DOT -- Ornament Exchange

Yesterday the doorbell rang and my faithful "watchdog" Lucy barked. (Notice to burglars: rub her belly and she'll let you take whatever you want.) It was the mailman letting us know he'd left a package. Not just any package, but a package addressed to me and Lucy. We participated in the Dogs on Thursday ornament swap and our gift from Tina and her basset hounds Honey Dew and Sampson had arrived!


Since it was an ornament swap, I will first show a slightly blurry photo of the ornament we received. It's a yellow Lab just like Lucy!
Tina sent me a really neat cocoa gift. There's a mug, cocoa mix, and (this is very cool) some marshmallows with coatings such as hazelnut or peppermint to mix in. That's what looks like lollipops. I am excited to try these! I plan to sit in front of the fire with a big mug of cocoa and some knitting.
This being a Dogs on Thursday swap, there were lots of things from Honey Dew and Sampson to Lucy. The treats are specially formulated for big dogs (like my 88-pounder) and contain glucosamine and chondroitin for hip health. (Her dog food does too.) The bone is a pork femur and Lucy can't wait to get it into her mouth. The toy is a training dummy. I know she'll love retrieving this from the pond at the dog park. Lucy thanks Honey Dew and Sampson for the great gifts!
Lucy's rubbing her snout on the treat bag in anticipation of trying them.
They are shaped like hearts and very yummy!
Thank you, Tina, Honey Dew, and Sampson for the great box! Your email said it was your first internet swap and you did a fantastic job!

Merry Christmas to everyone!

an LYS in Canon City

I heard there was a new LYS in the town of Canon City, Colorado. That's about 30 miles west of my hometown of Pueblo. So Thanksgiving weekend I went to check out Anne's Knits and Such. It's a store that has knitting supplies in the left half and beading stuff in the right half. It's a nice shop with a helpful owner and lots of pretty yarn.
I like their motto!
I know I have enough yarn to last me two lifetimes. I don't buy yarn just for stash-enhancement here in Houston. But when I'm on vacation that rule doesn't apply. So I bought myself three skeins of Geode by Berroco. So pretty! (Sorry, no photo.)

The store's business card shows a bear and a moose winding yarn into a ball. The moose's antler's are holding the yarn while the bear winds. It made me smile.

Quilt Update

I took my quilt home to Colorado over Thanksgiving.  I needed some help from my mom with the borders.  She showed me what to do.  And I did it.  Look!  Excuse the grumpy look on my face.  Just look at the quilt.

I am now proficient at putting borders on a quilt!

Mom will choose some backing fabric and sandwich this thing together.  Cousin Cass is going to quilt it on her long arm machine.  Then I get to learn something new.  Mom tells me she's going to teach me how to bind in the next quilting lesson.  So stay tuned!

DOT -- Thoughtful Pets

My birthday was last weekend. On Friday I came home to these flowers. I thought they were from my boyfriend. Then I read the card. Turns out Maggie (the kitty) and Lucy bought them for me. What thoughtful pets!
I'm not sure if it was shopping for the flowers or the extra long visit to the dog park that wore Lucy out. Here's another creative sleeping position of hers.

Happy Thanksgiving!

DOT -- Dog Pillow

Do I need to buy a bigger dog pillow?  Or does the silly dog just need to center herself on the pillow?  Maybe she just did not have the energy to reposition herself after her morning at the dog park.  This doesn't look very comfortable to me.

Starbucks Cozy

Several months ago I bought a kit from Woolgirl that contained yarn and a pattern to make a cozy for take-out coffee.  The yarn is actually from Unique Sheep.  It's Super Wool and the color is Coffee House.  It only took a few hours to whip this out over last weekend.
This morning I stopped at Starbucks and bought a chai that I used to model the cozy.

I made this on dpns.  I consider that good practice for my future sock-making skills!

Blue Hat

I finished my blue hat last week!  The yarn is a soft wool from Berroco called Jasper.  The pattern is Jester from the Berroco book Geode & Jasper #276.  I really like this hat!

I had fun picking out the button at Joann's.  I ended up buying three possibilities.  Even though I'd taken the hat with me, I couldn't really decided until I was home and ready to sew the button on.

Why does a person need a pocket on a hat?  I think it's for your house key.  I showed the hat to my boyfriend and he told me the pocket was for a biscuit...as in dog biscuit.  I suppose on a cold day I could wear the hat with a biscuit in the pocket while walking Lucy.  You never know when she might get hungry.
I learned the Kitchener stitch on this hat!

The pattern calls for two skeins of yarn.  I used very little of the second, just a bit for a few rows of the hat and the pocket.  I think I'll make a Starbucks cozy with the leftovers.

Maybe it's a little too big on top...but it will keep my head warm this winter.

(And yes, I felt like a fool standing outside photographing myself yesterday.  I hope no neighbors saw me.)

