BAD DOG! BAD, BAD, DOG!
Apparently the little help session the other day went straight to his head. I drove the constable to work last night and had the gaul to leave Hank at home for all of five minutes and this is what I was greated with when I came home, albeit all over the floor. He's never done this before, and I doubt that he'll ever do it again. He looked mighty sorry after I was done admonishing him for what he'd done. Ears back, sad eyes...and he was pretty mellow for the rest of the evening.
Thankfully, none of the actually knitting was unravelled. Just the ball. Took me over an hour to untangle it all and get back to the knitting. What was I knitting you ask? Why a Sheldon of course. Once I had seen Heddy's, I knew I had to cast on. The only two colours left in the baby cotton at the LYS were yellow and this peachy colour, so that's what my Sheldon will be. I finished his body last night before bed, and got him stuffed. Today I'll hopefully get his limbs done and perhaps his shell. I love knitting toys but do not love knitting with cotton, no matter what kind. It's stiff and unforgiving and any mistakes just jump right out at you. I won't knit him in cotton again. I have some stash yarns in mind for other Sheldon's, all acrylics. Some wool/cotton blends. But anyway...
Something odd has happened to me. I have been recently re-evaluating my prior hand knits to see if they might be improved upon. Way back when I first started taking this whole knitting thing rather seriously, I knit myself a hat and scarf out of some Lion Brand Super Chunky Wool Ease-y kind of stuff. Loved it, was so very very proud. I still love the scarf, although I suspect that if I screwed up the purl stitches like I had on this hat, then it may get frogged as well. That's right, I knit for YEARS and years doing my purl sts wrong. As is my nature, I just forged ahead thinking to myself, 'meh...maybe that's just my style'. Then I'd knit in the round and it would look totally awesome and just like everyone else's knitting.
I remember knitting my mother a HIDEOUS pink cardigan out of this really awful rosey-pink acrylic. The body was knit back and forth and the sleeves were knit in the round and when I was done, I was shocked at the difference. I could not for the life of me figure out what I had done wrong. But still, I thought 'meh, it's just my knitting.' Then one day it really started to bug me. I totally thought I was doing it right. So I knit up a swatch and went to my computer and brought up KnittingHelp.com and was determined to figure out my error. Sure enough, I was going under the needle instead of over the top on the purl stitches and was twisting every single stitch. I felt soooooo dumb. Since then, I can barely look at anything I made prior to that. I know that the regular non-knitting Joe on the street wouldn't know the difference when I wore this hat out in public, but it really bugged me, so last night I pulled it all out. Besides, this was knit flat for crying out loud, and then seamed up the back. AMATEUR! So I plan to knit myself a new one for next winter. But I see a disturbing trend starting to emerge. Anything delicate or intricately knit is probably safe, but other than that, everything else had better watch out.
Then I saw this as I was untangling and rewinding last night. Season 3 of Handyman Superstar Challenge just started (which I didn't know but was very excited to have happened upon...shut up, I like home reno shows and have an odd crush on Mike Holmes, alright?) and Karen Bertelsen was wearing THE SWEATER. (To my Ontario brethern...remember Karen Bertelsen on CFMT, all the way back in the '90's? I was a fan). I'm so glad I have an obscenely large tv, as I was able to get a fairly decent photo of the sweater. I love this sweater and I must have one. Ideally, I'd like to figure it out and knit it too. I didn't get a photo of the back, but there was a little detailing at the center back as well. Wasn't as intricate as the front, more of just some ribbing or something. Anyhow, someday, this sweater shall be mine. (As an aside, the lone woman handyman is totally kicking ass...go girl power[tools])
So that's enough babbling for today. Until later...
