I Iz Fierce Beast!

New Bag

I decided to knit myself a new bag. Not that I needed one, you know, I just wanted one. It so happens that I had the correct yarn in my stash in colours that match too. Huh. Go figure.



It's The Bag by Wendy Wonnacott in the book No Sheep For You. If you decide to do this bag, a couple of notes. First off, you really want to use stitch markers to section off the knitting the way Grumperina suggests . Secondly, the knitting mirrors itself. The knit row sets up the colour pattern for the next ,purl, row. Do not screw up the knit row.

I have had to tink back half a row several times because I screwed it up. I really wish this was charted. It would have been so much easier. Charting it now, after I fought my way through it is pointless though. Ah well.

Ciao

Fingernail Friday

Hardboiled....Penguin?

I was making hardboiled eggs this weekend. one of the eggs cracked it's shell. Resulting in this work of art:

I ate it anyways.....

Snuggles

I have never had 2 cats that got along as well as the 2 I currently have. It is adorable. in my humble opinion of course....

'Louboutin' Slippers

Everyone that knows me, knows I have a 'slight' obsession with shoes. I love my shoes. One day I will own a really and truly, honest to bob designer pair of shoes. Until then, I can dream....and knit! My felted clogs have really bit the dust. They are full of holes and I clearly got my money's worth out of them, so to speak. I started a new pair. With a lovely red sole, a la Louboutin shoes. Today was felting day! Pre-felting:

Post felting:Before the felting, the red sole was 11 inches long. It is now approx 9.5 inches. Now they have to dry. Are they dry now? How about now? Now? ARGH.....

Candy

My favorite candy, aside from chocolate of course, is Sweetarts. I love me some Sweetarts.
When it comes to chocolate, I have very little self control around Cadbury's Mini Eggs.

On a related sidenote, why do I keep spelling chocolate as choclate?

Had To Share

I saw this and had to share!

Out with the Old

With temperatures dipping to -25C around here, warm feet are hard to come by. Thus, felted wool clogs are a lovely addition to the flannel pyjamas comfortable clothes I wear around the house. I knit myself a pair last winter. Now they look like this:

Clearly a new pair is required! This pair I'm going to call my Louboutin Clogs.Lipstick red soles, babeeeeee!!!!!

ciao

Grafting Garter Stitch

There are many explanations on the intertubez that 'explain' how to graft garter stitch. Badly and/or incorrectly, as I found, to my sorrow. I turned to Ravelry where ZaftigWendy explained it very clearly. I was gonna try to explain it myself, but then I realized I could show you what she told me:


The hard part is that for grafting garter stitch, you have to pay attention to whether you have knits or purls facing you.
If you hold the two needles to be grafted in your left hand with the knitting hanging down, just like you would when grafting a sock toe, then you want the last row of EACH of the two needles to have purls facing you. When you graft a sock toe, the front needle has knits facing you and the back needle has purls facing you. For grafting garter, you want them BOTH to have purls facing you. If you don’t, then knit one more row on ONE of the needles, and then arrange them again.
Once you have that, it’s easy. Start with going purlwise through the first stitch in front and pulling the yarn through. Then do the EXACT SAME THING on the back needle.
Then go knitwise through the first stitch on the front needle and remove the stitch from the needle, then purlwise through the next stitch. Then do the EXACT SAME THING on the back needle.
Repeat until all the stitches are gone.

She also found a video



Hope this all makes sense!

Fingernail Friday

Melonhead Hat

The husband has a big head. No seriously, he can't wear adjustable baseball hats cause they are too small. This means that most winter caps are rather tight on his head. So I found a hat pattern that you plug your gauge into and it tells you how many stitches to cast on etc to get the correct sized hat! It's called Zeebee. The pattern is straightforward and easy, The tricky bit is at the end when you have to graft garter stitch. Voila the hat.

Yarn:Paton's classic merino in, obviously, black

I thought I had found how to graft garter stitch by googling it. I did not. I had to go to Ravelry and ask someone how to do it. I'll post the right way to graft garter stitch another day. Gotta get it together in understandable words. Tthe husband has already worn it a couple of times and seems to like it. We'll see if he keeps wearing it....

Olympic Mittens

Want your own red Canada Olympic mittens? Can't find the ones sold in stores? Make your own! Swatchless came up with a pattern and is donating the proceeds to the YMCA Aquatics Program Penguins Can Fly, a program for kids with disabilities and their able bodied siblings.