Oogyknitter

Hello on this sunny Sunday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. I just saw that Kelbourne Woolens has finally published their November Gift pattern- a hot water bottle cozy!  I think these are a pretty good idea, and would make for a nice gift.  I also think I might have made a couple in my time, and probably would again.  But I'm going to pass on this in favor of another useful household item that I'm working on :) Speaking of knitting - I felted my dad's slippers yesterday.  Our washing machine is terrible for felting, but the dryer does its part with bringing it home.  The slippers are now air drying the rest of the way and I think they look pretty good.  There's a reason why the yarn used in the pattern works the best! Speaking of patterns - I've just received a second request via Ravelry to write up the pattern for BadAss Pawprints .  Guess I'll be adding that to my list of projects for 2021! We strung our outside lights a...

TGIF!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here.  I've said I'm not about showing pictures of food here, but Oogyhubby created this yesterday and I just wanted to show it off: It's his take on a sandwich called The Porkinator made by a restaurant on Cape Cod.  He spent the day (and actually day before as well) preparing the rubs and the washes and the glazes and all that, as well as cleaning the grill and smokers.  (We used to have two smokers, but one evidently had a (thankfully it wasn't as dramatic as it could have been) gas leak and has been retired.) So, on a ciabatta roll (the sturdiest one we could find) there is smoked honey ham, smoked pork shoulder, applewood smoked bacon, breakfast sausage, cole slaw, chedder cheese, and an onion ring.  With a few fries on the side.  And a ton of leftovers. The pie I made turned out great - but so much work!!  I found myself becoming emotionally invested in its successful outcome as well.  B...

Happy Thanksgiving Thursday!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. I thought I'd take just a few minutes to list ten things I'm thankful/grateful for this year.  In no particular order: Friends (yes, you!) and family who continue to be supportive, even in the wake of my unplanned semi-retirement, yarn obsession, and other quirks. Oogyhubby, who gets his own listing (and because we're here together nearly 24/7 so I must drive him the craziest the most frequently). The companies/clients that I'm working for - they provide both a modest income and a sense of belonging and contribution. Technology, even our shitty internet, for making contact with friends, family, and work possible. Resources such as Ravelry and YouTube that enable other knitters and crafters to show the rest of us how to do something like put in an afterthought heel.  My grandmother would be absolutely gobsmacked at all the patterns, techniques, and variety that has emerged. Having my bigg...

Guess what day it is????  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. We're also preparing for another T-giving when we cook our butts off all day and then eat the meal in like five minutes.  The thing that's discouraged grandmothers and moms all this time. I finished the sewing of the second slipper last evening, so now they're both awaiting a felting adventure:  I'm onto making some other things as well as the hat in lieu of October Gift.  I thought that November Gift would be posted this week, but so far there's nothing new out there. In other news - Oogyhubby and I are looking forward to cooking our butts off tomorrow, starting very early in the morning.  I'll be attempting a fancy pecan/pumpkin pie recommended by JW.  He's quite the chef and baker, so I've already set the bar pretty low for myself, LOL.  I'll post a pic if it turns out OK. Here's to a peaceful and healthy T-giving!  If you haven't already done so, I encoura...

Happy Monday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here! The first slipper has been sewn! Benson is looking a bit puzzled because I plopped the slipper right on top of his squeaky toy that he was hoping I'd throw for him to fetch. I also realized that the unfelted slipper is about as big as he is!! I continue to work on the NNWA; it's starting to get a bit unwieldy, but I'd rather have it on me during the colder months than contend with it when it's warm!  (No problem with that for a while, LOL) Oogyhubby helped a friend with a downed tree and they brought some of the wood over yesterday.  One of the pieces looks like a giant chicken - it freaks both of us out, and Benson wanted to attack it - he had full, head-to-tail hackles at it this morning.  I should take a pic, although up close it probably just looks like a hunk of wood. In wildlife news - we saw a deer appear briefly last evening at the edge of the forest.  The black cat has been patrolling ...

