Pugsley

 

Those of you that have followed my blog for a while are aware of how important the dogs are in our house. I'm always looking for a way to support our local Humane Society because living in a relatively metropolitan area means plenty of homeless animals and animals in need of low-cost medical assistance. So...

 

Even though it's supposed to be spring, I know in many (ahem most) places around the country it still feels like winter. What better way to keep your head warm than with a new hat?

 

Here is Pugsley, a beanie-style hat knit out of Spud and Chloe Sweater.

 

Pugsley is knit in the round with snout and ears knit separate and sewn on. Pugsley's eye patches are done in duplicate stitch, with buttons sewn on for eyes.

 

 

 

Pugsley is available in three sizes: Baby/Toddler (Child, Small Adult), shown in Baby/Toddler size on a 17.5" head.

 

Finished measurement: 16 (17.75, 19.5)" circumference, hat will stretch to accomodate a head approximately 2" larger.

 

Yarn:

Supd and Chloe Sweater in Toast (MC), and Rootbeer (CC) - 1 skein each.

 

Needles:

US 7 - 16" circular and set of 5 dpns (or size needed to obtain gauge)

 

 

 

 

All proceeds from Pugsley will be donated to PAWSibilities: The Humane Society of Greater Akron. Thank you for helping support our animals!

 

 



Signs of Spring

Sure enough, I saw it as I was pulling in after work this afternoon; the first peony blossom of the year!

 

They're a little bit earlier this year than last (check out 2011 and the first blossom ever in 2010) but it's really no surprise considering the weather we've had this year. Also, the bushes have definitely increased in height since last year. I would say they're pretty close to 4' tall.

Anyway, I had plans of being productive this afternoon but was feeling a lot like Hazel.

I did manage to spend a couple hours seaming the first couple rows of squares on my Mitered Squares Blanket (insert fist pump here!). It took me about 3 hours to get just two rows all seamed up, with three rows left to go still. It's definitely exciting now to see it coming together.

This weekend is the Great Lakes Fiber Festival in Wooster, Ohio. My knitting group has planned a fun afternoon outing and I'm hoping to find some incredible goodies (yarn, mostly). I'm especially looking for yarn dyed similarly to the yarn used for this cat.  I'd like to knit a stuffed dog for the baby and I'd really like a brown colored dog. If anyone has suggestions where to find this I'd love to know!

Weekend Work

Grrr. I just typed up a whole post and in a second it vanished. And thanks Blogger for then letting the auto save kick in to save nothing. Ok, take two.

Since it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here I decided to spend yesterday with a hot drink, cuddled in blankets watching Meet Me in St. Louis and working on my sample Featherweight Cardigan. Not that I'm complaining about the lack of holiday-type weather. We have holiday weather far into April, minus the Christmas cheer. 

I've mentioned before, my plan is to finish the Featherweight before I leave for Christmas. And the time spent on it yesterday proved fruitful. I have only one sleeve left, some end weaving, and blocking.

Thanks Mary for letting me use your head!

In case you were wondering, my hat was a hit at the party! There were plenty of exclamations of "You made that?!" and a request to buy one. I'm going to rework the chart a little and write up the pattern. I'm aiming for the end of January and hoping life doesn't get in the way of that plan.

Fail

So I realize that I totally fell through with the Knit and Crochet Blog Week posts. Last week turned into the kind of week I dread. Too many projects due, too much lesson planning not complete, and oh, I attended a educator's job fair so I spent most of the week putting packets and resumes together. Then, the day of, I got up at a quarter to five just so I could be there extra early to get a spot in line. This week has been pretty similar (minus the job fair) and I'm counting down the days until school's out. I'm going to attempt to catch up with the posts I missed last week, but I make no promises.

I have been knitting in the meantime, but since it's all been sample knitting, I have nothing to show for it. At least not yet. HOWEVER, if you'd like to get a sneak peek at what I recently completed for Hannah Fettig, check out her website. I guarantee this is going to blow you out of the water. You know how I always say, "Now I need one for myself" then never make one? This may be the one to break the trend.

I got started this week (in my evening class, no less) some socks for my mom. This is from the yarn that she bought way back when my parents were visiting for Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to finish sometime before Mother's Day. Does it still count as a Mother's Day gift if the mother bought the yarn? 

