Knitting, with Dogs

A trip, an FO

We took a little jaunt up to Gatlinburg, TN this week.  We stopped at the pass above Galinburg for a picture:

Weather wasn't ideal (rain and fog on the mountain), but we managed fine.  Robert got to ski a little.  My knees are too dodgy to risk on ski slopes.  We scouted out Ober Gatlinburg on Monday, and it looked like this:

The next day (the day of actual skiing) it looked like this (yeah, my cellphone uploads put the logo in the pic.  Oh well, it's cheap). Fog city!

Here's my FO: the Argus shawlette, pattern by Wendy Johnson.  Here it's blocking.  Not perfect, but it'll do.

Here's a better shot, with my best model:

Mara

I'm on a knitting roll.  Another FO, Mara, (Rav link) in Malabrigo, modeled again by my faithful canine helper, Jasper.

And more boringly and less clearly, on me.  The colors on Jasper are more nearly correct than the colors in the picture below, at least on my monitor.

Sneak peek and silly

A sneak peek at something purple and sparkly:

And a silly dog picture. 

If his eyes really were lasers, I'd have multiple holes through my body by now.

Knitting catch-up

Lately it seems like all I can knit are easy, mindless things.  Part of it is because my eyes are crap, and it's very frustrating to do stuff that requires close work.  But  mindless things can be both nice and pretty.

Case in point:  The Josephine scarf (Rav link).  CO 3 sts.  Increase 1 on one edge every odd row.  Knit back.  Easy peasy.  It's good for self-striping yarn.  This is handspun I got in a swap.

Then model it on your dog Bouncer, who is trying to pretend he's somewhere else:

Then there's the Mini Mochi shawl (also a Rav link).  I didn't have MIni Mochi yarn in stash, but I had some Berroco Comfort Sock yarn in muted colors that I liked.  This one is an increase-4-sts every other row, top down triangle, with a garter row on the WS thrown in for texture.  And the knitted-on edging was less soul-sucking than most of them are.

I thought I'd started the garter ridges where it said to, but it looks like maybe I was a little late.  Oh well.  Jasper gets to model this one.

And the modeling pose we call "Puppy Babushka." 

He's really VERY patient with me and my foolishness.  Good boy, Jasper.

A lazy day

Lazy, lazy.  Husband and I had a rare day off together when he wasn't trying to catch up on sleep from working crazy hours.

So we've just been watching videos, and I've been knitting, and it's been verra verra nice.

Temporary stall

Yesterday, today and tomorrow have been a little chaotic, because I'm involved in running around a little more than usual.  I'm working on cleaning house, because some day, I'd like to actually have, you know, VISITORS or something.

Tomorrow is haircut day.  I've got a bit more of the dark border leicester to spin.  I'm also knitting a little here and there.

So I'll take it one day at a time.  But I've got to get back spinning.  If I totally lose momentum, I'm done for.

The next project

I've started CeCe, the Bonne Marie Burns (ChicKnits) pattern.  I've got about 7" done so far.  I'll have to write out all the steps for the front shaping, because I'm a moron who can't do that stuff in my head.

My little laptop is a godsend for stuff like this.  When I start a new project, I open up a Notepad file and just make notes there.  Because I also can't remember anything anymore.  When I'm not doing something else, I ALWAYS have my Eee PC handy, so it works better for me than a notebook did.  I always misplace notebooks.

In other news, we watched Cloverfield today.  I think I'm now spoiled for monster  movies, because I'll always be thinking of the poor schmucks on the ground.  :(  

We also watched some of the extras.  When they talked about the Cloverfield monster being a baby, I immediately thought of Gorgo.  Anybody else remember that one?

Saturday is Distaff Day at the Peachtree Handspinners Guild.  Hope to see lots of the local spinners there!

FO! FO! FO!

First FO of 2009:  Harper, from Popknits, Winter 2008.

Ok, so it's crooked on me in the last picture.  Dear Robert was doing the photography, and he never tells me stuff like that.  I don't think he even sees it.  I love him anyway.

This was an easy knit.  I used some Wool-Ease from my stash.  I'm trying to burn up some stash here this year so I can get things a little more organized. 

Yeah, I dream big.

Sittin' and knittin'

Webcam photo:

Sittin' in my red Ikea chair, knitting and watching episodes of Dr. Who that I missed.  I knit so fast my fingers are a blur.

Hahah.

My husband is a good sport

He even models FO's for me sometimes.

However, sometimes Jasper looks at him funny when he does this.

Pattern:  Just Enough Ruffles scarf (Rav link).

I've finished about 4 pair of fingerless mitts in the last week or two.  Got a couple more to do.  Pictures are on my project page in Ravelry.
I hope everyone else's holiday knitting is going well.