There is nothing more frustrating than playing hide and seek with a deaf wolf.

The first finished object requires back story. As a lot of you know, I have a small obsession with the actor Paul Gross, of Due South and Slings and Arrows. This is largely due to a couple of friends of mine, whose obsession is much more long standing and who are wonderful enablers on this subject. A couple of years back, one of those friends mentioned that she had been watching too many Due South reruns, and that all she wanted for Christmas was a Canadian mountie. How could I not oblige?



The mountie (pattern from World of Knitted Toys) was a hit. Since then, I joined the recipient in her obsession, and I knew that the mountie needed a companion. In Due South, Constable Benton Fraser has a white wolf named Diefenbaker. So guess what her Christmas gift was this year?



Pattern: Wolf, adapted from the Siberian Husky pattern in World of Knitted Toys
Yarn: Red Heart Classic in white and dark brown, Lion Brand Wool Ease in light pink heather



The recipient sent me a photo of the two together last night, just as they were meant to be:



Before I finished Dief, I did a trial run of the pattern which didn't go quite so well. If you saw this, what would you think it was?



Yes, it looks like a rat. A cute rat, but a rat nonetheless. Moving the ear position makes a huge difference with this pattern. I ended up including this guy with the teddy bears that I sent to Vietnam, since I figured a kid would like it.

One more finished object to show you. This one is my mom's Hanukkah gift, an Odessa.



Pattern: Odessa, from Magknits
Yarn: RYC Cashsoft DK in taupe on size 4 & 6 needles.

Secret holiday knitting is over, hallelujah!

"Don't make me violate state laws!"

(That's one of the many quote-worthy lines from yesterday's events, which I'll get to shortly. But other events first!)

On Wednesday night I went over to Catherine and Betsy's to help decorate their Christmas tree. I had never decorated a tree before, and we had much fun. While testing the lights we turned Cat into a Christmas tree of her own.



And here's the finished tree:



Thursday the city was blanketed with a large amount of snow, and another snowstorm was predicted for today (as I write this ice is clinking against my windows), so we had to squeeze in our yarn related event for the weekend into yesterday. Monkeemaven was is town visiting, so she, Ariel, Cathy, and I took a road trip out to Webs yesterday. There was a sign on the Mass Pike that said the picking up and discharging of passengers along the side of the road was prohibited. So whenever someone in the back seat said something obnoxious (like "Are we there yet?") our response was "Don't make me violate state laws!"

Webs was fabulous, as always. Much yarn to fondle and people to see. We saw Linne and Marymac. And yarn was bought.



There is Cathy, Ariel, Melissa, and I with our yarn haul.

We also stopped at Valley Fabrics and picked up a few things. I found two lovely Asian fabric panels that I'm planning to frame and put up in my apartment. We also met up with Rae on the way home for dinner, so it was a very full but fun day!

And here's some of what I brought home:



There's two skeins of Rowan Plaid to make Lyra's hoodlet from The Golden Compass, two skeins of Plymouth Happy Feet sock yarn in a bronzey-silver color, two skeins of Regia Bamboo (on closeout, and I've always wanted to try it), and four skeins of Plymouth Boku to make the striped scarf from Brooklyn Tweed. I also brought home a swift.

So, a very successful day. And today I plan to stay in and hibernate away from the ice. Finished objects tomorrow!

The sheep goes "baaaa"

Like everybody else in the knitting universe, I had to do the Yarn Harlot's Unoriginal Hat.



Pattern: Unoriginal Hat
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Leticia, in Ruby Slippers, 1 skein, on 10.5 needles
Notes: I loved the pattern, loved the yarn. I added a pompom because I just felt the need to. The only changes I would make if I were to do this pattern again would be to go up to the called for needle size (it called for 7.0 mm needles which aren't common in the U.S., so I went down to 10.5 US since it was what I had) since it's a tiny bit snug on me. I would also do the first set up row a few times to make it a little longer and to fully cover my ears.



And a detail of the cables:



Now I want to make another one!

It's been too long...

