I am back, and I am tired

I have returned to Boston! But, first, a few more things from home. . .

I finished one knitting project while home, my father's Hanukkah gift. I made the Irish Hiking Scarf.

It took almost two skeins of Cascade 220 Tweed in a lovely chocolate brown. These photos are from before it was blocked, since it was still drying when I left. :) And a detail shot of the cables:

I also received one knitting related gift for the holidays. My aunt sent me a group of items from The Big Yarn.

These included stitch markers in really neat colors, knitting related notecards, silver stitch holders, and a pink needlesizer.

And, another poodle picture! Henry with his poodle:

And one last poorly taken picture. Every year in our neighborhood one family puts up one of those inflatable snowmen. Theirs, however, is usually falling forward and looks like he's been drinking quite a bit. I hereby present to you, the drunken snowman:

Happy almost New Year!

Mr. Darcy

One little crafty thing to show, now that the receipient has received it. We did t-shirt stencilling at Catherine's place last week. It was the first time I had done it, and the first time any of us had tried doing words. So I was pretty pleased with the results.



It's for a friend who truly appreciates both Mr. Darcy and Colin Firth. :) Here's a close up of the lettering.



And, as I am home, some poodle shots! The first one is of Henry riding in the car, during which he always has his paw over my father's arm.



And this is from my father's office's holiday party yesterday. Henry enjoying his champagne glass.

lots and lots of pictures

I finally finished the socks!



These were done in Regia 4fadig Mini Ringel, which I picked up from the sale shelves at Webs during our road trip in October. I love how these turned out, though the picture here isn't exactly true to color.

Today I also went to the Bazaar Bizarre where I met up with Ariel and Cathy. I also got to meet ZantiMissKnit.

And now, some photographs from Catherine's birthday extravaganza. We went to Jillian's and went bowling. I truly suck at bowling; I finished last in both games, but it was a lot of fun.

The birthday girl and her boy:


Cassandra and Ariel:


Catherine and me:


And the birthday girl with her cake:


One last photo, taken last night:


Happy Hanukkah!

it's been a while, but I have a good excuse

Actually, two of them. I hadn't posted because I didn't have a completed knitting project to show off (I still don't, but I'm making an exception and posting an in progress one or I might never post) and because I've been busy. Doing what, you may ask? Finishing graduate school. As of today, I am finished with my master's degree in library science. Now to find a job. . .

Here's the one project I'm currently working on, which feels like it's been forever.

I've got about half of the foot left on the second sock, but I'm getting (shh!) a little bit bored of working on them, even if I do love how they're turning out.

And since my blog is named after a lovely dog, I'm going to post a few pictures from the Bay Colony Dog Show, which I attended last weekend. I got sniffed, licked, kissed, nuzzled, jumped on, and hugged. I love dogs. Where else does a girl like me see that kind of action?

And now, the dogs:
Poodles, of course!

A very friendly Great Pyrenees.

Isn't this an adorable face? It's a Tibetan Spaniel.

Here's one of the dogs I spent the most time with. This is a Sussex Spaniel. His name is Fuzzy. And he is absolutely adorable.

Next post will feature Catherine's birthday extravaganza.

a jumble of things

Last week, I went over to Catherine's to dye yarn with her and Ariel. Ariel and I both did a couple of skeins of sock yarn and Catherine did yarn she had frogged from a sweater. We used Wilton's icing colors, plus Catherine used some Kool Aid.

Here is Catherine's yarn being dyed, and yes it does look like raw meat. She was going for a burgundy/wine color which came out a more dusty rose.

Here are a couple of pictures of my first skein being dyed. I was going for a "tulip" colorway, in red, pink, yellow, and green.

And here's the finished skein!

My second skein I handpainted with violet and royal blue. The blue was originally fairly light, so a couple of days ago, I put the entire skein in a pot of royal blue to see how it would come out. I'm pretty pleased:

And now some random shots. I went for a walk along Comm Ave this weekend on a gorgeous fall day to take pictures of my starry scarf for the calendar. And here is a photo I took along the way:

And here is a picture of the pumpkin pie Ariel and I (she did the crust, I did the filling) made for Catherine's Thanksgiving party:

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Odessa

Fast projects are fun! I started this Monday night and finished it about half an hour ago. So here is Odessa, which will be a Christmas gift for a friend from college.



That picture is not true at all to the color; the picture below is closer--it's a very rich turquoise blue.



Knit up with Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK (which I now love), which has about 20 meters less yarn than the recommended Cashsoft DK, and it was certainly a close call as to whether I would have enough. I have about a two foot strand of yarn left, but I made it! I did this on 5s and 7s instead of the called for 4s and 6s, as those are the needles I had. I had made one before for myself and it worked out well on those needle sizes.

Baaaaaaaa

What can I say? I'm a sheep.

Ariel posted about this contest on her blog, so now I'm joining in. It involves posting a picture of the November page of your calendar. Here is mine:



It's from my Art Nouveau posters calendar that hangs over my desk. The poster itself is by Jane Atche and was done in 1896.

In actual knitting content, I cast on for an Odessa last night, which should be done in a few days, hopefully.