Sheep On My Stuff

I did not do so well taking pictures this year! I'm afraid all I can say is that I did this hat in this yarn:

And it was lovely! :)

I have recently become incredibly enamored of entrelac. I love the little triangles, I love knitting backwards (I'm doing that instead of turning my work), I love the interlaced look and feel, I love how variegated yarns look when knit in entrelac, and of course, I love how cute sheep are when holding entrelac-in-progress.

The only thing I'm not loving is that I'm having trouble figuring out how to calculate gauge for it. I tried a normal stockinette test swatch with the proportion of my head (56 cm) and got something that seemed like it was about five triangles too big. Then I tried cutting out those five triangles and got something that wouldn't fit a newborn. I'm working in between now. When I get it figured out, ZOMG! ENTRELAC FOR EVERYONE!!!!!! I'm thinking scarves. I'm thinking mittens. Socks. Felted and non-felted bags. Pot holders. Entrelac is good for everything!

What I'd really like, after my holiday knitting is over, is to make myself a big fluffy soft warm wool blanket. :) We'll see if I get the time to do that before winter ends. I really hope I do!

I've been busy!

Last time I mentioned I was working on a mystery project. It's not that much of a mystery if you link right to it, though, and now that the project is done and in the mail, I feel good about posting about it. So:

Helmet Liners, for Operation: Helmetliner. Yarn used: Brown is Chestnut, Wool of the Andes, KnitPicks; Olive is Deep Olive, Classic Wool Merino, Patons; Grey is Pearl Grey, Lion Wool, Lion Brand.

The sheep so nicely modeling the helmet liner is Bridal Sheep, who spent several years wearing a "Bride-to-Be" veil that I had somehow gotten when I was engaged to SheepLad. The veil eventually got passed to another of my friends, and the sheep... you know, I'm not sure if she ever did get married. She's a very heavy, sturdy sheep, and so she spends a lot of time in the summer sitting in the doorway, making sure our door doesn't slam shut.

This was an awesome project. It's quick, it used up some stash yarn (okay, I went out and sampled two kinds of yarn that weren't in the stash because I was curious how they were to work with!), and it's for a good cause. The pattern took a little bit of fussing at the very end, but for the most part it was very easy. I ended up doing the decreases with a combination of the two-circulars method and the magic loop method, as it turns out, and oh man, I might not want to do the magic loop for socks (too much work), but I love it. I might have to keep it in mind for small things like hats and such in the future.

After the helmetliners -- five of them! -- I wanted to start up the Sea Turtle project from Kath Dalmeny's World of Knitted Toys. But the truth is, I wanted a tortoise, not a sea turtle, so I decided to start improvising my own pattern:

Yarn used: Essential sock yarn from KnitPicks in tan, brown, and black.

The sheep there on my desk is a tiny little plastic sheep, possibly related to Pokemon in some way. It was a gift from my dad! It lives on the desk full-time, near one or the other of the monitors.

I suppose you can't really see the scale on this project, but that's sock yarn being knit on 2mm needles. As a result, it was hurting my hands a bit, and I was improvising the pattern, and it was making me slightly nuts, so in a fit of desire to do something that didn't require a pattern...

Yarn used: Trekking XXL, as if you can't see that!

I started socks. I like ankle socks, so I can get several pairs of socks out of one large ball, or one pair of socks for sure out of a smaller ball.

The sheep so happily modeling the sock and the sock yarn is a little black-faced Suffolk ewe named Douglas. Why is a ewe named Douglas? I don't know. I'm sure she's a girl, but her tag proclaims her name to be "Douglas", and unlike the sheep I have named "Muttons" and "Jiggles", I don't think that name's objectionable, even for a ewe. So she's named Douglas. That's all right; my favorite fictional astrophysicist genius is really named Meredith.

But the socks, the socks. You know, strangely enough, I don't have second sock syndrome. It's the first sock that trips me up. If I finish the first, I'm very, very motivated to finish the second, because then I'll have a pair. Until the first is done, though, I just have yet another knitting WIP.

In this case, thwarting my own desire to do something pattern-free, I decided to experiment with a different kind of heel shaping. I'm doing an afterthought heel on this one, which I've done only a couple of other times before, ever, and I'm not sure how I'll like it. What I really want to try out is a short row heel, which I think would be terrific, but I haven't found good instructions for that yet, and I'm not ready to strike out on my own!

Hopefully next time I'll have a finished pair of socks and some more progress on either the Flower Basket Shawl or the Tortoise. Happy bleatings!

