Friday FO Post: Waffles Puppy

Hi there! It's still too hot here, and humid, and icky, but on the plus side, my incision on my back from my surgery is not as bothersome as it has been, so that's good! I hope you're doing OK wherever you are, since it seems like everyone everywhere is having some kind of extreme weather.

I wanted to show you my completed Waffles Puppy! I know I've been taking you along on my knitting trip with this project, but to review, first you knit and stuff his head:

And it was fairly simple and straightforward, but I gotta tell you, adding the safety eyes and the nose were one of the hardest parts of this whole project! Making sure to get them snapped so that they would not be able to be pulled out took me about half an hour! I kept thinking I'd have to wait until The Tim got home from work and ask him to help me. Fortunately, I managed to finally make it work on my own.

Next, you added the ears:

Again, the pattern is extremely well-written and understandable. but the hard part here was not just picking up the stitches to create the ears, but the first few rounds of knitting. It's hard to knit when the stitches you've picked up are not kind of free-standing, so to speak. This was the most difficult thing every time it was needed in the pattern.

The body was next, and because it was a larger piece, not too fiddly.

And then, of course, he needed his feet!

And finally, his arms and little tail:

GAH! He's so stinkin' cute!

Here are the details for anyone interested who may wish to make a puppy of their own.

Project: As yet unnamed puppy stuffie

Pattern: Waffles Puppy, by Susan B. Anderson

Yarn: Home Bulky Twist Marled Yarn, in the colorway Folkstone Twist, from Barrett Wool Co. 

Needles: US size 8/5.0 mm and US size 10/6.0

Modifications: Are you kidding me???

Notes: I bought this in a kit years ago from Barrett Wool Co. It's still listed as a product in their "Kits" section, but says it is currently out of stock. Anyway, I put it away and when I was doing a stash review earlier this summer, decided that I would knit it as a good summer project. The yarn was already wound (so clearly at some point I thought I'd start and then did not), so all I needed to do was collect the needles and get going. 

This is the first time I've ever knit or even attempted to knit a stuffie. I think it was a good idea that I started with this project, because it only has a few pieces, and it is larger, so although parts were fiddly, it was not working the entire time on a very small, fiddly project, which I'm not sure would have been that agreeable to me. 

Anyway, for the most part, I worked on one section per week - which really amounted to working on it for a few hours one day a week. At the time, I was working also on my late Relax Tee, and that was getting most of my knitting time. It wouldn't have taken long at all to complete it if I'd worked on it as my primary project, but it's not like I had a deadline or anything.

The pattern was very very well-written, with good photographs to help with needle placement, etc. The yarn was lovely, rustic looking, but very nice and pleasant in your hands. And it seems like it is also sturdy, so if say a kiddo had this toy, it would be quite durable. 

As I said, the hardest parts for me were the safety eyes and nose, and knitting in the round for the ears, etc. for the first few rounds after you'd picked up stitches. 

Now, as you may have noticed if you looked at the Ravelry link or the Barrett Wool. Co link, the puppy is wearing a hat and a sweater. My puppy currently has neither, and likely will not have them for a while. I will probably knit his hat when the weather gets cool, and decided that it's more likely I will turn the sweater into a vest if I do decide to knit that for him. But right now, I'm not interested in him having accessories, and it's too  hot for him to wear them anyway! So for now, he can bask in some puppy nakedness! 😊

This was such a fun project, but I have to say I'm glad I made it now, and not when I first got the kit. I'm a much more confident knitter than I used to be, so I knew I could do it and even if it wasn't perfect, it would be close enough. If I had started this when I first bought the kit, I have a feeling that when I first started with the ears, I may have given up. I would have been sure that the stiches shouldn't be so hard to maneuver once they were picked up. But now I understood why that was the case, and knew it would get easier to do one a few rows were underway. 

I finished knitting him this past Monday, and am still contemplating his name. I decided he is a "he" because all the dogs I've had in my life were male, so that makes sense to me. I have a few thoughts, but I need to live with them for a while and see which one he seems most like. 

If you are in the mood for something different but fun, I would find some yarn - you could probably use just about any weight - and knit yourself a Waffles Puppy. It's so much fun to see him coming into existence, and at least for me, it was a different enough project to keep my interest, but not so involved that working on any part of it was a slog.

