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:

Pass the Butter...

Spud of the West, aka Dr. Potatohead, recently had a birthday and I tend to knit her less than functional items. That is what friends are for.

A couple of years ago she received this:

Every mad scientist need a knit double helix of their very own. Here is Spud's under the microscope. They always look larger under the microscope.

This year she received....

Ain't he cute? As Mr. Potatohead still resides near Boston and Dr. Potatohead is in Gunnison for another year I thought she needed a little lobster to remind her of home. I bet her students really wonder about their professor. I now have to start looking for next year's pattern.

The Continuing Education catalog came out last week and the knitting class I teach is listed once again. I can hardly wait for the new crop of knitters to come to class and I can warp their little minds, I mean introduce them to the wonders of knitting.

I am very excited about taking a yarn dyeing class this weekend at Dancing Sheep. The instructor is from Thermopolis and sells her own line of hand-dyed yarns and fibers. This should be really fun.

In case I have yet to mention it here, Lucie is a wingnut! Yep, our little bundle of oddness is outdoing herself every day. Now, we knew that Lucie see dogs and animals on the TV - which means we have to block Animal Planet. But the Olympics have added to the list of "Things not to watch when Lucie is in the room". Anything to do with horses: dressage, jumping, pommel horse (yes, you read that right). She barked a little bit at the swimming but that might have been a leftover from the dressage. I was watching "Forest Gump" last night and whenever Forest ran she went a little nuts as well. Also, the scene where Jenny is throwing rocks at her old house - that set Lucie off too. (BTW - my favorite line from Forest Gump: "Sometimes there are just not enough rocks.") Pershing ignores the TV unless a doorbell rings on some show. Oh, and NBC aired some commercial for an upcoming series that had some high pitched noises at the beginning and that really wigged them out. Needless to say, this adds a whole new dimension to our TV viewing. And I don't care if shows are aired in HD - it doesn't matter when your screen is covered in nose prints!

Knitting Odds and Ends

Ok, so the reason I have not been blogging is 1) sheer laziness (I'll be honest), 2) I really do not have that much to say, and 3) I've been busy knitting. So I won't keep you all waiting any longer, here are some pictures of my recent knitting adventures:

Two Cable knit headbands. The green band on the left is out of Hempathy yarn (a cotton, hemp mix) and the red headband is 100% cotton. I love wearing them. You can't see the ties, but they are i-cord. (The headbands are "posed" on a lazy kate.)

Pershing modeling a scarf I knit. In my knitting classes at Casper College we do a scarf out of some sort of novelty yarn (like a fun fun, ribbon yarn, etc) and they have to pick two separate yarns to learn how to change and carry different colors/yarns. This was the sample I knit along with the class this past semester.

Socks, socks, socks. Yes, I do love to knit socks. The first pair are for me (I do so love selfish knitting). They knit up in this fair isle pattern in the browns and greens. I do so love these socks.

This are Primavera Socks. I didn't download the closeup but there is a pattern of sorts. These are knit out of Tofutsies.

Finally, my Mexico socks out of Regia yarn. The yarn band indicates that thier colorways are for the flag colors of various nations. These are Mexico, and not the North Pole as one might initially think. I think these will be a gift.

My life is not all knitting. Here is some wool I spun up. It is a wool, silk mix from Lucy's Sheep Camp in Thermopolis, WY where they dye the wool. Beautiful. I have no idea what I'll do with this yarn...

Finally, the baby blankets. As mentioned in a previous blog there are several babies due this fall. These two blankets are for the twins my cousin is expecting - a boy and a girl. The yarn is Universal. I purchased the yarn when I was in Tempe for the Ironman. They are so beautiful and so soft - perfect for a set of newborns in New Jersey.

I have knit some other stuff as well but don't have the photos yet and/or they are presents and have to be mailed off before I can post the photos. I have several other projects on the needles so I have plently to keep me busy.

In case anyone was concerned, the golf course is back to normal, and perhas a tad better, after the flooding we had in early June. We just finished hosting our largest tournament and the summer season is starting to wind down. Yes, you read correctly. School starts on the 18th of August around here and teachers have to be back the week before so we have only 3 more weeks of summer before we loose all our staff.

I did host a summer scrapbooking party at my house in June and we scrapped all day long in the A/C. I finished the Ironman scrapbook for Dave and am debating when to give it to him. I'll be home over Labor Day weekend for a wedding and would love to give it to him then (I am very impatient). I should wait until Christmas, but I doubt I will make it that long. I am going to a Girls Night Out scrapping this Friday night and will work on some more albums. It is a wonder I have time to work. Speaking of, I should probably get back to it.

Casper Yacht Club

It has been a very wet spring here in Casper - so wet in fact that yesterday the Elkhorn Creek overflowed its banks and flooded our golf course. It is rather disturbing to see whitewater where the driving range is/was. The fantablous grounds crew is pumping our bunkers, checking out the erosion around the bridges and just working their arses off getting the course back into shape before our big tournament next week. We were supposed to have a tournament today, but as we don't have boats to rent to the golfers, they are across town playing golf. Check out the coverage in the local paper.

