Three Weeks Three Days Left

Three weeks, three days and 17 hours to the Harrow Fair according to the countdown clock on the Fair's website at the time of writing this sentence.

I have 2 projects to finish and 5 projects still to start.  We are not going to talk about the lapghan.

I finished the animal sweater.  Hubby can insist I don't knit for him.  Poor Reba can't.  She can only protest about putting it on.  She was a trooper though.

 The pattern is Bright Stripes from Patons A Dogs Life.  I have had this pattern book for so long I can't remember when or where I acquired it.  I have made many of the patterns in this book.  This one is the one on the cover.  I showed Hubby that this was my choice for the animal sweater category.  He raised his eyebrows and his face says, "Are you sure?".  I have seen that look before and said, not in those colours.  "Oh, okay then", he said.

Here it is for its final blocking.  It is its second blocking.  The first was when it was still flat.  I sewed the seams and tried it on her.  Too short on the backs so added a few more stripes.  So after her modeling session back into a bath it went.

(If you are thinking of making it yourself, the insert I have added between the leg openings is my own creation to get it to fit my expanding terrier who thinks she is constantly starving.)

Let me tell you about this yarn.   This is 2 ply fine 100% wool.   I bought the blue and pink at the MacAusland's Woolen Mill on Prince Edward Island back in the summer of 2008.  I also bought some natural white and natural gray.  I wanted to experiment with natural dying but I did not want to spend a lot of money on yarn blanks while I was still figuring out what I was doing.  The stripes represent my first forays into dying yarn.

From the bottom up in the striping sequence:

Stripe 1 - yellow.  Marigold flowers from my garden in 2009 on natural white.
Stripe 2 - brown.  This was first dyed with marigolds on natural grey yarn.  I must not have liked the colour as I overdyed it with black walnuts later in 2009.
Stripe 3 - pink.  See above.
Stripe 4 - I don't know what colour to use to describe this.  It is natural grey dyed with mullein.  It is now a beigy grey.
Stripe 5 - Again I don't know what colour name to use.  It was natural grey dyed with a mixture of brown and red onion skins in 2009.
Stripe 6 - beige.  Natural white dyed with mullein.
Stripe 7 - blue.  See above.

Stripe 4, 5 and 6 are why some people in town here think I am a crazy lady.  I go into the grocery store and at the checkout I have a clear plastic bag full of onion skins.  I cleaned up the display.   I feel like I am doing them a service.  The mullein I harvested from a bike trail behind a seed cleaning plant.  Anyone seeing me harvesting weeds things must think I am crazy.  Sometimes if I see them watching me cutting various weeds I consider dye plants, I talk to myself.  This is just to mess with their minds.  The odd person asks what I am doing.  Most just give me extra personal space.

I understood that the mullein would give a peach colour and then if overdyed with indigo you would get sea foam green.  I got beige, felt disappointed and have not tried overdying with indigo.  Looking back now, it is possible I mis-remembered what I was told and beige is the right colour.  It doesn't matter at this point.  What matters is it looks lovely as a stripe in this sweater.

The girl's sweater category sweater has been nagging me so much I had to work on it.  This sweater has reminded me that I really don't like to do intarsia.

Back is done and blocked.  The fronts are drying.  The first sleeve is 1/3rd done.  There will be hundreds of ends to tie in and secure.  I know it will be lovely when done.  In the meantime it is sheer force of will that compels me to carry on with it.  I hope I do not run out of the red.  The ball is getting very small.

In case you are interested this is a kit from Mary Maxim.  There is nothing wrong with the pattern.  The pattern is clear.  The problem is me.  I prefer to work with 100% wool but because this sweater needs to be machine washable the yarn is 75% acrylic and 25% washable wool.  It feels lovely to knit with but I am so bad at intarsia a sticky wool would work better with my skill level with this technique.

Hubby is on a bike trip.  I have a lovely block of time alone with Reba to knit.  I also have to draft my shopping list for him.  He promised to stop at the Spinrite tent sale in Listowel tomorrow on his way home.  He took an extra bag or two and bungee cords.