Craftiness

Hood construction

Can anyone tell me a bit about common hood construction? I've been on a kick of buying Japanese dog knitting books, and a lot of my favorites, have itty little doggie hoods. But the actual pattern is just a drawing of the hood, which doesn't help me knit it. From the picture, the hood is knit onto the neck, and there's a seam on the top of the head, but the back of the head is NOT seamed. How do you think I'd achieve this? By picking up stitches around the neck, then knitting back and forth, then halfing the rectangle and sewing it together?

New blog!

I've started a new knitting blog, dedicated to basically pretty pictures of knits- please check it out and talk about it so I can get some submissions for next Friday! Check it out!

Knit Inspiration

Knitting and Hometown Related

This is semi-knitting related.

In my hometown of Uxbridge, part of the Blackstone Valley, there used to be a lot of large mill businesses. Bernat Mills was one of them, and is still based here, by PO Box only as far as I can tell, but the mills they used are still here of course. The mills in recent years, have been used to house a lot of small businesses. Over the weekend, the mill burned down unfortunately.  It had become a pretty cool place, and well, anything fiber related is cool to me, even if it only USED to be fiber related. There was an article in the Boston Globe about it, and you can read here if interested. Pretty much, a lot of small business owners were devastated, as it took 23 fire departments to even put the damn fire OUT. We drove by today to see, and it was weird seeing that mill that's been down the street from my house burned down like that- the state police were there with huge trucks, apparently investigating.

Feral Fair Isles Duplicated

Hello! Nothing has changed, really on the transplant listing front- still waiting. More information is being sought about my history with liver disease. We'll see what's next.

In the meantime, I've started making my Christmas gifts. Yes, I know you probably hate me, but I'm such a slow knitter, there's no way I'd finish otherwise. It's unlikely I'll finish this way either, but I have more hope. I started by making a sweater I've wanted to knit for awhile, after seeing it featured in a Knitpicks catalog.

The sweater, is for none other than the lovely Miss Holly.

That's the best picture I have of her, freshly groomed, and wearing the first sweater I ever knit her (and that's my mom's hand, grasping onto Holly's leg as if she was about to leap to her death from the countertop). Mom and Dad requested a new sweater for this year, as that old sweater is starting to get a little dirty and gross.

So when I saw this sweater, which perfectly matches the Old Navy jacket I got her last year, I knew I had to make it in the same colors.

Feral Fair Isles

Needles: two size 7 Knitpicks Options circulars, and size 6 Susan Bates DPNs for the ribbing for the sleeves.

Yarn: Same called for on the Knitpicks page (this is all a big ad for Knitpicks, as you can see), Swish in Capri, Sand Dune, and Truffle. The cream was Knitpicks Bare, their superwash dyeable yarn.

Pattern: Feral Fair Isles, a pattern by Amy Swenson, featured in Kristi Porter's Knitting For Dogs.

Started July 2, 2007, and Finished July 20th.

Thoughts: I looove the yarn. Swish is super soft, and I loved the feel of it. The colors are awesome, and I really like the result of the sweater. The pattern could have been a bit better- there were some mistakes, easily fixed by looking at the pictures, but the publishing company never bothered with putting up an errata page, which irked me. I need some work on my fair isle work, as the stitches where I switched colors every other stitch puckered badly.

Lastly, I find it hard to make a Christmas gift early. I want to give this to my parents (and Holly, but she'll care a lot less) NOW. They don't know I made it, and hopefully I can keep it that way till December.

Now, I'm going to go get my self together- my sister's coming to get me at 11, and we're going to enjoy the last hour of Harry Potter mania at Barnes & Noble, and then I'll come home, book in hand, read a chapter (or several), go to bed, and then spend tomorrow discovering what happens to the Boy Who Lived and Lord Voldemort :) And Snape.

"Unless he's the Boy Who Gave Me Treats, I don't care."