I'm kind of not feeling the colors in this yarn. It reminds me of camouflage. So not my mother. I'm hoping the striping will look cuter once it's knit up. 

The weather is gorgeous today so we spent some time outside with the pups at the metro park. Now to just wait for things to bloom.

I love how only Timber's face is in focus in this picture.

Stalled

Oh goodness. Can I even begin to explain to you all the things that are causing obstructions in my ability to blog? Let me start with the most recent, as I sit her with my TheraFlu, I seem to have actually come down with a flu/cold. This weekend it has been chills, cough, congestion (both nasal and chest), and body aches. Ugh. Thankfully I had today off but I still have to face tomorrow (with unfinished lesson plans, none the less). 

My school socks have been stalled too, about two inches before the toe, due to my crazy needles. For these socks I've been using my Kollage square circulars and I am now on my third set. That's right, third. With the first pair, the needle came off the cable when I was only through the cuff of the first sock! I took them back to my LYS, who kindly exchanged them for me and I continued to knit on. The needle came off the cable of the second pair after I had made it almost to the toe of the first sock. Yes, I'm still on the first sock! I now have my third set of these needles and am hoping to make it through to the second sock. I mean really, I'm knitting a sock, not pulling a freight liner with these needles. 

I was feeling stalled with my sample knitting as well (anything else?!). For this piece I'm knitting with the Fibre Company's Savannah DK which is a Merino, cotton, soy, linen blend. The needles I was using were the acrylic interchangeable tips from Knit Picks and they were causing a lot of drag on my yarn not to mention they are a bit too flexible and I kept feeling like if I put too much pressure on them they might just snap. I finally switched to my Harmonies last week and now I'm speeding along. Hooray!

On a more positive note (and to not leave a post photo-less) we were visited by our friend Devo last weekend (Mary is Devo's mom). Needless to say, all pups were thoroughly tired by the end of the day!

Some Progress

Really, I have been making some progress on my Christmas knitting. I'm sure I'm not the only one wallowing waist deep in gift knitting who just realized Christmas is less than three weeks away, right? Right?! Apparently looking at calendars doesn't work for me because I always know that date. But, Monday afternoon I sat at my desk and actually counted the days and realized my time was running dreadfully short. So, I've made a list for myself of things to work on and in what order they need to be finished and so far I've been able to stick with it. My plan is to just keep plugging away. 

So, like I said, some progress. I'm almost done with the yoke on my Brother's Sweater. There's  a couple more yoke decreases to do before the saddle shoulder shaping and I'm hoping to crank that out tonight. Then just button bands and blocking. I realized this morning that despite have 900+ yards of this yarn I may actually run out. I'll be stopping at the craft store on the way home to pick up another skein. Tomorrow will be button buying day. 

 

In other, unrelated news, we've finally had our first good snow (flurries and dustings don't count). I'm pretty sure in the last couple days we've seen about 6-8 inches or so. Timber and Hazel are true snow dogs and have no problem attempting to dash around in it. Timber says it makes him feel like he's back in Minnesota where he spent the first 9 weeks of his life. 

Thanksgiving Pies

I love to bake pies. I'm not really sure what it is, but it makes me feel very Midwestern. I didn't grow up making pies (Sarah Lee did most of the pie work in our house) but since moving to Ohio, I've taken up pie baking. At Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings, I'm in charge of the pies. My father-in-law even gave up his king of pies crown and said that mine are better. Now that was a moment.

My plan for this Thanksgiving was to make the pies last night. Instead, I had some sort of nasty stomach bug and spent most of yesterday afternoon and evening in bed, fighting a fever, and sipping peppermint tea. I woke up this morning with a lot of work ahead of me. My parents are coming in from California today (yay!) which leaves all the cooking in my hands (not really yay). I got to baking first thing, thinking it would be best to get the pies out of the way. I made the filling and rolled out my dough. I took my beautiful pies out of the oven and let them cool on the counter. Now, let me preface this with I'm already short one pie. I had planned to make two pumpkin and one apple but since I didn't cook yesterday I didn't realize that I would not have enough cinnamon for all three. So I went ahead with the two pumpkin only. Anyway, as I said, pies were cooling on the counter. I am sitting at the dining room table, knitting, when Adam walks into the kitchen and yells, "NO!"

 

"Hazel's eating the pies!" 

I ran into the kitchen saying, "what!?" And sure enough, Hazel was eating the pie.

