Stuck on Socks

Tour de Fleece progress

I've been spinning like mad and actually have something to show for it.

Elvis is patiently modeling the new yarn. The blue/purple in the very front is 400 yds of Cormo/Angora from Wooly Wonka Fibers in "Nantucket." The pink/purple is Falkland wool from the Spunky Club. November's colorway was "Pie for Everyone!" And the last is more Spunky fiber - this time alpaca in "Rocky Mountain High." This is so soft that I'm lucky to have returned home with it after SnB on Tuesday. Mega soft. Uber soft. No matter what phrase you pick, it won't do the softness justice.

Incidentally, the green throw on the couch is new and is not good for taking pictures of black dogs. Pearl also posed with the yarn and the photos are crap. Not sure what I'll do about that.

Seeing as how I'm on Team Monkey Farts for the Tour, I ordered some to spin. I'm not fond of yellow so just got 2 oz of the Merino/Tencel blend and I'm warning you that it's not enough. It's so smooth and luxurious, it practically spins itself. I don't care that I've been trying not to spend lots of money, I'll buy more of this - well, maybe not in Monkey Farts, but definitely more of Amy's Merino Tencel. Bad day at work? Spin this! It'll make you feel better. :)

Dogs on Thursday - Shopping edition

Elvis says: "Look at my Elvis yarn!"

Really - he was practically posing - I had to put the yarn there for a picture! This is truly one of my favorite yarns now. Numma Numma Toasty. Although yellows and golds aren't something I normally buy, this colorway is actually named Elvis so it was deemed a necessary purchase. And as it turns out, I can't stop touching and fondling it. So soft, you'll swear it couldn't possibly be superwash. So many more colors that I want to try - I can tell this will be a frequent purchase.

Shhhh - just between you and me, I also got a skein of Dram in Color Smooshy at the same time and I like this better! Etsy shop HERE

Super Short Post

Thank you Aunt Angie! ______________________________________________________________

And many thanks for all the great blogiversary wishes!

I'm sort of in-between knits at the moment. I'm stalled on everything and searching for a pattern to inspire me. In the meantime, I have lots of non-knitting stuff I may blog. It's almost cicada time again. I've been going to see a cool band. I've got tickets to a different sort of show on Friday. There's a fiber festival on Saturday that I might or might not attend. We're heading to Michigan next weekend. And that's just off the top of my head for May. There's other stuff already planned for June and July. How did I get this busy? And this is without dog sports! Who knew?

Natural Habitat

Although the weatherdudes threatened us with rain for today, I boldly took a vacation day anyway. And it was beautiful for a change. Low 70s, a little breeze, some sun - what could be better?

I spent part of the day in the natural habitat of the knitter: the LYS!

My most local store packed up last week and moved to a more promising location. Today was the big reopening and my SnB group was among their first customers at the new place. I celebrated by buying yarn I didn't need. Afterward we had lunch and then Angela and I ventured even farther afield to another LYS (no web site) that we hadn't been to since they'd moved quite some time ago. I'm not particularly thrilled with the first store's move but this other one - wow! What a difference. I'll definitely go back. Here are the spoils:

The Great American Afghan book and some Noro with a coordinating solid because who doesn't love to whip up a felted bag occasionally?

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Mud season continues here in Cincinnati. There are 4 different animal prints in this photo (dog, cat, raccoon, and deer).

And here are the dogs responsible for that part of the above photo:

They know how to enjoy time outside! They're romping in this year's crop of Marsh Marigolds. They seem especially lush this year which I should have expected with all the rain we've had.

Now back to my knitting. How many projects am I allowed to have going again???

Handing down the knowledge

As you can tell from my distinguished gray muzzle, I'm getting on in years and I thought it was high time I started passing on my hard-earned tips and tricks for getting by in this life to all the young whippersnappers out there in my fan club. Today's lesson is proper enjoyment of a special treat. Wolf down your bones all you want, this one requires a little effort. But it is oh, so worth it!

Behold that rare gem, the not-quite-empty peanut butter jar. Try as they might, humans can't get it all out. It takes a Canine to get every last penny's worth. And we do prefer Jif. Choosy dogs chose Jif!

Can you see the peanut butter down in the bottom there? Look closely - it's true I've been enjoying this one already but there's more to be had!

Go ahead and put your mouth on the edge there. You're going to need to be very comfortable with this plastic container. CAUTION: Don't chew it! Nothing will have your human grabbing it away from you faster! Resist that urge.

Now lay the jar down and get ready to dive in. You're going to need just the right angle for this next part.

Open your mouth and slide your lower jaw into the jar. It'll work, I promise! At the same time, carefully extend your tongue toward the peanut buttery goodness.

Pay attention to how I'm bracing this with my paw. Stabilizing the jar can be critical to your success. If you're not quite to the bottom yet, open your mouth a little bit wider.

Oh yeah! It's soooo worth it. Now go get your own jar.

