Monday, November 10, 2008

Fibonacci Strikes, er, Stripes

For some reason, I got it into my head that I wanted to do something using a Fibonacci sequence of stripes. One small problem is that, besides some of my socks, I don't wear stripes. I also didn't want to mess around with having to weave in a bunch of ends.

In walked serendipity. Well, more precisely, I received an email from a colleague, Mary, who asked if I'd knit her daughter a pair of socks or something in her high school's colors. Since I can't knit anything with fingering yarn at this point, I suggested a scarf and hat, and maybe some wrist warmers. Her daughter is on the school track team and loves to go to football games, so having some warm things to snuggle into would be nice. The high school's colors are black and orange. I finished the four pieces (scarf, hat, wrist warmers) on October 30, so she had them in time to wear to school on Halloween. I shot this photo while Mike was asleep, just before Mary picked them up.

The scarf has two repeating sequences at the ends, and a shorter sequence in the middle, separated from the end sequences by 11" of black. Visible in the photo is the center sequence and one of the ends. I used a variation of the scarf's end sequences for the wrist warmers. The hat came out looking like a more intricate stitch was used than was actually used. I did the entire hat in K2, P2 rib, but on each row where the color was changed, I did a mock cable instead of the plain the K2. I

I have enough yarn left over to make a pair of leg warmers, so those are on the needles now. The yarn used for all of the pieces is Lion Brand's Wool-Ease, worsted weight, in Black and Sienna.



Winter approacheth, and so it's time to make my winter house socks. This year, I wanted to knit tabi socks, socks with a separate big toe, like mittens, I keep pairs of flip-flops by my front and backyard door for when I have to run out for something (when I'm not wearing my Wellies duct taped to my pant legs during tick season). It's a hassle taking off the socks and puttingthem back on again, not to speak of my feet getting cold, which means all of me gets cold and miserable for hours until they warm up again. So, here's my first stab at tabi toes, on anklets made out of Red Heart Classic in the Mexico colorway.




On Thursday morning, I was at the backyard door, making the clucking sounds I'm using to, er, condition the scrub jay and her young-of-the-year (who have been hanging around my yard since the little guy fledged earlier this year) to come for some peanuts in the shell. Instead of two scrub jays, I ended up with these:



Meet Spike (l) and Tweedie (r), two of the three dogs that live next door to the south of me (Georgia, whom you've met before, lives on my north side). Spike and Tweedie are experts at dismantling fences, resuling in my newish neighbors having to do a lot of fence repair.

I'd gotten to know the dogs over the summer, not in person, but over the fence and between the slats. Spike is very protective, and starts barking as soon as he hears me in my yard. So, I talk to them, going up to the fence, and every so often when I'm at the fence talking to them, cookies fall from the sky into their yard! (Unlike Georgia, they will eat broken cookies, so I arm myself with 2-3 pieces before going out in back.)

Anyway, when I called the birds, two muzzles poked through the fence, pushing a board to the side. I closed my screen door and left the area. When I came back, I found both of them staring at me. Oy.

My neighbor's wife didn't give him the message ("Hi, your dogs are in my backyard because they knocked two boards off, and it's okay they're here except they're going over and hassling Georgia, whom I'm afraid will come over and things will get very ugly very quickly if she does"), as I found out the next morning when I found three dogs in my yard - Spike, Tweedie, and Tweedie's mom, Nala. Sigh. Saturday, the fence got fixed. Back to cookies falling from the sky.

Tomorrow is Veterans Day, so Mike and I would like to take this moment to remember all of our veterans, and those who will someday be veterans themselves.



If you'd like to do something to support the troops this holiday season, check out the following websites:

Gifts To Soldiers (Army & Air Force)
AAFES.com
- Phone Cards, Gift Cards, and Gift Certificates
America Supports You - find homefront support groups in your area


Tabi Socks Update: I finished the pair of tabi socks that were OTN. Also in Red Heart Classic, I made them longer, in K2, P2 mock cable rib. I need to finess the shaping of the 4-toes so that it doesn't look so boxy...

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