Damn Squirrel Buys The Farm

Yes, indeed.




One too many Tug O' War with the bloody thing and the tail is toast:






So while Tank and I made a trip out to Petco, I found there was a sale on the squirrel toys. We came home with a herd of them:




Large, medium, and itty-bitty:




Tank was too busy horking down a rawhide treat to pay much attention at first:




When she finished, she was all over the herd of her damn squirrels, poking them with her nose to make them squeak:






Then it was time to play throw, bite-squeak-bite-squeak-bite-squeak, return, TOW, and repeat. When she was tired of that game (with all three of the damn squirrels), she put them in a pile to keep an eye on them:






Aaaahhhh! Devil dog!




Once they were in a pile, then she'd lie down on them which made them squeak, so she'd get up and adjust herself over them and flop down, only to have the pile o' damn squirrels squeak again. She was getting annoyed and I was laughing so hard, I couldn't take a photo.

She finally gave me and the lump of squirrels a dirty look and went and had a lie down on her heated doggy bed, where she promptly fell to sleep and snoring.

Yeah, still stupid with dog love for her.

18 skeins and counting...

I planned to drop down to Muscatine to visit Serendipity to see what she had in stock for baby cardigans that I'll be knitting in the very near future.

Some pale peach, pink, and white were the colors I was looking for, and lucky for me, found in Berroco Baby Comfort:





And damn if some sock yarn didn't follow me home:









This is Lang Jawoll Magic in Grey/Black.

I will admit, I went also looking for size 1 US circulars for the Zauberball Crazy sock yarns (bought at The Yarn Shoppe in Davenport) that I have in my stash...found them!




If this obsession continues with socks (thanks, C!), I may have to get a second job to pay for my habit. My savings is looking plenty sorry at the moment...and before I knew it, there were also some skeins of Claudia Hand Painted in my hands, then on the counter, then in the bag going home with me:






I blame the baby yarn. They love everyone, and the sock yarn looked pretty cozy and happy with them in the bag.


Hmm, and I may have had a slight accident on the Signature Needle Arts site last evening, where a set of these may show up in the next week:




Those would be size 1 DPNs, 6" length with stiletto points.

The only hesitation I have in using size 1 needles and the Zauberball Crazy yarns, I'm going to have do a refit as I knit it to figure out how much I need to have on the needles to fit my foot. Nothing else should change as my leg opening and heel closure won't have moved, unless someone has snuck in and lopped off my toes or heels a la Brothers Grimm version of "Cinderella." I think what I'll do is open the leg, knit up the pattern I want for that section, then close out the heel - I'm sure the row count will be a bit different with the slightly thinner yarn and smaller needles.

Meanwhile, I have a scarf to finish for myself. And a Tulips baby cardigan to knit by February 20th for a baby Savanah. And then a hat for the Guy to replace the one he gave away. Another Tulips cardigan (in worsted weight) for Miss Norah. Then Tulips (in the Baby Comfort yarn again) for the March baby. And the final Tulips (again in worsted weight) for the June baby.

FO #4 of 2011 aka Fuckin' A Right!

FINALLY.

As of 10:14 am this morning:












Even the Tank is impressed:



* * * *
The down and dirty details:

Yarn(s): Claudia Hand Painted Sock Yarn, Freesia colorway

Purchased: Serendipity Yarn Shop

Needles: size 2

Time: for me - 24 hours (a minor miracle for me!); for most knitters, 6-8 hours

* * * *

Bored. bored. BORED.

This project, the Baroque Scarf, has gone the way of the frog pond:






I may try it next fall with another yarn from my stash.

Cranking Right Along

Guess where I'm at with Sock #2?




Yes, the lifelines for the leg opening.






In other words, about 70% completed...




I'm just as surprised as y'all are, trust me. Meanwhile, I like having the foot template, which I have strewn my notes all over:






Meanwhile, the Tank is beside herself in the excitement of a pair of socks finished within one month instead of 2.1 years:

No Knitting Here

No knitting to post about as we are all tuckered out over here.




Okay, maybe some knitting, but not mine:

Wandering Around Illnois

Funny, I can't stand driving across town for 20 mins or so to a shop for buttons (it seems like driving to Montana) but I can get my ass half-lost to northwest Illinois and hour away to go look at yarn.

And only half-lost due to my GPS system. I'm terrible with directions. Even with really specific instructions with a friend, Google maps, Mapquest, and my TomTom (with the voice of Billy Connolly), I will second-guess myself or over-think what the instructions *really* mean, and boom! I'm lost. It's a gift.

However, with the TomTom on board the Sumo Beast, it can recalculate where I need to go from wherever I managed to get myself.

The only problem is that when I'm heading for the northwest Illinois area, Billy insists on taking me through back roads to get to my destination. It's as though Billy is trying to get me to certain areas of the state to reenact scenes from Deliverance or the cannoli scene in Goodfellas.

This time, I ignored Billy's demands of "turn right!" and stayed on main roads that had been plowed and road signs that gave me the destination I was aiming for in clear language and mileage distances. Billy was not happy and kept belting out "turn left, then turn left again!" or something similar. At a stoplight in a small town, I finally reached over and turned off Billy (but kept the map up), and cranked up some kd lang.

When I reached my friend's (Jill) place, I was given a belated holiday gift that I had been lusting after:






Yes! The Sunbeam donut maker that's now discontinued! I see low-fat cake donuts in my near future.

We hit the road and had some fantastic burgers at a pub by her place. Then it was time to go driving a bit to find the first shop. We're driving along and chatting, and after about 30 mins, I said: "You know, I think I should ask...I keep seeing signs for Indianapolis. Is that where we're heading?" Her reply: "Not quite all the way there." This remark cracked us up (you had to be there).

Finally, we arrived at the destination (not quite Indianapolis):




This shop was wonderfully situated next to a bead shop, a quilt shop, and a cooking/baking school and cafe. I walked away with these items, after much internal dialogue about the difference between "need" and "want":




Yes! More sock yarn! Hey, I've used up two skeins out of the 15 I had, time for a replacement skein:






Then there was impulse purchases. The first being pure fun, pretty, and some use to a knitter:
















And then a wee light, which I used last night and it lit up the knitting I was doing last night during a tricky bit of increasing:






The light bit swivels:






After our haul, we jumped in the car and headed for the next yarn shop:




After some poking around, chatting a bit, and resisting yet another Namaste bag, I found a lovely skein of merino/alpaca to make another hat for a friend:




Since it's Sunday, it's time to curl up with a hot cup of tea and a book. Later, there will be football (Packers/Bears) and then PBS Downton Abbey with knitting.