Supplemental Bunny Update #1

Oh, did I mention that I have never made slippers, or footwear of any sort, before? 

This is fun.  And by "fun", I mean "No chance of achieving anything more useful today than the making of Bunny Slippers".  Tomorrow's not looking good, either.  My experience is giving new meaning to the phrase "Down the Rabbit Hole".

Here are the bunnies after one trip through the front-loader, with hot water, and some jeans for company:

The transformation, while impressive, is not complete, in my judgement.  I can still see light through them, and the stitches are still fairly well-defined.  I sent them back for another wash.

While I wait to see what happens, I'm raiding the stash for more of this yarn.  It's Peace Fleece Worsted, whose mohair content is such that felting it results in uber-fluffy fabric.  Halo-y and fuzzy, and everything one would hope for bunny (or any) slippers to be.  I'm in love with it all over again.

Naturally, my brain is exploding with ideas for other, non-bunny, slipper applications.  Stay tuned if you dare:  It might get loud in here.
 

Feeling Flopsy

Thanks in no small part to my family (and especially to Phillip, who volunteered to guest blog when he noticed I was neglecting you), the swatches and the last two project samples for the book are done.  And now we can start rewriting the thing.

To celebrate, I took a nap.  And by nap, I mean mini-coma.  I lost a day somewhere in there, and so far I haven't missed it.

When I woke up, I didn't even want to knit.  To those of you who sensed that disturbance in the force, let me reassure you:  the burnout was only temporary.  What I did instead was spin.  Nothing sexy, but a nice, solid bobbin of Romney that I got at last year's OFFF parking lot sale to practice using my mini-combs on.  Kind of a nice, oatmealy-gray-tan that soothed my ragged nerves after the technicolor whirlwind of all those swatches.  Did I mention that each chapter's swatches are done in a different color of the spectrum?  The Stripes chapter are in reds, Slipped Stitches oranges, and so on, all the way through to violet.  Soft gray-beige is delicious after all that.

And then I decided I had recovered sufficiently (well enough to sit up and take yarn, so to speak), to make the second sock for Mom's birthday.  The birthday last August that I totally missed.  For which I presented Mom with a single sock, in October, with the promise of a second one when possible.  I located the second skein and proficiently wound it.  I found the pattern and narrowed the needle choices to one of two sets.  And could NOT find the first sock, for reference.  It's lost.  Naturally.

As everybody knows, the only antidote for that sort of frustration is to make bunny slippers.  These bunny slippers.

The Smallies got so excited when they saw this gorgeous pattern that they have decided to make bunny slippers, too.  Lindsay's are going to be "extra fluffy", and Campbell's are required to have fangs.  Phillip has not placed any special requests for his bunnies, but I'm sure we'll think of something to set his apart from the rest of the warren.  The flagship pair look like this at the moment:

Thanks in no small part to my family (and especially to Phillip, who volunteered to guest blog when he noticed I was neglecting you), the swatches and the last two project samples for the book are done.  And now we can start rewriting the thing.

To celebrate, I took a nap.  And by nap, I mean mini-coma.  I lost a day somewhere in there, and so far I haven't missed it.

When I woke up, I didn't even want to knit.  To those of you who sensed that disturbance in the force, let me reassure you:  the burnout was only temporary.  What I did instead was spin.  Nothing sexy, but a nice, solid bobbin of Romney that I got at last year's OFFF parking lot sale to practice using my mini-combs on.  Kind of a nice, oatmealy-gray-tan that soothed my ragged nerves after the technicolor whirlwind of all those swatches.  Did I mention that each chapter's swatches are done in a different color of the spectrum?  The Stripes chapter are in reds, Slipped Stitches oranges, and so on, all the way through to violet.  Soft gray-beige is delicious after all that.

And then I decided I had recovered sufficiently (well enough to sit up and take yarn, so to speak), to make the second sock for Mom's birthday.  The birthday last August that I totally missed.  For which I presented Mom with a single sock, in October, with the promise of a second one when possible.  I located the second skein and proficiently wound it.  I found the pattern and narrowed the needle choices to one of two sets.  And could NOT find the first sock, for reference.  It's lost.  Naturally.

As everybody knows, the only antidote for that sort of frustration is to make bunny slippers.  These bunny slippers.

The Smallies got so excited when they saw this gorgeous pattern that they have decided to make bunny slippers, too.  Lindsay's are going to be "extra fluffy", and Campbell's are required to have fangs.  Phillip has not placed any special requests for his bunnies, but I'm sure we'll think of something to set his apart from the rest of the warren.  The flagship pair look like this at the moment:

The Sock of Defiance

It was really only a matter of time.  When a person, who is also a knitter, has a rebellious streak a mile wide, it matters not against WHAT there is to rebel.  In this case, I'm knitting in defiance of my publisher's deadline.  Totally delusional time-management expectations?  No problem!  I'll just make my mom a lace birthday sock.

Maybe it's to do with the realization that the number of birthdays I have left to celebrate with my mom is dwindling.  Maybe it's a backlash against all the colorwork I've been up to.  I just really wanted to make a sock.  And while a PAIR of socks would be preferable, and undoubtedly more useful, there is a distinct possibility that I will be forced to wait a while before starting #2.  My mom, who has never been known as a finisher of projects, will be the first to understand if she only ever receives this single.

Not that I wouldn't like to make another.  In fact, for the first time in memory, I'm sorta jazzed to start the other one right away.  Which makes perfect sense in light of the fact that this rebelion knitting, and not sanctioned, career-advancing, bill-paying knitting.  Of course this is the first and only time I've eluded the dreaded second sock syndrome.
 

The fact is that I've been pounding my head against the wall with a roaring case of writers' block.  My friend Jill says it's because I'm not dealing yet with the loss of my father.  She might be right.  I can't deny that a little quiet time at the ocean would be good for my perspective about now.  But that's just not in the cards at the moment.  So I guess I've been taking the only vacation I can:  Defiant Sock Knitting. 

All that aside, I have a pressing need to return to my regularly-scheduled book knitting.  And "pressing" here means Urgent and Undeniable, even by a world-class Deny-er, such as myself. 

Time to go back below and pull on the oars some more.  Isn't it ghastly how even something you love can still turn into work?