August 16, 2006
Harrumph.
Because I’m suffering from a severe case of post-Dulaan-2006 knitting and blogging doldrums, my devilish scheme to distract you from what promises to be a bland and banal blog entry is to post pictures of some of my dahlias, now in full bloom. No one can resist flowers. Besides, there’s color in the flowers and fiber in the leaves so it’s almost like yarn, isn't it?
First, one of my perennial (pardon the pun) favorites, Honey Dew. This champ has grown true to form and type every year, no matter how many times I dig up and abuse the tubers. This picture doesn’t even begin to do justice to the light cantaloupe blush of this flower. This one I have actually been known to fondle.
Secondly, a lovely yellow and orange dahlia that grew very well then suddenly developed weak stems, making the flowers flop over melodramatically as if they, too, were suffering from the post-Dulaan-2006 knitting and blogging doldrums. So sad. Time for this dahlia to retire to a nice condo in Boca.
And one of my other favorites this year, a stunning rich-red dahlia, my first attempt at introducing a less-traditional dahlia into the flowerbed. (That’s what happens when your partner is a designer. You go along and you go along, perfectly comfortable with the all-white walls in your home, with your traditional country color-scheme of green, blue and yellow, with your traditional round-petaled dahlias, and then the whispered suggestions and the gentle prodding in the ribs begin, and then words like “sage” and “terra cotta” and “midnight blue” and “sand” and “tangerine” start cropping up in your interior-design vocabulary and wacky cactus-petaled flowers like this start appearing in your yard. It’s a conspiracy, I tell you; a conspiracy!)
And, now, to change subjects so fast as to perhaps cause whiplash among some of you, I will further distract you with some ferret clothes.
And then I will further distract you with a knitting question. When you are knitting a v-neck cardigan, do you knit the collar band first and then the button band? Or do you knit one continuous band that runs from one side of the sweater around across the neck and down the other side of the sweater? I ask because I tried Option A on the bulky baby vest and it looks like doo-doo. Because of the angle of the v-neck, the place where the collar band meets the button band makes a funny, lumpy, badly angled amorphous point. Blech. I think this is partly to blame for the knitting doldrums. Somebody throw me a life ring. Or perhaps a slice of medicinal chocolate cake. Or three.
Posted by Ryan at August 16, 2006 02:17 PMOk, there's just something wrong with the "ferret rabbit ears"... and it doesn't look like the ferret likes it too much either! Lovely dahlias. Wish I could come out for the yarn giveaway, but it's a long trip from Texas.
Posted by: Rete on August 16, 2006 02:39 PMWhoa. I was distracted by the pretty pretty flowers and then BAM! Ferret clothes! That. is. wrong.
Posted by: Sandy on August 16, 2006 02:44 PMI'm almost afraid to ask what strange sequence of queries led to a web site featuring ferret clothing. LOL
And your dahlias! Simply stunning.
Posted by: Denise in Kent, WA on August 16, 2006 02:46 PMdo we even want to know how you stumbled across the ferret clothes?
Posted by: Rachel H on August 16, 2006 02:50 PMYour dahlias are gorgeous.
Dear God. Rats in clothes. I can't even scroll down it freaks me out so badly. Eeeek!!
When I knit my baby v-neck cardigan, I did one continuous band. Worked perfectly.
Posted by: Heather on August 16, 2006 02:50 PM$10 for a ferret sweater?! Sheesh, us knitters could whip a bunch of those babies out in no time and sell them to raise funds for Dulaan.
Posted by: Kat on August 16, 2006 02:54 PMI do a v-neck as a continuation of the button band. It's always worked well for me.
Posted by: Nina on August 16, 2006 02:56 PMOh Jesuschrist. The Ferret Princess Hat almost did me in ... and then I saw the Ferret Rabbit Ears and I'm so glad I didn't have anything in my mouth at the time.
You have GOT to stop doing things like that to a woman who's only had an hour and a half of sleep out of the last 24.
