Wendy Knits

My first Booga Bag was given to its intended recipient yesterday. This was the one knitted in color 88 for my friend Odie. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone more delighted with a gift than she was with her bag. She immediately transferred her purse stuff to it and carried it when we went for coffee (we work in the same building but for different agencies). Based on that experience, I’ve no doubt that she pestered people for the remainder of the day by making them admire her bag.

There’s nothing like giving a friend a warm fuzzy bag to give yourself a warm fuzzy feeling!

Speaking of Warm Fuzzies . . .

Be vewy vewy quiet! We’re hunting puddy-tats!

First, we set the bait:

We have a nibble!

Look! We nabbed us a puddy-tat!

No fear that Princess Lucy would turn her dainty little nose up at her new bed — she loves it. She spent the evening alternating between sleeping in my lap and sleeping in her new bed.

I think she needs one for every room of the house.

L-B asked how the techno-hair handled its third trip through the washer. It didn’t seem to have any ill effects. I think it would work as stripes in a felted bag if you knitted it together with the feltable yarn. I knitted the last five rounds of the bed with the techno-hair held together with the Big Kureyon. It seems to have survived three trips through the washer without any problems, and while I am sure it didn’t felt, being 100% nylon, it smooshed up nicely when the Kureyon felted.

Here it is:

Oh, did I mention that I got the macro lens that I ordered for my new camera? Is that an extreme close-up or what??!!

The lens (for those of you who care) is a CANON EF 50mm F/2.5 Macro Lens 10D F2.5 — and it’s totally fun to play with!

Bucket-o-Chic!

The observant among you will note the addition of a new WIP in my sidebar — a bucket hat, being knitted from the oh-so-fabulous Bonne Marie’s equally fab pattern. I am making a felted version, and knitting it from Colinette Skye wool, which I scored on an eBay auction when I fell off my yarn diet (cough, cough).

The color is “ice.” An extremely light green.

Hmmmm . . .

What else did I do last night?

Oh, right. I finished Fern.

What Now?

Small projects between now and Christmas. I haven’t wrapped any gifts or done any number of things I ought to be doing, so I’ll work on little things for the next week or so.

This was a tough contest, eh? And we had a tie for winner — Lindsey-Brooke and Katey in Georgia. I was going to flip a coin, but L-B exempted herself, telling me she was just doing it to prove that she could (over-achiever that she is), so the prize goes to Katey!

Congratulations Katey!

A number of you got a near-perfect score — but on the question on what I brought to my office Christmas Party last year, almost everyone said just “chocolate chip scones.” In addition to getting all the rest of the answers correct, L-B and Katey both correctly reported that I brought the scones and a coffeecake to the office party, so that’s why they tied for first.

Here are the answers:

1. Where was Wendy born?
Worcester, Massachusetts (source: 100 Things page)

2. What is the name of the town where Wendy lived as a child in the UK?
Pinner, Middlesex England (source: December 19, 2002 entry)

3. Where did Wendy buy the yarn from which she knit a sweater for her brother when she was a teenager? (source: December 24, 2002 entry)
Kmart

4. What is Wendy’s favorite Christmas cookie?
pepparkakor (source: December 20, 2002 entry)

5. What is the name of the shawl that Wendy’s sister-in-law ruined and gave back to her to repair?
Stonington Shetland Shawl (source: March 21, 2003 entry)

6. What did Wendy bring to her office Christmas party last year?
Chocolate chip scones and coffeecake (source: December 17, 2002 entry)

7. What date did Wendy get Izzy (month, day, year)?
December 31, 1986 (source: December 31, 2002 entry)

8. What was Izzy’s full name and title?
Isolde, Bitch Cat From Hell (source: October 4, 2002 entry)

9. What date did Wendy get Lucy (month, day, year)?
May 11, 2003 (source: May 12, 2003 entry)

10. Where did Wendy go on vacation in February, 2002?
Caribbean cruise (source: cruise page on wendyjohnson.net)

11. What was the purpose of the February 2002 vacation?
Parents’ 50th wedding anniversary (source: cruise page on wendyjohnson.net)

12. What date did Wendy start her blog?
April 1, 2002 (source: April 1, 2002 entry)

13. What is Wendy’s neighbor-across-the-hall’s first name?
Yvonne (source: comments on September 18, 2003 entry)

14. On what day of the week was Wendy born?
Wednesday
Aha! Got most of you with this one. Because on my personal website the earliest photos of me were from around 1958? (I’m not sure of the actual date), you assumed I was born on January 2, 1958, which would make it a Thursday. Only a very few of you figured out that I was born in 1957, which would make it a Wednesday. The way you can fiigure this out is from my Yahoo ID, which is “wendy1257″ — get it? If any of you knew me from any Yahoo Groups, you might get that.

