Yes, it’s that time again! Something different this time — a poetry contest. To be more specific, a limerick contest. (In honor of St. Patricks Day — limerick. Get it?)

Here’s what you gotta do.

Write a knitting limerick. What’s a limerick? Here is a good definition.

Your limerick will be in the proper aabba rhyme scheme and will incorporate your name or nickname in the first line and will be about knitting. Here’s an example:

There once was a knitter named Wendy,
Who would never use yarn that is trendy,
But she goes into fits,
As she maniacally knits,
So her needles become somewhat bendy.

Okay, so T.S. Eliot I ain’t. Gimmee a break — you try finding good rhymes for “Wendy.”

“Why should I do this?” you are asking yourself. To humor me. And for the following prize:

Nine count ‘em nine 100 gram skeins of Plymouth Galway in a glorious Irish green that would make St. Patrick proud. It’s 100% wool worsted weight and according to recent intelligence, has approximately 230 yards per skein.

The small print

Entries are due to me via email by 5:00pm EST this Thursday (March 13). I will display the winning limerick (and any or all others according to my whim) in Monday’s blog (St. Patricks’s Day), but you retain the rights to your original poetry. The winner will be selected by an impartial judge (i.e., not me).

Please note that I had to disqualify the first contest entry I received because of its pornographic nature. Ian assures me that he didn’t do it on purpose, he was just trying to find a word that rhymes with “sock.”

Find this contest just too irritating for words? Go check out the contest over at QueerJoe’s blog.

Oregon

The Official Oregon Cardigan Page is complete. Check it out for new photos! And bear in mind that the sun was in my eyes when we took the photos, hence the bizarre little squint.

Bucket-O-Chic

Blocked and ready to go!

This is Bonne Marie’s Bucket-O-Chic pattern. I highly recommend it — it’s great fun and easy and makes a great looking hat. Bonne Marie, my hat’s off to you!

What Izzy and I Did This Weekend

Izzy had a tough weekend of lying around.

I spent the weekend working on secret projects. And will for the next couple of days. I will probably start knitting Hank 8 on Wednesday.

Happy Monday all!

Thanks for all the nice Oregon comments on yesterday’s blog. I was quite basking in the glow, doncha know.

So what am I working on now? This!

I’m making a bucket hat from the lovely and talented Bonne Marie Burns’ Bucket O’ Chic pattern. And it’s too much fun! Actually, I finished said hat last night (but haven’t blocked it). I used Gedifra Shetland, a worsted weight that’s 80% wool and 20% alpaca. Purchased from Elann on a closeout (though I don’t think they have it anymore). It’s tan with some tiny rust flecks in it. My photo does not do it justice.

And speaking of photos not doing justice, here’s a Hank 8 yarn close-up:

And we close this blog entry with a little cutie . . . Izzy, waiting for her dinner!

Happy weekend to all!

You may have noticed my absence from my tag-board. To say I’m busy at work is a gross understatement. We are in crisis mode for an impossible project that we have to complete by the insane deadline. Oh, and with no resources. So please pardon my silence . . .

The Jogless Jog

A question from my comments yesterday — do I do the jogless jog when I knit fair isle? Nope. Call me lazy, call me slovenly, but I don’t really care if I have a jog on one side. No one has ever noticed it and pointed it out to me, and I don’t have a problem with it. And of course if you’re knitting a cardi, it’s not an issue. The jog is in the front steek.

For a very useful discussion of the jogless jog, check out Judy Gibson’s page on the subject.

So how about you all? To jog or not to jog, that is the question . . .

Thanks!

To everyone who told me yesterday that my blog has not gotten boring! The combination of overwork plus lousy weather has combined to make me a very dull girl indeed, at least in my own mind. And you all are very polite not to agree with me.

Without further ado . . .

Oregon! Ta-da!

It’s done! We’ll have a photo shoot over the weekend so on Monday there’ll be some more photos on the Official Oregon Cardigan Page.

