Knit My Dog

Thanksgiving went off without a hitch this year. It was calm, easy and fun. No traveling involved, we went to my sister's house about 40 minutes away. My parents and all of my brothers and sisters were there, as were most of the neices and nephews. About 16 people total. Howie and I were assigned appetizers and told to keep it simple - no stuffed mushrooms, hot crabmeat dip, etc, etc this year. Just cheese and crackers and other simple fare. My shopping was done last weekend, except for one last minute trip to the local market for milk and fruit on Wednesday.

My parents stayed with us for two nights and it was a great visit. Not too stressful, easy meals to prepare (they even took us out to dinner on Wednesday evening), and plenty of time to visit. The first night after dinner, my dad saw these on the coffee table:

and proceeded to put them on. I have cold hands and feet all winter so I wear these all the time. Knitting, typing, reading. My dad LOVED them. He didn't take them off for two hours. He told me that the medication that he's on makes his hands and feet cold. So it's wool socks every day. But the hands get cold when he's on his computer, reading the paper, doing the crossword puzzle (he's a New York Times Crossword fanatic). Of course, I had to knit him a pair. So up to the stash I went. Found the leftover yarn from Howie's most recent sweater, and started knitting. I didn't really use a pattern, just modified my pair and made them to fit my dad. He tried them on as I went. He wanted longer cuffs, a longer thumb and a little longer in the hand.

This is what I got:

I finished the second one on Thanksgiving night before bed, had all the ends tucked in, and gave them to him right away. My parents go to Florida in the winter, so he only has about 6 more weeks before he leaves. I figured if I waited until Christmas to give them to him, he'd only get to wear them for a week or so.

I think he likes them! He packed them right away in his suitcase. Didn't want to leave them behind. I was so happy to be able to give my dad something he will actually use that he needs.

A little housekeeping.... I've been getting boatloads of spam, and Howie (my technical support) was trying to clean up the blog by deleting the spam comments. In doing so, he deleted the four real comments I've actually gotten recently. So thanks for commenting and sorry if you don't see any previous ones.

Posted by Brenda at 12:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

First, I want to apologize for all of the photos today. It's been raining for two days so there's no natural light to speak of. Here's what I started yesterday after four loads of laundry, kitchen cleaning, felting bowls (story and pics below), reading the paper and everything else I could think of to do in the house was done.

That's right! 1,500 pieces, very detailed, and taking up half of the kitchen table. Problem is that Howie just can't drag himself away from it. I think he has a problem. No mellow jigsaw puzzler in him. He wants to FINISH! I think he's getting up at night slipping pieces into place. Last night I threatened to break it up and put it back in the box if he didn't step away from the puzzle.

So felting.... Last summer I started felting knitted bowls. I figured they'd be great little gifts this Christmas. I made three or four and stopped. Now I realize I need to step up production. So I made two in the last week and felted them on Sunday.

Pre-felting. (Previously felted bowl for scale)

Post-felting: After two washes on hot with an old pair of jeans. Nobody told me the jeans shouldn't have holes. I picked blue fuzz off of these for 10 minutes!

All of the bowls use a variety of worsted weight feltable wool. They are super easy to make, each one takes only a couple of hours. I've got to get going on a few more! Howie has decided that he likes three of the five that I've already made so actually I only have two available for gifts. I wonder what he wants to do with all of the felted bowls?!

Ribby Cardi is blocking. No pictures though, I'm really not loving the way any of these photos came out and who wants to see drying wool? It only took me about 2 weeks to knit it and I waited another two weeks to block it. At this rate I'll be putting the zipper in by New Year's.

I saved the best for last. Look what arrived today:

A skein of 100% Merino, hand dyed sock yarn from Pippi! I loveitloveitloveit!!! The color is Terrapin, and it is so beautiful. So soft too, all I want to do is hold it near me. I love her yarn -someday I'll be able to afford some of her handspun. But this will do just fine for now!!!

Posted by Brenda at 08:22 PM | Permalink

Today's entry is a little ghost story of the last three hours of my life....

3pm Friday afternoon, temp in the low 60's (in Maine in November!), sunny day, home from work early with Howie. My suggestion is to head to the beach with the dog for an afternoon romp. Howie wants to get some schoolwork done, but agrees after a few pleadings from me.

3:15pm, in the car, dog, headbands, gloves (because it's never as warm at the beach). Off we go. Howie comments that the car smells like gas. I say no, 5 minutes later I agree that it smells, but I think it's more like oil. Constant whining from the back seat from a dog who now knows where we're headed.

