Partial FLAK Sleeve

Pattern: Follow the Leader Aran by Janet Szabo

Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool

Color: Antique Rose

Needles: US #5

Gauge: 22 stitches/4 inches in Moss Stitch

Here it is! A partial left sleeve.

It's about three inches from the cuff. I've switched sides now and just started the top of the right sleeve. When both sleeves are almost done I can try the sweater on and get the sleeves exactly the length I want.

I would like to get the sleeves finished before I show you FLAK again. But, if I get desperate for blogging material, you may see more partial sleeves in a few days.


Eek!
This is the start of the two week period when ABC Along members are charged to photograph and write about something starting with the letter E.

It has become obvious that my life is severely lacking in interesting, or even uninteresting, things that start with the letter E.

Yesterday I sat down with a dictionary and browsed E words. Now I hope my subconscious is working on the E problem, because I still don't have a clue what my E entry is going to be.

Time to get creative.

5 Quirks

Lisa tagged me with the 5 Quirks meme.

List 5 quirks about yourself.

This should be easy because I have many many quirks. Unfortunately, I've had them for so many years I don't think of them as quirks. I had a hard time coming up with five - at least 5 I will admit to in public.

Thinking Bob, husband for 30+ years, should have no problem coming up with five of my quirks, I asked for his help. Quirky minds think alike. He said he was so used to my quirks he couldn't think what they might be.

We had some fun today thinking and talking about quirks. Thanks Lisa.

And here are five to meet the requirement:

1. I'm superstitious about numbers and have a strong preference for even numbers. 22 is my favorite.
   
   
2. When I'm annoyed, I hum. Bob has trouble understanding this. He thinks I hum when I'm happy although I've told him many times that the opposite is true. Fortunately, I don't have a quick temper or he would have been beheaded by now.
   
   
3. I believe that Pappy understands a large percent of what I say to him. Not only that, but he's a very vocal dog and tries to talk back. Really.
   
   
4. I'm moderately phobic about driving or riding on a road with water on both sides. It doesn't bother me a bit if I'm on a bridge above the water, only when the water and road are on the same level.
   
   
5. I peel a grapefruit and eat it like an orange. Why not? It is like an orange.

If anyone needs a quick blog post because they'd rather be knitting than posting this weekend, you're tagged.

Now back to knitting FLAK sleeves.

Finished Aguave Pictures

Pattern: Aguave by Katherine Hunt in Summer 2005 Knitter's

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine, 60% pima cotton, 40% model

Color: River

Needles: Addi Turbo #4

Gauge: 24 stitches/4 inches in SS after washing

This afternoon during a brief interlude of sunshine, I put on Aguave and headed outside to have DH take some pictures.

His method of taking pictures is to fumble around until I get a weird look on my face and then snap it. Sometimes it doesn't matter what my face looks like, because he chops off my head.

But, he's willing to do it and I appreciate his efforts. These are the best two.



In these pictures, Aguave is over a navy cami with a shelf bra. I think it would look better over a dark blue tank top worn with a real bra, so I have some shopping to do.

My goal was to assemble and block the Aguave and Hanover jacket before the next installment of FLAK is posted.

Hanover is sewn together as of last night and this afternoon I finished weaving in the ends. It's ready for a bath which may or may not happen tonight.

Aguave is in the closet, I have a sweatshirt on, and Pappy and I are off to doggy school in a few minutes.

Knitting Log for February 21

Pattern: Aguave by Katherine Hunt in Summer 2005 Knitter's

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine, 60% pima cotton, 40% model

Color: River

Needles: Addi Turbo #4

Gauge: 24 stitches/4 inches in SS after washing

Aguave is assembled, washed, and still damp. It appears it's going to fit well and I'm looking forward to wearing it. When I do, there will be one more picture.

This was a fun knit. I never got tired of the pattern or the yarn. Well, maybe a little impatient on the endless sleeves, but not ready to throw it in the basket and work on something else.

I will happily use Knitpicks Shine again the next time I get the urge to knit something cottony.