And then at the end, you have a puppy! What could be better??

*****

No specific plans for the weekend. I think I mentioned when I posted last week that we were going out to dinner on Friday to a Mexican place in our neighborhood (or maybe I didn't ... I'm too lazy to check). Anyway, it was really enjoyaable and delicious. We even had margaritas, and boy were they good! One thing we especially enjoyed was a salad we'd shared - we asked our server what kind of dressing it was, and he checked for us and said it was a coriander vinaigrette. So now I'm on the search for a recipe.

This weekend, really the only thing I'd like to do is go to the Lowe's near us. I want to see if they have any garden pots, etc. on end-of-summer clearance. I have some ideas for next spring/summer, and if I already have the pots or planters, I'm more likely to make it happen.

And that's all the excitement around here. I hope you have a good weekend, and if you are in the throes of any extreme weather, that you can stay safe. 

See you next week!

Almost There!

The puppy I'm knitting has a body now! It just keeps getting cuter, if you ask me. Now I have the front paws and back paws, and finally the tail to knit, and then he will be complete. As you can imagine, I talk to him a lot as I'm knitting him, so he's become a therapy dog of sorts. 😊

I haven't been around this week because I've been getting used to being uncomfortable from an outpatient procedure I had last Friday. A visit to the dermatologist a few weeks ago led to her finding something suspicious on my back. It turned out to be a basal cell carcinoma, and she scheduled me for August 1 to have it removed. The procedure itself was completely uneventful, but boy does having a line of stitches on your back make for being uncomfortable! I think it's because most of us don't have a lot of padding on our backs. The doctor told me it would be unpleasant for at least a couple of weeks, because there are internal stitches as well as the ones I can see (though not that well, based on where they are located) on my back. I was very happy to hear from her yesterday to learn that they got clear margins on the area they removed. So unless another one pops up again, I should be OK. Though she warned me that with my - as she calls it  - "pale Irish skin" and being of a generation that grew up before sunscreen was invented, it may not be the last time a carcinoma shows up. Ugh. Even after a childhood spent avoiding the sun because I sunburned in record time, I'm paying for it now. 

At least I have a dermatologist who is paying close attention.

So what have I been doing? Well, I spend an inordinate amount of time trying to get comfortable, or at least less uncomfortable. I know it could be lots worse, but after a summer of ridiculous heat and humidity, I have little patience left for anything. The doctor told me to take it easy for two weeks, and not do anything very vigorous. I've done some reading and a little bit of knitting, but have a hard time really concentrating. I haven't been able to sleep well, so I feel very tired most of the time, which does not help with my attention span.

OK, enough whining, let's just talk about something else.

I don't know if I've ever mentioned the ongoing saga of our garden door. The short version is that we had a door - really more of a panel - that had a padlock on it that closed off the entryway to our front door from the garden. (I'm not explaining this very well, but just go with it.) It was neither attractive nor durable, but it came with the house, and it did what it needed to do. About two years ago, it finally just fell apart, and we took it down. Which is not a big deal, but we agreed that at some point, we wanted to replace it, for two reasons at least: 1) so if the cats were in the garden with us, they could not leave and go out onto the street; and, 2) for privacy and a fake appearance of security (because if someone wants to get in, they can figure out a way). 

When I said something about it earlier this summer, The Tim informed me that it could be "my" project. So I've been looking for someone to give me an estimate on the cost. I finally asked local friends for a recommendation on Facebook, and a friend who I know has high standards recommended someone who had done some work in her house.

He came yesterday, and took all kinds of measurements. Once again, nothing is standard about the measurements, so it requires a bit of finagling on his part. But he had a couple of good-sounding ideas, and he is going to see what kinds of things would be involved and send me an estimate. If it seems reasonable at all, I'm gonna go with it because most people I contacted either wouldn't come into the city to do the work, or weren't interested in such a small project. The thing I didn't tell them, since they were being kind of rude about it, is that we have some internal door-type and other projects that, if the garden door project would turn out well, we would consider asking for estimates for those as well. So we'll see how it goes, but I would love to have a garden door again. And the cats would be thrilled, because then they could explore when one or both of us are out there. And at a minimum, Alfie MUST be allowed to do that!

