Knitnapping

I think I'm going to have to draw the line at napping on my knitting!

Summer Knitting

You may have guessed from the lack of actual knitting content around here that, although I've been busy with other sorts of fibery pursuits, the knitting hasn't really been happening. And you'd be correct. Summer is always a little challenging for me from a knitting perspective. I don't really like tank tops, I don't wear shawls, I don't enjoy knitting socks, and we all know my checkered history with lace. So it's tough to find a summer knitting project I'm interested in doing. And when I finally do, I'm usually disappointed with the results (see this and this). Even if I like the results, I rarely end up wearing the finished product (see this--and remind me again to do an FO post of my Unmentionables, finished for weeks, but yet to be photographed, much less worn).

So I've been looking for a great, wearable summer project for weeks. I've perused Ravelry. I've dug through the books and magazines. I've fondled stash yarns. I've even wound and swatched several balls. And still...nothing.

And then I saw this. Which I love. And I have a sweater's worth of purple Cascade 220 tweed that I picked up during the last WEBS sale. I've been waiting for a great pattern to come along for it.

But, of course, no matter what you call it, a cabled wool cardigan is not a summer sweater. Around here, it's not even a spring sweater. It is, undeniably and irrevocably, a winter sweater. And winter is a long time from now.

But it will come. And I will still be here.

So I cast on anyway! You're welcome, Winter Self.

Dog Days of Summer

Yesterday I had to take Sam to the vet. As I mentioned, he originally ended up in the shelter after being hit by a car. That incident fractured his pelvis in multiple places, and since he was scheduled to be euthanized (because he was injured, and therefore "unadoptable"), he wasn't treated until after the rescue group took him. By then, it was too late for surgery. He's healing pretty well, but he'll always limp. He's also had serious problems with his teeth. Several of them were broken, either from the accident or from trying to chew his way out of a cage, and some were rotting. For various reasons, they'd gone several weeks without treatment. Not pretty, and not very comfortable for him, either. So yesterday I took him to the vet to have his teeth taken care of.

Sophie was--to put it mildly--not. at. all. happy. According to my husband, she was very distressed when we left, roaming the house, looking for Sam, and lying by the door, whining. When I got home (without him), she kept nosing me and looking at the door, clearly telling me to "go get him." Once she realized he wasn't coming in, she flopped on the floor and moped pathetically.

Sam wasn't any happier. The moment I walked him through the door of the vet's office, he just shut down. Ears down, tail tucked under, not afraid, just...if I had to name it, I'd say he was hopeless. He turned away from me, and it was as clear as could be that he thought he was being left again.

It wasn't a happy day, for any of us. Sam had seven teeth removed (in addition to the one that fell out a few days ago). Fortunately, they were mostly small front teeth, which dogs use for ripping. I'm sure he would need them if he had to bring down wildebeasts, but kibble is a lot easier to catch and doesn't require much ripping, so he won't starve. He also got the rest of his teeth cleaned, and got some antibiotics to treat any infection. He's much better off now. But I was very relieved when I was able to pick him up. He seemed pretty relieved, too. He was still loopy from the anesthesia, but when the assistant brought him out from the back, he started wagging his tail happily and walked straight into my arms to put his head on my knee.

Everyone is extremely happy to have him home. And Sophie has made it very clear...

...she's not letting him out of her sight again.

FO: Great Giant Granny Square Scrapghan Challenge of 2009

It's done!
(History here, here and here.)


The Details

Pattern: Purl Bee Granny Square Tutorial

Hook: size J (US)--because it's what I had on hand and it seemed to make about the right fabric with bulky yarn and worsted yarn doubled.


Yarns: A whole lot of different scraps, leftovers, and unallocated yarns from the stash, all bulky weight or doubled worsted weight.

