Knitting, spinning & birds

Wednesday afternoon I spent several hours getting the Embarrassment of Riches into a ball. Yes, I really want it in a skein but because when it was taken off the bobbin and I don't have that niddy-noddy, it went on the swift and Brandon isn't always good about making sure that the tension is consistent, so a few droopy bits. The droopy bits of course still had lots of spin in them and tried to corkscrew themselves up into knots. So back on the swift and then rolling into a ball so those corkscrews could be balanced out until I can make that niddy-noddy.

Harold's Martian Scarf is all done. It wasn't until I was photographing it that I saw the way the pattern interacted with each side. Brandon had thought it would be cool for the 'lace' to zig-zag up the scarf but after seeing this it wouldn't have worked as well. It's not overly long but drapes nicely if you want it on either side of your jacket but is long enough to wrap around the neck. Brandon still thinks its too short but he has a different style of wearing it and wants a longer one. Harold lives in the San Francisco Bay area and not going to get as cold of weather so doesn't really need it for that factor.


I was also trying to make a raglan sweater for a teddy bear out of the leftovers of Malabrigo worsted from the two pairs of fingerless mitts. Totally wasn't working. Part of it was the instructions that assumed that you'd done a sweater before. I did end up frogging it but here's what it ended up looking like:

So I went back on a pattern search and found the Teddy Bear Sweater Knit in the Round. I had to seam up the bottom of the sleeves, but not a problem after all that seaming on Lizard. It also had some stranding across the top and I'm happy to say that I totally have figured out how to carry two colors in both hands (one in each of course) and am happy with the way it looks on the inside. The stranding isn't that obvious though because of the difference between the Cascade 220 and the Malabrigo. The sweater fits the bear though! Different bear for this project, the pattern also had different size options and I went with the medium though technically he's a large. It's a nice form fitting fit. Now if I were fitting me, I'd go for a different look. I still had leftover yarn so I went searching for a bear hat. Little harder to find but thankfully Knitting Bee had their Naked Bear program a few months ago and I had their patterns for that and a hat pattern.



I had spun up the wensleydale (not really sure but that's what we're calling it) from Bellwether Wool earlier in the week and brought the singles to Haggen's to ply. It's still resting on the bobbin, and also waiting for that niddy-noddy, but here's what the singles looked like. I was able to get a nice thin spin on the wheel - yeah!


I've started a cowl that I think will go to my mom for Christmas (I don't think she reads my blog....) and have started spinning the Cobbler Corriedale from Stitchjones.


Birds...I've been successful over the last couple of days in keeping the blue heron from the yard and the pond. Thursday morning was very cold and so I poured some bird seed on the patio table. The birds in the area have an impressive communication system because shortly afterward I have stellar jays arguing over it along with the blue birds, a flicker (woodpecker) also showed up. The little ones had to wait for the big guys to finish and while they were waiting the wax wings were bathing in the pond and nibbling on the ornamental crab apples and dogwood berries. Lots of chickadees, sparrows and nuthatches also showed up for the free food. I'm surprised that they didn't clean up the pile. I think that Nessa going out to check on the fish slowed that down.

Norbert is a hurricane!

Brandon showed me this late last night and I would have posted then, but I was in the midst of a raglan sweater crisis. A Pacific storm turned into a hurricane Monday night and earned itself the name of Hurricane Norbert.

Now if we were living on the east coast I may have been more hurricane name conscious and wouldn't have been surprised at it being on the list. I didn't think that Norbert was that common of a name. We did get it from the first Harry Potter book since the movie came out at the same time as we adopted him as a little runt (literally what he was in the litter) puppy into our home.

Hopefully no tourists will be hurt on the baja and how cool is it that there's a hurricane on our coast? While living in Bandon years ago we often with coastal storms would get 75+ mph winds. They had pictures of the police cars with the paint sandblasted down to metal and then there were the 6 to 8 foot diameter trees that would be parked in the lighthouse parking lot at Bullard's Beach.

My sweater woes are over, for me poorly written instructions. Of course I wouldn't have had this problem if I read them a little more thoroughly before starting.....but I was casting on at 9pm and thought that I might have a sweater by 11pm according to the instructions. They just have the assumption that you've actually made a sweater before, and one of this type. So I've frogged what I had last night and am starting over because I did see a glaring error once I photographed it and then re-looked at the directions. I had stopped going to the stitch before the marker and had been going to the marker - thus loosing that distinctive 'raglan' look.

But that wasn't my major problem its the assumption of knowing which stitches are thought to be the sleeve stitches. I'm getting some help in the Techniques forum so trying to get back to that point.

No blue heron this morning thus far. I've encouraged Nessa to check up on the fish a few times this morning and I'm listening for bird sounds. It is also the first morning that the heater kicked on. ETA: I posted, then walked over to look out the sliding glass door and while it wasn't at the pond, it was I think on the fence. I just say it winging away out of the corner of my eye.

More later I'm sure....