TGIF!!!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. It's another crazy warm day right before some weekend snow (hopefully flurries more than snow, but you never know around here!).  The sunshine has been very cheerful! During my conversation with the Oogyparents last night, it became apparent, after some questioning on my part, that the following had happened: - The slippers I made for my dad for his b-day were too big (this I knew).  I'd taught my mom how to make them smaller. - She made them too small.  My dad thinks it's because she wanted them for herself, LOL. - Now my mom has at least three functional pairs of these slippers, and my dad has none. - The needle felting we did on the hole at the bottom of one of the slippers during their visit earlier this year did not hold. -  My mom made some cardboard inserts, and my dad put in a real insert, but evidently these slide around all over the place. I thought of the following solution last evening: T...

Hello on Artichoke Pasta Tuesday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. Many, many years ago, before Oogyhubby and I were married, it seems we'd decided to go on some kind of camping trip to one of the Finger Lakes with a pre-SIL and two of her friends, let's call them J and C.  J and C were also a couple.  We had planned to all meet up and carpool, but somehow everyone was super late, so by the time we set off to find the campground, it was dark.  C was driving, and the rest of us were trying to figure out how to get there. Now keep in mind, this is the early 1990s - so there are no cell phones, or Garmins, or even car compasses like there are today.  Long story short, we couldn't find the campground to save our lives.  We drove around and around and kept getting lost.  At one point we found a sign, something like XX Campground, 12 miles.  Some time later, we saw another sign, XX Campground, 22 miles. Suddenly, C exclaimed - What...

Hello on this blustery Monday!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. We had a big wind last night that disrupted our snow fence, so we'll have to make some repairs.  Fortunately we won't be getting any big snow any time soon, but it was a bit disconcerting!  There are smaller branches down all over the place, but otherwise it seems that we were spared the worst of it.  Now that I'm a bit more into the NNWA pattern, I'm feeling a LOT better about my selection of colors.  It is going to be one cheerful-looking blanket! So you know how on CSI and those other shows, where they spray the luminol looking for blood not otherwise visible?  If you sprayed our house with whatever substance can detect dog saliva, you would find that the interior is pretty well coated - including the ceilings, I'm sure.  This is due to to Benson playing with his squeaker several hours each day, and also having us throw it for him to fetch.  We end up getting pretty c...

TGIF!!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. I continue to be amazed at how quickly each week flies by.  While I realize that it's directly related to how much work I currently have - which is awesome - it's still a bit disorienting to find us here on Friday already and wondering just where the rest of the week went, LOL. Well, at least some of the time has indeed been spent on the first of my dad's Xmas slippers: I've since finished the cuff and started on the second bottom.  Yes, even though these things are double-stranded, double-layered on the bottom, and felted, they do still wear out.  I haven't yet figured out a decent repair process that doesn't take as much time as knitting a whole new one - the tops don't wear out, obviously, but the same thing that makes this pattern ingenious also makes it difficult to repair in modules. I continue to work on the NNWA, although I'm still in the midst of the red section you saw the other ...

Guess what day it is?????  I hope you're well and safe; we're good here. You've heard all about Benson, and at least one of you will remember our beloved Kylie (maybe some others have read the older posts here where Kylie was often featured as an unwilling knitwear model), but our days with Brewster go way back to the mid-1990s.   Brewster was our first adopted rescue canine.  This was before the internet, so the local humane society would publish the dog mug shots in a local paper.  We saw a super cute beagle named Buttons, but by the time we got there she had been adopted.  Then they said - but, wait, we have Brewster! When we went to Brewster's cage, he was sitting there, all fluffed up, very calmly (while other dogs went crazy, sort of Benson-style, LOL).  We got to meet him and thought he had the softest ears ever.  And they were quite long.  (He was also large for a beagle, and we always thought he might have some basset in him as well....

