G is for .......

Good knits gone bad... but I'll get to that...

I hope you all enjoyed the movie quotes...that last one was a stumper but Melanie finally got it! If you haven't already, visit my last post for all the answers - thanks for playing!

Now back to the good knits gone bad...

Remember this?
That's Mom and Dad in their His n Hers Ribby Cardis taken in 2005, just about a year before my Dad passed away.

They both wore their sweaters very often and my Mom still wore hers a lot.

Despite having donated all my Dad's clothes to Goodwill she saved his sweater and it was the only thing left in his "side" of the armoire.

Prior to this, my Mom brought the sweaters over here for me to wash when they needed it. They are not superwash but I washed them in cold water in the gentle cycle and blocked them on my blocking board with no problem.

This time around my Mom decided that she could wash it just as easily ::::cue scary impending doom music:::: so she put it in her washer on the delicate cycle and this is what she pulled out....(smallish 7 pound kitty for scale)

as always, click to embiggen if you can stand it :)

Yep, it's an unwearable felted dickie! Even if she could get it on, it is barely long enough to cover Mom's bust now.

Turns out her machine agitates a lot more than mine plus we figured out now (d'oh!) that her "cold cycle" groundwater is probably a lot warmer then mine since mine has to come up to the fifth floor and she lives in a one story home.

Mom was just devastated and upset that all my hard work had been ruined but....there is some good news even when good knits go bad....

As bittersweet as it is, my Mom is glad to have a reason to wear my Dad's sweater. She's glad that it won't just be sitting in the closet looking lonely anymore and it gives her some comfort to "feel" my Dad's sweater giving her a hug.

Plus a certain someone seems to have found a new object of his affection......

From the minute I put it down to take a picture, Pumpkin's interest was most definitely piqued!

He kneads it constantly while purring like a motorboat and he bunny kicks it when he wants to play and he's even made it his new bed...

And even when he's not sleeping on it, he's defending his turf!
So in the end, good knits gone bad aint so bad afterall -- Mom's happy, the P-Man is happy and I have great blog fodder even tho it cost me a sweater! :)


On to the knits that survived the carnage, heh.

Annetrelac Socks!

The Sock Knitters Anonymous Challenge for March was entrelac and despite having knit entrelac a few times before I couldn't think of a pattern to show of this gorgeous Bearfoot yarn any better!

Specs:

Annetrelac socks by Sandy Beadle, Interweave Knits, Holiday 2007

1 skein Mountain Colors Bearfoot, Goldrush colorway

Mods: Bearfoot is a "beefy" fingering weight yarn with little memory because of the mohair content. I cast on 64 stitches (instead of 72) with a 2.5 mm 32” circ. Because entrelac is knit on the bias it often swatches out with a much higher gauge than regular circular knitting. To compensate for that I switched to a 2.0 mm when I started the entrelac and decreased to 36 stitches so I had six “squares” in each round rather than the 8 the pattern had.

After 9 rounds of the entrelac I returned to the 2.5mm needle and increased back 64 stitches.

I added a mini flap of 8 garter rows and then worked a garter stitch short row heel over 32 stitches.

I then decreased the gusset down to 60 total stitches for the foot. (32 for the instep/28 for the sole)

I also added a 6x2 rib to the instep for a snug fit.

I knit for a size 10.5 mens shoe and I had a tiny bit of yarn left over.

Here's a close up of the wonderful heel

As an aside, this was my second garter stitch short row heel and I totally ♥ it!! It's a great fit, looks sharp and despite having to double wrap the short rows, you don't have to pick up the wraps because of the texture of the garter stitch hides them and best of all - NO HOLES!! :)

All in all, an easy knit with a jazzy end product - I give the yarn and pattern two thumbs up!

Speaking of thumbs....and the rest of my knails, yuk yuk yuk...

Here's my latest sock with my latest knails...

The sock is called "Pink Blossom" and I'm test knitting it so no links (but it's WAY cute!) the yarn is Panda Cotton in the Ember Glow colorway, and the knails are OPI Brights Collection in "Color Me Blue"....I've been noticing a lack of blue in my color palate of late so I thought I'd rectify that in a big way :)

Also please note what the sock is leaning on....yep, it's baaaaaack!!!

Keep your fingers crossed that she keeps working and the P-Man and I will be back soon. Have a great weekend and knit lots!

Who're you calling a Blimp?

As you might have guessed, today's post is brought to you by the letter B!

One of my very favorite things is knowing that, depending where it's headed or returning from, I live directly in the flight path of the celebrated Goodyear Blimp!

This is the sight I see off my Back Balcony just at nightfall many an evening...This is what I saw last Friday at about 6:15 pm...

