Finally Some Photos

I have been doing a lot of knitting lately and I finally remembered to bring the camera and the computer together to download the photos. You might notice I have a new profile pic - there are the two live dogs - Lucie and Pershing. In the middle is the dog I knit for my nephew's birthday. His older brother received a knit teddy bear for his 3rd Birthday so the doggie is the latest birthday gift. I have a feeling this will become a tradition.

Here are some other things off the needles recently:

A pair of slippers I knitted for myself. The pattern is from an issue of either Interweave Knits or Vogue Knitting (a mind is a terrible thing to waste). I used a bulky yarn for the foot and then Lamb's Pride for the cuff. Ron received a pair for Christmas as well - tho not in pink.

These are the Twilight Socks from the 2 At A Time sock book. I knit these for Marilyn in exchange for artwork (see previous post). The Casper Scrapalopes logo turned out awesome! I made t-shirts for everyone and they were a big hit at the World's Largest Crop last weekend. The shirts were lime green so we really stood out! Oh, and she loved the socks! She is a Calagary Flames fan so the bright red socks are perfect!

Here is a close up of the dog for the nephew. Isn't he cute?! I used a Bernat fun fur yarn and he turned out really soft. However, the pattern said it would be approx. 11" tall and he is slightly taller than that. That is ok tho, more of him to love and cuddle with.

As I was trying to get a photo of the three dogs together Lucie and Pershing decided that it was time to rough house. I managed to get several photos of the two silly dogs as they were tearing around the living room. (Yes, that is a dog bed/pad on the floor). They finally calmed down enough to get the photo you see as my profile pic. Good Dogs!!

That is about it for now. I have two pairs of socks currently on the needles, and am getting ready to start a sweater. I also signed up for a Mystery Knit A Long thru the Tempe Yarn and Fiber Shop and that will start in May. I am looking forward to that adventure.

'Tis the Season

I'm only going slightly crazy this holiday season.

I had a huge list of things to do this weekend - which included a bunch of Christmas knitting to catch up on, baking, shopping, wrapping, etc. I managed to do everything expect the Christmas cards and wrapping.

I have an excuse for the wrapping tho - I normally wrap on the bed in the War Room but I had a knitted present blocking on the bed over the weekend. As it is now dry and blocked I can start wrapping tonight. I also needed to finish knitting some gifts before I could actually wrap them and send them off (novel idea I know.)

I have also misplaced my digital camera. I could have sworn it was in my car but lo and behold it is not there. Hummm. I took knitting photos yesterday using the "old fashioned" film camera. But I really need to find the digital camera as it has some other photos on it I need to work on scrapbooks. If anyone sees a silver digital camera (I don't know the brand - it's silver) with a broken lens cover (I dropped it at the the dog park on day - mittens and cameras don't mesh very well) please let me know. Maybe the dogs took it as they were tired of having their photo taken all the time. This also means that I don't have any photos to post at this time. The cable to connect the camera to my computer is sitting here ready to be used, but no camera.

My LYS (local yarn shop) is having a party tomorrow night and we have to bring in yarn from our stash for a gift exchange. I had a hard time trying to find some yarn to gift. We had a limit of $20 worth of yarn. I don't want to be mean and give out all of the little leftover balls of yarn from years of knitting projects, nor do I want to give the really crappy yarn. I managed to find some chenille yarn and some nubbly stuff purchased at a garage sale. I figure that they add up to about $20 of yarn. Who knows. I need to wrap the box still so I have the rest of the day to change my mind if I want.

My final scrapbooking retreat of the year is coming up this Saturday. Crop 'n Carols! I am still working on my European Invasion album (from my year abroad about 13 years ago). I also have a calendar to work on, I just need to find the photos. There is probably something else but it is not occuring to me right now.

I still have 1.5 presents to knit, and I need to buy some stocking stuffers for the family. Oh, and I need to make a gift to take to my Girl Scout meeting - under $8 and has to be hand made. Humm. Something knitted I'm guessing.

