Clever Puppy

About a month ago, Baru and I were playing fetch with his snowman shaped Kong. You can see it in this picture.

It took a wild bounce, as Kongs do, and went into the ravine on the high side near the sticker bushes.

He ran in to get it. Emerging with his octagon shaped Kong instead, which I hadn't even realized was missing.

It was like a puppy magic trick.

The overgrown brush is so thick in that area that I couldn't see the missing Kong. And there was no point in trying to send Baru back in to "get the toy" because he already had a toy.

Baru doesn't discriminate between one toy or the other. There is no point in telling him to "get the dolphin." Everything is just a "toy."

Samson will discriminate a bit. He will "get the ball" and he will "get the bootie" and he will "get the toy." However, he is a fetch snob and will only fetch balls.

Baru will fetch anything. This is helpful for times when they smuggle plush toys out to the yard. If Baru is aware of it he will get it for me, even if he wasn't the one who carried it out.

Anyway.

As I had hoped when the Kong first when missing, the invasive species that border the yard are dying back with the advent of autumn. Last night I was dumping the kitchen compost bucket into the compost bin. As I looked along the fence line I was able to spot the bright red shape!

(here is Baru from 2007 with the octagon Kong)

It was resting on a ledge that was not easily accessible to bi-pedal creatures such as myself.

I found a long, thin fallen branch and began beating down the vegetation in an attempt to get a better look at the toy and perhaps drag it up to the yard, or know it down into the ravine.

Suddenly, Baru appeared (I'd left the screen door unlatched so he was able to push his way out) and made his way into the undergrowth, aiming for the end of my branch.

There was a whole world of possibilities in this situation.

I said, "Good boy, Baru! Get the toy!" and tried to position the end of the branch near where I thought the Kong was.

Well, first he tried to get the branch. Which sort of made sense, but was silly because this thing was longer than I am tall.

So I said, "Over to your left, Baru. Get the Kong!" Which was silly because he doesn't speak that much English.

I guess he realized the branch wasn't happening, and started to just hang out and look around. Then I could tell by his body language that he had spotted the Kong. So I said, "Good boy! Get the toy!" Because that is English he does understand.

And he crept forward, pushing through the plants, and grabbed it! It was so exciting.

I went to the hole in the fence to meet him. We did a little celebration dance while I heaped him with praise, and told him he was a smart puppy. He doesn't hear that much because he's usually dumb as a box of rocks.

Samson saw us having a party without him and started barking at us from inside the house. He can open the door just as well as Baru can, he just doesn't like to.

We had to go inside then, because Samson was causing a ruckus. It was dinner time anyway. But at least both Kongs are safe inside now.

Hubby's Sweater?
I've just told you a heartwarming story about my little doggy and you're worried about a sweater?

Listen, it's a plain stockinette stitch sweater. What do you expect me to tell you about it?

Actually, it's moving along faster than I anticipated. Probably because it is plain stockinette stitch. I think it also helps that the Zara yarn is soft and springy, as opposed to say the cotton for my Stella blouse. I can knit with the Zara longer without it upsetting my hands. Well, aside from the two-tone stuff.

The piece is currently 9 inches long (the goal is 26) and I'm into the fifth color. I have to post the color sequence here or in my Ravelry notes. I'm worried I'm going to loose the piece of paper I wrote it on, then I'll be up a creek.

I really need to take a picture of it for you, now that most of the colors are involved.

Hubby's Sweater: Samson vs. the Pirate Squirrels

I was peacefully knitting away on Hubby's sweater last night when I heard a ruckus in the backyard.

I went to check it out and found a swarm of pirates...NO...squirrels...NO...pirate squirrels boiling out of the ravine!

They were brandishing plastic cocktail swords like so many furious, furry, Lilliputians.

They demanded the sweater, which they intended to use as a flag, or to line their nests. I'm not really sure. I don't speak squirrel.

It was so frightening I started to swoon and dropped the sweater.

The pirate squirrels snatched it up and began retreating back across the yard.

Just at that moment Samson and Baru appeared, drawn by the commotion.

