I never wrote about our wonderful friend Huckleberry Hound. He didn't do noteworthy things like the Beagles - no baby rabbit heads stuffed between the chair cushions or falling asleep while sitting and falling over. Instead he was an exceptional dog and an excellent companion and a loyal friend. He was polite and loved to go for a walk, he never followed his nose into the brush leaving me alone. He was perfectly happy to lay quietly in the garden next to me while I weeded and pruned. I think he could have been a Sawtelle dog if he'd been given the opportunity.

We adopted him when he was a year and half old, I saw an ad in the Free section of the paper and I knew he was meant for us. Apparently he had had a troubled background, his original owner had beat him. The interim caretaker was a single mom with 2 girls, the girls adored Huckleberry and he adored them but their budget was so tight they couldn't afford to take him to the vet or even feed another mouth. Plus, they lived in town and Huck liked to run down the street to the neighbors.

He fit in to our little household immediately, we had a trainer come up and train me. Huck's job was to take care of the yard and he did. He was a good trainer for any new dogs that joined our family, always ready to take a rambunctous puppy outside or help with the potty training. That was in 1995, last year he had surgery for cancer. He made it another year with the help of pain medication. On Tuesday we had to say goodbye. I can't believe he's really gone. Goodnight old friend....

I finished Kiri shawl #2. She's so pretty! She had a little rinse last night and then I stretched her out in the corner of my living room rug using yarn blocking needles I got at my LYS. The yarn blockers work really well, BTW. I knit this Kiri using some beautiful Italian wool my mother found at a garage sale. The yarn is a mysterious brown, you can seen the yellow and green in the fibers, it's very interesting - M.R. even commented on the color and he doesn't notice anything.

Last night I started a Traditional Danish Tie-Shawl from the most recent issue of Spin-Off. I am using some yarn that was given to me back in 1996 by our friend's Steve's Aunt Mary. The yarn is called "Candide" - it's 100% wool, singles - not a glamourous yarn, it reminds me of Condon's yarn that we used to order from Canada in the 70's and 80's. Aunt Mary gave me quite a bit of this yarn and I've used it in the past to make felt handbags. It's very handspun like and I think it will make a good first run of this shawl. I see myself wearing this shawl as I a putz around the garden. The whole premise is a double increase that creates extra long ties that are used to tie the shawl in the back leaving your hands free to work. The article shows different variations of the shawl and one of the variations has a Lily of the Valley border, I did a little research this morning and at this moment I believe Traditional Danish Tie-Shawl #2 will have a Lily of the Valley border.

I can't believe it's snowing! Last weekend it was 75 degrees! This has been s a good weekend to stay inside and catch up on loose ends. I mended a crocheted tablecloth with intentions of using it as curtain in the upstairs bathroom and am chipping away on Quarterly taxes. Later today I'll visit an old friend. Last night I watched "Across the Universe"- loved it!

I love a lazy Sunday morning. Usually, I drink an extra cup of coffee, catch up on my knitting journal and see what's new on the Internet. This particular morning I remembered that it was about time for the new issue of knitty.com to be up and sure enough it was. There were many wonderful new patterns there and I saw a great scarf by Veronik Avery- http://knitty.com/ISSUEspring08/PATTlaceribbon.html- I love her designs and since I have yet to knit one of her patterns this looked like an excellent pattern to start with. I went immediately to my stash looking for that nice hank of fine purple silk I bought at the Weaving Works in Seattle last month. We have a comfortable old chair and footstool sitting right next to the stash area. Dora, the female Beagle likes to sit in that chair and snooze while I peck away at the computer. As I passed the chair I saw something furry nestled in the corner of the cushion. A Dora toy? I take a closer look and .... it's a baby rabbit head! Nothing more, just the head! Quite an eye opener on a lazy Easter morning!

Last weekend the weather was typical November weather for Washington, wet and windy. We even had a tree blow down over the driveway. This weekend it's fall-the leaves are beautiful, the skies are clear and there's just a nip of coolness in the air. Perfect yard cleanup weather.

