She Knits By The Seashore

Happy New Year!

It isn't officially New Year's Eve unless I'm finishing a project under deadline. Blocking and other details to come, but first, time to celebrate. Best wishes for a happy, healthy, creative 2008!!

In the Mail

I hope everyone who celebrated had a wonderful Christmas, and you are enjoying some time off to rest. I also want to say thank you for your comments to my post about shelters. Hopefully they all received as wonderful a response as this one.

After searching in vain locally for the La Boheme Rainforest yarn I wanted, I finally called the store where I first saw it and ordered their one skein. For some reason, this particular dyelot looks very different from the skeins I saw for sale online. The greens and magenta are more fiery, and the brown is a copper instead of a tan-ginger. If you happen to see this particular dyelot at your LYS or know of someone selling a skein, please let me know.

Fiesta La Boheme Rainforest Color 11374, Dyelot 12125

Wendy surprised me with a lovely Christmas package. I love the oceany colors of the yarn and purse, and the smores ornament is so cute! She also included a cat toy, which Rosie hid before I could get it in the photo. I've never seen or knitted with the Cider Moon before, so this will be a treat. Thank you!

Cider Moon "Glacier" Hand Dyed Yarn in Seagrass

Back in the summer, I bought nine of skeins of DiVe Teseo to make a triangle shawl, something simple to throw on when I'm home and freezing cold. After searching through a bunch of patterns, not finding anything quite right, I decided to do a rectangular Gossamer Wrap from Australia's Creative Knitting magazine. [Does anyone know if this is still being published?]. This yarn is much heavier than the Colinette Mohair in the pattern, so the gossamer effect is lost, but I think the yarnovers help to soften the striping. I was hoping to break up the stripes altogether, but I'm not sure that's possible with this yarn, definitely not with stockinette stitch.  The finished shawl should be about 30" x 90" minus fringe.

This is the first of 8 skeins; I just started the second ball. Great car/TV knitting!

Tim finally came downstairs mid-December, after his self-imposed exile upstairs when Rainy and Rosie first came home to live with us. It's nice to have my model back.

What do you think of the new issue of Knitscene? Lots of variations on the Central Park Hoodie (must be their most popular pattern ever). My favorite pattern is the Papillion Top, though I like the Frontier Blues Jacket by Wendy Bernard too. Must finish the winter knits first.

A happy, healthy, and safe new year to everyone!!

Merry Christmas!

We wish you peace, good health,

happy times with

friends and family,

and lots of love and laughter. May your secret wishes and treasured dreams come true now and in the coming year -- Debby, Chris, Rainy, Rosie, and Tim.

Sheltered

I've cast on a new project which I'll share when it's a little larger. In the meantime, I hope you will not mind if I share a few thoughts on our furry friends with you.

Chris and I visited almost ten shelters and foster homes before we found our new girls, Rainy and Rosie. Some were modern, spacious, and clean, where the cats were allowed to walk freely (unless they were sick or new Moms). Others were in houses or rooms in houses where quarters were tight, and the needs of the cats seemed to overwhelm their caretakers. Cages were stacked on cages, because the weather had gotten cold, people had turned over stray cats they'd been feeding outside on their back doorstep all summer, and the shelter or foster home just couldn't say no.

I have a tremendous admiration for the volunteers who must see all manner of atrocities, and work so hard to give these animals a better life until they can hopefully be adopted. I know everyone is busy during this time of year, but I want to ask you, if you can spare a few minutes or resources, to please encourage the volunteers at your local shelters and the pets they care for. Here are a few ideas:

• a small check is a big help in covering veterinary costs for newly rescued pets

• a gift card or certificate to a local pet supply store

• cans or bags of food, cat litter, treats, bones, leashes, toys. Most shelters feed their own residents with donations, but the shelter in our previous city also had a pet food bank where seniors with tight incomes or people out of work could come and take what they needed. The shelter staff told me that many, many times when people found a new job they'd come back and replace the food to give to someone else. If you know someone out of work who has a pet, you could also gift them directly.

