Friday, March 03, 2006

Who Could Resist?

OK, fine, so I am supposed to be working on the lavender cardigan for the store...but really... find me a knitter who could resist the lure of a five pound 14 ounce infant?? It's just ONE little outfit and a spare hat. A mere trifle.

Besides, my dog is sick, and she's taking huge amounts of my energy. She's going outside about every hour now, which is better than it was at 6am when it was every fifteen minutes. I think we're getting closer to the end, and it's upsetting me. Tiny socks make me feel better. AND it is effective use of stash.
Yarn: Artyarns something that did not have a tag (If I had to guess I'd say Ultra6, color 108) and Berroco Plush color 1952
Gauge: 6 sts per inch on the purple variegated set, and I think 4 on the Plush Hat.Needles: US 6's for the plush hat and US3's for the rest.
Pattern: None for the hats or socks. The sweater is a pattern called Preemie-ums A Labor of Love which features four sizes - Teeny (4-5lb), Tiny (5-6lbs), newborn (7-10lb) and infant(11-14lb). This is Tiny, although a Teeny has been started and is waiting for more yarn. Unfortunately the kid may have outgrown it by then...

Not much else here other than cleaning up after the dog and taking her in and out endlessly, although I did photograph most of my stash after Cirilia said hers was bad...this is about 3/4 of it, the rest is scattered in small bins through the house.

Firstly, this is the area where I spend most of my time, right before I did a complete organize and sort. It was getting over my head, as evidenced by the plethora of Webs bags. Never a good sign. There's a lot of leftovers from finished projects in those bins that had to be moved into regular stash to make room for current projects. My books and magazines are all here and my design notebooks, sketches and etc, also grocery lists, doctors bills, notes to myself like "do laundry!! TODAY!!"

These are the bad boys. On the left is my knitting yarn sorted by weight or type in bins. There's a bin for non-animal, novelty, and then bins by weight, UFO's, and really small bits good only for afghans and pillows or baby socks. Also in this stack are some art supplies (gesso, acrylic spray matte and glossy, really liquid stuff for making finer nails and tear drops on dolls, antique buttons, and four old snap and grommet guns, as well as a big bag of my grandmother's handmade wallpaper beads.) The wooden box on the bottom is a Grey Goose vodka box that contains swatches. When it gets full, it is replaced with a new one. Eventually I will do something with them. On the very top shelf is Girl's hooking stuff to make an image of my dog Owen (not the sick one) someday when she learns how to shade. This is all amazingly well organized for me. I am really scattered and fractured beyond belief.

On the right, directly opposite my yarn, we have my husband's stash, enough coned yarn to clothe a small nation. He has not woven more than in inch since we moved. But we still have two looms and all of this because...well...what are we going to do with it? Get rid of it?? BAD PLAN! It's like this - if I sell or barter all of this away, he'll start weaving and we'll have to replace it all. If we keep it, he may never weave and I'll feel bad. I really can't win either way. So we err on the side of keeping it for now, because he goes in spurts of activity - right now it's stamps and his bike, and next year it could be golf and weaving, or tennis and needlepoint, who knows? Try to ignore the drying racks, I don't like to use my dryer so we hang clothes in front of the stove all winter. Why pay twice, one for the pellet stove and one for the dryer? Makes no sense! There's a few other big bins scattered around the house - on just of Berkshire in various colors and odd bits of leftover. One is just Wensleydale, in a ton of colors, and I still am not sure what possessed me to buy it all. It works well for Girl's Debbie Bliss Farm Project though.

I am SO glad I went to work last night. It was a nice break from this house and the dog thing which is much on my mind and depressing me no end. This is she, in better days...when she was young and vigorous and visiting the ocean for the first time. She made a striking figure, and was such a good girl, well socialized, and good natured. She went everywhere with us; fireworks, balloon fests, hiking...anyplace we could legally take her and some (like the beach) where it wasn't so very legal. Such a noble and majestic beast. She is an Akita, her name is Kioshi, and she is currently 10 years old. Last year they thought she had lymphoma as we'd ruled everything else out, but she never developed a tumor or a node, just continued on with lethargy and a high white count. She also has Addison's disease, which I think is her current problem - and her last lab worked showed some signs of kidney failure. Kinda sad. But she's an amazing companion and friend, and loyal to a fault.

2 comments:

Persnickety Knitter said...

Sad about Kioshi. Very cute picture of her though. Too bad I didn't get to meet her during her sociable days.

And very cute little infant sweater set.

MelissaKnits said...

She was a great dog for a long while, and I now can forgive the temper tantrums in middle age, since she's apparently going to have an abbreviated existance. Dogs = mental torment.