Sheep Shots

We rented it last night.

I'm impressed that someone would devote a year of his/her life to documenting the breeding cycle of the emperor penguin, but I'm not sure I get the "family values" proponents using this as a "natural example."

Emperor penguins are "monogamous to a point." (That is, during the breeding cycle, they pick a mate and stay with that mate for the breeding cycle. But the breeding cycle is less than a year and they live for 20 or more.) At certain times, the mothers abandon the family to seek food that they bring back to the chick (working mom, SAH dad?) then the fathers abandon the mother and chick (to go seek food for themselves, selfish bastages!). Oh, and if the father gets really hungry and Mom isn't back yet, he'll abandon the chick. Then, the kicker, Mom and Dad both abandon the chick before it's full grown. Aren't these the kind of "values" that we decry among "certain populations?"

And as long as we are talking about penguins and values, what kind of crazy f*ck steals a baby penguin ? I mean, what would you do with one if you had it? Fatten it up and eat it? Keep it as a pet? Sick, just sick.



And in the spirit of design: (no, I have not been in the spirits!) I discovered early on that I had a mistaken interpretation of the chart in the cozy baby blankie, shown to the left in its pre-block, completed glory.

When I got to the end border, I goofed up again and had to rework 2 rows. That convinced me that the decision to treat the earlier "oops" as a design feature was a good one. This stuff is a bear to rip. The halo that makes it soft and cuddly also makes it hold on for dear life!

Since my mistake was already repeated 3 times in the three cable panels (and three times is a "design feature," not a "mistake") , I decided to just repeat 3 more times in the very last repeat.




Can you see what I did? I misread the chart that wanted me to "slip 4 stitches to a cable needle and hold them in front, knit the next 4 stitches, then knit the 4 stitches from the cable needle" as "slip two stitches to a cn, hold in front, knit 2, knit 2 from the cn, repeat." Well, d'oh!

If I had just bothered to read the " in other words" part of the directions. . .

By the time I realized my mistake, I was already several rows beyond. Sure, I could have dropped down just the cable panel and fixed it, but (see note about sticky yarn, above) I was already debating frogging the whole damned thing.







Once I decided to forge ahead, it was a simple matter to decide that the same "mistake" placed at the end could easily become part of the design.

And so, that is what I did, dear readers. In the spirit of the season.

I am planning a hooded sweater to go with this blankie and a tiny pair of socks. I'll use just the yellow and save the white for another day, another project. It really needs to be blended with something smoother to tame it a bit.


I discovered an error in my yarn countdown, and have corrected it. It seems that I have knit up more than a mile of yarn in the past two weeks (no surprise), but that there was also a mistake somewhere in my original spreadsheet the low-balled the weight of my yarn stash. I think it's all fixed. the December stats are now correct. I will update on January 5.


And again, in the spirit of the season: I do apologize for any wet pants, spewed monitors, and general meltdown that may have been caused by my seasonal grinchiness.

This one's for all you "old farts" (the over 40's). I promise it won't startle the cat on your lap.

Holiday Wishes from me to you
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