Knit My Dog

With the arrival of spring this week, I've been seeing entries all around blogland with the signs of spring. I look longingly at the flowers, the blossoms on the trees, the green grass, and all of the other signs. In Maine, spring comes late. Just because March is ending doesn't mean spring is here. First, we have mud season. Then spring arrives.

For the non-northern-New Englanders out there, mud season is when the snow melts and the the ground thaws, turning everything into about 6 to 12 inches of sodden muck. If you walk in your yard at this time, you risk sinking in and leaving a footprint that will stay after the ground firms up. It is this time of year that I am so thankful that I don't have a dirt driveway or live on a dirt road. The ruts and muck are tremendous.

The end of March also means that the dirty snow of the winter is melting, causing puddles that grow into lakes in the lowest point in our yard. It means that the snow bank from the plow right outside our dining room window that is on the northern side of the house will be there as a reminder of winter for at least three weeks after the rest of the snow melts. It means that the melting snow reveals brown. Brown grass, brown muck, brown trees and shrubs without buds or leaves.

Can you tell that spring arrives a little too late for me around these parts? I've always said that it's the only thing I don't like about living in Maine. I love the seasons and everything they bring, even the cold, blowing snow. Alright, sometimes I dream about being on a warm tropical beach in the middle of winter, but I do enjoy the snow. Right about now though, I am READY for spring. And it won't be here for at least another month! I better go out and buy a bouquet of flowers for my table or something.

Enough bitching about spring! I'm home sick today with another cold I caught from the sick kids I see every day at work. I was up half the night coughing and pretty much feel like crap today. So I decided to stay home and rest up. Problem is, I can't sleep. I have a list a mile long of things I need to do, but have no energy to do any of them. Except this. I took a picture of a finished hat:

It's for a new adopted baby of my cousin's. I think he's about 9 months old now so I'm hoping it will fit now and in the fall. It's a made up polka-dot pattern of mine. Some yummy soft wool that I forget the name of (ball bands long gone). Unblocked, of course. And look, it's sitting on the dirty snow from my deck! I'm hoping the deck snow will be gone by tomorrow. The deck is on the south side of the house so the sun has been doing it's job lately. The grill is now out of it's cocoon of snow and ice, so I see some grilled fish in my future. (Trying to be positive about the signs of spring.)

Posted by Brenda at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

I'm a new spinner. A very new spinner. I still have one week left of my four week class. And today I showed Julie how to spin on my rented wheel from my class. I met her a few weeks ago at SPA and we both wanted to learn how to spin. We even talked about taking a class together, but I literally walked into a class that was starting and joined that very day. Was that wrong of me to go ahead and join without her? She's forgiven me though. So I invited her to come try the wheel I take home every week (which, by the way, will probably come home to live with me some day).

We had a wonderful time and she did great with the spinning. She even brought home her very own yarn!

Here she is plying. It all went really smoothly until she tried to talk and ply at the same time. We had to fix a little tangle that occurred, but no harm done.
Look, she's even wearing her big balls sweater from Amy!
We had a great day and some laughs as the two newbies tried to figure it all out. But we're both very proud of our new spinning skills! Someday we may spin even, thin yarn. Someday.

Posted by Brenda at 08:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Or, as my Dad likes to say, timing is everything.

My friend Bonnie (blogless) is a knitter. But first she is a quilter. She's got a stash of fabric that puts my yarn stash to shame. She loves color. And she's started knitting and felting bags, then lining them with coordinating fabric. We even get together and make polymer clay buttons for the bags. She's started a business and is selling them. Here's a couple of pictures I took of one last year:

She's a great friend, an artist and a terrific craftsperson. But she's terrible at buisness. I finally convinced her to get a wholesale number so she could buy yarn cheaper and not invest $100 of Noro into one bag.

Fast forward to today. I know she has Wednesdays off and is usually at home in her studio with a variety of interesting women, crafting away. So on my way home, when I got off the highway, I decided to swing by her house and see if her car was in the driveway. It was! So in I went. And she was in her dining room with a yarn salesman. He had suitcases FULL of yarn samples, color cards, pattern books, and all things knitty. Of course, I stayed. I got to pet the yarn, thumb through books, and find out all about the different brands of yarn he sells. Bonnie is all about the blues and purples but I always tell her that everyone doesn't love blue and purple. So I helped her with some of her color selections. We had so much fun! One bag of this, three bags of that, ten skeins of each color right over here... On and on. And he had free samples!!! For me too. Oh, happy day, free yarn!

These are all Araucania wool, different weights and different combinations of alpaca, wool, and I can't remember what else. All hand or kettle dyed from Chile. My favorite is the thick and thin green in the front. My head was spinning by the time I walked out of there with the skeins clutched to my chest. He has a bunch of brands he sells, most notably Noro and Debbie Bliss. Needless to say, I "requested" enough of a couple of yarns for sweaters. Do I have my yarn connection or what?!

Then when I got home, Howie brought this for us, a still-warm blueberry pie baked to order:

Happy Pi Day! We're off to share it with our neighbors because how are the two of us supposed to eat a whole pie? Alright, we probably could, but it wouldn't be pretty.

Posted by Brenda at 06:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

My spinning class is going great. Last week we plied. Our instructor had us spin natural color yarn on one bobbin and two shades of brown on another bobbin. Then we plied them together. I'm sure the choice of colors was intentional so we could see the plying easily.

I forgot to take a picture of the skein I was so excited to wind it into a ball. This is what I got:

It's very "thick and thin". It doesn't know if it wants to be worsted or bulky weight. The yarn on the outside is the first that I spun so it's exceptionally bulky. But I love it! Of course, I had to knit it into something. Isn't that why I'm learning to spin?
I decided to go for a simple hat with a reverse hemmed brim. And I can wear it inside out too.

Knit side out:

Purl side out:

Getting goofy with the modeling session:

I'm taking it for its maiden voyage to the beach today. You can tell by the pictures that it's a sunny day here in Maine. What you can't tell is that it's over 50 degrees! After all of the bitter cold, we're all ready to get outside. So a walk on the beach with the dog is in order.

Posted by Brenda at 01:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

if you show me yours! Scout started a tattoo meme and asked us to show our tattoos. I have two. The first one I got when I was about 25, on a long cross country trip with my sister, ended up in Hawaii, and decided to get a tattoo to remember my trip. It's a hibiscus (the state flower of Hawaii), about 2.5 inches high, and is on my chest above my left breast. Enough said about that one.

My newest tattoo is the one I love. My oldest sister died almost ten years ago. It will be ten years next month - I can't believe that. She was an artist, art teacher, feminist, and an all around cool, spiritaul and funky person. She had made a print (I think it was etched into metal, but I'm no artist so I don't know the technique) of a mandala. She made 4 or 5 prints, then went to clean the plate with something that ruined the surface. So there are only a few in existence. My other sister has one, along with my dad, one of my brothers, and a friend of hers. After she died, I decided I wanted a tattoo using some of her artwork. This piece fit the bill perfectly so I decided to have it tattooed on my lower back. It's big (six inches diameter) so my back was the best location. My person criteria for tattoos is that they shouldn't be visible while I'm at work. That means no ankle tattoos, etc. The only thing I don't like about the placement is that I can't look at it closely. I can't even really see it unless I look in the mirror. But I always know it's there. You can see my freckles throughout it which makes it even more interesting to me. It really is round but depending on how I stand it will stretch out in different ways.

Would I do it again? YES. Do I want another one? I don't think so, but you never know...
Show me yours!

Posted by Brenda at 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)