Jade is lying on the arm of my chair, peeved because I won’t pet her until I’m finished posting. She truly seems to believe that all my time (not to mention hands!) are belong to her :) Funny girl.
Strawberry-rhubarb mitts
I finished the red mitts last night and am breathing a little easier now, thinking about getting things done in time for the holidays. I’ve got two pairs of mitts and a nearly completed hat. There are four more things to do, but only two of them (I think) will be knitted.
That means I can spend a bit of time on a pattern I found a couple of days ago for a stuffed animal - got nephews, you know :) I had wondered if I was going to get to knit them anything this Christmas and while I would have liked to, I didn’t know if it was going to be possible. And they did get their Harry Potter scarves a while back :) But I’m really going to try to make time. Clothing is one thing - but toys are something else entirely! Although you know, now that I think of it, I’m not sure a Harry Potter scarf doesn’t somehow manage to be both…
Two thirds of a hat…with yarn…
These little tiny hanks are a trip to work with. Initially I would unwind four or five of them, splice them togrther and then wind it up into a ball. I don’t bother any more because - believe it or not - there turns out to be a couple of advantages (as I see it) to working with short lengths of yarn.
First of all, when you completely unwind one hank at a time, there isn’t any need to roll a ball. What - for 20 yards of yarn? So you unwind it carefully onto a clean spot on the floor, splice it in and go to work. There’s no skein or ball to put the slightest bit of tension on your yarn so you get absolute control over it. Very nice!
Second, as in the picture above, when you’re done knitting for the day, you can simply wind what’s left onto the needle as shown. I put the needle through the material and wind the yarn (very gently) in figure 8s around the needle. The next time I want to work on this, I’ll simply pull the needle out and let the yarn fall. It will work out of the figure 8 arrangement easily without snarling or knotting :)
Of course splicing yarn every 20 yards or so can be a pain in the tuchus - or at least I imagine it would be with something that didn’t splice as easily and readily (note to self: be really really careful about even gentle washing with this stuff…) as this does. As it is, I have a routine all worked out and it does the job. Of course things are different depending on whether I’m knitting or crocheting. For crochet, I wind up splicing in more yarn every 6 minutes or so. For knitting - maybe every half hour? Heheh - what a weird way to be talking about yarn.
There was one last gotcha in this stuff, though I don’t think it’s going to substantially get in the way - knots. Most of the little hanks are fine, but some of them have knots and at least one of them had three knots. C’est la vie :)
Heavenly scent
I got my first Christmas present Monday, from dear friends in the UK. The flower is silk and a silk bag is attached to it by violet and dark green silk ribbons. The bag is full of heady aromatics such as cedar wood, sandlewood and myrrh. I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful the scent is - a bit spicy, very warm and very rich. It’s a serious temptation to just hang it around my neck, but it is intended to perfume your environment and to that end, I’ve hung it in the front hall. It is absolutely divine to enter the apartment to that wonderful aroma :)
Top view
Jade can be extrememly affectionate but she doesn’t like being picked up - loathes in fact. So this is something we periodically work on as there will be times when she has to be handled whether she likes it or not. We have made some progress, luckily, but any notions I might have had about the problem actually being solved were disabused yesterday morning. I went into the kitchen and Jade was sitting in “my” chair at the kitchen table. As I wanted to sit there, I picked her up - or tried to. She promptly stretched out her front legs and hooked her claws under the edge of the seat. I could hear them clicking into place around the wood just a fraction of a second before I actually felt the resistance. I gave her a couple of gentle tugs and then had to let her go as I was, by then, laughing too hard to hang on to her.
How boring it would be if our animals didn’t have personalities!
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okay, just *how* do you keep the cats from creating havoc with the short skeins lying on the floor? our little beasts would see those and declare a kitty holiday!
toys? i am interested in seeing what you come up with- making toys has always been one of those things i agonize over until it loses all its fun- so many little bits and pieces to put together-
stay happy-
Oh yes, the Harry Potter scarves do indeed double as toys—though I admit I try to keep the play with them down to a minimum, as it drives me nuts to see them dragged about the house (regardless of how blissfully giggly the child in question is!). It is funny to watch the boys with the scarves—if one decides to put his on, the other immediately devolves into fits until his, too, is found and wrapped snugly about his neck. They both delight in wearing them out in public for people to ooh and ahh over. :) And they always pridefully tell everyone how their Aunt Robbyn made the scarf especially for them!
donna
Donna
Barb - I don’t know how to explain it. I would have thought yarn would be irresistable to cats but it has never been a problem. I don’t understand it. I appreciate it, but I don’t understand it :)
Toys are fun :) Go here:
http://www.heartstringsfiberarts.com/bunny.shtm
...to start simply. I’ve made this in every size from tiny to huge!
Donna - I’m thrilled that the guys enjoy their scarves :) It’s the kind of thing I would have loves as a child but never had. ‘Course, “Harry Potter” wasn’t around then either :)
Sounds like you have the yarn ‘thing’ down pat. They sure work up nicely. The warmers are very cool looking…I like the stitch.
Margene - Thanks - if you’re interested, the crochet version has been added to the knitted mitts under the “Somebody Stole the Fingers from my Gloves” gloves link. If I may be so immodest, I think they look pretty good too and I hope the woman for whom they are intended will find them useful :)
Great mitts! Jade is too cute - loved the story about the chair. <g> That scented flower bag from your pal is divine! Have a LOVELY day! 
Hi Stasia - Thanks :) Jade keeps us laughing - and cursing sometimes!