We have also been installing new software at work so between the conversion process, the rain, and everything I will be working many more hours than I am used to. Thankfully I have a wonderful yarn escape! Tomorrow I get to work at one of the LYS!! Charlotte needs me to cover the store tomorrow so darn it all, I will have to spend the entire day in a yarn store. Mom says is like having the fox guard the chicken coop, but I think I will be able to restrain myself. I will be teaching a cable knit class at the end of June so I will probably be playing with fiber and figuring out a pattern. I knit a really cute cable headband this week - pictures are still on the camera - out of a poppy red cotton yarn (the yarn label is also at home - sorry for the vague details for those that care). I have also been doing some spinning this week. I purchased some roving from Lucy's Sheep Camp (out of Thermopolis, WY) and have spun up one bobbin so far. I also took a drop spinning class last night - I needed a refresher on the drop spindle - and it was much easier than I remember. Thanks Rebecca for being a most excellent teacher!!

Finished Projects!

I finally have some finished projects - with photos - to show ya'll.

Disco Socks:

This pattern I found in my Knitting Pattern-a-Day calendar. Very cool socks that mom is now wearing.

Baby Blanket:

My boss and his wife are expecting baby girl #3 in October and as his house will now be overflowing with pink I decided that he needed a Chicago Bears Baby Blanket. He is a huge Bears fan and now he will have something to curl up under with his new daughter. Everyone go "awwwww". The pattern is called Tilting at Windmills that I found in the vast reaches of the internet. I modified the stripes to mimic the blue, white and orange stripes on the old Chicago Bears uniforms. I had to show it to boss-man as it was just so cool. He won't officially receive it tho until closer to the due date.

And this is why my blog is called Knits With Dogs. That is Lucie helping me take the photo of the blanket. Yes, I have a whole house for them to roam in and this is where she hangs out. Earlier, there was a squeaky toy on the blanket. I missed getting Pershing in the photo but he was helping out as well. Sigh - dogs.

My cousin and his wife are expecting twins - a girl and a boy - also in early October. (I am blaming the writers strike for this "baby boom". There was nothing good on TV so let's make our own entertainment! People have no consideration for us knitters.) Anywho, I have the two blankets done for the twins - just the basic diagonal dishcloth blanket, but I will be adding edgings to coordinate to the sexes. I knit both blankets in a verigated yarn by Universal Yarns called Easter Parade and then I can match up the blue and pink colors to knit up edgings. Time to go shopping for yarn!!

On a separate note, Casper now has TWO yarn stores. Yes, I have two LYS to choose from when purchasing yarn. I am currently teaching a beginning knitting class at the new store and taking a shawl sampler class at the other store. If you are ever in Casper be sure to check out All That Yarn and Dancing Sheep Yarn & Fiber. Joan and Charlotte run excellent stores and I am so glad to have ever more selection of beautiful yarns. My checkbook is not so happy however.

What Happened to April?

Apparently I missed April.

The World's Largest Crop was great fun. There were so many cool page ideas - I can't believe how creative some people are.

The Ironman was tiring, awesome, hot, stressful, and wonderful. Dave finished!! Woo Hoo! That is the important thing. The athletes had 17 hours to finish and Dave did it in 16:48:48. His swim and bike were excellent but the run nearly did him him. And the crazy boy wants to do another one in a year or so. I can't be related to someone like this. But, there were 2100 other crazy people compeating as well.

I got home, unburied my desk at work, and then somehow acquired a sinus infection. I'm blaming typhoid Ron for this one. The course of antibiotics is almost done (yeah!) but I still have a mild cough. I started this 10 days ago while doing another scrapbooking weekend. I was slightly out of it and did not have as much fun as I had anticipated. I did get a album completed tho so that is a good thing. But, that Sunday I got even sicker and spent the whole day throwing up.

I am finally feeling better, but realized it is now May and somehow a whole month has gotten away from me. Hopefully nothing too important passed me by.

We Are All Crazy

I am off to Denver this weekend to attend what is being billed as "The World's Largest Crop". 1500 scrapbookers in one room having a wonderful time with photos, paper, sissors, stickers and tape runners. I will spend 12 hours on Saturday working on my Year-Abroad album. I orginally put together an album of my photos from my year in Lancaster, England shortly after returning home. I am now putting it in a Creative Memories album and including all sorts of other stuff there wasn't room for before.

I started my scrapbooking "hobby" to record all of my knitting projects. I am on my third knitting album and I keep on knitting. I am also recording my girl scout troop, the dogs (of course!), life with Ron, and several heritage albums.

Ron will be spending the weekend with the dogs - I wonder who will miss me more - Ron, or Lucie and Pershing.

Speaking of Crazy...
Next week I am off to Tempe, AZ to support my brother as he participates in the Ironman Triathlon on the 13th! Check it out: http://www.ironmanarizona.com/ This event is for crazy people. Why would anyone in their right mind spend a perfectly good Sunday swimming 2 miles, biking 112 miles and running 26 miles when you could be knitting or reading or something. Actually, these athletes are very dedicated and work very hard preparing for the Ironman. I am very excitied to attend and support Dave in his first Ironman! I'll post reports when I get back.

No photos again this time. I did get some photos of the Disco Socks I recently finished but once again forgot to download the photos.