note to self

next time you're thinking of getting a dog, make it a labradoodle. you know, the dogs that don't shed every hair on their bodies all over your knitting?

first off, the lorna's laces shepherd sport in camoulflage for son. simple 2x2 rib, perfect for a long car ride home. made the instep a little wider (didn't do the decreases as often) as son has very flat feet, so these should fit like a dream.




nothing here in lauderdale on the needles except the rowanpun skirt which is killing my hands, luckily i had left the kit for kimberly here last summer. ah, size 1 needles, lovely 2 ply yarn, i am in heaven. it's a mystery to me why some knitters think tiny needles and thin yarn are more difficult. for me, i can knit with them for hours and hours, and my hands never hurt.
have the bottom left and right backs finished, it's time to join those babies together.











thanks for all the lovely comments, hope everyone has a wonderful new year!

warm the cockles of my heart

tra la tra la! the best christmas present ever, i got to teach my ddil how to knit! and purl! she is a natural ;-)









tom, dd and i drove up to jacksonville friday morning, i swear dd should go into engineering, she managed to fit the proverbial 10 lbs. of shit (er, presents) into a 5 lb. bag (car trunk). when i saw the mountain of luggage and presents ready to go into the car, i thought "there is no way on god's green earth." poor dd had only a smidgeling of room in the back seat.

we got to go on base with ds, bart, then had drinks in the world famous t-bar, bart's friend, tony and ddil joined us. poor dd was so exhausted from staying up til 2 the night before, and working 2 nights in the middle of the night for her dad before that, she didn't even make it out to dinner. snoozeville.

christmas eve ddil and i went to the lys, knitwitz. lovely shop, great selection in a small space. and super friendly owner. we bought some tweedy green cascade 220 and size 8 bamboo straights for ddil, and some lorna's laces sport in camoulflage and lantern moon dpns for me. my son is getting his first pair of hand knit socks.
then we picked up dd and had lunch at the brick in avondale, a beautiful old district in jax, and dessert at biscotti's, yum!


chirstmas morning we opened a mountain of presents,


ddil loves bronte and the mittens. i love her because she is as goofy as i am ;-p



she also got the lopi thora sweater that i knit last year (it only needed the buttons and to be steam blocked). thora looks great on her, i could never wear it, too itchy!!!!!

after presents, the knitting lessons began. she picked it up right away. i'm having her knit a stockinette scarf with garter borders. i would never have expected her to be a tight knitter....

their house is adorable, and they've done tons of work to it, ds tiled most of the floors, they've replaced a bathroom, and put in a flagstone patio. i love how ddil has decorated, esp. the dining room, she put up the tall wainscotting and plate rail. the white wood and blue walls and ceiling are very swedish. i'm so proud of all they've accomplished at such a young age :-)



i think i could get used to having someone else do all the cooking and cleaning up!

back to lauderdale yesterday, the traffic was horrendous, thank god for the new laptop and the new gilmore girls dvds.

hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

falalalala lalalala

tis the season, and i'm so happy all the packages were mailed last week, hopefully everything has arrived by now.

a couple of photos. long lost god-daughter, if you are reading, avert your eyes!
sivia harding faroese shawl, knitpicks yarn. a quick knit, but fun.




and the morehouse merino bellini scarf, angela helped me decide on a color. i bought 2 kits at rhinebeck, one dusty lavender and olive, the other fuschia and violet. the scarf is for an older japanese friend, and angela said the first colorway might not work well with an asian complexion. this was a super fast knit, very simple, very chic, just like my friend, reiko. this woman comes to basket class in silk and linen shirt and pants, and leaves looking as lovely as she came. i on the other hand am covered with sawdust.
reiko takes each basket piece home and sands them by hand, she says the wood sings to her. i love her.




haven't figured out how to crop photos with the new laptop yet.

here is tom. i am addicted to fiber, he is addicted to online backgammon.

here fishy fishy

these kissing fish mittens are just too cute for words!
the yellow/orange/green pair are for a 2 year old.



and the blue/purple/fuschia pair are for a 5 year old, both sisters with flaming red hair. they are the grand-daughters of my friend/basket teacher. the girls live in vermont, so they should get plenty of use from the mittens :-)


btw, i used the pwyc method on the cuffs, the first round was k1,p1, knit 3 rounds plain, then p1,k1, this really helped keep the cuffs from rolling. read more about it on janine's blog.

hot off the presses, the final pair of christmas socks. last christmas, my eldest step-son's so saw my ddil's christmas socks and immediately put in an order for this year ;-) happy to oblige! cherry tree hill, dusk colorway, simple 2x2 rib. cast on in rib, i really like the way this cast on looks. luckily she is very short (4'10") and has very tiny size 5 feet, the knitting was fast.