 

Thankfully, I'm feeling better today and can laugh at this. And thankfully I made two pumpkin pies. I love that girl, but she's never been easy to live with.  I'll continue to be thankful to have her and Timber in my life (although Timber would never eat a pie). 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Diana's Blossom Scarf Kit Winner

I started working on this post this morning but then we went to breakfast. When we got home, I wanted to finish a couple lesson plans before we went on our weekly hike. The hike was awesome, albeit longer than most and I did fall once. By the time we got home (again) I realized that I needed to go to the grocery store, a trip I'd been putting off all week. Now I'm home, showered and in my jammies. Time to announce the winner of my Diana's Scarf kit giveaway!

The random number generator has spoken and the winner is comment #37

Zina
Congrats on being published! I love pink and would very much like to crochet your lovely scarf.


Thank you Zina for your comment and your readership! I'll be sending you an email shortly!

Now that Blogtoberfest is over, I'm a bit relieved. I did enjoy finding new blogs but my crazy schedule makes it difficult to blog daily meaning I had to write many of my posts early in the day or over the weekend. So it'll be a relief to blog on my own schedule again.  I have several works-in-progress at the moment so I should have some stuff to show you coming soon.

And of course I can't leave a post photo-less so here's Timber in his pirate hat wishing you a fun Halloween!

Yo ho, yo ho a pirate's life for me!

Yarn Arrivals

Once I had settled on the color of yarn I wanted for the Sunny Spread, I was ready to go.  I was really hooked (ahh, the crochet puns) on the color of the Caron Simply Soft I had found in the hidden depths of my guest bedroom closet and was not going to change my mind. Monday evening I drove around to a few craft stores, unable to find the same color of the lone skein (it's Raspberry, by the way). I finally decided to call another Joann's (instead of driving to it) since it was getting late. The nice lady on the phone checked the shelves and, of course, did not have the color I was looking for. However, she did suggest that I might try checking online since there are often more colors available on the website than in the stores. I had a why didn't I think of that moment, checked the website, and sure enough, they had Raspberry.  I made sure to order an extra skein since a commenter had mentioned that despite the yarn having no dye lot, the color may change with age. I placed my order Monday night and went to bed. 

 

My order arrived Thursday (only because Joann headquarters are in Hudson, Ohio which is about twenty minutes from my house) and seems to be a good match to the original skein. Thus far, I've only crocheted six squares. I'm not really dedicated to the project right now so I do one whenever I have a spare moment. 

 

I think they're coming out pretty good. The Simply Soft really is soft (simple, too) and doesn't have that plasticy acrylic feeling some acrylic yarns do. I love the richness of the color and will be interested to see how many squares I can get out of a skein. 

 

Timber is in charge of all final yarn purchases. He approves. 

Piney Woods

Let me start by saying, we are not morning people. Most weekday mornings I leave for work and Adam and the pups are all still asleep (or barely beginning to stir). On the weekends, we like to go to breakfast. This means we like to eat breakfast somewhere around 11am. Then we go home and lounge for another hour or so before doing anything productive. 

We decided to break out of our rut this morning, although not intentionally. Adam is planning on heading up to a friend's house this afternoon to watch football. This meant that if we wanted to get our weekly hike in, we'd have to go early. We've been participating in our county's Fall Hiking Spree event. Basically, you hike 8 of the 15 designated trails throughout the different metro parks in the county before November 30th. Once you've filled out your hiking form, you can turn it in to receive a walking stick with a little shield nailed on. Each year after, you can receive a new shield. So far, we've hiked 5 of the 8 trails we've chosen. 

This morning we were up and on the Piney Woods trail at Goodyear Heights Metro Park before 10am. And let me tell you, it's a beautiful fall day here in Northeast Ohio. 

Technical Difficulties

I knew this was going to happen. I knew I was going to miss at least one day of Blogtoberfest blogging. But oh well. I did make an attempt yesterday but I was in a hurry and the the photo linky thing was on the fritz so I just thought whatever and left. You see, my sister-in-law was visiting and we were on our way out to get Mexican food. I'd choose tacos over blogging any day.

It turns out the photo link really wasn't working. I've spent the last several hours trying to fix it and it seems that Blogger has upgraded it (yet again) and now it isn't compatible with Safari. I've downloaded Firefox and it seems to be OK now. I guess I'll just have to do my blogging from here for a while.

