I love Springtime!

Today is April 18th.

It is 34 degrees outside right now.

It is both snowing and hailing at the same time...and it's sticking.

And oh, I forgot...the wind is blowing.

More predicted for the weekend.

Yay.

It is Spring, right?

I would just like to say, for the record, that this does not make me happy.

Ugh.

ETA: Forgot to mention the thunder and lightening, and to deliver the photographic proof....

The Felting Fairy administers the Smackdown

So I had this idea to make a felted cat bed. Not an original idea by any means, but I've been wanting to make one for a while and finally decided to do so with some Noro Big Kureyon that I got for a great sale price. But I didn't want just a regular, small cat bed---I wanted a bigger cat bed!



I have knit many a felted basket in my time---granted, most of them smaller than what I was planning, but most turned out successfully nonetheless. Now, logic would tell you that I should take the methods I've used to make many successful small baskets in the past and transfer that to make the bigger cat bed. Yes, that would work! But did I take the path of logic and use what I already knew to make the big cat bed? No.



I thought I would try somebody else's pattern, because of course they must know better than me, right? Then, I would modify said pattern by adding just one more increase to make it a little bigger than the stated finished size! Yes! What's a little extra increase between friends? What possible harm could come of it? You can see where this is going, can't you?



So, I happily knit the popular Kitty Pi Bed pattern (based on the EZ Pi Shawl pattern) with my Noro, slipped in my little extra increase modification and some extra rows, and even cleverly added many rows to the side wall structure to make sure the sides would be tall enough to accommodate the extra width of the bed. After 3-1/2 skeins and feeling that the bed had reach ginormous-enough proportions, I further expressed my creativity by trying a new s-t-r-e-t-c-h-y bind off I recently found! (Sometimes with felting the upper edge can draw in too much, even if the bind off doesn't seem tight, so I thought I'd try out the new bind off to help eliminate that problem.)



It was after the bind off that I began to think that something was just not going to turn out right. Perhaps it was that first little tap of the Felting Fairy's wand on my shoulder. With the Pi pattern, the sides just flopped out sideways and could barely be detected before felting---not a good sign. Ginormousness aside, pre-felted baskets always show some structure of the side walls before felting. But the whole thing just lay there like a flounder. I tried to keep the faith and believe in the pattern, including what seemed like my very slight modifications, hoping it would all come together in the felting wash.


Here's what it looked like pre-felting (minion actual size)...

My little Toebi loves it! Sweet Toebi.

Slightly small cat on a very large mat. No problem---it will shrink tons when felted. See those slight little curls on the edges representing about 12 inches of knit side walls for the bed? Um, no problem--when it tightens up in the felting process they will stand up tall and firm! (second bigger whap from the Felting Fairy wand). Remain in denial about that new stretchy bind-off you included that might actually work. (Now being soundly thumped on the head by fairy wand...). We must have hope until the end, though, so let's move on to the actual felting and all will be fixed---Thump!! (That Fairy broad is really starting to piss me off now.)

So, fresh from the always-forgiving felting process (thump), I present to you for your amusement, the Minion Mat! (Thump, whomp, thump). Far better than an actual cat bed, and useful for all manners of cat repose,....

minion wrestling matches,....

and Felting Fairy smackdowns---and all unemcumbered by those silly, unneccessary side walls! Whomp! The Felting Fairy smites a death blow to the knitter who dares to get creative with a strange, untried pattern! Ouch. Well at least the colors are pretty, and it has that nice little lip to distinguish it as a handy cat mat rather than an actual cat bed or a throw rug!

Go ahead---mock at will the thoroughly beaten and smacked-down knitter. I'll wait while you run to the bathroom because you've peed yourself laughing at my folly. After all, it was only 4 skeins of Big Kureyon, countless hours of circular knitting, eleventy-seven repeats of dragging it out of the wash cycle to check the felting, and endless sniffling while my tired little fingers worked to form something resembling a curled lip on the edges as it dried...

Well, at least Toebi likes it---he's an easy customer to please. And what are the lessons have we learned here today, children?

