Tyler Update; Knitting Update

First thing's first: Tyler's doing well. So well that he's driving me nuts. The better he feels, the harder it is to keep him quiet so he doesn't hurt himself. He wants to run (tried that twice yesterday, till I had to resort to putting the leash on him even in the house). He wants to chew on his belly - caught him pulling out a stitch with his teeth yesterday. Yes, I was watching him, I was sitting right next to him, but it was like a stealth attack - he must have been calculating that move for days to get such an instant and perfectly targeted strike, that in the time it took me to see his head move, lay down my knitting and reach for him (about 1.3 seconds), I already heard the loud "snap" of him biting on that stitch. I had to make him wear the Collar Of Doom after that.

I had been keeping the Collar of Doom off of him when I was sitting right next to him and (allegedly) able to watch him. He really hates it, and has not adjusted well to it. He walks into things constantly and doesn't like to lie down with it on, so he can't get comfortable or relax. Of course, we probably didn't help - the thing's just an embarrassment. I don't think he was too happy with the fact that after we put it on him, we decided it would be a good idea to autograph it, like people sign people's casts.




This weekend everyone went to the year's first SCA event. I had the days off to go, but took them instead to stay home with Tyler (since anyone I knew who could watch him is now partying in the middle ages; my brother usually watches him, but such a long trip to a house full of stairs was too risky for Tyler). We're living on the living room floor. How appropriate.


If it looks like a mess, well it is - this is where we've been since last Sunday night, so we can be constantly near enough to Tyler to keep a close eye on him, and pet and pamper him. Blankets spread out on the floor and cushions pulled off the furniture so Tyler doesn't try to make a stealth leap onto the couch (tried that too yesterday, but I intercepted him in time). When you spend entire days and nights in a 10' x 10' section of the floor, it tends to get this kind of 'lived in' look. And this is where I'll be living the rest of the weekend, trying to keep myself entertained while constantly watching Tyler for attempts to sabotage himself.

Ah well. He's doing great, and despite my apparent grousing, the fact is I'm thrilled that he's doing well enough that he requires this much watching. Things could have went much, much worse. I think this is the most dangerous thing that Tyler's ever been through. And when he does finally lay down calmly for 5 minutes, I'm constantly checking him to see if he's 'okay.'

The worst of the 'danger zone' has passed, though. The vet told me the first 3 to 5 days were the most critical for not letting him do anything too strenuous that could rupture his internal sutures. Today is day 6, and I believe we've succeeded. I still don't want to take any chances, and will be struggling to keep him calm and quiet for another week yet.

As much as I can while keeping the Poo from running, leaping, or chewing out his stitches, I've been knitting. I am really excited about the new project. Sweater design in progress:


I took one of the three balls of yarn I'd ordered as test yarn, and knit myself a large gauge swatch. I got three types of yarn because the texture is very important to me, and I couldn't tell that without actually feeling it and knitting it. Turns out I liked the first one I tried well enough to just go with that for now. I can always use the other two for other projects later.

Second, I got a very definite 6 stitches per inch over its entirety, so I was pretty comfortable with that.

But I decided I wanted to put a pattern into the sweater. I looked through my book, "Beautiful Knitting Patterns" by Gisela Klopper, and picked one I liked. I switched my swatch to that pattern for awhile, to see if I could figure out my gauge in that.

I couldn't. I don't know how to figure out spi in a pattern stitch with yarn-overs, cabling, etc. I tried just laying the ruler over the swatch and counting them out as best I could, but I came up with 6 spi. I didn't think it likely that my pattern stitch count would be the same as stockinette stitch. So I tried something else. I measured the three pattern repeats in my swatch (11"), then counted how many stitches were in that width (66). Hmmm. 6 spi again.

I decided to go with it, and do a "test start" on the sweater itself. Using the Handy Book of Sweater Patterns, I cast on the appropriate number of stitches for the left front of the cardigan at 6 spi, and I'm knitting away on that. When it gets large enough to trust I'm getting a true measurement, I'm just going to measure it across and see if my knitted piece matches the schematic provided in the book.

Sounds like a rather tedious and unscientific, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants way to do it? Well, probably. But ... I'm going to make damned sure that this sweater fits when it's done, no matter what it takes. If I have to knit half the sweater front, find out it's not measuring out right, rip it all out and start over, well then ... that's what I'll do. It's certainly no more tedious and time-consuming than knitting an entire sweater to find out it doesn't fit. I'm trying to learn some patience and tell myself, this is all part of the design process.

I'm undecided how I feel about that color of yarn. When I ordered my three 'test skeins,' I tried to pick colors I thought I'd like to have the finished sweater be. I wanted something neutral and light toned, but not just bland taupe or beige. This color looked interesting on the computer screen (it's called "Sprig"). But in person, I'm waffling. In some lights it looks yellowish-green or even golden-green (not bad). In some lights it almost looks mustard-yellowish (also acceptable). But then sometimes it just looks like baby puke. But for an overall impression, I do kind of like it. It's different, but then ... so am I.

I've decided to let Fate decide. If this sweater front piece I'm working on turns out to be the exact right size, matching up with the schematic, then I'm keeping this and going ahead with the sweater in this color. If it doesn't and I have to start over, I'm going to go ahead and order the yarn for the entire sweater in a different color, and start my next attempt in the new color.

I'm still going to be working on the Snowdrop shawl, but with Tyler demanding my attention every 20 or 30 seconds, I didn't think that was a good time to be trying to knit lace.

So - I've started my own mostly self-designed summer cardigan! Woo-hoo! (well, if it works).