Just like this site: Pandora

I'm not a very big fan of the music that is played on the radio. So, I spend a lot of time listening to my old favorites and a few new favorites, but there is a distinct lack of variety in my musical library.

The Pandora site is like Fonzie because you can put in a favorite song and it will create a "station" of songs with a similar sound.

Amazing - the list made from one favorite song, included another favorite song that it picked based on my preference. It makes sense - but it's cool anyway! Here's a station that I made. A, the source song is "A" by BNL.

A, BNL = A Thousand Miles, Vanessa Carlton (yes, I really like this song - it's great for singing in the car)

These Apples, BNL = Growin Up, Bruce Springsteen

Speak Like a Child, The Style Council = Walking on the Sun, Smashmouth

Ok - one more thing. Does anyone remember the firefly music site? It may have been built by MIT students? It was on the internet in about 1996 and it was similar to pandora in that it would relate musical styles. I always missed that site! (I'm not the only one, I guess)

I'm making the Ruffles scarf from Scarf Style. The yarn is Tahki Shannon in Color #11. I'm using three balls and have just started working on the third ball.

It's turning out pretty nice and so that I don't have to keep turning the scarf over, I've learned to knit backwards. I've always wanted to learn, but until now have not had a good enough reason to practice. Now, I'm getting lots of practice! And I can see that it's a good skill to have. Amazingly, my regular knit rows and my backward knit rows are the same gauge!

Bonus information (but not information you will need unless you have a dog...)

If you don't mind me sharing, I'll let you in on a little secret. Dog's who eat raw, don't have the problem that this product is designed to fix. It's a wonderful thing that happens when a dog is no longer eating overly processed, grain-based kibble.

I could go in to more detail, but I'll spare you! Let's just say that raw food is nature's poop freeze - it's a beautiful thing!

I'm currently feeding the dogs a variety of food from Three Cheers. Lately, the variety has been beef, rabbit, sheep or venison - with a little raw tripe and plain yogurt thrown in for a treat. Lots of bones for chewing and my doggies are happy, have beautifully soft fur, bright white teeth and lots of energy! I highly recommend making the change.

And a little dog treat zen for good measure:

Katy is looking at her frisbee. She wants me to stop taking pictures and throw the frisbee...NOW!

This is about all I see of Ellie at the park. Her average speed is about 20mph and trying to get a "portrait" type picture of her is just about impossible.

I've had this christmas cactus for three years and it finally, finally bloomed.

This is the little sweater from the Weekend Knitting book (Here's free online pattern). I don't have any eggs that need to be cosy right now, but knitting up this little sweater has been itching at the back of my mind ever since I saw Kerstin's sweaters and then Annie's post from the other day.

This little one was knit with some handspun yarn that I bought a couple of years ago from an ebay seller. I started another one last night with my own handspun and ran out of yarn! Unless I want to leave it as a vest, I need to find some other yarn to use for the sleeves.

And, just so you all don't think my dogs are always well-behaved, here is a picture of how my house looked when I came home for lunch today. Ellie found a bag of polyester quilt batting and it looks like the two of them had a party while ripping it to shreds. Naturally, it's more fun to wrestle in a big pile of batting than it is to wrestle on a nice clean rug.

This is a shot of doggie wrestling in action. At least two to three hours a day is dedicated to this activity. (Yes, that is Katy on the bottom. She likes to let Ellie believe she's winning and then at the last minute she turns over and pins her. Actually, it's a patented move that Katy perfected by practicing on the kitties called The Katy Press.)

Yarn: Cascade 220 (The Heathers)
Color: I think this is #9451, Lake Chelan Heather
Needles: US6, bamboo
Notes: Cascade 220 is such a great yarn. It's well-priced and knits up wonderfully. Of all of the swatches, this one really shows off the details the nicest. I don't think the Cascade heathered colors can compete with the intricacy and depth of color in a yarn like the Blackwater Abbey - but for a nice, basic yarn, it's definitely a good option.

Last night, I was reading through the book, Knitting in the Old Way. It has a chapter on Bavarian twisted stitch sweaters and some good insight into reading the patterns and understanding this style of knitting. And it's in English!

My book finally shipped today, so I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival. For those of you who already have your copy, you may want to check out this site on Japanese knitting. There are a couple pages on reading charts, translating characters, etc.

And on a totally unrelated subject, I turned one of my upstairs bedrooms into a dog training room. All I have to say to the doggies is, "Do you want to go upstairs and practice?" and it's a race to the top of the stairs and into the room. Katy is demonstrating her two-on, two-off contact position in this picture and Ellie is waiting her turn in the crate.

Yarn: Blackwater Abbey worsted weight wool
Color: Pink Heather
Needles: US6, bamboo
Notes: How gorgeous is this yarn? It holds cables beautifully, is crisp and has an amazing depth of color. I. love. this. yarn. I think this would be an awesome yarn for the Crossed in Translation sweater if you wanted to use the weight of the yarn to automatically make the sweater in a larger size. The needles that I used were too small and I may make another swatch with larger needles to get a feel for the overall size and whether I get a little bit less smooshing of the stitches.