1. The Felting Fairy is a bad-ass beeyotch who will whup the life out of you if you think you are getting all independent and creative-like with felting untested patterns, especially those of a large scale.
2. Don't use (or modify) someone else's pattern if you already have a method that has worked a zillion times before---you will certainly be smited a blow by aforermentioned fairy for believing that someone else's ideas must certainly be better than your own.
3. Don't use Noro to felt objects that need some structure---it turns into a fuzzy, floppedy, floppy thing. (I should have known better when a Booga Bag felted out of Kureyon was sort of mushy and soft and needed a reinforced bottom added---but I thought the bulky version would be so much stiffer after felting---silly me.)
4. If you have a yarn you have used successfully for past felting, think about using it when moving up on the felting project ginormousity scale.
5. Always post your felting disasters in an open forum for public mocking as payment to the Felting Fairy, so hopefully she won't open a can of whoop-ass on your next felting attempt! The felting process is time-consuming and uses a lot of precious yarn to make a shrunken object, so you don't want to risk getting smacked down again!
6. Cats are beloved creatures who pretend to love what you made for them, even if it turns out to be a mat and not a bed, and only laugh at you on the inside.

I guess that simple example of a "true" statement from my first intro to logic class really IS true----"The cat is on the mat."

Video Magnifique

Have you seen this YouTube video by the band, Tricot Machine? Watch carefully, as each frame of the the knitting actually changes! Inconceivable for me to even contemplate that much knitting for that little exposure time.

Do you think they were all knit by different people, or that just one or a few did a LOT of creative tinking and frogging? Do you think the changes could be computer-generated? Make sure you watch until the end when the answer is revealed.

The video itself is quite an artistic accomplishment and very absorbing to watch. However, the french music?.....not so much. I guess it's an acquired taste, like escargot or goose liver pate......But no matter because (with apologies to the band) watching the video is really all about the knitting content, no?

We Love Surprises!! - Part II

Usually surprises are far and few between around here, but the past month has been a bonanza of surprises! Did I say I love surprises? Oh yes, I think I did...

Here's the latest surprise to show up in my mailbox last week---the Defeat the Winter Doldrums swap box from my lovely and generous pal, Katie! It was hard to fit all of the contents in one picture...

Wow, what a box! Katie sent a fabulous dishcloth and two matching scrubbies in a pink/tan color that I love, as well as another plus-size cloth with a rubber-duckie motif--hard to see in pic, but so cute! (BTW, Katie and I share a little secret concerning rubber ducks, which shall be revealed at a later date.) The yarn is Knitpicks Cot-Lin, which I've been wanting to try, in a beautiful bright turquoise color as well.

There is also an assortment of tea bags, soaps, a candle, a notepad and a heart-shaped sucker! And down at the very bottom of the picture, there are some truly gorgeous stitch markers that Katie made, which deserve a much bigger picture of their own...



Hard to capture in a picture, but aren't they especially pretty? I absolutely love them and will use them often!

Thanks so, so very much, Katie, for all of the lovely gifts you sent! I couldn't have chosen more perfect colors for everything if I had chosen them myself! Your box and your great note truly made my day!

Katie is not only a swap pal extraordinaire and the sweetest girl ever, she is also adventurous and brave and works as a pilot! Yes, she actually flies big jets for a living. Go over to her blog and pay her a visit, and see a picture of her in the cockpit! How awesome is that? Not just your average knit-blogger, that's for sure! (...but I can see why her mom gets nervous sometimes when she reads her blog...).

In which she proves that there really IS knitting going on...

If you read my blog, you would think that I spend all of my time wrangling minions, untangling ravaged stash, returning damaged stash and acquiring more stash, with no actual knitting going on. Well, yes, most of my time is spent in these pursuits, but not all of it. While FO's are scarce at times, there is occasionally a little actual knitting that goes on around here.

I recently joined the "Defeat the Winter Doldrums" swap, and made this cloth and scrubbie set to send to one of my pals...


The dishcloth is the DW cloth, a free pattern that can be found here. It was a fun and quick knit and great for variegated yarns. I've never made a scrubbie before, but this one was a snap.... The scrubbie is also from a free pdf pattern called "Dishcloth Duo," which can be linked through this page. The scrubbie as written in the pattern is cute, but comes out very small, so I modified the pattern to super-size it! I just increased the number of CO stitches and proportionately increased the number of rows knit, and got a bigger and better version.

Here's a little yarn pron interruption.....

It's the Knitpicks Bare laceweight I also included in the swap box. I have never seen this yarn in person, so I took a chance on ordering it, but I was pretty impressed with it when it arrived. (It was tempting to keep it for myself, but I didn't). It is very soft and cushy, and has excellent yardage for the cost. I even think it looks very pretty undyed as well. I'll definitely be keeping this in mind for a future project of my own!

