FO: Argosy

And here it is. See! I can follow a pattern to the letter...

It's for a scarf exchange, destined for Cairo.

As promised, photos of the newest member of the family

Here's Russell on the first day. He was pretty snuggly, having been separated from his family...













And Russell on the second day, rehydrated, with his eyes open now. What a cutie, and he'd grown overnight.













In this picture you can see just how small Russell is (since you don't know how big my hands are, necessarily). He's peeking out of the fold of a facecloth.
He's now in flea or leaper stage, so we haven't been handling him much until he's a little less jumpy. Good news is that he is doing much better than yesterday, having joined us in celebrating Pancake Tuesday (or Shrove Tuesday, not that we're religious, we just like that there's a day specifically to have pancakes for dinner!) and being full as a tick. He's been spending a lot of time running on his wheel now that he's big enough to make it turn. His ears are getting bigger and bigger, though he still looks a bit like a little bear.

Bored. Bored. Bored bored bored.

That pretty much sums it up. It's not that I haven't had anything to do...in fact, life's been rather annoyingly busy at work and at home and really, everywhere.

I had to rip back the Intolerable Cruelty skirt, a mere four inches from completion. I knew one of these days, the modifications I tend to make to patterns would get me.... So, back it went, aaaalllll the way back to three rows after the turning ridge. Sigh.
So, I'm kinda bored with knitting stockinette in the round with 3.75 mm needles or whatever the hell they are. Actually, I normally like that size, but...not today. I have, however, made pretty good progress over the past couple of days, so it's possible that I'll almost finish it before my friend Kirsten gets home from holidays (she has set me a challenge to finish it). The knitting that is, not the sewing in of the lining; that will be an adventure for the fly-by-the-seat-of-the-pants-sewer.

The Jackyll and Hyde hat I finished (minus the black embroidery) turned out to be a bit on the small side (filthy lying gauge), so that's got to be ripped back and reknit. Fortunately, the intended recipient has just moved to a tropical island and won't be needing his hat for some time, but still, it will mean more in-the-round stockinette.

We're also raising another mouseling, a house mouse this time, courtesy of a friend's boss who caught the poor little thing (10 days old at the time and still nursing). He's on solid food, pretty much just oatmeal right now, and he's in 'leaper' or 'flea' stage, which makes him pretty much next to impossible to handle. He gave me a real scare this morning when I found him in torpor. Me, panic much? Nah. (Nothing to do with knitting, this little guy, whose name is Russell. Pic later, and if you can't wait, check my Facebook or MySpace profile.)

My 'sabbatical' to Norway in May is on track. I have an apartment lined up and have already bought tickets to see a couple of shows in London, plus there's a little side trip to Denmark in the works. More on that later. There shall be knitting; what, I'm just not sure yet. Something that doesn't take up too much room... Already a month doesn't seem like long enough!

R.I.P. shy Cirra

Little mouse who did not like us, at least not demonstrably so, we miss you and hope there is a mouse heaven where you are already being groomed by your three sisters already there.

Cirra is the first pet we’ve had to bring to the vet for the final sleep. We waited too long.

Cirra is in here, in this pile of loving and warm sleeping mice, somewhere. We were unable to ever photograph her alone…

Today’s Earworm: Farewell, by Apocalyptica

Munchkin Beetons

Yet another pair of these delightful wristlets, but yet again not for me.

Modelled by the lovely Rosebud, who will hopefully pose for a better photo when our photographer is not so sleepy.
Yarns used:
Alchemy Haiku, in Montreat Path
Artfibers Kyoto, in bronzy-olive

Beads from Arton on Queen Street West, Toronto.




These are destined for my secret Santa recipient in Norway, along with a beaded still-on-the-needles Wisp in the Haiku. I do hope she likes them.

I also hope there's enough of the Kyoto left for a pair for me!

Today's Earworm: Monochrome, by Collide

MM

Meet Mini Magne, aka MM.