We interrupt this knitting blog

...to bring you a quilt.  Actually so far it's just a quilt top.  

Every year Houston hosts a giant International Quilt Festival at the end of October/first of November.  I almost always attend.  My mom is the quilter in the family and she sometimes comes to visit me and attend the festival.  This year she came!  I am always inspired to quilt when I go the festival.  This year I bought two "charm packs" of 5" squares of fabric by Moda.  Since my mom was here and I could use her expertise in making the quilt top, I did.  Look what we put together last Saturday! 

It's fairly small.  When finished it will be the kind of quilt you'd throw over yourself on a chilly day as you sit on the couch.

Today I wanted to go to the quilt store to buy fabric for the borders of the quilt.  It wasn't open Sunday though.  I hope to make it there next Saturday.  Then I can take the quilt home over Thanksgiving and, with my mom's help, finish the top then.

DOT -- Mud Puppy

Other people go to the dog park and their dogs avoid the mud puddles.  Not mine.  She finds them and wallows in them.  (Is she part piggy?)  She looks so happy playing in the mud that I do not have the heart to chase her out.  But it is kind of embarrassing.  People see her and laugh.  This Saturday a group called her a "gray Lab".  But the mud does come off.  The majority comes off when she finds the pond and goes swimming.  Any that's left comes off when she gets her dog shower before we leave the park.

FO!

It's not an especially exciting one, just a dishcloth, but I'll take it.  Knitting has been really sporadic lately.  I do like this stitch.  The yarn is Fantasy Naturale and it was nice to work with.

DOT -- Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from one Labrador Retriever to all the dogs and their humans!

Fishy

I got a fishy package in the mail last week. I wasn't expecting anything. I hadn't ordered anything and I'd received the last swap package I was expecting. But I found a big box waiting on my doorstep. I took it in and found a beautifully wrapped gift. It looked so nice I almost didn't want to open it. But I did. Look what I found. A goldfish!
I love those fins and I love those lips!

It's from my friend Ariel. A few weeks ago she sent me a link to this goldfish pattern. I thought it was so cute. I told her it would make a nice gift for someone and she should include a package of goldfish crackers too. I wasn't saying she should make it for me, but I knew this gift would make someone happy. So Ariel made it for my birthday. My birthday is not until late November, but she couldn't resist sending it early.

I love my birthday goldfish!

I must add that I love goldfish crackers too. Thank you, Ariel!

Tape Measure

In the Autumn Scarf or Sock Swap (ASSS 2008) on Ravelry, I sent a package to Sharon in New Jersey. She sent me a nice thank you note and included a gift. It's a round tape measure within a felted cover. It's got a great personalized label saying it was "handmade at Sharon's Seaside Cottage". This is my new favorite tape measure!

Autumn Sock or Scarf Swap 2008

I participated in this fun, fall-theme swap on Ravelry. Each person had to send a sock or scarf pattern and the yarn to make it, plus one autumn item. I had a great partner named Courtney, or Knitnpurlgurl as she's known on Ravelry. Let's start with the yarn she sent. On the left that's Cherry Lips (love that name!) sportweight from bordertart.com. It's 100% blue-faced Leicester. I love that the fiber content is not just wool, but the actual breed of sheep. On the right is laceweight 100% merino by Susan Knits and Handpaints (susanknits.com). The color is Bing. Notice the tube of coordinating beads. These yarns are both beautiful.
Courtney sent me three scarf patterns. I'll be using the Cherry Lips to make Grasshopper (scroll down to see it). The lace yarn and beads are for Waves of Grain. I am really excited to make this! I also got the pattern for the Potato Chip Scarf -- how cute!

Now for the autumn items. The candles are warm apple pie flavor and mulled cider flavor. There's a mug with fall leaves, a box of chocolates, and some fall leaf confetti.
Here's a better photo of the mug. I'll be using this through Thanksgiving.
Thank you, Courtney! I love my package!

DOT -- Lucy's Bones

I have been a bad blogger, neglecting to post about anything recently.  But I certainly haven't been neglecting Lucy.

Lucy likes rawhide bones.  So I give them to her to chew.  But the funny girl chews them down to one knot, then she leaves them all over the house.  Here's one in the middle of the kitchen floor.

And here's one on the edge of the bathtub.  She set this one there as I was getting out of the shower.  These are different bones but the pictures were taken on the same day.
What's a Dogs on Thursday post without a photo of the actual dog?  Here she is with a stick (naturally) in the back yard, by the tree stump that was left when the tree was cut down.  A few posts ago I mentioned that a very large limb, about a third of a tree, fell on the house during Hurricane Ike.  It was removed and the rest of the tree was cut down.  Here's what's left.  Lucy is posing here for scale.

It's going to be a hat.

