The Dread Pirate Roberts

You saw a foot. Now here's a head:


My little (dog) toy is finished. Annie's instructions said to be creative with the hair, so I decided to give my yarn man "dreadlocks." Because yarn doesn't lock, I just braided three strands of yarn together. I wonder if I could have felted the strands together? I won't show you the whole toy, but you will hopefully see it in Annie Modesitt and Drew Embrosky's book. All three cats found the dreads interesting, but only Scout would pose nicely with the little man. She was a bit sleepy when I took the above photo so she didn't try to attack. However, when I took the next photo, she was much more alert.


What do you think happened right after I took this photo? Yup, she pounced on the end of the purple yarn. I know what you're thinking (unless you are just focusing on Scout and not the yarn in front of her). You're wondering what the heck I'm doing with shiny novelty yarn. Well, my customer--the recipient of the twisty-neck tank--now wants stuff made with fancy yarn. The customer handed me a two hanks of shiny yarn and asked me to make two things that looked different with them.

The red stuff is Passion from Kollage Yarns. The hank only had 100 yards, so made a drop-stitch scarf with it. I thought (correctly) that the drop stitches would help add length. I had a minor major disaster when I tried to wind this stuff. It has four plys (plies?) and the plys became tangled up and the pretty hank turned into a fuzzy, shiny blob. I considered taking photos for this blog, but I was very irritated and I realized that I didn't not want any photo documenting my misery. I spent an entire evening untangling the mess.

The purple stuff is Romance also from Kollage Yarns. I just cast on for a triangular, stockinette shawl. Boring yes, but the customer did say that she wanted the two objects to look different. I hope the shawl will be big enough in the end. If it's not, I suppose I could ask her for a second hank. I'm also using the shawl to teach myself to knit backward:
Me: Look! I'm knitting backward!
Peter: Why are you doing that?
Me: Because I want to learn and if my gauge is funny, no one will be able to tell in this crazy yarn.
Peter: You're really just doing it to entertain yourself.
Me: Well--that IS an added bonus.