Pretty Pictures. Few Words.

I’m busting out a quick Yarn Pr0n Friday entry before tackling my pillow for a few hours of sleep. Bloomin Yarns is having a Black Friday sale that starts at 6 am. Come visit. Bring Diet Dr. Pepper (or diet coke or diet pepsi. I’m not that picky at 6 am.)

This is my final shipment of the Fiber Baristas: Postcards from Home sock club. I enjoyed the club tremendously. The variety made it special. Nine dyers, two from outside the U.S. All different yarn weights, dying techniques and fiber types.

This final shipment is from Hoobody Fibers, (store link) which is in Huntsville, Ala.



To the Moon Colorway



100% Bluefaced Leicester



362 yards/4 oz/fingering weight



Great final shipment!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have much to be thankful for. Muppets are most certainly on the list. Enjoy the following video and Happy Turkey Day to my friends in the U.S.

Selective Procrastination

Hi there! I need to carve out some work (yeah, an actual paying freelance job!) time here momentarily, but I’m taking a tiny little break in honor of WiP Wednesday! Hey, deadlines are my friends!



The Gumdrop socks have gotten a tiny little bit of work here and there. We had Pittsburgh Pops and Rockettes tickets since this time last week and this is my only portable project, so it goes to Heinz Hall and the Benedum Center.

I finished knitting the Christmas stockings. They have taken a bath and are finally dry. I’ll get them lined as soon as I have a little spare time, then they’ll get a FO post.

So that means I needed some TV knitting. I started this on Monday night:



Baby Bobbi Bear! This has gone really quickly and would be even faster if I could read properly. In case you were curious, 31-1/2 is quite different from 3-1/2. I also mis-read some increase instructions on the head, but I’m about ready for both the second skein of yarn and the first round of stuffing. Another Christmas present nearly off of the list!

Cake and Ice Cream for All!

Remember the little ball of fluff at the end of this post?

Today (Thursday) was her birthday. Happy Birthday to my favorite four-legged neighbor!





She’s officially two years told today. She’s a big girl now. Both in size and in maturity – her crate has gone away and she has free reign of the first floor of the house. It’s been great having her next door. Almost as good as having a dog of my own, but without the shedding and chewing.



Happy Birthday Sydney!

Changing Gears

Hi there! It has been Project Monogamy Week around here.

I finished that big cream-colored thing. It’s waiting for a bath and a photo shoot. Please keep your fingers crossed for nice weather over the weekend, since that will be my first opportunity for modeled photos.

I probably should have gone back to my gumdrops socks when I finished sweater-knitting. But I didn’t. I haven’t taken one stitch on that project since last week, so no new picture. Instead, I jumped in with both feet on a Christmas project:



Christmas stockings! I have fabric for quilted stockings in the basement. I have perused knitted stocking patterns in the past. But my Hurricane Knitter friend Melissa faved (or queued ... I can't remember) the above pattern on Ravelry and I liked it. So I got yarn and cast on two days ago. Yes, I started Monday morning and can probably finish today. Nothing wrong with that, and YAY for bulky yarn!

I definitely have lots of “thoughts” on this project, but I’ll hold them until the FO post. Oh, and expect to see a matching stocking in green with my name on it.

After a decade of cohabitation, Hubster and I will finally have stockings hung by the chimney with care in 2009!

Small Things for Small People

Some of you may remember this pile of color that appeared a few months ago on this here bloggity blog



One of the Thursday Night knitters at Bloomin Yarns was due to have a baby girl at the end of August and the whole group wanted to do something for Tiffany. Since we had a wide range of skill level and experience among our knitters, we picked the strip-knit blanket “invented” by Denny at Lettuce Knit and blogged by the Yarn Harlot about two years ago. (it’s most of the way down that link.

I did knit a strip for the blanket and was tasked with putting it all together. Tiffany’s daughter arrived on August 31, and the group presented the blanket shortly thereafter. Here it is spread out on a bush outside the store



We used various colors of Kollage Yarns Cornucopia. Tiffany has been very impressed with the yarn (corn! Who knew!) and recommends it for anyone knitting for a baby.

Way back during the Craptastic Summer of Suck™, you probably remember that my Jetta died and was replaced by my new Rav4.

Well, Tiffany’s husband got us set up at the dealership and buying that new car was easier than I ever could have imagined. Completely painless! Tiffany and her hubby refused any kind of thank-you on our part for their assistance, but I figured out a way around that. Baby gift!



This is a kit from The Quilt Company for Karen Montgomery’s “Oh Baby” pattern. All of the non-border strips are already cut for you and it went together very quickly! I liked it enough that I bought it again in blue for my nephew – I’ll unveil that one once it’s gotten its bath.

LeafWars Update

The day after my previous LeafWars 2009 post, I managed to snap the handle of my inherited rake in half. (translation: It came with the house)


Shiny new awesome rake on the left, old busted red rake on the right.

I went out to my awesome local hardware store the next day and got myself a new rake. It’s the one you see on the left, next to the first casualty of LeafWars. I splurged and got the “spendy” rake. Aluminum handle, flat plastic tines. Twice the price of the plain plastic/bamboo model like the one I had just broken.

I had no idea that Fiskars was in the rake bidness, but they make a nice product! I tackled the front yard quickly, and today? I cleared the entire backyard in just under 40 minutes. Last time, it took about two hours over two days.

Raking leaves still sucks, but like everything else, I think having good tools makes a ton of difference. If you look at the comments on the Fiskars link, I’d agree with everything in those reviews. This was worth every penny of the Andrew Jackson I traded for my awesome new rake.

