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:

2/1: Real content

Jeezopete, it's February already!  How'd that happen?

In the interest of making this blog less content-free, I now present you the newest member of my household:

A new (to me) old bike, a step-through model with fenders!  Here's another picture, with Jasper, because everything's better with dogs.

Here's what Jasper can do with this bike. He cracks me up.

I managed to bork the valve tube in a non-repairable way while I was pumping up the rear tire.  Doh! A quick trip to Target netted me a new tube and a basic bike computer. 

I rode the bike about 6 miles this afternoon.  You know, now that I've accepted that I'll never be a bicycle racer or ride across the US on a bike, I'm pretty cool with going slow and sitting upright like an old lady.  I had great fun on it this afternoon.  The gears are low, but my legs aren't strong at all, so that works well for me.  It still needs a little cleaning up and fooling around with (and a rear rack), but I can handle that.

I got some roving in today from UglySchmugly, at Ugly Stepsister Designs too.  She was raising money for Haiti relief, and that was all the excuse I needed.  And the roving is anything but ugly.

Hooray!

1/28: An old Ivan video

Here's an old video of Ivan and our nephew Wade. That was in 2004, when I was somewhat thinner than now. :)  Ivan's been gone since 2007.  He was a good old man.

1/27: Six words

Patrcia McConnell, respected dog author and trainer, lost her old girl Lassie today.

It's never easy to lose a pet, especially when you've had her for 16 years.  Heck, ANY time with a loved animal is too short. 

She thought of six words to sum up her Lassie's life.

French Vanilla. Ice Cream. Summer Day.

That made me think about my dogs too.

Jasper:
Big strong pretty boy, Papa's dog.

Bouncer:
Sweet funny ears, dog in middle

Ivan:
Old man, artiste, dish hockey player

Cammie
Toy thief, wild silly eyes, cock-a-roachin'

and for my Sasha, my first Aussie and the dearest dog I've ever known:

Fearless, life-changing, best dog ever

1/14: Midwinter blahs

I don't have anything useful to say today, so I'll post an old picture that makes me smile:

That was a good trip.

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.

Just dog and dad

I've been busy cleaning house (don't die of shock!) so instead of knitting/spinning/weaving, here's Jasper grabbing his elk horn chewie.  Which you can't see.  Ok, photography FAIL.  But they're still cute.

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.

Day 3

Looks a lot like day 2, actually.

One: the fleece

Two: the combed wool

Three: today's yarn.  Not quite a full bobbin, so probably just under 600 yards.

It's getting chilly here.  I got a picture of Jasper curled up on the coverlet.  Yes, we have dog hair everywhere.

And Dear Robert sneaked a picture of Bouncer curled up next to me.  Geeks will note the Star Trek mug beside the bed, and my old Palm Zire that I read ebooks on at night.  I had to crop out the chaos that is my bedside table.

Not every dog WANTS his day

Sometimes you just have to say no.

Nicked from the Pet Connection blog.