new kitten

The new kitten is 4 months old and does not yet have a name.  I am open to suggestions.  Preferably unconventional ones. More pictures and a video of his homecoming:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/seymo/sets/72157623149341889/

aaarg new yarn

I have nowhere to store this but I had a moment and bought a bunch of yarn. I went to the Yarn Cottage in Fairhope, AL for some sock knitting yarn because, hey, how much space could that take up?  But this is what came back:

That seems like a couple of pairs of sock and I could have stopped.  But no, I have to get yarn for a baby blanket and of course it has to be bulky:

And then a visit to the two dollar bin yielded an interesting combination of metallic and mohair and merino leftovers:

There is 250 yards of the mohair, 250 of the merino and 100 of the metallic thread.  I am thinking scarfy wrap. 

birds lately

I am in Alabama and here is a list - not complete - of the winter birds I have seen over the holiday week. Mostly the usual suspects but a few new ones for me.

1. Bonapartes gull - out on the pass with some
2. Skimmers
3. Sanderlings
4. Savannah sparrow or possibly a song sparrow
5. Common loons
6. Cormorants - a lot
7. Least terns
8. Royal tern
9. Many ospreys
10. White pelicans (on Mobile bay)
11. Carolina Wren at the outside bar at Pirates Cove

I know the winter ducks are here and I have even seen a few when we were out in the boat. But I couldn't get Steve to slow down enough for an id.

edited to add

12. White throated sparrows
13. Tons of pine warblers
14. Gold finches

Funny. I tried last winter to get the gold finches with thistle but none came. This year, here they are messing with my mind by looking all pine-warblery and eating the sunflower seeds.

holiday catch-up

Look. I got a new macro lens for my camera for giftmas. SeyMo says I should stop taking very close pictures of him. You can see his eye boogers. Ick.

Also accomplished over the holidays and demonstrated with the new macro lens are some more stockings. I practiced smooth methods of circular joins and for making jog-less stripes. I am getting better. But in my excitement I forgot to measure the foot length as I went along so the stockings turned out a bit stubby.




Some close ups:




Still trying to master grafting the toe closed. This may be easier with less fuzzy yarn.


And in an exciting development I landed my first set of Knit Picks Harmony needles. My sister sent me the circular kit with an additional size 15s. I can't wait to use them. The crazy stained wood is rather psychedelic.



I was lucky enough to receive an amazing painting from my Aunt Lynn for Christmas. I can't believe she sent us her original painting of Barnegat Light House. She sent a sweet note stating that she hoped it brought back happy memories. And it did. I immediately hung it in the kitchen in the Alabama house. It is perfect right there where we can enjoy it often.

log cabin blanket is done

This thing has many problems. Too small. Too drape-y from loose gauge and bamboo yarn. And too many mistakes, most related to picking up stitches from the wrong side but quite a few from dropping stitches. I think this has to do with the yarn. Not that I am immune to dropping stitches but I think the slippery bamboo made it easier to do. I like the finished look even though the drape does not hold the rectangular geometry of the different color blocks. The needles size on the yarn label was an astoundingly large size 11. Not so good for garter stitch. I am also pretty sure that the the colors from the different lots of yarn didn't quite match up.






If I were to make another of these I would stick with a wool blend or cotton blend. If I were to use this yarn again I would use wood needles. I think I would consider making this as a baby blanket. But a full size bed blanket? Hell no.

Meanwhile my little Christmas stocking obsession continues. I have mastered the jogless join for color stripes - sort of - thanks to Ravelry. I tried Tech Knitting's method of slipping the first stitch of the color change but I wasn't that happy with it. In answer to the question of jogless stripes on Rav the consensus seemed to be that you knit the stitch below the color change stitch along with the color change stitch. That worked better for me. I have mastered the circular join thanks to Tech Knitting. I need to post pics...

socks!

I humbly submit my first effort at knitting socks. Mini-Christmas stocking socks (This Seasons Stockings, page 30, Interweave Knits 2006 Holiday), but socks none the less. You have to make a heel flap and turn it and do a gusset. And I am trying to learn to graft the toes. So far I have learned that consuming wine or eggnog is contra-indicated while grafting.


For my next trick I will attempt a jogless color change and a smoother circular join at the top of the sock. Also to be investigated is the small hole where I picked up stitches along the heel flap and why my ssks look lumpy compared to my k2togs. I thought it might be that I slipped the stitches purl-wise rather than knit-wise.




The plan is to keep making these mini-socks until I figure it out, I get bored or Christmas is over. The yarn is leftover worsted weight Vana White acrylic crap and leftover white fluffy yarn from the first scarf I ever knit. I used size 3 dpns to keep the stockings small with the relatively thick yarn.

I keep screwing this up

This is supposed to be the easiest project in the world. Its my own free flowing version of the Modern Log Cabin Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting. I don't remember the project description exactly but I could have sworn there was something in there about mindless knitting or possibly knitting you can do while drinking.

Never the less, I have managed to screw this up by trying to be clever. The details of my cleverness are too embarrassing to reveal. I was just hoping the "mindless" meant "without paying any attention to what you are doing." Now I have to frog back a couple of rows. I have already done this several times. And its too bad its along the nearly full 3 foot wide edge. And its too bad I knit with this bamboo yarn that is insanely slippery (Bernat Bamboo Natural Blend is very attractive, however. Nice shine). This f-ing afghan has been in my basket for over two years. And now I know why. It's a pain. And it's boring. But giftmas is coming and I want to get it out of the basket and into a gift box for my sister. At this rate it might be next year.