And that's the excitement around here lately. I just realized that this post is brought to you be the letter P:

Puppy

Pitiful me

Property improvement

But somehow, "Tryon Street" doesn't have the same ring to it as "Sesame Street," does it?

Take care, and I'll be back soon!

🌷🌹🌻

Relax No More

Hello there and happy too hot and humid Monday. Why no, I'm not enjoying it, but thank you for asking anyway.

I have finally thrown in the towel (yarn?) and have decided I shall Relax No More. Not actual relaxing - I mean, that's a major part of my lifestyle, I'm not going insane. 

But I am finished with trying to knit myself a Relax Tee.

A little bit of background. Years ago (pre-pandemic), I knit nearly an entire version of the Edie pattern in Quince & Co. Sparrow yarn. I had put the sleeve stitches on waste yarn while I finished the body. When I picked it up to do the sleeves, "someone" had apparently gotten into it and not only pulled out the waste yarn, but a lot of the stitches. I asked three different "expert knitter" friends if they could help, and all of them tried, but couldn't figure out where in the pattern things were, or how to repair things. So I frogged the entire thing, and put it away to use again sometime.

I decided this summer was the time. So I pulled it out, and figured I probably had enough to make some other summer top. I was no longer interested in using the yarn for the Edie top, and looked for something else. Everyone and their brother was raving about Aimee Sher's Relax Tee - some people were making multiples. I liked the look of it, so I decided to give that pattern a try. 

I worked my way through most of the body. And I gotta tell you, I wasn't feeling it. I like the yarn and was not having any problem knitting with it, but a) I was wondering why I chose the color I did (Port - pretty, but kind of dark for summertime), and b) why everyone enjoyed knitting this pattern. I can't even tell you what it was about it, but I was just not feeling the love, you know? 

Before starting on the sleeves, I decided to try it on. It would fit fine in the end, but ... meh. I decided to put it aside for a few days, and then see if I wanted to finish. 

I do not. I have decided that at least right now, that pattern is not for me. Maybe later it will be my most favorite pattern I ever made, but right now, this summer, I am not enjoying it, I am not relaxing at all while knitting it, and I am done. 

I've also decided that the yarn and I are also parting ways. I've tried two separate things with it, and though yes, I could go back and knit another Edie, I'm just finished with this yarn in this color. As Marie Kondo would say, it's not longer bringing me joy.

Actually, I'm OK with all of this. Yes, I spent a good portion of the summer knitting on this project and have nothing to show for it but a bag of re-wound yarn and some untouched skeins. It's pretty yarn, the color is nice, but I'm done with the whole shebang. There are at least 3 or 4 full unwound skeins, and a decent amount of other skeins re-wound into balls (I have no idea exactly how much, sorry). 

My original plan was to donate it, but then I thought I'd at least ask if any of you are interested in it at all. If you are, I'm more than happy to send it to your very own house, so let me know. If you are a small-ish person, or knitting for a small-ish person, I'm sure you could get a tank top or short-sleeved top out of all of it. Otherwise, you might need to mix and match or knit a thousand washcloths or something with it.

(You can ignore this paragraph  - the yarn has found a home! So that's everything about that. Do let me know if you are interested in the yarn - you can send me an e-mail at baclancyATverizon.net, or let me know in the comments. If I don't hear from anyone by the end of this week, I'll go ahead and donate it. I want someone to enjoy it and use it instead of simply throwing it away.)

And I'll find another project. I have lots of socks I owe to people, and I actually find knitting those relaxing, so if nothing else, I can work on socks for a while.

I'm actually relieved to be officially decided I'm finished with the Relax Tee project. It was hanging over my head more than I realized.

Please don't let this post discourage you, if you were considering the pattern. Like I said, I think at this moment in time, my head and heart are just not in it - by I do hope to try it again someday.

*****

This week is one of those busy running around kind of weeks. And Friday is the first of August, which makes me happy. This has seemed like an eternal July, and though I hate to wish my life away, I'll be glad to move into another month, especially one that brings us closer to fall. Hopefully August and I will be better friends - we'll see! 😊

It's Monday ... Again

Funny how it happens every week, huh?

The last few weeks, I've been feeling kind of sad on Sunday afternoons and evenings, and I couldn't quite figure out why. I don't have a job to dread, or any unpleasant activities that happen every single week on Monday, so it was a bit of a puzzle.

