Well, we knew the day would come - no avoiding it when you have pets, I’m afraid :) Time for tank-cleaning!  To be fair, with gerbils, this isn’t anything like what it is with other small rodents - it isn’t even as bad as changing the cat’s litter box.  There is a definite “gerbil” smell, but it’s more just different than offensive.  This is because gerbils come from a cold, dry climate (Mongolia) and their little systems are extremely efficient about water usage.  They don’t take in a great deal and they urinate out very little.  Likewise, their poops are dry and inoffensive.

The first thing we looked for was the walking ball - a clear, plastic ball (pierced all over for air circulation).  We found a small pink one, but we once had a large clear ball.  Further searching proved fruitless so we used the smaller one.  Three gerbils did fit inside, but we’ll acquire a larger one for next time if the old one doesn’t surface.  Right now these kids are tiny but before long they’ll only be wee and will need a bit more room for comfort’s sake.

Generally, the operation goes like this.  Remove the lid from the tank.  Carefully (and one at a time!) remove the gerbils from the tank and deposit them in the ball.  Replace the ball’s lid and make sure it latches securely.  Place the ball on the kitchen floor so the gerbils can run around.  Remove the permanent fixtures from the tank (house, toys, water bottle, etc...) and then empty the bedding into a trash bag.  Clean the tank with hot soapy water and dry thoroughly.  Clean food bowl and water bottle.  Then reassemble - put in fresh bedding, fresh food and water and a new chew toy (toilet paper roll, bit of cardboard egg carton).  Replace gerbils and you’re good for another week to 10 days.

Goldie has seen this process many times before and we didn’t really think he’d be especially interested but, as far as we knew, Jade had never seen it and she was absolutely fascinated.  She never left that ball alone all the time things were getting cleaned.  Goldie came by just once to see what was going on and I swear you could hear him thinking, “Oh, is that all?”.

I have knit quite a bit on the Waves shawl, but the depth continues to look shallow.  I suppose I have to admit that the compression involved in the Chinese waves stitch pattern is the cause.  But I’m going to continue on.  I have plenty of this yarn and I want to see what happens with this idea.  Right now, the width is about 30” and the depth about 10”.

I have also found, courtesy of Sarah Bradberry’s wonderful site, a couple of garter stitch lace patterns that I think would work for the edge.

I like the saw-tooth edge of this and I like that it’s wide.  It would take a bit to work but I think it would be very cool :) I had a bit of initial trouble with the pattern which I could have avoided if I’d been using the chart instead of reading the written instructions (Sarah provides both).  Every odd row should start with a Sl1, K1 but the written instructions sometimes forget the K1.  It was by referring to the chart after my third unsuccessful try (why do I keep getting extra stitches?!?!?) that I realized what the problem was.  After that it was simple :)





I like this one too.  It’s a simple diamond-eyelet construction and is very pretty.  However, it’s got a couple of K3togs which create a bit more bulk than I’d like (though this probably wouldn’t matter in the slightest if this pattern were being made with fine thread rather than middling weight yarn!).  It’s also quite a bit narrower than the Cane Leaf (Elsie is started on 9 stitches; Cane Leaf is started on 15) and so wouldn’t take as much time to do - but also wouldn’t have the lush feel of a wide lace either :)

I stumbled over this pattern yesterday, for the Knitty-Gritty Sockette that I thought was cute as can be.  This might be a good weekend project :)

Have a great one!

It was Pam over at Fibre Frenzy who got me this time.  The meme goes like this:

Find your 23rd blog post.  Find the fifth sentence in the post and report it in your next blog post.

Okay...but things got a little weird.

There is an unpublished post in the list.  God knows what it is, I was new to blogging and everything about it at the time and have no idea what I was doing then.  The post is empty - just a space with nothing in it.

Now, if I count that as a post, the 23rd post occurred on November 28th, 2003 and the 5th sentence was:

“I probably won’t add any to the strawberry ice cream, though.”

However, if I skip the unpublished post (disqualify it, say...) then the 23rd post falls on December 1, 2003.  Unfortunately it consists of only 4 sentences.

So you’ll have to decide for yourselves which is legitimate and what, if anything, it all means :)

I won’t target anyone with this, but should you feel like playing along on your own blog, by all means do :)

Well. It’s been rain, rain and more rain up here all week and there doesn’t seem to be any end in sight for a little while yet.  We are under flood watches again.  Our little household is in no particular danger being at the top of a hill at nearly the highest elevation in the city - but those folks whose homes and businesses lie along the rivers might be doing a little fretting right about now.