Samson cried, "Fear not, fair lady! I shall retrieve the Alpha's sweater for you!" and charged into the yard barking like a crazy puppy.

Baru said, "I will make sure there aren't more under the bed!" and ran upstairs, barking over his shoulder for good measure.

The pirate squirrels were so scared at the sight of Samson barreling down on them that they dropped the sweater and fled.

Samson returned it to me unharmed (aside from a little slobber). But then I had to spend an hour untangling the balls of yarn that were attached to it.

It is so comforting to know my knitting and I are well protected.

What? You don't believe me? Well, it could happen.

On the other hand, it is more likely that what has happened is a plain stockinette, 51 inch chest, drop shoulder, men's sweater isn't such good blog fodder.

At least, not once you're past the complicated ribbing.

Hubby's Sweater: Making Peace

As I struggled with the two-tone ribbing over the weekend I asked Hubby why he has suddenly lost interest in his sweater. Why hasn't he looked at the new colors?

He explained he hasn't lost interest, he just doesn't understand it at this point. He said he can't look at a ball of yarn and visualize a completed sweater to know whether all the colors would work.

This made sense.

Then he ooohed and ahhhed over the ribbing and gave it pets. Which totally made up for his perceived lack of attention.

I finished the ribbing yesterday and am two colors into the stripes of the body.

Ahhh, relaxing plain old stockinette stitch. What a relief!

Two-tone two-step
How did I finally conquer the ribbing? you ask.

Well, it wasn't easy and a number of techniques were employed.

The traditionally, logical method of holding one color in each had was causing my hands to cramp. Not a good start. (I never got the hang of holding both colors in one hand, which might not have worked out anyway since I was switching from knits to purls. Anyone know?)

I resorted to the tedious method of focusing on one color, working those stitches and slipping the others. For instance, I would K2 tan, then slip the next three as they would be worked P2 charcoal. When I reached the end of the row, I would go back to the beginning (the beauty of working on circular needles) and work across with the charcoal yarn: slip 2, P3.

This was not a perfect fix.

First, it meant I was touching every stitch twice, which just seemed wrong. However, it was better than sidelining myself with sore writs.

Second, it was slow. But I comforted myself with the fact that I wasn't moving very fast using the two-handed method.

Third, and the nail in the coffin, it was hard to see mistakes. There was no visual clue from the different colors. So when I got to the end of the row and it wasn't falling out correctly I had to resort to trying to find my floats and counting stitches. Talk about slowing your progress down.

My third method was to just drop the color not in use. So I would K2 tan, drop it, pick up the charcoal, P3, drop it, pick up the tan.

Tedious once again, but at least I was only touching each once and could spot mistakes easily.

I had a bad habit of P2 charcoal instead of P3. Stupid, irregular, ribbing pattern.

But eventually, in attempting to get the yarn out of the way during my drop method, I fell back into knitting with both hands.

I don't know if my hands finally remembered how to do it, or having several rows worked gave me something to hold on to, or what, but it didn't make my hands hurt in the end.

And it was much faster. Ribbing errors aside.

Phew!

Jumping Ahead?
As I was struggling with the ribbing, I debated the idea of skipping ahead and knitting all the ribbing at once.

I figured I could put it all on holders, then I could go straight to the easy part.

I haven't executed this plan yet. When I finished the back ribbing, I was so happy to start the easy part of the main body that I didn't look back.

I'm still debating it. But I know the further along I get, the less likely it will be to happen.

Hubby's Sweater: No Honyemoon

Arrrrgh!

Hubby's sweater is going to be the death of me.

Or at least this two color ribbing will be.

I hadn't expected to get fed up with it until I was into the miles and miles of stockinette stitch for the body (despite the excitement of changing colors for the stripes).

I had to fix four (4!) mistakes in the first two rows of ribbing. Including ripping out the entire second row twice. In fact, I probably ripped it out a total of three times, considering I had to go back halfway twice as well.

Do you see how incredibly talented I am?

And I guess I'm just not accustomed to doing two handed colorwork, because it's killing my wrists.