Pattern: Basic Sock

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon

Color: Lollipop 1011

Needles: Addi Turbo #1

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

These are son John's birthday socks, cuffs done, ready to start the heel.

John is very tall and slender. So slender that I knit his socks on 64 stitches.

The foot needs to be 80 rows long from the gusset pickup to the start of the toe decreases. I'm a bit concerned about the size of that ball of yarn. Is it enough? (There's a second ball attached to the other sock.)

The front of the sock is facing the camera to show how I'm doing the ribbing. Most of the sock cuff is knit in a k3p1 ribbing, but there is a 14 stitch panel of stockinette down the front to display the handsome Lollipop stripes in all their beauty.

Gail the dog trainer has a birthday the same day as John and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to knit a pair of socks for the occasion. She got a pair for Christmas which I've never seen her wear, even though she told me she loves wearing them. Was she just being polite? I see her twice a week. The socks should have made an appearance by now. It would give me great pleasure to knit another pair of socks for her, but I don't want to give her something she doesn't really like.

I normally don't give knitted gifts unless asked. It's too easy to fall into the trap of thinking that just because I want to knit something, the recipient is going to be delighted to received it, wear it, and care for it.

Answers

Diane asked . . .

Wherever did you find to order it? (Stahman's Shawls and Scarves)

This book was on my mental list of things I needed to buy someday. I wrongly assumed there was no hurry.

They had it at Knitpicks a while ago. When I went to add it to my last order they didn't have it anymore.

Amazon only showed three used copies, the lowest price was worn and $50! Highest price $193.

Fortunately, there are still some yarn shops that have copies, and I was able to Google and find it for the regular price, $30, at Knitter's Bookshelf. I ordered it immediately in case Rocking Chair Press doesn't do another printing.


DebbieB asked . . .

Does CIC accept donations from people who don't belong to the organization?

With gratitude!

There are approximately 700,000 children in Eastern Europe living in orphanages with winter indoor temperatures hovering around 45 Fahrenheit (that's 7 Celsius). They can never have too many sweaters, vests, and socks, in at least 70% wool. (I use 100% wool.)

The knitted items are sent to a central location (Kathy’s garage). They are then packed into suitcases and taken directly to the orphanages by couples traveling to the area to pick up a child they are adopting. This prevents the donations from being "side tracked" and sold, never making it to their intended destination.

e-mail Me for Kathy's address.

Just for the record, I do not belong to CIC. I do belong to the CIC Knit List, a Yahoo group to support and encourage each other as we knit for the kids.


Dorothy asked . . .

Did you notice that the new Interweave Knits has two patterns for fingerless gloves?

Not until the entire knitting community was done getting their copy delivered before mine arrived, finally, on Friday.

The Rib-and-Cable Mitts are on my list to knit. I'll make the cuffs longer to provide more coverage for the CIC caretakers.

I didn't think the Pom-Pom Fingerless Mitts were attractive, but the pattern is of interest because it's knit from the knuckles down to the cuffs, just the opposite of all my other fingerless mitt patterns. Next time I'm using balls of leftover worsted, I'll give this a technique try so I don't run out of yarn mid-hand. But I'll use a different stitch pattern.


Loren asked . . .

Your FLAK is looking good. How large is your neck opening? How many stitches did you have to pick up and knit on each saddle?

My saddles are 2.5 inches wide and 4 inches/31 stitches long. I picked up 31 stitches.

To get a front neck drop of three inches, I subtracted half the saddle width, 1.25 inches and did a drop of 1.75 inches. The width (without the neckband, of course) is 7.5 inches.

All these measurements are calculated from my washed and blocked swatches, not the actual unwashed and unblocked knitting.

Since we are each calculating our own pattern based on our own measurements, I'm not sure how much good this information is to anyone other than myself. If you want to compare your calculations with mine, you need to know that I measured 15 inches across the back. I added a half inch so as to get all the cables in and have the cables fall where I thought they looked best at the neckline. Since a half inch is only a quarter inch on each side, I don't expect this to be a problem. It may even be a blessing since I don't want this sweater to fit tightly.