3:20pm, arrive at the beach, out of the car, the smell is worse so Howie looks under the car and notices a gush of radiator fluid. The radiator is now EMPTY and steaming. I'm trying to hold on to an anxious dog that is SOOO close to freedom on the beach.

3:25-3:30. Call the mechanic, get a number for a tow truck (we canceled AAA three months ago because we never use it), call for a tow. By the way, the mechanic can't look at it until Tuesday! Today is Friday!!! Call a few friends and try to find: 1) a ride home from the mechanics, and 2) transportation to work for Monday and Tuesday.

3:30, I take the dog for a quick run on the beach, Howie guards the car so nobody parks in front of us so the towtruck can do his job.

3:50, tow truck arrives.

4:10, Car on truck, Moebius in car (kind of freaked out, but the won't let him in the cab of the truck), Howie and I in the cab with the driver for the 3 minute, 50 dollar tow to the mechanic.

4:30, Finally reach a friend who says he knows where we are, he'll leave his house in a couple of minutes to take us home. By the way, do you mind a sandy, furry beast in your car?

4:45, Grab a sheet from the trunk to protect George's car, head out to the road to wait for our ride.

5:00, Howie's getting nervous that George won't see us because it is getting dark. And dark in Maine is pretty dark. No street lights, all the businesses closed.

5:05, Howie decides we should hold up the white sheet I grabbed so George will spot us. I'm not too excited about this idea, but I go along reluctantly.

5:15, After holding up the sheet, I notice that it was an old Halloween costume, two eyes and a nose cut into it for a ghost.

5:20, Howie decides he'll just wear it like a ghost and wave it back and forth so every passing car can see him. It definitely lightens the mood, but damn, it's getting cold. The dog is even getting antsy.

5:25, Howie checks his cell phone, and we missed a call from George. Another thing about Maine is the cell reception is spotty. He went on Route 1 NORTH, instead of Route 1 SOUTH and he can't find us! Quick call to George and he is redirected to us. God, I love cell phones!

5:35, Help arrives! Warm car, sitting down, I'm happy.

6:00, Home again, we're all happy to be here. And yes, there is a puddle of radiatior fluid in the garage so my car was leaking before we even left for the beach.

Posted by Brenda at 06:04 PM | Permalink

I'm back. I've been back for a week. And I haven't found the time to blog. It's been one of those weeks. We went to California for a week, had a wonderful time, and then we had to fly back. I hate flying. The only good thing about it is that it gets me where I want to go relatively fast.

We flew through Kansas City. It was a beautiful day. We had about an hour layover, so we figured we'd grab a bite to eat and get back on the plane. Our flight to Boston said "delayed" on the board. Howie said that it can't be delayed long, maybe some maintenance thing. So I checked. It was due to wind in Boston. Delayed at least two and a half hours. What the? They had free wireless in the airport (about the only thing they did have), and sure enough, there was some crazy storm hitting the east coast. High winds, driving rain, etc, etc. So after all of our delays, a bumpy flight, waiting for luggage, getting to our car, and driving home to Maine, we arrived after midnight. We had started our morning at 4 am in California.

It took me about two days to recover from all that, and by that time it was Halloween. So there goes another day's free time, what with dressing up for work, giving out candy, and just enjoying the day.

Before we left for CA, Howie planned a dinner party for Friday night. Remind me next time that Friday night is a bad night to have guests over. It means that Wednesday is for shopping and cleaning. Thursday is for cooking and preparing, and Friday afternoon is a rush of last minute shopping, cleaning AND cooking. It took me three days to get ready for it! We had a great time, ate wonderful food, visited with friends, and even took a hot tub at the end of the night. But oh, the dishes for Saturday!!!!

So Saturday was a work day, leaves, lawn, storm windows, wood hauling, cleaning up (after the dinner party). I was exhausted by the end of the day.

Sunday was another big day. Up early, drive to Cape Cod, brunch birthday party for my mom - she's 70! Visit with family, then a long drive home through Boston with tons of traffic. Not even much knitting time because Howie and I shared the driving and it was dark on the way home. Last night I was pooped again, another 12 hour day of go, go, go.

I'm actually glad that this coming week is pretty boring. Only one nighttime activity for me. That means free time to catch up, knit, organize my house. On the knitting front: Ribby Cardi is almost done, I have to finish the decreases on the sleeves then do the finishing work. And I started a new sock that I love. It seems to be flying by. Pictures of both soon.

I'll leave you with some fish pictures from Catalina Island. I love how fish can either hide so you can barely find them or stand right out against the background.

Posted by Brenda at 07:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)