Knit My Dog

Apparently, my head is larger than a watermelon:

This hat fits me well, and it apparently is too large for this watermelon.

I knew I came from a family of large headed people, but this is ridiculous.

Morning Coffee Toque, made a little larger and longer for my head (or for a watermelon), test knit for Pippi. (See the pattern in her side bar.)

Really, this is the one I test knit:

Shown drying on a bowl, over a jar filled with sea glass. This one is much too small for my melon-sized head; I stretch it all out and it just looks silly on me. I guess I'll have to find a nephew or someone else of normal head size to wear it.

Off to eat the warm, fresh out of the oven, from scratch brownies that Howie made.

Hopefully a few of them will last until the party on Cape Cod we're heading down for.

The smell is killing me.

Posted by Brenda at 09:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I saw this interview over at Carole's and thought it would be fun to hear Howie's comments. Just like her, I'll post a picture so you can see him as you get a little peak into how his brain works.

This is a sweater I completed for him at the beginning of the summer. I know, great timing. AND, the sleeves came out way too long, so I have to shorten them. I'll give the sweater it's own post, but here's Howie:

Me: What is your favorite thing about my knitting?
Howie: I should say it’s that it makes others happy, but I want to say it’s that you knit for me.

Me: What is your least favorite thing about my knitting?
Howie: That you can’t knit at night in the car when I’m driving.

Me: Why is that a bad thing?
Howie: Because it’s a waste of time when you could be knitting.

Me: What is something I have knitted that you recall as being good?
Howie: Really good or just average?

Me: Really good. [Why I would ask him about something just “average” is beyond me.]
Howie: That scarf, what is it? The “Sea of Purls”, “Wave of Seas”, “Sea of Waves”, “Prince of Seas”? [It’s my Print O’ the Wave Stole by Eunny Jang) …{Thinking}… I’m happy when you make a new accomplishment in knitting.

Me: Do you think knitters have an expensive hobby?
Howie: HAHAHAHA. Try scuba diving with mixed gases.

Me: Do you have any hobbies?
Howie: Yeah.

Me: What are your hobbies?
Howie: Scuba diving with mixed gases.

Me: What about computers?
Howie: You think that’s a hobby?

Me: Yes.
Howie: Huh. [No more discussion ensued on this topic; we’ll leave that to another day.]

Me: So, if we compared money/time spent on hobbies, who would win?
Howie: We don’t compete.

Me: Do you have a stash of any kind?
Howie: NO! {Thinking} I have a stash of Brenda-made sweaters.

Me: Has my knitting in public ever embarrassed you?
Howie: What kind of a question is that? [Howie’s the one who tends to embarrass me in public.]

Me: Can you name another knitting blog?
Howie: Yes: [Sorry to everyone for Howie’s butchering of your blog names, but he’s always been one to come up with his own interpretation of words.] Pippi Longstockings, Yarn Harlot, Noodles, The Sheep, The Mason-Dixon people, Aunt Purl, Amy Boogie. [Like I said, sorry about the "Howie-isms".]

Me: Thanks, that’s enough.

Me: Do you mind that I want to check out yarn stores everywhere we go?

Howie: No. I want to check out scuba stores wherever we go.

Me: Do you understand the importance of a swatch?
Howie: Yes. So that your needles match the pattern length for how many stitches you knit.

Me: [Laughing uncontrollably]
Howie: Is that wrong?

Me: Moving on, do you read Knit my Dog?
Howie: Only when you tell me there’s a post.

Me: Have you ever left a comment?
Howie: No {Laughing} [I have no idea why he thought this was funny.]

Me: Do you think the house would be cleaner if I didn't knit?
Howie: No {Laughing} The house would be cleaner if I helped you clean.

Me: Is there anything else you want to say?
Howie: Keep on knittin’ and spinnin’. Oh, and hi to all your blog friends, especially the ones I know.

So there you have it. A few minutes with Howie.

Posted by Brenda at 08:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Yes, the last time I blogged, my front yard looked like this:

We were all deep in a real New England winter, snowbanks and all. I was sick and tired of shoveling the stuff. All I could think of was my upcoming dive vacation in Bonaire. Of course, I didn't know that before I could enjoy Bonaire, I'd get an awful cold, worry that my ears wouldn't let me dive, and cough for days on end. But, the warmth of the tropical island put all of that behind me, and we had a great time.

