Only a few more sleeps...

until the holiday festivities are in full swing.  (all pics can be biggie-sized by clicking on them)

Happy Fiber Arts Friday! Be sure to visit Wisdom Begins in Wonder to see what other creative folks are up to this week.

I've been a busy bee; Knitting...

I really enjoyed knitting this hat. You do a provisional crochet cast-on, then knit 25 rows of stockinette in the background color.  Purl 1 row for the fold then knit 25 rows of the two-color chart. Pick up the stitches of the provisional cast-on and a 3 needle operation that knits the liner to the outer part then continue with the rest of the hat. The double thickness keeps ears nice and toasty. I've used this technique to make a picot edge on several pair of socks and it works great. Gotta tell you, it's a lot easier knitting this way on size 8 than it is on size 1 needles.


I took a few pics while I was doing it...

You put your right needle through both front and back needles in left hand then pull the loop through both stitches so they're connected, like a 3 needle bind-off without the binding off part. It's like magic!                                                          
This also covers the larger floats in the skull area of the colorwork. Hopefully, you'll find a use for this technique some day, if you haven't already. LittleDog wasn't very happy because he couldn't sit on me while I was doing it. He did get a few opportunities this week to get a good rub from The Saint though...

Sewing...and you know he had to do his Captain Morgan pose in his new jammies...

and shopping the internets.




Most gifty things are taken care of. There is a pair of sock-type-things being knit...

and I need to come up with a son-in-law gift...I haven't had a genius idea about that yet. It's going to be hard to beat the Swamp People t-shirt I got him last year.

Thank you for stopping in. Have a great weekend!

FAF 12 07 12

Hello! Thank you for stopping here and checking out what's been going on. This post is part of Fiber Arts Friday, a blog circus hosted by Wisdom Begins In Wonder. If you'd like to see more fibery stuff created by other talented folks go check it out by clicking through the link.

It's been pretty busy around here this week. I've gotten over my Serenity-Blanket-is-finished let-down and gotten started on a new hat for someone special for Christmas. I enjoy colorwork.

Pattern: Skull Hat
Yarn: Cascade 220
Needle: US 7 & US 8
Provisional cast on

Since I had a day off on Wednesday I had time to get a couple pair of Pajammy pants mostly done for The Saint. He likes fun fabrics...

I'm wishing we would get some real winter weather. I have so much knitwear that I could employ if it would get and stay cold outside. It's a bit much when the temperature is 60F though.

Winston has enjoyed his no-holds-barred diet the past week. The vet said to give him anything he'll eat so he's been livin large in the food department. Val posted a link to a Daily Puglet post that I thought said it best. (get your hankies handy) It'd been awhile since I read it before and it was good a good reminder. Thank you all for your kind words and thoughts. We appreciate them so much.

I finished a little pink scarf for this cutie last week...

Isn't Evelyn adorable? She's the daughter of my co-worker Angie. Thanks to her for taking this pic.

I hope you all have a great weekend and that you get to spend some time enjoying some fiber activities. Now I've got a few more seams to sew...

Serenity is blocked and ready for gifting...

I had hoped to have this ready for the Friday-after-Thanksgiving post but I just couldn't get to it. Sorry for the delay, I hope it is worth the wait...

Pattern: Serenity Blanket
Yarn: Cascade 220 Superwash, 5 skeins
Needle:  US 7

(click on the photos to make them bigger if you'd like)

The photo at the top shows the best representation of the color of the blanket. It's tough to get a good pic in the winter.

Happy Fiber Arts Friday everyone! If you'd like to see more pretty handmade things jump over to Wisdom Begins In Wonder and check out the folks that participate in the blog circus there.

If you have some extra good juju laying around could you please send it this way. Our little grand-dog Winston was diagnosed with lymphoma yesterday and we're all hoping for some kind of a miracle for him. Thanks for any thoughts you could send his way. We all love him very much.

Thank you for stopping by. Hope you all have a great weekend.