Where Do I Begin?

It's cold, cold, cold here in SW Michigan. As long as we have power, I don't care because I have so much fun stuff to do that I'm not sure where to begin.

The Aguave sleeves are finished. Now it's time to sew this sweater together, wash and block it.

Did I say fun? Sewing my knitting projects together has never been fun for me.

I do know how to do it moderately well, but I'm very very slow at it. It's my least favorite part of knitting and something I avoid by knitting in the round and/or picking up stitches and/or doing three needle bind off whenever the pattern design allows. Not this time. Aguave was knit in four pieces: front, back, 2 sleeves. They need to be sewn together.

And there's a Hanover jacket in my knitting basket that also needs to be sewn together. I've promised myself that both Aguave and Hanover will be assembled before I start a new project. Except for John's birthday socks. They have all ready been started. Sock picture in a few days. I want to knit a little more on the cuffs before I show them to you.


My Knitpicks order finally arrived. First thing I did was grab a ball of Andean Treasure in Fog and finish up the last inch of the first pair of fingerless mitts I started several weeks ago.

For those of you who did the math in your head and wonder why I didn't have a $40 order to get free shipping, I did. The part of the order not pictured belongs to a knitting friend and will be delivered to her at church on Sunday.

The Grape Sierra on the bottom of the pile will likely become a CIC sweater. I want to write an easy, no sew, top down pattern for CIC knitters.

The other five balls are Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca, sport weight. This stuff is so soft, warm, and pretty I want knit myself a sweater from it. I don't have a pattern in mind, though, so I'm looking forward to browsing sweater patterns for something classic and a little lacey.

Something with little or no sewing together required. Any suggestions?

This just arrived in the mail, also.

Oh my, oh my! What a wonderful book! Gorgeous lace projects. I want to sit down and knit everything in this book. Now!

And, if that's not enough, I have a pile of library books to read and a new, unopened Interweave Knits magazine.

So, where do I begin?

D is for Dumbbell

Hobby Advanced class at Briarwood Dog Training has started working with doggy dumbbells again. My dogs have been though the dumbbell training before. They are still flunking.

The dumbbell forced retreive is supposed to be a fun thing for the dogs. Some of the dogs who have learned how to do it in previous rotations of the class do appear to enjoy it.

The desired sequence of events goes like this:

• Dog sits on left side of owner about six feet in front of a hurdle.
  
• Owner tosses dumbbell over the hurdle and says "Take it."
  
• Dog enthusiastically jumps over the hurdle and takes the dumbbell in his/her mouth.
  
• Dog jumps hurdle with dumbbell in mouth to return to owner.
  
• Dog sits in front of owner and gives his/her owner the dumbbell.

Take your fingers out from under my chin so I can spit this thing out!


The sequence of events when Sunny does the dumbbell exercise:

• We don't bother standing in front of the hurdle.
  
• I stick the dumbbell in front of Sunny's nose and say "Take it."
  
• Sunny ignores me.
  
• I gently push the dumbbell into Sunny's mouth.
  
• I hold Sunny's chin up for about thirty seconds so the dumbbell won't fall out.
  
• Sunny agrees to this because she is being bribed by little pieces of turkey dog.
  
• After two tries at holding the dumbbell in her mouth, Sunny insists it's time to go out for a potty break.

The theory is that I will need to spend less and less time holding up Sunny's chin as she learns to hang on to the dumbbell without assistance. Gail the trainer thinks Sunny is making progress. We have practiced at home this past week, and I'm spending just as much time holding up Sunny's chin as I was last week. Sunny is starting to like the practice more, though, because she can guilt trip me into a great long game of tug afterward.

When Sunny's class did dumbbell training two years ago, she hated it so much that I used dumbbell time to take her outside for a potty break. This time around we're going to stick with it and see if we can get to the place where it's fun for her.

Pappy hates the dumbbell even more than Sunny hates the dumbbell.

I would do almost anything for you - except this.


The sequence of events when Pappy does the dumbbell exercise:

• We don't bother standing in front of the hurdle.
  
• I get down on the floor and secure him between my legs.
  
• I make all kinds of encouraging noises to let him know this is fun.
  
• He clamps his jaws shut. Very tightly shut.
  
• I pry his mouth open while he's playing keepaway with his head.
  
• I insert the dumbbell and hold his mouth shut around it while I continue making encouraging noises.
  
• When I can spare a hand, I rub his chest to calm him down.
  
• Pappy tries to spit the dumbbell out and run under the nearest piece of furniture.
  
• After about thirty seconds, I let him drop the dumbbell.
  
• I get very exited and feed him multiple little pieces of turkey dog.
  
• Pappy is excited too because maybe we're done with this exercise.

Sounds cruel, doesn't it? I feel like an unfit doggy mother everytime we do this.

All the activities that Pappy now thinks are wonderful fun started out with him balking, so I'm not ready to give up yet.

Fortunately, dumbbells only take about ten minutes of the two hour class. If things don't look better soon, I may teach Pappy that dumbbell time makes a good potty break time. Stay tuned.

Fingerless Mitts III

Pattern: Diamond Handwarmers from CIC knitter Ruth

Yarn: Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, worsted weight 100% wool

Color: Candy Cane Red

Needles: #4 double points

Gauge: 5.5 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch


Saturday evening I picked up Ruth's pattern and knit the first one of these in a little less than three hours. Sunday afternoon I cast on the second one and it went even quicker.

These are large on me, which is what is wanted. Most of the caretakers have larger hands than I do.

These are very pretty, practical, and warm for the CIC caregivers. The pattern is easy to follow with detail instructions for every row where there is thumb gusset or the diamond pattern. I followed the pattern word for word and didn't find any errors. Thanks Ruth!

Fingerless Mitts II

Pattern: Open Finger Mitts from Garnstudio

Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Treasure, sport weight 100% baby alpaca

Color: Lagoon

Needles: #3 double points

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch, 8 rows/inch

While waiting for the yarn to finish my first pair of fingerless mittens for the CIC caretakers, I knit up a second pair.

The CIC_Knit List challenge is 150 pair of fingerless mittens sent by the end of March. My personal goal is 4 pair.

The fingerless mittens are super quick to knit. This evening I finished a third pair, picture tomorrow, and now I'm back to knitting on the endless second Aguave sleeve.

Saturday Lunch

This afternoon the eldest three generations of women in my family met for lunch at the Oakwood Bistro. Granddaughter Kimmy was elsewhere with her dad. We missed seeing her, but it was nice to have an adult lunch.

Daughter Heather (in picture) treated for a belated my birthday lunch. Our family is not always prompt about things like that. We do things when work schedules permit.

Oakwood Bistro is an award winning restaurant. Its creme brulee is the best I've ever tasted. I don't want to know how many calories it has, but today it didn't have any because it was a birthday treat.


The other purpose for the lunch was delivery of professional pictures taken of John, Anne, and Sydney in Idaho.

The pictures were framed, wrapped securely in bubble wrap, and all sent to my house for Michigan distribution.

Here you see Mom (my mother, Heather and John's grandmother) trying to liberate the large picture marked for her. Heather is doing the same in the top picture.

Everyone loved their pictures. Thanks John and Anne and Sydney.

FLAK Part 5 Done

Pattern: Follow the Leader Aran by Janet Szabo

Yarn: Elann's Peruvian Highland Wool

Color: Antique Rose

Needles: US #5

Gauge: 22 stitches/4 inches in Moss Stitch


Once again I'm caught up with the FLAK assignments. This part was fun. My analytical mind got a nice work out charting the cables and how I wanted the neck increases to fit into the pattern.

Since I'm a novice at this type of planning, I made several charts over several days until I finally had it the way I wanted it. Only time and the addition of a neckband will show if my thinking was right or not.

Someone, sorry I don't remember who, posted a suggestion to the list about blocking. She said that we could wet down our FLAK at anytime to block the part that was done in order to make sure we were going to get a good fit.

I may end up doing that. Otherwise, I have to trust that the stitch and row counts calculated from my blocked swatch will bring this sweater up to the size I need.

At this point the front and back are both knit to approximately 1/3 their total length. Adding the sleeves, I roughly calculate the sweater is 20% done. Lots and lots of cable knitting to go.

Now off to knit on something else until the next installment of FLAK is posted.

C is for Cosmetology

I graduated from high school with a math scholarship to Olivet College. To my 18 year old mind in 1963, this was not a cool thing.

What did a girl do with a math degree? And, since it was 1963 when girls did not do much, no one could answer that question for me. When they tried, it came out sounding like “develop your mind and find a husband.” Surely there were easier ways to find a husband than four years of college math.

I enrolled in the fall session of Wright Beauty Academy to become a Cosmetologist.

Nine months later I passed the state test and went to work for the best hair styling saloon in Battle Creek, Michigan. Hair Styles by Ferrari.

It was the decade of beehives, backcombing, French twists, flips, and lots of hairspray. Shampooing once a week was the norm.

In 1964 a haircut was $2, a shampoo and set was $2.50, and a perm was $10. Since we worked on commission, we tried to sell the more expensive perms for $15, but most of the ladies (our license did not allow us to work on men) thought the $10 perms were just fine.

I had red hair with the crown bleached out platinum. With the help of color rinses on the bleached part, I could have all kinds of outrageous color combinations.

In this Christmas picture, the top of my hair was a pale green color.


When I got married in February, 1965, I had a temporary auburn rinse put on the bleached hair. Since I was paying for expensive wedding pictures, I thought I might want to look as normal as possible so my kids wouldn't laugh at me in the decades to come.

When my daughter sees the wedding pictures, she is too busy laughing at the hairstyle to even notice the color.

4 Things Meme

All my projects are in mid-stream. Too early to take a picture.

Even my ABC Along post is waiting to see if I can find a picture to post with it. It's about something that happened 40+ years ago, and I need to dig in the archives. And, if I do find something, I need to load the scanner software. I've been procrastinating that since my big laptop crash last October.

If I don't post this afternoon, it isn't gonna happen today. Blogger is having an outage tonight starting when Sunny and I get home from doggy school.

What's a blogger to do? How about a meme that I've seen on almost everyone else's blog but haven't done yet?

List 4 Jobs you have had in your life:

1. Hair stylist
   
2. Geriatric nurse's aide
   
3. COBOL programmer
   
4. Systems Analyst

4 Movies you could watch over and over.

1. Blue Hawaii
   
2. Any romantic comedy with a happy ending, including Shreck
   
3. Shirley Valentine
   
4. ET

4 Places you have lived:

1. Arlington Heights, Illinois
   
2. Vicksburg, Michigan
   
3. Marshall, Michigan
   
4. Battle Creek, Michigan

4 TV shows you love to watch.
(We don't watch TV, so these are favorites from the past.)

1. Star Trek
   
2. Quincy
   
3. Johnny Carson
   
4. Laugh In

4 Places you have been on Vacation:

1. New Orleans
   
2. Atlanta, Georgia
   
3. Chatfield, Minnesota
   
4. Michigan's Upper Peninsula

4 websites you visit daily:

1. Jig Zone, Daily Puzzle
   
2. 5 Day Forecast for Paw Paw, National Weather Service
   
3. Bloglines, and many of my favorite blogs
   
4. Engrish

4 of your favorite foods:

1. Creme Brulee
   
2. Prime rib
   
3. Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich
   
4. Strawberry shortcake with fresh, Michigan strawberries

4 Places you would rather be right now:

1. Post Falls, Idaho
   
2. Working on my FLAK
   
3. In a lobster bib cracking and eating fresh buttery lobster with a good friend
   
4. Sitting in a hot bubble bath with a shot of blackberry brandy

Anyone who hasn't done this and is desperate for an easy blog post, consider yourself tagged.

Knitting Log for February 4

Pattern: Fingerless Mitts

Yarn: Knitpicks Andean Treasure, 100% baby alpaca, along with Blackberry Ridge Silk Blend Lace weight, two-ply, 25% silk, 85% wool.