And guess what came in the mail today??

This would be the Jamieson’s Shetland Spindrift to knit Henry VIII (by Alice Starmore from her book Tudor Roses). Sent to me in a trade by the wonderful Stéphanie in France. Does she have great timing or what?

I’ll start this in a few days — I’ve got a couple of small projects I want to do first (more about that in tomorrow’s blog).

A couple of the colors needed for Henry VIII are not available in North America — marjoram and the “autumn substitute” that Jamieson’s is now selling in place of autumn. I think that’s it. Anyhow, that’s why I had my wool specially imported from Europe.

And look what Stéphanie thoughtfully enclosed in the package:

Needless to say, these are very welcome items here at Wendyknits.

So . . .

Merci bien, Stéphanie! Tu es trop aimable!

(And I hope I spelled all that correctly!)

Izzy has a touch of Spring Fever, I think. She was rolling around with her catnip mousie, acting silly.

It occurs to me from the questions I’ve been getting that I can clarify some things about my Knitty design, the Baby Norgi.

The sizing shown is S, M, L to adhere to Knitty conventions. This equates roughly to 6, 12, and 18 months, though of course, it depends on the size of the child. Your best bet is to look at the finished size in inches.

When choosing needles, just go with the size that gives you the gauge state in the pattern, and go down a size or two for the smaller needle called for. It was pointed out to me that generally a 3.0mm needle is a size 2, not a size 1. Go by the mm size I’ve stated, as that’s the constant. I’ve got a huge number of needles from quite a few different manufacturers, so I always just look at the actual size of the needle in millemeters rather than the U.S. needle size.

And lastly, some of you have reported having trouble accessing the pdf file for the charts. I can access them at home but not at work, for some reason. If you’re using Internet Explorer, right click on the link for Chart A and select “Save Target As” and you should be able to save the pdf file to your hard drive. If you’re still having trouble, please email me and I’ll email you a copy of the charts.

Oregon

Working! Working! I’m almost done, possibly tomorrow. I’ve slowed down considerably on this due to back pain that prevents me from sitting still too long — it kinda breaks your knitting concentration to have to keep getting up. But it’ll get done. Soon.

And no, I don’t know what’s causing the back pain, but I’ve a sneaking suspicion that it has something to do with my limping from the bone spur in my heel (yes, it is all connected, isn’t it?) And no, I haven’t gone back to the doctor for it and yes I know that I ought to.

The above was for my mother’s benefit, just in case she’s reading this.

Izzy

Isn’t she sweet?

By the way, I feel as though my blog has become a bit . . . uh . . . boring lately. Uninspired. I apologize. I am insanely busy at work these days and when I get home at night, I have very little left in the way of creative thought. So you guys suffer.

But it’ll get better again. In the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger, “I’ll be back . . . “

Thanks for all your nice comments about my Knitty pattern and article. I appreciate your support!

And just in case you missed it . . . this is my design:

There’s nothing like a little shameless self-promotion, eh?

There’s lots of great stuff in this issue of Knitty — if you haven’t yet, head over and take a look! As usual, Amy and the gang did a wonderful job.

Yesterday was a cold and windy day. Does this qualify as March coming in like a lion? Because I am so ready for it to go out like a lamb.

So is Izzy. She spent most of yesterday huddled under the quilt, but came out for a photo op.

Oregon

As you can see, I’m starting the border pattern. I’ve got that and the cuff ribbing to do, then Oregon is done. I was asked in the comments if there was any color I had way too much of (since I reported I ran short of two colors yesterday). The pattern calls for two skeins of Blue Grass. I’ve still got a bit to go, but I’m pretty sure I won’t be touching the second skein. Go figure.

The yarn for Henry VIII is on its way to me so I’ll be able to start that soon. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple of small projects I could be working on . . .

Windows XP Update

Since installing Windows XP last Friday, my computer has not crashed, not even once.

Well I gotta go to work . . . have a great day!