a squirrel

a picture of a squirrel at the corner of the back porch..... In the back is a row of evergreens lining the back of our property. The squirrels (and, in summer, the chipmunks also) act as though they own the place.

This year, I've finished up gifts early -- at least for me. I almost forgot to knit my DH something... But, I'm all done now.

The snow is deeper now than when the picture was taken (last week). But, it's not clear how long it will last. We're on the border line between snow and freezing rain.

dishcloths

This year it seems that I've been doing different kinds of projects in spurts. I hadn't knit any dishcloths since February -- except for the 2 k1b ones in October, including a honeycomb one -- and those were just to try out patterns. In the last week, I've knit 6 of them -- all Maile's designs.

The designs in the picture are: Angles, Rip Tide, Just Fancy, Diamonds Plus, Shield, and Tango Lace. I used size 7 needles and Peaches & Creme yarn -- a skein of Olive for 2 of the cloths, Potpourri for another 2, and Shrimp for the final 2. They're all just over 7" wide and long -- which meant that one skein worked for 2 cloths with a little bit left over.

I had trouble with Just Fancy. I couldn't wrap my mind out of how to do the stitch in Row 6. So, I finally figured out another way, I think, of getting 2 sts from 3. First I k2tog'ed. Then I moved the second of the 2 sts in the k2tog back to the left hand needle -- as shown in the picture. Then I knit that st and the next through back loop.

I'm also knitting one of Kalinumba's lace shawls -- which is why I felt the need to knit something with larger needles. And I'm looking forward to Moni's shawl KAL starting on Christmas and MMario's shawl KAL starting on New Year's.

We're having the first measurable snowfall of the season today. The others have been just dustings. Then tomorrow, an extremely low low-pressure system is supposed to come through. The local weathermen say that it is supposed to produce extremely strong winds and is the lowest one to come through the area since 1975 and the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

I'll have to see how it ranks with Colorado winds. It's not uncommon for Chinook winds in Colorado to get to a hundred miles per hour -- gaining speed as they race down the front range of the Rockies. (And, as I've probably said here before, Chicago isn't called the Windy City because of its winds -- but because of its politicians.)

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. Our DS1 visited us from California. Our DS2 was here as well -- from DeKalb. It was nice having the 2 of them here. They put up some of our Christmas lights. The lights look nice -- if I do say so myself.

People in the neighborhood seem to have more lights this year than last. Also, a lot of people in the neighborhood put up their lights the Saturday before Thanksgiving.

a third sweater finished

I've now finished the dog sweater I've been working on. The link is for details of how I made the sweater. I'd like to post a pic here but have decided against it. I tried the sweater on my cat just before it was finished. It was, of course, big for her. But, it did look nice and made me decide to go with single crochet around the leg openings instead of ribbing.

I probably could have taken her picture in the sweater, but I promised her I wouldn't. At best, I'd have a picture of an annoyed cat -- ears slightly back. At worst, I'd have an action picture of a cat jumping out of a sweater. She jumped out of the sweater almost immediately after I tried it on her yesterday and then disappeared until I told her that I wouldn't do that to her again.

On another note, my mom turns 93 tomorrow!

two sweaters finished

My Washburne raglan and BSJ are now finished. I like how both of them turned out. Plus both of them were fun to do.

Here is a picture of the raglan taken in dim light. -- And, it didn't snow the day after I finished it. -- It took 7 1/2 skeins of Vanna's Choice yarn on size 10 needles for a 48" chest size. (Each sleeve took just over 1 skein.)



It turned out that I didn't need to purchase a second skein of Bernat Satin Sport aran to finish the BSJ. I had enough already. I finished it up with a k2tog bo instead of the recommended one and used a 3-needle bo to "sew" the sleeve together (starting at the neck and finishing at the cuff in order to add some ribbing without breaking yarn). The last bit was the collar.



The Möbius cowl is still coming along nicely. I thought I was just about ready to begin the edging until I reread the directions and discovered that the edging starts after 5" on each side of the center instead of 5" across. On the bright side, it looks as if this will finish off both skeins of Hand & Hand instead of just one.

And I've started on the dog sweater -- in Vanna's Choice yarn and size 9 needles. It's just over half done now. I started out with a pattern but am now just winging it.

sweater update

Monday, I was again reminded that I'm terrible at remembering shades of color. I went to the store on Monday to get another skein of yarn for the Washburne raglan and another skein of yarn for a BSJ. As I was waiting in the checkout line, it occurred to me that I'd gotten the wrong color for the raglan. So, I went back and got the correct one. Then after I got home, I discovered that I also had the wrong shade for the BSJ. I wanted aran and got white. So, I went back the next day and got the correct color. It's not as if I had just started the projects. I was over half finished with both.