There are only three Blimps in the fleet these days and this is the Spirit of Innovation that's based in Pompano Beach, Florida, a town about 15 minutes north of me.

I'm not sure why but no matter how many times I've seen it, it still gives me a little thrill every time I do :)

You can read all about the history of the Goodyear Blimps here


Now for some Beauty--

Knitting and Knails!
Here's my latest sock and my latest mani...

Aren't they Both Beautemous? The sock is the Cardigan Sock by Ann Hanson and the knails are Kinky in Helsinki by OPI, of course. It was really hard to capture this rich, decadent color - it's a deep shimmering magenta and so so so pretty!

I am absolutely LOVING every stitch of this sock! I'm using Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport in the Harvest colorway and it's knitting up like a dream! The Shepherd Sport is one of my very favorite yarns anyway but combined with this clever, stunning pattern it's knitting perfection, I tell ya!

The astute among you will also notice the amazing needles I'm using...yep, those are some Knitpicks Harmony fixed circs and I am completely ♥ smitten ♥. I'm not a die hard knitpicks fan, in fact I really don't care for their yarns very much and I find their other products just ok.

I purchased my Options fixed circ cause addi doesn't make a 2.25 mm which is my "go to" needle for socks and while I'll never give up my addi's, it do like the Options for magic loop. But I had a gift certificate for KP and I figured I'd give the Harmony a try, also for magic loop and I'm so glad I did! They are smooth and strong with just the right amount of grab, have a soft, malleable cable perfect for ML and they're beautiful. What's not to love? I have no plans to purchase sizes other than for socks but having them sure makes my sock knitting even more enjoyable - imagine that! :)

I know I promised a new non-sock project but that's just gonna have to wait til next time cause I didn't think Bullocks was an appropriate B post, heh... It's a beautiful vest for my Mom but I'm having lots of gauge issues and I've frogged the bloody thing five times now. It's a really fussy pattern as well and it's getting on my last nerve! So next time, I hope.

Here's my last B....but as they say, I've saved the best for last!

Bubba sleeps
But why a B you ask? Well, I confess I've taken to calling my boy Bubba!
I'm not sure why but it's true, I've nicknamed him Bubba and I think it's kinda cute. Well we do live in SOUTH Florida after all :)

See ya next week, happy weekend!

My favorite things....

Since I'm doing a bit of clandestine knitting these days I thought I would share some of the things in my life that make me happy.

Oprah's got her favorites, here are some of mine....(and you can actually afford them! woot!)

This amazing soap


I read about this wonderful product on a message board and being in possession of extremely sensitive skin I thought it might be worth a try.

IT. IS. PHENOMENAL.

It is not truly a soap as it has none of the harsh additives of soaps. It is made to restore the skin's natural pH and protective "mantle". I dunno know about all that but I will say it is the ONLY soap I will use. I recommended it to my Mom who has very troublesome Rosacea....cleared it up in less than a week! Recommended it to a friend with an acne problem, he saw improvement after ONE use and now you'd never know he had a single blemish in his life!

You can get it here and trust me, you'll be very glad you did!


Florida's beautiful skies...

And her beaches at night...



Seche Vite!!

This topcoat makes your nails strong but flexible so they can survive life's daily assaults. Seche Vite literally translates to "Dry Quick" in French and it lives up to it's name...by the time you finish your last nail, your first is dry! Plus, this topcoat keeps my manicure looking fresh *at least* two weeks, often three! (and yes, I do my own housework and everything!) Good stuff and the only topcoat I'll use! Go here if you crave perfect knails!


Best hand and body cream EVER!

Delicious fresh, clean scent. Lovely, rich, creamy and not greasy and makes your skin so so so soft! Get some here.


Sunflower Sprouts!!!!

I admit, I'm a sprout lover but these are the BEST!! Delicious flavor and a nice chewy leaf at the end...I adore these on a nice crusty whole wheat bread sammie with a bit of cream cheese, some roasted garlic and a sprinkle of green jalepeno sauce...mmmm.....

Who would have thought a fat girl could wax so poetic about sprouts? So you know they must be extra yummy! :)


My all time favorite book...


Get a copy here and have a peek at this book too...another amazing book by this brilliant author.



Bayberry candles - they always smell like Christmas to me!


I love the warm, inviting scent of bayberry and it is tradition to burn them as well as gift them during the yuletide season.

