Mossy Cottage Knits

It's My Party, I Can Bite You if I Want To...

Was the first meeting between Frankie and LindaK’s Scarlett a success? Well, it depends on whom you ask. If you ask me, I would say “Yes.” If you ask The Mysterious K, she would say “Yes.” Not to be presumptuous, but I believe LindaK would also say “Yes.” Based on these pictures of happy abandonment and stomach scrootchies, I believe even Scarlett would say “Yes.”

But then there’s this picture of Frankie which gives me pause. Does this look like a happy dog to you, or a dog that has sold her soul to the Dark Forces of Evil?

Actually, the two girls were quite well behaved, give or take the occasional unladylike flash of fangs and stream of ear-pinning doggy obscenities. Next time, however, I will have to remind TMK that, whether the dogs are really mad or just having a small turf war, swatting them gently about the head with a soft fleece toy isn’t going to make them stop. In fact, I believe said fleece toy was what started World War III in the first place. Two dogs, one toy, fuel, fire, yaddayaddayadda.

Knitting Knews
Anyone out there remember “Dumb Donald” from the Fat Albert show—you know, the kid who peered through eyeholes in his too-long knitted cap? When I read that the Coronet cap called for me to knit the hat 8” deep before starting the decreases, images of me as Dumb Donald wearing a Coronet cap kept popping into my head. However, this questionable measurement turned out to be all too accurate since apparently I was Knitting the Hat Completely Wrong.

Upon rereading the pattern with as much care as I should have used the first time, I discovered I was supposed to knit the crown of the hat with the wrong side of the cabled band facing me and then flip the band up, thereby creating a firm, thick, secure double band for the bottom of the hat while simultaneously sucking up two of those 8”. I, on the other hand, just picked up the 96 stitches for the crown and started knitting away with, of course, the cable band facing me, blithely assuming the pattern called for, in short order, a band, a crown, and some decreasing, period—none of this “folding up” cr_p. I have since realized, however, that my way looks adequately spiffilicious, and the “real” way would have required 2” more of knitting with not much to show for it. Of course, we’ll have to wait and see how I feel about “my way” the first time I go out in a light breeze and the hat instantly flies away and gets snagged way up on a tree limb, lacking, as it will, the secure grip of the double band. Ultimately, though, this is a great, fun, fast pattern. I wholeheartedly recommend it!

For an added bonus, a picture of Dear Reader Angie from Texas's first cables ever. Look familiar? Yup, it's a Coronet cable band. I'm pleased to say she was motivated to give cabling a try after reading the Mossy Cottage entries on this project. Yes, my evil plan to take over the world is working, although it's going veryveryveryvery slowly.

Feral Knitter's tonight! And what will I be doing? Why, tinking the extra .5" of little green diamonds that I knit because I thought I was supposed to make the body of the sweater 10.75" long, not the 10.25" long the pattern actually calls for. Anyone besides me think I need to take a remedial pattern reading course?

Gardening Gazette
Today's Gardening Picture O' the Day is a peach iris from TMK's back yard. I could look at this flower for hours. Of course, being a knitter and a Fair Isle wannabe (or, more accurately, a Fair Isle wannado), I'm also seeing a color palette here: light peach, dark peach, medium green, chartreuse, navy blue and medium blue (because I know those are the colors of the unopened irises in the back), yellow, and brown (from the dirt which we can't see but which we can safely assume is there). Ack! I'm starting to see color palettes everywhere!

Posted by Ryan at May 17, 2004 11:13 AM