Hats and Shawls With an Attitude

I'm practically panting because I have so much to do.
I have been knitting lots of shawls and hats to give as Christmas gifts to my sisters and their husbands.  I'm not quite done, but almost.
I hope my daughter doesn't mind when she comes home and finds out that I bought a small living tree in a pot.  I picked up a cut one and it was heavy and I thought I just couldn't do it this year.
If you all want to come and help me and we could do it as a family, that would be fine.  If left to my own devices, I'm going to make it easier on my body and my mind.  That ease doesn't come cheaply, however.
Throw money at it, that will fix everything except my bank account.
Tis the season.
Tra la la.

Hot Claude

I've had it.   It's been hot for a month and a half.  I do not like heat.  I want to move to Portland.  We need AC in the worst way.  Wah, wah, wah.

Hot Claude is a very bad dog.  This morning he went swimming in a mud puddle and then ran through the house and onto the couch.  Thank God for slipcovers.  I talked to his breeder's sister in law who has a puppy from the same litter and she's mad at her puppy too.  Another one of the sisters-in-law got another puppy from the that litter and she wants to give it back!  Puppy's make one reminisce about simpler times.

 Ruby Slippers Shawlette

Emelie Cardigan

Even though it's been super hot, I continue to knit like crazy.  Here's two more FO's.  You'd think it actually got cold around here.  It will be cold in Portland.

So Many Things.....

There's just a little bit of summer vacation left.  I have been keeping myself very busy.  

I bought an Ashford "24 rigid heddle loom.  I'm weaving with handspun.

Then I've been doing a lot of knitting.  I knit this triangle shawl based on the patterns from the book, Knitting Lace Triangles, by Evelyn Clark.

I've also been doing a lot of spinning and prepping pages in my journal.

 I spin while I wait for paint to dry.

To top it all off, we got a puppy.  His name is Claude.  He's another red australian shepherd like Wren. He gnaws on us a lot and he refuses to walk on a leash.  It's like living with a sometimes sweet but mostly annoying one and half year old.

Tomorrow I'm going to go walking with the girls.  It will be nice to leave all of my projects and the puppy behind and be with grownups!

Washington Square Cardigan

It's finally finished.  I even wore it to Black Sheep Gathering.  At first I thought it was going to be way too small, but then I blocked the hell out of it and now it fits pretty well.  Maybe a little short.  I love that I dyed, carded, spun, and knitted it.  The next cardigan I make will be out of commercial yarn!

Three Things

1.  Mark and I celebrated our 30th anniversary on the 10th.  We are dorky!

2.  I finished these socks.

3.  I'm supposed to be working on a piece for a silent auction to benefit art education, and this little guy is all I could come up with. Oh dear!

That is all.

 Marta and Mark

"Shifty Gnome"

"Leaf and Cable Lace Socks"

Calligraphy Cardigan

I started this in February and finished it this month.  I bought the yarn from knit picks and then dyed it.  You can see where I changed balls of yarn, there are vague stripes.  Oh well......Also it's a bit too big for me.  It's very stretchy.  It has finally occurred to me that I am a loose knitter.  I needed to go down a needle size.  Live and learn.  I'll still wear it.  I'm sure I'll love it when it's coldish outside.  

In other news, I stayed home from work today because I have a nasty case of pink eye.  I've been using the medicine and it seems to be getting better.  I spent the day updating my project page on ravelry, spinning, knitting, and dyeing.  ALL THINGS FIBERY - YAY!!!!!!

February and March Journal Pages and RAIN!!!!!!!

Yep, it's finally raining.  We haven't had much weather around here lately.  I love, love, love rain.  I should be living in the Pacific Northwest.  

The images below are from my 9x9" Aquabee Journal.  It has brown craft paper pages.  I used gouache and a Pentel pocket brush.  

I made a new journal with 90lb. Fabriano hot press watercolor paper.  I'm ready to go back to white.  I will say that I am obsessed with having the perfect journal: perfect size, perfect weight paper, perfect surface.  I like to write with fountain pens and use wet media and collage on my pages.  I haven't found the perfect paper yet.

