Katzen and dogzen

Still at work on Nuke (new kitty) over here, in fact, Nuke version 2.0. I was getting frustrated with the watercolor, so I started over in colored pencil, a less wieldy medium for me. Also made it a bit bigger. I had an idea for a gold colored mat for the one on the right and this was a tester. Since Nuke is no longer with us, I had thought to do a night sky with stars above him, and have him sitting on his cushion. But I don't know if I'll still do that with my drawing or opt for something simpler. His dark eyes are quite frustrating, as this cat has kind of an "out of it" look to him, but I suppose I'll know when I've got it just right. However, I do enjoy working on him and really want to try to capture him in this drawing.


In other news, we saw a bobcat at the bus stop today! The bus had already picked up the kids and gone when it moseyed across the street right in front of us, headed for a wooded trail. It was the largest bobcat I've seen, so large that I looked up lynxes when I got home to see if it could be a lynx (no, lynxes don't like the suburbs). This photo isn't our bobcat, by the way--I didn't have my camera with me. It was a very cool creature to see here in the Pacific NW.


My neighbor just got a field spaniel puppy yesterday that looks quite a bit like this one, except theirs is black. So adorable. I love their little domed heads. I may have to add her to my list to do a drawing of some day.

Reknit, reuse, recycle

As an experiment, I thought it would be fun to recycle yarn from a thrift store sweater. Recycling yarn is popular these days and I've seen some really neat stuff made with what began life as an awful sweater, or perhaps became one after the styles changed. First, I read up on what others had done. Then I had to find the sweater, so I paid a visit to the Seattle Goodwill, which is a big establishment with lots of turnover in stock. Looked in the men's department because the yardage is better and I thought it likely that some of those sweaters had seen little wear. Men can be picky about their sweaters! Found a plain gray stockinette sweater in a brand I like and brought it home, where I put it in a tub of warm water and Eucalan to soak.


After it was dry 2 days later, I began to deconstruct it. I have to say it's time consuming and took the better part of Saturday morning. I also made a real mess, with threads and bits of yarn all over. It took me a while to figure out where the seam threads were, and turns out the seams on mine were sewn with a finer thread. In fact, my yarn turned out to be 5 thinner threads loosely plied together.


I'm glad I called this an experiment, because that's what it was. I have many many little balls where, from incompetence or lack of patience, I missed cutting the seaming thread and cut some of the main sweater yarn instead. But when it was all done, I had a bag full of yarn, and best I can tell from weighing and measuring, there's at least 1,200 yds of yarn.


Now, I did try the sweater on before unraveling it and found that it was quite scratchy, which may explain why it was living at the Goodwill. Old J. Crew didn't use the best yarn on this one! The other reason is that it had a hole in the front I hadn't noticed before, so I really didn't feel bad about recycling it. Anyway, I was thinking of an outerwear garment. After much time poring over patterns (word to the wise: skip this step until you've completed next step), I started swatching, and did not like the resulting fabric at all.

So I decided it would make a wonderful bag of some kind, and found this one I liked that my son would also really like. He's only six, and he loves any kind of loot bag or treasure bag, because he collects treasure wherever he goes--rocks, buttons, twine, shells, etc. The bag is from the book Greetings from Knit Cafe.


And depending on how old he is when I finish it, ha ha!, he can use it for his iPod, too.


I think recycling Goodwill sweaters is a useful occupation. At $7.99, had the yarn been of a better quality, it would have been a gem of a find. As it is, it will make something neat and useful in its second life.

Which ewe are you?

Take the quiz.

I guess I'm a Perendale: "This longwool knows that taking it easy isn't just a good idea -- it's a great one. With an open-mind and dependable attitude. Perendales always make the best of any situation. Flexible and adaptable, they are great negotiators and compromisors, as well."