Category Archives: Dogs

Aug 29 2012
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Antics, Books, crochet, Dogs, knitting, The Beekeeper's Quilt, Yarn

Stash Party

I woke up Saturday morning dreaming of yarn.  I had an overwhelming desire to go through my yarn stash for inspiration, so I decided to do a little reorganizing while I was at it.  I usually keep everything in shoebox-sized boxes from ikea inside my armoire, but keeping everything contained in boxes makes it easy to forget some of the goodies that lurk under those lids.

I still have some yarn in boxes (the brown and white  flowered boxes in the background of the top shelf), but I decided to display my favorite yarns front and center, so I can be inspired.  I open these doors every day and smile while contemplating what I want to knit with each skein on that shelf.  I have many colors of Palette, which are lined up and at the ready for all the hexipuffs I’ve been knitting for my Beekeeper’s quilt; a skein of Shelter, leftover from the Guernsey Wrap I knitted last year which is dying to be knitted into a tweedy beanie; a luscious skein of Jade Sapphire cashmere, waiting for something that is worthy of cashmere; and lots of soft wonderfully tweedy Rowan Felted Tweed, which I am completely in love with and can’t wait to knit with again.

The bottom shelf holds the fabulous crocheted Henry that my sister in law made for me and the panda bear I made after I forced her to show me how to do amigurumi.  I have a basket full of hexipuffs, and some of my favorite knitting books– lots of Elizabeth Zimmerman and a few Vogue Knitting Stitchionaries for good measure.

I’d love to know what yarns and books you’d bring to a stash party.  Please let me know in the comments or post a link to your blog post if you’d like to join in and share.

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May 20 2012
7 Comments
Antics, Dogs, knitting, The Beekeeper's Quilt

Latest and Greatest

I’ve been embellishing a few of my hexipuffs and thought I would share my latest and greatest of the bunch.

Image

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Dec 04 2011
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Antics, crochet, Dogs, Embroidery, Family, Texas

The Crafts of Others

Being back in Texas, I am around lots of crafty ladies that I haven’t seen in a while.  I thought it would be fun to share with you some of the craftiness of others around me.

First up is my mother in law.  She recently started making wreaths and centerpieces that are just stunning.  I was the lucky recipient of this wreath.  She let me pick out the baubles and then she whipped this up in an afternoon:

Next up is my sister in law, who started knitting not too long after I did and has also found her place in the crochet world.  One of her specialties is customized amigurumi, and I once challenged her to make a basset hound (Henry, specifically) and she knocked my socks off with this:

And then there’s my Nana, who inspired the beginning all of my crafty endeavors. After reading my blog post where I talked about her teaching me to embroider when I was young, she was inspired to pick up her embroidery needle again.  She very sweetly gifted me a set of pillowcases that I will treasure always:

My mom was also inspired by that same blog post– she found the piece of embroidery that was my first foray into all things crafty.  The piece of embroidery that I wasn’t sure still existed.  I’m sure glad she saved this for me.

I love having inspiration everywhere, and inspiring others in turn.

Sep 17 2011
2 Comments
Antics, Dogs, knitting

Fairy Castle

When I was in the UK, I was introduced to fellow knitter Stephanie, aka Tiny Owl Knits.  After checking out her patterns, I instantly needed to cast on for a Fairy Castle.

Not only are Fairy Castles completely adorable, they also hide a magical little secret:

They’re the cutest needle storage around!  The pattern includes instructions for three fairy castles- one sized to hold DPNS as shown above, one sized for crochet hooks, and a tiny little castle for darning needles.  You can bet I’ll have a few more fairy castles sprouting up in the coming weeks.

And because Henry was lying around while I was taking pics, I couldn’t resist:

He’s quite the grumpy gnome today.

Sep 11 2011
1 Comment
Dogs, knitting

Sometimes on a Sunday

I’ll awake to early light, when there’s still quiet blanketing everything around.

I’ll make some tea and knit while my floppy doggy warms my side.

Jul 04 2011
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Antics, Dogs, Music

Weekend Getaway

Joey and I were invited up to a friend’s place in East Burke, Vermont for the holiday weekend and we had an absolutely wonderful time.  It was so relaxing to enjoy the beautiful mountains, fresh air, and a sunny day around the pool with good friends.

 

 

 

 

 

Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh.  I needed that.

Jun 16 2011
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Antics, bags, Dogs, knitting, Lace, Yarn

Summer Projects

 

Ah summer… the time of year when we relax a little bit and have some fun. I’ve definitely felt the need for some fun lately so I decided to try a few new things this summer to break myself out of a rut.

One recent Saturday morning, I woke up with visions of knitting under a big umbrella on a beach while salty waves washed ashore. An appropriately beachy yarn in a light seafoam color was just beckoning to be made into a hard-wearing beach bag. A few hours of Ravelry-perusing later, I decided on the Medano Beach pattern. I coupled in some Debbie Bliss cotton DK in cool grey to give it those fun stripes that are just so popular right now.