Legend has it that the Bay Tree gave shelter to the Holy Family during a storm. Sweethearts who light bayberry candles when they are separated during the holidays will be united by the bayberry's gentle scent. According to tradition, a bayberry candle lit on Christmas Eve and allowed to burn down to the nub will bring good luck, health and wealth for the coming year. Being very much a woman on the superstitious side, the scent of bayberry is thick and heady around Casa de Fluffy on Christmas Eve, rest assured :)

Since it is a knitting blog, you know knitting and knails are some of my favorite things. Here's my latest...


A color you rarely see here at FKD, in my knitting or my knails -- PURPLE!!

I don't dislike purple, it's just not one of my favorites but I'm loving these!

The yarn is more Smooshy sock yarn in the Wisterious colorway,and my knails are OPI Designer Series "Original" (the designer series is great cause they have a special brush that makes the perfect mani even easier!)

Both have a lot more richness and depth than my photos can convey - the yarn has so many shades of lavender, violet and pink and is really beautiful and the knails are a kind of holographic glittery warm violet. More branching out colorwise, this is becoming a very fun habit!

Of course my very favorite thing is this little cutie...

Wanna share some of your favorite things?

After the party's over....

So another birthday's come and gone...good thing I'm perpetually 29! :)

Thank you one and all for all the wonderful birthday wishes, between here and Ravelry I've never gotten so many "happy birthdays" in my life!

But enough rambling on and on, I know what y'all *really* want...the answer to the mystery of the universe, just how many OPI lacquers does obsessive FKD have?

Well first, here are the birthday knails holding the current SIP, 'Vog On...

Virgin Island Velvet...and to the commenter(s) who asked, if you keep the caps on tightly and store the OPI in a cool, dark place (my closet, my dresser) they can last a LONG time. I have some that are well over 5 years old, maybe closer to 10! (Virgin Island Velvet being one!) and they are just like the day I opened them. Gotta love the OPI huh?

Isn't that a festive birthday color even tho I trimmed my knails a bit?

So now that you know I've been collecting OPI for more than 10 years, you know how some of your weenie guesses just cracked me right up, heh!

Now for some more birthday eye candy, here's a bouquet from the FK Mom...

Isn't she the best Mom?
Now where was I? Oh yes....birthday contest!!

OK, enough teasing...the total mumber of OPI lacquers I posess is....

~~TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY TWO ~~
That means if I was so inclined I could change my polish every week (I'm not) and have no repeats for FIVE YEARS!!

And the winners of the contest...the guess that came closest with their FIRST guesses was TRISH with 243 and the runner up was MEL with 275.

So ladies if you will email me with your addresses, and Trish you get to decide which gift you prefer, I'll get your FKD birthday gifts right off to you!

Now wasn't that fun? Thanks for playing, everyone!

There's been precious little actual knitting content here lately cause I am still slogging thru the Esprit tank but I am just about at the armscythe for the back so there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I so want to finish this thing, I won't even *allow* myself to knit on my socks until I do, which is making me a bit nuts, I admit!

I did get a little respite from the tank tho...I signed up for Dish Rag Tag a couple of months ago and despite the fact that I think my team is in last place, I finally got the box! Here's what I got from my upstream tagger...

Of course Mr. Nosey had to check every thing out! Thank you Karen, Pumpkin and I love our surprises and my dishy new dishrag! :)

I'm the last stop for my team so I get to send a dishrag to Emily, the coordinator of DRT. I wanted something different so here's my welcome respite from the Esprit tank...

Say what you will about "warshrag" knitting, but I think they are a fun way to try out different stitch patterns and they make splendid, extra soft and soapy washcloths!

So it's back to the albatross Esprit tank for me, and birthday week is almost over :::sigh:::

I hope to have a finished tank soon and then I promise to lay off the giant projects for a while cause they sure make for boring blogging! (btw, the tank is actually a gift but it's a secret, don't tell, k?)

I'll leave you with another lucky gift recipient and it wasn't even his birthday....

I decided the the P-Man needed a bed of his very own** so I got him one made for up to a 75 pound dog!! (He's about SEVEN pounds) He LOVES it...see?

Granted, it's a bit roomy but I can't get him out of it! I think he looks so cute kinda swimming in the thing :)

I'll share a couple of my most favorite birthday gifts with y'all next time and hopefully have a finished tank too! Til then, have fun and knit lots!

** he's rejected a kitty pi and his previous preferred place of slumber was in my closet on my shoes! Crazy kitty man!

It's that time again and what FKD is up to .....

It hasn't quite been a whole year yet but it's time again for all us knitter's to rally to support a very worthy cause. It's time again for the Red Scarf Project!!

We all did such a great job last year the Orphan Foundation of America got TOO MANY scarves!! YAY Knitters! So this year they are asking for knitters to limit themselves to two scarves only.