I still don't have the book, so I'm not sure what the gauge is supposed to be, but I think the exact sweater could be made in this yarn at the appropriate gauge for this yarn and you would automatically get a larger sized sweater without having to do any re-designing.

Now, the only question is what size would it be?

(oh, and you may or may not notice that I crossed a few of the twisted stitches the wrong way on this swatch. So, if you make a swatch with the chart and it looks different from this particular swatch, it's probably because your swatch was knit correctly.)

A couple people have asked about the chart symbols. I promise that by the end of the week I will put together a key which will explain the symbols.

Over a year ago I set this project aside. I think it was because I had worked on it over the summer while Spencer was sick and somehow when I let him go, I let this project go as well. The charts and the details where not something I felt like concentrating on.

But, here it is. I pulled it out today and evaluated my progress. Two sleeves done and a significant portion of the front. I'm ready to work on this and finish it up.

This is the Little Rivers Aran sweater from Alice Starmore's book, Stillwater. I'm knitting it in Cascade's Eco Wool.

I did a google image search to see if this sweater showed up and although I didn't find it, I did find this cool page of swatches (or maybe they are afghan squares).

Thank goodness I was taking good notes - I knew exactly which line of the chart that I was on. A miracle!

I'm always thankful for things that keep me warm.

Like these mittens. I love how these turned out. They have such a refined, old school look to them.

The details:
Yarn: Bartlett Yarns sport-weight fisherman's wool
Color: Blue Heather
Gauge: About six stitches per inch
Pattern: Mitten from Ann Budd's The Knitter's Handy Book of Patterns (with a few accidental variations in the first mitten that I duplicated in the second mitten so that the "variations" would be the same in both)
Notes: I think that the top decreases were supposed to be done at four points around the mitten. I did the decreases at three points and so I wasn't decreasing fast enough. To compensate, towards the top I did a double decrease at each of the three points. I'm happy with the nice, round shape of the decrease.

Based on a pair of gloves that I knit from the same book, I knew that I wanted a little bit of extra length in the stockinette between the ribbing and the start of the thumb. I knit about five rows of plain stockinette to get that extra length.

The pattern calls for gathering the stitches at the end and pulling them together. This makes for a pointed end on the thumb. I don't like this as well as I like the kitchener stitch for finishing off the top.

I finished the blue mittens for Sandy's Warm Hands Knit-along and to take a break from the twisted stitch swatches, I started knitting a pair of mittens with some variegated Manos.

This Manos is gorgeous and knits up quickly. It was fun to take pictures of - such pretty colors and a surprisingly nice match with my new, favorite corduroy coat.

The swatches for the twisted-stitch cardigan are finished blocking. When I get a few minutes I'll put together a page with some notes about each one.

I've also started a swatch with the AS Hebridean three-ply. This is an amazingly beautiful yarn. On the VY web site, they describe hanging the yarn out in the fresh air of the Scottish Isles to dry once it's been wound into skeins. I can believe it - there is something magical about the yarn and I'm dreaming of all of the gorgeous colors that they have available. Blue, cream, orange?

And...if you're interested in trying out the pattern that I'm using for these swatches, I've created a chart. I haven't gotten it together enough yet to provide a key, but if you're familiar with Alice Starmore charts (e.g. in the book Fisherman's Knits), you can probably figure this one out. I plan on putting together a key and some directions, but for those who are interested here is the chart.

The chart looks more complicated than it actually is. The pattern is very symmetrical and logical. After I printed it out, I used colored pencils to highlight the rows that I need to think about.

- The odd rows are the right side rows, even are the "wrong" side rows.

- The marked knit and purl stitches are twisted on both sides of the knitting (some patterns only have you twist the knit stitch on the front side, but I think this leads to uneven looking twisted ribs).

- In the yellow section of the chart, in general, the work on the front involves crossing twisted knit stitches over regular purl stitches.

- On the wrong side rows in the yellow section, the work tends to involve crossing a pair of twisted purl stitches in one direction or the other.

- On the wrong side rows where there are twisted purls being crossed, simply pay attention to which direction the top stitch is supposed to face. It will cross the same way across all of the pairs on that row.

- I've been binding off my swatches around line 36 or 37. It's around line 33 where the twisted stitch section of the swatch starts to repeat. (here's a picture of the swatch done in Cascade 220)

From left to right:

1. Jamieson's DK in Oyster - I'm curious how the swatch will look in a lighter color. Will probably go up a needle size (to a US5).

2. Alice Starmore Hebridean Three-ply in Tormentil - I have a feeling that this one is going to be really nice. A three-ply with rich colors. It's also very soft.

3. Jo Sharp 8-ply - I already finished this swatch. It turned out okay. I was kind of blah about it, but I'll reserve my final opinion until it's finished blocking. It's very nice yarn.

4. Cascade 220 in a heathered blue-green - I've also finished this swatch and it's blocking as well. Nice stitch definition and a very pretty color. This yarn is a contender!