First post of October!  I didn't mean to neglect this blog, but real life gets busy.  Right after the hurricane I switched to my fall (actually all year except summer) schedule.  I am a much better runner than knitter.  The majority of the year (except summer, when I do it in the mornings), I run after work.  This schedule doesn't leave a lot of time in the evenings for knitting.  However, I haven't totally neglected it.  I started something, messed up, ripped out.  No need to discuss that.

Here's what I started yesterday.  It's going to be a hat, probably for my head.  This is the K1P1 ribbing.  Could be tedious, but the yarn made it a pleasure.  I can't say how much I am enjoying working with it.  It's called Jasper and it's by Berroco.  It is 100% fine merino wool according to the label.  It is so soft and smooth and (I know this isn't a word usually applied to yarn) creamy.  It feels great in my fingers.

I was creative in a whole other way today.  One of my life-long hobbies is baking.  I found a recipe on Martha Stewart's website that was so cute and appropriate to fall that I had to make it.  Here are my (Martha's) candy corn sugar cookies.  Yum!

Seven Deadly Spins -- Pride

I received my fourth package in the Seven Deadly Spins club. The highlighted sin is Pride. What a great package! I am really happy with this one. I am really excited to try making this beautiful Estonian-style shawl called Syncopated Lace. It looks challenging, but I am ready for the challenge. I love the colors of the yarns.

All of the little extras make this club so much fun. This time I got a small yellow project bag, three stitch markers in the colors of the Estonian flag (on top of the bag in the photo), a pink mirror/hairbrush, and a bag of candy.

Visit to Needle Rock Fiberarts in Telluride, CO

Last weekend I was in Telluride, Colorado, and I visited Needle Rock Fiberarts.  What a pretty little store!  The owner was very friendly too.

Here it is from the outside.  Can you see my colorful Clapotis on the "man-bench"?  Probably not, but it's there.  Boyfriend waited on the bench while I was shopping.  He'd gone to get the car by the time I took this picture.
So what did I buy?  I am such a sucker for the projects that are made up and displayed in a yarn store.  There were some very pretty triangle shawls made of mohair and a coordinating yarn on display.  So I bought yarn to make one of these.  In the upper left that's Mountain Colors mohair in the Ruby River colorway and on the right is Karabella Aurora 8 in red.  

Below is a yarn unique to the area, alpaca by Pinon Woods Fibers of Norwood, Colorado.  It's Colorado-grown, hand-spun, and in the natural color of the alpaca it came from, Ellana.  Beads from Sedona are in the yarn too.  There's even a picture of Ellana attached to the skein.  She's got such a pretty face.
I thought it was cool to see the alpaca that the yarn came from!  I showed the boyfriend and he thought Ellana "gave her life" to become this skein of yarn.  I tried to explain that it wasn't so, but I don't think he was convinced.  City men!

Telluride Knitting

Nope, I didn't actually knit in Telluride, but I spotted some knitting.  Can you see my Clapotis in the above picture?  It really helped to keep me warm as the sun went down.
I was at the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival.  On Saturday they have the "grand tasting".  Everyone going in to the festival gets a tasting glass of about 4 oz. and gets to sample as many of the microbrews there as possible during the hours of noon to 2.  The Gunnison Brewery sold these tasting glass cozies that you could wear around your neck.  The above photo is blurry, but you get the idea.
Here's another view of the cozies for sale.
If you ever get the chance to go, I highly recommend Blues & Brews in Telluride!

Belated Secret Pal 12 Thanks

It's been a busy couple of weeks.  I got ready for a vacation and a hurricane, went on my vacation, came back to a yard that looked like a disaster and had to be cleaned up, hosted some people with no electricity in their house, and got a cold.  Worst of all is driving through a city with very few working traffic lights.  One night it took me 1.5 hours to get home from work, another it took two.  It's usually a 40-minute drive.  All of those things have kept me away from the computer.

But now I am back and I want to thank my Secret Pal 12 spoiler, Jaana, for being a great pal.  (She is Muoriska on Ravelry.)  She lives in far north Finland (Lapland) with all the reindeer and Santa Claus.  She has been sending me very nice packages for the past three months.  A few weeks ago I received this one and she revealed herself to me.

She sent so much nice stuff!  There's an issue of Simply Knitting, a pattern for the Revontuli (Northern Lights) Shawl, beautiful hand-dyed yarn, coffee, fruit-flavored gum, hand creme, clips to keep socks together in the wash or in your drawer, a pretty blue project bag, two skeins of cotton yarn, some fun napkins, a crochet hook, some Finnish black licorice which is described as sweet and salty (it's both and it's delicious), and some literature about her part of Finland.  I was really lucky to have such a nice secret pal.  She kept in contact with emails and ecards and sent packages that she put a lot of thought into.  
Here's a closeup of the yarn and knitting gifts.
And this is a better view of the beautiful yarn.  I think it will make a lovely Revontuli shawl.  You know, I had seen this shawl on Ravelry and really liked it.  Now I have everything I need to make it for myself.

Thank you so much, Jaana!