Fiber Arts Friday: New Normal Socks, part 3

Since last time I am down to the last few yards of New Normal Yarn.

Once these two balls are finished, I will knit a few rows of black, then a ribbed cuff.

THEN, I'll make the inserted heels.

Getting close!

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Fiber Arts Friday: Black Hat, part 1

There is Knit Worthy and then there is Knit with Black Yarn Worthy...

A dear friend of ours has recently completed the first hurdle of cancer treatment.  With winter approaching, they put out a call for a soft/warm hat, and I said I could make it happen.

It took me some effort to find the right yarn+pattern match, but I did get there.

This yarn is a lovely, soft merino+cashmere blend  However it is very difficult to read while knitting.  The color is a deep, saturated black and the yarn itself has little stitch definition.  So the pattern needed to be able to work with this as a given.

After attempting another stitch pattern, I settled on this Heel-Stitch plan... a simple two-row repeat: (1) sl1, K1 then (2) Knit all.

Things were going well, until I felt a ridge on the back side a couple of weeks ago.  I knit a few more rounds, thinking it would work itself out during blocking... but everything from that point on looks different... both the front and the back.

I believe I've been mindful of the pattern, so I think I must be knitting more tightly.... but I'm not certain that accounts for the difference.

In contemplating what to do next (rip it back, or completely start over), I showed it to another friend...

It looks like the ridge is caused by (1) two Knit-only rows, (2) I am possibly knitting tighter, and (3) I started a second ball around the same time.

Therefore, my plan at this time is to add a lifeline below the ridge.  I've not done an after-the-fact Life Line before, and I will need to make sure I'm picking up a Knit-only row.  Which means I will need to have a fresh mind and very good lighting.  ;-)

Then I will rip it back and re-knit the last inch or so.

Hopefully this works.  I'm running out of time before the snow flies.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!

Dog Shows: Buckhorn Kennel Club, 2022

Now that we're past Wilma's season, I was hoping that we could get serious about Dog Showing again... 

My schedule kept us from formal practice prior to show-weekend.  So I got there early on Saturday and got in a few practice rounds with some friends... Wilma seemed to think it was a fun game to not let anyone go over her.  :-/   I had all but resigned to not going in the ring.  However, on the encouragement of the Ring Steward, I decided to give it a go at the last minute.... She let the judge go over her, but balked at the very last step of the bite inspection... so we were excused.

If you're keeping track, that is 3 excusals in a row.   *sigh*

Thankfully, excusals are not disqualifications.  But still... frustrating,  :-/

I often say that each dog teaches us something new.   For Wilma, it seems to be helping her realize that she does not have to keep me safe while at a Dog Show and that it is my job to keep her safe.  This seems to be more important for the Indoor, and therefore more congested, shows.

As much as she enjoys seeing her human and canine friends, she is always watching everything, and very aware of where I am located.  After all... I am her flock, she is a Livestock Guardian Dog, and Livestock Guardian Dogs are pre-disposed to being wary of strangers.

So I decided to take the opportunity to have her "relax" in her crate for a while before going home on Saturday.

Fortunately, our grooming space was in the ring area, so there was a lot of activity, aka distractions. 

So she did not relax, but she did quietly watch the action until we went home.

On Sunday morning, a friend offered to help with her focus/attention using few different bait options..  This proved to be the key.

We learned that she likes Squeaky Toys and Freeze-Dried Turkey Hearts.

With this new information, we focused on focus and regaining attention with the Squeaky and new treats and continued to "relax" in her crate until our ring time.

There were no other Tibetan Mastiffs entered this weekend so no points were awarded.  However, Wilma let the judge go over her!  So these ribbons from Sunday mean everything to me.

These mean that she stood still and let the judge go over her, without balking.

The Red-ish and Purple+Gold ones also mean that she had the opportunity for Group Experience.

She performed extremely well for the judge in the Owner-Handled Working Group ring.

Then, later in the regular Working Group ring, the Group Judge was the Breed Judge who had excused us the day before.  Wilma let her perform the entire examination!

The other exceptional thing this weekend is that Wilma moved beyond "relaxing" in her kennel, to actually relaxing, and then took a nap.

We have a few weeks until the next show, so I plan to take her to Rally classes.  Where we will learn and practice other techniques for gaining and holding attention. 

Then I plan to take her to some novel locations that are busy and/or congested so we can practice in an approximate show environment.

It seems we had a couple of breakthroughs last weekend.  I am so proud of her!

Fiber Arts Friday: Summer Cardigan, part 5

Whelp this sat for a couple of weeks, waiting for some quiet time to pin the pieces together.

So after confirming that I know the crochet slip stitch, I clipped the pieces together, being careful to match the rows from the bottom...

