Uncertain

I'm writing today from the basement of my local hospital.* I'm here for an NST (a routine non-stress test for The Deuce) and not some calamity. Considering my luck, or lack there of, lately, clarification of my visit is probably helpful. Anyway, I'm here relaxing with my knitting and my CrackBaby and have a dilemma with my ugly recycling bag. Instead of making an actual decision, I thought I'd ponder my options out loud, well on the internet, via the itty bitty phone keyboard. In other words, I really am not feeling like making a decision. Part of my problem is that though the bag is indeed an ugly creation, I want to try and minimize the ugly.


At present, I have used two balls of yarn, one orange and one gray, and I have two balls of yarn left, again one orange and one gray. My dilemma is which of those to use next. Should I use my entire second ball of grey next, making the middle all grey; thus, having the bottom and top/handle all orange and not really striped. This might look unsymmetrical and odd (because the base of the bag is orange and only a row or two of the body part is orange and so when full, the orange on the bottom would be a lot less showy). Or, should I do orange next and have the top and handle all gray? This would be striped but may be striped in an odd way, again because of the only minimal orange at the bottom body part of the bag.


I realize that there is a third, and obviously least desirable in work involved, option. It would be to throw in some orange, say a round or two, then use all of the gray and finally finish up with more orange. This would add some orange in the middle balancing out the bottom and the top orange bits. I'm not sure I am slick enough to make the orange segments even, but they would be more even than with the other two options. I think. End-weaving wise, this would suck. So the question is, would the, albeit minor, aesthetic improvement be worth the extra effort. I'm not sure.

*But I am posting from home since I can't seem to post pictures to blogger via my phone. I am technologically unsavvy.

Bag n' Basil

I've been plugging away on my orange bag that I may or may have not previously mentioned ... a bag to hold the recycling that I actually take to the recycling place (as opposed to put out at the curb) so that I can get my nickles back. Nickles back from the state, as in cash money, not Nickle Back the religious band.

Anywho, I had a problem where every eight or so rows I would twist and turn and knit my yo before my stitch and though it was on the bottom of the bag, it still made my eye twitch which usually means RRRRRIIIIIIIPPPP. But this was the bottom of the bag where only grimy dirty bottles and cans would see, so ripping wasn't totally necessary, if I could only tinker down and fix it. Ha! For the life of me, I could not figure out how to tinker back and undo my goofs. I tried and was unsuccessful. Heck, I even sought help that was not helpful. Which, it turns out, is because I am a dummy! You see, the yo's were adding stitches every other row so even though it looked like the goof was on the first or second stitch, it wasn't. It was way down in there. I needed to ladder down at stitch ten or twelve not one or two ... and this is making NO SENSE. But let me just say that I was sitting in a comfy chair, with my feet soaking in a massaging, bubbling, pedicure bath while my husband worked on the computer on some boring work thing when TADA! The light bulb went off. Unfortunately, due to home remodeling projects, Boo and I were trapped in the same room and he was working and had told me I was only permitted in the room if I promised not to talk to him and so I was unable to share my TADA moment. But in my head? I did a cartwheel and let out a WHOOP! I was WAY IMPRESSED with myself. I mean WAAAAYYYY IMPRESSED. So, the light bulb went off, I figured out my goof and fixed one of them. The I fixed the other. Then I went to fix number three, then final goof, and hubris kicked my ass and somehow I unraveled something critical and the next thing you know, I am ripping back to the cast on row. Which, fortunately, I was able to salvage as I couldn't make the cast on work and someone else did it for me. The lesson being something along the lines of don't get so cocky or you'll take a cock in the ear. Well maybe not, but there is a lesson there. But all is well now, and I am plugging away and the bottom is no longer twisted and I am happy AND without an eye twitch. Score.

Speaking of score. With my bountiful basil I have had to branch out since pesto is yummy, and creamy pesto is yummier, but too much pesto is tedious. So, I branched out and made this salad and it was DELICIOUS! I suspect she has a real camera as her picture looked like that and mine looks like this:



Do not, however, let my crappy photograph dissuade you from making this salad, you know, if you are tomato-mozzarella-basil-salad inclined. It was quite good, both alone, and in leftover form as a topper to my steak. In fact, I am making more tonight!

NaBloPoMo, xv

Barry Bonds' screwed-upedness has mucked up my husband's day, causing him to have to work extra late; thus, mucking up my dinner plans. I no like Barry Bonds. Unfortunately, Barry's screwed-upedness isn't really all that interesting and worthy of blogging about here at Chez SouthPark. Well at least over in my half of Chez SouthPark, the husband may disagree since sports news is his bread and butter.

