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I’m feeling exceedingly dull lately (egads – I sound like Jane Austen!).  Too much Masterpiece Theater lately.  Even Maggie is hooked:

It seems like the most common exchange around our house lately is:  Hubby, "What are you going to do today (tonight, tomorrow)?"  Me, "Study".  We were discussing who would be happier when I finish and we agreed it was a toss up.  On the bright side, I finished one class.  I read the book, attended the seminar, wrote the paper.  It’s a Pass/Fail class, so as long as my paper is semi-coherent (and I’m pretty sure it is), there are no worries there.  I also have finished three out of the four projects for my Early Childhood Education class.  At the end of the month I will order my cap and gown and my parents are making their plane reservations this week.  So . . . . I just need to keep my nose to the grindstone for just a little longer!

Since I had time away from the house the past two weeks, I took a quick little traveling project with me and finished it last weekend and blocked it today:

Although I couldn’t get picture of it, I had a lot of helping pinning this out.  Maggie was right in the thick of things, which annoyed Kirby greatly.  He obviously feels it’s his job to help block knitting.  This is the Landscape Scarf by Evelyn Clark, yarn is Hazelknits in the Greenlake colorway, gifted to me by Kris of Sonny and Shear.  Thanks Kris – now I have a neat scarf for St. Patrick’s Day.

Speaking of Sonny and Shear, I just received an order of Dream in Color Baby.  Yum!!

This will be for a shawl, but I haven’t decided which one yet.  I keep waffling.  Please feel free to jump in with suggestions.  So far the candidates are Landscape Shawl, Angel Lace Shawl or Field of Flowers, found here.  Or perhaps a third Peacock Feathers?  The possibilities are endless!

No knitting content, but lots of lovely pictures from Tacoma.  On Saturday the morning was spent in class – an excellent lecture on memory.  I forget the details (ha!).  Seriously, it was very interesting and we all got a good laugh when the professor told us he would email us our final assignment because he forgot to bring the hand-outs with him!  The Marriott Courtyard provided us a delicious lunch and then we spent the afternoon at the Museum of Glass and the History Museum.  First of all, we walked by Union Station, which unfortunately was closed:

After Union Station, you hang a left and walk across the skybridge.  As you look up, you develop a whole new definition for the glass ceiling:

In a true feast for the eyes, these Dale Chihuly
creations line the bridge:

This is only a small sampling!  Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photos inside the museum, but we were able to photograph the great glass artist Lino Taglipietra at work in the hot shop:

Be sure to follow the link for a look at his amazing creations.  The hot shop

hosts visiting artists from all over the world.

And just in case you think you might want to stick a Chihuly creation in your shopping basket:

Think again:

Just a quick post as I fly in and out.  I’ve been off for three days this week, but almost every spare minute has been spent studying.  The good news is that I finished the reading for my seminar this weekend and I’m caught up on my other class until next week.  I’m also over halfway through that class, so it’s all downhill from here.  Still another book to read for another seminar the end of March.

I did manage to eke out a few knitting hours in the evenings.  I finished the body of the teapot cosy:

I still have to embroider the slanted lines on the N’s and M’s.  I have mixed feelings about this project.  As I mentioned, I could not get a gauge of 7 stitches per inch on size 0 needles!  I must be super loose when doing color patterning.  There was no question of going down another needle size.  It’s certainly acceptable, but larger than it’s supposed to be, which, I think, lessens the "cuteness" factor.  And, I am running out of yarn.  I’m thinking about emailing Two Swans to see if I can exchange the other two skeins I got for another cosy.  I don’t think I’m going to attempt another one any time soon.  This was my first time doing corrugated ribbing.  I like the effect, but it sure is rough on the hands.

As I was watching Law and Order the other night, I saw this darling sweater:

Doesn’t that look like it could be a Lavold design?  That’s the best shot I could get of it, but it’s going in my file for someday.