• old towels and blankets. The animal control officer in our new town cannot get enough of these, for bathing new rescues, and making those cages a little more comfortable. This one is easy, doesn't cost anything, and you get the benefit of more room in your linen closet too.

• There is a group on Ravelry called Helping Hands for Homeless Animals. They knit or crochet blankets and toys to donate to their local shelters, and there is a KAL going on now through spring. A great way to use up those leftover yarns.

Thank you in advance for anything you can do, before or after the holidays. It will be greatly appreciated!

 

Our nativity set got a little crowded this year (click to enlarge)

Bound (or not!) to Happen

From time to time I've read posts where a knitter is so close to finishing a project, and then the unthinkable happens: he or she runs out of yarn. They suspect it's coming, they knit faster and faster, and sometimes they just make it to the bind off row. Sometimes not. This weekend it was my turn. I had hoped to post a finished pair of mohair mittens, but it was not meant to be.

My LYS has a different shade of light pink Classic Elite La Gran mohair than this one, which I won in a contest. I could probably track down another skein, but I'm not sure for the amount I need that it's worth it for me to do that. Sarah gave me some good suggestions: to unknit a little of both and turn them into wrist warmers, or to use another color and make them two-tone. I can't make up my mind; I was so close to finishing that I'd already moved on to thinking about a new project. So these are likely going to be frogged and re-knit sometime in the future when I can be excited about them again.

I did finish a small Christmas knit, which I can't post, so I will leave you with my answers to another 7 random things about me meme. Robin tagged me last week, and I thought I would put a new spin on it by doing a Christmas theme. If you would like to do the same (so much holiday knitting, and no photos we can post yet), please consider yourself tagged.

1. Best Christmas memory: in the late 1990s, Chris and I were at my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve during an ice storm. The power went out for a little while, and our family opened presents by candle and firelight. It was really beautiful, even if we had to wait until the lights came on to see what we opened.

2. Worst Christmas memory: when I was about 8 or 10, my sister and I both got the flu. We were so sick Christmas Day, and dizzy, we couldn't even sit up straight, much less enjoy opening our presents. There was one Christmas as an adult I was just getting over the flu, and another when my dad was really sick, that tie for second-worst.

3. Favorite ornament: my grandmother gave me a glass ornament that she had when my mother was small. it's pink and yellow and a very unusual shape, a roundish disk with a pointed drop underneath that ends in a little ball. It's packed away this year because of the new cats (I took it out just for the photo). I wasn't sure how they'd handle the tree, so we put only the unbreakable ornaments on it this year. My favorite ornament on my parents' tree is this tiny, raggedy snowman in a pink hat and coat that my sister and I fight over hanging every year. Since she wasn't home when we did the tree this year, I got to hang it!!!!!!!!!

4. Favorite Christmas present as a child: I loved art supplies, crayons, coloring books, and kits. I also loved my Suzy Homemaker doll and her cardboard dollhouse. I still have the doll, along with my Raggedy Anns. [Note: I can just imagine your groans at the name "Suzy Homemaker." This was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. And for better or worse, Suzy didn't have much influence on me, at least so far as the cooking part goes. It was the interior decorating of her dollhouse that I loved.]

5. Favorite Christmas present as an adult: an antique bracelet from Chris. See #7.

6. Favorite Christmas cookies: tie between the spritz cookies with food coloring that come out of the cookie press, and my gram's Italian cookies that have anise flavoring in them. Also love pignoli cookies (pronounced pin-yol-ee. English trans: pine nut).*

7. Favorite Christmas tradition: when Chris and I married, I was introduced by his family to the game of making your victim recipient work for a special present. His mom or dad would hide something ahead of time somewhere in the house, and put a note in the tree with a clue. Which would lead to another clue. So much fun as everyone follows the giftee around the house in the search! One year (looking back on it, this was probably not the smartest thing to do, since Chris had just gotten out of the hospital from surgery -- sorry honey!), I bought him an It's a Wonderful Life train set, and his mom and I hid the little buildings all over his parents' house and made him play "hot and cold'. He got me back the following year by hiding a bracelet in our house, and giving me something like 13 paper clues that sent me from the basement to the attic and back again [and if memory serves, the garage!] before I found it hidden in the victrola. My caffeine level was low, and I was begging for mercy. Last year I got him by hiding a set of rollers (you use them to ride a bicycle indoors) in the basement, and the 5 or 6 clues were all bicycle-themed. He had to read the clue and guess the double-meaning to know where the next clue was hid. I'm taking this year off, but watching my back just the same.