 Ed Schultz

 Eschiveria

 Imaginary flowers

 Chris Matthews (but I'm not a liberal or anything)

Nora's fruit bowl (Oakland, Ca, 2-25-12)

New Drum Carder

"Kitten"

I sold my Patrick Green drum carder on Ravelry to a nice woman.  I met her in the San Fernando Valley, halfway between her house and mine.  She gave me cash and I handed over the carder.  I bought a motorized Fancy Kitty Kitten motorized carder with the proceeds from the PG carder and some money I had been saving.  I wanted a motorized carder because I like to have both hands free to feed in fiber.  Plus the Kitten has longer teeth on the carding cloth so it makes bigger batts.  It's pretty cool although a little hard to clean because of the long teeth.  I ordered the doffer brush that goes with it but it really doesn't reach down and get all the fiber out.  I like a clean carder!

batt from the Kitten

Swatches I knitted from the navajo plied worsted weight yarn I made from the batt.

Knitting and Dyeing

 This is the Daybreak Shawl by Stephen West.  I used hand dyed yarn by Alexandra's Crafts in the Baby Silver Falls color way, and Lorna's Shepherd Sock in the Hermosa color way.

 Then I got seven skeins of Knitpicks 100% merino dk weight yarn that I had to re-skein for dying.  I needed longer skeins so I could tie knots in the yarn to create a resist.

 Here's the dyed yarn wound up into cakes.  It was impossible to capture the colors with my camera.  I divided each skein into two balls so I could mix them up while knitting.

 I started knitting the Calligraphy Cardigan by Hannah Fettig.  This is the ribbing for the neck.  Notice the size 6 Signature needles that Mark bought me for my birthday.  Yay!

In my next post I'll show off my new Fancy Kitty Kitten Motorized drum carder!

Wrendog

We left our dog, Wren, in the yard early on December 30th.  We gave him a Kong with peanut butter and a couple of dog treats.  We knew that Ann and Liz would be by soon to take him on "BIG DOG WALK FRIDAY".  Maggie was going to come later to stay at the house and look after him.  We drove to Oakland and got Nora all moved into her little apartment.  We checked into our hotel and drank coffee.  We decided to eat dinner at a place down the street from the hotel.  We were eating a delicious dinner when we got the call from Julie that they were at the vet with Wren and that he was in cardiac arrest.  Apparently, when Maggie got to the house to feed him dinner and spend the night she couldn't find him.  Finally he came out from under the deck and collapsed on the ground.  She couldn't move him and he couldn't move himself.  She tried to give him some water but he couldn't drink it.  She said he was covered with debris from being under the deck.  She called her parents (they were at a movie) and then somehow our other friend John and his son Will arrived on the scene and they carried Wren to the car and went looking for a vet.  When they found one they took him in and the vet took him back right away.  The vet came out and told them that he was in cardiac arrest and that it didn't look good. By then, John and Julie had arrived. Then the vet came out again and took all five of them back into a little room and told them that Wren had died.  His body temp. was 6 degrees below normal and his gums were very pale.  He could have had internal bleeding from a burst tumor, but he didn't really know.  

It is just so sad and we felt so powerless being 400 miles away from our dear dog.  We loved that dog so much.  He had the best personality and he was one of the family.  He was also a pain in the ass, dirty, and high maintenance, but so is everyone else in our family.  We miss him.

Today I took the tree down and he wasn't there to hang out with me.  Nora's gone and the house is very still and quiet. I went out to prune roses, but I just couldn't. 

We don't want another dog yet.  It's just too soon.

On the positive side of all this is the fact that we a wonderful friends who went above and beyond trying to save our dog.  We are so lucky.

THANKS FRIENDS!!!!!!!!!

Happy New Year, Wren, where ever you are.  

I thought I heard your toenails clicking on the floor this morning.