I got the "Huggable Hedgehogs" pattern from FiberTrends for my birthday from a couple of my World of Warcraft friends, complete with yarn and stuffing and whatnots. :) Here are the results:

*
To the left, pre-felted hedgehog; to the right, post-felted/stuffed/face-added hedgehog! Same sheep in both pictures for size comparison. Yarn used: Cascade 220 for the grey wool, an inadvertent scrap of Wool-Ease for the black, and I'm afraid I can't recall what the eyelash yarn is. Eyes and nose are the small plastic kind that you poke in from the front and secure with a button thingy.

I'm terribly pleased with how he came out. He's cute and soft and fluffy!

The sheep in these images is a Russ sheep, one of my favorites. He's about a handful worth of sheep, and usually lives on my bedframe. :) I can't remember where we got him, but I think he's a post-Seattle sheep.

Now for the other thing I've been working on (in addition to the Flower Basket Shawl, which looks much the same as last time):

Yarn used: KnitPicks Wool of the Andes, Chestnut. A little over a skein so far.

It looks kind of like a misshapen lump, doesn't it? Well, hopefully it'll be out of that uncomfortable adolescence soon and headed toward the finishing stages, because I've got yarn for about four more of these in that brown, plus one or so in light grey and one in drab olive (all different 100% wool yarns). What is it? I'll give you a hint in the form of a link. Next time I should have it done, and the next one will probably be on needles.

The sheep in this picture is another sheep from Russ Berrie. Russ makes wonderful sheep! This sheep always seems to be offering a flower (and he's not the first sheep in the collection who looks like that). I think it makes for a very spring lamb-type look, but it decidedly isn't spring anymore! Indeed, we are getting into winter, and I plan on getting socks going again soon. SheepLad needs warm feet! :)

Five recently finished projects and some chat about them:
1.
Yarn used: Wool-Ease, 80% acrylic/20% wool.

"Hoosier Fan Scarf", as modeled by Not-A-Blanket Sheep. One ball of Cranberry and Fisherman Wool-Ease, this was part of the ongoing Get That Wool-Ease Out Of My Stash And Make Christmas Presents Early For A Change project. The scarf is about 6' long and was made on 10mm needles (from Lantern Moon, which are beautiful and nice but damn, they got heavy in the long run).

Not-A-Blanket Sheep is one I picked up in my local yarn store, Ben Franklin. I was in the checkout line when someone behind me pointed at him and said "You're not going to cut him up and make him into a blanket, are you?", sounding very defensive of the sheep. Horrified, I clutched the sheep to me! "No!" She seemed satisfied.

2.
Yarn used: Wool-Ease, 80% acrylic/20% wool.

"Stripey Hat", as modeled by Godiva Sheep. 5mm needles. Leftover bits of Dk. Rose Heather and Rose Heather Wool-Ease, part of the abovementioned project. Coordinates with a scarf I finished recently.

Godiva Sheep was picked up at a Barnes & Noble in the U-District after one Easter. It originally came with a small package of chocolate which I did not eat, because at the time I was clearly insane.

3.
Yarn used: Wool-Ease, 80% acrylic/20% wool.

"Blue And Navy Ragg Scarf", as modeled by Deathbleat. The scarf is simple, 2x2 rib on 5mm needles.

You may be wondering how such a cute sheep got the name "Deathbleat". Deathbleat was (is, if I ever return to it) my first-person shooter name. This was the sheep who sat on my lap while I played such games -- she was new and cute and cuddly and who doesn't like to have a sheep in their lap while they flak their friends to death? (Don't answer that. I know, I know...) Anyway, her name according to the manufacturer is not very dignified*, so I rechristened her Deathbleat. She continues to keep me company when I play violent video games.

4.
Yarn used: Lily Sugar'n Cream, standard kitchen cotton.

"Random Dishcloths", as modeled by Not-Blankets-Either Lambs. This is pretty self-explanatory. The lambs were found at the same Ben Franklin, only this time I picked up both the one with pink hooves and the one with blue hooves.

5.
Yarn used: Lily Sugar'n Cream, standard kitchen cotton.

"Finished Half-Pique Washcloth", as modeled by Gund Sheep With Rattle. I'm still not that thrilled with this washcloth, but I will pawn it off on someone for Christmas. The sheep is one of the ones that tends to live on or around my desk, and he has a rattle in his tummy, making him very difficult to pose!

* "Jiggles".