Bohus and More Bohus

It's hard to believe that's a sweater, isn't it? Keep that picture in mind for when it's finished!

I decided it would be easier to work with if I started the seaming, instead of finishing the colorwork on the collar. Right now it is hard to do anything with ... it's impossible to turn it around to start a new row when it's in five different pieces! It just flops and tangles itself up.

That, and while it was in five different pieces, it seemed as if I'd made the back longer than the fronts ... this worried me so badly that I had to stop and pin it down and make sure everything matched!

I think the sleeves will be a mite short. Otherwise, the dimensions look okay.

I got out my favorite book of finishing techniques ...

And got to work.

To me it seems counter-intuitive to seam on the right side, but that's the way to do it for side seams.

It amazes me how the seam just vanishes.










Except for the lighter color, where decreases made it hard to find the right spot to insert the needle (I make the clumsiest decreases ... it's embarrassing).



I know it's not even (the light part where it joins) but I can live with it this way!









In other news, this past weekend I ran my sixth 5k for the year. I normally post stuff like this on the fitness blog I share with my two friends, but I am so pleased with myself I wanted to add it to this blog as well. Six 5ks! Last year I mostly walked just one 5K. Before that, none. This year I've done two in Columbia; two more sponsored by my workplace; one in nearby Catonsville; and one in Gettysburg (it was too hot for me to run much of that one). I have one more scheduled for 1 December with my running friend from the fitness blog (who just finished her 2nd half-marathon and I don't know how many 5ks this year).

I didn't do very well for my age group, but I beat Miss Pink Shirt and Ponytail, who appears to be quite a bit younger than I am, so I got that going for me. 

Petunia reminds you to stop by Tamis Amis for Work-In-Progress Wednesday!

Cat Mat -- 90 Minute Project!

Modeled by Petunia. 

I've blogged about these before. Just simple squares made out of 3 or four strands of inexpensive acrylic yarn, crocheted or knitted into an oblong. I put them outside in the boxes I set out for the strays, or donate them to a shelter.

 I have a lot of acrylic ... some I bought, but most was donated to me (whether I wanted it or not; "oh, you knit, here, have this yarn! I've had it for years.")

 The mats don't have to be too big, just enough for a kitty to curl up on.









Here, Coraline demonstrates:

 If you look underneath her, you'll see one of the mats. They get dirty fast, but since they're acrylic, they're indestructible.

 She's not evil, really. She just wasn't happy with being woken.

The lights are just 60-watt bulbs in metal clamp-lamps, attached to an Ikea outdoor table. It really helps them keep warm and cozy in the winter.

The mats aren't necessarily pretty ...

....but the kitties that use them are!


This is Spot. She is not a stray, she has a home, but they don't provide her with a warm box to sleep in, so she stays at my place at night.

She wouldn't move so I could put the mat down.

She looks a lot like Petunia, doesn't she?

See Spot. See Spot Glare

I used size 17 needles for this mat ... 12.75 mm! I don't like knitting with them much, but the project sure goes fast!













I really wanted a finished object for Tamis Amis' Finished Object Friday ... my Bohus won't be done for weeks yet! So I knit this mat up in about 90 minutes or so.

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for Finished Object Friday and warm snuggly kitty love!

Sweaterus Interruptus

I was all set to put the sweater on one needle for the colorwork yoke section ... when I realized I forgot to buy a long circular size 9 needle. Never mind that All About Yarn, my LYS, is almost within spitting distance of where I go for yoga classes every Sunday ... and I even considered going to the yarn store for no other reason than to go, this past Sunday ... but, I was feeling strong and virtuous after yoga, and denied myself the visit, for fear that I would buy more yarn. The visit in which I might have remembered that I need a 36" size 9 circular needle.

In any case, one sleeve still needs 12 more rows of armhole-shaping. I'll do that tonight, then perhaps tomorrow I will run into All About Yarn with my eyes closed and exact change in hand and ask the nice lady to get me the needle and not let me buy anything else nomatterwhat. I have enough yarn and unspun to keep my busy for years, right? Right.

Thank you everyone for the commisseration comisseration  sympathy and well wishes for my lingering illness, which I am halfway through an antibiotic course for. Despite the hacking and coughing, I managed to score a personal best in a 5k this past Sunday (yet walking up a flight of stairs nearly kills me). My running friends were off doing the Rock-n-Roll half-marathon in another city, so there was no one to take a picture for me to post ... so just imagine me there. I did great.

I don't really have anything else to post about knitting, so here are some cute animal pictures. 

Petunia, Molly, and Edgar

The green fabric on the middle right is my legs ... I'm under all this cattery

Georgie Girl was jealous

I'm not a very neat housekeeper, and I don't have a problem with clutter, which is why my pictures are never House Beautiful-worthy.  But as you can see, we are comfortable and happy with it. And it amuses me no end that if I set a cloth or towel or any fabric down, it will immediately attract cats.

Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis on Wednesday, for WIPnesday!

Colorwork!

I like to call it "Fair Isle," but I know that is a specific style of color-work, and doesn't apply here ... so I'll just settle for "color-work." This is the sleeve cuff of the Bohus.

