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Hell freezes over!

Texans declare this paltry show of white stuff snow!

Up Next! Pigs Fly!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our Favorite Holiday

We're excited around here because not only is tomorrow Valentine's Day, it is also our boy's birthday! His 27th! Buddy and his best friend Jennifer are spending the day on a whale-watching expedition on the Pacific coast. If I were there with them, I'd be making Buddy's traditional birthday cake, The Tower of Chocolate*, traditionally served at breakfast, then traditionally regretted for another year. Meanwhile, Mikey's practicing looking adorable for Valentine's Day.

Bug Bonnet

Sister was over yesterday evening, and she graciously agreed to model the new tam, so you can see how really cute it is:

See? It's so cute you hardly notice the bugs.

Flash-Knitting

This knitting designer is Mitsuharu Hirose, and I LOVE his Flash-intro. I think you'll like it, too, so go take a look.

Pups

It's Friday! Little Jack and Della say Stop That Immediately.

*Tower of Chocolate Cake: Take your fave choco-cake recipe, and double or triple or quadruple it. Bake in as many round pans as you can find, but at least eight or nine. Let cool, then start filling and icing with fudge frosting. (It's not considered good form to split layers.) Stack as high as you have layers and put lots of candles on top. Ignite! then serve with black coffee before going to work on the Birthday, preferably around 6 a.m.

I Can't Give You Anything But Glove

Thank you for your comments on my bug bonnet. I enjoyed reading your thoughts on it as much as I enjoyed knitting those bugs. I agree with you that the type of bug is very much open to interpretation! The buggy tam actually looks very cute on, much cuter than I expected, so as soon as the sun shines again, we'll take a picture.

Landra's Gloves

Remember when I was working on the "Landra's Glove" design from Folk Knitting in Estonia last week? I didn't care much for the beginnings of the cuff in two colors. However, I decided to press on to get the full impact of how this colorful design would translate into more subdued hues. What do you think?

I'm leaning toward liking it very much. It's quite a change from the colors I usually knit; in fact, I don't think I have ever knit anything that is blue and white. The handpaint in this glove isn't really blue, by the way. It's a very lovely mix of purples and blues:

The Double-Start Cast On, using double strands of Koigu, looks very dainty peeking out from under those purl rows.

I like it.

Admiration

Have you been admiring Pamela's elegant needle organization schemes as much as I have? I feel like a big knitting slob when I look at her tidy collections. Please see her 10 and 11 February entries (note the sheep sweater), and give it up for Ghillea and Rob while you're there!

More Admiration

Noriko-san has finished her Herringbone gloves! They are beautiful, and she has also posted her specs from her Herringbone experience. Fabulous!

Pups

The pups are in a bit of a mood because it's still raining heavily here during their outdoor playtime. I'm beginning to be in a bit of a mood myself, because I have three rainy-day smelling pups here.

Little Jack says (snort).

Happy Thursday; we wish you a wonderful day!

Bug Bonnet

I finished my entry for the Tam-along being hosted at ASOF Lives. Mine's a bit floppy, and I think I won't be able to resist reknitting the top. My decreases swirl, and I think, in knitting hindsight, I'd prefer the wheel-type. Here it is, stretched temporarily on a dinner plate (the preferred tam blocking tool):

In person, there are no little white bits on it. I don't know what those are, but am sure they'll come out in the Euclan wash. Here it is on that glass head that we keep our hats on:

I may like it more once it is blocked. But I think I'll really like it with a top that is more flat. Here's the bug motif:

The bug is charted under "Novelty Patterns" in A Shetland Pattern Book (ISBN 0-900662-80-8), and since I bought the book, I've been looking for excuses to put bugs on knitted stuff.

Tams are interesting; I think I'll be making more. Next time, I will pay more attention to my gauge, and I will also double-check the decrease rate once I'm at the wheel portion. I began my tam by following the tam instructions in the "Small Things" chapter from Sweaters from Camp
(ISBN: 0-942-18-21-4, and what a great bunch of techniques are in this book!), then moved on by simply fitting my bug motifs into the increases after the corrugated ribbing band. I used a greenish-yellow Shetland wool for the bugs, and black Shetland wool for the background. By the way, if you visit the Tam-along page, you can see Katie Swanson's Kestral tam—it's lovely!

The best part? My tam is finished, and I can now return to gloves! Thanks, Sheila, for instigating.

Pups

It's Wednesday! Mikey says We'll be Swatching You.

Cheers!

Noted

Hiho, knitters. Did you know they still put dialation drops in your eyes when you get eye checkups? I didn't know that. But of course it's been several years since I had a vision check. And they numb your eyes with drops beforehand, too, which makes your eyelids feel as if they weigh four pounds each. Why don't I know these things? Why don't you tell me these things? Knitting from a chart was too hard Tuesday evening, so we have no knitting progress to show you. I just hope it was the drops, and not that hat from yesterday's entry.

But!! There is some knitting to admire! Mariko-san has finished her Herringbone Gloves, and they are beautiful. Go have a look at some fabulous herringbone knitting.

Magazines

I picked up the latest issue of IK. Since I can't think of anything nice to say, I'm not going to say anything at all. Nope. Not me. A new Rowan arrived, and there are several colorful sweaters that I like very much. You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.

Pups

It poured rain all day Monday. So this is what there is to see of the pups:

Happy happy Tuesday, and happy knitting.

Time Out for Tams

ASOF Lives, home of the Glorious Glove Project and the Whimsy-along, is studying tams this month. Tams have a lot to teach knitters, especially in the area of decreases. And, like gloves, they are perfect small projects in which to indulge your knitting imaginations. Sheila has already finished hers, and it's lovely, see it in her 8 February entry. If you visit the ASOF Lives home page at Yahoo Groups, you can see Vanessa's beautiful lace tam.

Tams are named after a character in a 1790 poem by Robert Burns. You can read a bit about the history of the tam here, at Electric Scotland, and if you scroll to the bottom of the page, you'll find a link to the poem, which (and it saddens me to admit this) I find incomprehensible.

I'm nearly finished with mine; it's my first tam, so I'm prolonging the moment when the decreases get fidgety. But I should be able to show it to you on Tuesday or Wednesday. Mine has green bugs on it.

Ow! My Eyes!

Regular readers of this blog know that I am wildly enthusiastic about all types of knitting, and that I have a special place in my heart for knitters who create unusual stuff. But this. Ow. Perhaps by tomorrow I will love it, but for now? Ow.

Pups

Mikey says It's Monday! Coming Through!!

Have a delightful day, and may all your skeins be barf-glob free.