Russian Join and a finished blankie

I love the Russian Join...it is so simple, non-spitty (like a spit splice) and holds your ends together quite nicely. Next time you need to add more yarn for the project you're working on, give it a try. Mine was not too pretty but you can't really see it in among all the cables.

In answer to a few of your questions from last week...

Nichole, I could not leave my dogs outside after the skunking but, if I had, my house wouldn't have smelled so badly and I wouldn't have had to do load after load of laundry for a week.
Tamara, yes, they're cute but oh man the stink outweighed the cute for a few days.
Kathryn, I'd have to say I'd rather smell a skunk than a rotten egg, ew!
Beth, you made me laugh out loud, thank you for that. I really needed that laugh.
Andrea, all my fibery stuffs are in containers and at the opposite end of the house. They all survived.
Katie, skunk is also a smell you can taste...ugh
and Denise, I immediately heard Lynard Skynard singing.
Thank you all for the kind and supportive words. We've survived another week and today the peeps came and cleaned our air ducts. The bad smell is less everyday.

I've been busy knitting. The blanket is finished and needs to be blocked then gifted. I'm so happy to have it finished. I bound off 636 sts over two nights. I only wish I had bound off purl-wise as I think that would have looked better. Maybe I'll remember on the next one, hahahahaha!

Teaser pics for now. More after blocking.

What have you all been working on? I'm looking forward to seeing it in the Fiber Arts Friday posts.
Be sure to check out the other fibery peeps on Andrea's blog, Wisdom Begins In Wonder.

Sorry, can't pose now, I'm busy sleeping. Love, LittleDog

We've been skunked!

Ugh. What a nightmare. Last Saturday night LittleDog and Sam went out to potty after dark and got hit by a skunk. It was seriously scary for LittleDog as he has a few (common to Pug) breathing issues. He got a direct hit to the face. When he came in the house he was in full foam and gasping for air. What has followed has been an endless amount of laundry, baths, more laundry, furnace filter changes and more laundry.

If you have dogs and there are any skunks residing in your area please get a supply of Nature's Miracle Skunk Odor Remover and some Fresh Wave. Between these two things I am able to breath for the most part.  The faint scent will linger for weeks, I'm sure, but it's not as bad as it was. They got hit late on Saturday evening and I had no idea what I would need to clean them up. The remedy that the emergency vet's receptionist imparted was a bit helpful but only served to get me smelling skunky too.

Do not wash your dog without rubber gloves, do not let your dog stay in the house the night after he's been skunked and do not let your dog get skunked during a time of the year when the heat is on...

You're very welcome from the terrible twosome.

Have a great weekend! We're looking forward to warmer temps so we can open up this stinky house. Don't forget to check out the Fiber Arts Friday posts over at Wisdom Begins in Wonder.

FAF 10/26/12

Hello! Welcome to this week's Fiber Arts Friday post. If you'd like to see more fibery stuff when you're done here you should jump on over to Wisdom Begins in Wonder and check out the folks that participate in this fun blog circus each Friday.

This week's knitting has been pretty sporadic but I have managed to make great progress on my first toe-up sweet tomato heel sock...

I had knit a 3rd wedge for the heel and decided that it was too much so tinked back to what you see in this photo...2 wedges. Now I'll knit half a wedge and start the leg.  I'm like it so far.

I also checked into my flickr account for the first time in awhile and found a cute pic of LittleDog with our Granddaughter, Jasmine from some time last year. You can see it in the post previous to this one. I was having difficulty figuring out how to post a pic from flickr to my Blogger account so it ended up being all alone on the blog instead of a part of this post. Learn something new every day.

I'm looking forward to a little road trip with The Saint tomorrow. It's too late to see the pretty leaves but it will still be nice to get out of the city for a few hours.  Have a great weekend.

LittleDog isn't thrilled about our road trip since he won't be going along...

Story time for LittleDog

Story time for LittleDog, a photo by AllyB That's Me on Flickr.