Worth the Wait

Last September (as in September 2009), I got my needles busy and zipped through the “base layer” of the Felted Door Mitten from Two Old Bags. Then I felted it in the top-loader at the Lake and handed it over to our needlefelting teacher at the store.

Yes, I could have taken Peggy’s needlefelting class, but I have a rather strong belief that we all have different types of creativity. My various talents do not extend to drawing anything. Peggy’s most certainly do.

So a week or two ago, Peggy sent my finished Felted Door Mitten back to me. It’s perfect. No, it’s beyond perfect. Here, have a look:


As soon as Wreath Season is over, this is how my front door will look for a few months.
Uh-huh. Seriously awesome.


In addition to a seriously awesome hat and scarf, Mr. Snowman has a killer 3D nose. Here’s a side view


How awesome is that? And no, I have no idea how Peggy did that.


He has a great snowscape at the bottom of the mitten, and the tree is pretty cool too.


Snowflake buttons and a redbird in the tree! Oh, and the tree even extends to the back of the mitten!


How freakin’ cool is that? Again. There is absolutely no way I could have done anything half this cool on my own. Know what you are and know what you’re not. I could not have done this.

Peggy did an amazing job needlefelting this mitten. I’m sure I’ll enjoy having this on display for many, many years to come.

Felted Door Mitten

Pattern: Felted Door Mitten by Two Old Bags/Katie Nagorney and Anne Swanson
Yarn: Cascade 220
Color: 9543/Midnight Blue
Quantity: 1.5 skeins/330 yards
Needles: US 10.5/6.5mm
Started: 4 September 2009
Knitting Finished: 7 September 2009
Embellishment Finished: November 2010

Fuzzy Feet!

If I remember correctly, I went through my inaugural Fuzzy Feet Stage prior to our last Christmas in California, which would have been 2006. Yes, I am too lazy to look it up. Why do you ask?

I was brand new to sock knitting and once I made it through the first pair, they were a cinch to churn out in quantity.

But what happens when, 3+ years later, you look across the TV room and see skin through the soles of both Fuzzy Feet being worn by the Hubster?

HOLES!!! (the scary part? He hadn’t noticed …)

Obviously, if he’s worn them enough to walk holes in the soles, he gets a new pair!

So I spent my entire Labor Day stay at the Lake knitting furiously with some Cascade 220 and US 10.5 needles. I finished the second Monster Sock around 11 a.m. on Monday and took them upstairs to felt. Oh, and why the urgency? We have a front-load washer at home, but an old school “standard” washer at the Lake. Labor Day weekend was the last time the ginormous ski feet and felting-friendly washer were going to be in the same place at the same time in 2010.

Pre-felting comparison.

Oh, he has wide feet too, so I cast on some extra stitches (for a count of 52), turned the heel over half of them and muddled through the rest of the numerical stuff without actually having to think about it. Yay, sock knitting experience! And yes, I knit the socks to 14.5” before starting the toe decreases to make sure they’d be long enough for Bigfoot post-felting.

Post-felting.

The new ones are on the left. Old on the right. It’s amazing how fuzzy and thick the new ones are. We’ll see how well they wear.

And no, my recipient was unwilling to model, so you get some stunning still shots of slippers. Exciting, no?

Fuzzy Feet, Redux

Pattern: Fuzzy Feet by Theresa Vinson Stenersen
Source: Knitty.com, Winter 2002
Yarn: Cascade 220 Wool
Colorway: Light and Medium Gray (#9401)
Yardage: Probably about 1.75 skeins. I used a fresh skein for each foot, so it's a little hard to tell for sure.
Needles: US 10.5/6.5mm 16” KA Switch
Started: 4 September 2010
Finished: 6 September 1010
Mods: I was knitting for Bigfoot, so I used 52 sts and extrapolated the appropriate numbers from there for the heel turn, gusset pick-up, etc. Knit to 14.5” before beginning the toe decreases.

WiP it Wednesday: Bart II edition

First, the WiP. Here’s Bart II



I’m almost to the heel turn. I’m bringing this to Hurricane Knitters tonight, along with a few other “require less thought” projects (probably Steelers Scarf and plain Regia Sock). I’m liking the second Bart sock just as much as the first, thankyouverymuch.

