Monday, February 18, 2008

Ch-ch-ch-changes

I haven't blogged in a while, or really knit for that matter, because we have been having some big changes in our humble abode recently. We got a puppy! It was a long ordeal, but our landlord agreed to let us have a dog and we adopted the cutest border collie/hound mix. His name is Miles, and he's the sweetest.


Meet Miles. He is about 14-15 weeks old. He already knows how to sit, lay down, shake (not pictured), and let us know that he needs to use the bathroom (most of the time).

He is also a health nut. Notice the Superfood that he is enjoying. (No, he did not drink it. He did however steal the bottle from Mark, the intern, and decided that it was his new favorite toy.)


He also likes the snow. Craig and I are convinced that he has not known anything but snow (he is only 15 weeks old), and got visibly sad when it was 50 degrees out last week and most of the snow had melted. He would run from snow patch to snow patch trying to play with the last of it. It was super cute.

And look at those paws! The paws say he is going to be huge! However, all of the information on the internet says that you can double your dog's weight around 3-4 months and that will be his final weigt. Miles is 25 lbs exactly right now, so that puts him around 50-60 lbs when all said and done. This is not the huge that his paws and ears say he will be. Maybe the professionals will be wrong, maybe he will be pretty big. Who knows, it will be an adventure.
Basically, he has been the reason that I have not been able to knit recently. The second he sees any yarn, he goes after it. One day he found my stash and decided that some pink Lions Brand Wool Ease would be a fun toy. Luckly, I found him pretty quickly, and no damage was done. But right now I am working on my white version of the Stardust sweater, which I am affecctinoately calling the Snowdust sweater. Last night we had Craig's long-lost hiking buddy, Guiness (trail name, not real name) over and I got to knit while she distracted him by being "new and exciting." I actually got a majority of the back done and finished shaping the arm holes. Now I just need to knit some more and then shape the neck hole. I like the fact that I have knit this sweater before, because I can adjust certain things for my body. For example, being so tall, in my first Stardust the ties came to the center of my bust, which was not that attractive. So I have added an extra Stardust row before shaping the arm holes. Hopefully this will be enough to place the ties below my chest in a more appealing place. So far, the crude measurements I have taken point to having done this correctly.
On the Science of Sleep sweaterdress front, all knitting has stopped. I had begun to cast on for the dress and realized that my drawings were not as accurate as I needed them to be and the movie had been removed from On Demand for free. I have been searching for images of the dress on the internet and copies of the movie around town for cheap, but with no luck. So, until the Science of Sleep is in the 4 for $20 bin at Hollywood Video, I will have put it to sleep.
Also on the knitting front, a co-worker (possibly the coolest, funniest teacher in my school) has commissioned me to finish a shawl for her out of a suede yarn. She had begun the shawl, but health problems had caused her to stop and not be able to finish. I have all of the materials in my classroom, but she forgot to give me the pattern (which makes it difficult to finish for her). Luckly, this doesn't seem to be a difficult pattern, and the yarn is pretty cool, so I am excited to finish it for her. She even offered to pay me for it. Even better. Pictures of the shawl will come once I bring it home.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Stardust FO and the beginnings of a dress

I finished my Stardust Sweater! I think I made it a size too small, but it is still wearable. Today I wore it to my Language Arts Professional Development and got a few compliments. I can't wait to wear it with a short sleeve tshirt or tank top once the weather gets warmer. I made a few mistakes, but luckily nothing too obvious. Most of the mistakes in the stardust pattern were made near the arm holes.


Pattern: Stardust Sweater



Yarn: 3 skeins of Karabella Gossamer in light blue/silver



Outcome: I'm happy, but it is a little small. I also think that the ties are too thick. I plan on making this sweater again in white for a wedding this fall, maybe I will make it a size larger, but with ties that are half as thick. I shall see when I get to that project.



Onto another project....






For those of you who have seen the Science of Sleep, I plan on making the sweater dress that Stephanie wears during Stephane's party to celebrate his calendar. I have drawn out plans and made a swatch, but no other progress has been made. But I do need help, the dress in the movie has these vertical stripes of some stitch that I can't tell from pausing the movie on Comcast On-Demand on my non-HD TV. So, what do you like the best? The choice is between the Double Moss (aka the Double Seed) stitch and the Daisy stitch. So far, I have two for Daisy.