Knit Picks Decadence (burgundy, brown); about 5 skeins each (1000 g total)
Knit Picks Andean Silk (olive--from traveling cables cardigan); about 4 skeins (200 g total)
Lion Brand Kool Wool (beige, dark green, red); about 9 sks beige/2 sks green/1 sk red (600 g)
Lion Brand Fishermen's Wool (brown--from Aran Cardigan); about 1/3 skein (75 g total)
Filatura Lanarota Puno (beige--from Mom's Christmas sweater 2007); about 4 sks (200 g)
WEBS wool tweed (banana); about 4 sks (400 g total)
Rowan Soft Tweed (green--from Tahoe); about 4 sks (200 g)
Debbie Bliss Luxury Donegal Tweed (green--from Mossy); about 4 sks (200 g)
Lana Grossa wool (green--from Knitting For Peace messenger bag); about 6 sks (300 g)
Araucania Atacama (green mix); about 8 sks (400 g)
Cascade Eco Wool (brown--from Not So Sahara); about 1/2 sk (100 g)
Elsebeth Lavold Classic Al (green--from Opulent Raglan); about 6 sks (300 g)
Malabrigo Worsted (dark green--from Central Park Hoodie); about 1 sk (100 g)
and
Cascade 220 Wool (burgundy); about 8 sks (800g)--just for the border!

If my recollections and my math are correct, this adds up to 4875 grams of yarn, or about 10.7 pounds! This is a biiiiiiiig blanket. I have a king-sized bed, and as you can see, the blanket drapes well over the sides. Although it's hard to get an accurate measurement of something so stretchy, it measures at least 108 inches--or nine feet--square.

Yes, it was an enormous amount of crocheting. It was also very heavy and unwieldy toward the end. The border took me a whole week to finish, and it's only six rounds of double crochet.

But it's soft and pretty and used up a whole lot of yarn I would never have used otherwise, so all in all, I call it a great success!

Now, where did I put my knitting needles?

Guests

We have some unexpected guests in the garden. Only one is visible. Do you see her?


How about now?

She has several eggs incubating in a nest in that hanging plant, just a few feet from the back door, and hanging over the pool, which is always packed with noisy kids and dogs. She seems undisturbed by the chaos.

Although I'm not sure anyone would be intimidated by these...

Interesting

So here's a strange story.

Have you read about the little boy whose parents are convinced he was a pilot during WWII? It's been in the news quite a bit lately, although the story has been going on for the past few years. Here's a link to one article about it.

A few nights ago, my parents were over for dinner and my father brought up the story. I told him that my younger son had told me some strange things when he was about a year and a half old. The first one, when he was just learning to talk, was: "I used to be an old man. Then I died. Then I was a baby again."

Shortly after that, we were driving in the car one day, and he suddenly pulled the pacifier out of his mouth and said: "There was a big earthquake. In 1953. A lot of people died." Then he put the pacifier back in his mouth. This was completely inexplicable, since we hadn't been discussing earthquakes, and as far as I know, he had never heard of an earthquake and certainly didn't know about dates yet.

My father, who is 81, said he didn't remember any earthquake in 1953 and asked whether I had ever researched it. I told him I hadn't, and didn't think about it again. This morning he called me and said, "Hey, you know that earthquake we were talking about? It happened. On August 12, 1953, a massive earthquake hit the Greek islands and killed hundreds of people. I'm looking at the pictures of it right now." So naturally I got online and looked it up myself. And indeed, it's true. A series of several large earthquakes struck the Greek islands between August 9 and August 12, 1953. The largest, on August 12, had a magnitude of 7.2, and several hundred people were killed, hundreds more injured, and thousands of buildings were completely destroyed. Ships from Israel (it was Israel's first aid mission) and Great Britain raced to the rescue, and several other countries sent aid, including the US, Norway, and Sweden.

My son is now nine years old and has no memory of an earthquake or of telling me about it. Anyone else have any strange stories to share?

Forest Petunia

I have some FOs to show you, including my Spring Folly project (Unmentionables) and a spring sweater I finished weeks ago but never got around to blogging. I'm almost done with my GGSSC; I just need to do the border. It's more than seven feet square now, and it's a beast! But my oh-so-generous children shared the plague with me, so I'm not up for live modeling today. Or even getting off the sofa. But I did do this:

About 170 grams and 570 yards of dk-ish weight handspun 2-ply. One ply is spun from my Petunia Roving. The other is some merino roving from handpaintedyarn.com that I spun quite a while ago. I don't know the name of the colorway, but it's a combo of dark green, burgundy, and blue. This is the third time I've attempted to find another colorway to ply it with, and I think I've finally found one I'm happy with!

I think this is destined to by my first Clapotis. But then, I've said that before.