My Least Attractive FO

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This may be my ugliest FO but I'm hoping it is one of the most used. This is only the second time I've ever knit for a pet but I had a lot of alpaca scraps to use up. Bubbles loves her beds so I thought she could use a handmade version. As far as I can tell Bubbles started out as a breeder in a feed store then she was the victim of an animal attack. She is missing one toe (you can kind of see in the photo below) and has another paw that is a bit wonky looking. She languished for over a year waiting to be adopted included I think at least 3 months in Petco in a large fish tank. No one wanted her because she is white and not as cute as the lops and lionhead bunnies.

She's been with us three years and DH and I fall in love with her more each day. In fact this is the only time we've had just one pet but Bubbles prefers not to share her house with other pets. (My sweet senior citizen cat Jack used to stalk her and hide behind doors and scare her so when he went to cat heaven Bubbles was thrilled.) I used the free Snug Harbor Pet Bed pattern and three strands of some scrap DK alpaca with a size 10 1/2 (US) circ. I think I accidentally omitted a few of the purl rows. I used about 3/4 of a bag of tightly rolled up polyester Fiberfill for the edges. My bed is about 20" in diameter.

Bubbles thinks this new bed works really well as a food dish!

Trying New Things & Photos of Bubbles

One of the best things about knitting is that you could be doing it for a lifetime and still learn new tricks. We were studying these ancient Persian silk colorwork socks on the Stranded forum and I was wondering if back then they had some special tricks for adding additional colors (as seen on the foot) or doing intarsia in the round that knitters of today haven't discovered yet.

Here are a few new things I've tried recently.

1. PICKING UP HEEL STITCHES - Deb from the Sock Knitter's Anonymous Ravelry group posted this video of how to pick up gusset stitches on a sock. I already do the trick to avoid the hole at the gusset (occasionally - sometimes in a stranded sock it can make things look worse) but the way he picked up the heel stitches in the video was completely new to me. He did it from the reverse side of the heel and after trying it, I decided it does look neater than my previous method.

2. SOCK BLOCKING - I mentioned it before but blocking socks inside out on a sock blocker really does get rid of that crease you get when blocking them right side out. I think stranded socks might also dry a little faster because all the floats are front and center.

3. KNIT FRONT AND BACK INCREASE - From Neen on Ravelry I learned that you can do the knit in the front and back of a stitch increase without getting that noticeable and ugly purl bump. Start by knitting the stitch in the front then after you insert the right needle into the back of the stitch, DON'T WRAP the yarn around the needle, instead just pull the left needle out. Essentially you're not really knitting the back of the stitch but you're grabbing the back of the stitch instead. Her version of this increase looks so much better! Grab whatever you are currently knitting to try it and see.

Kollage Size 3.0 mm square dpns

4. SQUARE DPNS - I finally bought a set of Kollage square dpns. After spending half my life retrieving dpns that have rolled off a table, I was eager to buy a pair to test out. The most amazing thing about these needles is that stitches do not fall off the needles. I am using very slippery yarn for my current project and the stitches stay put. These are quite possibly the best needles for glove fingers ever invented! I wonder if they're hollow inside because they are lighter weight than I expected which is also a plus. On the down side, I don't find them as comfortable on my hands as my usual dpns (Inox/Prym dpns), I tend to knit even tighter with them if such a thing is possible, and I paid $12.50 a set at Webs which is pretty pricey. Still I will be buying a few more sizes though for occasional use with slippery yarns such as alpaca and for all future glove projects.

Bubbles and one of her 10 million beds

I just took some new photos of Bubbles. Speaking of really cute bunnies, check out the bunny in this story from the Santa Fe New Mexican. His name is Ruby and he has the most spectacular ears! Like the girl in the article, I'm also committed to adopting only white bunnies from now on due to their ridiculous lack of popularity. (One pet rabbit rescue even offers free veterinary care for life if you adopt a white bunny with the equally unpopular ruby-eyes.)  As it turns out Bubbles has one of the best personalities of any rabbit I've ever had and she's also the softest.



Bubbles couldn't wait until Easter to get started on her Easter basket full of basil. HAPPY EASTER!

