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Tuesday

I was merrrily merrily knitting along yesterday when the postman arrived with an eagerly awaited book.

I tossed Morning Glory to the side, because Unexpected Knitting was here! This is an astonishing book. I expected to be pleased with it, having seen a few reviews, but OMG! This isn't a book, it's a testimony to one of the most inventive minds of the century. I've been an admirer of Debbie New since studying her swirl-socks in the Socks Socks Socks book, but have never before seen her work through her eyes. There are knitted people in this book. Organically knitted seashells. And garments that you simply cannot believe.

Here is the Ouroborus Jacket, a knitted circle.

I don't think there has ever been a book like this. It's a look inside an incredible mind. Don't expect to be able to take it all in at one glance. It's a book to marvel at, chapter by chapter. Each chapter is a gallery. I've never seen anything like it. Her techniques are clearly presented and each example is a marvel of engineering and imagination.

I can't find words to describe this book. Definitely worth every penny. Years of mystifying concepts are revealed quite casually, in a very accessible writing style (and you learn about biology and physics, too). This woman has eight children and heaps of grandchildren! How did she find time to think up this stuff??? Not your average knittin' book fer sure, dudes. My copy came from Schoolhouse Press and I believe you can order it from the Knitting Universe Stitches Market website, but I can't access it right now to double-check the url for you. It's 40 bucks, but worth much more. Put this book on your must-have list, okay?

Okay! Off to work for me. Jack and Della say Don't Worry, Be Tuesday.

Have a great day!

Knit Candy

My missing skein of yarn arrived Saturday, so some enjoyable knitting ensued. Here's progress on the Morning Glory Vest from Stillwater:

Della decided to point out the speckled front steek to you:

This design is so bright and charming that I think it's the knitting equivalent of candy. Yum! I'm enjoying the knitting, and looking forward to the not-knitting of sleeves. Actually, I don't seem to mind knitting one sleeve; it's the second sleeve that always seems to take forever.

I also did a bit of sock-knitting, but didn't document. I'll show you later this week, okay?

Pups

Laura and I planned on a trip to Austin's oldest arts and crafts fair on Saturday, but she caught a texas-sized virus and wasn't able to go. I went on Sunday, and it was very crowded and nowhere near as much fun as if I had my sister with me. However, I did see this, and it made me think my pups are not as spoiled as some. This is Dallas and his person:

My pups would laugh their little furry tails off if they saw this photo, so I'm only showing it to you. Ha!

Mike, Jack, and Della know it's Monday, and say Keep It in Motion!

Have a quick and easy one!

Sock Party

While I wait for the skein of yarn I need to continue knitting AS's Morning Glory, I've realized that I'm behind in my sock-knitting. How did that happen? I have at least one gift pair that needs to have been knitted last month.

Aren't they colorful? This is about 1/20th of my sock stash. The self-patterning yarns keep getting better and better, so I keep finding it irresistable when I see a new variation in color or stripes. Remember the old Socka and Regia and Kroy, plain and serviceable? Will we ever return to humble handknit socks? My acid-green Opals tell me no (and also urge me to hurry up and finish the second sock). Hmmm. Talking yarn. I'm glad it doesn't shout at me like Geane's shouts at her.

Shelley asked me if my color choices for projects were changing now that I live here in Austin rather than the NE. I answer Yes! My dark wardrobe moves further (farther?) towards the back of the closet.

Garden News

It's cool enough now to keep from bursting into flames when I'm working in the yard. Look what I found under the weeds yesterday:

Doesn't it look like an exploding firework? My mom says its an Oxblood Lily, also known as the September Lily. Cool! And what a treat not to find toads or scary insects.

Pups

It's Friday! Mikey says Wag Your Tail!

Happy Friday, and happy weekend. Good knitting to you all. Oh! Did you know you could print your own Monopoly money? Get rich quick here (via boingboing).

