Figures, instead of working on the sleeves, I started an afghan square. Worked 1/4 of it before discovering that I'd somehow screwed up the pattern. Ripped it out. Pulled the sleeve that I had started out of my knitting bag, discovered a mistake and ripped that out also. Decided to restart and do both sleeves at the same time so it won't take as long.

Did start an Opal sock in Brazil 5001, going to try the Strong Heel pattern that was in Knitter's Fall 2003. I've got several inches of the top done. (I've only been working on it while reading email and playing Disciples 2 on the computer) Color pattern is a little clown-esque but I'll wear them to work anyway. My co-workers find all my handknitted socks very amusing, especially since I wear them with my uniform dark green polo shirt and khaki shorts (or pants).

Sock is Finished
Not going to post a picture since it's almost the same as the first one, which has a listing in my finished item roster on the sidebar. Now I don't know if I want to work on the sweater sleeves, or start another GAAA square. Decisions, decisions. The afghan square will probably win out since I'm pretty bored of the sweater. I should probably stick to smaller projects like socks, and afghans made out of squares, or at least pick more interesting or complex sweater designs. I have a couple of boxes of yarn in the closet with patterns picked out for them which I won't let myself start until I finish this one. But my big box of sock yarn imported from Germany is calling me...

Oh, what to do, what to do?

Cursed Sock, Part 2
Fortunately number 2 of the pair is not cursed and I'm in the home stretch, only 24 rows of ribbing to go and I have another pair of fraternal twin socks. I don't even try to make exactly matching socks with patterning yarns. The Bernat Hot Sox yarn isn't really patterning per se, but even on Regia or Opal I just don't bother to find the exact stretch of color that the first sock started with, it just seems way too anal to me.

Sweater
I emailed Knitter's magazine to ask about the error in the pattern, and was pleasantly surprised when the designer sent me an email almost immediately (within 10 hours) to expain to me what she had intended for the pattern. In the interest of saving space ( I would imagine) she only included a partial cable pattern for the sleeve up to the increase row, just to explain how that would fit in. Otherwise the patterning is the same as the body.

Not very interesting I'm sure, but I really appreciated that she took the time to email me and so quickly too! Now I can get back to the sleeves as soon as I'm done with this sock, and I'll be done with the sweater in no time.

Spoiled Greyhound
Dave took our greyhound Abe to the bank with him, in the convertible with the top down (Abe was wearing his doggie seat belt), this was the first time Dave had ever put the top down with the dog in the car. As he was preparing to leave the bank, he put the top up, since they were going to be getting on the highway to go to the park to join the other greyhouds from the Greyter Dallas Walking Club. Abe started whining, so Dave put the windows down. Abe kept whining, so Dave pulled over, put the top back down and drove slower in the right lane so the dog could enjoy the breeze.

That dog is so spoiled. I'm sure my Saturn is no longer going to be good enough for him, he'll insist on riding in the Mustang.

Here's the Mini Mogul sock, the right side view is a close up of the detail on the top. The darker one is actually the right color.





Sweater knitting is stalled. Surprise, surprise, there is an error in the pattern. I've emailed Knitter's magazine hoping to get the "official" version, but if not I'll make it up as I go along. The error is on the sleeves, the way the pattern is written the cable crossings on alternate cross-over rows would be on the purl side. I can't tell from the picture if the sleeves have a shorter repeat to the cable pattern or if it's the same as the body. Ah, well, if I don't get an answer soon I'll just go with whatever looks good.

Not too much to say today, my day off, didn't really do anything interesting. Played a lot of computer games and finished the Kensington Rose Sampler. It's very pretty and delicate.



I also finished a Mini Mogul sock, but the picture will have to come later, batteries are charging.

Rhino Zedd

Here's the Zedd baby pic where he most resembles a rhino, he was about 3 weeks old in this photo


I found out today that my boss is intimidated by me. Since the one associate vet is leaving, he wanted me to pick up some of the paperwork slack. He told the temporary vet this, who went ahead and mentioned it to me. My only issue with it was that they needed to tell me exactly what they wanted and not just leave it for me to figure out on my own. My boss never said anything, and I found out that yesterday (my day off) the temp let it slip that he had already told me. My boss said he wasn't looking forward to that conversation, 'cause he didn't want to ask me. You know, I'm really not that much of a hardass. I'm just opinionated, and not afraid to speak my mind.

