Thank you everyone who offered condolences on the death of Izzy. I was amazed at the number of comments on my last post. Even more amazing was the number of emails I got from you all. Hundreds.

And thank you to those of you who posted on your blogs about Izzy. It’s wonderful to know that she had so many cyberpals out there.

Because there’s no way I can personally respond all the comments, emails, and e-cards I’ve received, I hope you’ll accept this expression of my gratitude for your thoughtfulness.

Because I can’t imagine life without a kitty by my side, I’ll soon be taking steps to adopt a new little furry friend, hopefully a young adult from a local rescue organization. Not as a replacement for Izzy, of course, but a new fur person to share my life and my knitting.

As for knitting . . .

I haven’t done alot — a little on St. Moritz. I’ll be posting photos soon and getting back to some knitspeak.

Summer 1986 – April 28, 2003

Izzy was euthanized at the vet’s office this afternoon. She was found to be at the beginning of a painful and ultimately fatal illness. Rather than keep her alive and suffering, I let her die peacefully, holding her as she slipped out of consciousness.

I’m sure you will understand that I don’t feel up for blogging or talking about this or knitting or anything for a while.

To those of you who so very generously donated to the Henry VIII bracelet fund: a heartfelt thank you. I am donating that money to the Humane Society in Izzy’s memory. If any of you prefer that your money not go to that cause, please let me know, and I’ll return it to you. No problem, no questions.

We took some Hank photos over the weekend.

There are more on the official Henry VIII page.

We had a photo shoot on Saturday — an overcast day, but good for photography.

St. Moritz

I did a good bit on St. Moritz — I’m within a couple of inches of started the colorwork on the body. I’ll try to post a photo tomorrow.

Izzy

Izzy is not feeling well, so no photo of her. I’m not going to shove a camera in her face while she’s not at her best. Hopefully, she’s just feeling under the weather, as she doesn’t seem terribly ill, but because she’s as old as she is (close to 17) I’m worried about her. So that’s why this is such a short entry. We’ll hope for the best.

Well, never let it be said that QueerJoe is the only controversial blogger.

Those of you who read my comments yesterday will remember one from Kerry. Wait, I’ll save you the trouble. Here it is:

“Please tell me you are NOT soliciting donations for the Colonial Williamsburg bracelet, how so very tacky.

Sheesh, some people and their lofty expectations.”

And I discovered later that she had posted a similar message to the Knitflame list, saying — well, I think it’s bad form to repeat someone’s email message, even if it was posted to a public forum. But suffice it to say, she has a low opinion of me and my attempts to extort money from you all.

I have no problem, however, posting the response I sent to the Knitflame list here:

Ooh! Ooh! I’m flameworthy!

P.P.P.S. to Kerry: Note the presence of the “;-)” in my P.P.S.

Here’s the punchline. I surfed over to the URL she put in a signature line to her post. It’s a live journal type of thing. And if you’ll pardon me saying so, a particularly lame one. And guess what’s in the sidebar of her journal? Links to a place where you can donate money to pay for her access to her journal. Complete with a paypal button.

Snicker, snicker.

Seriously now

I want to say a sincere thank you to all of you who have sent donations to the Henry VIII bracelet fund. Yes, I really did post the photo and the link to the online ordering as a joke. But now, as I said in my post to Knitflame, I really do have more than 25% of the cost of the bracelet sent to me by you wonderful, generous people. Thank you all.

Three-Color Confessions

An email from Wanda yesterday prompts me to own up to how I really do three-color rows. Wanda said:

“When I knit 2 color rows I keep the dark color on top always (like you do, and I don’t notice a difference in the look either if it’s on top or bottom, I just always put it on top.) When I add a 3rd color I keep the 3rd color in the middle. So my first color is always on top, my second color is always on bottom and my 3rd color is always in the middle.”

Thank you Wanda, you stated that much more clearly than I could. And that’s pretty much how I do it.

Size Counts

Karen asked: “This perhaps is a silly question, but what length needle are you using for St. Moritz? Unless my glasses really don’t work, the pattern gives the needle size, but not the length (24″, 30″ etc.).

I’m also trying to determine which size I want to knit. In my research, I’ve been told to add about 7″ for ease to my chest measurement to determine which size Dale to make. Is that a reasonable assumption in your estimation and experience with Dale’s?”