Posted by: Rabbitch on August 16, 2006 02:59 PMTo nip in the bud the burgeoning theory that I have a kinky prediliction for rodents in clothing, the ferret clothing site kinda/sorta came to me. I am a big fan of boingboing.net and this was one of the articles they linked to a few days ago. Now you know why I'm a fan, even if they do lean toward the extreme political left and, when they talk about the latest and greatest in geeky technology, I understand nary a word. Still, you do find the occasional gem like, well, ferret clothes.
Posted by: Ryan on August 16, 2006 03:09 PMWhat really pleases me is that the beret is "one size fits all."
Dude. That's amazing.
I think it's fair to say that I have now heard it all.
Posted by: Janine on August 16, 2006 03:16 PMBeautiful dahlias! I knit my bands all-in-one and they work just fine.
Posted by: Devorah on August 16, 2006 03:44 PMOK, I love ferrets (had three once) but the clothes are just, well, creepy.
Dahlias are very non-creepy (except for the ginormous ones)and the ones you showed are gorgeous.
And I also speak for the continuous band on a vneck - it sits better on the wearer.
I just laughed myself silly at the two ferrets in sweaters on page 2. :)
Posted by: Patti on August 16, 2006 04:52 PMI'm glad I'm not alone in saying that ferrret clothes are just. plain. wrong.
Seems to me that for a V-neck cardi it would look nicer with the button band and neck done as a piece, rather than trying to do one, then the other.
Posted by: Mel on August 16, 2006 05:44 PMTo make ourselves feel better when older son David left for college last week, young son Elliot convinced me to allow him to buy a ferret.
I can't even bring myself to show him the clothes page! Oh, the horror, the inhumanity (inferretity?).....
Posted by: MaryB in Richmond on August 16, 2006 08:23 PMI just couldn't bring myself to click on the link. I live near a college town (athens, oh) and a while back I saw a kid walking a ferret on a leash. Mabe the reason the ferret looked so freaked is because he went out without his clothes. maybe not. Do dahlias smell good?
Posted by: marylee on August 17, 2006 02:35 AMOne continuous band. With some increases either side of the stitch at the 'points' where the front turns into the neckline. But I could be wrong.
Posted by: CarolineF on August 17, 2006 05:28 AMIs it just me, or do all the clothed ferrets look:
A) depressed
B) angry
C) demented
D) like they are plotting revenge?
Pat in Virginia
Ryan, your flowers are just beautiful! I'm jealous! Anything I grow, gets destroyed by my dogs or the other fauna in our neck of the woods.
I LOVED the ferret clothes! I almost got one once, but with cats and a doxie, that's not a good idea. But ferrets adore, no, make that crave, attention--they probably love their owners dressing them and giving them even more attention. Playful little guys, cute, too!
Posted by: Nancy on August 17, 2006 12:45 PMMarylee, no, dahlias have no smell.
And thank you to everyone for their advice on the v-neck band. I can now retreive the vest from under the couch.
Posted by: Ryan on August 17, 2006 01:00 PMI wish I could give you some medicinal chocolate, if not chocolate cake. Some colleagues of my hub brought our kids some gigantic chocolate bars, but they "may contain traces of nuts," to which the children are both allergic. So I am left with 200 grams of wonderful chocolate, which is not good for my girlish figure, you know?
Posted by: Mary de B on August 17, 2006 04:00 PMOne continuous band should work (that's what I did on my Basketweave Vest). I'm wondering if it's the bulkiness of the yarn that's causing the problem. Can you remove one ply of the yarn so that the yarn's a little thinner and more cooperative?
Posted by: Karen on August 18, 2006 07:17 AMOk, OK- it is my fault. I DID click onto ferret clothes. "Too....strong....pull...can't.....resist..." Ferret Rabbit ears? For which people pay money?? I don't need coffee, I just had a big gulp of what-the-fu...?
Posted by: einsteinella on August 20, 2006 12:58 AM