I did make some progress on my Haltermelon this morning. All I have left is finishing work: weaving in ends, stitching on seeds, and sewing on the button.  I anticipate being able to get this all done today.

Thank you to all for the kind comments on my new pattern! I really am very excited and can't wait until the magazine is released.

Finally, today is the last day to enter the Craft Work Knit giveaway drawing.  I'll be choosing the winner at random and announcing it tomorrow morning.

Now I'm going to take a cue from Hazel and spend the rest of the day enjoying this wonderful weather we're having!

Weekend Work

Our regular weekend plans were thwarted by my husband contracting some sort of virus this weekend.  However, I did manage to sneak out for a quick trip to our library's used book sale. I was able to get nine books for only $2.39! Some of these books I've already read but did not own (I have a thing about owning books) and some I've been wanting to read for a long time. Especially Cold Mountain. I'm not sure how I've made it this far in my life without reading that book. I don't get a whole lot of reading time during the school year but I'm thinking I might try to start setting some time aside during the week, specifically for reading.

I did get a couple inches done on my brother's sweater yesterday. So now there's only twelve more inches to go before I can start thinking about sleeves. After working with laceweight in stockinette, worsted on #7 needles goes quite a bit faster. 

I also managed to snip off all of the damaged portion of my socks that Hazel borrowed. My friend also pointed out that in the sock post, in the final picture, you can see Hazel standing behind me. It's as though she's waiting, biding her time until she can get to the socks. Hmm, I wouldn't put it past her.  So anyway, now I have an entire pair, again. I did notice on Friday though, that a velcro something had attached to the good sock and now there's a fuzzy frayed portion. So now I may have to fix the toe on that one as well. I'm starting to wonder if this handknit sock business is really worth it.

That's probably about all the knitting that will get done this weekend. I plan on sitting on the couch today to work on a paper and some lesson plans for this week.

See, Timber has the right idea.

The Incident With the Dog in the Night

We had our own... ahem... incident the night before last. This incident caused a bit of a falling out with Hazel and I. What is it? Oh, well yesterday as I was standing at the dining room table packing my things, preparing to leave the house, I turned around and saw this behind the recliner in our living room:

Hmm, is that what I think it is? Upon further inspection (all while holding my breath) I found this:

In case you're wondering why these look so familiar, it's because you just saw them here.  That's right. This was one of my new socks. I actually stood there for about ten seconds with my hands in the air shouting, "AHHHH!  NOOOO!"

I knew immediately that Hazel was the culprit. She's always had a thing for socks and has been known to steal them at night and tear them apart. Sometimes we are lucky and she merely sucks on them, leaving them gross and stiff. However, this time, my handknit sock was not so lucky. I looked at her and said, "How could you do this to me?  Three years old and I still can't trust you!"  She was coming over and jumping at me, trying to be friends. I couldn't even look at her; I was so mad.

I left the house in quite the tizzy, just about ready to cry. Now, in the past three years Hazel has chewed up many things but this definitely tops the list (the $25, unused Starbucks giftcard that I had received for Christmas is a pretty close second, though). 

You know that part in the Godfather 2 where Michael and Fredo are in Cuba and it's New Year's Eve? Michael has finally realized that it was Fredo who was betraying and endangering the family.  He grabs Fredo and holds him close (of course Fredo is trying to pull away) and says, "You break my heart." 

This was the kind of moment Hazel and I had.

I told just about everyone I saw yesterday what had happened. Both my mom and Mary asked if it was repairable. Truthfully, I really didn't look at it much before I left yesterday. So when I got home last night, I took some time to get a good look at the damage. Despite being covered in dried dog slobber, the toe of the sock had received most of Hazle's wrath.

I'm thinking I could probably just snip off the damaged part and, since I have about 35 grams of the yarn left, reknit the toe. I didn't notice any other tears to any other part of the sock so that really is the only repair that needs to be done. 

Thank goodness the other sock did not meet the same fate and is still safe in the laundry basket. I don't know if my heart or my sanity could have handled having both of the socks damaged.

Goings-On

Not much has been going on around here since the weekend. After all the hustle and bustle of getting things finished over the weekend, I've been taking the time to plan some new projects. I did however get one small project started (and almost finished).

I started these mittens during the weekend. I made a trip out to my LYS with mittens in mind. I think my exact words when I walked in were "I need help and yarn." To which Judi replied, "I can do both."

