Knit My Dog

Why is it that I have three (or maybe four) unfinished projects in my knitting bag that are begging to be completed and instead I work on this?

It's the Perfect Sweater from Mason-Dixon Knitting, made with Cascade 220, worsted weight wool that I won't be able to wear for at least five months. This picture was taken yesterday morning and since then, I've completed the back and am working on the front. Usually stockinette is pretty boring. I save it for movie watching, car riding or any other knitting time when I don't have to pay attention. Right now I'm loving it. I get into the groove, and all of a sudden it's time to decrease for the arms or something. It's becoming very zen. Sit, think, knit and time flies while the project flies off the needles. I guess it's my choice what I knit. That's what makes it so enjoyable for me. That's also why I usually only knit for people I love and I usually choose the project. Howie has chosen sweaters for himself for me to knit and it's more like a chore at times. I don't know why, but if the choice is mine, from the pattern to the yarn to the needles, I usually love knitting. Whatever it is I'm knitting.

This yarn was purchased from Webs last year before the "no purchasing in 2007" project began. I knew I'd need a sweater's worth of yarn (of my choice) to keep me occupied this year. Maybe that's why I'm loving it so much; I knew when I bought it that I'd be knitting it this year, not just tossing it in with the stash yarn to be knit whenever.

If you're wondering why Moebius' paw is in the middle of the sweater, this is why:

I was laying my sweater on the tile floor in front of the door to catch a little sunlight. He saw the camera and me sitting on the floor so he came over to investigate and sat right down. On my project. I think he's getting used to my photo shoots.

Posted by Brenda at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Want to see a picture of the square I knit for Julie? Well, you're going to have to go here because I forgot to take a picture of it before dropping it off with her earlier this week. She's already collected a bunch of squares and the blanket is going to look great! Good work Julie!

I've also been finishing up my vests for Dulaan. I've got four vests and two hats completed and maybe will make a few more hats before shipping it off.

Today we went to a wedding reception for a friend who was married a few months ago. Of course, I waited until the last minute to make the gift. I made them a stained glass picture frame. Yes, I do stained glass also. I was working frantically to finish this morning and threw it in a gift bag with some tissue, ran out to the party, then realized I should have taken a quick picture. I don't know what my problem is this week with the camera. It's sitting right here in the kitchen. I walk by it all the time. I just never think to take the pictures until it's too late.

I also started the Perfect Sweater from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I'll let you know how perfect it is after I finish it. I swatched, I made the picot hem and right now it's about two inches long. Not very exciting. Alright, I'll go take a picture....

Not very exciting, but I'm loving the colors and the picot hem.

While we were taking the pictures, our neighbors came over to invite us to a spaghetti dinner with the high school lacrosse team. They cooked extra so Howie and I are going to hang out with the team!

Posted by Brenda at 05:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

It's been a long week for me and I'll get to an update in a minute. First, I'd like to thank everyone for their kind and heartfelt comments to my last post. This blogging community is a wonderful way to express yourself and find others who are there to hear your concerns or those with common experiences that can help you through your hard times. So thanks!

Here's what I've been doing this week:

1. Getting over the cough that never ends. The virus that sucks the energy out of me. I've been dragging myself to work, coming home and collapsing, then trying to sleep propped up on two pillows while coughing the night away. Yes, I'm a health care provider. And, no, I didn't go to my doctor. I just chose to treat myself. I'm finally coming out of it and am feeling more like myself, but damn, my house is a mess! I've barely kept up with the dishes and the cleaning. Forget vacuuming or picking up. It will all have to wait another few days.

2. Doing the family thing. Easter Sunday was my sister's remembrance. It was wonderful and healing to spend time with my family. Here's a shot of my mother and me throwing flowers in the ocean at the spot where we scattered her ashes (also the spot where Howie proposed and where we got married). I love the way the tide is taking all of the flowers out to sea.

3. Knitting! That is one activity that I've had a little energy for. I've pretty much been knitting for others. I've been cranking out the Dulaan vests while simultaneously getting rid of odd leftovers of yarn. I started a square for Julie. It should be done this week and then I can drop it off. We work in the same town so I'm just going to drop it off at her work some day. Yeah, meeting bloggers in real life is fun! I also had a baby shower to go to yesterday. Of course, I knit. I made the Kimono from Mason-Dixon Knitting (do I really need to link?):

And the Twizzle Top had from Minnowknits:

Sorry the pictures are so crappy. I finished the sweater earlier in the week, and then decided that I had enough time for the hat. I completed the hat at 9:30 am and had to leave for the shower at 9:45 so I just snapped a couple of quick shots. You get the idea. Cotton, colorful, quick, and a hit as a baby present. Non knitters are so impressed with knitted items! The projects started for me are floundering at the bottom of my knitting bag.

