Beading WIP

 I didn't get the mittens done last week because I'm being distracted by beading. I'm almost done with this pearl and czech bead necklace.

 The pattern is here: Necklace tutorial

I am using 3mm glass pearls and some 6mm Czech glass beads. So I've modified it a bit.

Last week I took Zoey to the vet. She went for a walk in the woods with my husband and daughter and came back with a slight limp. No one saw her hurt herself. I figured she pulled a muscle and would be fine in a few days. Nope. It was getting worse. So, to the vet we went.

Turns out she's sprained her groin muscle pretty badly. She's been put on a painkiller and we have to keep her quiet and indoors for 2 weeks. Ugh! So far, so good. She's been very well behaved and isn't fighting the pills I'm giving her at all.

Still no snow. It's been in the 40s during the day. We've had rain, but not much. A new gal came to our weekly knitting group at the library and she said something about winter not being too bad around here. We all were quick to tell her this winter is a freak. Not normal. Don't get used to it. 

Speaking of the Rathdrum Library knitting group, we're suddenly getting knitting visitors to our meetings. Not everyone who comes joins the group, but we've had 2 people join in the last month. They are great gals and fit in to the group wonderfully.

Another library development I haven't blogged about is the problems the library is having. Some extremist Christian Nationalist got voted to the board of trustees and they are wreaking havoc! They are trying to ban books and destroy the library system. They started by refusing an annual donation given every year to help the libraries out. They shut down the community book sharing system so books can't be sent to other libraries in the county. Then they laid off a whole lot of employees because there's not enough money. After that they changed the hours so it's not open as much, including being closed on Sunday and Monday because of "lack of money". Yet, when offered the money they needed, it was turned down! They've been talking about having a "Smut Room" for the books they have tried to ban. Now they've decreed that we must have a chaperone at every group meeting held in the library. So now we have a girl young enough to be my granddaughter keeping an eye on us every time we meet, and she doesn't even knit! 

The new rule is extremely insulting. Our group doesn't need someone keeping an eye on us. We're not children! 

In addition, they are working to get a law passed making librarians responsible and liable if a child checks out an inappropriate book. This includes jail time! This is so unreasonable, and downright crazy! There are safeguards already to prevent children from doing that. In addition, it's the parents job to keep their own children from reading something they don't approve. Local people, rightly, are unhappy with what is going on. I expect the next board of trustees election will make some changes. 

We've had several of these people get into local political agencies and they've caused no end of trouble. They got on the board for North Idaho College and did so much damage the college almost lost it's accreditation! Fortunately there is a huge backlash from the public and these people are getting voted OUT! Meanwhile, there's so much damage to be repaired. It's a Trump town. No doubt about it. I wish they would all move away and leave us alone. We'll keep fighting them until they are all out of local government positions.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Update on WIPs

 Life has been rather difficult for me of late. I'm struggling but getting through it. My cats have been the worst. Merino is not using the litter box. He's been violating all the furniture. In concern, I've taken him to the vet several times and spent hundreds of dollars on tests only to be told he's healthy as a horse. The consensus is it's Anxiety. He's being bullied by my other two cats quite a bit, plus winter. My cats hate winter. Merino has stopped going outside entirely. So he's been started on Gabapentin. My couch is covered in aluminum foil to keep the cats off. So now he's going all over the floor, his beds, and any box he can get himself into. I'm so glad we got rid of the carpet in this house and installed bamboo.

On one of the trips to the vet, he peed all over my daughter IN THE CAR! It took 2 upholstery cleanings and 2 thorough sprays of Clorox Scentiva (fabric sanitizer), but I was successful in getting the smell out completely. The house, on the other hand...ugh. I am soooooooooo tired of cleaning up cat messes. The Gabapentin better work or I'm going to have to take drastic action because this is not something I can live with.

When we got home from the vet that day, he was soaked in pee. I had to give him a bath. I've never given him a bath. I prepared myself for possible dying by blood loss, filled the kitchen sink, and pushed him in. Oddly, he didn't struggle or scratch me! He succumbed to the attack and let me bath him. However, he made the most horrible sounds I've every heard from a cat. He was very very very pissed off and told me that in no uncertain terms. I told him if he's gonna get himself pee soaked, he's gettin' a bath. It's his own fault. I'm thankful for the lack of blood loss too.

