You Dirty Rat . . .
No, I didn’t see that guy again yesterday. Thankfully.
One of my coworkers cheerfully told me (after I regaled him with my rat tail — er — tale) that another agency in our building is having serious rat problems in their offices. Eeeeeeewww!
I am sometimes the first person in the office in the morning, which means also I’m turning on the lights. If I ever see — or even hear, for that matter — scurrying when the lights go on, I’m history. Outta there.
Q & A
Valerie asked:
Is there any particular reason why you don’t knit both sleeves at the same time? Especially since they are knit flat…
I don’t knit both sleeves at the same time because I don’t see any advantage to it. I can knit them faster one at a time — that way I don’t have to keep track of two balls of yarn. I always keep track of how many rows or pattern repeats I knit, so there’s no problem with making the sleeves identical.
Wynn asked:
I am trying to use your method for 2 color knitting–i.e., one strand over the left middle finger and one strand over the left index finger. While it feels clumsy yet, I like the results. How do you thread your yarn on the rest of your hand? Do you thread both strands together or thread them separately? Do you bring the yarn up between the baby and ring fingers and wrap it around the baby finger or do you lace it over the ring finger?
The answer is that I don’t thread my yarn on the rest of my hand. 
I just have one color over the index finger, one over the middle finger. It works for me. Your mileage may vary.
Rodentia — the GOOD Kind
I gotta whole lotta mousies going on!
Received many mice in the mail yesterday — from Beth L., Susan D., Leslie F., Margaret C., and Bonnie T. Look at the total mousies received in the sidebar. Wow! Thank you, all!
And Lucy says thank you for all the catnip scented tissue paper!
I’ll close today with a dark blurry photo of Max’s second sleeve. Have a great weekend, everyone!
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{ 20 comments… read them below or add one }
That guy at the top of today’s blog was enough to scare me away from Wendyknits! Yikes!
My meeses are coming Wendy… although today I realized I’d made a mistake on the dozen I’ve already made. I forgot to include the purl stitches beside the cable down the centre. *sigh* Back to the mousie drawing board.
Ginny, the purl-stitchless-beside-the-cable mice will be great. Just call it a design element.
I’m loving the color you chose for Max, and seeing such classic style of sweater in that color makes it even more interesting.
Now that you’re on the dreaded last sleeve, is the boring pattern stitch making you force yourself to use inspirational techniques to continue knitting, or is it just not even a question of stopping, so you just continue on?
Wendy, them’s alot of meeses! And its not even September yet…..Shall we take bets on the final total?
Joe, I’m just slogging along on autopilot. I ought to be able to finish Max by the middle of next week. Marina is out there in the distance, like the holy grail.
Claudia, place your bets!
Wow, that’s a lot of mice! I was thinking of asking my son if he wants to make one (I’d modify the pattern to garter stitch, since it’s all he knows so far), but I’m not sure he could stitch tightly enough to keep the stuffing in. (Then again, considering how quickly most cats felt a mousie, maybe it wouldn’t matter.) My offer stands to help package them. Have a great long weekend!!
Hey, Wendy, do you have a pattern for the hat the Rat is wearing? I’d really like to make one for my boyfriend…
BTW, if they’re doing any construction in your work area where they’re digging, that stirs up the underground/sewer rat nests and they hang up top on the sidewalks, probably too confused to move for awhile…
The kids next door trapped one in my yard one day after dark. I went outside to see what was going on. They had an animal *trapped* in the beam of a huge flashlight.
Actually, it was a POSSUM, and when I told the kids they wouldn’t believe me because: a. they didn’t know what a possum was (city Kids); b. they knew plenty of rats…
Andrea, I may have to take you up on your offer. I’m falling behind in mouse-packaging!
Bonne Marie, you ought to design a rat-hat yourself. Since your bucket o chic is so popular, the rat-hat would make a nice companion pattern. ;->
Rats in the Federal workspace seem to be a perrenial problem — just ask the folks who work in the “new” DHHS building (back when it was DHEW) about the wise architechtural decision to put the cafeteria on an upper floor — drew all the rats up from ground level and spread them throughout the building! Don’cha just love design by someone other than the users? Have a great holiday!
wendy,
i want to thank you for renewing my knitting passion. i have been a knitter for about 30 years (i was very, very young when i started!!) but hadn’t done much for the past several years. i happened on your blog about 6 weeks ago and have knit my very first pair of sox using your toe-up pattern. i have learned to do circular knitting using 2 circ needles and am excited about knitting again. i love checking into your site every morn before i head out to work at 6:30am. i am encouraged by the thoughts knitters post on your site and others about grammar, world events, family and cats. skittles is lying at my feet as i write this. thank you, thank you, thank you!!
susan
Are you changing the shaping on Max’s sleeve at all?
Nope, doing it according to the pattern.
Well, I’ll say….327 mice by the end, and even that seems a little low to me. We’ll see
I have a feeling you will have more mousies than 350….. maybe 425? People will be sending them in droves as it gets closer to late Sept. Have a great weekend Wendy!
Did I hear Marina? You keep tossing that out just to tease me,don’t you,Wendy?
My yarn is well-marinated.
Wendy, Have to thank you for your instructions on knitting a cable without a cable needle. I’ve been practicing and so far, so good. Love cables but hate having to stop, pick up the cable needle, stop again to knit off the darned thing and then put it down, etc., etc.
Your blog is terrific (just found it this week) and even though Max is boring you to death, I think it’s just gorgeous. Really having a blast here ~ thanks, again!
PS ~ Loved your girlie weekend!
Being a betting gal, Wendy dear, I’m going with 500 MICE! Can your apartment hold 500 mice? A better question is whether 500 catnip scented mice won’t engender a kitty drug raid of some sort…..
That rat is creepy. Of course, checking in again on your blog before bedtime probably wasn’t a good idea tonight. We had rats in the past that would be out by the brook in the backyard. They would jump in the water and swim across, the minute they hit shore I was half way to the house. I always called them water rats and figure they came from the drainage areas by the highways beyond the brook (we used to walk around in the those dark drainage things when we were teens).
I bought my catnip today so I can stuff the 8 mice that are already made this weekend. My plan is to make a total of 10 so I have to get going on the last two.
Have a nice weekend. Love Max, can’t wait to see the finished project. And anticipate what is next.
Wendy, I’m having an awful lot of trouble e-mailing you. Will you e-mail me your address so I can contribute some mice to the cause?
Thank you!