Do the Twist

Yinz all know that I’ve been on a major yarn diet, right? I joined the STASH KAL on Ravelry and have knit nearly 4,000 yards out of my stash since September 12. Oh, and no new yarn (club yarns excluded) has come into this house with the exception of two skeins of Cascade 220 for a Platypus hot water bottle cover since then either.

I’ve been good.

Of course, then I walked into Bloomin Yarns last Thursday. Michelle had gotten a box from Malabrigo on Wednesday. It was tagged for sale on Thursday and three colors didn’t even make it out onto the floor to be sold. This is one of those three colors.


Colors are more "true" in the three close-ups to follow ...

This is … wait for it … a worsted weight plied Malabrigo. It is just as soft as the Malabrigo worsted single you know and love. But plied.



I liked the colors when I first looked in that box (hello, it's Malabrigo …). This particular color is Azul Profundo. It was pretty, but I could resist. Until I touched the yarn.



And I was sunk. Michelle gave me a skein to swatch. I can get 4.5 sts/inch on a US 10 or 10.5 (I can’t remember, but I think it was a 10). I bought all 10 skeins, which is 1,500 yards.



It’s gonna be a Rogue. I can’t wait.

Sleeve Island

Another thrilling week here at Chez DPUTiger.

There has been a tiny bit of sock knitting



Yeah, that’s the Gumdrop pattern from the July 2008 Rockin’ Sock Club with the kit-provided yarn. I’ll bet you never thought I’d knit that yarn/pattern, huh? Well, I saw Turtlegirl’s and decided I kinda liked them. Once Cristi helped me through the massive brain cramp on the first patterned row, I cruised right along on these socks. Until I put them down in favor of a sweater-finishing marathon.



Welcome to the knitting of the third sleeve on this sweater. By the way? The short row cap sleeve takes for-freakin-ever. ::sigh:: Once I’m done with the cap, though, it flies.

Oh, and why are my needles working on the third sleeve?



Because Hubster didn’t want to be a Pirate (think Seinfeld). Yes, he was wearing the sweater version of The Puffy Shirt (as pictured above) when I forced him to try on the sweater on Friday night. The next morning, nearly two full skeins (130 yds/skein) of knitting were wound into a nice little (big) cake as that disasterville sleeve was frogged away.

A word to the wise? When this pattern tells you to pick up what seems like a crazy-small number of stitches for the arm? Do it. I literally picked up 1 st per 2 rows between the armpit and the saddle, but it needed to be done that way to avoid Pirate-land.

I will close with a quick (but sincere) thank-you to all who have served in the U.S. military. Happy Veteran’s Day!

Sunny Day

Sweepin’ the clouds away … On my way to where the air is sweet

Today (Tuesday, November 10) is Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary. Google has been celebrating for a week. In case you have missed it, here they are in order of appearance … (all images are, obviously, from Google. I just love what they did with this particular anniversary and wanted to share)









My life is so boring that Sesame Street is the best I can do. I’ll do my best to share a WiP Wednesday post in the morning.

But I couldn’t let the day pass without telling you how to get … How to get to Sesame Street.

Vicarious Attendance

Someday, I will be able to shop Socks that Rock Rare Gems in person.

But until that day happens, the next best thing is to give money to good friends and ask them to pick something they think you’ll like.

I did not go to Rhinebeck. But I did get yarn at Rhinebeck.



My friend Yvonne was going. I gave her some cash and told her to get me a Rare Gem.



Apparently, Zarzuela got to pet my new yarn before I did (she saw Yvonne at the festival)



I love the random colors that pop up in this skein. They’re totally unexpected, but they just plain work.



Plus, it’s a mediumweight skein. I loves me some STR Mediumweight.



Thanks, Yvonne. I appreciate your mad shopping skillz!

Stopping with the Bagstoppers

It’s a very good pattern. It makes a very functional finished object. It’s going to be quite a while before I knit another one.



After knitting one of these for myself and one for a Christmas gift, I knew I had one more I wanted to knit. I knocked this one out last weekend, and I’m glad it’s finished.



The recipient of this bag likes pink and purple. I liked this grosgrain ribbon, but it’s a 1” ribbon. Both of my previous bags use 1.5” grosgrain ribbon, and I think I like that better. It just feels more substantial.

But at least it’s finished. One more Christmas present and one more hank of stash crossed off the list. Hooray!

Everlasting Bagstopper #3

Pattern: Everlasting Bagstopper by Amy Singer
Yarn: Louet Euroflax in Pink
Needles: US 5 and US 10.5 KnitPicks Options, 24” length
Started: 28 October 2009
Finished: 4 November 2009
Mods: Used a narrower ribbon than on past bags. It’s OK, but not great.

Grab Your Thesaurus

I know when I moved back to Pittsburgh I asked for this.

I love fall. Raking leaves requires a different adjective. LeafWars 2009 is ON!


Forgive the lack of a “before” photo. This was after about 20 minutes of hard labor

Following a chat with SuperNeighbor on Sunday morning, I decided he had the right idea. Do a little bit each day. Ignore the areas where there are still trees full of leaves. I spent an hour out there today. Did half the back yard and most of the side yard.


I wore gloves. My palms were still a little unhappy with my time spent rake-in-hand today.

It’s a great workout. My heart rate was probably around 140 for nearly the entire hour.


It’s not going to look anywhere near this good in the morning.

And it was great to be outside on a beautiful fall day.


And there are plenty more backyard leaves just waiting for me tomorrow. ::sigh::

But how do I really feel about leaf raking? Hate. Loathe. Detest. Abhor.

It’ll be weeks before I see the end of LeafWars09. Here’s hoping I can just stay even in the daily battles. I'd much rather shovel snow. There. I said it.