I have to relax and adjust my posture and wrist positions. But it's hard with the slippery addis and not being accustomed to tensioning yarn with both hands. I mean, I can tension yarn with my left hand, that's how I do it when I crochet, but it's a different kind of concentration.

I knit for like two hours last night and only have an inch of ribbing to show for it. I'm supposed to have three inches before I start the body.

I wish there was a way to knit all the ribbing to get it out of the way then I'll just have to do the plain portions.

Well, I guess there is. I'm going to cut the yarn at the end of the ribbing anyway. I can just put it on scrap yarn.

But I'm worried doing that much ribbing all at once will put me out of commission for a week.

This is a good reminder about the importance of stretching and taking breaks!

Hubby's Sweater Yarn

Oh, I feel so popular with all the comments lately.

Did you know fox might taste gamey? Which not only makes sense, but probably means it wouldn't taste like chicken. I won't be eating any foxes any time soon, I don't like game meat.

I think if we have to resort to eating our domestic critters Bridget is going to be in a much better position than I am, what with her own pigs, sheep, and horses. Hubby and I should expand our menagerie beyond the pups.

This is all feeding (ha! no pun intended) my morbid sense of humor waaay to much.

Brace Yourself
I bought the yarn to make Hubby's sweater when I was at KC on Tuesday night.

You have to realize by now that I would find a way to make selecting colors as difficult as possible. Much dithering had to take place. Especially for something as important as a sweater for my beloved Hubby.

The original pattern calls for nine colors. Four in Rowan DK Tweed, which Ravelry says is discontinued, and five in Rowan Felted Tweed. They are plum (which looks maroon in the picture), black, three shades of grey, two shades of blue, and navy in both types of yarn.

I asked Hubby what specifically he liked about the sweater: the jewel tones or the tweed? He said he just liked how it looks, which was no help at all. As I was really certain the tweed thing wasn't going to be happening I focused on the colors.

There was moment of excitement when I got to the store and saw part of a Rowan label that said "Felted Tweed" but when I snatched it up it turned out to be the Aran weight, which is too heavy for the pattern. Sure, it's just a drop shoulder sweater, but I'd rather not have to go rewriting it.

Zara FTW!
I was back to my original idea of Zara and began yanking colors off the shelf.

Remember, the Vogue Knitting trunk show was that night. The store was wall to wall people, so my trying to find nine colors for stripes was tricky. What I should have done was get the color card out of the back, but it was too crowded for that.

Let's see, how did the cascade of changes begin?

First, we didn't have three shades of grey. Well, not three that I liked. I could have brought in a light grey Debbie Bliss Rialto, but it just looked off. So I substituted a tan/white chine for the third grey. I had charcoal grey and a black/white chine for the other two greys.

I selected a blue/white chine for the denim blue stripe. Trust me, there is a denim blue stripe in there, my shadow is on it. Our light blues were too pastel for what I had going on, so I substituted a dark green instead.

The two navy blues were the hard part. I realized later I should have gotten the color card to try to figure out what the difference was. Shade? Tweediness? We had a navy blue and a royal blue, which both looked pretty dark in the store since it was night time, so I got them.

The black and the maroon were easy.

The pattern calls for four of the charcoal grey and one each of the other colors. But I got two each to hedge my bets since the original yarn has about 53 more yards than the Zara.

I went home happy, although uncertain about the two dark blues.

Maybe purple?
When my 4 a.m. insomnia hit, I lay there tossing and turning, and thinking about the navy blue yarn. I thought maybe subbing a dark purple for one would work as it would contrast and I had learned that purple was in style still.

I told Hubby about my brilliant idea over breakfast. He said it sounded fine, but he didn't want to look like either Prince or Barney. I said he was silly, since it was a striped sweater, but made a mental note the purple would have to be the one row dividing color.

I hauled the pattern and all the yarn back to the store after work. It was quite, so I was able to take over the front table and arrange all my colors in the order that approximated the original sweater. Then I went and got the dark purple, which was a little brighter than I remembered.

A customer asked what I was up to. I explained the issue with the two dark blues. The purple didn't look good at all.

She said I should start with the greys and go from there. So we rearranged the yarn. She eliminated the green, blue/white, and tan/white colors.