Here’s the before-and-after shot of my second Booga Bag.

Same Bear, standing inside the bag in both shots. I definitely like this bag, although not as a Bear Travel Compartment. It shrunk much more in length/height than width, which is just fine with me.

And now, for the things that are driving me bonkers today.


RT and Stay-At-Home Eeyore model their new toy. Why is my new phone (on a new carrier) their toy? Because more than 40 hours after setting ourselves up to portage our cell numbers and getting the new phones, signing service agreements, etc., etc., etc., the OLD phones are still the ones that are “live.”

We leave for Arkansas in the morning. I don’t want to take two phones and wonder when the new one will start ringing. This is why we did this on Monday night, so we'd be transitioned by now!!!

UPDATE: Frick and Frack at the mall kiosk got things straightened out in 5 minutes. Old carrier was being snarky because we were porting two numbers. I don't care, I'm just glad the new phones are working. Now off to pack and try to replace my ringtones on the new network :)

Oh, and although I will defend my Mac to the death, it was essentially impossible to get my contacts and other information onto the Crackberry via USB cable. I even tried on our PC and that was a pain in the ass too.

So I stayed up too late last night catching up on my TiVo and manually typing my contacts into my new phone. Now if the damn thing would just start to work, I’d be a much happier camper.

Oh, and I have two pairs of sunglasses (one started to fall apart so I bought a replacement pair. Then the original pair immediately stopped falling apart, so I have two). I haven’t been able to find either pair since at least Saturday. This is a serious problem.

I know when I went to the Lake last week, I started driving out of Pittsburgh and had a very clear mental picture of “Yes, I left my ‘good’ pair of sunglasses here, and that’s OK.” Can I remember now where they are? Hell no. On my upcoming field trip to the mall, I'll probably get a new pair while hitting the cell phone people over the head.

Finally, I need to be packed completely and totally before I leave for knitting tonight. Because our flight leaves at 7:30 tomorrow morning, which means that I have to wake up at 5 am tomorrow (or earlier) to get to the airport in time to go to Arkansas. Aren’t you jealous?

Now THIS is an Errand!

See that football? On top of my car at the post office? Why is it there?

Well, it goes something like this …

My mom has been touring the American south with Hanne and Jette for nearly two weeks. I went to the Darwin Martin house, Phipps, Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob with them, then right after Kentuck Knob last Tuesday, I came back to Pittsburgh and they headed south. I know they went to Monticello, UVa, and to plantations in North and South Carolina.

So this morning at 9:45, my mom called. And asked me how much a football costs. HUH?

It seems that Hanne’s grandson (pronounce it like the American “Hannah”) asked her to bring home an American football for him. And in their two weeks of driving around America, they were apparently unable to stop anywhere that sold footballs.

After doing a little online research (It’s like anything else sports-related. You can get an authentic NFL football for $90, and you can get cheapo footballs for $10), I did as my mom asked. Went to Dick’s and bought a (middle of the road NCAA “official”) football, then I overnighted the damn thing via USPS to mom’s friend in NYC, where Jette and Hanne are spending the weekend before flying back to Denmark on Monday morning.

Good luck getting that sucker home, though. It’s gonna take up a bunch of room in a suitcase!

I was at the Lake until Wednesday afternoon, when I headed southward between rainstorms. Here’s a look at how a goodly chunk of the cottages appear at the moment


All boarded up for winter. Mildly depressing.

In knitting news, I have sporadic pictures. I’m cruising on my Cat Bordhi sock (Bartholomew), and it looks great in my Yarn Nerd Tour de France.

I felted the Booga Bag 2 before I left the Lake on Wednesday.


My bear is standing up in that photo of the un-felted bag. I’m too lazy tired pathetic to take a post-felting photo. Maybe tomorrow.

I also felted the 12:01 pumpkin

That damn thing is THICK!! It’s triple-stranded Cascade 220, so I shouldn’t be surprised, but DAMN!

I took it to the Bloomin Yarns knitting night last night and left it there so Michelle can display it. She stuffed it with some tissue, then I realized that I hadn’t taken an “after” photo, so RT stepped up to the plate.


