I seamed Elspeth, tried her on (she fits, but looks weird, thus no pictures) and packed her up to mail to Mom.

After my visit to the post office, I started work on the The Fund Raiser Scarf and Hat. I developed a Prototype Scarf fairly quickly.

It wasn’t far to a completed Prototype Hat.

Before you get too excited about the speed of development of these items, just remember that there are only so many ways to decrease the top of a hat.

When I placed the order with Knit Picks (seriously have you seen their prices?) I had yet to put three cables in the scarf. So now I’m all worried that I didn’t get enough yarn. I am going to work around this little difficulty by making the hat first, reviewing my yarn supply and determining if I should make the scarf with just two cables. Knitting is always an adventure!

I finished the sleeves as promised.

Here is a more artistic version of Elspeth Blocking.

I couldn’t leave her on the table to dry (I used the pin and spray method to stop the curling with out squashing the texture): pulling out all the pins and chewing on them is a Fun Project for the cats. Apparently, pin heads look like tiny pieces of delicious cat candy.* Who wants to explain that to her vet? My solution is to stow my blocking board on top of the baker’s cabinet and hope that no one comes to the front door (“Gee, why is that giant piece of cardboard suspended so precariously near your ceiling?”). Some things just take too much energy to explain.

I also swatched for Michael’s Cardigan.

Someday I will remember to look at the pattern and figure out who wrote it and what the cardigan’s proper name is. Until that day, Dear Reader, you will just have to cope.

I’ve been exploring several options for the Library’s Fund-Raiser, and thanks to a comment suggestion from Karin, discovered these Hogwarts Scarves. Karin was actually suggesting Hermione’s cable-and-bobble hat which makes me think fondly of Dobby cleaning the Gryffindor common room all by himself. . . but I ended up settling on the scarf. I think it would be a wonderful Halloween Costume Accessory and Ideal for a Library. Lauren (the designer) has given me permission to make one for the auction (thanks a bunch and the books thank you, too). I’ve already ordered the yarn. For those of you who haven’t taken a look at the selection over at Knit Picks, I really encourage you to do so. Their prices just can’t be beat.

Unfortunately, Harry’s Scarf doesn’t solve the Hat and Scarf Ensemble Difficulty. I’m just going to have to make it up myself. I’ve been working on scarf patterns today and attempting to incoorporate all the basic elements of Give Away To A Stranger Design: nothing too complex, nothing too plain, nothing too boring to make. This is complicated by my project-specific requirement: elements that can be translated into a matching hat. I’ll let you know how it goes.

*Speaking of candy, the little heathens ate most of a Blow Pop last night. They didn’t make it to the gum in the center but they gave it the Old College Try. Is it bad that the part of this that bothered me the most was not the theft itself, but the Sticky that they left all over the floor? I have moved the rest of the Blow Pops to an undisclosed, secure location.

By now everyone knows that the Fall Knitty is up. I am particularly interested in Josephine as an everyday sweater (my shoulders get cold before the rest of me) and these:

Bubbies!

They are going out to the Farm tonight to try on neckwear.

My cousin just had a new baby and Great Gran sent a knit hat and booties from her stockpile. I had to come up with something else. Luckily Knitty (and Vanessa) saved the day. There are three of them because the new baby has a couple of sisters. I am trying to decide if I should pick which girl gets wich bear or if I should just let them duke out the color selection in the Fine Tradition of sisters every where.

Because of the Bubbies, and because I left my knitting at Great Gran’s for 48 hours, I am only half-way through the first Elspeth sleeve. I’ll have two sleeves for you the next time I blog. Mom’s conference is next weekend so she’ll have time to crochet for me soon. Not that I’ll be able to wear Elspeth before next Spring. My End of Season projects never get finished on time. Serves me right for trying to squeeze them in like that.

The yarn that was on hold (due to Disrupted Mail Service) from Lorien has arrived! Brown Sheep Company‘s Lamb’s Pride Superwash (worsted) in Sable.

That’s Lady Bird in the window.

The little bit of color variation within the yarn gives it a depth and movement that is pleasing. This batch destined to be a cardigan for Michael. He insists that it be completed by November so that he can take it to a conference in Boulder, CO. I think I can manage that even though I have to make a cabled hat and scarf ensemble for the Silent Auction at the Friends of the Library Shin-Dig in October. The making of the hat and scarf is no problem, it’s just that I have to design it – unless somebody knows of someone who would be willing to lend me their pattern if it benefits the Library. Know what? I WILL design them myself! And then I will put the patterns on the internet for everyone who needs a Fund Raiser Scarf. Unless of course someone has already done that…I will google before I begin.

One of the benefits of disrupted mail service is that Jean (the Alpaca Lady) had to hang on to my Lamb’s Pride for so long that she started to add things to the box! One of the delicious treats was this:

It’s alpaca! She wrote me which kind it was but I seem to have deleted the email and can’t remember. I’m thinking about making some socks. Maybe a sweater made from the yummy stuff.

Jean also sent me some Little Lehigh (from Kraemer Yarns). Which I also like – and it’s machine washable. I’d show you a picture but it seems to have dissappeared. I’m sure I’ll find it when I find my scissors. The cats have gotten the blue handled ones too.

In other news, Lucy has lost her bottom teeth and Angus has asked to go out 97 times today. When we get outside, he just wants to stand around.

The other side of Elspeth’s front is finished.

I’m not really obsessed with the place mats. It just looks that way.

I had made good progress with one sleeve when I consulted the picture in the book. It seems that the Rowan folks made their decreases right on the edge instead of with a one stitch selvage. Theirs looks better. So I pulled out the sleeve and started over. Now I am wondering if I should pull out the body sections to the armholes and work the decreases on the edges. *sigh* I think I will finish a sleeve and seam a tiny bit of the shoulder to see how it looks and then go from there. Of course, all of this could have been prevented if I had just looked at the stupid picture. But no. Emily had to make a copy of the pattern instead of lugging that massive Rowan magazine around. Except for boring y’all, there isn’t any sort of Time Crunch on this project – Mom doesn’t have time to put the crochet edgings on until October. Essentially, I could work on Elspeth forever. If anybody’s wondering, Calmer is a great yarn for anyone who is prone to re-do. It has proven incredibly sturdy and I haven’t noticed any ill effects.

I’ve still got plenty of time before M’s cardigan yarn gets here – mail service was suspended because of the lack of power and substantial amount of water in the sorting facility in Mobile. Jean has been holding on to it for me.

Oh! Oh! I have to say that Knitting on the Edge is a wooooonderful book! I finally got it from the library and I think I think I am going to change up the band and cuffs of Empire Dreams with lacey yummy embellishment somethings. My plain little sweater may not end up all that plain.