Between that and what's happening in our government, I've found myself fighting off Panic Attacks. I'm pretty scared right now. I never thought I would be on the edge of living in a possible dictatorship ever in my lifetime. Our own government has turned on it's people. It's shocking!

That being said, I'm steadily working on 2 projects right now. They're actually keeping me sane. The feather and fan afghan is over halfway there. I have actually started on the second skeins of yarn for all colors.

I've had to move the project into a large "temporary" bag that I bought from Ikea because it doesn't fit in any of my knitting totes now. I have 3 of these bags. They've come in very handy.

I've also been working on Choo Choo Santa. Man, are there a lot of tiny pieces to deal with! I don't think I've had a kit with this many pieces before.

It's been fun, though. It's going to be so cute when it's done.

We had some pretty cold weather since my last post. The new furnace has turned out to be very good. Our winter power bill is considerably less that last year. Now a warm period is moving in. Since last weekend we've had temps in the upper 40's and lower 50's. The coming Sunday is supposed to be almost 60. I can hardly wait. The snow is completely off the deck, so sitting in the sun is on my mind.

On Saturday, we're going in to our local Toyota dealer to talk about that blue Prius we've been talking about purchasing. They've had one on order for several weeks, but it arrived in the US this week. It's in port on the Oregon coast waiting to get through customs. I'm hoping to put a payment on it so it's mine when it arrives here. I've contacted the dealership and let them know I'm wanting it.

I took this picture this morning.

For the first time, the sunrise was coming in the house through the window. Zoey enjoyed it so much.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Zoey's Andoa

 Today I'm posting about the new sweater I made my dog, Zoey. She absolutely loves wearing sweaters. I've already got the yarn and patterns lined up for her next two. 

Pattern: Basic Coat from A Dogs Life by Patons and Andoa by Norah Gaughan
Made For: Zoey

Size: Large

Yarn: Lion Brand Heartland, Worsted Weight
Content: 100% Acrylic
Color: Hot Springs

Needles: Circular size 5 and 7

Started: May 21, 2024
Finished: July 2, 2024

Comment: I have customized the above dog sweater pattern to fit my Zoey. 

I used the stitch patterns from the Andoa pattern so she and I could have matching sweaters.

I've made the ribbed neck extra long so it can be folded over. She has a pretty long neck anyway.

She loves this one. I had a hard time getting it off of her after taking the photos. It was almost 90F degrees and she wanted to wear it. Silly girl!

This is the cross stitch project I'm working on right now.

It's coming along pretty good. I did have a problem with running out of one of the threads. It's a Thea Gouverneur kit named Flamingos. So I found their web site and sent them an email asking if they could tell me the DMC color so I could purchase more. They use DMC threads in their kits. They kindly sent me the number and I got a skein from Joann's. I could have probably asked for more thread, but the kit is a fairly old one and the company is in Europe. I wasn't willing to wait for the thread. Anyway, they were very nice about it. By the way, the fabric looks dirty in the pic. It's not. It's just the way the shadows hit the fabric.

Still warm summer weather. It's actually come down a bit to the upper 80's this week. However, the air is very smoky. It's coming from large wildfires up in Canada. We have nothing close to us right now. Hoping it stays that way for the rest of the year.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday 5-1-2024

 I've made a bit of progress on Andoa since my last post. I've finished the front 

and blocked both pieces.

I managed to join the right shoulders last night. You might notice I've lowered the front neckline quite a bit. I can't stand anything close around my neck like turtlenecks and high crew necks and whatnot. I haven't since I had globus hystericus in the mid-90's after an extremely stressful time in my life. It will recur whenever I have a lot of stress. Anyway, back to the sweater, I've lowered it about 7 inches. The neckband will raise it up a bit so it won't be too sexy. I will also be making short sleeves.

Thought I'd tell you about my latest tool craze. I got some of these cord stoppers.

They make wonderful stitch stoppers on circular needles. 

These ones will work on needles up to 8mm in diameter. 

There are lots of varieties of them in all shapes and sizes.  Some have 1 hole, some have 2. I prefer the round ones, but you might like some other kind. I love them. They stay on so much better than the traditional point protectors.

The weather has been very cool the last couple days. Chilly enough that Zoey has been wearing sweaters. It's been in the low 50's but with wind it feels so much colder. 