Your Friend,
Elvis

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Note from Elvis' human:
1. It takes a LONG time to finish a jar of peanut butter in this family, seeing as how there's only one person eating it. We know there's tons of sugar and communing once or twice a year with the jar won't spoil him too much.

2. My knowledge to pass on: when dyeing your hair, be sure there's no holes in the gloves. Bad things happen if there are.

3. It's been a great few days for mail deliveries:

The turquoise Cotton Ease (new color!) is for the Gathered Pullover. (yes, it's a Ravelry link - it takes almost no time at all to get in now so you have no excuse for not signing up - go! do it!)
The Spunky Eclectic yarn is for the TOTM contest on Ravelry (the yarn is Time of the Month - Rage, Chocolate, and Tears) Sorry, I don't see any more left in the shop. :(
The top CD is the new Panic! At the Disco album (I know they discontinued the ! but I like it so am keeping it).
The bottom one is new Fall Out Boy - live CD and DVD - Live in Phoenix. What can I say? I couldn't help myself.

How many of those do you have Pearl?

Life with two dogs...

And then this happens...

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No, Lily's not done but I'm still working on it in the evenings. When I'm not making LOLdogs, that is. :)

Dogs on Thursday

Someone just had a bath...

Pearl loves to snuggle down and make a nest while she dries.

Last holiday gift

When it's as long as Elvis, it's done. Right?

Why do you make me pose like this?

Actually, it's knitting very quickly when I make the effort to sit down and work on it.

A couple playful pup shots for Dogs on Thursday. They seem to use their paws a lot while they wrestle with each other.

Thanksgiving

This holiday I'm thankful for my hooligans.

I'm also thankful for being able to knit.
Here's the first mitten of the pair - they're the Herringbone Mittens with Pompons. Slightly smaller pom than on the pattern but I think I like it better. I seem to be unable to take a picture of my own hand without bending it back a bit and creating a bulge at the wrist. It really does fit great. The second mitten looks like this - Which is actually a picture of the first but I just put the thumb stitches on waste yarn and I swear, they look just alike.

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My holiday knitting is all on hold until I get the mittens out of my system. But I put down the purple alligator to start a green one for my nephew. Oh look - winking!

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I managed to pawn the mohair scarf off to Nancy. So that's one less thing to whip up before Christmas. Thanks Nancy!! (waving) So that leaves the Bunny hat from Itty Bitty Hats (not yet started) and maybe the mate to this adorable little sock.

This is Susan's Pieces of Eight baby sock - mitten shot for scale. It was very quick - surely I can get squeeze this into the schedule.

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So how did I manage to go outside to take pictures just as it started to rain? It's pretty on the last of the fall flowers though.

One last picture of the hooligans - a breeze blew by as they were posing and they just had to raise their noses and get a big whiff.

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's...

The 7 facts meme

Vivian tagged me for the 7 facts meme so here you go:

Here are the rules:

1. Link to your tagger, and also post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are TAGGED by leaving a comment on their blog.

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1. I managed to finish my Socktober socks just in the nick of time.

Yarn: Jitterbutt (Jewels colorway)
Pattern: 3x1 rib
Enough yarn? Way more than enough. Why do I worry about that so much???

2. I take my dogs trick or treating:

Actually, I was handing out candy not looking to bring it back. Even though I'm complimented all the time on my dogs' good behavior, I'm mortified on a regular basis at how horrible they are. (yes, I know this is all subjective) But tonight, they were fantastic. (with the brief exception of when the girl in the dog costume with a real rawhide bone tied around her neck leaned over and Pearl took it...) They got to meet and be petted and hugged by so many kids (in costumes no less!) and they loved every minute of it. I'm so thankful to have dogs with such perfect temperaments.

3. Morelli Cupcake or Ranger Babe??? Ranger Babe! Which are you?

4. My favorite food is fried green tomatoes.

5. My fantasy football team (the Touchdown Hounds) is UNDEFEATED!!! Tony Romo, I love you! (more than Britney - she's not right for you, so just move on - she's a distraction - save it for the off-season)

6. I didn't spin at all this past summer - Saturday was the first time in months.

Thrums from Spinderella. I don't remember what she called the colors but there's wool, alpaca, silk, mohair, nylon sparklies, and other stuff in here. Big hunks of other stuff which made this a quick spin since I couldn't be so concerned about keeping things even and smooth. 240 yards - mostly sport weight. Enough mohair to be allergy-inducing but don't worry, this skein already has someone interested in adopting it. BTW - I like this photo. I played a little with my new, little camera's exposure settings and this is a pretty good representation of the colors - inside, with flash, at night. Who knew? (Nikon CoolPix L10 - since someone's bound to ask)

7. My interest to knit St. Brigid has been renewed. The search for the perfect yarn has begun (again). The link is to Vicki's fabulous sweater but since I've been surfing the past few days (and also thanks to Ravelry) I've seen so many other nice ones too. I know that this would be a long-term project. I also know that I'm not good at those. It's a problem.

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I've seen this on quite a few blogs so I'm not tagging but feel free to grab it and run if you need some blog fodder.

Bonus photo:

Very Tired Puppy