Yeah! Paper Dolls is Finished!!! After a few reknits (a little pattern tinkering by the designer, but no biggie – all is well!) of the yoke, and a bit of nervous nilliness that I might run out of yarn (definitely unnecessary worry – I had at least half a skein of yarn leftover), I can say I’m very pleased with the end result.

I don’t know why I’m attracted to the paper dolls.  I had paper dolls as a child, but they were Shirley Temple dolls, with miscellaneous costumes from her movies — the sailor outfit from The Good Ship Lollipop, the overalls from Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, the rags from The Little Princess.  In fact, I never much liked dolls at all as a child – all I wanted to do with my Barbie’s was make them ride this plastic horse I had — needless to say, my Barbies suffered many a broken hip, and all of them had nails in their sides where my dad had performed surgery.  And, I never spent my time carefully cutting teeny tiny cracks and crevices to form interlinking arms, bobbing heads, and triangle skirts.  Maybe its the appearance of dancing, and lightheartedness that I’m attracted to – but for whatever reason, this was a must knit, and I’m sure will turn into a favorite wear.

The yarn is O-Wool’s fingering weight merino.  The only thing I can say about this yarn is that it’s truly lovely.  The fabric is soft, it has a nice drape to it, and like it’s bulky cousin that I knit my Owls sweater in, it’s just a treat to wear.

The contrasting colors are Fibre Company’s Canopy (the light pinky purple) and Koigu KPPPM (the plum).  I was a little nervous about how the Koigu would blend with the O-Wool, but in the end it all worked out – and the odd man out was kind of the Canopy — which is also a decadent yarn, but it’s a blend of fibers, so it was not quite a perfect fit with the O-wool and the Koigu, two merinos, but it all worked out.  If I had to do it over again, I probably would go for another sturdier merino as the lighter contrasting color, only because I think the i-cord cast-on would have been a bit firmer, not so loose. 

So, what’s next??? 

I think that darn lion got to me – because I’m going on Safari.

Too Africa.

On the African Adventure Afghan! 

Thanks Dolliewollie for letting me post a picture of your fantastic Afghan!

The African Adventure is a patchwork knit quilt designed by Horst Shultz.  This quilt, not found in either of his books, grew out of workshop he gave in 2000, and the pattern was not available until someone on Ravelry managed to track down the elusive, computerless Mr. Shultz, and obtain permission to publish the pattern on Ravelry.  If you’re interested, you can go to the Horst Shultz fan club group on Ravelry, and under the group pages is a link the pdf “pattern” and notes on knitting and construction.  The Ravelry Group is moderated by RickeScott, who details his adventure/obsession with this pattern here. 

I’ve always wanted to quilt – but the problem is, I don’t know how to sew.  Quite a problem!  So, to quilt, not only would I have to learn how to work my sewing machine, I ‘d have to learn to sew proficiently.  That means I would have to sew other things in order to get to the quilting, and I don’t really have any interest in sewing other things – so, this pattern seems like a good idea to dive right into quilting, and color.

The pattern is a crazy concoction of bows,

That link together like puzzle pieces, and eventually get joined together with a snake like slip stitch border.

And, to add to the madness, I’m using a ridiculously expensive yarn (not ridiculously expensive if you’re knitting something normal size – just ridiculous for a project THIS size), Fibre Company’s Organik.

So, wish me luck on my Safari – there may be no lions and tigers and bears oh my – but there will be miles and miles of yarn, oh no!

And, in other news – Lemon survived her spaying surgery yesterday, that’s our girl!  She was a trooper.  When she didn’t spring into puppy action after about five hours, I called my famous dog whisperer Knitty D who assured me that Lemon would be just fine.  And, this morning, although a little slow, she was her perfect puppy self.

A snow day! Excellent!  I haven’t had one of those in at least 10 years.  For me to have a snow day, the city must close.  To his credit, and perhaps his only credit, in two terms, Mayor Street never shut down the court system.  And, even though public schools and Catholic schools were called the night before, I was still surprised to get the call at 6:00 a.m.  Frankly, after John Bolaris misfired with the Great Storm of the Century back in 2001, I’m very skeptical whenever there’s even a hint of  a snow day. 

When I was little, a snow day was not a delightful surprise.  It was a right – school kids had a right to have a snow day every few weeks or so – it was as if it were a scheduled vacation, and I would not be denied.  If there was even a possibility of no school, I would get myself so pysched up to stay home and play that if we actually had school, the disappointment manifested in a crazy insane temper tantrum following the failure of a sick out attempt. 

So, in actuality, I have John Bolaris to thank for the return of the thrill of the snow day, because in crushing any faith I had in weather prediction, his sky is falling routine, and the panic that ensued – do you know how many canned goods I ended up with in my pantry!!! –returned the snow day to its rightful position on the calendar – a true surprise and a definite treat. 

You’ll notice, there will be no pictures of snow in this post-snow day wrap up post – because I didn’t venture outside all day, well at least beyond the front step to let Lemon out – who was not thrilled at all about her “bathroom” conditions.  Can you imagine if you had poop/pee on a sheet of ice, and a pile of snow.  Can’t blame her.

No, while Joe  and his son, Joey, played Kill Zone all day,anxiously awaiting today’s release of Halo Wars, I spent the day snuggled with the puppy, alternating between my Kindle, my knitting, and a little nappy nappy.

And, at the end of the day, I had this:

This is Ysolde Teague’s Ishbel from her Whimsical Little Knits Collection.  And, what could more perfect than a whimsical knit on snowy day?

I knit Ishbel with Blue Moon’s Socks That Rock in Rhode Island Red (the last full skein on the right, the sixth skein in from the left).  If you will recall, back in 2006, Knitty D and I went a little bit crazy with our STR purchases – and what have I knit from them – nothing – these six skeins remind me of my hamsters that I had  in college. 

I bought a hamster, thinking I only needed one hamster (when I really wanted a dog, but couldn’t have a dog) – and then I found at the thing was pregnant when squishy bloody thingies started coming out of her.  One baby ended up lame, and needed it’s own cage because the other babies picked on it.  Then, after about a week, Mamma Hamster decided she didn’t want to feed her babies, rather she wanted to eat them – so those five got their own cage.  So, after several months of having three cages of hamsters, those smelly, yucky mice-like creatures were  finally hairy enough to leave my nest.  Two went to sorority sisters, and the rest went back to the store.  When I handed the cage to the store manager, she dropped the cage, the cage collapsed, smooshing and killing the hamsters.  My sorority sisters put both hamsters in a plastic ball, and they got into a fight, killing each other.  So, none of the hamsters survived.  What does this have to do with Socks That Rock – nothing really, except these six skeins got under my skin like those six dead hamsters – what a waste!  Wasted yarn, dead hamsters – my mind does work in mysterious ways.  Anyway, I ended up gifting a couple of them (the yarn, not the dead hamsters), I think, but I still had a drawerful languishing – since I had even more STRs from the Sock Club – from which I didn’t knit any socks.

So, when this pretty little pattern came out – requiring only 360 yards of fingering weight yarn, even though I didn’t really care if I knit it (not that it isn’t a pretty pattern, its just that I don’t really where little scrafy kerchief things)  – it seemed  like a good use of the yarn.  And, voila – unlike my yucky Swallowtail (see below – and by the way, I forgot to mention in that post that another reason why I can’t wear it is not only because it’s ugly, but because washing/blocking did nothing to the texture/feel – it still feels/smells like sheep – dirty), this was the perfect marriage of yarn and pattern – and it’s as lovely as whimsical snowflake.                                        

Can’t you tell, Lemon thought so too?