Speaking of Zoey, isn't that a beautiful face?

Live long and prosper. \\//

Random Stuff

Just a short post to share some pics.

Even though I haven't finished framing Bicycle yet, I felt the need to get a new cross stitch project going. It is going to be a much smaller and quicker project. I am a member in a couple of Facebook Cross Stitch groups and recently one of them discussed gridding their fabric. Never heard of such a thing. I decided I'm going to try it because it supposedly makes stitching a project a lot easier to count, and also somewhat faster to stitch. That makes sense. After stitching the project, you pull the threads out. So I spent some time graphing this.

The grid is hard to see because I used yellow thread. It is very visible in person. I watched a YouTube video to find out how to do it. You sew thread creating 10 by 10 stitch squares. After showing this to the groups I found out I could have used fishing line, which a needle can't pierce making it easier to pull out. I wish I'd known that sooner. Oh well. Next time.

My Peonies are blooming. I have 6 Peonies that I planted a few years ago and this year they've outdone themselves. I've picked a few and brought them into the house. Oh my goodness, they make the whole house smell so good. The dark pink ones are huge!

I'm going to have the house to myself later today. Ruth is going on an outing with some young people. YAY! They're going to the Gorge (A concert venue about 150 miles from here on the Columbia river.) to see a concert. It's been ages since she has done anything with people her own age. 

Doug is going over to Dan's house to help him install a couple of railings on the front porch. Dan has been remodeling the front porch. He found the original railings that used to be on it and has fixed them up and painted them. They'll look really good. His house was originally a school house over 100 years ago. It will look more like it originally did when he's done.

Took a picture of Zoey last night. She was just getting settled to take a wee nap.

I have finished the body of the bee cardigan. I need to block it before I start the sleeves. Gonna try and squeeze that in today.

Gotta finish framing Bicycle, so signing off.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Slip Stitch Slippers

 Well, I decided to retake the pictures. I have a 16 gig micro card and a Sony Duo Pro adapter so I used the 'new' camera. I'm lovin' it.

I started this pair of slippers some time ago. Finished them last week, mostly because I was not enjoying working on them.

Pattern: Slip-Stitch Slippers by Nailya Plaskey

Size: Adult Large

Yarn: Missing Label
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: Light Blue

Yarn: Missing Label

Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: White

Needles: Circular size 5

Started: November 4, 2022
Finished: February 13, 2023

Comments: I did not enjoy knitting this pattern. I would not recommend it for newish knitters.  It's not quite written correctly, making the instructions hard to understand. For instance, it says "Slip knitwise (yarn behind work)". Slipping a stitch knitwise means to put the needle into the stitch on the left needle as if to knit (pointing from front to back) and slip it to the right needle. This action will twist the stitch. That isn't what she wanted though. She wanted the stitch just slipped straight over, which is technically called slip stitch purlwise (putting the needle in from back to front). It confused me a bit. 

This is what the side looks like. You start these at the cuff and work toward the sole.

The language for doing the sole is confusing. When I got to the sole instructions, I was wishing for a picture of what the bottom of the slippers was supposed to look like. It would have cleared up a lot of confusion. So here's one for anyone else who finds themselves in the same situation. It's actually a clever way to create a sole so there are no seams to sew. (All these photos will be in my Ravelry Notebook.)

I should mention, there is a mistake. Where it says "Repeat Rows 40-41 until there are no stitches left besides 11stitches of sole"  It should be 13, not 11, because you need two edge stitches for making the border up the sides of the sole/heel. It should say "Repeat Rows 40-41 until there are 13 sts left. It's easier to understand, and more accurate.

One more thing. I got gauge with the suggested needle size, and these slippers turned out too small for a size "Large". Knitting with the 5's was hard on the hands. Mine hurt because it was just too dense/tight. It would be better with size 6 or 7 needles. The pattern says "Final dimensions: size S (US6-8) and L (US 9-11)." It doesn't give measurements, or whether it's for Ladies, or Men. There is no way this is gonna fit a size 9 woman's foot, which is what I wear, let along a man's size 9. They are pretty stretchy, but not that stretchy. 

Fix all those issues, and it would be much more enjoyable to knit. That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

We got whomped with snow last night. A good 6 inches fell. Not what I wanted to see. We've come to that time of year when everyone, including the snow lovers, are tired of it. Tired of the cold and the shoveling and the plowing and the snow blowing. We want spring!