Thursday

More knitting on Morning Glory by Alice Starmore:

I'm enjoying this knitting project the way I enjoy Fair Isle knitting--I love the patterns and the background shading creating such gorgeous stuff. I think it was Elizabeth Zimmermann who remarked that knitting Fair Isle was "painting with wool." That's what it feels like to me. SweaterGirl is working on Aberlemno, and it's looking very painterly. Wendy's Marina is a wooly artwork, right? Fair Isle Knitting rocks!

I'm setting my Fair Isle aside briefly while I wait for a skein of Water Green-substitute to arrive. And that gives me time to work on some birthday socks in Strapaz Multi. It's yard clean-up day today, too, so I don't mind the waiting too much. Today's visitor to my patio is a giant toad and while I know that toads are as beneficial as dragonflies, I am waiting for the sun to be fully out before I start pulling weeds and etc. out of the grass. No toad photo. Too creepy. I wish toads and other creepy critters would stay out of my range of vision and be invisibly beneficial in the yard. Toads! Gack.

Onward toward Friday and the weekend! Mikey says play hard with your favorite squeaky toy!

Wednesday

Yikes! The pups and I overslept, slept right through the alarm clock, in fact. So this blog entry is hurried and caffeine-free.

Morning Glory

So many readers guessed what I was working on when it was still in wooly balls that I neglected to say what it actually was yesterday. It's the Morning Glory Vest from Stillwater (out of print, I think), designed by Alice Starmore. If you have the book, you probably thought it was a rather muted design. In person, it's quite bright...almost glows! I attribute the glowingness to A. Starmore; her use of color is masterful. I'm particularly interested in the very subtle color-changes/contrasts employed in this design. Here's a little more to look at today:

This is about 10 rounds into Chart A; for some unknown reason, I had trouble following this chart yesterday, and had to reknit the first three rounds about three times. Good ol' shetland wool! It's easy easy easy to unknit and re-knit, because the stitches just don't move around that much.

Foxes

Katherine asked about the picot hem on Dale 10706; it is a hem. You dive straight in with stockinette, work one yarnover round (I think I remember that), then some more stockinette rounds. When finished, you fold at the yarnover edge and stitch the beginning of the stockinette rounds down. Makes a nice tidy, slightly decorative, alternative to ribbing. I used the directions in Dale of Norway 6008, Nygard to make this. I realize it's hard to see in black, but:

Let's see...Rachael? BUT OF COURSE!! Meredith? AWESOME! thanks! Thanks to everyone, in fact! Some days, I think your comments are all that keep me going and going.

Late, late, late...the pups wish you plenty of squirrels to bark at today.

And I wish you a very wonderful Wednesday. See you tomorrow!

Morning Glory

Yeah! Lots of eagle-eyed knitters out there! I worked on the ribbing yesterday and am now ready to dive into Chart A--the fun stuff!

Re: Dale 10706, thanks for the heaps-o-comments! I'm very pleased with how this turned out. Meanwhile, Laura graciously braved the heat and sunshine to provide this knutty high-fashion photo for us:

You can see that the picot edge lays perfectly flat! Hooray! I was worried! You can also see what an excellent sister Laura is--am I lucky or what?

What makes a Fair Isle different from a Norwegian knit? I looked it up, but couldn't find a definitive answer. So, I wrote to Meg Swansen, whom I consider Knitting America's Greatest Treasure, and she kindly replied:

"Ah - as it happens I have strong feelings about the mis-use of Fair Isle to describe any two (or more) -color knitting.

Fair Isle is a very specific type of color pattern knitting: never more than two colors at one time; never any huge carries AND the use of color particularly separates Fair isle from Scandinavian knitting... only Fair Isle shades the motif while At The Same Time shading the background colors. Dale sweaters are Scandinavian, or two-color patterns -- but are not Fair Isle."

Isn't she the best? There you have it. My curiousity is satisfied, and this is the definition to which I will adhere just like Shetland yarn does to itself.

