blogdogblog

PSA

October 4 is the deadline—you know what to do.

If you don't, check here for the rules in your state.

See you Monday, you gorgeous registered voter, you!

Katinkered out

I came home Wednesday night after class ready to finish the yoke of the lopapeysa Katinka, but realized that I was off that one blasted critical all-important stitch that wrecks a stranded knitting project faster than you can say lopapeysa. Because I'm knitting this on US 10 needles, though, the stitches are large (duh!), so I will run a long US 4 through all the well-behaved stitches and then rip back, back, back.

That means we don't have a lot of knitting content to discuss today. I'm okay with that, though, because when I read through my comments from Wednesday, I have a dozen reasons to smile. You are the best and funniest readers! Who knew so many of you sang to your pets? I think it's wonderful! I'd like to cook something delicious and Icelandic for each and every one of you. Well, I'd like to, but when I began consulting Icelandic recipes, I found things like this, and this and this. Maybe I'll just give you these links to exciting Icelandic websites, okay?

Beautiful. Scenes from Iceland, including Northern lights. It's a virtual vacation!

Diverting. Icelandic graffiti. Cross-cultural!

Disturbing. Traditional Icelandic recipes. Note to self: Pack Clif Bars when we go a-wandering to Iceland.

Enjoy!

Speaking of enjoyable, this arrived Wednesday afternoon from the spectacularly talented Banjo Girl, via Rachael, in response to the fiddle sweater from Wednesday's entry:

That's Harriet, Banjo Girl's dachshund-cocker cross, starring in the beautifully-knit sweater to end all sweaters. Am I right? Is that hilarious? Plus there's the genius-level artistic irony. Thank you, Lala! We link to your delightful blog with pleasure!
[Editorial Update 6:35 a.m—Not Harriet, but Miss Idaho, the chihuahua...our apologies to both Harriet and Miss Idaho! But we're stilll laughing and laughing!]

The pups and I laughed and laughed!

We hope you find an excuse to laugh and laugh today! Knit happy, and happy Thursday!

I love to go a-wandering

Like Dame Edna, I love to go a-wandering, especially when I don't have much time to knit. Tuesday night I have papers due, and so I rarely pick up the project in progress. As you recall, it's the lopapeysa Katinka, and so I've been a-wandering the internet for information on this centuries-old design. And I love to share! Val-deri, Val-dera:

A wonderful journal of contemporary Iceland!

A history of the lopapeysa!

An exciting mitten competition!

Val-dera-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Iceland is awesome. I'd love to visit and meet some knitters and watch the icebergs.

On to Other Topics

Please. Don't .
Dear me. I feel a song coming on.

Pups

The Happy Wanderer is one of the pups favorite songs; I often sing it to them and they bark at the Val-deri! parts. Their other favorite song for barking is Let's All Sing Like the Birdies Sing (Bark, Bark Bark, Bark Bark). Go figure. Anyway, after a day at work and an evening writing papers and doing research, we all feel a bit tense and have a nice sing to relax. What? You do something different?

Happy wandering, happy knitting, and happy Wednesday, possums!

Katinka-ing

Katinka-ing sounds so much more musical than #1201-ing. I think I'll acquiesce to whoever renamed this Lopi pattern and call it Katinka myself. We simply knit round and round at this point:

I'm enjoying finishing this sweater; of course I can never ever wear it here, but I'll send it off to the north and let it make someone I love cozy in the coming winter. These sweaters are so much fun to knit that I'm considering an Icelandic cardigan, just for the knitting pleasure! I'm particularly fond of this one.

I had a little free time to check around some of my favorite blogs today, and found a link on Leigh's site that completely WOWed me. It's the most astonishing sweater...it commemorates the expiration of the ban on assault weapons. I thank Leigh for the link, and bow in Lisa Ann's direction. Can you bear it? Isn't it brilliant and moving? Darlings, she did this on a machine!!! Snaps! Woofs!

Back to Leigh...don't miss her beautiful, completed Lavoisier, modeled by her beautiful daughter. Fabulous, the pair! Aren't knitters wonderful? And knitting bloggers are wonderful too...there are a couple I read that break my heart with gladness on a frequent basis. To think that we can read and receive intimations of the resilience of the human spirit through that which some bloggers freely reveal in generous language...well, it simply astonishes me. Just when I think I'm bored sick with blogging and decide to build a farewell 404, I read an entry by someone who is being so gorgeously human that I think I've just gotta stay and see what this blog-stuff brings tomorrow!

Mikey continues to amble down the path to complete health. What a difference a week or two makes. I think the dachshunds get sick like children do; very rapidly, very scarily, and then (usually) Presto-Chango! They're well again. Thank heavens.

Have an excellent Tuesday. We'll be wishing you peace, perfect health, and prosperity.

Katinka

Remember my sweater parts from last week's entry? I spent a big part of the weekend trying to remember what the pattern was and where it might be. I finally got a clue on the Lopi Kits page at Handworks Gallery. Katinka! No wonder I couldn't remember the name! My pattern called it #1201!

Remembering what it looked like helped me remember where it might be. Anyway, after finally finding the pattern, I thought I might as well figure out where I left off, and so joined the sleeves to the body so I could knit a few rounds. What fun Icelandic sweaters are...you knit a few parts, then join it all together on a couple of long big needles, then knit easy two-color patterning through the yoke and then decrease up to the neck. Once you've finished that, all that's left is to graft the underarms and weave in a few ends. Warm and wooly wonderfulness! Those clever Icelanders! Ljómandi hugmynd! A dásamlegur peysa! The Yahoo Group I love is doing an Icelandic-along; I'm pleased to be slightly ahead of the game by dint of being reunited with #1201, erm, Katinka.

Next up is a Festival of Finishing. I have mittens and socks and a vest to complete before I move on to some new projects. It was finding the heap of Sisik that made me think things had gotten a bit out of control, stash-wise, here. Some knitters can handle lots of projects and lots of extra wool, but too many UFOs (unfinished objects) tend to make me fret and feel anxious and wasteful. I must say that I have begun to find the second mitten almost as tedious as a second sock to knit. I don't remember feeling that way with gloves. "Mittens" doesn't have as many possibilities for goofy rhymes, for one thing. Mittens, kittens, schmittens....see? Not as fun as being on the Glove Train.

Pups

After working hard all week, the pups love to just hang out on the porch and relax over the weekend. They seldom chase the neighbor dogs or bark at the mailman on Saturday or tear up their toys over the weekend.

But now it's Monday, so everyone is back on the job.

Q. What's black and tan and wears a mask?
A. The dachsphantom of the opera.

Happy day, happy knitting to you!