Wendy Knits

Yes I do!

You may ask, what the hell is that a photo of?

It’s Lucy’s little hind paws. I love the tassles of fur between her widdle toes.

Does Lucy seem amused?

Maybe not.

By the way, I have not retouched any of the photos I’ve taken with this camera so far. I’ve cropped them, reduced them in size, and saved them as compressed jpegs, but no fiddling with color balance, brightness/contrast, sharpness, etc. that I usually did with the old camera.

That said, it’s really hard to take a good photo of Fern in artificial light.

Fern

Speaking of Fern, its coming along nicely. I’ve finished the back.

And started a sleeve. When I do the sleeves, I’m going to knit the shoulder straps onto the front and back of the sweater, as I have done in my last few arans. And I’m not going to do the cabled sewn-on neckband. It’s very pretty and if I had a long swanlike neck I would.

I have a short fat neck, and a regular crew neck will work much better for me. I’ll do the neckband in the same ribbing as the rest of the sweater, by picking up stitches around the neck and working the band for maybe two inches.

Lucy’s Kitty Bed

Chugging away on it.

I’ll post the full pattern upon completion — at some point next week, most likely. That way you’ll have a pattern that hopefully has any bugs worked out, and some idea of how much yarn it’ll take.

Ooh! Ooh! Wendy profile!

Sorry. Got carried away.

Knitbloggers Knitting Basket

News flash! Teresa has purchased the first seven baskets.

Pat yourselves on the back, please.

(I’ve blatantly stolen the idea for the December contest from QueerJoe, who had a similar contest . . . last spring, I think.)

WendyKnits presents . . .

The WKAT (Wendyknits Aptitude Test).

Here’s what you gotta do. Answer 20 questions. All answers to the questions are available in one form or another in my online world. Some are easy, some are tough.

WKAT Questions are located here.

Email me (use the “Contact Me” link in my sidebar) your answers (numbered in
order, please) by 5:00pm EST this Friday, December 12.

Whaddya get for your trouble?

Ten skeins of 100% worsted weight wool — Handsome Harry’s Hanks. The color is a sort of grey tan.

The individual with the highest score wins this:

In the even of a tie, we’ll draw a name.

Wendy has a new toy!

Yesterday I bought a new camera! This.

I did mention that I got a whopping big performance bonus at work recently.

I am beside myself with joy. I own a traditional film Canon EOS Rebel SLR camera, and this digital version of it is very similar in operation. Also, the lenses from the traditional SLR camera fit the digital! So I can use my incredibly expensive zoom lens with my new toy! Woo-hoo.

I did a side-by-side comparision of my new camera with the old one.

This is the back of Fern taken with the new camera:

And this is the back of Fern taken with the old camera:

These two photos were taken in the same location, same time, same light. In my photo editing software I cropped and reduced them in size, and compressed them exactly the same amount.

The color on the top photo, taken with the new camera, is near perfect — unretouched.

The bottom photo taken with the old camera is lightened up considerably because it was so dark. The color is way off.

The photos were taken in far-from-perfect conditions, so I’ll get better results with better light.

That’s the back of Fern, by the way — I’m more than three-quarters done with it.

Lucy!

And of course, I took several shots of Miss Lucy.

And this:

And this.

These were taken with the flash and Lucy was moving in all three photos, grooming herself. Look Ma, no blur!

Yes, I bought yarn yesterday.

But . . . it’s to make Lucy’s cat bed. Which is a gift. Which according to Section 11(c) of the Yarn Diet Act of 2003 is allowable.

I quote:

Sec. 11(c). Exceptions
The Yarn Dieter is allowed the following exceptions–
1. Yarn purchase in support of national security is permissible.
2. Yarn purchase to make a gift for another is permissible.
3. Yarn purchase necessary to maintain physical health of purchaser (with doctor’s certificate) is permissible.

So there you have it. It’s the Law.

I ordered Big Kureyon, in color #7, which is a mix of neutrals — similar to Kureyon #55, which is what my big Booga Bag is made from, so Lucy ought to like it.

I think the majority of commenters yesterday voiced the opinion that Lucy deserves a bed knitted from Big Kureyon. I have to agree. Nothing but the best for my little princess.

I bought some dpns and a circular needle in US size 15 (permissible! It’s a yarn diet, not a needle diet) so when they and the Big Kureyon arrive, I’ll be good to go.

As far as design goes, I think I’m going to knit from the inside out, in a circle, and when I think it’s big enough in diameter, knit straight without increasing to make shallow sides. Sort of like a giant saucer. I like the idea of knitting from the center out, so I can stop when I run out of yarn, if need be. I ordered 4 skeins of Big Kureyon (at 176 yards/skein) and I figure that ought to be enough to make a good size bed. Lucy is a big kitty so I want something large enough for her to lie on comfortably without too much of her hanging off the edges.

If I have a lot of yarn leftover, I’ll knit a blankie to go in the bed for extra padding.

I’m not too concerned with her being too picky to use her bed. When she first decided the Big Booga Bag was hers, it was lying on the chair with two other purses — a Coach shoulder bag and a large Louis Vuitton Speedy bag. Yeah, I’m a slob. I leave stuff out and lying around like that. Lucy dragged the Booga Bag over the other two purses and curled up on it. It was lumpy and bumpy with bits of Coach and Vuitton sticking out here and there and she was happy as a clam. The first time she got off the bag, I pulled out the other purses and replaced them with the folded towel. She hopped back up there and didn’t seem to mind the change, still happy as the proverbial bivalve.

So I think she’ll be happy with her new bed, once it is completed. If she seems to like it alot, I’ll make her another one for the bedroom, so perhaps she won’t curl up on the clean laundry. Yeah, I’m a slob. See above. It takes me forever to put laundry away.

When I start wielding those size 15 babies on the train, my fellow commuters will wonder what the heck I’m making now.

More likely they’ll just ignore me.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Baby, it’s cold outside. And it’s been a while since I’ve had short hair in the winter — not used to having my ears and neck exposed to the elements! I may need to set aside Fern for a little bit to make an emergency Bucket o’ Chic!

Lucy is willing to step up and work on Fern should I set it aside temporarily.

I’ve got a bit more progress to show on the scarf — see?