Thursday, January 20, 2011

sock pattern explodes into new design! Kudos to fellow ravelry'r lisseut !

Look what I stumbled across while surf'in knitty blogs....

and than it led me to .... knitted bliss ....

which of course I suspect is 2011's new years beginning to an incredible ingenious design talent !

check out this 'back' element ?!

The Pomatoma-shrug by lisseut



lisseut was inspired by Cookie A.'s  Pomatomus sock pattern from Knitty, Winter 2005 issue.


and her photography skills are really cool too.


what a motivator!

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Doctors. hmmph! Sometimes I swear.





My lil gr-daughter had surgery last week. Tonsils/Adenoids.  FINALLY!  stupid doctors. They never listen. Them doctors been diddle dickin around for last six years, which is her entire life. "oh, it's just allergies". Trying this pill and that pill. She's been on prescrip allergy pills FOREVER, even as an infant.  Well, the surgeon came out and told us that her adenoids/tonsils were soooooo hugh that they physically were blocking over 50% of her airway. Said they should of came out a long time ago. Couldn't believe they waiting so long to refer her. I am mad. 

My poor lil baby.  No wonder she always seem about to die every-time she was sick. I kept telling em'.  Somethings not right.  I told them she never could breathe through her nose while chewing food. Always had to chew with her mouth open. And lordy, try to stick a thermometer in her mouth she'd suffocate!   You know them doc's should really learn to listen to a mother's instinct (ok well grandmother's instinct in this case).  Sometimes they should really stick their degrees up their whazoo.  btw, did i tell that i am mad!  Mess with my baby like that.



Guess what?  yup, already she can breathe through her nose when she sleeps now. I'm a happy camper for her now.




And she hasn't snored all week. First time ever for her to sleep all night long without waking up.  Can you imagine? That's like six years of sleep deprivation.  


ok, almost forgot to tell...for my sock-a-month club I did a quick lil pair of baby sockies while gr-daugther had her surgery and re-cooping.

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Patches spidey-dog sweater done! {Updated}

Project started:  2011 New Years
Project completed: two weeks later on Jan. 15th
Knitting method: in-the-round on addi-turbo circular needles size 6
Helpful Suggestions: techknitter's short row theory & 'differential lengthing' It really helped in custom fitting this sweater to accommodate his broad thick chest area.
Regret do-overs:  I really wanted this to be longer in length to reach his tail but I ran out of the blue yarn..  yup i should of bought that one extra skein. but i think his sweater still turned out very well for my first one. I like it very well :)

to see my inspiration for this spidey logo for the top of his back, 
go to....

Kathleen Taylor's pattern "We Call Him Spidey Mittens"

  



~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
ok, I think what I need to do to fix Patches sweater to keep the underbelly row from riding shorter than the top back panel is to learn about DIFFERENTIAL LENGTHENING.  Thanks TECHknitter's !  Your blogpost on short row theory has found me at the most opportune time!  Soon as I seen the below picture on her post it clicked with me that this just maybe what I need to focus on for the chest area of Patches sweater.   hmmm, I probably should have found this nugget of information earlier and incorporated it in before I did his leg openings. But I didn't. So I can't. Well, I could if I really wanted to rip out all the way back that far. But I don't. I probably should. But I'm not going to.  My MS is flaring up and I just want to keep going on this sweater. So, instead, I am going to try to figure how to work in with where I'm at right now which is about four rows after his leg cuffs.   There is still about a good six inches left to knit before I need to bind of his belly row.  




Below is what TECHknitter describes..... I'm going to have study this and try to wrap my brain around it! ;)

Before turning away from shaping, Illustration 7 shows short rows in circular knitting.


Circular knitting is composed not of discrete circles, but rather of an endless stack of spiral rounds. Rounds 1, 2, 3, and 4 (black) are ordinary knitted rounds in such a stack. Round 5 is also an ordinary knitted round--the last one before the short rows. It has been colored yellow for reference. On Round 6, the knitting stops at the red dot. The work is then turned and worked back to the purple dot. This makes the red short row, labeled "S." At the purple dot, the work is again turned, and this time an entire round is knit--round 7, shown in green.

As shown, when round 7 has been worked past the last stitch of the red short row, it must be worked into the underlying round. Because round 6 is a short round, this means round 7 is worked into round 5, the yellow round. After round 7, the short row sequence ends. Round 8 (purple) is a full round. Because round 7 was a short round, this means that as round 8 approaches the area of the short row, it is worked into round 6, the blue round. As round 8 climbs over the area of the short row, it goes from being worked into round 6 (blue) to being worked into round 7 (green). Rounds 9 and 10 (black) are again ordinary full rounds.

Inserting the partial short round 6 (blue), the full short row "S" (red) and the partial short round 7 (green) distort the fabric just as it did in a fabric knit back-and-forth (illustration 4). To the right of the short rows (where round 8 meets round 6) and to the left of the short rows (where round 7 meets round 5) the fabric is pinched together. The short round/rows themselves (6, "S," and 7) are forced to bulge outward. Even the ordinary black (full) rounds some distance from the short rows are distorted.

Like short rows in flat knitting, whether short rows yield bulge or differential lengthening (or both!) depends on how you stack and pack the short rows into your circular-knit fabric.

Saturday, January 1, 2011

Happy New Years my friends !

 
Happy New Years my friends! 


LQQK... Patches is getting a doggy sweater ;)
This my first attempt at knitting a garment other than socks. This is Tatamy Yarn by Kraemer Yarns. It is 45% cotton & 55% acrylic. This first sweater is going to be a mock up for my future patterns. His next one will b in wool because cotton & acrylic for outdoor garments do not stay warm once it gets wet. Wish I'd a found this yarn when i did Trey's spiderman blanket. It would have been perfect for that!
What a good boy he is for modeling! Tho I can tell he's not really sure about this sweater thing because Ic an see he has his ears cowering down a bit.
A closer look.
It does look bit tight but it's stretchy & soft.  If you look at the last pic in this post you can tell Patches has since his rescue sure gets good meals at this house! He has put on a few pounds since he first arrived. But that was four years ago. Back than he was only 17 lbs.  Now he's 23 lbs.  Which IS only six lbs heavier but wow what a difference six pounds makes on a small dog.  I've been dutifully trying to convince dear hubby how bad it is to feed Patch table scraps.  But it's hard for dh to stop sneaking treats to Patch. When we first found him he seemed so tiny and on the thin side. AND he was actually eating the edges of our blanket.  I finally figured out that was his way of telling us he was still hungry. So when I feed him I now give him 2 tablespoons of the "Purina One" canned meat along with his half a cup "Purina One" dry kibble.  Since I added the wet meat to his kibble Patches has stopped eating the edges of our blanket!

UPDATED**** Well I've since ripped out all those short rows I did because I can't figure out how to reconnect them to the  top back panel on the other circular needle. hmmm.  I do think the "short rows" is the right thing to do to bring the belly portion of the knitting back farther to match up but I am at a lose on how to exactly connect it all up without a big gap happening. If anyone can give me some pointers I'd really love it!

And I needed to redo the leg cuffs. Of course they were too tight when I bound them off. And I knew to watch for that because that is a problem that I read that everybody has. Tight bind off.  
Today I just learned about Jenny's super stretchy bind off !!!! omg it is!  
Go here for the best explanation of it ~ http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall09/FEATjssbo.
And here to watch it being done on You Tube ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bc8dvYVsMMU

This stretchy bind-off sure made the difference for my dog liking his sweater better. Who could blame him?  I wouldn't want my paws choked to death lol.


This is Patches when we first rescued him ;)

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