The brown sweater looks pretty much the same as it did last week so I won’t bore you with another picture. Instead, I will entertain you with the Doll Sweater Saga. I’ve finished the blue one.

Remember how I started with the green? Well, I made that one like the pattern and didn’t like how it came out. The back was perfect, the sleeves were too narrow (she couldn’t wear long sleeved shirts with it) and the fronts were too small to close over her chest. It fits Betty great.

Why he didn’t get his eyes clawed out, I couldn’t tell you.

The pattern was designed for a Magic Attic Doll – they must be skinnier. So I did some math and some reworking. The fronts now close with room to inhale, the sleeves are more full and picked up from the shoulders which are finished with a three-needle bind off (anything to avoid bulky shoulder seams). The only thing that stayed the same is the number of stitches cast on for the back.

So Elizabeth called and said, “How long does it take you to whip up some of those Baby Shoes?” She needs them this weekend. To be fair, she did ask me on Sunday. The fact that is is now Wednesday is my own fault. I gotta go get started. Right after I eat some popcorn. Maybe with some M&Ms in it. Why is that so good?

The 1st was Great Gran’s birthday! We got her some Cary Grant DVDs and are having a film festival. Great Gran’s birthday also marks my 4th Knitaversary. To celebrate, I worked on the brown sweater during His Girl Friday.

I am now on the fifth ball of yarn. But don’t worry: I’ve got plenty.

To break up the pervasive Brown Sweater Monotony, I’ve started on some gift knitting. My Davis friends each have that One Special Doll. So I’m working on a cardigan surprise. Three of them. In three different colors.

I’m using a free pattern that somebody’s sweet mom made up*. The only thing I’ve changed so far is to make the ribbing 2×2. I’ll make one up and try it on Josephina (my mom is bringing her down this weekend for fitting purposes) to see if any “structural changes” need to be made. I think that for all of her hard work, Josephina may need a striped cardigan out of the leftovers. It depends on how sick of tiny sweaters I am.

Speaking of tiny sweaters, and purely for my Mom’s and Elizabeth’s amusement, I present a sample of dollhouse pictures! We have:

• The Studio – I made most of the stuff in there.
• The Pink Chair – my first try at upholstered furniture.
• The Den – I made the afghan.
• The Master Bedroom – like the bedspread and pillow shams?
• I tried very hard to take a picture of everyone in their sweaters, but I couldn’t get one that wasn’t blurry. You’ll just have to see them in person.

*She doesn’t give her gauge, but I am going with 6sts=1″. I should get a sweater roughly 13″ around.

Great Gran has finished her Project Linus blankets!

We tried to drop them off in Fairhope on Monday, but the place that I thought was the drop off wasn’t. Plan B is to email for the address. We also tried to drop off the recycling, but the spot where the recycling place used to be is now an empty lot. They had torn down the entire building to make room for the new library and movesd recycling to the dump but it’s now available to residents only. So now there is no place for us to recycle. On the upside, I did get to go to the yarn shop (which used to be yarn and art prints but is now just yarn – YAY!) and picked up more scarf yarn for Great Gran. I also seamed up her gatsby sweater and picked up the band alllll the way around.

Great Gran has been too busy knitting scarves (Wal-Mart has Fun Fur so she has been working on some for her church’s auction) to finish up. Who would have thought that she would like novelty yarn that much?

Two balls of yarn and that’s ALL?!

I have made a tiny bit of progress on the brown sweater. Between the scarves, the brown sweater and Great Gran’s gatsby, every single one of my Denise cables is in use.

PS Last night I had this entry all typed up. I had finished by saying that I had to run: our vet was coming to supper and I needed to start the sauce. But Mozilla (my browser of choice) has been doing this thing lately where some sites make it stick (last night it was dictionary.com – I wanted to be sure I had spelled cable right!). Once it sticks I have to force quit and start all over. This happened last night and I didn’t have time to start over because I really did have to start the sauce. So you’re stuck with version 2.0, written at 6:30 in the morning. I haven’t checked any spelling Just In Case. I am downloading FireFox this afternoon. Isn’t he cute? I wonder why his box doesn’t catch on fire…

Michael and I have had Terrible Colds this week. Coughing, sneezing, aching and all the rest of it. Michael had the better deal I think: he adores NyQuil. I refuse to drink anything that tastes like Liquid Death.

My boss had her first grand-baby! I spent the past couple days making a little present:

These were made using Great Gran’s pattern. She’s been making baby shoes from it for I don’t even know how long. I suspect that I wore booties just like this. Except the ones Great Gran makes have crochet strings and pom-poms on the ends. I use ribbon because of my tragic Crochet Deficiency. I just don’t get that whole Hook Thing.

And I located the needles I needed to start Michael’s brown sweater. Turns out that the swatch on #8s was too big after all. After three days of searching and accusing various family members of theft, I found the #7s in the bottom of the knitting bag with the orange sweater in it (you remember, the one Mom and I are supposed to be making together?). This proves that when you are looking for something in your knitting bag, it saves time to just dump the whole thing out on the floor to begin with – you will paw through it at least three times before finding what you’re looking for. Can you hear my exasperation? I’ll cast on tomorrow. Finally.

PS It’s cold again – you can tell because my spring fever is over and I am ready to knit wooly things again.