I had to make a visit to a "real" dentist today.  One of the advantages of working for a pediatric dentist is that he takes care of all of my dental needs.  However, once in a while a problem comes up that is out of the scope of his practice.  I had a porcelain crown on a tooth about a year ago and at the time it didn’t appear to need a root canal.  However for the past two weeks the tooth has been hypersensitive to cold.  When I about crawled up the wall eating ice cream last night I figured it was time.  The dentist took an x-ray which he said was inconclusive, but he emailed it to the endodontist (don’t you just love digital x-rays?).  About an hour later he called back to say yes, the tooth needs a root canal.  Oddly enough, I find this good news because it means something can be done.  So, next week I’m off for my first root canal.  And I’m looking forward to it!

As promised, here are my acquisitions from the Madrona Festival.  I hope I didn’t excite you too much, because they were pretty minimal.  I had promised myself one skein of sock yarn.  However, Kris, bless her heart, made that unnecessary with this lovely gift:

This is Hazel Knits sock yarn in the Greenlake colorway.  Hmmm – do you think I have time to knit up a Landscape Scarf before St. Patrick’s Day?

So that left me to peruse the Merchant’s Mall to my heart’s content.  I came across the booth of Two Swans Yarn.  They are a mail order only company based in Kent, Washington.  They had a whole wall of Jamieson & Smith in, I think, every color they make!  A feast for the eyes.  And they had this.  Is that not the cutest thing you have ever seen?  And it only takes one skein of each color.  So, I bought enough to make two cozies, one for me and one to gift.

Those are for the gift cozy.  Immediately on arriving home, throwing project monogamy to the winds (you knew I couldn’t do it, didn’t you?), I cast on for mine.  However, all was not well.  The pattern called for size 2 needles.  Knowing I’m a loose knitter, I went down a size, thinking that size was not all that important for a tea cozy.  However, it quickly became evident that this thing was going to be gigantic and I would run out of yarn.  So, I went down to a size 0, and even though I am still not getting gauge, I’m hoping for the best and will just order more yarn if I need to.  However, all was STILL not well!!  I cast on again, and got almost 1/3 of the way done with the body when I realized that I had twisted when I joined the round!!!  How could I have done that?  The yarn was ripped and I started again.  Do you see it coming?  I did it again.  D’oh!  The third time was the charm, and I’m happy to report that I am untwisted and that Jamieson’s Spindrift holds up very well to frogging:

You can just make out the letters "Little". 

Yesterday was another great fun day (two weekends in a row!).  My best friend called me Friday night to say that she had tickets to "Mame" at the Fifth Avenue in Seattle.  Her daughter was supposed to go with her, but she was sick, so I was invited.  I have never seen "Mame", not even the movie, so I jumped at the chance.  We had a great time and even fit in some shopping at Macy’s.  They had a fantastic sale – I got about 5 sweaters for $4.99 each! 

I should caution my regular readers (all five of you) not to worry if I’m MIA for the next week or so.  I’ve got a lot of schoolwork coming up that I really need to buckle down and finish if I’m going to be able to leave for Orlando in April with a clear conscience (and no textbooks to lug along).  I’ll be going down to Tacoma next weekend (three weekends in a row gone – poor hubby!) for a seminar, but hope to get some good pictures of the Museum of Glass.  Until then, I have tons or reading to do and at least two projects to finish for my other class.  But I shall return.  In the meantime I leave you with one very cute granddaughter:

And a puppy who can apparently sleep anywhere:

Yes, she’s sleeping with her face in the basket.

 

Where to begin with the fabulous weekend I just spent with Lorette and Kris?  First of all, I began to wonder if the weekend would ever begin!  A drive that should normally take about 2.5 hours turned into a nightmare commute of almost 5 hours.  There were a great many stretches when I was only doing 5-10 miles an hour on the freeway.  Who would have ever thought that I’d be giddy with delight when it got up to 30 miles an hour??  When we arrived, John had driven over to pick up Lorette and Kris from the Madrona festival, but he had left the door open for us.  Riley and Lewey invited us in and offered to show us where the best silver was kept.  I told them I’d settle for Lorette’s stash.  Kris, having gotten there first was allocated what I refer to as "The Stash Bedroom".  Lucky girl!  I wonder if Lorette checked her luggage when she left.

