This little lady is our new fashion model – she’s a 4-foot-tall sock monkey – how cool is that!?  Today she is wearing the Bernat Ruffled Baby Hat, Adult Version and one of my many, many, many knit scarves. I had to put my plush Zombie Zusifer in the picture or else he’d get jealous – and I tend to want to avoid vengeful Zombies (he came from Thinkgeek.com and is completely dismember-able – there’s also an awesome Youtube video where he and some pals stage an invasion).

But anyway – I haven’t given our Sock Monkey fashionista a name yet – if anybody has any ideas then drop me a line – there might be a scarf in it for you!

So, before Christmas I drug Mom into a yarn shop – and ‘lo, she didn’t fall asleep in one of their comfy chairs while I shopped; she actually found a pattern that she really liked. The pattern was from the Plymouth Yarn Company and is for a Vest Kimono.

I was so proud!

So I promptly bought the pattern and we shopped the rest of the day for nice yarn I could actually afford (because I’m po’). Luckily we found a sale at Joanne’s for buy 1 get 1 half off – we originally thought it said buy 1 get 1 free – which had me positively drooling, but we reread the sign and pouted about it.  Of course we still had to argue at the register because the sale price didn’t come up, I volunteered to go check it again – if I’m wrong, I’m wrong – but the manager just ok’d it and we went on our way. The yarn is Country by Caron – it’s a 25% Merino Wool/75% Acrylic Blend. I’m not wild about acrylic, but it does have the Merino in it. I’m hoping the acrylic base will make it more abuse tolerant (I’m mean to my clothes and assume everyone else is too). The main color is #0014, Deep Purple and the accent is a white #0007, called Naturally.

It’s a fairly simple pattern – or so it seems – the lady at Knit Wits said not to bind off the individual pieces, just put them on a holder, and when I’m ready she’ll show me how to do a 3 needle bind off. Yay! (And yes I feel guilty for not buying my yarn from her – but in my defense I did buy the pattern and a ball of yarn for another project there – I just can’t buy multiple skeins of yarn without a sale price!).

Anyway – I quickly got started and was making decent progress on the back using my funky plastic knitting needles from the 70’s (that I got at the Salvation Army for $0.60!) when I made a mistake…

I set my knitting down and left the room.

And my 90 pound Labrador used my project box as a stepping stool to get up on the couch (like he really needed the boost).

And shattered my funky knitting needle (of course it wasn’t the empty one, it was the one holding all the dang stitches).

Then, to top it all off – I didn’t have another pair of needles in that size.

I’ve been so irritated about it that I’ve been torturing myself with the Pasa Doble Shaw this whole time (see my previous post). It’s been sitting there,  just like this, for almost 3 weeks!

But I have finally left my aggravation behind me, bought new needles and am willing to try again during ‘tv time’ tonight.

 I learned an important lesson this weekend – all things are possible if you actually *read* the instructions. 

On attempt # 2 when I ran out of stitches before I ran out of pattern – that was because I didn’t *read* the directions – I glanced at them, assumed I knew what I was doing, and quickly screwed it up!

So with this latest – and actually successful try – I stopped when I got to the cables, studied attempt #1 (which I did keep – like I said I would), read, read, and re-read the directions and what do you know. It worked. Like a charm. Or really, it worked like the directions said it would!

So – lessons from this:

1. Judy B is a goofball.
2. Judy B has problem taking direction when she thinks she knows it all (this was demonstrated in school as well).
3. Judy B is a goofball.

Also – this pattern is not for the social knitter. You cannot carry on a conversation while doing this thing, the stitches change to frequently. In fact you can’t even watch TV if you think you might actually be interested in what’s on or you will lose your place. There is actually a couple of carefully hidden mistakes in this piece – made because I thought I had messed it up (while watching Earth 2100) and in trying to fix the mistake-that-wasn’t, I messed up. Lukily I fixed it, somehow. I think the Knitting Fairy was looking after me – she knows projects don’t make it past the 3rd attempt. (You can read about Attempt #1 here and here).

This project also breaks the cardinal rule of knitting – you must pull tight, tight, tight to keep those bobbles from looking absolutely ridiculous (I think 99% of knitters have to learn to loosen up – and then there’s this pattern!).

So here it is in all it’s glory – Paula D liked it so much she asked about borrowing the pattern… forgetting completely that I was borrowing it from her! Keep your fingers crossed that I can keep this thing together for another 30 inches…

Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!

2nd attempt and somehow I ran out of stitches before I ran out of pattern! How does that happen! And I’d done that row right on the burgundy version so I know it’s not the pattern. This screw up is all me, baby!

Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!

Well this post is a day late – it’s the new year and I’ve already broken the schedule I set myself in December. Blech.

Anyway – with 6 1/2 months to go till the local fair I’ve rededicated myself to working on fulfilling my set project list.  With that goes lots of planning… and more obsessive list making – because I love lists! (Yes – I have issues). I’ve been trying to come up with as many off the wall things as I can – things people wouldn’t expect to see at a little country fair.

So with that in mind – here’s what I’ve got so far:

• 10. Counted Cross Stitch Picture – Mario Brothers Pattern.
• 14. Crewel Picture – Old School Tattoo style sampler (think Sailor Jerry).
• 27. Hand Knitted Article – Klaralund Sweater in Angora Handspun (this one might be a bit ambitious since I’m wanting to do my handspinning from my own bunnies – yikes!)
• 30. Handmade Toy – Big Sock Monster (look up Stupid Sock Creatures by John Murphey).
• 55. Smocked Garment – Smocked/tiered/Sleeveless Gown (again – probably overambitious but we’ll see.  I’m thinking of a gussied up sheath type thing that’s almost see-through. It looks neat in my head – that’s my story and I’m sticking to it).
• 56. Soft Sculpture Article – a Felted Lanscape of some sort.
• 58. Tatted Article – a Tatted Baby Bonnet
• 98. Large Gourd / 99. Small Gourd – not sure how much planning I can do for these two yet – still waiting to see how many of my gourds make it though the winter and the drying process. It should be weird though.
• 112. Hobby Article – a Macrame’ Purse. (How much Macrame’ do you see anymore, really).
• 115. Jewelry – This thing is going to be all natural and therefore a bit freeform depending on what materials I wind up with. I’m thinking of an Egyptian Collar type design made mainly with polished twigs from a fruit tree (apple/cherry/peach) with spacers made up of gourd shards, and somehow work in some thin slices of either this thick shelled nut that’s around here or maybe some other seed pod. Again it’ll depend on what I find on my nature walk when it warms up.
• 118. Novelty – a Warhammer Terrain Piece. Not sure what it will consist of but it’ll definitely be 2′x2′. I’ve actually got a bunker started… it’s been languishing in my studio since the weather changed…
• 128. Recycled Art – Steampunk Dollhouse! I could probably spend the next few months just on this one! I’ve got an old 5 drawer dresser that the back legs broke off of and the veneer is in really bad shape; I think it would make a great dollhouse – and of course since I’m wanting to weird everyone out I’m thinking goth/steampunk!  Plus steampunk is the essence of recycling – buy/find old appliances – tear ‘em appart and reassemble the parts in funky ways. I’ll need to find some old dolls and jazz them up as well.

That leaves me with 24 undecided projects – 22 if you take out the 2 photography categories. Not much planning involved in that one (at the moment), I’m just going to take lots of pictures in the next 6 1/2 months and see which ones I like the most.

If anybody’s got an ideas, let me know!