Ever since the Winter Precipitation Event, it’s been 70°. This is not exactly wool sweater knitting weather. The daffodils and crocus are coming up for crying out loud! I haven’t even started Michael’s brown sweater. The weather promises colder for next week so I may feel more motivated.

In the mean time, I got my dollhouse from my mom and dad’s over Christmas and then had some friends (7, 9, and 11) over to play. They really enjoyed my dollhouse and all the little junk I made for it back when I was 7, 9, and 11. I got to thinking: “You know, I’ve got so many more skills than when I was a kid, I wonder what all I could make for my dollhouse now.”

Turns out I can make a lot.

Here’s the spread by itself, the little fringe was less of a pain than I thought it was going to be. That is actually my Snug afghan with only three repetitions in crochet thread on #1s. And then if that wasn’t tedious enough, I thought my dollhouse people looked a little chilly…

Doesn’t Han Solo make a splendid model?

That’s right, my dollhouse is populated with Star Wars Action Figures. The Ewoks are the children. Here is the tiny sweater pattern in case any of your action figures are feeling the winter chill.

Tiny Sweater (3/4″ dollhouse scale)
materials: #0 needles, sock yarn leftovers, yarn needle (for seaming)
body:
Cast On 12 sts
Rib 2 rows in K1,P1
Work in stockinette for 14 rows. You should be ready to work a wrong side row.
P4, Bind Off 4, P4
K4, Cast On (reverse loop) 4, K4
Work in stockinette for 14 rows.
Rib 2 rows in K1, P1
Bind off all stitches.
sleeves (make two):
With right side facing, begin about a quarter of the way from the edge of the body and pick up and knit 9 stitches.
Work in stockinette for 14 rows.
Rib two rows in K1,P1
Bind Off
finishing:
Seam sides and sleeves. Trim ends (or weave them in if you feel like torturing yourself).

Does sleet count as a White Christmas?

It started sleeting about 60 miles from home on our way back from Atlanta on Christmas Day. This got me all excited because I know in my heart that 2005 is the year it will snow in Bay Minette. I got up in the middle of the night to look out the window, but there was only sleet accumulation, no snow. Not like New Orleans. Still, any kind of Winter Precipitation Event is thrilling. This was our biggest sleet drift. It melted by noon.

I’ve swatched for my next big project. It’s going to be a pullover for Michael made in 1824 Wool (Mission Falls). The pattern is called “Multiple Choice” and has several variations of drop shouldered pullovers in lots of different gauges. Since my swatch is kind of boring (18 sts to 4″ in brown), I’ve created an Artist’s Rendering of what M’s sweater will look like when it’s finished.

In real life, both sleeves will be the same size.

Everybody’s gone skiing* for the week (mom, cousins, aunts, uncles and Great Gran). We are taking care of all the animals. Dinah, Great Gran’s house cat, is visiting. Betty thinks this is wonderful and wants desperately to sit near Dinah and be her friend. Dinah wants none of this and thinks that we’ve kidnapped her. She only started letting me pet her again yesterday. But she’s been downstairs on the desk and the kitchen counter so I think she is adjusting. It’s not like she and Angus and Betty don’t know each other – they spent all summer and a hurricane together. Dinah and Angus go way back, she used to jump on his fluffy bottom when she was a baby. Dinah has a lot of style.

Betty likes to sit as close as she can without Dinah hissing and growling. She is certain that Dinah will come around any minute and play with her.

*They were flying out of New Orleans on Christmas Day and their plane was delayed because of snow. Why would New Orleans have snow plows? Or even de-icing equiptment? Hee Hee. They ended up leaving on Sunday instead.

In between baking mounds of cookies, I’ve been working on some little projects for gifts. Since they are for someone who reads my blog who looks like me except she is taller, I will only show you part of what I’m making.

Whatever could they be?

I never was very good at surprises. No secrets here, people: this is a Tell-All blog.

In the interest of Full Disclosure, M and I picked up a kitty in the Wal-Mart parking lot last Thursday. Turns out, it wasn’t the kitty from the Winn-Dixie parking lot after all – but that’s a different story. Anyway, we ran him over to Dr. Hoover’s (the vet in town that doubles as Bay Minette’s animal shelter) and told her (like we always do), “Don’t do anything! If he doesn’t belong to someone or doesn’t find a home, call us! He can live in our yard.” Dr. Hoover got excited and said that they have lots of other kitties that need homes. All of a sudden she and Jeanie (the animal control lady who showed up right when we did) are bringing out all these cats to show us and calling us suckers. Since December is Free Adoption Month and Jeanie gave us coupons for $30 spay/neuter, we ended up with these:

Meet Lady Bird and Abigail (named after First Ladies).

What could I do? They were on sale! And really really cute. And tiny. And sisters. They are in the garage right now and are destined to be outdoor/garage kitties (M has some dumb rule about only one of each kind of animal as house pets at a time). I got them a house with a flap and fixed it up with a bed and a fleece blanket with tigers on it. Of course, they prefer to sleep in a box of dirty clothes. The girls will be in the garage for a couple months until they are big enough to be outside by themselves and to jump through the elaborate cat door I have planned for them. I love them.

Merry Christmas (or Happy Saturday as the case may be)!