Drowned rats

Yeah, more fleece rats, and these ones aren’t even dry….
drownedrats
Those are more shetland fleece rats destined for shetland socks. Why, pray tell are there more fleece rats? Because I ran out of yarn for the socks. Why? Because I’m being punished. I got super cocky about the whole thing, and decided that this time…just this one time I wasn’t going to be my own worse enemy. I wasn’t going to spin as much as I thought I needed, I was actually going to spin as much as the pattern thought I needed. This approach, while an unusual one for me to take, was designed to prevent the nightmarish cycle of knitting, running out of yarn, spinning more yarn, knitting and running out and spinning more …. While this is how I have knit every handspun project until now, I decided to give it a rest. I carefully spun as much as I was told, (except for the white…that’s just for the cuff heel and toe…I don’t need to spin as much as the grey for that) and embarked on the knitting of the socks. I enjoyed knowing that I wasn’t going to run out. That I had nipped this in the bud and that I was breaking the cycle of knitting/spinning stupidity.
Then the planet heard that I was confident and happy. It decided to punish me for my imperious attitude, and not only have I run out of white (my fault…I estimated. I take the hit on that one) but I have run out of GREY. That’s right, I don’t have enough grey. Even though I was a good little spinner and I did what I was told and I spun the exact yardage that they told me….I do not have enough. Clearly I’m being punished. Now I’m right back in the knit-run out-spin-knit cycle again. Let this be a lesson to you all. The planet hates a smartass. To make sure that I get the message, it is gently misting/raining in Toronto today, and that particular brand of humidity has given me enormous hair. Country singer hair. It’s all part of the plan to make me look stupid, to remind me that I am stupid. I get it. Me and my hair the size of Kentucky are washing the fleece rats, I will not try to escape the planets plan for me again.
New business
lacereject
I can’t make up my mind. This is half a scarf I knit out of some handspun, there’s no pattern, I just sort of cobbled it together from a couple of stitch patterns. I don’t know if it’s worth knitting the other half. Do we hates it?

12 thoughts on “Drowned rats

  1. We loves the scarf, Precious, but we likes the little Shetland ratses even more – raw and wriggling would be best 🙂
    Don’t you love it when the universe decides you’re its punching bag?

  2. Recently discovered your blog. You have my sympathies. It’s drizzling here in Maine and my hair is big as well.
    Question about the wool rats…. Do you wash the rats individually? Do you card the wool or can you just spin the rats?
    I love to spin but am not brave enough to actually plan a project. That’s why I have lots of cute little skeins of wool (that I don’t know what to do with).
    The scarf is lovely.

  3. Great scarf – great rats! and I think the universe doesn’t hate you as much as you suspect. There are those of us whose hair goes completely flat and limp – a far worse fate than looking like Loretta Lynn!

  4. we likes it and agrees it is mosssst precious- and if you finish it and write a pattern for it we would love to make one for a fair elvish maiden we know-
    in texas ‘big hair’ is perpetually trendy- move south, way way south, and be stylish when it is humid!

  5. I love the scarf. Have always loved the shell like pattern you’ve used for the border. Was thinking of how to use it vertically in a summer vest last week.

  6. Does no one else feel that the shell pattern in the border has an element of asymmetry? It looks pregnant on one side to me. Blocking performs miracles, it’s true, but I suspect it’s always going to look lopsided. What we loves is that you pulled tails out on all the ratsses for the lovely picture. Tricksy harlot!

  7. Is it just me and my computer, or are those “tails” kinda pink? What kinda sick wooly trick is going on here?! 😉
    Nice ratses, nummy…
    The scarf is nummy too.

  8. The fleece rats look especially… how to say this? carcass-like today. Carcass-like, but cleaned carcasses. Little dead rats, with all the innards removed. 😉
    Ken – yes, it does look lopsided, but it also looks exactly like a specific shell, which has that thickened edge on the hingy bit. Makes me all nostalgic for my childhood, walking along the beach, picking up shells to take home for display (which undoubtedly drove my mother crazy, as they always drizzled sand everywhere for days).
    Actually, the whole scarf reminds me of my childhood. Dunno why exactly – it’s not like I was born in the real Olden Days (Ken – shut up!). It just triggers a whole whack of feelings. Maybe this is my madeleines? I can see why Proust wrote that book.

  9. This may be an odd question… but… is there a somewhat yellowish tinge to some of the scarf, or is it just the picture?
    (Love the rats. They’d make great pets: cute, fluffy, pettable and you don’t have to feed them or take them for walks.)

  10. Well shucks I looked for KnitLit Too at my Border’s last night and they didn’t have it! I have 3 more stores to check in town otherwise it will have to be mailorder!

  11. A flat iron works WOMDERS for country singer hair (snicker, snicker). I should know–I have suffered with this type of frizzy-can’t do anything to it-kind of hair. Trust me! It’s worth the $$. 🙂

Comments are closed.