Actually, for the first time, I think, since Saturday afternoon, it isn’t raining - in fact I can actually see dry patches in the pavement, looking out the window.  But the sky is still as grey as stewed flannel.  This is just a brief respite; we’re slated to get heavy rain this afternoon and tomorrow.

I finished the little hat last night while we were watching a program about the Faberge eggs.  Astonishing pieces, they have always seemed to me to be something akin to real magic :)

I used a leftover scrap of the yarn I made the socks with to do the band (three repeats of the basket weave pattern) and the braid.  I have the sneaking suspicion that the sock and the hat will fit different sized children, though and not really be a set.  But that’s not so bad - nothing’s going to go to waste!

Jade was taking great interest in our newest family members this morning.  They, on the other hand, weren’t the least bit intimidated by her (comparatively) large, black, hairy presence and occasionally stretched up the side of the tank right in front of her.  I would swear these guys were deliberately taunting Jade if I didn’t know (in Stephanie’s immortal words) that their brains were the size of lentils.

The shawl comes along apace.  I’m going to try and work up a lace edging sample to show you on Friday.

Hope all your weeks are going well and that you’re getting some sunshine!

We had a bit of a kerfluffle this morning.  We went down into the basement to check our breakers and found two (labeled “Spare") that weren’t supposed to be being used.  Interestingly though, they were in the on position.  We turned them off and a minute later our across-the-hall neighbor came down stating that he’d just lost power in a couple of rooms.  In other words, for the last two years and a little, we’ve been paying for part of the electrical consumption across the hall.  Sigh…

We called the landlord and he came over.  He was very glad, he said, that we had brought this to his attention and he had had no idea this was the case and would, of course, direct his workers to correct things as soon as possible.  No mention was made of the money we have already paid out for service that we didn’t get.  Sigh…

I did manage to get the socks finished over the weekend and am very pleased with them.

Now I’m wondering how to vary the pattern.  The basket weave is very cute, no question.  But I don’t want to do it for every pair I make as I’m planning on making quite a few pairs of these :)
Maybe some little cables?  Diamonds?  It’s fun to think about anyway.  These took less than a skein of worsted so I started a little cap to go with them…





...as I think I have plenty of yarn left over to work in a little design in the sock color.  I hope it will be cute :)

I did make some progress on the Waves shawl, but it still just looks like a triangle so I won’t bore you with another picture of it just yet :) And, I think I’ve found a lace pattern for the edging that will be simple and attractive!

Myria surprised me with an early Christmas present!

She knows how I love my Christmas movies and thought I might enjoy adding this one to the rotation.  So we snuggled in yesterday morning and watched the show.  It was just wonderful!  The artwork and CGI graphics were incredible and the story simple and straight to the heart.  Most of all, it has the ability to pull you right into its world and make you completely forget the real world around you.  In that respect it reminded me of reading C. S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia when I was younger though they are not the same type of story at all.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you’re in for an incredible treat and if you have seen it already - see it again!

Some actual knitting has been accomplished!  I decided that while I was working on the Chinese Waves Shawl, I would also work on some Dulaan stuff which I have been ignoring for a while.  And wouldn’t you know it, Miss Ryan of Mossy Cottage provided a couple of links to appropriate things!

How about these Mini-Basket weave Toddler’s Socks?  They are just as cute as can be and they’re simple and fast.

I’m up to the heel shaping on the second sock.  The yarn is Classic Elite Wings (alpaca, silk, wool) so should keep a little pair of feet nice and toasty.  It comes in 109 yard hanks and this is more than enough to make a pair of these socks.  And I have another hank too :) These socks whip up so quickly it’s like magic!





Pop came out this morning for me.  In fact they’ve all come out and have been happily and industriously scurrying, digging and chewing. That bit of cardboard that Pop’s tail is going through is the remnants of a toilet paper tube - the perfect gerbil chew-toy!  I think they’ve finally relaxed and decided that this isn’t a bad place to call home.





Empress of her domain!  I know it’s a seriously nutty thought, but imagine how cute these kids would look in little bright red sweaters and hats!  NO, I’m not really going to do anything like that - even a gerbil has it’s dignity :) But it’s tempting…

As of this week, the blog has gone to a Monday-Wednesday-Friday format.  I think this will work well for me and, hopefully, for you folks as well.

Have a great weekend!

We welcomed a few new members to the family on Monday :)

These kids are gerbils and we’ve had them before for many years. 