He likes that photo much better than the “Taliban Tigger” shot that created such a stir with the Hurricane group last week. I will most likely make this again. I'd add more rows in the "middle" to make it taller, and will not do as many decreases at the top, in order to make the opening wider. Oh, and I'd love to know how they got the handle to stand up so nicely for the "official" photo. Michelle suggested a pipe cleaner, which is a fantastic idea.

We’re going to the Pirates/Cardinals game tomorrow (Saturday) night mostly to see The Clarks. Otherwise, it’s a pretty laid-back weekend. Hope you can enjoy the same!

Oh, and I heard last night that I definitely have a seat for Bruce Springsteen in November. First row behind the stage, probably right above Max Weinberg’s drum kit. Cool!

WiP it Wednesday: Alarm Clock Edition

Why an alarm clock? Because that’s what you’ll need after reading this sad post.


I actually got a pretty decent chunk of knitting done “at work” on Sunday. Lots of down-time. Lots. And I haven’t knit a stitch since leaving the big ketchup bottle at 12:30 am on Monday morning.

But look! A pretty decent chunk of work got done between last week and this week. That’s good, right?


Over the weekend, I threw part of the I-cord handle onto the 12:01 bag. That’s it. Different couch, same pumpkin. Yawn.


It may be a “Sometimes Food” to Cookie Monster (gawd does that make me ill!) but I’m seeing my best friend tomorrow, and dammit, I made him cookies.

Lots of quilty stuff for tomorrow. Hopefully I can post before I go to Akron. Meanwhile, I’m going to watch this and trim Painful Pineapples. Only one round left. Wish me luck.

Bingo!

I watched two movies today, and I finished quilting my Picnic Plaid. Yay! I was a little worried about bobbin thread when I realized that I had 2.5 bobbins of thread with me here in Pittsburgh and the spool was at the Lake.


This is the grand total of how much bobbin thread I had left when I finished quilting the last green stripe. Yup. A whole foot of thread. Perfect! It also reinforced my decision to not quilt the white center squares :) They are only 4" finished with Warm and White batting, so it shouldn't be a problem.

I’m probably going to pack this thing back up and take it to the Lake, where I will get around to hand-sewing down the binding. I know I should do a label, but I doubt I will. I just want to get the damn thing washed and in use. I’m never sure what to put on a label for something like this that has been a “back burner” project throughout its lifespan. I know I started it after I sent Bill his quilt, and I’m not even totally sure when I did that. *sigh* I should do a better job of documenting my quilts in a fashion that I’ll keep!

I had a bit of a crisis of conscience earlier on Thursday. Had a lot to do with not working and contributing to money going out, but not back in. For mental health reasons, I’ve spent a bit too much on yarn lately (it makes me feel better, and I'm not going OVERBOARD, just being a little less responsible than I'd like to be). I really appreciate that the Hubster understands what incoming yarn and fabric does for my mental health, but sometimes I get the guilties.

So I needed an immediate gratification project and cast on 12:01. I started on Thursday night and as of this afternoon at about 3, was done with everything but the handle. I’ll knit the handles next and take it to the Lake for felting this week.


I added two extra rows in the middle to make it a little bit taller, then kept going in the pattern because I was worried about running out of yarn. I guessed right, since each cake of orange Cascade 220 Heathers wound up with a leftover piece that rolled to about the size of a cherry tomato.

I used my food scale to divide the hank of green yarn into three semi-equal cakes and was happy that I had done the technique for the rolled top before (on my purple V-neck). Now it’s just I-cord City with a little grafting thrown in.

I’ll keep posting as best I can, but it’s going to be a bit of a topsy-turvy week coming up. My part-time job has a 4 pm call time tomorrow (Sunday) and I’m expecting to get home around 12:30 am.

I leave for the Lake on Monday morning and need to get a good chunk of piecing in both on Monday and on Tuesday morning so I’m ready for Border City at class on Tuesday night. Lake on Wednesday, then on Thursday I’ll leave for Akron to visit my best friend, who will be in town for the weekend with his employer’s volleyball team.

I’m guessing Bill will head back south on Saturday night, but whenever he leaves the state that's round on the ends and "hi" in the middle, I’ll head to the Lake for the remainder of the holiday weekend. I will probably stay until mid-day Wednesday, when I’ll head southward for Hurricane Knitters. Hey, I can’t miss that first Wednesady meeting … gotta hear the recap of SJ’s big day!