Hugs & Shrugs

A couple of my spectacular friends made this shrug for me to wear during my dad's memorial service. Not only was it cozy during the graveside service, it was just like wearing hugs from friends.

They made it with free-form crochet and knitting techniques, using handspun & commercial yarns, hand-dyed yarns, some from my stash and some from theirs. Una even made a little flower lapel pin out of the two yarns I used for my dad's sweater vest and socks. And all within two weeks!

Thank ewe so much, JoShell and Una.

Goodbye, Papa

My father died on Jan. 24th. after a three year battle with cancer. We squeezed a lot of 'quality' time into those three years. He died at home surrounded by family. While he died, he was wearing a pair of socks that I made for him. He and Ma said they were the most comfy socks he had.

Here he is at his 75th birthday in October,

in his hand knit
sweater vest in November,

and at our last Christmas together.

Papa was very involved in state-wide education and our roles as citizens. He even volunteered, with my mom, as volunteers to work in the voting booths.

He viewed the right to vote as a privilege, no matter how small one vote seems to be. Our votes do add up, like knit stitches which turn into a sweater vest. Many other people in the world don't have this privilege.

You've taught us well, Papa. Goodbye.

Lovely Landscaping

Well, here's an eyeful for you, in the shape of our new front and back yards. I've tried to put the 'before' pictures on the left and the 'after' pictures on the right.























































On these two pictures of the front entry, you can test your eyesight by looking for the little speck just inside the door. That's Chloe, the cat.


























I know, this next one is actually a 'during' picture. I've always wanted the groceries delivered right to our door. Besides, Esther (the car) got to go off road a little bit, in a conservative sort of way.



Front yard:
































Backyard, facing west.












Backyard, facing east.





















We have a fabulous view of the mountains from our backyard.








So we took advantage of it by putting in a cute little seating area. Dizzy Hubby and I have already spent a morning or two kicking back. And of course I immediately christened it by knitting there (socks, which will show up here at a later date).

Blessings to ewe.

Ta Da!

Yes!
The Vest really is finished.

No close-up pictures because Pa is more important than knitting. But trust me: the ribbing matches and that nasty hole at the base of the V looks much better.




Pa (his name is John, by the way) wore it all evening, even though it didn't really go with his very brown ensemble. Pretty happy guy considering he's fighting cancer, eh?










Here he is with Ma (a.k.a. Betty). Obviously, they (and the whole family, really) are in good humor and continuing to enjoy life together.





Pa starts radiation today and will be going into USC/Norris (a wonderful hospital if you have to be in one) every week day or so, for the next three weeks. The goal is to reduce the cancer mass. Your positive thoughts and prayers are greatly appreciated.

While I wasn't truly monogamous with this project, the vest did get knit to completion much faster than it would have otherwise. Dizzy Hubby has a vested interest (sorry) in my next project. I think I'll try the monogamous thing again with his sweater vest. Being the ever-patient man that he is, Dizzy Hubby isn't holding his breathe that his vest will be next. This is good because it has been 7ish years in the making so far.

Personally, I don't think I'll use this pattern again because the neck opening is just too big. Even for a V-neck. I'll go back to the ol' Patton's Back to Basics II. It's conservative in style, but so are the men in my life.

Finished! Not.

Sigh.

I knit the armholes' ribbing as K2,P2. Then I knit the ribbing for the neck as K1, P1. I can't even claim that the armholes and the neck were done on different days. Sigh.








In addition, the bottom of the V is pretty wonky. It turns out that I unknit a bit when I was trying to do something clever. I can't even remember what that clever thing was. Sigh.


I don't know what I'm going to do here. Is it possible to bind off in the middle of the section without continuing the wonkiness? I guess I'll find out.

It really isn't hard to figure out why Adam was willing to part with a rib for Eve. He probably thought he could keep her from complaining once she learned how to knit.



Here we go again.

Rib It, Rip It, Rib It

Pattern says... pick up 136 stitches around the armhole for ribbing.

Attempts 1-3 just aren't worth mentioning, but pulling hair was involved. Dizzy Hubby stayed way over on the other side of the sofa.

Attempt 4: picked up 151 stitches. I reached for Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book, which said to mark 2" sections with waste yarn, then do some math, then pick up the appropriate number of stitches according to the mathematical calculations, laws of physics and who knows what else.

Attempt 5: picked up 104 stitches. I knew it! Math just isn't as trustworthy as everyone seems to think. This is not a new observation for me, but I'm still trying to convince my brother, the engineer, of this, as I carve another notch-of-error on my calculator. So I call Sharon at The Yarn Deli for help. After a bit more mathematical discussion, I finally ask for a general rule of thumb. Here it is:

On straight edges, pick up every stitch.
On angled edges, pick up 3 out of every 4 stitches (skip every fourth stitch).



Attempt 6:
Beautiful! Knitting and ribbing lay side by side smoothly! Number of stitches picked up? I don't know and I don't care.

Other armhole, attempt 1:
Beautiful! Knitting and ribbing lay side by side smoothly! Number of stitches picked up? I don't know and I don't care.

Thank ewe, Sharon.

Moving Right Along

Pa's 75th birthday is coming up in about a week, so of necessity his sweater vest has moved up in the list of daily priorities (yes, even higher than being the Monogamous Project). It is one of those important events-in-the-life-of-a-loved-one (= deadline, remember?)

Here is a progress picture from about a week ago. Not only does the sweater feel like it has a life of its own, but here is real, living proof that it does (at least the yarn ball) . Kinda looks like the proverbial granny, eh?

I haven't knit two separate sides of a piece on one pair of needles before - obviously time to get with the times, so to speak. The trick is to use two separate balls of yarn, one for each side. Makes sense since knitters are so clever. It always seems like it is some other knitter who is clever enough to think of these tricks. No 15 minutes of fame for me here.

The only problem with knitting both sides of the V became apparent when I was deciding how to work the second row. Did I want to turn the piece around every other row to purl? Did I want to practice knitting backwards on a real project. (Usually I try new techniques on those cute, little 'I wonder how this would look' things that never grow up into anything recognizable. Some people call them swatches.) Thinking that practice makes perfect (or close....), I decided to knit backwards instead of turning and purling every other row.

Oops. Evidently I knit backwards much more loosely than forward. Considering how tightly I usually knit, this would seem to be a boon. But no. The difference in tension does show, daggum it!










Right about here ---







Pretty quickly I decided the tension difference wasn't worth ripping out. It did take me a few rows to decide what to do (duh). Because this lovely yarn shows everything, I finally decided that purling was the way to go - Pa doesn't really need a bumpy chest. We'll leave that to Ma.

I usually take the bloggy pictures on the nice, neutral concrete walkway that approaches the front door. When we started the front yard landscaping project, it didn't occur to me at all that the photo site was in danger of extinction. But...



...no walkway.

I'll keep you in suspense as to the new walkway. Chloe the Cat (little tiny speck inside the door) thinks the lack of a walkway is quite interesting. Big, giant litterbox.


No concrete walkway, so the camera moved indoors to the kitchen table.

I finished the body of the vest this evening and knit the shoulder seams together (right sides together, pretty cool). Next comes the ribbing around the neck and arm holes. Oh, goody. Picking up stitches at an angle is my favorite thing to do (not!).



Eve and I: onto the ribbing...