Stress relief
Very tiring day at work today, and not much time to knit. Usually I knit at lunch (cause it's much more portable than cross stitch), but today we had a going away party for one of our associate veterinarians. He's moving onto the Cincinnati zoo, and we all wish him well - with a sigh of relief. Nice guy, great guy, does not get along with the head vet and the tension in the air can be cut with a knife.

The head vet it must be said is not by any means easy to get along with. But he really took a dislike to this associate, and did everything in his power to make life hell for him. We didn't always get along either, but when he told me he was leaving I sure didn't respond - "Good".

What will the final evaluation say? "I hate him and wish he were dead" Very professional.

The Tapir dance
Besides lunch, we did a procedure on our female Brazilian Tapir to radiograph her abdomen and return her to her exhibit after a three week hospital stay. She was with us because she suddenly stopped eating and started acting "weird". We found out that she had been eating the pea gravel around her pool (tapirs love water), which caused a partial blockage. One exploratory surgery and several enemas later... well, there's nothing like a bunch of vets, zoo keepers, and zoo techs cheering and doing the dance of joy because the tapir pooped on her own! Today's radiographs showed that the basketball sized load of gravel in her stomach has reduced to softball size and it seems to be passing, so no follow up surgery and she's going to be fine. Big sigh of relief, she's a big sweetie.

Anyway, enough about feces for today.

And finally, crafty content
I've made it to the second row of bobbles on my Sock of the Month Club purple Mogul anklet. I had to redo the first row a couple of times because the bobbles kept wanting to head to the purl side. My friend Kim, said I should just leave it and call it a massage sock. Ha, ha, Kim, guess who's getting coal in her stocking for Xmas. I finally figured out that if I k tbl, as the first of the (k, p, k, p, k) into one stitch that they would pop to the front. The directions say absolutely nothing about this, so I wonder if I'm the only one on earth who didn't know.

Started a new cross stitch design last night, Kensington Rose Sampler from The Sweetheart Tree. I've got the first couple of rows done and it is very pretty and delicate. Looks like it will be a quick stitch project, which means that October is going to be my month of the most finishes.

Zedd
Zedd is always helpful around the house. Here he is making sure I'm cleaning the guinea pig cage correctly.

He jumps in on his own, and is perfectly content to play with Black Pig (aka Lenny) until we're done freshening her habitat. Black Pig, (we have two, one tortoiseshell and one white, actually named Lenny and Gaby, usually called Black Pig and White Pig) enjoys the company and plays happily with Zedd. White Pig is a little more timid, and is probably being held by Dave so she doesn't get stressed.

I have three new things finished. One is the cursed sock, which is lucky it is in some of my favorite colors otherwise...


This is Bernat Sox yarn in the Jazz Hot color.

And two cross stitch pieces. Victorian Valentines by JBW Designs, too big to fit on the scanner, and very washed out on the digital camera since I took these photos inside with bad lighting.



and Plum Berry Sampler by Bent Creek Designs. I just love the little flat topped bird.



Still plugging along on the pink sweater, the purple bobble anklets and the slippers. No pics since I can't seem to get the knitting bag and the camera into the same room.

Went to the Texas State Fair today. Dragged Dave around the Fiber Arts Building for nearly an hour so we could check out the stitched and knitted items. Realized why I don't enter anything. The judging seems really arbitrary, some really gorgeous and difficult things got thirds, and some really so-so stuff got blue ribbons. There must be something that we can't see from the outside of the glass cases, but I don't want to put myself thru that.

