A New Toy

My Mom and I got one of these for my Niece for her birthday a couple months ago. I've been kinda wanting one ever since.

Yesterday I remembered a coupon on my smart phone then my car drove to Michael's after work and well... resistance was futile.

Tonight this happened:

Sigh. It's not like I don't have plenty of projects on the go. Still, new toy and all.

I'm new to Loom Knitting so I have no idea if this is the ideal way to do this or not, I suspect not having done a couple of rows but I don't know if I'll change it for this project or just keep going and see.

This does seem like a really neat way to knit a blanket as one piece. Which is great since I'm not that keen on sewing. As proof I offer up: I have only ever made two seamed sweaters and at least a dozen seamless sweaters.

Another Something

Started a new project today. Not going say what it is though just in case someone reads this.

Here's the yarn:

Oh, OK then; I'll give you a hint. The first one was terribly cute.

Introducing Mouse

Mouse came to live with me because Squish could not live without another cat around. She was born in the summer of 2001 the same as him but I suspect about 2 weeks later. Hard to tell sometimes with farm kittens. She was pulled out of a hay bale at 3 or 4 weeks old and raised by the farmer until I took her home. She was awfully shy around me at first and for the longest time all I saw of her was her little brown tail as she whisked around the corner. She came out of her shell after a few weeks around me but she's still very shy around people she doesn't know. Poor Mouse went through a period where she could hardly eat anything and got very thin; when she did manage to eat she often threw it all back up minutes later. Turned out she has a feline version of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, who know cats could develop such problems? Once the vet figured that out I was able to stabilize her diet and she's been a healthier weight ever since. So is Squish come to that since he's not eating two cat's worth of cat food every day any more. I'm pretty sure she's only down by 2 lives and has 7 remaining. 1 - pulled from a hay bale, and 2 - developed IBS.

Here she is with Squish when they were both kittens.

Here she is more recently.

She gets a little bit darker every year.

Baby Stuff has Arrived

There are a number of knitted items that arrived in Scotland with Mom and Dad.  I was unemployed when the announcement was made so quite a few baby things got knitted right away.

In order of completion.

A blanket. Mostly just a gray acrylic from a sweater of mine that fell apart due to poor seaming on the part of the manufacturer, the yarn was OK so I salvaged it for future use. Then, when I was unemployed and needed a baby blanket I checked the stash and there it was. I thought adding the yellow brightened it up a bit, although it's not really as dark as this picture suggests. Suitable for use outdoors since it is really easy to clean. My sister and her fiancee love doing outdoor things.

Pattern: improvised mitered squares with an attached i-cord edging.
Yarn: an old grey sweater and some Bernat Softee, both from the stash.

A sweater. This isn't newborn sized, it should fit about a 12-18 month  old child. Sex of the baby is unknown so I figured red was pretty neutral. If not then we'll just go with this kid is half Canadian. Maybe I'll do a blue and white version for the kid's Scottish half.

I'm not a huge fan of acrylic yarn in general but kids are so hard on items I decided it was the best choice for this sweater. Plus, I was on a tight budget, so yarn from Walmart was what I could afford since there was nothing appropriate in the stash.

Pattern: Seamless Blue by Felicia Semple
Yarn: Red Heart Luster Sheen in Cherry and White

Some overalls. These are just too cute for words. The pattern calls for little knitted booties on the feet but after talking to my Mom about how she used to cut the feet off baby clothes so she could use them longer I decided to leave them off.  These came out quite small so I might do a slightly larger version just because they are so darn cute.

Pattern: Pepita by Martina Behm
Yarn: Patons North America Kroy Sock in Gray Brown Marl

And finally some Baby Booties. These are the same yarn as the overalls so they sort of go with them instead of knitting the feet directly onto the overalls. I really like this pattern, it's knit flat so it's easy to knit and has only one seam down the back to finish up. It only took me a couple hours to make both, although it might take a beginner a bit longer they're certainly easy enough for a new knitter to try working with sock weight yarn. Very neat design.

Pattern: Baby Boots by Frankie Brown
Yarn: Patons North America Kroy Sock in Gray Brown Marl

Now we just have to wait for the kid to arrive so these items can be used.

Hiking Tank Top

Have been working on a tank-top for hiking but was not sure if it would work out or not.  Managed to try it on today and it seems to be working out OK. Suspect there are things I would change next time (if there is a next time) but for a first try it seems OK. This started as a free-form bottom-up set-in-sleeve that I modified to be a tank top. I suspect the sleeves should be narrower but I will finish this as is and make any changes on the next try. The yarn was left over from knitting some leggings, clearly I over estimated the yardage for that project by quite a bit. Remains to be seen if it will be a base layer or something that can be seen by the public.

You'll likely notice that photograph isn't really my strongest skill, still this should give you an idea what it looks like.

Introducing Squish

I will introduce the pets in order of acquisition. Whether this means I acquired them or they acquired me I will leave for you to decide.

Let's start with Squish. He was born sometime in the summer of 2001 and came to live with me in October of that year. He was my first pet after moving out of my parent's house. He came from a horse rescue who really wanted someone to take him away because he kept romping around under the horse's feet and they were afraid he'd get stepped on. He arrived there after his mom was killed at another farm and he came because they had a nursing female who looked after him. Upon arriving to live with me he promptly came down with Feline Distemper and went on a two week course of antibiotics.  Banana flavoured antibiotics. For a kitten. It seemed weird. He recovered from that and later developed Feline Urinary Crystals, basically, this means he couldn't pee and has since been re-plumed. He nearly died from this too. Most recently his thyroid failed and started over producing which left him terribly thin as his metabolism was running away on him. He's now on thyroid meds for the rest of his life. By my calculations he's down to 4 lives left; 1 - his mom died while he was still nursing, 2 - the horses at the horse rescue nearly stepped on him multiple times, 3 - feline distemper, 4 - urinary crystals, 5 - his thyroid failed.

Here he is when he was a kitten.

Here he is more recently.

He does love a box. Fill it with paper and he's even happier.

A Sweater for Mom

Finished Mom's sweater today. The deadline was to finish it before she and Dad leave for Scotland to visit my sister.  They leave on Wednesday. Nothing like a deadline to inspire the sewing of buttons.

Pattern: Improvised Top-Down Raglan
http://www.knittingfool.com/ did the math, this is an excellent site if you have at least a rough idea of how to make a sweater.  I don't recommend this type of sweater unless you've made at least one with more directions written out.
Yarn: Brown Sheep sport weight %100 wool

Introduction

Welcome.

About me: I knit, rather a lot, I also spin and crochet but not nearly as much as I knit. And I do sports with my dogs Agility, Flyball and Scent Hurdle mostly. I have cats too but they're mostly for cuddling and don't seem to want to to any extra curricular activities.  Must be a cat thing.

What you will see here: projects probably both WIP (work in progress) and FO (finished object).  Dogs doing dog things.  Cats doing cat things. Anything else that catches my fancy.

For those who don't know, this is me hiking in Kananaskis Country west of Calgary.

Peaking out from behind me are my dogs, Ahab has the pointy ears and Soccer has the floppy ears.  More on them later.