now to pack all the presents and get to the post office. this is a very odd christmas for me. we have a tree, but it's naked on the porch. don't know if we should decorate it since we won't be here for christmas. plus friday is my 50th (how the HELL did that happen) birthday. first tom and i were going to go away for the weekend. everything was just too bloody expensive. then the plan was to go to jacksonville and be with son and ddil. bah, son called, he has to fly the 23rd and 26th (navy pilot), they can't come to lake placid for christmas. so we are going to jacksonville for christmas instead of my birthday. now i'm just going to fort lauderdale this weekend, but i will have to have everything, all the presents, my clothes, etc. packed for christmas as we won't be coming back to lake placid before heading to jax for christmas.

wonder how many things i'll manage to forget...

think i'll decorate the tree after christmas, last year's didn't get thrown out til march anyway ;-)

whoohoo!

one pair of mittens down, one pair of socks to go! although i haven't knit anything for dd yet...



these mittens are knit to go with the bristle yorkshire tweed bronte scarf. unfortunately, rowan doesn't make the same colors in different weights of yorkshire tweed, but bramble in the aran weight is a pretty good match. the colors are a rich warm brown in person. ann budd's handy book of patterns is an invaluable resource. fiddle fiddle fiddled with the cable, am very pleased with the way the mittens turned out. hope ddil is happy on christmas morning :-)

saturday night was lake placid's christmas parade. it's my favorite thing about lake placid. who would have thought we'd have sooo many fire trucks in this bitty town?
had to take a picture of the harley guy with the dr.demento helmet complete with horns. must find one for tom. the gingerbread house float was the bomb, and the childrens' nativity float was too cute!










this year we will be spending christmas in jacksonville at my son and ddil's. he has to fly on the 23rd and the 26th, so they can't come to lake placid. it will be the first time i haven't cooked christmas dinner since i got my first apartment. i guess it's time to hand over the torch, but it feels weird!

note to self

next time you need to block, vacuum the yellow lab hair off the carpet first. will save mucho time picking hairs off later ;-)




this photo of lapwing looks pretty good, dunadd was a fun knit, complicated enough to keep you interested, but the reverse stockinette bits inbetween the cables let you zip along. louise, keep on knitting! although a lapwing sweater would be gorgeous also...




working on some morehouse merino kissing fish mittens, just have to cut and sew the fishy mouth and eyes, and knit up another pair. the colors are fab!

bring on the mittens

blocking dunadd, now it's time to buckle down to the mitten knitting...



lapwing is a hard color to photograph! maybe i'll have better luck when it's dry and i can take it outside. the pattern calls for a very tight tension, 23 sts per 20 cm, i swatched and liked the fabric with 20 sts per 20 cm, and i also like the width, it blocked out at 36"x67", dunadd is supposed to be 28". mine, er tom's, will be much cosier ;-)


why does 17 sound so much more grown up than 16? my baby turned 17 yesterday, here she is all dressed up. the black velvet jacket she is wearing was my mom's, abercrombie and fitch, circa 1968. my mom wore it, i wore it, and now dd is wearing it. i guess quality shows! (still have the black and silver palazzo pants in my closet.)





was watching meg and elizabeth's knitting around videos, can watch them over and over. am always envious of their relationship. i love my mom, but we have nothing in common. then it hit me, i do have that kind of relationship, only i am elizabeth, and dd is meg! no one in the world could be a luckier mom :-)

world's largest swatch

of course now that donegal is nearing the home stretch it's become completely boring...

hope gave me permission to swatch. and so i give you, the world's largest swatch.





dunadd from virtual yarns, color lapwing, really lovely and complex tweed of green and blue. it was cloudy yesterday when i took the photo, the color is too dark. the cables are fun, fun, fun, and i'm sure another knit blanket is exactly what tom is wishing for for christmas.







saturday night rancher tom and i went to the second annual lake placid rotary's wild game night. absolutely fabulous, great food, decorated tents, country music, prizes, and tons of friends. we had wild turkey, catfish, gator (both tail and ribs), buffalo meatballs, venison, frog legs (not for me), pork, corn, quail, cornbread, and swamp cabbage.
can't even imagine how much work it took to pull it all off without a hitch. my friend linda owns the property where it was held, she's 4th generation floridian, the real deal.
tom and vanessa, the wanna be real deal ;-) doesn't he look handsome in his stetson?

why do i have 2 arms?

now i have to knit the second sleeve. if only the knitting fairy would come and finish donegal... but it ain't gonna happen.