In Which Sandy Worries, and Knits

King of the WorldPupper just left with M to go to the vet so his left eye (please, God, make sure they take the left one) can be removed. Me, I'm not quite a nervous wreck, but my fragile baby is having surgery, so I'm a little distracted. And last night I dreamed that they took the wrong eye, leaving him both deaf AND blind.

It is time for the surgery (he's been blind in that eye as long as we've had him, and he's so unaware of it these days that he doesn't even close it when he sleeps -- exacerbating his dry eye and causing chronic infections), and life will be easier for all of us when it's over. Funny, one of the things I'm most worried about is what seeing "his" dog in an Elizabethan collar will do to our rather skittish K-Man, whose life motto is "Panic first, ask questions later."

But, now to knitting (the best tonic for almost any situation).

The Magenta thing is done. I love it when a plan comes together, and this one did. The finished object is just perfect for wearing over a tank top to keep the A/C chill off.

When I got there, I decided to go with feather and fan for the skirt. I tried a few other things, but the classics are the classics for a reason, and I think f & f was just perfect for this application. So, after I made the eyelets and bound off the center 3 stitches (the seed stitch placket), A Magenta ThingI increased to some multiple of 18 and worked the feather and fan until it was about mid-butt length.

For the edgings, I picked up stitches along the edges of the lace section and around the neck, worked two garter ridges, an eyelet row (K2tog, YO), then another garter ridge before binding off. If I were to do this again, I would probably knit the edging along with the skirt, picking up three extra stitches at the bottom of the placket rather than casting them off.

I then picked up the sleeve stitches and knit just 6 stockinette rounds before edging them like the neck and skirt. Right now, the tie is just a long crochet chain, and I haven't added buttons to the placket -- a trip to the fabric store is probably coming soon to pick out some ribbon and buttons.

All together, this sweater used almost a whole 1-lb cone of Valley Yarns Hampshire Brights (a 6/2/2 mercerized cotton they no longer carry, though their Valley Cotton comes in a 3/2 which is the same weight). Because of the extra twist in this double-plied yarn, I am glad I chose a project for it knit in the round. I got the feeling that this yarn might have a biasing issue if it were knit flat in stockinette (the lace is okay, partly because it's garter-ish). A good thing to keep in mind, since I have a few more cones of this in the stash.

Sock Blankie
And finally, another new blanket project. I succumbed to the allure of making something useful out of all my sock yarn scraps and so I've begun my own sock yarn blankie. I have 17 foundation squares done, and have started to join them. I am knitting on size 3 double pointed needles (bigger than I would use for socks, but softness and floppiness -- rather than hard-wearingness -- are the aim here), and starting with 31 stitches for each square. I am randomly (or not-so-randomly in some cases) adding sections of stockinette to each square to add some interest. In some cases, I'm using the stockinette, too, to lessen that garter-stripe effect.

I don't plan on finishing this one anytime soon. In fact, unless I decide to sacrifice some of my wool sock yarn (which, let's face it, makes socks I can wear for about 2 months if I'm lucky here in Tucson), I don't have enough yarn to finish the blankie anyway. So, if anyone wants to send sock yarn scraps my way....

Say a prayer, light a candle, send good thoughts to the Universe for my baby and his surgeon.

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