Personal

There is a local campaign here to Keep Austin Weird, and I decided to do my part:

Pups

Speaking of weird! I forgot to show you the stepping stones into my back yard. Here's Della, giving you an eyeful from deep in the heart of you-know-where.

Hey! Have a most excellent Tuesday...and as Red Green says, "I'm pullin' for ya; we're all in this together."

I Went To The Animal Fair

No, not really. I went to my mom's house to visit and use her sewing machine. But the birds and the beasts were there--really! Check it out!

My mom's geese:

The cattle that hang around my mom's house:

And the foxes, of course:

It was a bit rainy, so my 10706 photos aren't so great, but I can declare it a Finished Object now. I'm really glad! The unfinished pile of sweaters in my sweater in-box is now down to one, and that one is a mitered square design that I don't mind doing in spurts, since it's too hot to wear here anyway. Dale #10706, the foxes, is a gift, so I wanted to finish it regardless of the inappropriate weather.

Done!

Next! I wound wool for the next project last night, and have sorted my wool per Wendy's clever system.

Can you tell what it's going to be by observing the colors? I'll work on ribbing today and show you tomorrow. You'll probably have to look at another photo of my Foxes sweater, too, if the sun is out. Feel free to admire it profusely in the comments!

Have a quick and easy Monday, everyone. See you tomorrow!

Friday

Check out the latest visitor to my patio:

I think this is male Green Darner dragonfly; these critters fly around the backyard fast and furiously. Legend holds that darner-type dragonfiles can sew your ears shut, so I kept the pups inside until this one could be escorted from the premises. Having your ears sewn shut would be a terrible thing to have happen on Talk Like A Pirate Day (thanks, Geane, for the heads-up! Yarr to ya!). Note to Corynna: this is not a true legend! Dragonflies will not sew your ears shut!! Just ask Grandmother T, she knows all.

Knitting News:

Yeah! One sleeve finished, complete with purl facing rounds, and one sleeve heading into the homestretch.

Pups

The pups and I think that tamales are the most totally awesome treat in Texas. Roll your own here!

Lots to get done this weekend; I'm sure those of you in the East are going to be doing lots of cleanup. Be careful and stay safe.

Oh! And Della says Happy Weekend!

A Cotton-Pickin' Moment

Yesterday, while running an errand, I got stupendously lost in my new town and wound up slightly southeast of Austin. Whoa! Today I go back to traveling with the map in the car! But yesterday, serendipitously, I was lost and passed a field that needed investigation. So! I stopped! And investigated.

Is it snow in Central Texas? Not likely!

A closer look:

Cotton on the boll! Cool! Did you know your cotton yarn starts here? Gene, the owner of this field, was on the premises and graciously gave me a brief tutorial on cotton conditions.

Before it looks like this:

It looks like this:

The cotton lint is contained within burrs in the boll, and within the cotton lint is a cotton seed, which Gene assured me that cattle find delicious. Or, you can re-use the seed the following year.

Gene said this was a poor season for cotton, because of the drought. You can see the cracks in the earth around the plants here:

In good weather conditions, the plants are about twice this size. But the leaves aren't naturally brown and dry, as shown in the image. Gene explained that the cotton plants are sprayed with something poisonous to kill the leaves, then the Cotton Picker Machine (see below)

rolls over the field and strips the bolls of cotton from the plants. The dry leaves just crumble up and fall through the machine combs. Gene's picker holds about a bale of cotton (not sure how much that is, and I felt by this time that I was already taking up too much of Gene's time...), and once the picker-cage is full, then the bale is taken to a big dumpster-looking thing (you can see it behind the cotton-picker machine; it's red, too), where another machine comes along and carries it off to the cotton mill. I think Gene said that the mill this cotton is going to is in Lubbock.