Hello on Turkey Chili Tuesday!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. The weather is still insanely warm for chili, but this recipe is so delicious it really doesn't matter when we have it!  And bonus - there's tequila in it!  And it makes enough for freezer leftovers!  Everyone wins! I finally finished washing and blocking the second pair of yoga socks: I've moved my dad's slippers to the top of the knitting pile.  The knitting on these usually goes pretty quickly.  I've made this pattern more than a dozen times and I do manage to mess it up at least once each time.  Let's see if I can't stay focused on it! Speaking of focused - I have much work to do this week - a good problem to have!  Juggling three separate gigs is a bit challenging sometimes, but so far they haven't interfered with each other - only my knitting time, LOL!

So it's Monday already!  I hope this finds you well; we're good here. After a bit of indoor excavation, I think I've managed to find 400-yard equivalents in four different laceweight yarns that could work for the upcoming Casapinka Shawl KAL: They are, from left to right: Misti Alpaca, KnitPicks Alpaca Cloud, Valley Yarns Alpaca/Silk, and Valley Yarns alpaca/silk hand-dyed by the Kangaroo Dyer.  Do you sense a theme here? I do realize that the two greens are fairly close in hue, but the one on the far right has a ton of blue in it as well that I think will show up better once it's doubled. I've got a lot of winding to do in the coming weeks! I continue to enjoy working on the NNWA, and will show you another pic as soon as I've got all four colors in there.  I also need to get going on my dad's slippers and the things I have in mind for my mom.  So many projects!

A very happy Sunday to you!  We're good here! I took this picture of the NNWA last night:   Since then I'm nearly done with the next section which adds the blue.  I really like the colors I chose, but the blue does seem a bit jarring after this section of purple and gray.  I'm thinking that the red will even it all out - stay tuned! So yesterday was a bit of a roller coaster ride, but mostly in a good way!  First, I got everything I needed done completed prior to Noon, after which time I decided I would just hang out, knit, read, whatever.  Then the election news came through - yahoo!!!!! Then last evening I found out I have a bunch of revisions to do for my new gig.  This is part of the process, and not unexpected, particularly since I'm still getting the hang of it, but it was a bit disappointing.  And it also means that I'll have a busier day today than I had thought.  First world problems, though, right? I also don't know what I was think...

TGIF!  I hope this finds you safe and well; we're good here. I actually can't believe it's Friday already - this week went by really quickly for some reason!  I've picked up a third gig and now I am getting into some serious juggling, LOL.  It's all good, actually. I also wanted to show you the beginnings of the NNWA:  I continue to love working with this yarn! A couple more observations: Casapinka begins a lot of her patterns with ribbing.  At first I thought, what, ribbing on an afghan?  But she had made a comment somewhere that makes so much sense - often times the ends of a knitted thing flare out.  The ribbing is a natural solution to this issue.   Now, ribbing in the middle of a flat item like a shawl or an afghan - nope, not for me. I don't know if you can see them really well in this pic, but the needles I found for this project are part of what came to me from my grandmother.  They're all one piece, and some kind of semi-hard pl...

So Happy It's Thursday!  I hope you're safe and well; we're good here. The Next Nephew Wedding Afghan (NNWA) yarn posed for their portrait this morning:   Well, this is more like the Electoral College of yarns; each color sent a representative skein for the photo.  There is a bag full of the rest of them! I don't often run out and purchase the yarn the pattern designer uses in the pattern - since I usually have something on hand I can use - but I'm so glad I did in this case.  First of all, the pattern calls for a bulky yarn, which I hardly ever use.  I could double up on thinner yarns, sure, and gauge isn't that important for a blanket.  But this yarn - Berocco Vintage Chunky - is really terrific.  It's nearly 50/50 wool/acrylic (with a bit of nylon in there), so it's washable, yet it doesn't feel squeaky.  The yarn is smooth, soft, and lofty.  The one ball I've wound so far had no knots.  This is always a bonus! So I've cast on for the...