And since I didn't want to work on cables while watching tv Monday evening, I started on Birgit Freyer's Wave of Color. I first tried Magic Stripes denim stripe and decided two things. First, the pattern didn't work for a yarn with such a short repeat of color. It would work much better with something like Noro sock yarn. Second, this is a really nice pattern. Mobius cowls are in style now (though they're called snoods, for some odd reason). So, I switched to a color that I'd enjoy wearing -- a tan, Hand & Hand accent sock yarn. I used this version of the Mobius cast on.



Here is the BSJ so far. Knitting-and.com (and also the wiki on Ravelry) is proving invaluable in figuring out just what to do. I'm using the suggestion to start the middle section with a new skein. The double increase I found while aimlessly web-surfing is also proving nice.

I'm now on the second sleeve of the Washburne raglan for my DS2 (and will end up using about 7 1/2 skeins of Vanna's Choice yarn). DS2 called me this morning and said he could tell that I'm about finished with the sweater. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground. ;) -- There was a heavy snow the day after I finished the sweater I made for him last year. It kept snowing more than usual for here until I finished a sweater for my mom about a month later.

Halloween

We had 165 kids come by for Halloween candy -- down by about 40 from last year. It was a nice Saturday afternoon for Trick-or-Treating. (The official hours were from 2 to 6 pm.) Maybe they had other things to do that afternoon.

The Washburne raglan is coming along nicely. It's based on Wash's sweater. I hate piecing and seaming and so decided to rework it as a raglan from the top down. I'm almost done with the sweater body. I'll have to get more yarn (Vanna's Choice chocolate). I'd forgotten that cables take more yarn than regular stockinette.

I'm slowly getting Inconceivable finished. I'm over half done now.

And, I'm getting ready to knit a couple of things for friends of my DS1. I'd been wanting to knit them (a dog sweater -- though not with fancy fur -- and a BSJ -- just because I heard it was fun) for a while but hadn't had any reason to. I'm hoping to get them done by Thanksgiving. I'm going to knit just a regular dog sweater but had been wanting to knit one ever since I saw this Tubey post -- even though I hadn't had a dog around the house since I was a teenager. Since then, all we've had were cats.

Also, I'm tempted to start a couple of lace KALs. Birgit Freyer has an interesting Mobius pattern, Waves of Color, in her Yahoo group, Knitting Delight. Moni, one of my favorite lace designers, has a triangular shawl, Windsbraut Spitzbergen, in her Yahoo group, Klabauter. Both groups have German as the main language, but the really important info (such as patterns) are also translated into English.

quilt

I've finally finished redoing a quilt for my DS2. The back to the quilt was falling apart, and the edging already had completely fallen apart. My MIL made it about 20 years ago. It was obviously made to be used -- and was made out of left-over scraps from other quilts. It's the only one of her quilts that was tied instead of quilted.

I almost forgot to mention.... Although my MIL made quite a few quilts, she had always put the quilts-in-progress away before we visited. So, I'd never seen a quilt being made before.

First, I thought that all it needed was a new back. But, cutting off all the ties and taking off the back, I discovered that it had only an old sheet for batting. So, I decided to take that off and get new batting.

I also discovered that making a quilt is more expensive than I thought it would be. I bought some Mountain Mist Ultra-Fine batting on sale and some Debbie Mumm fabric on sale (both at Jo-Ann). It came to about $40. (I was going to use an old sheet for the backing but couldn't find the one I was thinking of using. I decided that if I'm going to go to the trouble of putting all of this together, I might as well use quality fabrics.) The ties are Vanna's Choice toffee yarn. I left the top as is. I used some of the fabric (cut on a diagonal) as edging. The internet was invaluable for help in how to finish a quilt.

I thought the ties would be the easiest part. But, it took quite a bit of thought on my part to figure out how to go about it -- even though I did watch some videos on-line. I finally settled on using an old 3" long needle (that probably belonged to my grandmother), a 13" embroidery hoop (that belonged to my MIL), and a newly purchased threader to work the ties.

It's fall. The Winesap apple tree we planted in the spring bore a single apple -- which was delicious. (We hadn't expected any on a newly planted tree.) We didn't get any blueberries (probably because of how dry the summer was). And the Filbert trees didn't make it. They never leafed out at all. It's the first failure I've ever had from trees from Arbor Day. Finally, Halloween is going to be celebrated on the correct day here. (Last year, Trick or Treating was held a couple day early. -- In Columbus, Ohio, Trick or Treating was never held on Halloween for as long as we lived there.)

My big project now is a Wash (Firefly) pullover for my DS2. I'm redoing it as a raglan so that I won't have to seam -- and so there will be a shorter pattern repeat for the main pattern. I hope it doesn't start to snow the day after I give it to him. It snowed the day after I gave him a sweater last year -- a month earlier than normal.