Christmas tree worms on brain coral:

After coming back, the thing that has taken all of my spare time is this:

Howie and I started looking for a cottage on the coast of Maine in the winter. After many trips up to look at houses, and a few offers that didn't amount to anything, we ended up buying this cute house in Seal Harbor, right near Acadia National Park. We've been so lucky in that it's the perfect location, the price was right, and we've been able to rent it for a bunch of weeks this summer (our plan so that we can afford the mortgage all winter). It's just been the biggest time suck! Many weekends of working 12 hours per day, long drives to and from, and about daily visits to Home Depot for about a month. I never want to step into another one of those stores as long as I live. Now that we're onto smaller projects, the local hardware store is just fine.

Next time, knitting update. There has been knitting, but it's been real slow for the last few months.

Posted by Brenda at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Today being Leap Day, it seems like a good day for me to post. I haven't really felt much like blogging lately, but it's at the back of my mind at times. Many blog-worthy events have passed without a mention. It seems difficult to make the plunge back into blogging after such an absence. Here's a recap of the past 8 weeks or so:

I haven't given up knitting. Evidence:

A completed Clapotis. Yarn: Araucania Atacama, alpaca. 6 skeins of some color I don't remember. I thought I was the last person in the universe to knit a Clap, but I think there are many knitters out there who haven't gotten the Clap yet. It's a fun knit and I love the finished product. I usually wear it scrunched up and wrapped around my neck like a scarf, not all shawl-like. I made it extra long and I almost ran out of yarn. I finished with just a few yards to spare.

I've also made some great progress on Howie's sweater. No photos of that, but I'm loving the way it's coming out. It's taking forever though.

The spinning has been happening too. Julie and I took a spinning class with Amy a few weeks ago. We're both relatively new spinners and we learned some great skills in our few hours with Amy.

There was also SPA. I went for the day on Saturday and brought my wheel. It was at SPA last year that I learned to spin. So it was fun brining my wheel and sitting in the circle spinning away. I do have some completed yarn, but no photos. I neglected to bring my camera to Amy's or to SPA so the photos are really lacking. Now that it's actually light out when I get home from work (yeah!), I may start taking more photos.

In the non-fiber aspects of my life, work has been busy and winter is just wearing me down. It's still February and the snow is getting crazy. We have a plow guy for our driveway, and I bet he can put his son through college with the amount of money we've been laying out this winter. Please let it end soon! The sick kids at work are also getting me down. This is not a happy time to be working in pediatrics. I look at my schedule every day and it's the same: ear, cough, fever, vomiting, sore throat. Give me a good case of poison ivy or a tick bite and I'll know that spring is on its way.

No promises, but hopefully now that I've taken the plunge, I'll get back into the swing of blogging.

Posted by Brenda at 09:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

I had so much fun knitting the Noro ribbed scarf for my sister, I started another one right away. I decided to do a little experiment for this one. The first one was knit over 33 stitches (I think) and took 1.5 skeins of two different colors of Noro Kureyon. That means I had to buy four skeins for one scarf! The stuff isn't cheap, even with the discount Noro pusher I know. So for this one, I decided to knit it skinnier (23 stitches) and just knit until the two balls were gone. It made a nice long, skinny scarf. Of course, I brought it to work and gave it to my friend before I remembered to take pictures, so I tried a few with my cell phone.

This one came out the best:

One skein each of colors 166 and 134
K1 P1 ribbing with slipped stitches to make a nice, neat edge
Long enough to wrap around the neck
First item done in 2008!

Now for a somewhat better photo. Howie and I have been playing around with our new toy, a Nikon D80 camera. We took a class yesterday to learn what some of the millions of settings do. Hopefully now I can take pictures on other settings than Auto. Here's Moebius in his usual position laying down next to his empty bowl waiting for food to appear.

This was taken a few nights ago using automatic settings and minimal editing. He had just come in from the snow, and you can see the flecks of snow in his fur. I'm excited to play more and learn what I can do with this camera.

Posted by Brenda at 03:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)