Show and Tell

Time to catch up on all the things I haven't been posting about. Knitting is going crazy around here and I needed to show off some finished objects.

To the left, some completed socks! There's the green/blue pair I was working on for Alex. To the right of those, a pair for Alex made from some Magic Stripes that has been hanging out in the stash for a while. On the bottom, I finally made a mate for my one Sockotta sock - this yarn wasn't my favorite to work with since the cotton content makes it stiffer but now that they are washed they are so soft and one of my favorite pairs. The other two single socks waiting for a mate are my pink Broadripple socks from Knitty and a purple multicolor sock with a ribbed leg and top of foot, that makes it look ridiculously small but I promise it isn't!

To the right is my Chevron Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts. I love it! However, it folds in on itself horribly so I'm trying to block it flat. This section turned out decent so I wet and pinned out the middle third of it this morning. Hoping it works like I'm imagining!

Now below is the Irish Hiking Scarf I was working on, fully completed, blocked and so forth. Possibly one of my favorite knitted objects. It just turned out so neat and was a fun project to make.

Oh yeah, there's another completed pair of socks - catch is, I was wearing them while taking the pictures! These are the first pair I've made from Paton's Kroy sock yarn and I really like it. Story of me and Paton's Kroy: I went to AC Moore to pick up some pins to block a scarf with. Of course, had to check out the yarns and see if there was anything I "needed". Lo and behold, they started carrying Kroy! And lots of color selection, woo hoo! So, I had heard lots of people liked this yarn and it is very reasonably priced so of course I had to try some. (Okay, I bought enough for 3 pairs of socks.) A week or so ago I saw that AC Moore had an ad for all yarns 25% off - great, I'll go buy some more Kroy! Get to the store and there is NO Kroy!!! None! I even asked a saleslady and she said she guessed they were no longer carrying it! Well, boo hoo. Good thing I have a big sock yarn stash....



(Please pardon that taking a picture of one's own feet makes said feet look very odd...)

Now on to some pics of my favorite subjects - the boys! I mentioned in my last post that Roscoe had a surgery to remove a cyst on his back - here's a look at his big patch and stitches. He's fine now, got the stitches out the next week and has now grown most of his hair back. Earned the nickname "Patchy" for a while.









Now that many of you have received our Holiday cards, I thought it appropriate to share some outtakes from the holiday card photo shoot. You will see that Roscoe is trying his best to sit nicely in his scarf and look handsome for his family and friends. Travis, on the other hand, had to make things a bit more interesting....

And just for fun, some cute pics, one other good one from the holiday shots and one that I will call "waiting for Santa".

Still here...

So, I make the decision to start a blog, then I follow up by neglecting it. Just updating on some things, no pics today.

Beer: Now Maple Brown and Alex's IPA are both on tap! We've ordered for our next few batches and should be brewing next week.

Knitting: I've been a knitting fiend! Finished the Irish Hiking Scarf pictured a little while back and started a couple of other scarves with the Knit Picks yarn I like so much. I've also been doing some socks of course, and some dishcloths for Christmas gifts for our moms.

Dogs: Roscoe had a cyst removed from his back/hip area last week. He's doing well, gets his stitches out on Friday, and is working on regrowing hair in the big square shaved patch around his owie. He also had some of his gum overgrowth removed while under anesthesia. Travis is, as always, Travis and is doing just fine. We just found out yesterday that friends of ours just brought home a little brindle boxer girlie named Chloe. Can't wait to get to meet her!

Check it out, our new chimney! Okay, I'll admit it feels a little lame to be so excited about a chimney, but it is just so pretty! (We have to get a roofer out to tuck the flashing under the shingles, so that will be a little neater eventually.) Love it!
In case you don't remember (or never saw it), this is a view of the previous chimney - yuck! So much better now!

New toy? or...?

What's this? That's right, we have beer on tap! I warned you there would be a surprise associated with the Maple Brown, didn't I?? Well, ta da!
The fridge will hold two kegs once we get another brewed and ready to go. (You can see the IPA we just brewed behind the glasses below.) Eventually we may add a tower tap or similar, but for now, we have BEER on TAP!!! And, did I mention that this Maple Brown is very very tasty?

A Day Late, But...

Happy post-Halloween! I didn't get around to posting yesterday, but had to share our holiday fun. Alex insists we carve pumpkins every Halloween. My pumpkin, pretty traditional but I think it's a good effort: And now, presenting Alex's pumpkin....he says it's inspired by Sloth from "The Goonies". It got lots of attention from the trick or treaters last night:

In other news from the weekend, there's a new brew in the fermenter! (For those that don't know, Alex and I homebrew!) In the spirit of Fall in New England, we're making a Maple Brown Ale. Looks like it's going to be a tasty one! Stay tuned to the blog, in the next week or so there may be a surprise to go along with this beer.... Of course, there are always a couple of helpers on brew day:

Cool, huh?

Finished Alex's socks (stay tuned for a photo...) and started one of the scarves with my new KnitPicks yarn:

Hmm...might have to take a closer pic so you can see how totally cool it is! The pattern is the Irish Hiking Scarf, it's an easy cabled pattern but looks really neat. Going much more quickly now that I learned to cable without a cable needle. (You can find out more about that here.) A good trick for simple cables!

I *heart* my new yarn!

Ta da!
I had heard and read good things about KnitPicks and decided to order some yarn from them. The prices are almost too good so I didn't know exactly what to expect. Got the yarn yesterday and it is wonderful! Here's a pic, feel free to drool over it, covet it, etc.

I got four skeins each of their "Wool of the Andes" in Hollyberry and Stream. It's a basic wool, but the colors are really pretty. Also four skeins of "Sock Landscape" (100% Merino wool and oh so soft!), two each of Rocky Mountain Dusk and Spring Prairie. Everything is for scarf projects, but I'm going to have to resist making cushy socks from that Merino! (And I can hear Michelle all the way up in Plattsburgh groaning "aaghh, more scarves!" Tee hee!) The colors of the yarns, especially the sock yarn, are much more lively and vibrant than they looked on my monitor and I just love them! Must make myself finish Alex's sock before starting something with my new yarn!

I'm planning on making a couple of these with the solid wools, maybe one for me and one for a gift. And the multicolor yarns for the "Chevron Scarf" from Last Minute Knitted Gifts - love that book! Will post progress soon!

Socktastic

Or is it "Socktacular?"
Well whatever, the point is I love knitting socks! It's getting cool enough in the evenings that we've been breaking out the pairs I knitted last winter and I've been digging through my yarn stash to start working on some more. Not sure what the attraction is, maybe it's that they have enough difficulty to keep my interest (but are still pretty easy) or, most likely, it is the huge array of cool brightly colored and patterned sock yarns available. I usually make a fairly standard top-down pattern, I'm thinking the next pair I might do some sort of pattern or texture on the top and cuff, just for a change. Wait - I still have another single sock to make a mate for first....that'll be after the current one.

Above you'll see the current project (okay, one of three or so on the needles, but currently the only sock) - it is the second sock to a pair I'm making for Alex. I made the first back in the spring and am finally getting around to the mate.

A Blog

Welcome to my blog! I realized I often have something I want to share with friends but am too lazy to send individual emails/photos to everyone. Soooo, here we go, I'll give the blog thing a try. I will do my best to update frequently and want to show off pics of the pooches and my knitting projects. (However, no promises to challenge another friend's ability to post every day! That honor belongs only to her!) To start us off, a cute pic of my boys snoozin' on the couch: