Calling for opinions!

You remember these guys, right? The Ace Fingerless Mitts. I wrote up the pattern and had it tested, and had a little idea--I know that I'm not going to make a living from writing patterns, so why not sell the pattern through Ravelry for a pittance (say, one or two bucks?) and donate all of the proceeds to the ASPCA? I feel like it's a non-controversial non-profit, and that many knitters would have an appreciation for animals since we get a lot of our materials from them. So question 1: good idea or totally lame?

The pattern testing on them is wrapping up, so the copilot and I did a little fashion shoot last evening. Which brings me to question 2: which photos would entice you to make some fingerless mitts? Keep in mind they can be cropped. The copilot cleverly suggested to include the dog in the shoot to go with the ASPCA theme. Here are a few that I think are pretty OK, but I feel like I'm not very objective:




You can tell I start to crack up at one point during the faux 'coffee drinking' section.

I love the pics where he's pawing at the mitt, but his wang is kind of front and center. He's self-censoring a little in this one.



If you're bored at work, check out the whole set here. You can refer to the photos based on their ID number. Thanks for your professional assessment!

Felted Dog Toys: Awesome Knitting Application or Gastrointestinal Obstruction Waiting to Happen?

Purchase: 100% NZ wool Bonzees felted dog toy.

Thoughts: "Oh, a dog toy would be fun to knit!"

Back off my bone, beeyotch.

After about 1 min.

After 5 min.


After 15 min.

Conclusions: Hand knit toys not a good idea for destructive alligator-esque dog jaws.

Knitting related news

A couple items of possible interest to my fellow knitters:

Apparently Katherine Heigl is starring in an HBO adaptation of the 2007 novel The Knitting Circle. I've never read it (I think my mom may have? Sounds like something she mentioned at some point. Yes, I listen when you talk, but it doesn't all make the cut to long term memory). I'm not sure if my interest in the subject matter negates my (possibly irrational) extreme dislike of K. Heigl. To my credit, she does usually sound like an enormous douche in interviews, but let's be real here - I think I just like to give celebrities elaborate back-stories that may or may not actually be true.

This next tidbit came to me by way of the radio show Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me! in their Listener Limerick Challenge:

Knitting Fates, to me, sounded like bull.
Yet, like them, I now have my hands full.
As I'm ending my years, my sheep meet the shears.
And I'm knitting a coffin of?

Photo from the Toronto Star.
Wool! Apparently a UK company is pitching the concept as environmentally friendly, I feel that it just looks comfortable. It would take a pretty long time to make your own though, and then you'd need an industrial sized washer to felt it. If you're really dedicated, I'm sure your boss or mother-and-law would would love one.

Semi-Obligatory 'Spring has sprung' Blog Post (SOSHSBP)

It seems like everyone has been doing some version of the SOSHSBP for quite some time now, and considering that it had not sprung here yet only served to make me more jaded and bitter. I need some kind of vengeance--so take THIS, readers from the Yukon Territory and Finland--spring has reached Wisconsin, bitches.

I found myself recently wanting to work on something mindless and quick, so I started a making a simple sock. I didn't have enough sock yarn left from either of two skeins of PacaPeds (a delightful wool/alpaca blend) to make a full pair of socks after making this and this, so I decided to put the colors together.

Ehhhhh?
Economic factors have led me to some poor yarn color choices before (as in, 'well this is the color I really want, but the hunter's orange is on sale!') so I was fairly skeptical of how this was going to turn out. My copilot was dubious as well, but after I started them I started seeing the color combo everywhere. Neighbors' houses:


And in their flowerbeds:


When these guys appeared last week, it finally felt safe to say we were in spring. I remember feeling excitement every year the crocuses (croci?) started coming up in our flower bed, heralding the first shoots of life following the big chill.

The lake is also completely liquid, so that's nice. I do miss the having ice as our dog's personal playground.


The crocuses seem to be popping up in places where people didn't necessarily plant them, but you couldn't really ask for a nicer looking weed.



This concludes the SOSHSBP.

Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day 7: Your knitting and crochet time.

