MFN = Male Frontal Nudity
Back in college, I used to keep a mental tally of all the movies that had MFN - not hard to do as it's not something that happens often.
Rome, the HBO drama, had an episode with MFN recently and I must say, Tobias Menzies has nothing to be shy about. I never did notice him until the MFN scene.
He's huge.
Sorry for not posting for awhile. I had to organize a retreat, a school Valentine's Day party, and a fifth birthday party (I can't believe I have a five year old!). All are thankfully done and everyone had a great time. Of course, my household was hit with flu this year right in the middle of all the festivities. We're getting the shot next year.
It seems like I haven't really wanted to knit, but I actually have gotten some items finished.
Another Bobbi Bear - yes, the legs are different lengths. I'm going to have to enter that into the "folksy hand knit charm" category and just not worry about it (of course I'm going to worry - don't we all knit pick our own stuff to death?). SnC in purple. 2 skeins of the small balls. I knitted this one differently than what was in the directions. I essentially knitted the main body/head, embroidered, and sewed on the ears before I stuffed it. I then picked up the stitches for the arms and finished him up.
MDK kimono (I need to add the ties) with an Ellen's Ruffled Hat. OTN: Super Quick Baby Socks
Another hooded bath towel - and yes, my dye lots were different for the pink. (crud)
I've been knitting - really! Here's my latest:
The hooded baby towel pattern is free and came from here.
The washcloth was a standard Grandmother's favorite but with four stitches cast on and a M1 after two stitches instead of a YO - I did it to match the towel pattern.
The bear is a Baby Bobbi Bear and was really great to knit up. The only sewing needed was to sew the ears to the head (and after looking at the photo's, I wish I sewed them a little lower). Very nice pattern and only uses two skeins of SnC cotton and one whole back of 12 oz of poly fill. I used some scrap green to embroider the nose and two 9 mm black safety eyes. Here's the bear all by himself:
Here he is snuggled up in the bath towel:
If you can't tell, I just love these colors for little guys. I am knitting up a Hot Pink, Orange, variegated version for a new baby girl that has been born into J's extended family. I may make a Baby Kimono instead of the bear.
J & I went to a great new Chinese restaurant located nearby. We were greeted by this monstrosity.
Reminds me of the Hypno-toad from Futurama. (Warning, the hypno-toad link has sounds)
I found this link on Jess Hutchinson's site. It took them 5 years to knit and you can see it on Google map.
J is tired of seeing me blog about knitting. Tough Titty Toenails! It's my blog and I can blog about whatever I want to.
I'm not happy with how the purse blocked and am thinking about sending it through the washer one more time so I can work the kinks out.
I'm also not very happy at how the blue yarn bled into the yellow. I don't think the dye bled. I think the blue fibers felted into the yellow.
I am a bit lukewarm about the way the flower turned out. It's not as fuzzy as I would have liked. Probably should have double stranded the nylon/mohair yarn.
I do like the size of the purse and the length of the handle.
The whole family went to the dentist last week. $4,000 + in dental fees later, all of us came home with crooked smiles. Turns out the old metal fillings I had in my mouth for decades aren't working so well, so I had to get them drilled out and re-done. Now the back of my mouth isn't gray anymore.
I hate the dentist. But I have only one set of teeth. I guess they're a necessary evil.
I have been in CAD training this week, so I've been somewhat busy. It's always fun to attend classes all day and then work into the evening. (sigh)
I'm glad I am taking the class, though. I've been using AutoCAD since 1986 (egads I'm getting old). Civil3D came out and it's a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PRODUCT!! I've been hitting my head against the wall for the past couple of months as I stumble through using all the new do-dads. Once I finally figure out how to control stuff, I'm fairly happy with the new way of doing things. I just don't have the process down.
Gotta get back to class.
J has a new game up called Countdown Dice and it's based on one of our favorite board games by Sid Sackson, Can't Stop. Some times when I can't get a dice combination before I commit, I growl that I got greedy.
It's a fun little game and I like the way it plays and looks.
We've past by this building for years, but now they've done something that has captured my attention. . .
Did they paint the windows?
(I really just wanted to play with my new phone camera)
Well, I bought an expensive toy off of eBay. It's an antique Circular Sock-Knitting Machine.
I'm not sure how old this one is, but they're generally a couple of decades old. I do love my knitted socks and would like to be able to whip them out in a couple of hours. This machine is in beautiful condition. Can't wait!
A while back, I started my Hex Coat, but I screwed it up. I knitted it in seed stitch instead of moss stitch.
If you've ever wondered what the difference is, hopefully you can see it here. Here's the seed stitch:
Here's what I'm doing now. The moss stitch:
I'm a bit disappointed that this photo doesn't show the diamonds. It really softens it up.
I also didn't take into account that my hips are wider than my chest. The other thing I did was knitted the rib in the same needle size as what I'm knitting the coat. I did not like how the rib area pulled dramatically in - not good for a woman with large hips.
The top of the photo below is where the hexagon's will be added later on. The bottom is the outer edge. I've chosen to do a shaped coat - 'cause I'm shaped. I've knitted to the waist and am now increasing to cover my chest. I'm keeping track of where I increased on each row.
I'm glad I ripped out my previous attempt. I'm much happier with this attempt.
Okay, my fear of hand knitting socks is officially over. I don't know why it took me so long to get the toe right on the very first sock. It needlessly intimidated me.
Well, I'm not intimidated anymore!
Viola!
I love them. They are so soft and warm and fit my feet perfectly. The color is quite lovely. . Right now I have an obsession with Circular Sock Knitting Machines. I want one, but they're terribly expensive. Not to mention that it's a crap shoot on what you are getting if you buy one - they're all antiques. I'm still not besotted with hand knitting socks like other folks are as I've casted on for my Hex Coat
I'm heavily modifying it to fit my shape. Here's a quick sketch showing some of the modifications I'm doing to make this fit right.
Here's the toe. I started with 10 stitches cast on and increased every row to 60 stitches.
Here's my gusset which is 14 rows where I added 7 stitches on every other row. The heel is a short row where I made 8 on either side.
Here's where I'm knitting up the leg.
Ever being the critic, I am very happy with the way the short rows ended up on this one. What I don't like is where I knitted up the heel - or where I did the ssk and p2tog. They just look sloppy to me. I have a second one to practice on.
I just love the colors of the yarn. The photo's don't do it justice.
I didn't use a straight black as one of the strands on this one, so it came out a little more gray than the other one.
It's the one on the bottom. Both boys were very kind with their responses when they received them.