Knitting Skillz Meme

Bold for stuff you've done, italics for stuff you plan to do one day, and normal for stuff you're not planning on doing.
Afghan
I-cord
Garter stitch
Knitting with metal wire
Shawl
Stockinette stitch Socks: top-down
Socks: toe-up
Knitting with camel yarn
Mittens: Cuff-up
Mittens: Tip-down
Hat
Knitting with silk
Moebius band knitting
Participating in a KAL
Sweater
Drop stitch patterns
Knitting with recycled/secondhand yarn
Slip stitch patterns
Knitting with bananafiber yarn
Domino knitting (=modular knitting)
Twisted stitch patterns
Knitting with bamboo yarn
Two end knitting
Charity knitting
Knitting with soy yarn
Cardigan
Toy/doll clothing
Knitting with circular needles
Baby items
Knitting with your own handspun yarn
Slippers
Graffiti knitting (knitting items on, or to be left on the street)
Continental knitting
Designing knitted garments
Cable stitch patterns (incl. Aran)
Lace patterns
Publishing a knitting book
Scarf
Teaching a child to knit
American/English knitting (as opposed to continental)
Knitting to make money
Button holes
Knitting with alpaca
Fair Isle knitting
Norwegian knitting
Dying with plant colours
Knitting items for a wedding
Household items (dishcloths, washcloths, tea cosies...)
Knitting socks (or other small tubular items)on two circulars
Olympic knitting
Knitting with someone elses handspun yarn
Knitting with dpns
Holiday related knitting
Teaching a male how to knit
Bobbles
Knitting for a living
Knitting with cotton
Knitting smocking
Dyeing yarn
Steeks
Knitting art
Knitting two socks (or other small tubular items) on two circulars simultaneously
Fulling/felting Knitting with wool
Textured knitting Kitchener BO
Purses/bags Knitting with beads
Swatching Long Tail CO
Entrelac Knitting and purling backwards
Machine knitting
Knitting with self patterning/self striping/variegating yarn
Stuffed toys
Baby items
Knitting with cashmere
Darning
Jewelry
Knitting with synthetic yarn
Writing a pattern
Gloves
Intarsia
Knitting with linen
Knitting for preemies
Tubular CO
Freeform knitting
Short rows
Cuffs/fingerless mits/armwarmers
Pillows
Knitting a pattern from an online knitting magazine
Rug Knitting on a loom
Thrummed knitting
Knitting a gift
Knitting for pets
Shrug/bolero/poncho
Knitting with dog/cat hair
Hair accessories
Knitting in public

The ring...

Thank you all for "having faith" :) The good wishes were wonderful, and I was happy to see that a lot of you saw the transplant possibility as a "good thing"- it is a chance of being able to breathe. I have to say, if I had never known anyone that had a good transplant experience, I probably would have left the hospital after the consultation and never gone back. The welcome letter says that in their experience, only 50% of patients who just go for the initial consultation, return for the actual evaluation. EEP! I will get the results of my evaluation next week, and if they list me now, will have to wait for about two years, I believe.

As for the other bit of news I had, I was asked to post a picture of the ring, which I'm MORE than happy to do :)

Ignore my hairy knuckles. I LOVE that ring so much.

My usual catch up

I don't know why anyone would continue to subscribe to my feed- if you have, I love you. You have faith.

A lot has happened in regards to my health in the past months. I haven't read Bloglines since May, at least.

Because my immune system can no longer really fight off my lung infections (caused by cystic fibrosis, if you're just passing by, or maybe even forgotten) I had a port-a-cath placed in my chest wall. It's a permanent IV, basically. I've learned how to access it myself, and I change the needle once a week. I take IV antibiotics at home continuously, so I do have a bit more freedom. Most of the time I feel pretty good, since I don't have a fever, so I go out and about. I've found that I'm much more social than I used to be, and in effect, much happier.

The second big news, is that I've started seeing the lung transplant team at Brigham & Women's in Boston. As of this week, I've finished the transplant evaluation, which is when they test you to see if you're sick enough for transplant, and also decide if you're HEALTHY enough for transplant. Weird, eh? Finishing that was a huge weight off of my shoulders, as the days spent in Boston for testing really wore me out. On July 11th, I'm going back to see a member of the transplant team, who will tell me what happens next. It's a little weird sometimes to think that a group of people will be sitting down together in the next 10 days, and will talk about me and decide, basically, my fate.

 

And last in big news- but happy news- my boyfriend and I finally became in engaged in May :) We've been together for over four years, it was just time. The ring is beautiful, a diamond with two sapphires on either side. It's not my birthstone, I just LOVE diamonds and sapphires paired, so this ring is what I've always wanted. The boy is also, what I've always wanted :) He's been a rock these past four years, and has a huge store of strength, and I don't think he even realizes it. We've put off wedding planning until after transplant, as we have way too much on our plates to deal with both. We did decide on a winter wedding, as it's my favorite season.

I've only just begun knitting again. Knitting basically was and is what I do when I watch TV, to make myself feel productive, but lately, when I watch TV, it's to let my brain shut down and be numb for awhile. It gets pretty tired with all the what ifs that were swirling around it at first. I'm starting to become much more at ease with what's been happening, and have taken a more "Que Sera, Sera" attitude now that I'm settling down.

Que Sera, Sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours, to see
Que Sera, Sera
What will be, will be.