Some advice

Don't ever tell a dog smart enough to break into the fridge and eat all your butter than you don't want to go outside and play fetch right now, because its too much work to get up and get a bra.

Especially if they REALLY want to play fetch.

Fluff!

I've finished the Ptarmigan Cowl, out of the lovely lovely Absolou.

It's light as a feather and oh so fluffy. It says in the pattern to block it. My philosophy on that is: if you can already see the lace pattern, why bother? Especially when its going to be all wadded up on my neck most of the time anyways and it'll just undo all that hard pinning work. (Plus, who wants to hurt that lovely squooshy yarns?!)

The pattern called for 175 yards of yarn, and that is EXACTLY what I had. So, to be on the safe side (and also because I am beyond paranoid) I only did 2 garter ridges at each end, instead of 3. I probably would have been fine doing 3, as I ended up with a little extra yarn, but I wasn't stressed about running out the entire time this way. The main reason for this decision is Mr. Flood recommended the long tail cast on, and I always overshoot on that, so I had about 2 yards of dangle left on my cast on that MIGHT be necessary. It was really better this way.

The pattern also suggests a sewn bind off. (AKA tedious beyond reason bind off) This was for stretchy purposes. I'd never done it, so I gave it a shot. It's not much stretcher than if I had cast off normally. If you want something super stretchy I'd google some other methods. Otherwise, this method is fine. ESPECIALLY if you're one of those people who ends up with a funky mc-bunched tight cast off all the time. 

I'm off to work on the Haruni. The plain, boring, white haruni. While my dogwood blossoms sweater kit taunts me....

For those of you who were concerned, it only took 45 minutes but with a little help from my dog we managed to get the alpaca untangled. It's intact, and doesn't seem to have suffered much during its little doggie adventure. 

Fallen

I've fallen, and my credit card has slipped. I think I have a sweater related problem. I blame my comfy new runcorn.

When I fell, I ended up with a kit for one of these:

Purchase your own here.

It will be a while before I get to start because I'm working on a haruni for someone
for christmas.

I'm itching to get starting. What do we think, cardigan version, or pullover?

Line up

I *might* have overindulged a little:












See that? That right there is Absolu. It's a fancy french angora that is from special bred bunnies. That is its NATURAL color. no dye.

It comes in this fancy box, with a certificate of fancy-ness. To certify it's origin, and what not.

I'm going to make myself a little cowl of luciousness. Out of this pattern here.

After a few rows of knitting, I can honestly say you should just go ahead and buy a skein. Even if you just keep it around for petting purposes.

Success!

Runcorn?

Done

I spent the rest the week working on facecloths for mom (as requested by mom).

She picked 2 colors of cotton for herself and 2 for someone else, I worked until I was out of fuzzy yarns. This yielded a *mere* 20 facecloths.

Lets just say I'm a little face-clothed out.
But! If you decide you want some, because they are apparently the bee's knees, heres what I did:

Supplies:
1 skein cotton of your choice (I used blue sky alpaca)
1 skein bernat pipsqueak, or other type chenille
Crochet hook, size Q(19)

Be sure both your skeins are machine washable!
Finished measurements: 8"x8"

make basic Single crochet square, using 2 yarns as 1.

if you don't know how to do this:

make slip knot, chain 12, turn, SC in each chain
*CH1 at end, turn, SC in each st across* repeat until desired size.

After this I did a SC border in the cotton only.

as an aside on the personal life: school is SOH busy. Aimee is a little crazy with the weather changing, and i could really use a time-turner from out of harry potter. If you happen to know where I could pick one of those bad boys up, holler please?

Education

Schools been rough, you'll have to bear with me through the rest of the semester as I probably won't have much time for knitting, or posting, or even sleeping...

If you read Lily, you know that last weekend I whipped up a little scarf for a buddy of ours.

But, what I most wanted to share with you, was this.

unattended Dogs and Alpaca Lace?

They don't play well together See the little white stringy stuff? No? Click to embiggen if you must...

Thats my alpaca lace...I'm off to destress via the detangle.

Whoops!

I've been blogging in my head all week...It just never made it to the publish phase.

I've been ferociously trying to catch up to Lily with the fronts of my Runcorn....I am now only 10 rows behind. Which I totally wouldn't be if I hadn't fallen asleep at 6 last night due to exhaustion of the homework kind. (everything's of a certain kind now, thank you Bessel equations)

I really really really want this to be done yesterday. Not because its bad, I really do love the knit. But because its finally starting to get cold and it's only so much fun to take the dog out if you don't have a selection of fun hand-knit sweaters to pick from.

Which means that I really need to finish up my damn  lovely Christmas knitting so I can get back to knitting myself sweaters.

I've finished some Christmas knitting, but as the person I knit for reads the blarg...well...I can't show you. But I can tell you its delightfully squishy and I'm jealous. I might have to make myself one too. oooo or maybe mittens...hmmmm....

I've also been furiously washing and spinning up some dog hair (EW) and alpaca so I can knit my dad a miniature of our dog for christmas. Let's just say that Aimee reallllly likes the smell of farm animal and leave it at that.

Birthday Wishes

My dearest little brother-


(okay so you aren't very little anymore. as proven by the pair of socks I have knit for your size 15 feet, but you'll always be my little, so just get over it.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

I hope you have a marvelous day, welcome to 18. You have lots to look forward to!

I want you to know that I love you very much, even when you're being a total patoot, and I hope you enjoyed playing with miss aimee dog for your birthday. We give to you, on this day of bloggy goodness, this picture:

The next time high school gets you down, just remember, you could be somewhere worse....

And you're almost done!!!

I wish I could still reach your head to give you a noogie. And that you could still vacuum in my cinderella high heels. I know that was the only way you were tall enough to work it right. As someone who is now short, I totally get it.

PS- I'm sorry for all those times I beaded your hair. You're right, you're pretty without beads too. :-p