For these mittens I'm using the Lychee Mittens pattern. This is a free pattern from Kelbourne Woolens. I was looking for just a regular mitten pattern, and that's what I've found. I knit up the first and second mitten over the weekend and the thumb Monday night. I'm kind of just letting the last thumb languish. Maybe I'll get it done tonight. I really love the color of this yarn, too. It is Malabrigo Worsted in Pollen. A very bright and sunny color. I think they'll go great with my lime green winter coat.

I also started swatching for a sweater I'll be knitting for my brother. It's a Christmas present but he's in on it so it won't be too much of a surprise.

I realized after swatching that this sweater will be knit in the round. I've decided to re-swatch, in the round. I'm hoping the gauge will be correct and that this will actually fit him when I'm finished. For this sweater, I'm going to attempt to use Elizabeth Zimmermann's percentage system. Wish me luck.

Today I made a quick stop at a LYS that will be closing its doors soon (sad). I picked up 9 skeins of Naturally Harmony 8 ply for half off (score!).

I've been kind of looking around for this yarn. I say kind of because I've been wanting it for a specific project but I've also been limiting myself on my yarn expenditures. However, at half off, I could definitely justify the purchase. I will use this yarn to knit the Essential Cardigan by Laura Grutzeck from the Summer 2010 issue of Interweave Knits. I didn't intend to get the same color as the sample cardigan but my only other option was a creamy natural color. I do really like this color, though. It reminds me of coffee and what's not to love about that?

I'm hoping this will be the cozy teacher cardigan you keep on your chair for when it's just too chilly. Probably not paired with yellow, though.

In other, dog-related news:

We made it to the Paws 'n Pitches baseball game for the Akron Aeros baseball team (AA) this year. Proceeds from this game go to the Humane Society of Greater Akron.

As it turns out, Timber really enjoys baseball.

Long Weekend

I hope everyone was able to enjoy their long holiday weekend. It was definitely nice to have an extra day off. 

Having finished my baby bibs on Friday I found myself with only one WIP on my needles. That's right! Just one. That is a rare occasion, my friends, when I only have one project in progress. I was pretty surprised myself and thought for sure I would be able to plow through it over the long weekend and come out with a finished camisole. 

Close, but no cigar. I have about another 2 inches of stockinette to do before I poke my eyes out -I mean, before I can bind off. I think that's what really kept me from finishing. Miles of stockinette can start to feel a bit tedious. I kept stopping to read (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) or to go outside or just to do anything. I'm going to work on it some more tonight and I'll let you know how it goes. 

Yesterday was a very big day at our house as well. My first peony bloomed! I've been watching this bud for some time now, waiting and holding my breath. When I looked outside first thing in the morning, there it was.

I'm glad I got the picture when I did too because it stormed that afternoon and the the bloom is a bit droopy now. Isn't it great?

It was also Timber's birthday yesterday. He's two years old. We also call it Hazel's birthday since she was born sometime the first week of June but we don't have the exact date.

Every year Adam asks me why I torture them with those birthday hats. It's because I love them. 

A little dog stuff but mostly knitting.

Work on my Ravelympic project has been off to a slow start this week. My in-laws came over for a visit last night so not much knitting was done. Additionally, Timber's mom (yes, the dog) Chloe won Best of Breed yesterday and went on to compete in the Herding Group at the Westminster Dog Show! We were glued to the television and so excited to see her and Timber's breeder Lori. They both looked great and did a wonderful job. You can watch the judging of the Swedish Vallhund Group here (Chloe is the 7th Vallhund to go up and Timber's brother Toby is the 3rd).

Chloe

Ok, ok. Back to knitting stuff.

I've completed about 15" of the body portion on my Montana Tunic. I need to have 19 1/2" before I separate the front and back for the sleeves. The great thing about this project is big needles and big yarn. Even though not much knitting is getting done, I still feel like it's progressing. 

This is a picture of the lace panel. You can kind of see what I was talking about earlier with the ladders. If you look closely, you'll see that the left side is a bit looser than the right. I read in a Ravelry forum that it helps if you beat your knitting with a wooden spoon or a spatula after you've soaked it and before pinning it out. This is done to even out the stitches. Let me tell you, at this point I'd love to beat this project but I'll have to wait until it's finished.