The purple seed stitch at the bottom is the bottom of the cuff, and then it goes up to the dark purple which starts the rest of the sleeve. I wet-blocked these to make them look neater.

I'm not happy with the rose-colored blocks in the light pink field ... I don't like how the light pink purls intrude on the rose blocks, but I don't know how to keep that from happening.

From here, I knit in one color in stockinette stitch for 14 inches, then I attach everything on a really big circular needle -- which I have to go out and buy, because all I have is 36" and that is not long enough -- and from there, knit the shoulder colorwork. I have the bulk of the knitting behind me, I think, but the most complicated part is colorwork while simultaneously knitting the yoke. Yikes! Then I will have to block it as one large item.


The plus is that I am home sick all week, with my yearly sinus infection/chest cold, so I have lots of time to knit. The minus is that I hate being stuck inside. I spent a good deal of my childhood alone in my bedroom with a humidifier, stuck in bed, with my mom bringing me trays with food and little cups of penicillin and other medicine, and not allowing me to leave my room except for the bathroom. My classmates would send me a box of get-well-soon cards, but the teacher only let them write "get well soon," and nothing else. Isn't that a funny memory to have! That big box of cards, but no personal message. Here I am a few decades later, with the humidifier and a nasty cough, thinking of those little handmade cards. I am just knitting, reading, refilling the humidifier, and walking the dog a couple times a day. The pets love having me home all day, they pester me for treats constantly.

The other thing is that the cats have taken over the sofa on the rare occasion I leave it.

Fat Petunia, Molly-Glaucoma-Cat, and Edgar Allen Poe

I tell them over and over that since I bought the sofa, I should get to use it too ... but they just yawn and look pointedly at the desk chair. Whatever, Human. There are other places to sit, intiendo?

Bohus, Full Speed Ahead!

Onward Bohus!

That is what it is supposed to look like. I promise to forgo the vapid expression when I model my version.
And the ribbon. I'm a bit too old for such frippery. I'll find a nice hook. 

So far:

I am using Cascade 220, because it was available at my LYS, and I really like Cascade. I have done the back and two sides up to the yoke point; now I'm doing the sleeves, which is where begins the colorwork! So I have to go wind some hanks into balls and carefully mark out which colors are which, because since I didn't use the recommended yarn, I clearly didn't use the recommended colors. I hope it won't be too garish!

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for WIP Wednesday!

Finished Object Friday, Finally

Ahhh, a Finished Objet d'Art for Friday!

The Socks.

The pattern is from Socks a la Carte Toes up, and you can sort of see the Star Toe pattern.

Yarn is Tofutsies.

And yes, I have big calves. All that jogging. No ankles, but I have no explanation for that.




And in other (good) news, Molly Cat's glaucoma has been successfully treated.

The first medicine by itself didn't work, so about 5 weeks ago we switched to a stronger option, and her eye pressures are both back to normal now (18). Even though I'm only treating one eye, they both have gotten better. The doctor said that is not unusual, but she couldn't explain why it happens.

Okay, I'm off to refresh my memory of how to knit the Swing Bohus ... that's all (hopefully) I will be blogging about till it's done!

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for Finished Object Friday!

So Much for Socktober!

It wasn't particularly spectacular for me. But I got two new pair of socks out of it!

These are nearly done; I stopped knitting the ribbing on the unfinished one to write this blog, so by the time this is posted for Tamis Amis' WIP Wednesday, it should be done.

So that's the second pair. This is the Tofutsi seashell yarn. I like it; it's pretty, and shiny, and easy to knit with. Even after unraveling the first one a half dozen times. It's a bit (okay, a lot) more expensive than the nylon-wool stuff I buy at Jo-Ann's, but it's nice to splurge every now and then, right?



This is the pair I finished earlier in the month:

Just a common sock yarn, purchased from Jo-Ann's. It washes very well. And it's very warm.


So that was Socktober! I finished two pair of socks that I had started before. I'm just not knitting as much as I used to ... which is okay, because most of that time is going towards healthy cooking and jogging and yoga instead of sitting, so it's a fair tradeoff.





So now I will be concentrating on my Bohus coat that has languished for the last month.

As for the Hurricane ... Thank God it passed over Baltimore. We got hit, but not as bad as when Hurricane Irene came through last September. That was a tougher wallop, and we lost power. With Sandy, there was a lot of flooding along the coast, and flooding inland from the rivers, and western Maryland is currently being coated with snow, but it is all just miniscule compared to what happened to New Jersey and New York (though the news is focusing mostly on NY). The pictures are just dreadful. Flooding, fire, toxic waste in the streets...just horrifying. The National Guard was there ahead of the storm, so God willing they'll prevent looting and other opportunistic crime. People were actually bragging on Twitter, before the storm, about looting. Sometimes it's just disgusting, the kind of people that live in this world. And what they'll do to their fellow man.

Okay, rant off. It's almost November, and I really hope to have the Bohus finished by the end of the month. Encourage me to accomplish this!

Don't forget to stop by Tamis Amis for Work-in-Progress Wednesday!

For when you can't have a fireplace!