Gene let me pick a little cotton and I drafted it from the boll, and produced a little cotton thread (have spindle, will travel). Because of its very short staple, I find cotton isn't easy to spin. I think if I ever switch to cotton knitting, I'll be sure to buy mine already processed into yarn. But what a great unexpected field trip this was! Perhaps you know all about cotton already--if you do, will you add to this entry in the comments? I've been away from the hinterlands for a while, and this was totally fascinating to me. Raw cotton! Tell me more! While I've long enjoyed knowing where my wool comes from via the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, I don't think there is a cotton festival. I think this beats the Iowa Corn Cam by a country mile!

Knitting

Just a few more rounds on those endless sleeves. My sleeves, my endless sleeves.

Pups

Jack says Have a helluva Thursday! We all send safety-vibes to knitters and spinners and weavers (and everyone else) in Mid-Atlantic and NE areas today.

Woof! Go away, Isabel.

A Little Sleeve Music

Only a little knitting to report, but some knitting is better than no knitting, right?

My mom wound up staying overnight after our mechanically difficult Monday, and she likes to visit stuff in the Big City, so there wasn't much time for knitting until she left, and by then, I was exhausted. Moms can be tiring. But I like working on these sleeves more than I like working on most sleeves, because the pattern is easy, the colors are happy, and the rounds are gratifying in how quickly the pattern is revealed. Sleeve Music!

My mom and I are covering a rocking chair that belonged to my great-grandfather, and which I hope to be able to use as a big comfy knitting chair. I'll show you photos once we make some progress. Currently, all that remains of the chair is its oak-ness; it needs padding, springs, and that webbing stuff that holds all the other stuff up.

Busy-busy. Meanwhile, here's Mikey, happy to wish you an excellent and productive Wednesday:

Find the music where you can, and we'll see you tomorrow.

No Knitting To Declare

A first is declared; a day with no knitting whatsoever. A day full of weird mechanical difficulties, and me with no sock to knit in my purse. Early in the day, the automatic garage door malfunctioned and I was inadvertently held hostage in the garage until the repairman could arrive, and then, my mom came up to visit, and we took her car to the far reaches of Austin, where her mini-van instantly mini-died. Waited for AAA with no knitting. Waited for the tow with no knitting. Waited for dear Sister to come and rescue transportation-less us (with no knitting!). Blech! We have No Knitting to report today. And frankly, I feel a little directionless.

Let's get directed by looking at some other splendid knitting:

Antonio's fabulous cabled hat
Gorgeous Tokyo
Anne's Margaret Tudor
Flor's autumnal Oregon
Elaine's accomplished socks
Sheila's Saga Rose
Wendy's Marina, of course!

What are you working on? Do you have a project in your pocketbook or purse in addition to your regularly scheduled knitting? No? What if you have to wait somewhere?

Wishing myself lots of knitting time today, and wishing you lots of whatever you want today! The pups just wish for more Greenies, more often.

Badgers

Did I finish? NO! I'm still working on sleeves. I made some progress, but took a little time off from knitting this weekend.

My experience is limited, of course, but I wonder if Dales are easier to knit than Fair Isle sweaters. The knitting doesn't sing as it did with the Meg Swansen designs Mimbres and The Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan, but it does move right along in an easily memorized way. This sweater has six colors, more than any other sweater I've done, but it still feels different than knitting a fair isle.

Weekend

Did you have a nice one? Sister took me to the river for a walk, and we saw a heap of red eared sliders! Way cool!

Pups

Except for a few intervals, it was rainy most of the weekend here. So the pups got pretty bored and followed me around the house, looking at me like this:

It's hard to knit when the little fursons are looking at you in that manner.

Badgers

Right! Find 'em here (Flash; via Metafilter). Feels like Monday! Have a good one, and the pups and I will see you tomorrow.