Color: Fog and Medium lilac

Needles: Clover bamboo #5 circulars

Gauge: 20 stitches/4 inches

Our CIC challenge for February/March is fingerless gloves for the caretakers.

Amazing as it sounds living in Michigan and all, I have never knit a mitten. So this was a fun new something to knit for me. I selected a pattern with a thumb gusset because I think they look nicer than a buttonhole for the thumb hole. Even with the gusset, the pattern is super simple.

Since the Andean Treasure is sport weight and the pattern is for worsted weight, I added a strand of the lilac lace yarn. The lilac has the additional benefit of making the mitt much prettier.

The mitt looks a bit big on my hand because it is. I have small hands.

According to the CIC_Knit List

"Any size is acceptable, but more of the caretakers fall into the medium to large category than the more petite sizes."

I should have done a more petite size, anyway.

My kitchen scale says I'm going to be one-tenth of an ounce short of having enough Andean Treasure for the second mitt. This means I may need to come up with a $40 Knitpicks order when all I need is a few extra yards of yarn. Have to order enough for free shipping, right?

Note to non-knitters: Coming up with a $40 Knitpicks order is not something that requires sympathy.


Pattern: Aguave by Katherine Hunt in Summer 2005 Knitter's

Yarn: Knitpicks Shine, 60% pima cotton, 40% model

Color: River

Needles: Addi Turbo #4

Gauge: 24 stitches/4 inches in SS after washing

I'm working on the second sleeve which looks just like the first sleeve. Next time I knit something with unattached sleeves, I'm going to try knitting both sleeves at the same time to see if it helps reduce sleeve boredom.


Stitches of Violet Word Cloud

Seems like everyone in blogland is creating a Word Cloud.

How could I resist?

Dreamcatcher Socks Done

Pattern: Basic 56 Stitch Sock. k3 p1 ribbing with a 14 stitch stockinette panel down the front, 8 stitch stockinette panel down the back

Yarn: Opal sock yarn, 75% wool, 25% nylon

Color: Dreamcatcher 1235

Needles: Addi Turbo #1

Gauge: 8 stitches/inch, 10 rows/inch

Done and on my feet. I wore them to doggy school tonight and they were warm and comfy.

Surprise Times Three

Remember these Opal Elements 1070 socks from last February?

Many many readers asked where I got the pattern and I wasn't able to help because it hadn't been published yet.


Remember these Opal Tutti Fruitti socks from last November?

Same pattern and same story. In fact, I almost didn't use the pattern again because I knew I was going to have to field pattern requests and wouldn't be able to be help.

The pattern, Rainbow Ripples, has finally been published! And SURPRISE, it's free in the February issue of the Opal Chatters Newletter.


Surprise 2, Only DH was Surprised
Since I've only been married twice I can't swear that all husbands are like this, but both of mine were. They do not hear what they don't want to hear about little things around the house and car that might turn into a bothersome or expensive problem.

Last time I was in DH's Jeep, there were mouse turds in the passenger seat. I told him. He didn't look. He ignored me, even though after fifteen years of living in the country I have become an expert on spotting mouse turds.

Yesterday DH and Glory (dog) were driving to the library and he spotted something moving on the console.

SURPRISE!

Guess what it was. Do I even have to finish this story?

It was gray and white. It was cute. Glory didn't see it. By the time he pulled over, it had disappeared.

I'm going to think twice before I get in that Jeep again.

Surprise 3, The Little Rabbit is Hopping Fast
I know that you've all been watching my little rabbit hop through the purple flowers on the sidebar and nodding your heads in approval as I drop the weight I gained over the holidays. Right?

It's been a very pleasant SURPRISE for me to see the weight come off so easily, 9 pounds in 5 weeks. I credit the teaching of over a year of Weightwatcher's meetings and a strong desire to get the little rabbit out of the flowers and into the cabbage patch.

I confess to eating half a carrot cake on and about my birthday. Fortunately, carrots were zero Weightwatcher points when I was a member. I can eat as many carrots as I want. The other ingredients don't count on a birthday.