Then it occurred to me - during the week, I'm on my own the entire day. Yes, the cats are here, but unlike the weekend days, The Tim is at work. Thinking about it more, I decided that it's more the idea of someone else being around that I like. Some weekends we have plans, so we do things together for most/all of the weekend, but frankly most of the time, we do our own thing. Since I get nothing but alone time all week, I try to give him as much alone time as I can when the weekend comes, because he's not a fan of being social 24/7 any more than I am. 

Anyway, once I figured that out, it made sense to me. And who knows, maybe I am just biologically tuned to feel a bit down on Sundays, after a lifetime of having other, more intense, reasons.

*****

Last week, my niece La Liz sent us a text, asking us to make a video for her husband Greg. He is turning 50 on Thursday, and she had asked a bunch of family and friends to make a video, saying one thing they liked about him. You may or may not remember that Greg is a HUGE Baltimore Orioles fan. We went to the Phillies-Orioles game in Baltimore with them last summer. And he doesn't just love his own team, he can't stand some other teams - the Phillies included!

So Saturday, we got dressed in our Phillies t-shirts and sat down to make our video. We talked about the reasons we loved him, and then as we were ending it and saying "Happy Birthday, " we both put on our Phillies caps. Then The Tim said, "Oh and one more thing, " and we both said, "Go Phils!" La Liz said she was watching it with tears streaming down her face because it was so lovely, and then almost passed out when we "pulled out the Phillies hats!" She can't wait for him to see it and neither can we. 😂

*****

I was watching a YouTube podcast a week or so ago, and one of the people on it was knitting a sock in the most amazing yarn combo I'd seen in a while. And I could not resist, especially because the accent color in the sock set was turquoise, and I'm a sucker for that color. So I placed an order for it from Hopemade Yarn Co.  It arrived really quickly, and I cast on the next day. I just love it, don't you?

The colors just scream SUMMER to me, which is funny because when I wear socks in the summer, it's white athletic socks with my sneakers - otherwise, it's too hot to wear socks for me. So these will remind me of the good things about summer, while keeping me warm the rest of the year. 

So that's it for now. I hope you have a good week, and have a chance to do something that's just for you.  See you again soon!

The Ugh of Summertime

The way things are going in the country right now, we don't even need a weather report like this, but it's not far off the truth. You know, the kind of weather where you get out of the shower and towel off, only to find that you need to start over. Ugh.

The other day, The Tim said, "Fall will be coming, right?" - and that's when you know it's bad. He's not a fan of summer, but mostly suffers in silence. 

I've been trying to decide what I can work on that won't make me want to pass out or throw up. For once, I'm in the mood to do some of the projects I have around the house that have been on my list for a while, but since we don't have great air-conditioning, it's not really worth even starting. And forget doing stuff outside - I've been forcing myself to go out for my morning walks, but other than that, I stay put inside because it's the kind of weather that actually makes me physically ill.

So there has been more reading than usual, as well as knitting. But I've also been really conscientious about balancing the checkbook (which if you know me, says how desperate I am), and organizing the linen closet. I think I'm wearing out the towels and sheets I've been fooling with them so much!

Anyway, I'm a bit uninspired with my knitting. I have the puppy project, which I showed you recently, that I'm enjoying. But I don't feel like working on that every day. I am on the body part of a Relax Tee, by Aimee Sher, and if I could make myself work on it regularly, it could be finished. But contrary to the name, I do not find the pattern relaxing. 

I have been wanting to make this pattern, and even have yarn chosen. But regardless of the size needle I use, I keep ending up with too many stitches to the inch in the gauge, which I find suspicious, especially since no matter what size needle I try, I get the same numbers! - but there you go. There's a part of me that is tempted to start it anyway, and see how it goes. But I don't want to do that because even if I've done only 10 rows, it will be too disheartening to rip it out.

I guess I'll pull out some sock yarn and wind it because then at least I'll have a project that I can pick up and put down without causing problems. 

Sometimes, it just seems like everything is too much work. For me, that almost always happens in the summer. And really, it's never too much work in reality. So I'm gonna look for a skein of "extra special" sock yarn to use, because that will inspire me.

What about you? Any exciting projects going? Let me know, I'm happy to live (knit?) vicariously!