Back to the FO's---here's a little something I knit for myself with a lonely skein of Noro Kureyon #134 from my stash...

My first pair of fingerless mitts! (modeled by cute hubby so I could take the pic)...He's so good about the knitwear modeling. Remember this? (scroll down past yet another yarn tragedy...). I'm sure he'll be thrilled about me sending everyone to have another look at that one...heh!

Anyway....I've never made mitts before and wanted an easy pattern to master the thumb-knitting thing without too much fuss, and this pattern certainly fit the bill. The pattern is "Maine Morning Mitts," from The Knitters Book of Yarn. (Great book, btw, if you haven't seen it.)

I believe the pattern is also available free on the web, and is linkable on Ravelry. The pattern is pretty straightforward and clear, so if you haven't knit mitts before, this is a good place to start. I only modified the pattern slightly by knitting on two circs, and picked up a couple of extra stitches around the thumb hole. They are comfy and fit very nicely, and after a long soak are now soft and cushy!

One warning if you use the pattern---it calls for one skein of Noro Kureyon, and it does mean the whole skein! So if you only have one, make sure you don't waste too much because it cut pretty close for me with only a couple of yards leftover! Of course, your mileage may vary, but I'm just sayin'...

I have a couple of other recent FO's, as well as the contents of the awesome swap box I received from my fab swap pal Katie, but still waiting for enough light to take some pics of all of it (what happened to all of our sunny days?...wahhh). As the queen of lollygagging and general procrastination, I can't say for sure when that will be, but we can shoot for soon, I hope...

A minion's work is never done...

As cute husband was heading out for work this morning, he came across a certain minion engaged in what can only be described as felonious activity of the highest degree. He found said minion on the floor with a blob of what was once a skein of Frog Tree sportweight alpaca, arms shoved in up to the armpits, nuzzling the yarn with his pointy little nose (can't say as I blame him for that part).

I'm not mentioning any names, but he has a lot of toes, is always busy, and was too inexperienced (or dumb) to realize he was even doing anything wrong. Cute hubby reports that he appeared to be quite pleased with himself and was enjoying the felonious activity immensely---so much so that he didn't even bother to stop or run away when caught! (Which begs the question... exactly how long CH let him continue before he stopped him....ahem).

Since the two older minions probably had the good sense to run away, I'm not sure he was in it alone, or if he got to it after prior assault by minion-y accomplices, but here's the result...

Busy, busy, busy---A minion's work is never done.

We Love Surprises!!

While reading one of my favorite blogs, Chickenlips Knitting, Sharon posed a question in her post about Rod Stewart that only an older-than-dirt person like me would probably know the answer to. It wasn't a contest, but just a question that amused me in my ancient-ness, and so I answered in my comment.

Imagine my surprise when, while later reading her next blog entry, I saw my name mentioned at the bottom of her post....together with the words "I wanna send some yarn." Whaaaaat? For moi?!! In case you don't know, Sharon is a yarn-dyin' Diva of the finest degree and her yarns are lively and colorful and---I have drooled over them many times! It couldn't have been more than just a few days later when.....

"Hey, Mom! Is that the mailman?"

Why, yes! It was! And this is what he brought.....

A wonderful surprise for me! A yummy skein of Sharon's Stitchjones sock loveliness, called "Closer to the Heart." It's hard to capture the colors accurately, but trust me, it's gorgeous! And so soft, too.

Thank you so much, Sharon! I love the yarn and it will truly make a rockin' pair of socks that I can show off under my clear Converse sneaks! So sweet of you to send me such a nice gift, and the note you sent along was equally lovely!

"Can we make some socks from this yarn for me as well? I do have extra toes to cover, you know!"

"Hmmph. I don't know about this sock thing...and more yarn?. I think I disapprove."

"Oh, don't listen to him....he's always a grump. I approve!....Now about those socks...."

We do love a surprise around here---especially in the form of the gift of wool from a very nice person! Thanks again, Sharon! (And BTW, who would have ever thought I'd receive a knitting-related gift for knowing something about Rod Stewart?...and being old enough to know it...heh.)

(If you'd like to see some more of Sharon's great yarn, be sure to go take a look at her new online store.)