I travel a lot for work (and fun!), so a lot of my knitting is done on the road. I like to work on smaller projects (hats, mitts, socks) when traveling, for ease of transport. Usually I keep two projects with me, the necessary needles, and any extra flotsam needed for that particular project. One thing I've learned--people find knitting with a set of double pointed needles to be extremely impressive. Must just be the mass of needles and all the pointy ends.

And here comes somewhat embarrassing confession time. I really like to knit while watching TV. But you know, only educational programs.


Bum bum.

I can't help it! I know it's the mental equivalent of junk food, but it's my favorite show to knit to. First of all, it's on pretty much all the time. I've probably seen them all, so I don't have to give it my rapt attention. And what can I say? I love every over the top twist and knowing that the SVU squad is ON THE CASE.

And that wraps up the week...I've had a lot of fun participating in the 2nd Knit and Crochet Blog Week, thanks for reading! I've found a lot of new blogs to read, and I hope you'll visit me again too.

Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day 6: Something to aspire to.

This is an easy one: complicated colorwork. We're talking multiples colors, complicated patterns - basically traditional fair isle. Specifically, I really want to do a project from this book:


Knit Your Own Norwegian Sweaters
Old knitting books, patterns, and pamphlets are awesome. This little gem was published in 1974. The pictures are my favorite part, I think.



What's with the random Norwegian dude?

No clue what's going on with the chick in the middle wearing a crown.

Star Wars won't come out for five more years, this particular Leia iteration was well ahead of her time.

What's mainly holding me back, though, is this part:


Just reading through the first paragraph, it's clear that there is going to be a decent amount of translation involved. The needle size required is something like 10, when the gauge indicates that it really should be something more like a US 1 or 2. Those are pretty freaking tiny needles to use for a pattern I'm not 100% sure I can follow. Maybe someday if I find myself snowed in in the Alps, I'll start on a Norwegian sweater.

Knit and Crochet Blog Week Day 5: And now, for something completely different

Here comes the interpretive dance! Kidding. For something a little different, I wanted to try to answer a scientific(-ish) question about knitwear.

About a year and a half ago, I bought my husband a book about back-country skiing. It included a figure that seemed to imply that wearing a hat with a tassel or a pom-pom on top was advised because the tassel/pom would wick moisture away from the head and evaporate faster than a hat without. Since then, I've wondered if that was really true. The tipping point came when someone, without naming any doggie names, chewed the tassel off of one of my hats.


Was it worth the time to sew it back on? So I present to you the experiment:

TASSELS AND POM-POMS: FRIVOLOUS ADD-ON OR ESSENTIAL HAT COMPONENT?

My first thought was to do some sort of exercise with a tasseled hat and then a tassel-less hat, and see which one was sweatier. But that a) assumed I would be exercising exactly the same, the temperature outside was exactly the same, and a lot of other variables that could change and b) I would have to exercise. So I got a stand-in to wear the hat.


In order to speed up the drying time and simulate movement (i.e. exercise), I hooked up a fan to blow over our set-up.


First, I tried spraying the hat a set number of times (30),


and measured dryness by pinching the brim with a paper towel.


If the paper towel soaked through, it was still 'wet'.


But this actually dried too fast. I decided to try a 1 sec dunk in room temperature water instead.


Then I tested the brim every 15 minutes. I waited.


And tested and waited.


And waited and waited.


after three hours of blowing (both literally and metaphorically) I decided to end the test (when the batteries on the fan died). The brim was still wet, but I would try the same thing with the tassel after the hat dried (and more batteries were obtained) and see if there were any dramatic differences, or if I would feel a qualitative difference.

I gave the hat a 1 sec dunk in the water, and attached the tassel.

Three hours later and the hat was actually, surprisingly, much drier. The paper towel test yielded just a bit of moisture. I was shocked. I truly expected a negative result. One of the most exciting things in scientific research is an unexpected positive result. Who doesn't love a surprise? Well, maybe not a surprise root canal. Or surprise punch in the face. So the results are in: tassels and pom-poms are more than just frivolous flair, but actually serve a big purpose in keeping you warm and dry!