For Lewey and Maggie, it was love at first sight!  There was Corgi wrestling and tug-o-war and wonderful games of tag.  Poor Riley was quite bemused by it all and you could just see him looking at us and thinking, "Kids!" 

Maggie did take time out from the festivities to enjoy the view:

She learned a lot from Lewey and Riley, including how to behave off leash.  We took a long walk in the woods and although Maggie had never been off leash before, we decided to give it a go.  She did so well that for the rest of the weekend, she was able to go outside off leash for potty breaks.  I still would not trust her near a road or with too many distractions, but it was certainly a start.  John was an excellent puppy sitter while we were at Madrona and I think Maggie was almost as sorry to leave him as she was Lewey.

On Saturday morning John dropped us off at Madrona and while Kris and Lorette took a class, I immersed myself in the Merchant Mall.  There was a nice mix of vendors, with no two booths having exactly the same thing.  They all had a different flavor, which made for a fun shopping experience.  I didn’t go overboard, but I’ll post more about my finds next time.  I then retired to the lobby where tables were set up with free coffee.  I spent a lovely several hours knitting and visiting with other knitters and watching the fabulous fashion show that traipsed in and out.  Of course, everyone was wearing their finest knits. 

At noon, John picked us up and treated us to lunch.  Then it was home for the aforementioned walk in the woods.  When we came home the dogs crashed and Kris, Lorette and I retired to the couch for a knitting party:

One of the classes Kris and Lorette took together was on Continental knitting and you can see them there practicing their technique.  And they’re even smiling!  We spent the evening knitting and being spoiled rotten by John, who served us martinis, wine (I’d better check my cables!) and then escorted us into the dining room for excellent Paella:

I can definitely say that a fun time was had by all.  This morning Kris flew off to Orlando at the crack of dawn and I headed back to the island.  Fortunately the drive only took 2.5 hours, with one tired little puppy sound asleep in the back seat.  Stay tuned for reports of yarn and pattern acquisition!

More sewing this week – another little dress for Izzy:

Although I’ve mentioned that my class this semester is "hard", in that I’m impatient to get through it, the work is not terribly demanding.  There’s not as much reading as some classes, so it does leave me lots of free time.  I spent last weekend doing some rearranging in my sewing room, so now things are a little more organized and I can enjoy my sewing.

This is not to say that knitting has totally taken a back seat.  I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the back of Torgier:

This is an Elsebeth Lavold design, in Silky Wool, for hubby.  I do love the Silky Wool and I think hubby will like its lighter weight.

I’m getting very excited about next weekend!  Lorette has invited me for the weekend and a visit to the Madrona Fiber Festival!!  Kris from Sonny and Shear will also be visiting from Orlando.  John and Lorette are the most gracious hosts and I am really looking forward to it.  The best part – Maggie has been invited too!  John said he would be willing to puppy sit while we attend the fiber festival.  She can play with Riley and Lorette’s new corgi – Llewy.  This should be quite interesting.  I cautioned Lorette that Maggie is pretty well behaved around here, but she is a puppy still, with puppy manners.  But she said to bring her along.  We’ll see if I ever get invited back after this.  This should be a good experience for Maggie.  We really want to get her used to traveling and this is a perfect opportunity to visit with some dog friendly company.

Maggie is excited, but for now has other things on her mind.  Who is this other puppy and why won’t she play with me?

Another week down and one more week closer to graduation.  Can you tell I’m anxious?  I think this may be the most difficult semester I’ve had.  No blood squirting out the eyeballs ala Statistics.  In fact, the class I have is pretty easy.  And the two seminars I need to take involve some reading, but are Pass/Fail, so no stress there.  It’s just being so close!!  I just want to be done.

I did spend a lot of the week nights studying, which meant I had today to play in my sewing room.  I love making dresses for granddaughters:

As much as I love sewing, it was a given I would have no daughters, but now it’s pay back time!  I’ll be doing a lot of sewing in the next two months, because I get to go to Orlando!  My sister and I are heading out there in April and I want to have a bunch of outfits to take to the girls.  I also have a sun suit almost done for Ivy, but it’s not ready for its portrait yet.