Besides which, the exhibit designers seem to think that all knitted and crocheted afghans must be held down by something extremely heavy or they will blow away. There was, (and I'm not exaggerating here) a diorama with huskies mushing complete with a wooden block covered with fake snow on top of a lovely white afghan. And a dog made out of scrap metal, and an armadillo made out of nails covering the blue ribbon winning knitted afghan. You could barely see the afghan. Which was made even more stupid because in that same exhibit case there was a huge empty spot the afghan could have been hung in.

So, that's what I want to do, spend loads of time making something beautiful, finishing it perfectly and then handing it off to a bunch of "experts" so they can stick some rocks, or twigs, or maybe a big block Chevy on it, because it just needs "something" to make it look better.

Last night was the October meeting of the Dallas Handknitter's Guild. The program was on gauge. The programs are leading up to a grand finale of knitting a sweater, the whole year has been named Sweaters 101. I think it's pretty cool, since I'm not really a sweater knitter, (I hate finishing, the knitting part I can do just fine) so hopefully I'll learn some stuff.

The woman doing the gauge talk brought along a bunch of her swatches. They were huge. We're talking 10 x 20 some of them. I don't make swatches that big, and I don't usually save them intentionally. Mostly they end up either in a bag in the knitting closet or in the trash. I don't swatch for socks, my sock is my swatch and I'm more than willing to rip out if it's not fitting right.

Show and tell time was not quite as interesting as last time. Lots of socks, a bunch of sweaters and shawls. One woman is making her husband a sweater with indigo dyed cotton and her hands were blue. Beautiful stuff, but her husband is huge, like 6'7" and the piece she was working on looked more like a bedspread than a sweater. My boyfriend isn't small either, maybe that's why he's only gotten socks, hats and scarves so far.

I'm almost done with my "cursed sock" #1, couple more rows of ribbing and a bind off and I'll be finished. I know I keep saying I'm almost done, but this time I really am. I rotate my projects, so I worked on this sock last on Monday, and just got back to it at the meeting last night. Since it's so close, I'm going to finish it today instead of waiting. I'm going to start the latest kit from TheKnitter.com's sock of the month club which is a cute purply anklet. They haven't updated their website lately.

I'm sure by now everyone knows about Roy Horn (of Siegfried and Roy), being near death after being mauled by one of his tigers during a show. What a monumental tragedy. I feel terrible that this happened and wish Roy all the best. I'm disgusted that PETA and HSUS is using it as a platform against the private ownership of big cats. (Don't get me wrong, I'm not for private ownership of big cats, I think untrained people who have one as a backyard or house pet are morons) I just think it's inappropriate that in one breath PETA says, "Oh, Roy we hope you get better" and in the next says, "what a shame you'll have to get rid of all your animals now".

Still plugging away on the same old projects, I'm pretty slow, no need to bore anyone with progress pics. The first "cursed sock" is almost done, so far, so good.

Cute baby pics today:

This is "Kina" Bongo. She is our newest baby, born on September 22nd. Baby and mom are both doing well.


This is "Jordan" Oryx. She is about nine months old now, she was handraised by us at the hospital.


Here is one of the Guira cuckoos. They are just the cutest things, I love cuckoos we've not had them at the zoo before

No knitting done today but a lot of cross-stitch got finished. I started and finished the October ornament for my Chartswappers group stitchalong. Called Trust... is a Virtue, designed by The Victoria Sampler . This is my least favorite of all the ornaments that were chosen for the stitchalong, and I probably wouldn't have bothered except I've gotten this far, and the grand prize is so cool.



I also put the finishing stitches in my Dimples Designs Wee Beasties Part 5. This dragonfly was a big pain in the butt. There are nine different Kreinik metallics, and almost no two stitches next to each other in the body are the same color. The wings are done with two strands of blending filament and no floss, then backstitched. It is gorgeous, the scan doesn't really do justice, but Dave is not getting any of the companion pieces stitched for him anytime soon.



The new piece I started is on 18 count linen and only uses two colors of overdyes and a perle cotton. So it should work up fairly quickly which is just what I need right now.

Here are a couple of photos of my dining room wall of fame, and two of the pieces I got back from the framer's yesterday. Celestial Wings by Dragon Dreams Designs and English Elegance by The Heart's Content .