Slavin' Away on Sleeves

Here we go; a progress photo of Dale 10706 (from Dale 107) sleeves:

Ho-hum. That's not orange, but rust. Not very exciting. But! If I keep this pace up, perhaps I'll finish them at approximately the same time this weekend, and then, by borrowing Sister's sewing machine, I'll have a finished Foxes sweater by Monday! Or maybe not! (I just remembered the neckband.) It's a cliff-hanger blog-entry this Friday!

Pups

Della says: If you find something joyfully smelly to love, roll around in it.

Words to live by. Wishing you a most wonderfully smelly Friday, and a joyful weekend. Hey! What *are* you doing this weekend? I saw this via the Knitwit over at Knitwitology, and it's given me ideas . . . hmmm. Yes. Ideas. And hope. Thanks, Morgan!

A Sleeve Grows in Austin

Dreaded sleeves. The first one is growing nicely enough. But I know the second one will take practically forever. I'm trying a sock-knitters trick this time, and working one ribbing, then working the other ribbing, then working the first chart, then working the other first chart, etc. Still seems like a lot of work, but at least the sleeves will stay at about the same rate of progress, right?

Nanette, it's being worked in Heilo, in black, rust, two greens, and purple. Anne, the jury is still out on twee-ness...maybe I'll try it with the fox face under the arm, and let you know!

Pups

After exactly one month here, the pups are quite bold in their backyard. I'm pleased that I can watch from the window inside while they are out sniffing boldly about. Here's what I see while they are outside being Big Dogs.

It's a thoughtful day; a day of remembering the most sorrowful day for many of us. Be safe, and we'll visit more tomorrow.

Foxy Wednesday

All righty! I finished the body of Dale 10706, from Dale 107, which Anne says is out of print now. Bummer! Keep an eye out for a copy for her, okay?

A couple of color changes here, but I prefer green and purple to teal and red. I think it works, and can't imagine why I stopped working on this sweater earlier this year. I'm glad it's nearly finished now, 'cause I like those foxes! Let's look at them some more!

Will it be too twee if I duplicate stitch a single white stitch onto each eye? All that's left at this point is the neckband (easy) and the sleeves (dreaded). Boy. I hate making sleeves. My next project is sleeveless. But fair isle.

Fair Isle! I forgot to tell you about my fabulous out-of-print book score! It's Fabulous Fair Isle by John Allen, St. Martins Press 1991. And I found it at Half-Price Books in Austin, on the shelf all by itself, for a measley $4.98. Awesome! It's full of fair-isle goodness!

Was that lucky or what? Now if I could only have the same sort of luck with AS's Scottish Collection.

Hope your day is full of lucky foxy finds! Tons of love from me and the pups . . . see you tomorrow!

Norwegian Neck Nonsense

So, since this is my first Dale, even though it's been languishing in the work basket for nearly a year, I decided to Follow the Dale Directions on the pattern for shaping the neck. So, I cast off stitches, and by working back and forth on each side, have nearly finished the front and back. However! It is very slow going, and I won't do it this way again. Who came up with this method?? I think it's Norwegian Neck Nonsense to do it this way. Instead, I'll either do as Wendy does, and create a neck steek, or I'll do as Geane does, and stitch and trim along a curve. Both Wendy and Geane are a lot smarter about Dales than I am, and next time, I'll do as they say and skip purling back in color work. Yeah. That's the ticket.

Even Jack is bummed about how long it is taking to do the neckline this way.

But speaking of Dales, I was looking at this one on a "store-bought" Dale site; does anyone reading know if Moldegaard is available as a pattern to knit? I think it looks like fun to knit.

We have busy stuff to do today. You? That's Tuesday for you! Aim high and have a happy one, okay? Oh, and thank you, dear readers, for the mini-tutorials on burdocks and the assorted other sticker-type v.m. stuff!

