Fluff, Dreck, and Flotsam

My Thing for yesterday kept me up past my bed-time in order to get finished by the deadline. However, I do think it's a pretty sock:


This was knit with the same pattern as my other brown sock only I used a commercial string of a finer gage than my hand-spun. I wasn't sure I liked the previous sock because, while it looked OK, it didn't show off all the prettiness of the pattern to advantage. I think the commercial yarn does a better job of that. I shall endeavor to knit this sock's mate shortly...

For yesterday's thing, I spent HOURS trying to chart a cable pattern for my dad's sweater. I saw a pattern I liked and went through 2890393483 sheets of paper trying to duplicate it - all in vain. Finally, I decided to do the sensible thing and JUST KNIT IT....

As you can see, yet once again, my fingers came through for me, even though my brain had the dumb:


That won't be the only cabling element in Dad's sweater... just the most complex one. I also completed another skein of brown worsted weight yarn, but having used that for my Thing-A-Day yesterday, posting the same thing 2 days in a row seemed boring... Now that I have successfully knit the pattern I want, I have to go check and see if my brain can finally grasp the concept...

Boar's Head was fun, but crazy. I've discovered that if I don't look at the schedule BEFORE I GET ON SITE, I don't end up doing anything but running around visiting like a chicken with no head. And even though I didn't attend a single class, I STILL didn't manage to get all my visiting done. I had intended to sit down with Katriona to talk weaving, but we were together for no more than 3 minutes before Zig came to drag me off to a household induction. It was good and happy-making, since John seems to be a very talented and good sort, but I missed talking to Kat.

I totally got my bebe fix huffing Katie and Murdoch's baby Aurora while they broke down their merchanting booth. I just wish I could hold a baby without all the snarky comments about how "I'm a Natural."

Duh. I'm the oldest of 4 kids and my mom is STILL running a daycare out of her house. Even when my Mom personally ran out of babies, there were more babies for me to cart around. OF COURSE I CAN HOLD A BABY WITHOUT IT LOOKING AWKWARD. After you've held one while vacuuming, AND running a load of laundry, AND directing several toddlers not to fight - doing nothing but holding a kid is easy. Just because I know how to hold a munchkin properly does not mean that I'm trying to have one RIGHT NOW. Competence and desperation are NOT THE SAME, FOLKS. *RANT, RANT, RANT.*

While I was NOT holding Aurora, I was working on this fishy hat:


Which I didn't even get to finish... I wore it to work before I had the felt to make the eyes with and a lady I work with BOUGHT IT OFF MY HEAD SANS EYES. She has googley eyes at home that she will attach. She claims her husband is going to be totally jealous. I think he will be too if he has any taste... ;-)

So I bought a bunch of yarn on sale yesterday, thinking I'd knit a bunch of hats for ego_id_non_feci's hatless hooligans... But in checking with her, it turns out they don't need hats anymore... Consequently I have designed a sweater and will try to knit it up with the new-found excess string:

This sweater is for the bees....**
1. CO 12 sts with a figure 8 or turkish cast-on so that you can knit from both sides without creating a seam.
2. knit until 16 rows of stockinette sts are complete
3. k2, p2, place marker, k1, m1, k2, m1, k2, m1, k2, m1, k1
4. k16
5. k2, p2, k1, m1, k3, m1, k3, m1, k3, m1, k2
6. k20
7. k2, p2, k2, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k4, m1, k2
8. place knitting on hold complete steps 1-7 a second time from the other side of the turkish cast-on (only mirror image so that row three would be k1, m1, k2, m1, k2, m1, k2, m1, k1, place marker, p2, k2, etc These are your sleeves.
9. pick up 36 sts along one edge of spliced work in order to create the back.
10. knit 2 rows , purling stitches in pattern as in the row above, knit across the picked up stitches and across second sleeve, again, purling stitches in patter as in the row above. Repeat for a second row.
11. starting at the leading edge of the first sleeve: k2, p2, k1, m1, k18, m1, k1, place marker, from the picked up sts, continue to knit: k1, m1, k34, m1, k1, place marker, from the final sleeve: k1, m1, k18, m1, k1, p2, k2
12. knit across (90)
13. k2, p2 / k1, m1, k20, m1, k1 / k1, m1, k36, m1, k1 / k1, m1, k20, m1, k1 / p2, k2 (/ = marker)
14. knit across (96)
15. continue in this fashion of increases until there are 156 sts.
16. knit across (156), place marker, c/o 52 sts, place marker and join work, k2, p2, remove marker, c/o 12 sts, place next sts to the next marker on a holder (sleeve), k52, remove marker, c/o 12 sts, place sts to next marker on a holder (sleeve), p2, k2
17. continue knitting in the round, knitting feather and fan pattern between markers in front for 4 inches, repeating the next 3 rows as follows:
-(ssk)*2, k, 0, k, 0, k, 0, k, 0, k, (k2tog)*2, repeat 4 times to complete section
- next round, knit across
- next round, knit accross
18. knit next row to first front marker and (k6, k2tog) 8 times to second front marker.
19. continue knitting in stockinette st until garment is long enough.
20. pick up sts from holder and the 12 sts cast on in the arm pit, placing a marker in the middle of the picked up stitches to mark the beginning of the round. knit in the round for 10 inches
21. (k8, m1) 7 times
22. divide work into three sections of 21 sts and start feather and fan motif adapted with increases from the hemlock ring blanket chart
23. repeat for second sleeve

** Remember! If you try to knit this, keep in mind that I DO NOT TURN MY WORK so all instructions are written such that you are always looking at the RIGHT SIDE of the knitting.