It looked pretty good, but I pointed out the corrugated (two-tone) ribbing and brought the tan/white back. I also decided to use it as my one row contrast.

We dragged Cynthia over. She thought it looked good, but switched the order of two colors. So I wrote the new order down, since it was radically different from the pattern.

Then I had to figure out which colors to get additional balls of since we had eliminated two colors (four balls total). When Cynthia went to process my purchase she said, "I didn't realize green was a choice!"

We lined all the colors up again. I also brought over the purple and a wine red, just to make sure we covered all our bases. The purple still didn't look good and the wine red was too dark. But the green added a nice pop. We put it in two places in the sequence.

Phew! I ended up swapping out the blue/white for another maroon and another black/white, in an attempt to ensure I had enough total yardage. I'm not really sure which color is going to be getting hit harder in the new colorway.

Let the knitting begin!
I swatched like a good knitter and had to go down to a US5 needle.

Casting on took forever and I've only managed one row of knitting.

I worked the second row of ribbing last night. Only to realize I had all my floats on the public side of the work. Picking it out took almost as long as knitting it.

I'm a little concerned about the ribbing. In the picture it looks normal. But in the pattern it is K1A, P2B on the first row. I'm ending K1A, P1B. It doesn't mention how to end. I was thinking about sneaking another stitch in so it would end P2B. But then on Row 2 I'm supposed to work K2B, P3A. This means the colors totally don't line up.

I'm working the size large, so I was able to count stitches to the size small. That first row ends P2B, but it doesn't matter because the row 2 colors won't line up. The size medium ends strangely like the size large does.

There doesn't seem to be much point in adding a stitch if the colors won't line up anyway. Maybe it will make more sense once I get a few rows worked. grrr.

Two rows in and I'm already annoyed.

Look At Me
Hubby hasn't commented on the new color scheme. Actually, Hubby hasn't seen the new color scheme.

I'm a bit surprised after those strong views he expressed about what type of sweater he wanted. Also, he has a pretty well defined sense of fashion. Heck I often say he's got better taste than me. Because of all that I find it a bit suspicious that he's suddenly lost interest. I mean, really, I've dropped all other projects for his sweater!

Considering I'm up against the baseball playoffs, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Maybe I'll be able to corner him before the game tonight....

Arbitrary Lines

So someone left me a comment on my last post that flustered me when I read it.

I don't get many comments, so each one is precious, and it's surprising when one might be a little negative.

Or, maybe it's not negative, it's just a different world view.

They wrote:

You draw the line at wearing fur when you think it's OK to kill your dogs for their fur. If not, then why rationalize using the fur of another creature that was killed. Sheesh

I realized they were commenting on the fox fur on that hoodie I liked. And I thought, "Goodness! Why are they so mad at me?" And, "How should I respond? Should I respond?"

So I went back to my post and saw that I wrote:

And, shoot, I wear leather, so where does one draw the line?

Making the comment perfectly legitimate, since I had invited dialogue. Silly me.

In the interest of fair play, I share with you my gut response when I first read that comment.

I wouldn't kill my dogs for their meat, but I still love to eat steak and lamb.

Does that make me a hypocrite?

I wonder if the person who left the comment is a vegetarian?

I guess it is an arbitrary line I've drawn. My puppies are off limits, but bad luck for the rabbits and ducks we ate in France.

Hmm, I eat rabbit. That is an argument in favor of going with the real fur on the hoodie. Can you eat fox? Does it taste like chicken?

Of course, one could be socially conscious and use Fun Fur instead. I actually have a few balls of red and orange in stash. And a green one, I think.

Do you stop to think about where your leather jacket or that nice steak dinner came from? Or does contemplating it fill you with despair?

Oh, and in case you are wondering, if we did have to eat the puppies, we'd start with Baru (up there at the beginning of the post). He's much stockier than Samson (In the green room), so we'd get more meals out of him. We'd probably have to braise or stew him. How tough is puppy meat? He's pretty lazy, so he shouldn't be too tough.

What? Every family is supposed to have a plan in case of emergency.