Moving Day!!

Why, yes, we're still alive! And we're moving our blog! Boomie and I have been busy packing up all of our posts and comments, and are now settled into our new digs.

You can now find us here: http://knittyboomboom.wordpress.com/

woof

Lost and Found

During one of his many patrols of the Living Room, Boomie ran across a long forgotten chewie he had hidden in his bed. After dusting it off, he closely inspected it to make sure it still met his particular needs.

After determining that it still fit nicely between his paws for maximum leverage, he gave it a closer inspection, smelling it from every angle...

Seems it passed the test - let the chewing commence!

Time Flies....

...when nothing too noteworthy is going on!

There actually has been some knitting going on, as well as lots and lots of Boomer-ific antics! For now, however, we have just a small sampling of what we've been up to the last week or so.

I cast on for a new project - my first adult sized sweater, thank you very much. So far, so good. And just to make sure all my duckies were in a row, I even swatched for the correct gauge in both stockinette and in the cable pattern - yay me!

Not only did I knit my swatches - I washed and blocked them to make sure the yarn didn't do anything to weird once I was done.....duck, duck, duck --all in a row!

After the swatches had dried, Boomie was a little concerned that they were not quite the right size (he has a pathological mistrust of tape measures and rulers), so he insisted on inspecting them himself. He's such a good little helper!

They seemed to taste all right, and smell okay.

Yup - they got the Official Boomer Seal of Approval. Knitting the sweater could now officially commence!!

I have completed a couple of other projects (both Boomer & knitting related) in the last, ahem, 4 months, but will save them for another time.

For now I leave you with this:

...because he's so dang cute!!! Woof!

Weather is Like a Box of Chocolates....

....you never know what you're going to get!

Case in point - here's what we got in Denver yesterday:

It pretty much snowed all day long, and we ended up getting about 15 inches! Just your average March Blizzard. Anyhoo, the great thing about living in Colorado is, that even though we have loads of snow on the ground, today the sun was out and already melting it away.

In general, Boomie loves the snow (as long as it's not blowing right into his little face), but he does get a little frustrated when he can't find a grassy spot on which to do his "business". So, we went on a search.

None here...

Or here...

Finally, a small patch of grass was located, much to his relief!

"Man, that snow is up past my head! Woof!"

Happy Spring!!!

The Penguin Has Landed

So, I realized that I have left my 3 loyal readers in somewhat of a lurch. A short while ago (okay 4 months, but who's counting), I introduced a project I was working on that I dubbed "Project Penguin 2.0" (aka PP2.0). Since this top secret mission was for a gift, I couldn't reveal too much. Well, the mission was completed - 4 months ago. It was given and received, and I just never got around to divulging the completed project.

So, here it is - taa daa!!!!

Two, yes two, warm and snuggly sweaters!!! But, they are not ordinary sweaters - they are Beer Sweaters!!! "What the heck are Beer Sweaters?", you ask? Well, they are what the name implies - Sweaters for your beer - duh!

"Why sweaters for beers?", you say? Because, let's be honest, knitting a full size sweater would take this slow poke much longer than a week to complete, and because they were too darn cute!

Here are the stats:

Pattern: Beer Sweater by Melissa Martensen

Yarn: Knit Picks Telemark, sport weight, 100% Peruvian Wool in various colors

Needles: US#3 double point needles

Mods: None - why mess with perfection! Super duper easy pattern!

Yay Beer!

Hooray for Spring

Random flowers sprouting up from patches of dirt...

Trees overflowing with bright green buds...

And, of course, bunnies everywhere you look...

I guess I better get busy finishing up knitting all my winter scarves & hats!!

Prognosis: Negative

It all started out so simple. A plain black scarf with pirate skulls. How hard could that be? And considering it was a gift that was promised so many months ago, I vowed to dedicate all my knitting time to nothing but the Pirate Scarf. And, as a cherry on the sundae, I'd be learning a new skill since, as we all know, the only way to get skulls on a plain black scarf is with Intarsia.

I had never knit Intarsia before, but it didn't seem to be too difficult. All I needed was a skull and crossbones chart to knit from, and I could knit it into a basic scarf. Easy Peasy - or so I thought!

The first challenge came when I tried to find a chart for a decent sized skull and bones. Not an easy task. I spent way too much time surfing the pattern archives on Ravelry, as well as various sites on the net. Finally, I found one to my liking! Woo Hoo!!! It was a great chart that went with a pattern for a hat that was knit in the round.

Now, my peanut sized brain understood that when you're knitting in the round with a two-color chart, you're going to knitting Fair-Isle, and not Intarsia, but that was about as far as my logic got me. I just assumed (and you all know what that gets you) that it would just work it's way out as I knit & purled a flat piece of fabric. Result: Fair Isle charts for knitting in the round DO NOT work for flat knitting Intarsia. Fine, so now we know for sure. And off to the frog pond it went. And back to searching for a proper chart.

Needless to say, I did find a proper Intarsia chart for a skull and bones motif, and was very excited!! I could finally, properly, begin my scarf. So, off I went. First, I had to figure out how many stitches I would need to cast on to center the pattern just so, then grab my yarn and go.

Mmm, yummy wool blend goodness!

After knitting up a couple of inches, I began the chart. Stopping and starting with the different colors and yarn ends made for quite a confusing mess of yarn bobbins and tails on the back of the work. All of the untangling and straightening of the mess slowed me down some, but before long, the chart was complete! Yay me!

Confusing bobbin madness on the back side!

After I completed the chart, I had decided to just knit in black for a while, then randomly place a skull and bones here and there whenever I felt like it (the chart also included a pattern for a smaller skull that I was planning on using). After several inches, I noticed that my scarf was curling in on me more and more. I was beginning to get very annoyed, but reassured myself that it would work itself out.

When I was planning out the scarf, I knew I was going to be knitting the scarf in stockinette stitch, and everybody knows that stockinette stitch curls. But I was prepared for this! I, being much more clever than the number one ultimate rule of knitting, had figured this "inevitability" into my so-called design. You see, I had knit a 2x2 rib border at the beginning of the scarf, as well as used a garter stitch side edge.

2x2 Ribbed Border

Garter stitch edge

So there was no way my scarf was going to curl. It just seemed rather tube-like because of the way I was letting it drop as I knit, and I'd just block that baby out when I was done. But, as I knit on, the curlier and curlier it got, so I finally decided I needed an expert opinion. I sought out the sage advice of the owner of my LYS. After explaining the situation, I fully expected to hear "Of course you can block that curl out. Just pin it out and it will the beautiful flat scarf you envisioned!". But what I got was "It will never uncurl. That's the way stockinette is. You have to frog it back and use a different stitch." It was so definite and final, and my heart dropped a little.

I haven't had the heart to unravel all my hard work just yet. For my first Intarsia project, I'm actually a little proud of how it came out (minus a mis-placed stitch or two). So, the curly menace came out of the knitting bag to get pinned out and photographed, then back in it went for a time-out.

Pinned out & flat

Curled up front

Curled up backside

So, back to the drawing board for how to make a non-curly/flat pirate skull scarf. I think I should have it ready just in time for summer. Perfect!