Sleeve Island

Another thrilling week here at Chez DPUTiger.

There has been a tiny bit of sock knitting



Yeah, that’s the Gumdrop pattern from the July 2008 Rockin’ Sock Club with the kit-provided yarn. I’ll bet you never thought I’d knit that yarn/pattern, huh? Well, I saw Turtlegirl’s and decided I kinda liked them. Once Cristi helped me through the massive brain cramp on the first patterned row, I cruised right along on these socks. Until I put them down in favor of a sweater-finishing marathon.



Welcome to the knitting of the third sleeve on this sweater. By the way? The short row cap sleeve takes for-freakin-ever. ::sigh:: Once I’m done with the cap, though, it flies.

Oh, and why are my needles working on the third sleeve?



Because Hubster didn’t want to be a Pirate (think Seinfeld). Yes, he was wearing the sweater version of The Puffy Shirt (as pictured above) when I forced him to try on the sweater on Friday night. The next morning, nearly two full skeins (130 yds/skein) of knitting were wound into a nice little (big) cake as that disasterville sleeve was frogged away.

A word to the wise? When this pattern tells you to pick up what seems like a crazy-small number of stitches for the arm? Do it. I literally picked up 1 st per 2 rows between the armpit and the saddle, but it needed to be done that way to avoid Pirate-land.

I will close with a quick (but sincere) thank-you to all who have served in the U.S. military. Happy Veteran’s Day!

Sunny Day

Sweepin’ the clouds away … On my way to where the air is sweet

Today (Tuesday, November 10) is Sesame Street’s 40th Anniversary. Google has been celebrating for a week. In case you have missed it, here they are in order of appearance … (all images are, obviously, from Google. I just love what they did with this particular anniversary and wanted to share)









My life is so boring that Sesame Street is the best I can do. I’ll do my best to share a WiP Wednesday post in the morning.

But I couldn’t let the day pass without telling you how to get … How to get to Sesame Street.

Vicarious Attendance

Someday, I will be able to shop Socks that Rock Rare Gems in person.

But until that day happens, the next best thing is to give money to good friends and ask them to pick something they think you’ll like.

I did not go to Rhinebeck. But I did get yarn at Rhinebeck.



My friend Yvonne was going. I gave her some cash and told her to get me a Rare Gem.



Apparently, Zarzuela got to pet my new yarn before I did (she saw Yvonne at the festival)



I love the random colors that pop up in this skein. They’re totally unexpected, but they just plain work.



Plus, it’s a mediumweight skein. I loves me some STR Mediumweight.



Thanks, Yvonne. I appreciate your mad shopping skillz!

Stopping with the Bagstoppers

It’s a very good pattern. It makes a very functional finished object. It’s going to be quite a while before I knit another one.



After knitting one of these for myself and one for a Christmas gift, I knew I had one more I wanted to knit. I knocked this one out last weekend, and I’m glad it’s finished.



The recipient of this bag likes pink and purple. I liked this grosgrain ribbon, but it’s a 1” ribbon. Both of my previous bags use 1.5” grosgrain ribbon, and I think I like that better. It just feels more substantial.

But at least it’s finished. One more Christmas present and one more hank of stash crossed off the list. Hooray!

Everlasting Bagstopper #3

Pattern: Everlasting Bagstopper by Amy Singer
Yarn: Louet Euroflax in Pink
Needles: US 5 and US 10.5 KnitPicks Options, 24” length
Started: 28 October 2009
Finished: 4 November 2009
Mods: Used a narrower ribbon than on past bags. It’s OK, but not great.

Grab Your Thesaurus

I know when I moved back to Pittsburgh I asked for this.

I love fall. Raking leaves requires a different adjective. LeafWars 2009 is ON!


Forgive the lack of a “before” photo. This was after about 20 minutes of hard labor

Following a chat with SuperNeighbor on Sunday morning, I decided he had the right idea. Do a little bit each day. Ignore the areas where there are still trees full of leaves. I spent an hour out there today. Did half the back yard and most of the side yard.


I wore gloves. My palms were still a little unhappy with my time spent rake-in-hand today.

It’s a great workout. My heart rate was probably around 140 for nearly the entire hour.


It’s not going to look anywhere near this good in the morning.

And it was great to be outside on a beautiful fall day.


And there are plenty more backyard leaves just waiting for me tomorrow. ::sigh::

But how do I really feel about leaf raking? Hate. Loathe. Detest. Abhor.

It’ll be weeks before I see the end of LeafWars09. Here’s hoping I can just stay even in the daily battles. I'd much rather shovel snow. There. I said it.

Meet Pumpkinstein

You’ve seen this quilt in various stages of unfinished, from the very early days of this ‘ol bloggity blog, and more recently as a just-pieced top.

It was unearthed about a month ago, and finished on Monday. Photographed with my D90 just before I shipped it out for repair, then immediately up on the wall. I figured Halloween would be a good day for the “big unveiling.”



I probably started this thing shortly after the magazine was published. In the fall of 2005 (September/October 2005 Quiltmaker, if you’re curious). I remember seeing the sample at Bearly Stitchin. I know there was a class that (I think) I couldn’t take because of my work schedule. I don’t think I bought a kit, but I know several of my running buddies and I at least started doing this quilt.



I have a template plastic cutout of the half-pumpkin. I’m sure I used that to trace the shape onto fusible web. The blocks were laid out, photographed digitally in a long-lost photo, and pressed left or right so they would nest properly when it came time to piece the quilt. When I pulled out this quilt last month, I was certain I had more zig-zagging to do, but I didn't. So the blocks were trimmed down and the top was pieced in a morning at The Quilt Company.



The quilting pattern on the border was in the magazine with the quilt. I traced it onto Golden Threads paper, needle-punched as many copies as I needed, and was off to the races.



Did my now-standard computer-printed label, made a hanging sleeve out of the backing fabric and went on a hand-sewing mini-marathon



Craptastic photo just to show you where this quilt is hanging. I was standing in my front doorway to take this picture



All in all, I’m very happy that it’s done. I love seeing it on my wall and will enjoy it (seasonally) for many years to come! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

YPF: Terra

When Michelle (owner of Bloomin Yarns) returned from TNNA last summer, I think she was most excited about one particular purchase she had made for the store.

Terra, from The Fibre Company.

I’d never heard of The Fibre Company, but when the yarn arrived in the store? Wow. Michelle quickly whipped up a free-pattern-with-purchase pair of mittens out of two complimentary colors. It’s fun to watch their eyes get wide and hear them let out an involuntary “OOOH!” when they put the mitten on (at our urging, of course!)

I bought two skeins of this stuff to make a pair of those same mittens shortly after the yarn came in. Then CelticQueen came in and wanted to make her Mondo Cable Cardi out of Terra. So we needed to do a special order. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought enough of a color Michelle had not originally ordered to make a sweater of my own.



I think it’s probably going to be a Mondo Cable Pulli. Eventually. I’m working on shrinking at the moment, so knitting a sweater for me right now doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.



But it’s very nice to know that when I’m ready? I have an amazing special-treat yarn waiting for me!

The Fibre Company • Terra
40% baby alpaca • 40% merino wool • 20% silk
Wild Clary colorway
50g/100yds per skein

100% drool-worthy