Loopy.

I made a lot of progress on the washcloth over the weekend. The boys played with Play*Doh for about an hour. I heart Play*Doh. Not just because of its squishy goodness, but because they are actually engaged for more than 27 seconds. I sat at the table and worked on Mister Lion:

The loops take a loooooooooooong time. Long time. To create them, you have to knit the same stitch twice, create a loop, make a new stitch and pull the loops over the new stitches you created. Are you exhausted yet? Because I am.

-dk

This g-d washcloth. Now with monkey tease!

See this picture? Doesn’t the washcloth look great so far? Aren’t the loops perfect? The color, so nice?

Yeah! This is the picture I took right before I frogged it. Three times. Two because I wasn’t creating the loops right and they’d unravel when I’d get to the wrong side (never a good idea to skip 2 solid lines of instructions). Speaking of not reading directions…do you remember doing the activity in grade school where your teacher would say 15 times, “Be sure you read ALL of the directions first?” And you’d meticulously go through each step of the directions and create some lame-ass picture and be so proud you read EVERY SINGLE DIRECTION CAREFULLY AND COMPLETELY…until you got to the end where it said, “Don’t do any of steps X – X.” So you were supposed to  turn in a blank sheet of paper? Remember those? I f-ing hated those. Maybe because THEY GOT ME EVERY TIME.

I frogged the washcloth the third time because after I’d knit 6 rows, I realized the washcloth would be perfect…if my children were the size of Barbie dolls. Seriously. I am going to tell you now – I hate to swatch. Knit 16 rows so I can MEASURE IT? Are you kidding? Of courses, I’ve knit about 30 so far and am now on row 2 of my fourth attempt, so….so whatever. I’m not swatching until I have to.

I ended up doubling the cast-on from 24 to 48. I think it’s going to be the perfect size for scrubba-dubbing in the tub with the boys.

-dk

PS. Here’s some monkey tease.

He’s not looking at the camera because he’s shy. AND HE HAS NO EYES! He’s one scary mo’ fo’ right now. Maybe tomorrow I will drag my happy ass to the store for some buttons. Or maybe my coworker’s baby will like a monkey with no eyes. I’m sure that will cause absolutely no damage to the child. (Hey, look at me! Damaging OTHER people’s children for once!)

PPS. My oldest, The Dude, wants a monkey now. So we’re going to pick out some yarn….

Rawwwwwwwwwr!

Monkey is nearly finished…piecing him together and stuffing and sewing have taken nearly as long as it took to knit them. So irritating. I hate putting them together, but Chuckles is definitely coming together.

Because the monkey isn’t as mobile now, I started on the lion washcloth. I’m using Cotton Ease yarn in Terrocotta. It’s a nice orangey red color and is going to look fantastic as a washcloth.

I’m building myself a regular freakin’ zoo around here.

-dk

Cool squared.

I’ve been looking for a throw pattern to make so I can have a nice afghan for our basement. We redid the basement in the last year or so. The walls are an aqua/bluish/greenish color, with one wall and the bathroom painted burnt orange. The decor (or what I’m going for) is modern/contemporary and I wanted to create something that was unique and crazy cool. You know, like me.

I bought this yarn from my LYS more than a year ago.

I love this yarn so much. It’s the perfect orangey red color and it’s alpaca wool – super soft. The problem? I have frogged the beginnings of three separate blankets. Every time I think I’ve hit on the perfect pattern, I get going and hate it. That is why I heart Ravelry. I found a thread on one of its forums asking for obscure patterns, and I found this:

I love these people! They are mathematical, so the patterns aren’t made like traditional patterns, and the completed afghans are a demonstration of a mathematical concept. From their page on Ravelry:

“The design represents a discovery that can be found in many maths textbooks – it is the smallest number of different size squares that a larger square can be split into.”

So, not only is it a kick-ass design, but it’s totally geeky cool. Love it, love it, love it! I’m going to use the orange with maybe a bluish turquoise, cream and chocolate brown. I don’t know, though. I just don’t know!!! I’m so excited to go yarn shopping I’m about to bust.

-dk

Holy frijoles, these are cute.

I mean, have you seen anything today that is cuter?

Lion washcloths.

After Chuckles, these might have to be my next project.

-dk