The Scottish Lamb

Color Me Softly

About 12 minutes cost me the color I wanted in today's offering at Elann.

I've been on such a fiber diet since we moved back to the States due to the storage situation... or lack of... in this house.  I couldn't pass up on Jaeger Roma though.  I tried.  I really did but I love this sweater and the yarn is such a bargain I just couldn't resist.

The same thing that makes me walk away from bread while it's in the oven made me walk away from the computer just minutes before the bell went off.  Six minutes too late I ran back to the computer only to find that there already wasn't enough Fern left to make the lace sweater sample that's up with the yarn.  Bummer.  I also was bogged up because my credit card had expired and my mailing address was still the one in Germany!  Let this be a lesson for us all.  If I hadn't stopped buying yarn, my information on Elann would have been correct and maybe, just maybe, I'd have Fern.

That said, all is not lost.  After about five minutes of trying to decide between Denim and Sage I went for the Denim before I lost out completely.   I walked away completely drained and decided after all of that I deserved the Sage just in case I liked it better.  After all, Sage is my favorite color and not much different than the Fern.  I can never really picture stuff in my head so I played around in Photoshop.  Here's what I came up with:

Original in Fern:

in Sage:

in Denim:

I think I won either way, don't you?

No Place Better than New England for Tday

Lots to catch up on!  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We made the six-hour trek to New Hampshire.  We did pretty good traffic-wise.  Hit it in a few spots in Connecticut on the way there but pretty much smooth sailing other than that.

As if getting to live this close to my family isn't great enough already, it's even better because I get to visit with Kim and her hubby who live a very short drive from my family.   I was especially looking forward to her meeting Lucky since we both have a love for the Cavalier breed.  We met them for dinner on Friday night and she surprised me with this:

Gorgeous, no?  The pattern is Delicato Mitts from Anne Hanson at KnitSpot and the yarn is Kim's.  I'm telling you, the girl's got an eye for color and she seems to have my favorites down pat.

I've been working on socks with the yarn Kim gave me when we went up over Labor Day.  I guess it's only fitting that I show them in progress... I wasn't hiding them, Kim, I promise!

I tried the Sherman Heel on the heel and toe.  I love the way it looks but...  Dear. God!  If I don't have my mind completely on it I lose track and have to rip back.  I am getting the hang of it though and getting better at figuring out where I am without counting.  I've never had to rip back so many times.  I think it was worth it though.  NO GAPS!!!  Can I hear an AMEN?!

And then when we got home I found this little gem from Claudia in my mailbox:

Thank you so much, Claudia.  It was a fun little challenge.  And thanks, La, for telling me about it!

My grandparents gave me a great gift as well.  A photo album put together by my great-grandmother on Gram's side.  I've promised to scan every page and photo and make CD's for everyone.  I couldn't wait to get it home to compare to my family history notes.  This is my great-grandmother x3, Christiana Lewis (Soule) Chick (left). 

Her sister, Judith Thomas Soule, is on the right.  Christiana is my favorite person in our history because through census reports I've been able to get the most information on her.  She is my link to all my Mayflower ancestors.

It's getting very cold and grey here in the Hudson Valley.  This is the view my boys have on their way to/from school each day and every weekend when we attend Mass.  This is taken from the Catholic Chapel here at West Point.

Yeah! I can still Stricken with the best of them...

I loves me a challenge.  Especially a quick little one that's not too hard.  ;-)

I saw La's post yesterday and thought it looked like fun so I looked up the pattern. 

When we did our first tour in Germany I did a lot of lace knitting and the German Lace Knitting mags were awesome and plentiful.  I couldn't believe how it all came back to me.  I did this swatch and only had to look up the definition for the SL2 K PSSO.  Not bad for a girl who's best phrase in German was, "Noch ein Beir, bitte" after living in Germany most of her adult life.

Thanks for the fun, Claudia!

Hot Diggity Dog

As you can see, Lucky is coming along nicely.  Since he's still a little lacking in the hair department, he needed a sweater for our daily walks that help build his muscle tone and confidence.  Isn't he handsome?  He's even sweeter than he looks if you can believe it.   For you dog lovers I did a cute little video to show the Rescue Group how much he's come out of his shell.  You can see by clicking here:

Pattern:  Fiber Trends Dandy Dog Sweaters (with some adjustments).

Yarn: Elann's Highland Wool in Claret (#2020)

I'm one of those people that never follows a recipe exactly (and then wonder why it doesn't taste the same) and I rarely follow a pattern exactly.  Instead of knitting the chest piece I just knit a band in garter stitch to go around his belly and then I knit a little triangular gusset to fill in where the polo neck pulled apart under the front of the collar.

Work it, Lucky!