 

Following this inspirational wave to try new things, I wanted something that would be a bit of a challenge and keep me entertained. I also discovered that I’m really enjoying working with the thin Hempathy yarn, so I started thinking of light, airy shawls in laceweight yarn, which is something I’ve never worked with before. I fell in love with Brooklyn Tweed’s Rock Island Shawl, which is spectacularly lovely and word on the Ravelry forums is that it’s not exactly beginner’s lace. I picked up some lovely Anzula laceweight in the Seascape colorway and cast on for this just the other night. I haven’t gotten very far, but I think its going to be great.

  

Oct 03 2010
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Antics, cardigans, designing, Dogs, Family, knitting, Music, NYC

Life As of Late

Fall is in the air in NYC today- crisp weather that just begs for a hand-knit cardigan.  Unfortunately, my cardigan has been languishing around looking like this for over two weeks now:

I knew that my needles weren’t long enough to pick up stitches all the way up one side, across the back neckline, and back down the other side.  So I put it aside and considered my options.  I considered buying the little metal connector piece that KnitPicks sells to combine two cables and create a long cable, but then I didn’t want to pay shipping for something that only costs $1.99.  Of course, I could always buy some more yarn…. but I am really trying to not buy yarn unless I have a specific project in mind.  I considered dropping by a couple of yarn shops to pick up a long circular needle, but again, talked myself out of buying another pair of needles that I don’t really need.  So I started picking up stitches one night just to see how crowded it would get.  Well, you can see where I stopped.  The cardigan has since lay dormant while I await my KnitPicks order (yes, I finally decided that the connector was still the least expensive way to go.)

In the mean time, this fall weather still has me itching to knit things.  I made another Ripley hat, this time in black for Joey:

And speaking of Joey, he’s been out on tour since the end of August, playing guitar for Midlake.  He’s having a wonderful time and playing some beautiful music.  They played in NYC last week and I was so proud of my talented husband.

Joey, in center, standing

In other fun husband-music-related news, his primary project, The Fieros just recently signed a deal with a Japanese record label and their album is now being sold in stores in Japan and on Amazon Japan.

He still has a lot more touring to do- they’re in North Carolina now, heading down through Tennessee and will play the Austin City Limits festival next weekend.  He’ll be back in NYC for a week (which happens to be our anniversary week!) and then he’ll head out again for another three weeks in the UK.  He’s going to get to go to some amazing places that I can’t even imagine getting to see- London, Paris, Dublin, Holland, Finland, Sweden, Luxembourg, Turkey… its just completely unimaginable.

Back to the knitting….  I’ve also started a Wurstwarmer for Henry.  I’m having to size this one up since Henry isn’t a tiny dachshund, but I think this one will come out pretty cute.  I’m using a heathered charcoal color of Peace Fleece.  I think it will be classy and sophisticated.  Cause we all know Henry is one sophisticated hound.

Jul 25 2010
3 Comments
Books, crochet, Dogs

FO: Market Bag

I finished off the crochet market bag last night and decided to take it for a test run to the coffee shop this morning filled with just the essentials- plastic baggies for doggie doo-ty, keys, wallet, sunglasses, and a knitting book.  I haven’t tested it yet with heavy grocery items like fruits and vegetables, though I know it will stretch a little more when filled with those items.

Pattern: Rust Goes Green by Jill Chatelain (slightly modified)

Yarn: Debbie Bliss Cotton DK, four balls

4.00mm crochet hook

Overall, I think this turned out pretty well.    It was a quick and fun project, perfect for the summertime and I think it resulted in a pretty cute bag.

Jul 09 2009
2 Comments
Dogs, knitting

Smokin along

smokin
A few days ago, I was knitting along on the body of Joey’s Smokin’ cardigan and I asked if I could have him ‘try it on’. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was almost up to the underarms already! I have been ignoring the heck out of my knitting lately, but thanks to the gloriousness of chunky yarn, I’m ready to start the sleeves of this thing. (Then I’ll join them to the body and work the saddle-shoulder shaping.)

smokin1
I actually went to start the sleeves the same day as I finished the body, but discovered that I don’t own any 10.5 dpns. This came as quite a surprise, cause I thought I owned about two pairs of any and every needle you could imagine. I was still riding high from discovering I was much further along than I had imagined so I decided to cast on a sleeve and work it magic-loop, since I do have two (or three) pairs of 10.5 circulars.

smokin2

I have to say, I really don’t enjoy magic-looping. I get the impression that a lot of people think it is way easier and less fiddly than dpns, but I feel the exact opposite. This is the second time I’ve started a project using magic-loop and decided to switch back to good ‘ol dpns. I stopped by my lys after work and picked up a set of dpns and I plan to attack the first sleeve tonight. I’m curious to know; which way do you prefer to knit in the round?

Henry has no preference for magic loop or dpns

Henry has no preference for magic loop vs dpns

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