... and I have too much to cover! I wasn't posting for a while, since most of my knitting was highly classified, super secret holiday knitting, but then all of sorts of things started happening.

First, Catherine's birthday:



Ariel and Betsy with the animal plates (these have become a tradition at our birthday get togethers):



And me with mine (and I'm sharing this because it's one of the best pictures taken of me in a long time):



Then, on Saturday, I went to the Bay Colony Dog Show. I go every year and always have a wonderful time playing with and seeing all of the dogs. Some of my favorites from this year:





A poodle in progress!:



There are eyes somewhere under this mop:







And this is Fuzzy, a Sussex spaniel. He's also in my post from last year's dog show. He's wearing a snood to protect his ears and standing on his hind legs with his front paws in the air. What this picture doesn't show is that his front paws were going up and down rythmically: up. down. up. down. It was so cute. He's a love.



And then yesterday Catherine and I went to the Bazaar Bizarre. It was very crowded, as usual, but much fun. I ended up with a pair of earrings, a couple of patches, some dog cookies for Henry, and a pile of fabrics from Repro Depot. And no, I don't sew. But I guess I'll be spending some time learning on Cat's sewing machine. How was I supposed to resist these?



The 50's kitchen print and the matrioshka fabrics were especially me, and I had to have them. And I actually ended up not doing too much damage, financially, but that was only because the place that had the hats/hoods I adored didn't take credit cards and I was out of cash. Hee.

Some knitting content probably tomorrow!

What a tangled web we weave...

I had an adventurous trip back to Boston on Monday. I'm currently referring to my train as either the "Train of the Damned" or "The Little Engine That Couldn't." It had engine trouble the entire trip and then broke down entirely just outside of New Haven. Which is where we spent two hours waiting for the rescue engine to show up and get hooked up to the front of the train. And since no engine means no power and no lights, there was nothing to do for those two hours. There were emergency lights, but they were very dim. The conductors even stuck glow sticks in them to make them a little brighter.



(Yeah, like I wasn't going to take a picture of that?)

So we got into Boston four hours late. But I finally did start doing some knitting once we got a new engine and the lights came back on. I cast on for the Charlotte's Web shawl and got through the first 42 rows.



It's my first time really doing lace and, other than the chart reading (my brain doesn't do so well with reading them), I'm really enjoying it.

Being home was good. I spent a lot of time with the lovely poodle, so I'll treat you to a few pictures.

Henry giving me his disdainful "I don't do costumes" look:



Playing in the leaves:



And watching you even when you think he's sleeping:



Such a cutie!

the month of November

Last year, Chappy's Mom had a contest in which we put up pictures of our calendar pages for the month of November. That was the first knitting blog contest I entered. It's November again, and the calendar contest is up again. So here is my calendar for this month:



The image is of a washstand designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and it's from the Mackintosh calendar for 2007. It's one of my favorite images from this year. I'm a big fan of the Arts and Crafts movement and Art Nouveau design, I think last year's calendar was Art Nouveau posters.

Hats off

Catherine and I spent Sunday at Danielle's house, having a craft day. We got to see her awesome craft room and she fed us yummy snacks and we did a lot of knitting. I started--and finished--another Lizard Ridge square,
bringing my total up to 18 squares completed. Here's an updated picture of what I've got done so far:



Danielle also took us to the new yarn store in Dorchester, The Stitch House. It's a very cute store, and I'm in love with the Pear Tree Merino they carry. I didn't buy anything but that was only because I didn't have a specific project in mind to use it for!

I also cast on for and then frogged the beginning of a hat, which I re-cast on for Monday night and then finished last night.



Pattern: Karn by Norah Gaughan for Berroco
Yarn: Berroco Pure Merino Heather in Boysenberry, 2 skeins, on size 9 needles
Notes: The stitch pattern isn't very distinctive and I'm not sure I love how it came out on this size needle though it looks much better in this picture than it did when I looked at it last night, but I love the deep fold up brim. It's very cozy and I think I'll get a lot of use out it this winter.

