Rat Dog in Process

It's funny how I can be so excited about a project when I first start it, but if I'm not 100% enamored of it in process it just gets shunted aside. I'm afraid the husky dog (or "rat dog" as I've taken to calling it) might end up as a never-ending WIP, just like the orangutan. There are just the two legs to go & it would be finished, however it's been in this state for a week now with me having no desire whatsoever to work on it. Instead, I've been working on The Last Fish Hat and making great progress on it. Just have one fin & the eyes to go.

So, with the hat nearly finished, and the rat dog with just two legs to go, and the poor orangutan sitting there one hand & one ear shy of complete, and a stuffed bunny that I've just barely started, of course I cast on a new project last night. I'm making the kraken, yet another creature from the "Amigurumi Knits" book. Funny thing, now that I've made projects from that book, the stuffed toys in my "World of Knitted Toys" and "Debbie Bliss Toy Knits" books seem crude and primitive in comparison. The projects in those are shaped solely with increases and decreases; they don't have the short rows that turn flat knitting into curved pieces. Plus, the legs & ears are attached by sewing/seaming, whereas in the amigurumi book they are knit onto the project by picking up stitches & then working them. This, I feel, gives a much smoother, more "attached" look. Like they are a part of the creature and not something added on.


Today Ralph & I are going to the Orange County Fair, which started yesterday. I am not sure if we will be packing a lunch or not. It's fun to buy food there, of course, but on the other hand it's cheaper & more nutritious to pack something. What with the food available there--deep-fried cupcakes, chocolate covered bacon, Krispy Kreme chicken sandwiches (fried chicken patty encased in a jelly donut) and cheesecake-on-a-stick--I could pack Crisco and sugar & still have a healthier lunch. I'm looking forward to the knitted stuff, of course, and Ralph is hoping they will have ponds on display this year. They had them about 4 years ago but not since. We shall see.