One more thing. Zoey says "Hello". She's keeping warm in her sweater.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Purple Buffalo Checks

 I have been so frustrated with the blog lately. I've been trying to post on here for weeks, but just couldn't find the time, or couldn't take the pictures, or what not. Had lots of ideas for posts too. Oh well. I didn't finish anything in January anyway. This is the first finished knitting project of 2023! Zoey has a new sweater!

Pattern: Buffalo Check Zoey Sweater by Me

Size: Custom Zoey

Yarn: Big Twist Value
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: Purple

Yarn: Red Heart Soft
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Color: Black

Needles: Circular size 5 and 8

Started: October 22, 2022
Finished: February 7, 2023

Comments: I love how this turned out. It fits Zoey perfectly! I took the Patons Basic Coat pattern (from the Patons book  Patons 939, A Dog's Life) and modified it to fit Zoey really well. I added 2 inches just below the neck ribbing to accommodate her extra long neck, and added 2 inches to the belly part to make it a little longer underneath. I also decreased the neck ribbing by 10 stitches so it's a little snugger. One more thing is I mitered the welt at the back corners rather than making them rounded.

I took the Buffalo Check chart from a hat pattern, Plaid Toque by Lisa Overby. It was a challenge to get the measurements correct. Zoey can't sit still for a tape measure. She wiggles all over!  

Zoey is super happy with the sweater.

One of my cats has not been feeling well. Merino has been not 'right'. He seems to be constipated, his fur is dull, he's not as energetic, and he was off his feed just a bit. Worst of all, he's been pooping in the living room, on the area rug, at night. I can't put up with that kind of behavior. 

I took him to our vet. The only thing they could find wrong was that he was a bit dehydrated. A couple months or so before, my daughter talked me into changing the cats food. I think that is probably the problem.

Merino has a really sensitive digestive system. We have to feed him a special Urinary Tract Health formula or his kidneys will act up. I was feeding him Purina One Urinary Tract Formula. I've been feeding it to my cats for 10 years and they've been very healthy. Turns out, daughter didn't want the cats eating it because it has corn in it. "Corn is not digestible by cats (or dogs)". So I let her change the food. She was feeding them Science Diet Urinary Tract Formula. It has no corn. Well, it's not doing my cats any good either.

I did some googling to find out about corn in pet food and found out the corn in cat and dog food is just the protein of the corn kernel. Not the rest of it. It's highly digestible, and very good for domestic fur kids. My vet said I was feeding them a very good quality food before we changed it (The Purina), so I've changed it back.

The other thing I've done is get a water fountain dish. Apparently, little water fountains encourage cats to drink more water. I bought one from Amazon, the ORSDA Cat Water Fountain Stainless Steel, Pet Water Fountain

It's stainless steel, holds 67 ounces/2 liters of water, and the pump is so quiet you don't even hear it. It took a bit before the cats started using it. They enjoyed sitting and watching it for the first couple days. Zoey, on the other hand, being a dog, just drank from it and left the room. Now they're completely ignoring the old water dish, and it's true. They do drink more water now.

Merino is showing signs of getting well. He's eating better, and using the litter box some. Went 3 whole nights without going in the living room, until yesterday morning, where I stepped in it in my bare feet because I didn't see it. Cold, slimy, smelly, and gushing between my toes. 😖😖 I washed my feet over and over in hot soapy water trying to get that feeling to go away.

In the meantime, I was in our local Bi-Mart store a week ago Friday and ran across a little appliance called the Bissell Pet Stain Eraser. It's a little hand held portable cordless carpet cleaner for cleaning up pet messes. SOLD!

 The fact that it's purple had nothing to do with my purchase, either. After buying it, I found out I have an old model (explains the big discount price). The current one is blue. I've used it twice and 

I LOVE IT!

It works absolutely awesomely! Perfect for my low pile wool area rug in the living room. It's easy to fill with the special cleaner. It sprays the liquid cleaner on the stain. Let it sit a couple minutes, then you suck it up with all the dirt. It even has a little brush to work the more stubborn stains. It even sucked up the mess I ground in when I stepped on it. No sign there was a mess there. Easy to empty the dirty water tank too. It has a rechargeable battery. It'll hold a charge for about 15 minutes. I am so glad I wandered into Bi-Mart that day.