Bear with me. . . again

And teddy bear #2 bound for Vietnam is finished!



Pattern: Mother Bear Bear
Yarn: Lion Brand Wool Ease Heather in mauve and blue, Bernat worsted in multicolor on size 7 needles

Maybe I'll do a couple of Lizard Ridge squares next...

Bear with me

A friend of mine is currently living in Vietnam and recently had the idea to collect knit teddy bears for the local orphanages, so I promised to knit a couple. And here is the first one:



Pattern: Mother Bear Bear
Yarn: Leftover Lion Brand Wool Ease, Lion Brand Baby, and Caron something or other, on size 7 needles

And now to start on the second...

Catherine also created her own mini-meme and tagged me to post the youngest picture I could find of myself. Luckily my scanner is currently not working so we can avoid the seriously horrible teenage years. But I found I had this image scanned, so here you go.



I don't how old I am in this picture, 2 or 3 perhaps? But that's me with my grandpa, one of my favorite people in the world. He passed away when I was twelve years old. He sang funny songs and told great jokes and let me beat him in ping pong. I miss him. You can almost see my missing front teeth in this picture; I knocked out my two front teeth when I was two by running into a windowsill. It's actually my earliest memory, not the pain or anything, just looking at the windowsill when it happened. So I was that toothless kid early.

What was I supposed to be talking about, again?

Oh right, knitting.

Well, the ladies finally got our acts together and had our Secret Spook exchange. We ended up doing it over dinner at Bertucci's. The person I knit for was Ariel, and I made her socks--what else?



Pattern: Monkeys, by Cookie A.
Yarn: Regia 4-fadig color, 2 skeins
Notes: I made purl free Monkeys, which I really enjoyed making. The pattern went very quickly. I also did an eye of partridge heel, which I thought looked really cool.

And the recipient with her socks:



And Cassandra was my Secret Spook. She made me Endpaper Mitts! Well, at the moment it's an almost completed Endpaper Mitt, but an awesome one, nonetheless.



And look what else she gave me--a rubber stamp and ink, stitch markers, a grow-a-monster, and stationery!



And Catherine with the socks she got from Ariel.



Cassandra with the DNA she got from Catherine.



And Cathy admiring the yarn she received from Amanda (in absentia):



Another successful swap! And speaking of swaps, I got a second(!) Sockapalooza package the other day. When my original sock pal's package was delayed I was assigned a sock saviour, and she decided she wanted to finish making me my socks even after I got my first pair. And look, they're crocheted!





Thanks, Andrea! They're great! I got lucky and got two pairs of Sockapalooza socks this year!

In yet another segueway, speaking of luck, look what I won last night at the advance screening of Bee Movie that we went to:



All sorts of bee-related products, including lots of honey and Burt's Bees products (those I'm really looking forward to!). Very cool.

76 trombones led the big parade

Tomorrow we will return to our regularly scheduled programming of knitting-related content. And content I do have, between Secret Spook and the arrival of my second (!) Sockapalooza package. But, for now, one more foray into Red Sox Nation.

First, one more media mention from yesterday. Go here--can you find me behind Theo Epstein? Let's play spot the green jacket.

Today was the World Series championship parade, which rolled its way down Boylston Street. Catherine, Betsy, and I set ourselves up in Copley Square around 9 am. The parade started at noon. And we saw almost everyone we wanted to see. Jacoby Ellsbury was on the wrong side of the duck boat from us, we never saw Manny Ramirez at all, and the truck carrying Jonathan Papelbon doing his jig stopped just a little too far down from us to really see it. Alas.

But here is some of what we did see.

The dancing Papelbon figure in the crowd.



Dice-K!



Dustin Pedroia.



Curt Schilling and the trophy.



Coco Crisp.



Big Papi, David Ortiz.



My favorite, the World Series MVP, Mike Lowell. (Re-sign Lowell! Re-sign Lowell!)



Jason Varitek.



And here are Cat, me, and Betsy before the parade started.



And now, no more baseball. What am I going to do until spring training starts?