A Chullo for Christmas

I decided to do an additional Christmas present for DH at the last-minute - this is the Andean Chullo from the Knit Picks kit that is unfortunately no longer available. I made some changes after reading some of the Ravelry comments about the hat. 1. I added 3 colors of teal to the beige and brown colors that came in the kit. 2. I added 16 sts to the cast on number. 3. I made the hat much shorter. 4. I striped the top decrease section. 5. I made the I-cord ties longer. 6. I did thicker applied I-cord to make sure the ear flaps won't curl. 7. I used this Raveler's method for the I-cord so the cast on edge wouldn't show through the I-cord.

I think it will fit him really well - the hat is wet in the photo but I'll get a shot of him wearing it after Christmas . When I got the kit several weeks ago he was the one who decided on adding teal for some extra colors and he also specifically requested no alpacas. (There actually is a very small alpaca motif near the top - the alpacas are black - but I doubt he'll notice.) Best of all it will be a surprise because he never pays attention to what I'm knitting.

Knitting the chullo was so much fun; I immediately went and downloaded Mary Ann's Polar Bear Chullo and I think I'll get Shirl the Purl's Blossoms Chullo pattern as well. Plus I want to make another one of the Knit Picks chullos with the alpaca patterns.

Another FO is this gingerbread house we made from a kit we received as a gift. It was DH's wacky idea to use cheerios on the roof but my piping skills for the window frames were non-existent. Plus DH kept eating the candy during assembly so we ran out.

Bubbles is modeling one of her Christmas gifts - a new plush bed. She currently has about 12 in all shapes, colors, and sizes and she never actually manages to get her entire self in the bed. She prefers to position only her front half or back half in a bed or sometimes she will stretch out over two beds. It's a pretty tough life for our large white house bunny.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday - I will try to return next week with more about floats.

Christmas Knitting

I am not doing much in the way of holiday knitting this year but I did make a few items for DH. I'm planning a backpacking themed Christmas stocking for him this year. I bought a little firestarter, a tiny battery-operated reading light, and a fleece neck gaiter.  I'm going to make him some homemade trail mix and energy bars. Above you can see the knitted items I'm adding to the stocking. I did some worsted weight socks (Valley Yarns Northampton) with the requested 10 inches of ribbing (snore) and also made some fingerless mitts. They look strange but he has a pretty wide thumb angle so I think they'll fit him well. Actually it turns out I have a bit of yarn left so I might add a quick ribbed headband in the same yarn.

Bubbles would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! As usual she's starving and hopes her Thanksgiving feast starts as soon as possible.

Bubbles is fat!

I haven't been doing a good job of photographing Ms. Bubbles lately and I really need to. For some reason I can see how fat she is in photos but not in person! Perhaps she is like me and far lazier in the warmer months. DH says I spoil her rotten but he's the one always giving her extra treats. She's actually more active than many of my previous rabbits zooming from room to room, ripping up her beloved phone books and tossing hay around so I get to vacuum constantly.

Orange Socks, White Rabbit

I recently joined the Solid Socks group on Ravelry. I have all this really old bright sock yarn that has long since been discontinued. I think of it all as candy colors or circus colors and I am not sure I want to use all the colors together in colorwork. Anyway, the group has challenges each month and June's color is orange.

Here are the Puppy Love Socks designed by Pauline Schultz from the Joy of Sox. I used Froehlich Blauband (color 59) and size 2.75 mm dpns. I did do a few mods - I made the legs longer by adding three pattern repeats, I did a longer toe, and I did a regular cast on for the triangles on top and just picked up the stitches. It is a nice, easy pattern that is perfect for these hot days where I keep the house pretty dark.

Bubbles actually came over and plopped her large bunny self right down next to the socks during the photography session. She usually doesn't like the camera but I guess she felt her photo hadn't been on the blog in a long time. In other important Bubbles news, this summer we learned that she hates watermelon but loves blueberries.

I'll post some pillow photos this week as soon as the pillow forms I ordered show up.

Spring Fever

I'm almost finished with the latest pair of gloves. I was sure all the Red Sox/Yankees games would help me knit faster but I think spring fever is distracting me.

In lieu of knitting content here are two photos of Bubbles. She really is difficult to photograph unlike my last rabbit Peaches who was a camera hog. One thing I noticed is that when I get out the camera Bubbles always puts her ears back as in the photo below. She looks a little concerned, doesn't she?

In this photo I was trying to get an Easter type photo of a bunny and a basket and I added the greens to get her interested. I actually thought she had lost some weight but in this photo she still looks quite pudgy.