There is a mismatch of 6 rows between the front and back floral panels.

While it was blocking, I just thought the back panel was more stretchy than the front ones.  sigh.

After sitting in time out a little while longer, I re-pinned the panels,

and ripped out the 6 extra rows.  I think I will re-block these before stitching together.

I began stitching the upper and lower panels together... because this is the order in the instructions..

While the seem is looking fine, I began to worry about the 3 extra stitches on each of the front panels.... I confirmed that the stiches cast on for each section of the upper panels matches the number cast on for the lower panel... but I did not take into account these 3 extra stitches.

So I don't know if this pattern was Tech Edited or not.  I don't believe it was graded well, or maybe it was released prior to testing each size.

Other than a delta for casting on, and a few large categories on sizing, I don't see the detailed instructions for each size, and I've already mentioned a few sets of instructions that are not quite correct.

Anyway, at this point, I've ordered some more stitch markers/pins for the Upper-Lower join, but I have a feeling that the lower panel will need to be 6 stiches narrower... if so, that means ripping out and re-making the entire piece.

This will be going into timeout for a while and there is now little chance it will be ready to wear before the snow flies.  :-/

Happy(?) Fiber Arts Friday.

Things That Work: Leather

 It occurred to me the other day that I have had this belt since 2001.

I remember because I was travelling to Michigan weekly for work.

We lived in Albuquerque, NM but I worked in Walled Lake, MI, near Detroit.  We were changing the world, but while I was there the world changed... on September 11, 2001.

It is now 2022, so that makes this belt 21 years old.

I had bought this belt at a store like Marshall's or Mervyn's.  These stores were close to my hotel and I stopped there when I needed something.  In this case the cheaply-made, "fashion" belt I had, broke.... I wanted a simple, leather, belt and found a great price on a nice one.

I have worn this belt nearly every day since, because it is the only belt I own.

So let's take a moment to think about the Opportunity Cost of owning one leather belt for more than 20 years....

• the money NOT SPENT on cheaply-made, fake-leather, belts over 21 years
• the waste NOT SENT to the landfill because those cheaply-made belts did not have to be replaced when they failed
• the materials that go into those cheaply-made, fake-leather.... or as some people like to call "Vegan-Leather" belts (and other products)
• Fake Leather, pleather (plastic-leather), vegan-leather..... These materials are made from by-products of oil/gas production
• These materials are not biodegradable
• oil and gas production harms the air, soil, water, and view

Versus the cost of owning one leather belt for more than 20 years...

• When this belt does finally fail, it will biodegrade back into the soil.
• The grazing of herbivores improves the health of the soil, by increasing it's ability to hold water and store carbon.  Both of which increase bio-diversity.  Which in turn improves resilience, slows climate change, and reduces extreme weather events.

Please note that I'm not talking about "conventional" animal production.  CAFOs are often unhealthy environments for everyone, as are cubicles for humans with day jobs.

Now this is a lot for one piece of clothing.... You can argue that one piece of clothing won't make a big difference.  But what if we all have one, or two, or three pieces of clothing like this?

This belt is 21 years old and and is showing no signs of quitting any time soon.

Well-made Leather products absolutely work.

Fiber Arts Friday: Save Our Sheep Sweater, part 13

As is always true with my fibery projects, changes are expected.

The Hog Island has been in many places of breed order and configuration over the life of this project.

I have currently decided to leave the Jacob out (grey), because I have worked with it before... therefore making this project 100% new-to-me breeds.

This also means that I'm reasonably settled on the smallest/darkest buttons from my short list.

After weighing and winding the separate balls of Hog Island, I began the Right Sleeve... this time starting at 19 rows, a few less than I could make, so I could check progress against the other balls, in the hope of preventing TINKing.  :-)

Progress slowed down a a lot in July, with ~100F Daily Temperatures.

I started to pick this back up on cooler mornings in late August/early September... and at the end of September I am now working on this again for a few minutes, nearly every morning.

I'm through most of the Hog Island and approaching the final section of instructions, so decided to try it on for a length check...

As of this writing, the left sleeve (23 rows) is four rows longer than the right, and the body is one row shorter than the left sleeve.

I would like the sleeves to be about 2 inches longer, prior to starting the cuff, so I added a life-line-like marker to measure from.

Also as I was checking the waist length, one of the needle stoppers fell off, along with a bunch of stitches.  Ack!

Fortunately Hubba was home, so he was able to help me remove the sweater while I contained the loose stitches in one hand, thereby preventing a series of running stitches and a lot of repair.

Whew, catastrophe averted.

I need to think more about what's next on the body... and whether it's important to me that the breed bands on sleeves and body are the same length... or if the last set of Navajo Lines should be at the same distance from the shoulders.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday!