The Curiously Clever Clog and I had a little heart to heart and we decided that the pattern shouldn’t be as hard as it is. I ripped out what I had and bought the updated Fiber Trends clog pattern. I started the new clogs at about 6 o’clock Saturday night and finished the second one this morning. I love felting!

The construction of these is soooo much simpler than the Stitch Diva pattern. It’s basically a sole and a top constructed with short rows. Then you go back and knit a second sole and bind the two soles off together to attach them. There’s a seam down the center of each sole and that’s it!

The reason I went with the Stitch Diva pattern to start with is that I have narrow feet and I have a hard time with things like clogs. The Stitch Diva pattern looked narrower with a more streamlined fit. However, Fiber Trends has revised their clog pattern. It’s “updated with a narrower fit while still including information on adding width if needed.” And it is perfect!

The felted fabric is very firm and I felted the clogs enough so that they are narrow enough for my skinny feet. I ordered the Fiber Trends two-piece slipper bottoms in charcoal. I hope they work on the bottom of the slippers to provide a little non-skid action without ruining the overall look of the clog. I’ll let you know how they work as soon as I get them.

Happy Monday.

I finished the hood on Rogue yesterday while I was at the yarn store.

Pumpkin Mama gave me her directions for grafting the cables and it was very helpful. The process was much simpler with those directions!

So now I just have two sleeves and I’ll be done. I wonder how long those two sleeves will take me. Last night I didn’t feel like knitting on the first sleeve (you see why I’m worried about how long the sleeves will take?), so I dug to the bottom of the WIP basket for the Curiously Clever Clogs. It’s getting cold here and I need some new slippers. I remember now why I stopped working on these. I got to the point where I’m supposed to attach the outer sole to the main slipper body.

Sounds simple right? Well, I’m having a really hard time figuring it out. I did a google search on this pattern and the only blog I can find with a completed pair is Indigo Muse. I e-mailed her to see if she can help me interpret the directions, but haven’t heard back. If any of you are familiar with the pattern, I’d love some insight. Anyway, for now I think I’ll go back to the Rogue sleeve and maybe just look for a new clog pattern. The thing I like about this pattern is the more streamlined style, but I guess I could knit one to figure it out and then rip it out and redo it. Although that doesn’t really sound that fun.

It was a nice weekend – busy, but nice. This little treat was waiting for me when I got home on Friday night.

In case you can’t read it, it says “Sweetie, I came home early & cooked you dinner. It took 4 hours. Trav” I swear – just when I think that guy can’t be sweet – he goes and does something like that.

The dyeing workshop on Saturday was wonderful. I’m really excited about dyeing and I need to get some dyes ordered and get some of the things I need. Realistically, I won’t have time to do much dyeing until after the holidays, but I think those winter weekends are a great time for playing with color. I have a lot of pictures, but the dial-up just couldn’t handle the upload this morning. The good news is that I will soon have high-speed internet and I am so excited. Maybe a week or so.

Yesterday I sat on the couch and watched a movie and worked on my slipper. I finished the top part.

Now I’ve picked up the stitches on the cast-on edge and am working on the sole. It’s going quickly, so I hope I can make good progress on it over the holiday weekend.

Yesterday was exhausting. My argument went well – I think. It’s so hard to know and I basically just have to forget about it because it will be at least 6 months before I hear anything from the Wyoming Supreme Court. So, life goes on. I left work early yesterday because I certainly wasn’t being productive. I just couldn’t concentrate. It was like I’d used up all my brain power getting through a 20 minute oral argument and I just couldn’t figure out how to get back in to the swing of things. So, I went home and plowed through the disaster that was my house. I swear to you, I do not know how two adults and one small dog can make a house so absolutely cluttered. I suppose the fact that I haven’t done anything but work on my supreme court argument might have something to do with the state of things, but still. The dishes alone were enough to make me want to hide under the bed with my knitting. Why is it that the dishwasher fills up so fast? And how the heck hard is it to empty the damn thing? I mean really. It only takes 10 minutes (maybe) to empty it, yet I just pile the dishes in the sink rather than empty the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes in there so I at least don’t have to look at them. Washing them by hand would clearly be out of the relm of possibilities if I can’t even be bothered with the dishwasher – way too much effort if you know what I mean. After the kitchen, there was the living room. I can see the surface of the coffee table, which I consider a major improvement. It’s a big coffee table and it was completely buried under papers and magazines and computer parephernalia. The dogs toys are all back in the basket and I managed to do a load of laundry. You know things are bad when you don’t have any clean underwear. At that point things like laundry really need attention. Oh, and the final push to unmuck the house was to go through the huge pile of catalogs and get rid of all but the few that I actually might order from. I swear I must be getting at least 10 of those suckers every single day. That is my least favorite part of the holidays and generally if I’m going to order something, I’m just going to get online and order it. I wish those companies would just save the trees and the hassle and stop sending those catalogs to me. At this point I’d decided that I’d done entirely enough “housework” for the night and made myself some mac and cheese, built a fire, and watched some television.

I debated about working on the sock. I’m close to being ready to start the ribbing and I thought it would be really nice to finish that, but I didn’t work on the sock. Nor did I work on the wedding square (that I really have to finish this weekend). Didn’t work on Butterfly, didn’t spin. Instead, I took a little detour.

This is the start of the Curiously Clever Clogs (without beads) in some lovely Cascade 220. I’m in desparate need of a new pair of slippers, so I thought I’d start these and work on them at home. The pattern is very detailed, but so far seems easy enough.

Saturday I’m taking a dyeing class from 10-2 at the LYS. The lady teaching the class is very knowledgable and I think it will be a great exposure to chemical dyeing (I did take a natural dyeing class at Estes Park last year) and hopefully I’ll get brave enough to try dyeing some of the fleece I have. We’ll see. I hope I have the opportunity to take lots of pictures (read: I’ll try to be a good blogger).