Monday

Was your weekend swell? Our weekend here seemed long, since my mom was visiting and we were quilt-shop-crawling. We did manage to hit six of our scheduled eight quilt shops, and saw lots of beautiful quilts and fancy fabrics. Quilters have a lot of good tools and gadgets; more than knitters, I think. I saw several little tools that seemed like lots of fun, but I couldn't think of knitting applications for 'em. I was most impressed with a tiny little long-handled ironing device that presses quilt seams open. Cute.

I don't think I'll take up quilting yet, though, despite the associated cool gadgets.
Instead, I did a bit more knitting on the Dale 10706 (from Dale Adult Book 107).

Flor worked this sweater up with some lovely substitute colors and wool; check it out on her Dale Collection page. In other knitting news, I finished the first Opal acid green sock, and cast on for the other.

Pups

The pups were beautifully behaved all weekend, and as a reward, they got to go for a walk in the woods, which they enjoyed very much. However, there are tiny little sticky-thorny-things in the woods that catch in dachshund fur and refuse to be dislodged, so we spent a lot of Sunday evening with dachshund combs and brushes trying to get rid of all that vegetable-matter. Jack models his sticky-thorny-burry-things here:

Did you ever? Texas is full of surprises for us.

Monday! Monday! Monday! We are wishing you a great one! See you tomorrow!

Foxy Friday

We now have foxes on Dale 10706! Observe and be amazed!

Pretty darn cute. And I realized from yesterday's blog entry that this sweater matches my dachshunds! Mike, Jack, and Della's coloration is called Black and Tan, but really, it's more black and gold. You be the judge.

Speaking of the pups, they are absolutely loving having a nephew. And so am I!

My mom is coming up here today and we are going on a Quilt-Shop-Crawl. We have eight quilt shops on our itinerary. I don't quilt, but I do admire quilters' precise and colorful work. I suppose quilting is the knitting equivalent of working a Fair Isle sweater...instead of painting with wool, however, quilters paint with fabric bits. Quilt away, you quilters. I'm stuffing my green sock on two needles in my purse to finish while she browses.

Wishing you a wonderfully relaxing weekend. Take it easy; we'll see you Monday!

Blush!

My goodness what a lot of sweet comments you all left yesterday! Thank you! Very kind of you; and very enjoyable for me. Good thing I'm not knitting a hat, because I'd have to rip it out and make it bigger to fit my swelled head! Really! The GLMCardigan was my first "big" stranded project, so your comments were much appreciated.

So, onward with the knitting (while I try not to blush any more). Yesterday was busy, but I still managed to fit in some Dale 10706 knitting...wonder why they didn't call it Foxes or Critters or something else besides 10706? The fox-faces are starting to emerge, and so it's hard to put down at this point. Dales are fun! Too bad they have to have sleeves, right?

The pups and I are hoping that you have an excellent Thursday, one in which you receive as many compliments as we did yesterday! Again, thanks for writing! Your comments definitely added to the celebratory feelings attached to finishing the cardigan.

Della says: You Rock!

Splendor on the Concrete

Here, on my concrete patio, the very finished and very splendid Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan (from WoolGathering #67). I think it's lovely!

Sister has graciously agreed to help photograph it later this week for the Finished Objects Gallery. Except for the last bit of the last sleeve, I had a great time knitting this cardigan. I learned about mirrored images and how if the image mirrors, you can knit any size stranded garment. I also learned about Picking Up In Pattern, which creates the Mysterious and Beautiful Uninterrupted Motif across the body and down the sleeves. And, I learned about decreasing down the top of a sleeve for a lovelier anatomical slope; and finally, how surprisingly serendipitous it can be to have help in choosing your project colors. Big thanks and smooches to Meg, Eleanor, and Michelle at Schoolhouse Press! I think Meg Swansen designs the most educational and beautiful sweaters in this galaxy.