Well, that's the news for now.

Live long and prosper. \\//

Bear Jacket

 It's done! Hurray! I am so pleased with it. Not perfect, but I am not pointing out the mistakes, so no one who hasn't knit this pattern will ever know. Ladies and gentlemen -- Bear.

Pattern: Bear Jacket by Mary Maxim

Size: Ladies Large

Yarn: Heartland by Lion Brand
Content: 100% Acrylic, Worsted Weight
Colors: 98 Acadia, 153 Black Canyon, and 135 Yellowstone

Needles: Circular size 8 and 10

Started: August 22, 2022
Finished: November 15, 2022

Comments: I knit this using 2 strands of yarn held together because the pattern needs bulky weight yarn. I couldn't find one I liked, but I fell in love with Heartland, which is a worsted weight yarn. If I wanted to use it, double stranding is required. Surprisingly, I got perfect gauge, which never happens! It's wonderful to work with.

This is the front. I picked a rust brown instead of the red the pattern calls for because I know the receiver of this gift likes rust brown. It goes well with her red hair.

This sweater is knit in pieces and sewn together. I don't mind the sewing. If I were to do it over again, though, I might put all three body pieces together and knit as one piece. I'd need to sew in the sleeves, and the collar.

Here's a close up of a bear and a little bit of the zipper. I hand sewed that zipper in. It was a big challenge for me because it's been a looooooooong time since I've had to do that. It came out okay. Better than expected.

I also made a change in the sleeves. In the pattern the bears are facing the same direction- to the right, which looks a little weird, so I changed the direction on one sleeve so they're both facing forward.

Here is the back. 

It's a raglan sweater, so a person could knit it from the top down and have no sewing, except the collar. 

One would have to change the collar completely to do it seamless because it's knit side to side.

I've never seen a collar like this one. It was a challenge to sew on because most collars are done by picking up stitches around the neck edge. After much research looking for the best way to sew it on, I ended up whip stitching it, which actually made it look seamless on the inside (No pic cuz I suck as a photographer.). I'm very happy with the result. I lightened up this picture quite a bit so you could see how the seam looks from the outside. (click on the photo to embiggen.)

There is no way I would do it in the round and cut steeks. The bears are knit in Intarsia, which requires back and forth knitting. I know someone came up with a way to do Intarsia in the round, but it is extremely complicated and fiddly. It's easier to just knit the thing flat.

This is a close up of the bears on the back. I actually knit the tree in fairisle, but the bears are intarsia.

I had to learn how to do fairisle with 3 colors in a row. I frogged 3 times before I got it right. This is the stitch pattern that needs it.

I love the spiral pattern below. It was super easy to knit. 

This is not a pattern for a new knitter. You need to get a few years of experience before tackling this one.

It has been so cold here. I've put sweaters on Zoey every day for over a week. She loves her sweaters.

Live long and prosper. \\//

WIP Wednesday April 27, 2022

 Today is my daughter Sarah's birthday. Happy Birthday Sarah! One year closer to 40! Heh heh.

I finished the knitting of Lovelia's body. I wove in all the ends yesterday. It took 3 hours. Whew! Today I blocked it, and I took picks while I was doing it. This is acrylic, so I blocked it with steam, like I explain how to do on my post about blocking acrylic. I just feel a need to do another one.

Here is Lovelia, unblocked. Front

and back.

I have put the blocking wires in. It's so much easier to block with these than just pinning.

I've pinned it to my blocking board, right side down according to the measurements of the schematic in the pattern. At this point, I steamed it gently with my Jiffy Steamer, though a steam iron or a hand held steamer works. I did not steam the ribbing. I don't want to destroy it's elasticity.

Just a word about blocking mats. The one I have is no longer on the market, which is a shame because it's awesome, but there are a lot of mat sets available. I recommend something like this set here:

It's a set of interlocking foam mats which makes it pretty flexible, with t-pins.

Here is the front of Lovelia after removing the wires and pins.

It looks so nice and even, and it's going to be easier to sew on the sleeves and knit on the button bands.

I hear people say they don't block, and don't need too. It's a horrifying thing to hear. No pride in workmanship at all.

Here's a pic of Zoey for you. Just the smallest little lip blep.

Live long and prosper. \\//