And Now for Something a Little Different!

You may recall a few posts ago I mentioned that my younger sister Donna had made a special request for a Christmas gift last year.  She's a bit of a golfer (in fact, everyone in the family is but me!) and wanted some hand knit golf club covers.

I could tell from the brief conversations we had on the topic that she did not want understated golf club covers - she wanted golf club covers that would get a bit of attention.

Naturally, I put off seriously thinking about the project until December. On my last shopping trip with my Mom we spent some time in the yarn aisle at Walmart and after a bit of waffling I decided that dog shaped covers would hit the spot - much to Ma's amusement.  I can imagine her reaction to the finished objects.

I didn't start the covers until January when armed with a few skeins of Red Heart Super Saver and just my wits(!) I set out knitting.  I had a few false starts with the shaping - but eventually had what I thought looked like a dog's head.  My other sister and father were less convinced -- until I added the ears.

Donna was monitoring progress closely and then had another bright idea -- one of the covers should be modelled on her dog Sally.   (Photo below - she doesn't always wear glasses.)

This was a real challenge - I am not a knitting portrait artist!  I made a few attempts which were frogged before finally settling on using four strands of grey kid silk for the grey bits of Sally's fur. In a bit of serendipity I found a skein of the kid silk haze in a side pocket of my luggage left over from last year's Christmas knitting for Kail.

I was almost done - but didn't know what I was going to do for ears and the nose.  Unfortunately craft supplies weren't readily available and the things I could find didn't do the job.

I was going to bring the covers back here to London for finishing - but Donna was concerned she'd never see them again (she knows me well) and took them home with her for the final touches.

The dogs made their debut on her recent golf trip to Cuba where I have no doubt they improved her golf game immeasurably!!

When the End isn't the End

So following the great shrinking fiasco I returned to the Princess edging.

I knit a little each day.

Only a little each day because edging knitting at the beginning of a project is wrong and against the natural order of things.  (That and the fact that I've recently become obsessed with paper and glue and all things inky and glittery. )

But I have been knitting when I manage to get the ink out of my fingers and yesterday I counted my edging points and I had made it to 62.  WooHoo!

I took a look at the pattern to see where that put me in the 'how much longer will this have to go on' stakes.

And this is what I read:

Knit the edging for 85* points.

I glanced down to the * point and saw this:

* 2007 note: For a shorter edging you could make only 62 edging points....

62 points! I have 62 points.  Clearly it is fate that I checked the pattern at this point.





The practical, let's get this edging done side of me is screaming (really, it's screaming) "WooHoo! you are done. Now you can do some real knitting.  Let's go!"

But the masochistic, obsessive compulsive side of me is whispering "Well, you could do the 'easy' alternate edging.  If you aren't up to the project as it was originally designed  then you should stop now - don't push yourself."

Even as I write this I KNOW the practical side of me was right.

No one, not even the Princess' designer Sharon Miller herself would actually notice if I did 62 instead of 85 repeats.

But I probably don't need to tell you that I'm on repeat 68 now.....

It's hard work being a freak.

When You Can See the Ending from the Beginning

You know when you watch a horror film and you spend the whole time thinking "Don't go in there!" "Why is she going in there?" and wondering how you are supposed to believe that any rational human being would make the decisions you are watching?  And then, just when you think it's over -- the baddie springs back to life for one last horror?

Well, prepare to feel that way now.

Our opening scenes begin with our hapless knitter finishing up the Donkey Jacket and shoes she is making for a friend's soon to be born baby.  The knitting has been pretty uneventful but took longer than expected - largely because the knitter failed to take into account that if you are knitting a jacket with a full lining it will take twice as long as a jacket without a lining.  This alone should alert the viewer that the knitter we are dealing with is not on top of her game.

As the knitter finishes the last piece of the shoes the background music changes slightly and you feel the tension rise as she looks at the 3 random shapes in front of her and wonders how in heck they are going to come together to be a shoe???

You watch in fear as she turns the pieces this way and that and begins madly seaming.  She tries a few permutations and then in frustration just sews the pieces together in what appears to be a random sort of way.

You watch from behind a cushion - but - it's ok. 

They turned into shoes.

You relax as the music calms down and you watch the knitter prepare to block the jacket. 

She drops it into a cool wool wash.

But as she turns away from the washing machine you see the first tell tale signs of red...dripping from the jacket onto the cream lining.  Go  back - you scream at the screen.  But she doesn't.  She's off to the shop to get something for dinner.

You know what's waiting for her when she returns.  A jacket with a pink lining.  You hope she holds her nerve.  You hope she doesn't panic.

You hope wrong.

She panics.  She wants a cream lining.  Not this pink thing.  And she's meeting the mom to be the next morning. 

And now you watch in horror as she throws it back in the washer hoping that another gentle wash will take out the dye.  Nooooooooooooooooooooooo.  She's selected the wrong setting and she hasn't noticed!  It's on a warm wash.  A long warm wash.

But she's watching the Apprentice and hasn't noticed. When the Apprentice finishes she does think it's odd that the short gentle cycle hasn't finished - but turns to BBC2 to watch "You're Fired" and puts it out of her mind.

You meanwhile are watching the little jacket go round and round and get littler.  And littler.

Cut to the final scene.  Our knitter, clutching a small, shrunken, red and pink jacket. 

The next day I gave the mom to be the slippers - which escaped the ravages of the washing machine - and a promise to knit something else when the baby is born.  The little jacket is - well - little and might possibly fit a newborn - but as a double layer felted jacket it's way too warm for a baby in July!!!