I finished the Sitcom Chic from Knitty.com. Fun, fast sweater to knit. Feels good on. The only thing I had to redo was the front edges. The first time I picked up about 120 stitches along the edges and it was just way too many stitches. Also, I bound off loosely. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I frogged and picked up the recommended 101 stitches, actually went back to my picked up stitches and knit 2 together, mostly at the sweater bottom since that's where the flairing was, to reduce to 101 stitches. Bound off snuggly and I am much happier with the finishing.

I have been asking family members who like handknits (and will take care of their handknits) to let me know if they have any requests for Christmas. My mom is always so reluctant to say what she wants, "it's so much work!" But, knitters know we just need an excuse to buy yarn and we have to knit something anyway. She stopped by last night and tried on my Sitcom - she liked it. It fit her well, she loved the yarn, the sleeves were long enough. She said if it were hers she would want the neck to be a bit higher. I'm tempted to take out the neck and front edgings and make that neck a bit higher and voila! Christmas for mom done. And, I made a long sleeve version and once done I wished I had gone with the more fashionable 3/4 length sleeve.

So, while I ponder which way to go on the Sitcom I am knitting a Baby Dale of Norway for our newest family member. It's a fun, fast knit and the yarn is very nice to work with-albiet a bit splitty- but I can handle it.

Spater...

Good Morning,
I just finished a baby sweater for my nephews baby. I used self striping Plymouth Encore to make a one year size sweater and hat. The hat is Mrs. Dashmore from the knitty.com website. Both turned out cute as a button.
Now, I'm ready to move on. I'll post pictures as soon as we locate the digital camera.

Does anyone remember the Inverness Guernsey #763 from Penny Straker? I love that pattern! I knit that sweater for mother in law back in the 80's. It took me a long time to knit. I discovered another knitter at work and we had both decided to knit this sweater together. There were no graphs, I followed the patterns line by line and had to have a very complicated system for tracking my rows. The patterns used in the sweater did not "jive", one pattern was an 8 row repeat, another was a a 12 row repeat, another was 6 row repeat. Anyhoo, I like knitting sweaters for other knitters because they appreciate the time and effort that goes into knitting a sweater and who knits for them?? No one.

So, earlier this week I stopped by mother in law's house and she told me she was thinking about dyeing the sweater ( it was knit in an off white natural wool.) She had talked to the people at the LYS and they told her they dye sweaters all the time. Then she told me she had washed the sweater and brought it out for me to see. She had it cloths pinned to a wire hanger and it had obviously felted. I asked how she had washed it and she said she had washed in the washing machine on gentle. She said it hadn't shrunk at all, I had to bite my tongue, I could see that it had! I didn't give her any advice at all. I vented to my husband later and he said "you gave it away, you have to let it go." I am venting here because I am so sad about that sweater. I loved that sweater.

If I rationalize this, I have had awful things happen to stuff given to me. Like when the BEAGLE chewed the binding on a quilt my mother made for us. I was torn between telling her or not, and now I'm thinking not, ever. Has anyone else had this happen. I think this will be my motivation to knit the Inverness Guernsy for myself.

Reality check!

The first SwallowTail shawl I knitted I gave to my mother in law for Christmas, I finished it at the beginning of November. I had a second shawl about 3 movies away from finishing that I planned to give to my mother for Christmas. I had the 24th of December off from work and truly believed that I could finish her shawl in time for our Christmas day exchange. And then reality set in, I had to let the shawl go. Instead I spent Christmas eve day cooking and wrapping, It was a good day. I was fortunate to have had a great necklace I had purchased for myself and never worn stowed away - a beautiful bead and cedar rose creation... she loved it!
If I play my cards right, I'm only 3 movies away from a headstart on next years Christmas knitting.

I had the great pleasure of having a mild case of the flu yesterday. It was going around work last week and Monday afternoon it hit me. We had just ordered out for lunch when I started feeling lethargic, headachey, and had a case of the chills. As soon as my thai soup arrived I grabbed it and headed home to my couch and the swallowtail shawl.

I spent Tuesday with my butt fused to the couch and caught up on daytime t.v. Watched Knitty Gritty, Martha, the View, and a little of dr. phil. And I made it through the the first set of nupps. I used a size 0 sock needle to purl off the nupps with great success.

I am enjoying knitting this little shawl and purchased a ball of Alpaca to knit another.