Yeah, I know it was tough, but if you go back and read my entry describing the contest, I did say that the answers are available in one form or another in my online world. I didn’t say they were all on my blog.

15. Who is Wendy’s favorite knitting designer?
Alice Starmore (source: well, all of you got this right, just from reading my blog!)

16. What is the name of the sweater that Wendy knit on her trip to Canada in the Summer of 2003?
Parched (source: July 2003 entries)

17. What sweater was Wendy knitting during Hurricane Isabel?
Marina (source: September 18, 2003 entry)

18. On what date did Wendy do a salute to nurses in her blog?
July 12, 2002 (source: July 12, 2002 entry)

19. What day did Wendy start knitting Henry VIII?
March 12, 2003 (source: March 13, 2003 entry)

20. Does Wendy float or weave?
Float, baby! (from multiple blog entries)

Thanks for playing, everyone! This was great fun!

Fern

Did some work on Fern over the weekend. I finished the first sleeve and knitted the shoulder strap to the front and back of the sweater.

And I got a decent start on the second sleeve.

Kitty Bed

I finished Lucy’s kitty bed!

Here it is after knitting — it’s about 28″ in diameter, not including the sides.

And the side view:

I ran it through 2 complete cycles in my washing machine. Then I stretched it over a Tupperware pie carrier with a bath towel folded up and taped around it.

And put it on top of a box and left it to dry.

The finished size is approximately 17″ in diameter. Want the pattern? Instructions for knitting exactly the way I did are here.

Lucy is patiently waiting for it to dry.

I’m losing track of the days here!

Fern Update

Working on a sleeve. Yes, indeedy, I am. Not a lot of progress because I’m back to killer days at work and insomnia at night which adds up to not a lot of energy for knitting.

Lucy Bed

It’s coming along! I’ve got about 21 inches in diameter right now (though you can’t tell with it all smooshed up on the needle). I want to knit to about 24″ diameter before the sides. I’m hoping to felt it down about 30 — 40%.

Well, we’ll see.

Camera Question!

Judy asked:

I saw the paws and had to ask..
I had decided last weekend to buy the same camera. I’m switching out from a larger format ( and a lifetime of german cameras) so I want to pick a great normal lens that will also do close-ups. As you know, the optics make the difference. So, what did you use for the paws, and do you have a favorite lens?

For the paws photo, I used the EF-S 18-55mm Lens — here are the specs:

Focal Length & Maximum Aperture: 18-55mm 1:3.5-5.6
Lens Construction: 11 elements in 9 groups
Diagonal Angle of View: 75-degrees 20′ – 27degrees 50′
Focus Adjustment: Inner focusing system with MM
Closest Focusing Distance: 0.28m / 0.92 ft. to infinity
Zoom System: Rotating Type
Filter Size: 58mm
Max. Diameter x Length: 2.7 x 2.6 in. / 69mm x 66.2mm
Weight: 6.7oz./ 190g

This is a great all purpose lens and it came with the camera. I understand this camera can be purchased with or without a lens.

I don’t really have a favorite lens. I’m a camera moron, really. That’s why digitals are so great for me. I can snap and snap and snap away and some of my shots come out great!

I adored my film SLR camera, but there ain’t nothing like the immediacy of digital. so when I got my first digital camera a few years ago, I never touched the SLR.

So I’m happy as a pig in slop to have a digital SLR!

Lucy Pic du Jour

Speaking of Lucy, Andrea said in my comments yesterday:

What a cat! She really is gorgeous. Have you considered a modeling contract? She could endorse Fancy Feast!

One of my coworkers pointed out that I ought to enter her photo in as many amateur pet photo contests as I can. Hey, maybe we’ll do a Lucy calendar for 2005.

And I think she is way prettier than the cat who is the spokesmodel for Fancy Feast!

But I could be prejudiced.