4. Whining about the weather. I know, it's April in Maine. I should be used to cold and dreary weather. But right now we are in the middle of our third snow storm in eight days. It's not fun, it makes me cranky and we keep having to pay the plow guy. I think he's going to make more money off us this month than the rest of the winter. It's just not right.

Next week hopefully more regular blogging and less bitching, okay?

Posted by Brenda at 03:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Ten years ago today we said goodbye to my oldest sister. After a cruel and horrible week of her being in a coma due to a bleed in her brain, she was declared brain dead. I'll spare you the details of that week, but I think about it often. Sometimes it feels like yesterday and sometimes it feels like it happened in another life. Her name was Ruth Ann but a childhood nickname of Rootie stuck so she is forever Rootie to me.

Here we are probably a year or two before she died, the three sisters:

I'm in the middle, Rootie's on the right, and my other sister Julia is on the left.

It's hard to describe what her death has meant. There's a gaping hole in our family right where she should be. She was the oldest, and I am the youngest, of five siblings. There's only five and a half years separating us. So we're all close in age. And we're very close in spirit too. One of my friends commented once that she was surprised how much my family all liked each other. That we would actually be friends if we weren't related. I never really thought about it, but I do realize what a special bond we all have. And she was a vital part of our family dynamics.

Here are the five of us one Christmas morning:

She was an artist and an art teacher. I think she was born to teach. When I was little, she would have arts and crafts classes in our friend's back yard during the summer. We had a house on Cape Cod, so we were at the beach with plenty of distractions. Even on sunny days, the yard would be full of kids wanting to learn some crafts from her. When she died, she was a middle school art teacher. I got to read letters from her students and I was so touched by what they had to say about her and how she affected them. That was one thing about her being in the hospital for a week. We got to meet so many of her friends that we didn't know. Word went out that she was in the hospital, and people just showed up. We got to see how many lives she touched. Even after her death she touched some lives because we donated her organs. My parents have even been in touch with some of the recipients. I'm very proud of my parents for honoring her wishes to be an organ donor. They have even spoken for some organ donation groups encouraging others to sign up to be donors. It can't be easy talking about donating your daughter's organs, but I think it has helped them through all of this.

Alright, this post is making me cry and I can hardly type through the tears. My parents are having a memorial for her on Easter Sunday. My whole family and some of her close friends will be there. I'm still trying to come up with what I want to say, so this has been a great way for me to start thinking.

I'll leave you with one more shot. That's me and Rootie with our dog Taffy.

Posted by Brenda at 10:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

It's been a long week. I'm still sick, either up all night coughing or getting some drug-induced sleep from cold medicine. My productivity has been WAY down. I go to work, then collapse in the evenings. I've gotten comments from "You look like shit", to "What's Wrong With You?!" whenever I see people. I guess I pretty much show how I feel. I haven't even felt like blogging, or commenting on blogs although I've been sitting around reading them. So sorry if I've been absent from blogland lately.

About all I've had the energy to do this weekend is one walk on the beach with the dog. It was a beautiful day yesterday, and I hear we might be in line for some frozen precipitation this week, so we enjoyed the warmth and sunshine while we could. We also depleted our wood pile today. We lugged the wood inside and we have about four more days of fires left, then we're onto burning the fossil fuels.

About all of the knitting energy I've had this week has gone to these:

Two vests for Dulaan using up all of my leftover partial skeins of worsted weight wool. I think I have enough for one more vest then I'll be up to five Dulaan items. This is a first for me, knitting for charity, so I'm excited about my accomplishment.

I haven't even shared my big news of the week. I bought a wheel! When I was leaving for my last spinning class last week, Howie asked me if I would be coming home with a wheel. I was feeling somewhat guilty because this is supposed to be my year of no purchases. I had been doing great until I got turned on to spinning at SPA. I bought a drop spindle and some roving from Amy and proceeded to be hooked. Then I took the spinning class. Howie has been encouraging and even figured out a way for me to buy the wheel. OK, it's still cheating on the "no purchases" thing, but I guess I can live with it. His birthday is next week, and he informed me that for his birthday he wanted "A Love it double pedal spinning wheel." So I bought "him" the Louet S10 double treadle that I had been trying out during my class. I guess the first thing I should spin is enough yarn to make him a sweater! I haven't done much spinning this week due to my lack of energy and enthusiasm, but I sure do love it ;-)

The vests pass the "Moebius sniff test" of approval.

Posted by Brenda at 03:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)