippers I was working on for Twin'sWife. I'm not sure why the inspiration faded, it just did. But I finished number one last week and took it along on the annual Houston trip so she could try it on before I made number two. Good thing I did. I need to make it narrower and shorter.

This is the bun before surgery. Cross fingers and hope he survives.

Since I'm making this up as I go along, I am taking careful notes and will post the pattern after I finish slipper number two..
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P.S. Even Cats like bunny slippers.

P.P.S. This is why I keep all ongoing projects in plastic bags - extra very good cat help.

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.