The amazing Norma of Now Norma Knits has championed this wonderful charity for three years and she's at it again but with a twist!! Because now we knitters can sponsor a scholarship fund too!!

Just click on the button to visit the Red Scarf Project Blog and learn all about how you can make a difference...

Or zip on over to Norma's Place and see all the amazing prizes you can win once you click that little PayPal button.

So get knitting those scarves and making those donations, you'll be so glad you did!


Now for some FKD knitting!

First off, thank you all for the lovely compliments on Bonita! I am very happy with her and I'm glad y'all like her too!

After I fishished Bonita I figured I'd get one more summer top in before the cold weather gets here (hee!) I saw this while surfing around (damn insomnia!!) I think it's really pretty and something that would get a lot of wear in a warm climate...


It's a pattern from Elann, the Esprit V-Neck Summer Tank. It's simple yet attractive, a very easy knit with just enough patterning to keep it interesting, as well as very comfy and forgiving cause it's made with stretch cotton yarn. Altho be advised the pattern only goes to a 36" bust so I had to do some serious upsizing!

I've already knit a good portion of the "front" (both back and front are the same) and here is what I'm using for the trim too:

I'm enjoying knitting with the Esprit (Elann's version of Cascade Fixation) cause it's soft and squishy plus the simple pattern is welcome after all Bonita's beading (and re-beading!)

Of course I'm also knitting socks. Remember the screamingly pink well marinated Elann yarn I was using for the Go With the Flow socks? Well they've gone with the flow right into the trash!! I used the yarn because I loved the bright colorway and the recipient wanted pink but what complete crap that yarn is!! I freely admit to being a total yarn snob and I bought it when I first came back to knitting in 2002 so I didn't really know better but that stuff was beyond bad! It was harsh and lifeless and altho I persevered thru 2/3 of the first sock it was so disgusting I took it off the needles and tossed in right into the garbage and will be donating all the other skeins in my stash! What a waste!

So my knitting supervisor and I went poking around the stash and came up with a much nicer pink alternative....he even helped me wind it, see?

Ah, now that's much better! This is Louet Opal in Pink Panther and I'm making a simple twin rib pattern this time.

Isn't that pretty? Note of course the matching mani, OPI Brights Collection, This Little Piggy :)

Have a great weekend!

Fiberlicious Friday and other stuff

Guess what I found?

Well, honestly it was Auntie Carol's super sleuthing skills that tracked it down but look what I got!

It's the much coveted Kureyon #91!! Friday Fiber, yarn pr0n and a happy FKDeb all in one shot! YAY!

Thanks for doing such great PI work Carol!


I started a new sock.....

This is the beginning of the Go With The Flow socks by Evelyn Clark from IK's Favorite Socks.

I'm using some well marinated Elann Sock it to Me Colori because it's so PINK :)

This is a gift for a professional colleague who's been very kind to me, especially when I lost my Dad last December. She of course knows I knit and I told her I'd really love to knit her some socks. She loved the idea so when I asked her what color, after much thought she came up with BLACK. Um, no way! Ok then how about navy? Um, PASS!

I told her she must expand her color horizions and where better to do it than on one's feet (that don't even have to been seen in public if that's your choice!) So she chose pink....little did she know she was getting PINK!! But they are really cute and it's a cool pattern so I think she won't freak out too much, I hope! :)

I finished Bonita and she's gorgeous! She's blocked and drying as I write this (boy do I *hate* blocking, but I *love* the result) and when she's dry I'll just need to do a bit of finishing and she'll be ready for her debut.

Here's a little teaser showing some Bonita knitting and knails.....

That's another OPI color, called You Red My Mind! Doesn't it look great with Bonita?

Lastly but never least, I leave you with another gorgeous pic of the P-Man sitting on his throw rug "throne".

Enjoy your weekend!

You can come a'knockin....

Cause Blog de Fluffy is ROCKIN'!

Look! Carol (infamous purveyor of recent kitty pr0n) nominated me for a

award!! Woo Hoo!

So now I get to share the love and nominate 5 more Rockin' Girls!

It's next to impossible to narrow it down to only five but here goes....

1 - Agnes


2 - Kris


3 - Kristi


4 - Karen


5 - Lorette

Go forth and spread the love, Rockin' Girls and so on, and so on and so on.....(remember that old commercial, bonus points if you remember the product!)

One of the ways bloggin' girls rock is Knitting and Knails!

Kristi and I have been playing around showing off our knails with our knitting....

Here's sock #2 of my Smooshy Scrolls with my latest matching mani...

Pumpkin prefers au naturale :)

Come on knitters, show off your knails!