We got three little (hopefully) girls and they are living quite happily in an aquarium tank.  We will replace this in a few weeks with a larger tank, as the girls grow (though they won’t get very big) up.

They are actually three different colors.  Snap is silver (and by far the boldest and most inquisitive).  Crackle is a medium sort of grey/gold and Pop is a darker grey.  Pop decided to sleep in this morning so I don’t have a picture of her :)





We feed them Kaytee Fiesta seeds/grains which we have used for our gerbils for a long time.  It seems to go over well and is a pretty reasonable approximation of what their diet would be in the wild.  For snacks, Cheerios (or a similar grain based and not-too-heavily-sugared cereal) are much enjoyed.  Puffed rice and puffed wheat (the plain type, not the glazed type) also go over pretty well.

The little house, we lucked into at WalMart and they immediately named it the “nest” and set up housekeeping.  As they’re still tiny, there’s room for all of them inside.  We’ll probably have to get something a bit bigger when we replace their tank but for now, they think it’s perfect.  Throw in a water bottle and the cardboard tube from a roll of toilet paper and they’re happy as clams :)

On the knitting front (yes, there actually is some knitting content!), I have been working on the prototype Chinese waves shawl.  I had started with a 5 garter stitch border but after several rows decided that wasn’t what I really wanted.  So I ripped it and started over.  This time I worked in garter stitch until I had a 20 stitch border on either side before starting the waves pattern.

I apologize because the pattern doesn’t show up awfully well.  I attribute that to the heathery tone of the yarn.  This is Woolease sport weight (though it’s really more like a DK weight) and is being worked on a size 10 US (6 mm) circular needle.  Not that it’s being worked in the round, but I’ll need the length as the shawl expands in width.  The target (at least for now, according to the figures I’m getting) is somewhere between 275 and 300 stitches for a width of somewhere between 60 and 68”.  Depending on how that looks and how much yarn I have, I may work it larger than that.  I also have, in the same sport weight, a deep rose red that I’m planning on using for a lace edging (yes, picking up the stitches and everything!).  It will have to be garter lace but I haven’t settled on a pattern yet.  Because the body of the shawl is so simple, I’d like the lace to be a bit elaborate - but I guess we’ll see when we get there!

Well, just to prove - in case you had any lingering doubts - that I can’t leave anything alone, here is one last Chinese wave thought.  In the comments to Friday’s post, Nat asked if there was a way to compensate for the compression of the slipped stitches and the tendency that has to make a wider and shallower triangle than usual.

I’m not sure I’d want to compensate - but that got me thinking.  And thinking got me knitting :)

This did start as a swatch but I think I’m going to go with it and see how long the yarn holds out.  This is a double strand of alpaca lace weight on size 7 US (4.5mm) needles.  I don’t think there’ll be enough to make more than a nice scarf, but I’d like to put a lace border on this too so I may just have to order more :)

Thing is, I started this with a garter stitch border as though I were doing a shawl.  And, at least to my eye, the triangle looks pretty good.  Do you suppose the garter stitch is enough to diffuse the compression ratio?  Anyway, the formula was this:

Cast on 3 stitches

Row 1:  (and every odd-numbered row) Knit
Row 2:  K1, M1, K1, M1, K1
Row 4:  K1, M1, K3, M1, K1
Row 6:  K1, M1, K5, M1, K1
Row 8:  K1, M1, K3, sl1, K3, M1, K1
Row 10: K1, M1, K3, sl1, K1, sl1, K3, M1, K1

The idea is to have 5 garter stitches at each side for a border while the wave pattern grows in the middle.  That section will always be two stitches larger on each pattern row and will always start and end with a slipped stitch.

And then it occirred to me that this would be a perfect and fairly easy shawl or scarf pattern for a yarn that doesn’t block well (synthetics and some blends) because it doesn’t pull up and doesn’t curl - and still it looks nice!  So I also started a shawl with Woolease sport weight yarn on size 10 US (6mm) needles.  I’ll show you that when I’m a little further along :)

Maureen over at Irish Knits was talking about beautiful, autumn-type things and that reminded me of something my mother had said.  We had been talking about the beautiful October skies (for me, the most spendid skies of the year) and she mentioned a poem she had read once.  All she could remember of it though, was the phrase “October’s bright blue weather”.

I plugged that line into Google and, lo and behold, found the poem.  It was written by Helen Hunt Jackson (1830-1885) and is a lovely piece, evocative of autumn.  I wish I could have shared it with my mother, but I can’t.  So I’ll share it with you instead :)

Happy Monday :)