Waaaaahhhh! I’m in the oh-so-boring to knit part of Frida! It’s taking so long because it’s boring and I don’t wanna knit it. Boring!

Y’all knew this was coming, didn’t you?

I have 17.5 inches done on the body. I need 5 more inches until I can start the front neck shaping. Sigh.

I know I’ll get through this. I always do. But I always need to whine about it.

And Now For Something Completely Different

Stuff I used to do:

Large counted cross-stitch sampler, worked in 1997 or 1998. Back when I could see to do stuff like that. I used to do lots of cross-stitch.

In Other News

Lucy still loves her little catnip pillow!

What am I Reading?

I’m reading this book at lunch while I knit.

Burning Question of the Day

How is it that this site — www.truehorny.com — is in my referrers list as having referred 15 people to my blog in the last 24 hours? It’s an “adult” dating site. Warning: I wouldn’t go to that site if you are at work!

Happy Friday

How fabulous is this?

This is what I’m making from my wonderful Fluffa-Becky yarn. Simple garter stitch scarf — every fourth row you wrap the yarn twice around the needle in between the stitches and then drop the wraps on the next row.

Apparently the pattern that comes with the scarf kits for these yarns is very similar.

Extreme close-up!

Presto chango! Instant glamour!

That baby is on a US size 13 needle, I’ll have you know. Betcha didn’t think Wendy even knew how to use anything bigger than a US 7, huh? Didja? Just goes to show that us old dogs can learn new tricks. Arf!

Flora!

Yesterday’s photo was hurried and not very good. Here’s the yarn, all spread out.

Right now I’m thinking that Flora will be next in the line-up. No, I won’t cheat and abandon poor Frida, just because I’m in the less-than-thrilling-to-knit top part of the pattern.

Because that would be wrong.

In other news . . .

Lucy still loves her little catnip pillow.

And my hair is still curly.

Tis the season to feel blah . . .

We had a paid holiday last Monday. The next holiday is Memorial Day, at the end of May. That’s a lo-o-ong time between holidays!

February is more than half over, but it’ll most likely still be winter here for at least another month.

Dull dull dull.

Frida is bright and pretty, but I am in the far less exciting top portion of the pattern so even that seems a bit blah.

And Lucy was feeling subdued because she went to the vet for her annual visit yesterday afternoon. She got her annual shots and a clean bill of health and she purred the whole time she was there, but being put in the carrier to go over to the vet was very stressful for her, poor little thing.

And then I got the mail.

First, a package from L-B. Among other things, a gift for Lucy.

This would be a little pillow, stuffed with Cosmic Catnip, knitted by L-B. Recognize the pattern? That’s Starmore’s Nove Scotia. And check out the i-cord edging.

Do you think Lucy liked it? You be the judge.

And she slept with it last night.

And if that weren’t enough . . .

A package from France. From the incomparable Becky! This was a prize for having an honorable mention in her “Fun Bucket Hat Pix” challenge.

Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Ohmigosh! Yummy Anny Blatt yarns! An angora/wool blend and a fun shiny ribbon yarn, both in lavender. Becky offered the suggestion that they’d make a fun scarf knitted held together. Would they ever! I adore the color and think it’ll look fabbo with my sooty black cashmere coat. I tucked the yarn and a needle in my purse to go to work with me today. I think this scarf needs to start asap!

And if that weren’t enough . . .

This came.

Anyone recognize this box? Here’s the postmark:

And the contents:

I am verklempt.

A question about ease from the comments the other day:

If a pattern is says “36” bust” is that yours or the sweater’s?? If that is your actual bust measurement, how much ease would be (usually, accounting for personal taste I understand) necessary for a good, comfortable fitting sweater? Let’s assume this is a pullover that is not supposed to be skin tight or extra loose, since those are different animals. And does the amount of ease matter if you are making a cardigan or pullover? I really think this is the major stumbling block that is preventing me from knitting sweaters.

The bust measurement in a sweater pattern is the actual measurement of the sweater.

How much ease do you allow? My best advice is to take a sweater you like the fit of and measure that to get an idea of how much ease you need. I personally like at least 4 inches for a “standard-fitting” sweater, more for a loose-fitting one. More for cardigans because I generally wear a long sleeve shirt under cardis, and I hate the feeling of being stuffed into a sweater.

I am making Frida in size small, and the chest measurement on the size small is approximately 46″! It’s a tunic type sweater, so you want it nice and loose. The most unflattering thing I can think of is a sweater that stops at the hip line that’s tight across the hips.

Speaking of Frida, I did some work on her yesterday.

You can see that Lucy was a big help, as usual.

A Frida question:

When you were ordering your yarn for Frida, did you notice that the requirements for the white background version in the child’s size shows only one ball of gold and two of the red? I saw in your July photo of your shipment from Bea Ellis that you went by the amounts in the adult size, just changing the background color, and the tan to gold. Do you think it’s a misprint in the other list? I don’t see that much more red in the charts than any of the other contrast colors, and it seems that more gold would be needed for the lattice design.

When ordering yarn for Dale sweaters, it’s always an adventure. 🙂 They are notoriously bad for giving good estimates of yarn needed. It’s quite possible that the amounts for the child’s sweater are wrong.

Only time will tell if the amounts for the adult version are correct. So far, it looks okay.

Yes! The judges have reached their conclusions!

They first narrowed the field of 36 semi-finalists down to 16 finalists, at which point the head judge selected the 3 winners.

Third prize, an 8×10 glossy of Lucy (plus a yarn surprise), suitable for framing, goes to Peg, for this adorable entry:

Second prize, Dale book 109, donated by L-B, goes to Betsy, who submitted the following somewhat alarming photo:

The cat and squirrel in the photo actually belong to a friend of hers!

And the Grand Prize of the pink alpaca wool goes to Theresa in South Carolina:

Theresa wrote: “This is Pookie, with my handmade egg basket that no one is supposed to touch, and some of my tiger-striping sock yarn, which is sacred here in Clemson Tiger country. That cats gets away with everything!”

Thank you all for your wonderful photos and stories. I have a page with a sampling of some of the photos received here.

And because this is my blog and I wanna, here’s one of my favorite photos. This is my brother, hanging out with his Maine Coon cat:

Thank you

From Lucy, for all your good wishes for her birthday.

She had a lovely weekend, with lots of love and kisses and playtime.

And we humans had a fun Valentine’s Day — exchanged cute gifts and watched “Finding Nemo” on video.

And I worked on Frida.

Here’s a close-up of the flower border.

What a fun pattern!

Presidents Day

Happy Presidents Day to all of you who celebrate and have the day off. I was going to do my taxes today, but got inspired and completed them last night and e-filed. So I can play all day.

Well, I really ought to clean up my home a bit. We’ll see.