In any event, we're half way through NaBloPoMo and I'm really scraping the bottom of the barrel for content as my knitting progress doesn't really keep interest on a day-to-day basis and the nut-jobs I work with are behaving themselves and not providing me with much blog fodder. Which is why I am whipping out an old chestnut of a finished object. Ta da:



This is a square that I knit back in August for a baby blanket for one of my fellow SnBers. She was having a boy and she and her husband were decorating his room in a nautical theme. The ladies decided to make her a baby blanket comprised of individual squares that each of us made. The rules dictated that you had to make a ten inch square in blue machine washable yarn of a specific gauge (a gauge which I have forgotten). I had offered to do a nice lacy square but that got pooh-poohed. Something about a choking hazard or having fingers caught. I dunno. I then offered to knit my name so that everyone would know which square was mine, again I was pooh-poohed. Bah. These women are picky, let me tell you.

In the end, I went with the obvious and knit up an anchor. I found the pattern here but it has been updated since I knit it so I'm not sure if it exactly like mine. I don't remember encountering any errors in the pattern, so I am not sure what was changed. In any event, I lucked out in that no one else went with the obvious nautical stuff and so mine was the only anchor. Whew!



As you can see, the back is not nearly as nice anchor wise. But, it does have the pretty knit stitches, so that is a redeeming quality, I s'pose.

Since I finished this in August, August 15, 2007, to be exact, I don't remember any of the details I usually include with my finished objects. I know it took less than four hours total and that it looks more complex than it is. I started before work, did the anchor bit during my lunch hour, and cast it off that same night. Should you ever need to knit an anchor, using stitches instead of color work, this is a great option. I do believe that you can click on the pictures to see them super big if you want to get a good look at them.

Mystery Unveiled

What do you when you lose your primary knitting project and a few days later your friend, Opa, jokingly requests that you knit him a poodle wine bottle cover? Why, you take that request seriously and you knit him a poodle wine bottle cover.

You can click on any of the pictues to view them larger.

I'm totally smitten with my poodle. And if I was any kind of wine drinker, this baby would not be leaving my home. But fortunately for Opa, any wine bottles that come into my house are emptied pretty quickly. I did find an old bottle of wine in the back of the fridge that I was able to use for final photograph pictures, which was good (and also weird because there was less than one good solid swig in the bottle so why we kept it, I have no idea). I had used a Grey Goose vodka bottle as a test dummy (since the wine bottle was as of then undiscovered) while I was knitting along, but it wasn't shaped quite right for this pattern. That vodka bottle is a little too tall and thin. Opa is lucky I didn't have any Absolut chillin' because I think the poodle would have fit that bottle a lot better and this poodle just may have become a Connecticut resident! Assuming my husband didn't make the poodle "mysteriously" disappear. Husband, not a lover of the poodle.

I followed Erika Knight's pattern in Simple Knits With a Twist. The pattern called for some Rowan cotton yarn, but because I know Opa, and because Monsieur Poodle is going to be used around stain makers (i.e., red wine and Opa), I substituted Sugar 'n Cream. Also, I had no idea what I was doing, so I figured it would be better to mess around with the cheaper stuff (though I don't think the Rowan is uber expensive or that I saved a whole lot of money). Both are one hundred percent cotton and I got gauge with the Sugar 'n Cream. Having not touched, seen, or tested the Rowan, I am not sure how they compare in person, but the Sugar 'n Cream was fine for poodle purposes. I found the yarn to be a little splity, but nothing too bad. This may be a function of cotton. I've never knit with it before so I'm not sure. I think a nice wool yarn would work okay, as would a high end acrylic.




The pattern itself was fine. Nothing too complex; though I did need some help figuring out why my stitch count was off in the beginning. Something about reading the pattern ... yah yah. There is a whole lot of seed stitch going on which was a bummer since I am not a big fan of the knitting of the seed stitch. It makes a pretty fabric though, so I used it and I am glad I did. I followed the pattern with only minor modifications when it came to the pompoms. I added a tail! What poodle doesn't have a poofy tail I ask you?



I suspect the tail was omitted in the pattern because good god you have to make a lot of pompoms. Let me just say now, I am not a very good pompom maker. I thought I was until I had to make so many! I suspect I could make better ones if I bought the gadget, but up until now my fingers always did the trick. If I ever decide to go into the poodle wine bottle cover making business, I am so buying one of the pompom making gadgets! I'm also hiring KAN who kindly helped me with some pompom making. She is an expert pompom maker and the only reason M. Poodle has face pompoms.




Yarn: Lily, Sugar 'n Cream, Color Hot Blue, #01742, Dye Lot #161771, 1 and 1/2 skeins
Needles: Susan Bates Quicksilver Circs, size 4.5 mm (US 7)
Pattern: Retro Poodle Bottle Cover, Simple Knits With a Twist by Erika Knight
Time: 4 days.
Care: Hand wash cool, dry flat.