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.