Lara, How Exactly Did My Car Get Covered in Buckwheat?

A very good question! See, it was like this....

There was a deadline. No, not a work deadline or a tax deadline or an organ transplant deadline, this was important, people! I was not finished with my monkey. With mere hours to go until the baby shower, I had no ears, a disconnected tail and about half a head finished. I also had no idea how I was going to get the buckwheat hulls into the head and make them stay, as they are not as obedient as polyfill. They are also lightweight and like to jump around, as I discovered....

But the World's Best Boyfriend (wbbf) produced a funnel and had the brilliant idea that I stuff Mr. Foster over a tupperware container (I would highly recommend this, it makes clean up much easier). With a really big knitting needle to guide the hulls through the funnel and gently beat the hulls into submission once into the wee little legs, we were on our way. He drove and I knit. And I stuffed. And I knit. Then we stopped in Pasadena and he stuffed and I knit. More driving and I sewed on ears. And I knit. And I stuffed. And I knit. I sewed on the tail outside of the showerand we were only about 15 minutes late, which for this crowd is almost like being early. I had to change my shirt in the car, but these are small sacrifices to make for one's art.

And that is one cute monkey.

Oh yeah, the stuffed one, too.

Monkey Business

Started working on Mr. Foster from Knit Picks for a dear friend who is expecting after a color selection disaster for the intended baby blanket/sweater/hat set she was supposed to be receiving. Why I thought it was a good idea to make a blanket that looks like it belongs in someone's basement with the shag carpet and other really ugly things left over from 1974, I may never know, but it did seem like a really great idea at the time....

Mr. Foster is pretty cute, though, and I hope will make a nice substitution. If I can just get him done by tomorrow morning.... Thankfully, the amazing boyfriend has offered to help me stuff him once I get done knitting. I am not sure there is going to be room for two people to work on this little guy, but it was awfully nice of him to offer.

Stuffing the monkey with buckwheat hulls from this place, they make a very nice natural alternative to polyfill and the folks who sell them are really helpful.

Pictures to follow.

Oh, the difference a single stitch makes!

So, I am making these socks for my boyfriend (he is amazing and I suspect it would disgust most anyone reading this if I were to wax poetic about how great I think he is, so I won't) from yarn he picked out. I would not have picked this stuff for him, but he likes more color than I realized. And it is very pretty and nice to work with (see? I am starting on how great he is again).

Anyway, I have these two matching skeins that are dyed by a computer, started them together, exactly the same....

And yet, my socks do not match....

I can't tell you how many times I thought I counted the stitches on each sock to make sure I had the same number. Turns out, if you keep counting the same sock over and over, that does not, in fact, help you figure out that you have different numbers of stitches on the back of your two socks. Who knew?

Ah, hubris, my old friend....

Lucky for me, he says he likes them this way. We'll see what happens now that I have added a stitch to the back side of the short sock and will correct the stitch count when I am finished with the heels.