Four legs and a heel

Yes, I'm working again on the second sock, and now that I'm past the heel it's supposed to be downhill from here:


I also keep working on my little creature's legs:

I had to change to a smaller needle size after noticing the gaps in my first pair of legs. I don't want to redo that pair because it was a lot of work. If this toy were going to I child I might do that, but not this time.

Another tag

I was tagged by Stacie this time.

4 jobs you had in your life.
Lab Technician
Science Teacher
Spanish Teacher
PR Account Executive

4 movies you could watch over and over
The Dark Side of the Heart
Strawberry and Chocolate
The Last Unicorn
Amélie

4 places you have lived
Mexico City
Querétaro
Guaymas
North Carolina

4 TV shows you love to watch
None!

4 places you have been on vacation
Zihuatanejo
Puerto Vallarta
Zacatecas
Veracruz

4 websites you visit daily
Google News
del.icio.us
Yahoo mail
Weather Underground

4 of your favorite foods
Cheese
Sushi
Chocolate
Nopales

4 places you would rather be right now
Mexico,City, with my family
Querétaro, where I have many friends
Germany, with my sister
Spain, with my husband's family

4 bloggers you are tagging
Magdalena
Procrastiknitter
Lia
Marlena

Two legs

It wasn't easy, but I made these legs bend using short rows. Now I'm playing around with color scheme and length. I might rip and make changes but so far so good. Thanks again for all the advice I've received during this project.

Not the magic loop

I'm using a similar trick. Following Jennifer's advice, I looked up the magic loop technique and found this site. I tried the magic loop on a circular needle and started getting ladders. That's because pulling the cable after each half round stretched the yarn between the stitches. Obviously, this technique works better with two circulars, which is also widespread among knitting bloggers. But frankly, who wants to buy a second circular needle of the same gauge?  I also got some advice from Urraca, who suggested using straight needles and kindly provided this link. I wasn't sure I wanted to try that tecnhique, but I tried using double point needles instead of two circulars and I'm very satisfied with the results. I am knitting two legs at the same time. That will save me from counting rows. All I want is both legs to be the same length.

In other news, I was tagged on my Spanish blog by Olivia and Lia. I am to list five unusual habits, so here they go:

I usually sleep with a hat on. We keep our bedroom at 68oF (20oC) but that's not enough for me.

I drink coffee and spicy food even if that upsets my stomach because of chronic GERD. I don't do that everyday, but often enough to annoy my husband.

Because of said GERD, I sleep with two pillows. I sometimes steal a third from my husband and sleep in what I call the Chac Mool position.

I keep a constant heap of reading materials, papers and pending stuff that I never clear out. I never let it grow too much, but I never eliminate it completely. I dust and clean around it, though. My husband calls it "the little pigsty".

I'm obsessed with having lots of underwear. I could go for at least three weeks without doing laundry and I'd still be able to wear clean underwear every day. When I travel, I keep a set of underwear in my carry-on luggage. If I miss any connecting flights or my luggage gets lost, I am at least guaranteed clean socks and underwear the next day. And I travel with my cheapest, ugliest, oldest, worn out underwear, so I can throw it away during the trip and not waste time washing it.

Now I need to tag five more people, so I'm tagging Jennifer, Sandra, Michele, Louise  and Urraca.

Another plea for advice

Thanks for the previous advices. I followed them and kept knitting. But when the blue section began to narrow again I stopped, embroidered, and stuffed. It wasn't as hard as I had anticipated. Before putting the needles back in I knitted a few leg swatches, and discovered that eight stitches yield the right circumference. Which is very awkward when knitting in the round the usual way. You cannot knit them i-cord style either. Even when making glove fingers I have more stitches than that! I have never knitted a toy before so I'm new to this. Any suggestions?

To stuff or not to stuff

I'm a little stuck here because I want to embroider a letter on the blue part. I could also knit the letter into it but since I'm knitting on the round that should prove difficult. Some say it's impossible; it isn't. It's just a big mess and a waste of time and effort.

The question is, should I go on with the blue section and stuff both sections later? Or should I stuff the yellow part before I keep going?

Primary colors

I don't need a new project and I don't need more yarn. In fact, I promised myself not to buy any new yarn until I had completed a few things, but I couldn't help it. Schmeebot has been making all sorts of little creatures and I felt myself drawn to them. I got started right away and abandoned that poor little second sock. Me bad!

I'm working on it

Second socks are never as exciting as the first one. But I got back to working on mine, see?



I included the first sock just to prove that I'm not cheating with an old picture. I'm almost done with my curtains. If I had known they would be such a problem I might not have attempted them.

I think Jennifer held the clue about the mysterious bleach marks. She mentioned oxy cream, and I recently started using a similar thing with benzoyl peroxide. Bad idea. I should pay more attention from now on.  I do use bleach in my bathroom but I'm very careful about it. Still, some of my towels also have bleach marks, so I should probably stop using it. Now that I don't live in North Carolina I might not need it anymore.

Here's a funny picture of the pooch. He likes his bed in front of the dishwasher. If you move his bed, he'll still curl up in front of the dishwasher, so we just let him be. Not even opening the dishwasher disturbs him.

Bleach marks!

How on earth did I get bleach marks on my handknitted green tank? Has this ever happened to anyone? I can't figure out how it happened but here they were:

Luckily, I got away with dyeing the whole garment a darker shade of green. The bleach marks are not noticeable anymore but gosh, they shouldn't have been there in the first place.

I think I quite like this new shade of green. I'm still battling with my curtains and therefore have not knitted that second sock. I will get to it, I promise.

Posting again

I did not intend to stop blogging for so many days, but we were so busy that there was just no time for that. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday season as much as I did. My parents have left and the pooch stayed behind. He's still looking for my mother around the apartment. I did not finish the second sock, which saddens me a little bit because that pair of socks was intended for my mother. By the way, she managed to finish her cross-stitch work and even framed it for us:



Although I've not been knitting, I've been experimenting with a new sewing machine, which was a gift from my parents. I got some curtains in Mexico that need length adjustments. The pooch is not very helpful. Whenever I turn around to get pins or scissors he arranges things more to his liking:



He has a tendency to claim for himself any scrap of fabric he finds. He does have a large blanket, so no yarn is necessary, Michele, but thanks for the offer!


This week I got a nice surprise in the mail from Schmeebot. She's currently making all sorts of tiny creatures and decided to share her enthusiasm with me. Isn't that nice?