MarQ1

From this

To this.

To the left goes the tail, to the right the head.

There are a few more steps to complete. Where the two arrows are will be a strap and a little flap for a Velcro fastener, and the two things that look like stubby arms will also have Velcro and fasten under the dog’s neck.
And from yesterday, the end of Brooklyn.

Click for the full view.

If the guardrail doesn’t give you a hint, the sign might help.

This is where Gerritsen Avenue ends into Brooklyn Marine Park. A beautiful day and a nice view even with the Bay Pkwy in the distance.

You wouldn’t know this was Brooklyn:

Click for the full view.

The first whippet wrap is almost done. It was a marathon week of freehand knitting, and all I have left is a cinch strap that loops under the belly. Pictures tomorrow when I have better light.

I don’t know if it will fit Chloe or Zoe exactly, and it would have been easier if I could have actually tried it on them for size, but as they are in Dallas and I am in Brooklyn, some steps had to be skipped. Somewhere there is a whippet it will fit.
Killed my legs on the bike today. I made it to Mill Basin and Gerritsen Beach.

Knit cables on needles two sizes smaller than recommended.

Sorry. Didn’t intend to leave you with that rant.

The two weeks up to Saturday were knitting Hades. Swatch; measure gauge; knit; get different, usually larger gauge; frog; swatch again; ad nauseam. Everything I tried was too big, too expensive or just too hard. I gave up and read instead a couple of times.

[I made the mistake of picking up Janet Evanovich’s Eleven on Top at 10:15pm last Tuesday. I finished it at 1:30am.]

Thursday night, I decided that I needed something quick and easy to get myself back on track. Something small, like something for a baby, then discovered the only suitably colored yarn in my stash was either the now horrid pink Takhi cotton or highly flammable (rayon). I hit the LYS on my way home on Friday and did this Saturday:

This is for the baby girl of my coworker, who is leaving work to be a full-time mom, the same baby girl that was supposed to get the interminable baby blanket.

The pattern is the tam from The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns by Ann Budd (Interweave Press). The yarn is Karabella Aurora 8 (100% merino), which I could knit forever. I used less than one ball in total, on #6 Inox dpn’s.

I know, a hand-washable for a baby is sort of cruel, but it’s so cute and soft. She can always have it dry-cleaned.

Yes, Jon, I did swatch in the round. And for once my swatch and finished product have the same gauge.
I finally found a yarn I like for one of the whippet coats (two whippets, two coats): Schachenmayr Nomotta Modern Art, 50% merino/50% acrylic. It machine washes.

It’s fairly forgiving in cables. I got it at elann.com, so it’s not too expensive, though a 50g ball doesn’t go very far.

See, more cables.

You might ask why I’m doing cables for a dog. Why not? Have to practice on something.

How could anyone not vote when there’s actually a candidate named Weiner? (sounds just like you think.)

Today is Primary Day in NYC, the second Tuesday after Labor Day. This is also the first real business day after summer, Monday being a catch-up day for many. Four years ago, Primary Day was a beautiful, clear day when I went to the polling site on my way to work. Then the towers fell, and who cared what the day was like?

Today is a beautifully clear day also, but warmer, and I voted, but I did not go to work. Just a sense of dread, nothing more.

If I were President, Tuesday afternoon, Wednesday morning at the latest, I would have been in New Orleans, with aid workers in my wake, water or no water. Vacation shmation. My Vice President and Secretaries of State, Treasury, Commerce, Defense, etc. would be hitting up all their friends in Industry and Commerce and Finance for beaucoups of charitable support. The military would have been mobilized at alarming, but justifiable cost.

Of course, I’d have a military to call out and a third of the equipment and the National Guard probably would not have been in Iraq.

And I hope I would have funded the flood prevention needs of the Delta, and considered one of our major ports a security necessity.

Given the number of oil and gas concerns that were shut down by Katrina, I’m surprised the Administration didn’t act more prophylactively. It speaks more to stupidity than cold-heartedness, but I’m guessing this disaster took a lot of both.

When the terrorists brought the World Trade Center towers down on 11 Sept four years ago, a lot of people supported the Administration and its president, saying Gore would not have responded as well. To that: B***S***.

To say that Gore or Kerry would have responded so late or so cold-heartedly or so WHITEly as this Admin or its president to the New Orleans disaster is unconscionable. The Administration and its president are not criminally liable or impeachable, but they should be. Tax cuts. Budget cuts. BS. Lives, human lives.