Also finished this week, a CIC sweater:

This completes my goal of two sweaters for the current challenge and they will be mailed off this week.  This also gets me down to only three projects (plus one in hibernation).  Abby’s sweater just needs the sleeves sewn in and the zipper.  I did work on the border of the Garden Path shawl this week.  Man, it is slow going.  Usually the borders are one of my favorite aspect of shawls, but this one is going to take forever.  I must say I kind of like Knitting Peace.  I’ll probably be looking to start some socks soon, but am not sure which ones. 

Yesterday we took a drive down the island to see Maggie’s breeder so she could be microchipped.  The gang was very happy to see her:

Believe it or not, Maggie was at the bottom of that pile!  I think she was just a trifle overwhelmed.  We also got to visit with puppies.  One of her Cardigans had just had a litter.  They are four weeks old now and cute as a button:

Speaking of graduation – I created a ticker for Ticker Factory to countdown, but I have no idea how to insert it into my blog.  Anyone out there familiar with TypePad that could give me a quick tutorial?

Let it snow!  Well, for all of 5 minutes, anyway.  We got sleety rain last night and just a few minutes of snow this morning.  For now, the sun is shining and we’re enjoying that big yellow thing in the sky.

More sorting out and finishing projects this week.  My Easter egg socks are done:

I love the color, but am less enamored of the yarn.  This is Trekking XXL.  I love the colors of Trekking, but find it rather harsh next to some of the more lovely yarns.  I also should have used a size 0 instead of a size 1.  The fabric is just a little flimsy.  And they match, except at the toes.  What’s with that?  Anyway, they’re done. 

I spent some time updating Ravelry.  In keeping with really looking at projects and deciding whether or not they are worthy of my time, I have frogged the lone panel of the Guernsey afghan.  I probably will crank out a square of the All American Aran Afghan from time to time when I want a short break from other projects, but those will be for fun and as the spirit moves, so I’m not adding it to my projects.  That leaves me with only four projects (be still my heart!).  Of those, three are very close to being done.  The cable and rib jacket just needs the sleeves sewn in and a zipper, the toddler sweater is all done except for the sleeves and the Garden Shawl just needs the border.  I think I’m beginning to feel a little knitting peace stealing in.  Although I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions, my goal this year is to declutter my life in general.  Less projects, less junk, less confusion.

Of course, that’s not to say nothing new will be started.  My Round Robin quilt group is starting a new project.  Our assignment was to bring a square to the next meeting, we will exchange and each person adds to the square.  We continue trading until we’ve all had a chance to work on each other’s square.  I spent yesterday working on my contribution.   I decided to do something a little different – not sure if the rest of the group will shoot me or not!  I made 24 squares!  I found these cute redwork (only I used blue) patterns for an Old Testament quilt.  Here are two of my favorites:

Of course, the group won’t have to add to each square.  Their challenge will be to put the squares together into a quilt.  It’s a fun group and they are used to being thrown a curve ball and adapt very, very well!

In poking around Ravelry, I found a group of knitters with Corgis!  What fun.  So many cute little puppy faces.  It’s interesting looking at all the groups – there is literally a group for anything, and I mean anything!  I’m trying to limit how many I join – it’s just impossible to keep up.

Nothing exciting for the agenda this week.  There’s a long stretch with no trips or exciting cultural events.  But it is also a long stretch that I can dedicate to school.

Baby, it’s cold outside!  Well, those of you in Minnesota and Michigan would probably beg to differ.  It’s been in the teens and twenties at night here.  For us that’s pretty chilly.  The upside is that we’re actually getting a little sunshine.  We haven’t had sunshine in weeks and I had almost forgotten what it looked like.  The answer is, "Bright!"  I feel as if we’re all little moles coming out of our holes and squinting.

My first opera experience was great fun.  My sister and I went to see Pagliacci.  I would definitely go again.  No pictures this time because we were in the audience where, of course, pictures are not allowed.  There was plenty of time to knit over the weekend and I finished a toddler sized gansey (still needs blocking):

And started another:

The pattern is Toddler’s Cable Yoke Guernsey Pullover by Silver Creek, yarn Wool of the Andes in Spruce and Stream, size 5 needles.  Very quick and easy pattern and highly recommended.  I’ve set a goal of two sweaters for the current CIC challenge and I should reach that with no trouble.