Tools of the Trade

I've come to realize that my two hobbies have A LOT of stuff associated with them. Needles & Pens, Yarn & Paper, Patterns & Pictures, both use sissors. Needless to say I have to haul all of this around when I go to events and classes.

Last night was the first night of the knitting class I teach at Casper College. We have a huge class this semester - woo hoo! Darlene is teaching 5 new crocheters and I have 10 (yes, count them, 10) new knitters. And 4 of them are teenagers! This will be the largest group of new knitters I have had to teach - but I think I shall be able to manage.

On the first night of class I always haul everything to show the students what this new hobby involves. They get to see and feel and squish all the different types of yarn - lace, fingering, sport, worsted, bulky, wool, cotton, alpaca, llama, silk, bison, seacell, hemp, etc. They get to see all of the types of tools - needles (straight, circular, double pointed), gauges, rulers, cable needles, yarn needles, stitch holders, stitch markers. And they get to see the finished projects - I tear apart my house pulling out scarves, hats, gloves, sweaters, dish clothes, socks, shawls, blankets, and the like. The fall semester always has more of the finished projects to display as I am knitting Christmas presents. The spring semester does not have a much - just photos. I try not to overwhelm everyone with all of this - I just try to get them excited about the semester and all of the cool projects they get to create.

Tonight I am off to a scrapbooking retreat for the weekend. Instead of yarn and needles, my car is now loaded with paper, albums, and photos. We will be up on Casper Mountain for the next 48 hours! The golf pro claims that this is just an excuse for us girls to escape and drink beer for the weekend. He is right - I do have beer in the car. But we will be doing a lot of scrapbooking! I plan on getting my knitting album caught up, and I will also be working on the album from when I did my year abroad in 1994. Talk about a trip down memory lane.

Maybe I'll have photos to post of my adventures. For a scrapbooker I sure hate to take photos.

To keep you amused until then, here is photo of my mom wearing the shawl I knit her. It is out of Malabrigo yarn - the wool/silk blend. Yummy. And this is the Clapotis Scarf/Shawl:

Rip Van Winkle

The scrapbooking day was a great success. I managed to finish Volume 1 of the Alena baby book and start on brother Dave's book. By the time I got home early Sunday morning and made it into bed it was close to 1am (way past this little girl's bedtime). The dogs woke me up early because it was time for their breakfast.

Speaking of dogs:

Here is Lucie - the new baby. We adopted her from the animal shelter here in Casper. She is a lab/pit mix, but we think there is some hound in her as well. She is currently close to 9 months old and full of energy. Pershing, is the older dog. At 8 years he is the king of the castle. Persh is my baby and I've had him since he was a puppy. As a lab/chow mix he is very chowish and a one-woman dog. It is all about mommy. But, when he wants something, he wants something NOW. That is why I was woken up at 7 am to feed them breakfast, even though Ron was already awake. I guess I pour the kibble much better or something. Pershing is adjusting to having Lucie around. He does get grouchy with her, but who can blame him?

We normally do a big trip to the dog park on Saturdays but as I was scrapping all day they did not get to go play. They were giving me guilty looks on Sunday morning so we went then. There were not as many doggies out for Lucie to run around a play with. Pershing does not play - in fact he pretty much ignores all the other dogs there. He does like to try and chase a squirell now and again.


We slept for the rest of Sunday. I fell asleep during the Bears/Lions game and when I woke up I noticed that the VCR thought it was time to "fall-back" for the time change. I knew I slept for more than 15 minutes, but that is what the clock indicated. Of course, the TV time showed I slept for a lot longer (and I know it was early in the 2nd half when I conked out and late in the 3rd qtr when I woke up). There was a few minutes of confusion until I figured out what happened. I slept again during the Charger/Huston game as well. I feel like I missed a whole weekend.


I promise to show some knitting projects on this site soon. But, as it is late October I am mainly knitting Christmas presents and I don't really want to give away the surprise. It's hard to tell someone not to scroll down just yet. I did do some knitting last night and this morning before heading to work. I have completed a couple of knitted felting projects and I need to get some before photos taken before I start the felting process. Maybe I'll try to get some photos that show the projects, but not really so they don't give away the surprise. I'll have to think on that.