MM was my excellent summer project this year. Actually, I don’t usually have a “summer project” per se, but then this challenge came along, and I was consumed. One of the people whose “friends” list I am on in MySpace issued a call for people to knit or sew a simulacrum -- erm -- doll of him, for inclusion in an art show he was due to have at the end of August in Kristiansand, Norway. I bit.

I was unable to find any suitable patterns online to help, so I sallied forth into the unknown territory of doll-knitting, and wrote the pattern down as I went (I may post it at a later date). When I began, I didn’t have a clear vision of body construction, so he actually turned out a little “sculptural” – that’s how one person put it – as his limbs are quite shaped and he is very much anatomically correct. Those little bits – the scrotum specifically – were so satisfying to have turn out nicely!

He’s pretty much seamless, being knit like a sweater completely in the round, aside from grafting his armpits, fingers, toes, nose and “nose”, and cinching closed the top of his head and scrotum. I had several parts on stitch holders at various times, coming back later on to continue knitting them into shape.

I did knit his hair separately though as it was just not turning out otherwise, and sewed it on, and embroidered on his eyes, lips, nipples and body hair.

I had planned on including a complete knit set of clothing, but in the end the little dude flew off to Norway with just one pair of jeans, one short-sleeved button-down collared shirt, one t-shirt, and a pair of shoes (all knitted of course). He went commando, which is how I prefer my men anyway… LOL … and had no socks. Hey, it was summertime.

I had hoped to make it to the show in Kristiansand, but Michael and I had just completed a two-day 40 km kayak trip covering a couple of shorter fjords and traveling to the south coast from the Nærøyfjord was just not realistic, so we had to miss it. Fortunately, the artist has recently posted photos of all the dolls he received on his website. Have a looksy at the slideshow if you like; there is some real talent in there. And have a looksy at the artist’s stuff too; he works in different media and tends to embark on things he’s got no experience working with.

Yarns:

Flesh - Nashua Natural Focus Ecologie cotton yarn in colour 0080 Chestnut. It was somewhat difficult finding yarn
that resembled Caucasian flesh in colour…
Hair – various fluffy offerings from Romni’s basement; eyelash, fun fur, that kind of stuff
Lips and nipples – Nashua yarn as above, dyed with food colouring
Eyes and tattoo – random embroidery thread I had lying around the house
T-shirt – Brown Sheep Cotton Fine in colour CW475 Olivette
Variegated mystery yarn in olive, dark red, and ultramarine blue, probably wool, from Romni’s basement
Collared shirt – Variegated mystery yarn in cream, olive and tan, probably wool and cotton, from Romni’s basement
Jeans – Berroco Suede in just the stressed navy portion of colour 3796 Abilene Mix
Shoes – Berroco Suede in dark brown, possibly colour 3717 Wild Bill Hickcock

Needles:

U.S. sizes 0, 1, 2

He was a lot of fun to knit, and in the end it was difficult to give him up. I’d carried him everywhere with me for two months; to work, the hair salon, the bar, anywhere I was going. We spent many summer evenings on the front porch with a bottle of wine…

Went to the beach...

We baked scones one morning…

And got drunk watching Doctor Who.
This is in fact the final photo before he went off to Norway. Michael said he was relieved to be the only man in my life again.

I really owe Michael another sweater. He was, after all, the model for the doll’s lower half… ;)

Today's Earworm: Whalebone, by Savoy

What I've been up to all this time...

Knitting a doll for an art show in Norway (June & July) -- Hint: mine is completely knitted and has three different pics in the slideshow. I'll post some pics shortly.
Taking up sea kayaking
Taking up another style of bellydancing -- Love my new teacher, Audra! Her teaching method rocks.
Three weeks in Norway (August)
Spontaneous weekend trip to Kiel for a concert (invited, in a manner of speaking, by the lead singer -- September)
Laproscopic surgery and on-the-fly appendectomy (September)
Nursing sick mice (October)

And lots of knitting of course… Check the sidebar for an update.

I've really got my finger in too many online pies to pay each one the attention it deserves, which is why this blog has been neglected for so long. I hope to remedy that over the next little while.

Today's Earworm: Just One Fix, by Ministry