I would try to do more little sweaters, but school is in session and taking a fair amount of time.  I think this may be the hardest class I have ever taken.  Not the course work – that seems as if it’s going to be pretty easy.  The hardest part is just staying motivated.  Only 3 months to go – it hardly seems possible!!!  What will I do with myself when I don’t spend part of my evenings studying?  Blog more?  Knit more?  Take a nap? 

Maybe knit and sew more for the grandbabies.  Remember the little white set I made for Ivy that was too big to be a newborn set?  She finally grew into it:

Even Isobel got into the act by modeling the hat:

The jacket is the one I made for her on my sewing getaway.

And lest she be forgotten, my other baby is growing way too fast as well:

I still don’t think I’m done crying for Hester.  Maybe you never get to that point.  I had a bit of a meltdown the other day when I took Maggie out for a walk and ran into someone who did not know about Hester.  I told him, and on the way back through the woods we walked by Hester’s grave.  But Maggie has been such a solace to us.  It’s hard to be sad too long with her puppy antics keeping us entertained.  The one sad thing is that I think Hester would have loved her!  Several days ago Bill took her to coffee with him.  He and his car buddies get together at a boat shop near our home.  One of the other guys brought his dog – an Irish Setter mix about four times as big as Maggie.  They really hit it off and started playing tug-o-war with a toy.  The other dog was so big that he was dragging Maggie all over the floor.  And she was having a blast!

 

For over 10 years I’ve met with a small group of quilters.  We started off as a Round Robin group, but have branched out into other projects as well.  Over the years the others have come and gone, but there are three of us that have been there since the beginning.  We only number four now, with the fifth on sabbatical, but it is a great group of women and we treasure our time together.  Our two projects recently have been Mystery Quilts.  Friday night we met for the last clue in our current mystery.  Today I spent all day in the sewing room finishing up:

Up until Friday night none of us had any idea how this was going to come together, but I am quite pleased.  Now I’m debating whether to hand quilt or machine quilt.  I am a dyed-in-the wool hand quilter.  I love doing it and I love the results I get.  In fact, I have won quite a few awards for my hand quilting.  But it takes so long!  I have been dabbling in machine quilting and I have mixed feelings.  It’s definitely faster, but not nearly as relaxing and the results I get are certainly not as refined.  I know there is a learning curve and I would get better with practice, but . . . . For now, however, this will go on the back burner while I finish other projects.

While I was sewing I had companions to keep me company:

Yes, that’s a hand knit afghan that Maggie’s sleeping on.  It’s an Aran afghan from the 80’s – you know, the harvest gold years?  It’s full of bobbles, so I had to put it down inside out because Maggie liked chewing on them.

On the knitting front, I frogged the Bright Traditions child’s sweater.  I liked the pattern, but the collar called for was a shawl collar, and no matter what I did, it just wasn’t coming out nicely.  I could have ripped down to the start of the collar and recalculated a crew neck, but somehow I just kept going.  A little hissy fit, I guess.  But fear not, because on our Bellingham yarn craw I had picked up a cute gansey pattern by Silver Creek and I’m almost back up to the collar again:

Pattern is Toddler’s Cable Yoke Guernsey Pullover by Silver Creek, yarn is Wool of Andes in Spruce on size 5 needles.  This will be for Children in Common.

And speaking of needles, I got a Knitpicks order this week.  A whole handful of Harmony wood needles.  I really do like them!  Mom and Dad just gave me money this Christmas so I was able to indulge – thanks Mom and Dad!  Also in the mail, The Bread Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum, courtesy of a gift certificate from Ben & Abby (thanks guys!).  Lots of recipes for really luscious breads – can’t wait to do some baking. 

I may or may not be able to post next week.  Last month was the ballet, this month is the opera.  My sister and I are going to see Pagliacci.  I’ve never been to the opera before and I’m really looking forward to it.  Once again, Bill is glad he dodged this bullet!  I’ll give you a full report.