Sorry for the forced pun, but this afternoon I returned from my second trip to visit the in-laws in Oregon. The knitting gods smiled upon me, seeing a project finished, a project started and finished, a skein of Trekking XL purchased, and much progress on the second pair’s second sock. It was first trip to Eugene that revived this little writing space and got me back on the needles.

This time, we took the trip by car. What Yahoo! Maps said would be 7+ hours ended up being closer to 9. Granted, we had our little angel in the car with us, so many stops were made for potty breaks. She traveled like a champ, hanging out in her kennel for the first few hours, napping on the back seat for most of the time, and the occasional visit to my lap. She’s exhausted from three days of playing with the resident canines—two border collie mutts, one twice her size, the other at least four times! She endeared herself to Lolo and Roger by hurling herself onto their laps anytime they sat.

But you didn’t come here for dog talk, didja? First, a confession. I went to a chain fabric store (the name rhymes with Rowan, or more specifically, Row-annnn’s) and bought some 100% acrylic Red Heart Super Saver crap. Hold on, I have a reason! I wanted something cheap to experiment with, as well as something that’s machine washable. One of the big motivators of my current toy kick is making things for friends with kids (or, in Janie’s foster mother’s case, about to have kids). If you have recommendations for baby-safe, easily cleaned and durable yarn, I’m all ears. Same goes for environmentally-friendly stuffing (organic cotton batting?). Luckily, that mainstream craft wench got less than $20 from me; and I promptly spent a similar amount at a Eugene LYS.

So, out of the aforementioned products, I present to you my first Nautie. How geeky is it to knit a fossil? It was super simple, just a little time-consuming working off of the large skeins. Next time, I’ll work it in a single color, or two that are closer in value for a mottled, less uniform appearance. With such contrasting colors, any tension variation results in visible blobs of one color. Also, I would caution anyone attempting this to not stuff too densely at the beginning, as I have some fiber leakage in the center of the shell.

When we left on Friday morning, the Jess Hutch bunny was in pieces. Somehow, when showing off the parts to Lolo, an ear was lost. I’m not sure if Oscar, Dudley or Janie ate it; I just hope it all comes out in the end. I knit up a replacement ear (the shorter one) last night, and everything came together. This pattern is super-fast and I’m looking forward to riffing off it. I love how she’s arranged the increases and my needles are antsy to try to make more little creatures.

As for the sock progress, you’ll see it when it’s finished. And the Trekking XXL, I want to get a 40″ #2 and try to knit it with the Magic Loop technique. A memorable Mem… sorry, I can’t. Between the man and the dog’s snoring, it’s time for me to go to bed as well.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 29th, 2006 at 9:57 pm and is filed under knitting. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.