On Saturday, Chris and I spent the day with Sarah and Jeff enjoying some Christmas sights. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos, so please click on over to her blog if you'd like to see her pretty shots. And on Sunday, we had another winter storm. 3" or so of snow, but mostly ice and slushy mess. Our neighbors to the north got the worst of it.

I hope you are having a good week!

*I've never used these recipes, so I can't comment on them. Just wanted to give you a link to what I was trying to describe.

Slowly but Surely

Slowly but surely the WIPs are coming along.

Here's the back of Caroline:

One pink mohair mitten is done, and the second cuff is started:

And for the ever popular pink picot camisole, the purl row (where the I-cord trim will go) is done, the fronts and back are separated, and I'm beginning to knit the right front.

Rosie inspects the camisole:

"Hmmm...wonder what would happen if I pull this string?"

"I've been sitting here the whole time. I didn't touch anything."

Did you have a good weekend? We went to a torchlight parade in our new downtown on Saturday night. Fife and drum corps marched down Main Street, along with some fun floats. My favorite was a big motor boat on a trailer outlined in colored lights, followed by a big lobster pot, and then a pick-up truck-sized animated lobster! I love Christmas at the seashore.

Wherever you live, and no matter how busy you are, I hope you are taking time to enjoy the sights and sounds and scents of the season.

Knitting Wish List, 2007

Last year, I posted a knitting wish list. It was fun to look at the list and see what items I received or purchased, and knitted or not, so I thought I'd do it again this year.

From last year's list: all three French Girl patterns have been added to my knitting notebook during the year. I've knit Oceane, and bought yarn for Fantine, but I'm still trying to decide on a color for Diamanta.

I found Helen's Lace in Tickled Pink, and knit the Pie Wedge Shawl. I have the Teseo Yarn, but haven't decided on a pattern for the shawl yet, other than that it should be triangular and have fringe. I bought more Teseo after this photo was taken, just in case. And are you noticing a theme here, or is it just me? Someone started a Pink Lover's Group on Ravelry called Think Pink, and I'm loving seeing the photos of everyone's pink things.

The only thing on my wish list I haven't found is some Fleece Artist Seashore. I'd like to see it in person before I buy it, because the dyelots seem to vary so much. Sometimes the pink is peach. So that can be my #1 for this year's list.

1. Fleece Artist Seashore yarn

2. Fiesta Yarns, La Boheme, in Rainforest.

3. Sublime mohair for Haze, below.

4. Rowan magazine #41

5. Luxury Knits by Amanda Griffiths

6. Knitpicks Chart Keeper, a swift and ball winder, and a blocking board.

What is on your knitting or crochet wish list? Or do you have another secret holiday wish, not knitting related? I have a new charm bracelet, but no charms yet, so it would be fun to receive one.

My Rainygirl

In cat news, we've been struggling to help everyone get along. Tim still won't come downstairs, but Rosie goes up in his space. I try to defend him, but he hides under the bed. At least the hissing, for the most part, has stopped. Progress?

Rainy is my complicated kitty, taking over where our dear Charlie left off. She's not been herself since Thanksgiving. I've taken her to the vet three times last week, once for a checkup, once to have her teeth cleaned (and one removed), and once because I was convinced she had a UTI (her test came back negative this morning). She's been lying around, not very talkative, and I've been worried she was sick in some way, or had a toothache. But after bloodwork, an X ray, and the dental work to rule out a physical cause, the best the new vet can come up with is that her thyroid level is now too low, so we're cutting back the dosage of her pills. We also think she's had too much change too fast since her rescue, and just needs lots of love, encouragement, and stability. I went out and got a Feliway plug-in today for her, but I would appreciate any and all advice, except "stop worrying," which for me is impossible. :)