Don’t try to blog when you are dead tired.  It is about as successful as knitting when in the same state, and usually results in doing things over.
I got home late last night…about 11:30.  I work a screwball work week; 7 days on, 7 days off, the week on adds up to about 80-90 hours when things go well and I’m home on time.  It was also a very stressful day, for any number of reasons.  Let’s just say they don’t make up a lot of the stuff on ER….we have things happen in a real-life hospital that would be considered too way out there to make it on network TV.
Anyway, I decided to post, being the dedicated new blogger that I am.  I carefully composed, then in one click hit the button that closed the browser WITHOUT SAVING THE BLASTED THING.  Yes, I know talking in caps is shouting….it’s nothing compared to the swear words coming out of my office last night, followed by the sound of my forehead banging up and down on the desktop.

And I did not get any knitting done, because I decided to use those last relaxing few moments before bed to write.  And I have no recollection of what I was going to write.  And no new knitting to show for my day, as I just got home.  Fortunately some nice man is making me dinner, then I will get to knit in peace and quiet.  Law & Order reruns, here I come.

I posted a forgotten project in the “On the Needles” page.  Now I can’t find the online picture, but the yarn (Schoeller Esslinger Sunshine) was on sale on Elann recently, along with the pattern book.  Now the pattern book seems to be gone from their site.  Looks boring now, but the finished sweater hopefully will be cute.  And warm.  We don’t take spring seriously here in the Pacific Northwest for at least a month or two.

It was way too nice in the Pacific Northwest to be inside knitting today.  So I sat outside on the deck to knit!  Here is what I have to show for it:

And a close-up of the stitch pattern:

This is the front of the endless sweater, for those of you who don’t want to bother with reading older posts.

And the mailman was very nice to me today.  He brought this:

For Audrey.

I ordered this from here.  Honest to God, it was here from England in 5 days.  I couldn’t drive from here up I-5 to Seattle and get it that fast.

Last but not least, here is a picture of Lucy doing what she does best:

Let’s hear it now; aaawwwwww, isn’t she cute??

I found something to do with the dead squirrel yarn from yesterday’s entry.  I wrapped a bunch of catnip in paper towel, sewed the piece of squirrel fur around it, and gave it to the cats.

Remember the Star Trek episode about the Tribbles?  This reminds me of one of those.  Predictably, sometime during the night one of the cats tore it up and there was catnip all over the floor this morning.

In the comments yesterday, someone asked about the heel stitch for the Strawberry Waffle Socks on my Finished Projects page.
It’s called the Eye of Partridge stitch.  There are apparently a number of variations for this, but this is the one I use:

Heel Pattern (on an even number of stitches):
Row 1: *Slip 1, k1*, repeat across from *
Row 2 and all even rows:  Slip 1, purl across
Row 3: Slip 1, *slip 1, k1*, repeat across from * until the last 2 stitches,  k2.

Basically it is the same as the “regular” heel stitch, except that on every other “public” side row, you offset the stitch pattern by one stitch.

And the back of John’s sweater is finished.  I short-rowed the shoulders, which was interesting, given that the pattern stitch is a 2 color slip stitch pattern.

On to the front.

I have done little knitting today.  I have changed my “Finished Projects” page, and added several old projects from photos I had stored.  I have done a number of items that either never got photographed, or the photos are lost.  We’ve only had a digital camera for about a year, so anything before that was hit or miss as to whether I got it on film.  Several of these were gifts so I can’t go back and get pics.
Then there are the items for which I just do not want a photographic record.  My own “Little Shop of Knitting Horrors”.  Someday when I’m truly bored and have nothing to do, I’ll take pictures of some of them.

Oh, OK, here is one:

Knit from this:

I finally got tired of calling this a WIP today and took it off the needles.  The cats wouldn’t even play with it.  It feels a little like a dead squirrel.  Anybody have any ideas of what I can do with two and a half balls of this stuff?  It was cheap, so if “throw it away” is the most common vote, I would not be opposed to that.

I’m working on pictures of a few other WIP’s (none that are THAT butt-ugly), and will have them up in a day or two.  My goal today is actually to do some knitting…I want to finish the back of John’s striped sweater and get started on the endless front expanse.  At least it’s an easy pattern stitch so I can listen to an audio book or watch a movie.

My next blog challenge is to get pictures of my pets in the sidebar.  If they are there, I’ve succeeded.  If not, back to the drawing board.  The orange cat is Lucy, the dog is Riley, otherwise known as the pure-bred brown dog.  The 3rd pet is Willie the cat, who thinks he’s a dog.  He was not feeling very photogenic today; maybe another day.

I made this for a grand-niece; finished this month. Knit from Baby Cashmerino (really, I’m going to knit with some other yarn next!). The pattern was designed with Sweater Wizard software, loosely based on a vintage baby sweater from the 50’s, called a matinee coat.

Knit from Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Aran, pattern from “Knit Baby Blankets”, by Gwen Steege.
Finished February 2004 for John’s new grandson, Sam.

Addendum: Since I’ve had several requests to email this pattern, I’m including a link to the Amazon page for this book. It’s under copyright, so I can’t email it to you. The book has several other nice blanket patterns as well.

This pattern is so cute that I couldn’t resist it. It’s from the book “Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino”, in yarn of the same name. I learned a couple of important things by making this.
1. Start knitting baby things early. Babies grow quickly.
2. I learned a few new techniques…short row shoulders, buttonholes.
The baby this ended up fitting (John’s grandson, Sam) is so cute that his parents didn’t want his picture on the internet for fear of kidnapping. Thus, the teddy bear. Her name is Sweet Pea, if you’re interested. That’s me in the second picture.

Knit for a niece for her birthday. The yarn is Lorna’s Laces sock yarn.

This pair was knit for a friend’s baby about 2 years ago; again out of Baby Ull.

I knit this pair from Dale Baby Ull for a grand-niece about 2 years ago. The nursery theme was “moon and stars”. This was my first and only attempt at intarsia so far. I would not recommend the heel of a sock for the first intarsia project!