Thank A Veteran Today

Thank a vet today.  It's quick, easy and they really appreciate it.

Click HERE

I blame aging eyes...

It seems that I made a huge error in my last post.  Ann wrote a comment that these were not sweaters on the women in Greenland, but part of their National Costume.  Not wool at all but large collars made of BEADS!  Get out!  Of course I didn't believe her, I'm stubborn like that, and Googled it....

Holy smokes, my eyes have really been getting worse in the last couple of years, but I REALLY thought those were knit sweaters.    Ann was completely correct.  Click here and check it out.  I wondered why I hadn't heard of this type of knitting since my first love is color knitting.  It looked very much like the Lopi sweaters of Iceland so I just assumed it was knitting.  In my research I found that there's actually some backing to my assumption:  Click here. Thank you, Ann!  Very interesting.

Knits in the News

Did anyone catch the Today Show on Tuesday?  I was walking by the TV and caught site of these knits:

Very cool knits.  I love the simplicity of the baby hats.  The gorgeous yoke sweaters were on members of a choir group on the steps of a beautiful red church.

Thanks for all the kind notes about Lucky. He's a sweetheart and improving constantly.  I started them both on Biotin, Vitacaps and Cetyl M last week.  If anyone has any tips for feeding powder supplements please share.  I've been mixing it in with a little wet dog food and then putting the vitacap in the middle and giving it to them as a treat.  Aggie's ears get in it (and Lucky's will when his coat comes in) and it's a big mess.

I wish Aggie would learn some of his great manners.  He walks beautifully on a leash - no pulling at all, he doesn't jump on people and he has yet to bark (not that Aggie is a constant barker but she she goes off when a chipmunk comes on the back patio).  Each day he gets a little bolder, a little stronger, a little fatter and grows a little more hair.  It's hard to believe that a couple of months ago he was bald and starving.  He's almost lost his naked baboon butt. lol.

I cast a sweater on for him from Fiber Trends (Dandy Dog Sweaters) with Elann Highland Wool in a Claret (2020).  I should be finished with it by the weekend.  Good thing because it's getting COLD here in the Hudson Valley.

When Aggie first started to play with him he would just run for the safety of the sofa and then lay on his back.  Now he's running across the room at her and pouncing on her.  It's so good to see.  The "fight" for the bag continues.  This bag is barely big enough for him but somehow they both get in there:

There is almost constant puppy play in our house now and it's very good.

Fitting In

I can't believe that I keep forgetting to tell you guys about this....  Last year I mentioned in one of my posts about a surprise but it was hush hush at the time.  One of the Elannites, Michelle Ciccariello, was working on a possible book deal and asked if any of us would volunteer to test knit for her.  This is the sweater that I knit.  I sent it in unfinished because I was under a time crunch with Dan coming home from Afghanistan and we were getting ready for the move back to the States.   A bunch of us on the Elann chat site decided to give it to one of our own who is going through Chemo.  I sent it off last week with cards from some of us.  I'm getting kind of nervous because I haven't heard yet if she got it.  I'm sure it'll catch up with her.  I hope I'm not letting the cat out of the bag but I don't think she reads my blog so I'm feeling pretty safe about having a big mouth.  :-)

Especially gorgeous on Margaux, the daughter of wonderful Ann, owner of Elann.  Click here for the pattern.   It's knit in Highland Wool.  Thank you Ann, for giving me permission to use the photo here!

I'd say Lucky's getting comfortable around here.  This morning he decided that his new favorite place is Aggie's bag.  She isn't too happy about it.  I'm going to go out to our storage place to get one of the larger crates we have so they can share.

The woman that actually rescued him from the mill wrote to me and told me that the conditions were awful and they weren't sure he was going to make it.  He most likely spent all of his life (he'll be three in February) in a cage of some sort just being used for breeding.  There was a special on Entertainment Tonight last night about puppy mills.  I was a little disappointed in how little they said but there's a second part on tonight so I'm hoping that it has more detail.  Click here to see the clip.

He's doing really well considering what he came from.  He doesn't walk hunched down anymore and comes running to me a lot when he sees me.  He and Aggie have actually played... sort of.  It's more like she's playing and he's laying on his back swatting every now and then.  He also tried to play with her ball yesterday but he got scared when it moved and ran for the sofa (where he felt safe until he took over Aggie's bag). 

It's really hard to get used to the fact that he can't hear us.  I still call him and then slap myself on the forehead and think, "Oh yea... that's right... he can't hear..."  Kim told me about a supplement to try to help his joints and an added benefit is that it might reduce any swelling in his ears and help him hear better.  Here's hoping!  I've also ordered some things to help with his coat from Fosters & Smith.