Little details for inquiring minds: Knit with 5 oz of J&S Jumperweight color FC8, and with 7 oz each of J&S colors 203 and 125 on size 4 Addi Turbos (mostly). Additionally, I think this cardigan can be knit fairly quickly if you don't move 2000 miles at the last sleeve. Changes I made to the original design are minimal: my neckline is slightly deeper, and I picked up the bottom border patterns on the bottom of the sleeves. And for Pubah and anyone else who was wondering, it turned out after blocking that the extra material at the top of the final sleeve (caused by knitting with the wrong-sized needle and general inattention) minimized itself to a barely noticeable tiny bit of fabric. So I didn't (and probably won't) seam it out on the sewing machine.

What's next? I'm still narrowing down choices, but it will be a vest, no sleeves and stranded. While I decide, I'm working on finishing up the aptly-named 10706 by Dale of Norway that's been languishing in the knitting basket. My first Dale, and Flor and Wendy helped enormously in getting it started.

Cleverly, I neglected to make notes on what size I was making, or what changes I made in the colors, or the shaping. Or if I did make notes, they are now residing in the Mysterious Knitting Triangle that disappears things that move from NJ to TX.

Austin Knitters!

Last night I went to the monthly Austin Stitch-and-Bitch, held in the cafe at The Book People store. It was a wonderful treat to meet a very hip group of prodigiously talented local knitters, and I had trouble focusing on my sock-in-progress because I was just so blissed-out to be sitting in a big bookstore with cool knitters! Knitters rock, don't they! I was hungry for knitter-company, and this was a wonderfully satisfying treat. I'm looking forward to next month's meeting already!

Pups

It's been cloudy and a tiny bit cooler here; the pups are loving it. Jack and Della pose here to express their Happy Wednesday Wishes to you:

Have a great one! Woof!

All Over But the Shouting

Whew! I finished up the knitting portion of the Giant Lativian Mitten Cardigan on Labor Day! And it was fairly labor-intensive working on that 2-stitch I-cord all the way around, too, but SO worth it. What a tidy finish! Blessed Elizabeth Zimmermann, with her applied I-cord unvention. I have some finishing work to do today that includes washing the thing (it's a bit grubby after its voyage from NJ to TX), sewing on some lovely clasps, and weaving in a few yarn ends. But not on the steeks, because I crocheted them!

It's looking a bit of a mess in its almost-finished state. I assure you it will be 10 times lovelier after a Euclan rinse and with clasps sewn on.

We were so pleased here that we braided the tails on some mice and then called it a day.

Happy Tuesday!

100

This entry is a mini-blogging-milestone...there are 100 entries as of this minute. I've enjoyed blogging, and the 425 comments that have accompanied the entries. I think working a nearly-daily blog is great exercise for my busy mind. I also like staying alert through the days for blog-photo-opportunities with the pups, or within my surroundings. Somehow this blog is different than a journal for me; I like being able to document my knitting within our community. Thank you for reading!

Knitting News

The Giant Latvian Mitten Cardigan sleeve is within 15 rounds/rows of being finished! Huzzah! Today my goal is to complete it, then crochet the front steek, work a final all-around round of EZ's applied I-cord, then declare it a finished object! Look for a fabulous photo tomorrow, 'cuz it's raining (more huzzahs!) here today.

I stopped on South Congress in my exploring on Friday and visited my new Local Yarn Store: Hill Country Weavers. It's a very nice place, packed with goodies and friendly faces. I found some new-to-me sock yarn that was irrestistable: Strapaz. Check it out:

I couldn't resist casting on to see what this yarn produced. It's slightly heavier than fingering weight, so it's working up on US size 3 Addis very quickly. Cool, eh? I am finding that with all the sunshine here, I'm shedding my NE desire to knit or wear dark things. So bring on the oranges, limes, and lemons.

Pups

Pups are doing well; they love chasing their dog-neighbors up and down the fence-line, barking madly. I don't think the big dogs next door have figured out that the dachshunds are really dogs; they seem to consider them fluffy toys. That's okay; I do too, most of the time.

Here's Mikey wishing you a wonderful Monday:

Enjoy yourself!