I’ll answer the second question first. I’m making the size small, which is about 45.5″ around, which is plenty of ease — like 10 inches. I could have gotten away with making the extra-small, I guess, but I do like a good bit of ease in Dale sweaters. Okay, I like a good bit of ease in everything. I remember back in my youth I used to wear jeans that were so tight that I had to lie on my back on the floor and have two friends hold the fly together so I could zip them up. We all did that. Painful, but it got the desired results. (heh heh) But those days are gone forever! Comfort is my first priority these days!

But I digress.

As to needle length. It depends. I’m using a 32″ needle, but considering I’m making one of the smaller sizes, I coulda used a 24″ comfortably. For a larger size you definitely want a 32″ needle. I’m hoping that when I start the sleeves I can start them with my 12″ Addis. And then continue on with 16-inchers as I work my way up the sleeve.

Yup, I’m using my Addis for St. Moritz. Ebonies for fair isles, Addis for Dales. The Addis are faster needles so for all that boring plain knitting they’ll move things along nicely.

In my comments yesterday Chery said: “As for the duplicate stitch area, I plan to use a short length to knit two-color and cut at the end of those stitches, weaving ends when the area is completed. I do not like duplicate stitch and this way the level of the stitches should be the same as the rest of the area.”

Great minds think alike! I’ve done that in the past and will probably do that here too. Assuming I don’t cheat and simply . . . uh . . . knit the back chart for both the front and back of St. Moritz. Yeah, it crossed my mind to do that. But I’ll probably end up “doing the right thing” and doing the front chart, like the good girl that I am. Simply because I love how the center motif dips down in the front.

Stephanie mentioned how small the sleeve chart is for St. Moritz. Yeah, what’s with that? I noticed that all the charts are different sizes, which irks me no end. Because I’m making the crewneck version instead of the zip-neck, there’s a separate chart that you insert in the center of the front chart. And it’s on a different scale from the front chart, so I can’t simply copy it and perform surgery on the chart and tape it together. I brieifly tried resizing the charts on the photocopier to try to get them all the same, but a photocopy wiz I ain’t. Hmmmmmm, one of my coworkers used to work at Kinkos . . .

But I will enlarge the sleeve chart.

Not a whole lotta progress last night, but I did get past the ribbing!

Here he is, in all his splendour!

Yesterday afternoon was sunny, so I got (hopefully) better photos of my buddy Hank.

Here, for Caroline F, is a close up of the cast-off edge of the cuffs. I did cast off knitwise, according to the pattern directions. I agree with you Caroline, I like the look of this much better than casting off in the pattern.

Thanks for all the Hank compliments in yesterday’s comments. I’m quite overcome with all your praise!

Yesterday in my comments, Traci mentioned that there is a Colonial Williamsburg bracelet that would look lovely with Hank. I found it online. Here’s a photo:

The gold one was listed for $630.00, silver for $45.00. Now, I need this bracelet to wear with Hank. Silver would be much cheaper, but it would be all wrong. The gold one would be perfect. If any one of you would like to buy it for me, you can do so here.

St. Moritz

As it happens, I did cast on for St. Moritz on Tuesday night, so do not despair, Stephanie! We can have a St. Moritz cyber-knit-along! What colorway are you making?

And, I do have some Norwegian sport weight wool in a purple colorway that I also bought for St. Moritz. I may make the sweater again later this year, for my mother for Christmas, in the purple because she’s very fond of purple. Then again, I may save it for another year.

Speaking of Dale of Norway, Debbie asked in my comments yesterday: “Now I’m contemplating a Dale and some of the charts show three colors in a row. How do you handle that? What happens to the yarn on the back?”

How do I handle three colors in a row? Um, swear a lot.

No seriously. It is a bitch to do. One way of dealing with those three color rounds is to knit the round with two colors, and slip without knitting those stitches to be knitted in the third color. Then go back around again, and knit just those stitches using the third color and slip the rest.

First Lace Project?

Daphne asked for suggestions for a first lace lace project. My suggestion would be to hie thee over to Blackberry Ridge Woolen Mill’s page of kits and look at their shawl kits. They tell you the experience level needed for each kit, so pick one you like that’s relatively easy.